Another chapter, pretty quickly, huh? This one just kind of flowed out so I figured why wait?
Anyways, enjoy
"Eh? I thought you said we already had everyone here, Void. What is it now?" Nico tapped her foot impatiently, so ready to just cut up the illusion of Void again even though she knew it wouldn't do anything. But anything to wipe that godforsaken smirk off the girl's face.
"My, some patience, Prince." She turned to regard the entire group, and what a group they were when she thought about it. The Master of Void, the Prince of Blades, the heir to the Devouring Sword, a girl with the Sixth Demon Lord inside of her, and the partner of the heir to the Sun. "Our merry band needs one more person, whether you like it or not." Her gaze drifted between Umi and Nico. "You two seem best fit to explain the situation to her.
Nico groaned, knowing where this was going.
"Don't tell me… Maki?"
Erena nodded. "Well, it's not as if the heir to the Moon herself is required, but her estate is. After all, that's where we can find the true body of the First Demon Lord. Only when his true body and false body are destroyed will he truly die."
Origin?
I am here.
I understand the situation surrounding First and the line of the Four Seasons but... I don't understand why this is happening now. Digging through your memories hasn't helped me understand either. Why does First want to reclaim them? I can see that even you have your concerns and doubts. If he really does just want Honoka and not the Four Seasons… what do you think?
Yes, that is my fear. Kousaka Honoka is special. The blood that flows through her veins, given to her by none other than the Fourth Demon Lord. I fear that the very fact that Fourth chose her is why First is after her. Unfortunately, I have not had contact with the other Demon Lords in a very long time, so I have no way of knowing their plans. However… It is just a feeling.
But even so, doesn't something feel… off? I'm asking, but I know you think so as well. Something isn't right. It shouldn't be this easy. Did First underestimate the Void? If he knew that the Void could find his body in an instant, then he had to have known that his plan could fall apart.
I am not quite sure. First has always been… reckless may be a good word. Though I am sure he has thought of the possibility of Void finding him, I am not quite sure what kind of plan he could possibly use to counter it. Unless this was all a big gamble on his part, which I highly doubt.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the group continued walking and Origin began to speak through her to Void.
"Void, are you sure about this? I do not doubt the Void's ability to lay its eyes upon wherever it sees fit, but I must ask. Do you truly believe the First Demon Lord's body is hidden in the Nishikino manor?"
"Ahaha. Please, do not hesitate to question the Void if that is truly how you feel. Regardless of any doubts you may have though, I am sure. I have already gazed upon it through the Void. I've seen the body myself and we will get to it with little problem, ideally. All that stands in our way is the heir to the Moon. But I believe she will help us, especially after hearing about her mother."
The group collectively raised their eyebrows at that remark.
"What are you talking about, Void?" Nico spoke up with that same venom still dripping.
"Ah, you must not be aware. My apologies for not explaining earlier. Nishikino Maki's mother, one of the Heads, has been taken hostage by the First Demon Lord. Her essence was used to cover the reanimated remains of Seventh who was used to drag Four Seasons, Sun, my heir, and the partner of Four Seasons to the Underworld."
"That is somewhat concerning to me. If First has reanimated the body of Seventh, then he has no reason to keep his true body here any longer. He had regained the ability to travel between the Underworld and this world freely."
"I have my doubts about that, Sixth. In Seventh's time, he was only able to allow one Demon Lord passage at a time. It was extremely strenuous on him to let such powerful beings travel between worlds. I think it's definitely possible that the remains of Seventh are too weak to allow a Demon Lord to pass through." Umi raised an eyebrow questioningly, but Erena just waved it off. "I have gazed into the past just as much, if not more, than I have gazed into the future. I have observed the Demon Lords during their time… including you, Sixth."
"If you are insinuating anything, I have nothing to hide. I have already shared all I know with Sonoda Umi."
Erena just laughed and turned away. The rest of the walk was in silence, other than the occasional noises of excitement from Setsuna who was practically bouncing up and down the entire walk as if anticipating a fight at any second. She definitely looked ready at least. When they finally reached their destination, the gate that Maki's mansion laid behind, Erena stopped and turned to the bouncing girl.
