Regal had his back against a wooden wall. His blue hair was messy, he was sweating, there were cuts here and there on his body. His pants, shoes, and shirt were torn in multiple places.
"This demon... is very strong. My attacks barely even aff-" Regal was talking to himself for a good bit before he heard the large demon running through the walls inside of the house. He leaped forward and the demon busted through the wooden wall of the house. Regal did some flips and landed on his feet smoothly.
The old looking, buff demon smirked at regal and said. "You don't show enough strength to have the right to wield Apocalypse, Regal! You can't even handle me, Goroze (Go-Ro-Zz), a user who is using only one-fourth of it!"
"Hm?!" Regals' eyes slowly widen as he looked towards the right calf muscle of Goroze. He saw the outline of a right upper piece of Apocalypse imprinted upon Gorozes' right thigh. "I see what this is now." Regal than ran towards Goroze, zig-zagging along the dirt ground quickly.
Goroze than ran straight towards to Regal. When he got close enough, Goroze sent his large fist towards Regal. In which Regal leaped upwards just in time so he could dodge the attack. The blue hair male did a front flip over Goroze and before he landed, his two feet went back. Regals' two feet collided at the back of Gorozes' head, but the demon barely moved forward. Goroze turned around quickly as his left, tree trunk like forearm struck Regal to the side. Regal flew through a wall wooden wall in one of the houses that surrounded him
Presea was on top of one of the smaller cliffs that surrounds Hima. Her cold eyes looking down at Goroze, who's back was turned to her. Her clothes was also torn in many places with some cuts along her face, arms and legs. She then jumped off the cliff and swung her ax back as she silently said. "Max destruction.."
When she was about to land upon Goroze, she swung her ax downwards to the large demon. Goroze smirked and turned around quickly once again. His right hand would had came up and grabbed the metal staff part of Preseas' ax, thus stopping her attack half way. The built up energy and momentum of Preseas' attack quickly channeled from her ax to Gorozes' body in a large, blue shock wave that also went down to the ground. A crater than formed under Gorozes' feet and the demon kneel down onto his right knee.
"Urgh. Surprising that such a small girl can pack so much power. I will enjoy feeding off of you especially, haha!" Goroze slowly stood straight up. Preseas' ax still in his right hand. Presea quickly opened her hands from the hilt of her ax and landed onto her feet on the ground. She then leaped away from Goroze as fast as she could.
"Don't forget your ax, girly!" Goroze than threw the ax right towards Presea in high speeds. The girl moved to the side and let the ax miss her body. The ax hit upon the cliff's wall, slicing through three inches into the solid garnet wall itself.
Regals' hands were glowing blue from the amount of mana he stored up over the years and finally releasing once again. He sprinted out of the house silently and got up behind Goroze without him noticing. He placed both of his palms on the demon's muscular back and a huge beam of blue, pure mana engulfed Goroze and send him flying towards Presea.
In which Presea quickly pulled her ax out of the wall and loudly said. "Infliction!" She swiped her large ax upwards in a powerful vertical slash, flying off the ground slightly from the swift upwards momentum while creating a light yellow arc that represented crescent moon. Her ax hit upon Gorozes' face and send the demon upwards into the air.
Goroze landed on the ground with a thud and he didn't move.
Regal quickly ran and stood beside Presea as he silently spoke to her. "He is very strong but he isn't that fast and somewhat sloppy with his attacks. We can use his carelessness as an advantage."
Presea nodded and quietly suggested. "One of us will have to distract him while the other attacks him indirectly. We can't go at him head-on."
Regal nodded in agreement as he saw Goroze slowly getting up. His face had a huge gash that ran from his chin and all the way up to his forehead in a diagonal line. He leaking black blood and he smirked. His right eye was cut from the gash as well, so he couldn't see most of the right side of his view. Gorozes' back was also heavily burned from Regals' attack.
"You actually managed to hurt me. I was starting to fear that this was going to be too easy. I now have a reason to actually try!" Goroze said loudly as his muscle mass slightly grew and his legs were glowing a dark red aura.
Presea and Regal got into their fighting stance quickly. Goroze right foot pushed off the ground, making the ground crack under his launch. He was even faster than before, which surprised Presea and Regal to the point where they slightly let their guard down. Goroze swiftly got behind the blue hair male and girl. His large hands quickly gripped the back of their heads and ran forward. Both Presea or Regal couldn't break out of the monster's grip as they smashed through many sections of houses that Goroze was going through. They all eventually made their way to the middle of the village, about thirty feet behind where Lloyd and the others was at as they was fighting off Umbri.
Umbri himself was dodging all of Lloyd's sword swings and slashes.
Colette was about to do her judgment attack on Umbri when saw Regal and Presea in trouble. She focused her attack upon Goroze. A beam of pure light mana would had struck down Goroze, making the large demon grunted out in pain and get onto his knees. His hands lost their grip upon Regals' and Preseas' head. Regal got his feet onto the dirt ground and quickly turned around to send his knee upon Gorozes' face. Goroze flew off to the side and Umbri appeared in the path of where Goroze was heading towards. Umbri caught Goroze and slid back just a bit before setting the large demon down.
Presea and Regal made their way to where Raine was at, asking her to heal. Raine quickly moved her staff above Raine and Presea, healing them slowly.
Regal noticed how slow the healing process was going and asked. "Have you been injured, Raine? You are healing slower than before."
"I am okay, it's just that the overwhelming dark mana surrounding this place and the world's light mana being sucked away is making my healing artes much slower than usual." Raine answered.
Lloyd and Tenebrae were shocked, seeing how Goroze looked with his oversize muscles and bloody face.
"Who... w-what is that?" Lloyd asked hesitantly.
"That is Goroze, the demon we were fighting." Presea said while lightly huffing still.
"What demon were you guys fighting?" Regal asked.
"His name is Umbri. A demon that I think can predict any beings movements just seconds before they actually do it... the markings upon his back say intelligence." Tenebrae said while standing next to Coffee.
"He doesn't look like he that intelligent." Zelos said as he, Sheena, Emil, and Marta was standing there at the hole in the wall where Goroze busted though with Presea and Regal in the house earlier.
"Guys, you're here!" Lloyd said excitedly.
"Well, of course, we're here. We all heard that scream and ran back over here as fast as we could." Sheena than pulled out her Cards of light and gripped one in each hand. Zelos already had his Last Fencer sword out and ready. Marta's Trick bind Spinner was spinning and she got into her fighting stance while Emil pulled out his Echo Trancer sword out.
Goroze began to chuckle first and started to laugh out loud before saying, "You really think you can beat me and Umbri? Seems like the world's mana flow stopping seemed to have clouded your judgment."
Umrbi than simply stated. "Do not underestimate them... they have been able to damage you."
Goroze smirked. "Like it matters. I can take a lot more than just a beam of light hitting me and a cut on my face."
Regals' eyes focused on right thigh muscle of Umbri. Only able to see it was slightly larger than the left thigh, he assumed that Umrbi must have the second piece of Apocalypse.
"Blah blah blah, enough talk. Let's see how good you really are, muscle head." Zelos was cocky and he pointed his sword at Goroze.
"I agree. Let's take these guys down!" Emil said after Zelos and he ran towards Umbri. Lloyd and Marta were going towards Umbri as well. Regal and Presea got up, mostly healed now, they ran towards Goroze while Zelos and Marta ran towards Goroze in the other direction. Colette flew forward, wanting to aid her friends in the fight but she was stopped by Raines' staff.
Colette looked towards Raine. "Huh..?"
"I suggest you stay back and due spells Colette. You're not one hundred percent yet." Raine said.
Colette nodded and slowly clasped her hands together, saying chants. Raine was doing the same while Tenebrae and Coffee watched the battle.
Yukunan quickly shifted back from Kratos and Yuan, who was running towards him.
"Stop running, you coward!" Yuan said loudly as he then slammed his double edge sword to the ground quickly. A series of cracks formed towards Yukunan while lightning could be seen blooming out from the cracks. Kratos shifted to the right quickly while Yukunan was distracted.
"You think this will get me?!" Yukunan asked Yuan loudly as he moved to the right quickly.
"Heh, no I don't, but that's the point of a distraction, you fool." Yuan mocked at Yukunan as the demon boy ran into Kratos's knee that collided with his gut in full force. Yukunan quickly spat out black blood as he gasped. Just before Yukunan could flash back, Kratos's left hand grab a hold of the demon's hair.
"U-Urgh, let me go!" Yukunan demanded to Kratos as his legs were shifting back and forward in the air due to Kratos lift the demon boy up from the ground.
"He will do no such thing. Now die!" Yuan ran towards the right side of Yukunan and swung his double-edged sword towards the rib cage of demon.
"Mom help!" Yukunan said in a loud, pleading voice.
Inside of the house where Genis and Mithos was fighting off waves of demons, the female demon's green glowing eyes looked up as she softly said. "Mommy is here, don't worry." The demon's eyes quickly closed and the demons around the boys stood there with their eyes looking up as well. Mithos tilted his head to the side now, being slightly confused.
Yukunans' body was now covered by a thin barrier around his body that took most of Yuan's slash attack. The barrier than exploded, which Kratos and Yuan blew back one way and Yukunan towards the middle of the village. Yukunan was recovering when he saw he was getting close to Zelos, who was attacking Goroze. With a quick flip, Yukunan slammed his foot upon Zelos's face, sending the red hair, former chosen back a few feet to Lloyd and Marta. After doing that, the demon boy landed right beside Goroze.
"Who did that?!" Zelos asked loudly as he stood up straight, to then see Yukunan right beside Goroze. "Great, there is more of them."
The rest of the group went back from Umbri and Goroze to regroup.
Regal quickly stated. "The reason why they're powerful is that they each have one piece of Apocalypse. Look at one side of their legs and notice there's either an imprint piece of Apocalypse or their leg muscle is large than the other."
The group would notice the difference of sizes on each of the demon's legs. Marta and Sheena were shocked by this.
"I am thinking we have to kill them in order for us to get the complete set of Apocalypse." Regal said.
"Ha! As if you can beat us." Yukunan slowly crossed his arms over his chest and smirked.
Gorozes' large hand slowly patted Yukunans' head while smirking to and said, "Give it up. You walked into your own graves that I, my grandson, and my son had so happily set up for you all."
"Father... son..?" Emil was confused by Goroze's statement.
"They must be a family." Kratos said as he was walking towards Lloyd and the others with Yuan. "I heard the child asking his mother for help not too long ago."
"Mithos and Genis must be fighting. I can sense their mana fluctuating." Yuan said.
"I do hope Genis and Mithos will be okay." Colette looked down to the ground, being concerned.
"Those boys don't stand a change against that powerful woman... " Umbri coldly stated.
"You must not know what Mithos can actually do." Yuan said as he stood right beside Marta.
"And you clearly don't know what Genis is capable of." Raine said reassuringly as Kratos stood beside her.
"As if we care. Mother will not lose!" Yukunan was getting slightly angry at this point.
Inside of the house, Genis looked towards the demon woman, who was still looking up, and saw a red spot at her left calf where it was slightly glowing red. "Mithos, hit that spot right there while she is still looking up!"
Mithos quickly nodded and shifted up to the air now with his light sword in his hand. The female demon quickly looked downwards towards Mithos and the demons quickly surrounded her body. The blonde boy's sword stuck one demon deeply and quickly released all of the energy in the sword itself, making a huge light explosion.
The explosion quickly evaporated the demon's around the female while Genis finished doing his light spell and said loudly. "Blessing light!"
A wide and thick beam of pure light shined off Genis's Kendama and hit upon the female demon's left calf muscle area. She screamed loudly out of sheer pain as the dark magitechnology spell broke and she teleported out of the house. Bringing Genis and Mithos with her. She appeared behind Goroze and Umbri as she kneel down in pain. Her son, Yukunan came to her aid quickly, so did Goroze and Umbri afterward.
"Akumu, are you okay?" Goroze asked while he had his hand upon his Akumus' wounded left leg.
Akumu slowly nodded. "Yes. I was helping Yukunan and those two boys seized their chance and got me. I won't be able to summon demons but I am still able to provide protection."
"I'm sorry, mom..." Yukunan slowly looked down towards the ground, to only feel his mother's cold hand touch his cheek softly. Yukunan slowly looked up to Akuma, seeing her smile at him. He soon started to smirk as well.
Kratos took note of the interactions being presented before him. The four creatures didn't seem to have the mentality of pure demons to him.
"They will pay for this... for hurting my wife.." Umbri said simply as Goroze and Yukunan stood. Being in front of Akumu.
Mithos and Genis appeared right beside Colette. In which Raine noticed and ran towards Genis and gave him a tight hug. "A-Are you okay Genis?" Raine asked in a concerned tone.
"Yes Raine, I am okay heh." Genis smiled up at his big sister.
Kratos walked up to Mithos. "I am assuming you did good in your battle with that demon. I am very proud of you, my student."
Mithos lightly smiled up at Kratos for a second before Sheena said. "Sorry to ruin the reunion but the demons are looking at all of us. Get ready."
The whole group quickly got into their fighting stances. Mithos quickly ran forward and stood beside Yuan. Kratos did the same and started to tell a plan just loud enough to only his group to hear but not the demons. "Me, Lloyd, Mithos, Yuan, Marta, Emil, Zelos and Sheena will be in the front lines, distracting the demons. Raine, Colette, and Genis, you will stay in the sidelines, providing us support and cover fire. Tenebrae, try to figure out if they got any weaknesses, understand?" The rest of the group nodded.
Goroze smirked widely as he and Yukunan slowly started to walk up to the group. Umbri stayed in front of Akumu and his eyes slowly closed. Akumu herself slowly placed her hand upon her chest and her eyes closed as well. Both Goroze and Yukunan's eyes started to glow a mixture of blue and green just like Umbris' and Akumus' eyes and a thick dark barrier surrounded their bodies.
"H-Hm! Get ready, they are about to attack!" Yuan said loudly as Goroze charged towards the group head on while Yukunan disappeared from sight.