"Tell me, Devour. What do you smell?"
"Eh?" Setsuna looked around as all eyes fell on her, most in curiosity, but Erena just nodded when she looked her way. Devour closed her eyes and took in a deep breath through her nose, trying to build an image of her surroundings just as she did when fighting demons. Everything slowly built up around her but… she paused as her nose picked up an odd scent. It was familiar but wrong. "This…"
"Do you smell it? First's body."
"I do but…" Setsuna opened eyes just a bit and squinted at the mansion. "It's… stale." Everyone, including Erena, gave a collective sound of confusion. "Something's wrong, Void." Setsuna's Demonbrand suddenly appeared in her hand and in one swift motion she cut the gate in half, kicking the bottom portion and letting it fly back onto the pavement. "Wrong… wrong…!" She started walking forward slowly, letting her katana drag on the pavement.
"D-Devour?" Nico started to move forward to reach for her but was stopped by Erena's laugh. She turned her now angry gaze back on Void. "What the fuck is the meaning of this, Void? What's going on with her?"
"What are you talking about? I did nothing to her. I'm merely taking advantage of her training. I'm glad to see the Master of the Devouring Sword saw it fit to pass down their secret."
"Secret?"
Setsuna suddenly dropped to all fours and took in a large breath through her nose and her eyes opened wide once again. Her entire body tensed, and her fingers dug into the pavement, making the others flinch at the sound. Her breathing picked up and she opened her mouth but what came out sounded like an inhuman growl.
"Devour was well aware that this could… well, that this would happen. Long has the Devouring Sword sought the head of a Demon Lord. And it has passed down its hunger to its descendants. They always tend to be hyper and reckless, those of the Devouring Sword. And now we get to see it in action. Now that she has smelled a Demon Lord, there's no stopping her."
Setsuna finally stood upright once again, grabbing her katana. She seemed unsteady on her feet, moving back and forth before she bent over, holding her sword close to her side. "Devour style, 4th blade."
"Devour! Stop!" Nico tried to protest but it was too late.
"Vicious pursuit."
The ground under Setsuna cracked and gave way as she burst forward, tearing through anything in her way as she approached the mansion. And even the building itself failed to stop her as she crashed through the door, not even bothering to draw her katana to slice it down. The group raced to catch up to her, Nico grabbing her sword from her shinai bag and cursing under her breath, Erena laughing the whole way.
"What's going on, Origin!?" Umi yelled out loud.
"The Devouring Sword relentlessly chases down anything it deems as an enemy. In the case of its masters and heirs… its thirst for the blood of a Demon Lord has been inherited by its successors. They accept this when they inherit it, but… They can hardly control themselves. Think not of that girl as the heir right now, but the Devouring Sword itself."
"Oh, well that's just fucking great!" Nico yelled as they reached the destroyed doorway. Anything that was to the side of Setsuna's path had fared pretty well, but the path she took was obvious from the destroyed tile and shards and pieces of various objects all around. "If that stupid brat lays a finger on Maki…"
As if Nico's words gave form to her back luck, they heard a scream, no not a scream, a roar from the Devouring Sword, a bloodcurdling sound that sent shivers down the spines of all present. They raced towards the sound, following the path of destruction until they came out into the living room. Couches lay in halves, a large TV was shattered on the ground, walls were scratched to all hell and back. In the centre of the room, Maki stood with her blade drawn, barely managing to hold back a Setsuna who was pushing against her with her own blade.
"Where!? Where are you hiding him, Moon!?" Setsuna screamed at the top of her lungs, Maki flinching from the voice but holding her ground.
"What the hell do you want!?" Maki finally snapped and shifted her sword slightly. "Moon style, 7th blade, Supermoon." Though she did her best to avoid anything fatal, blood spurted from multiple cuts all around Setsuna's body but if she felt it, she didn't show it.
"The Demon Lord! Where is he!? I smell him! I smell it everywhere!" Setsuna finally overpowered the girl and shoved her back, Maki slamming into the far wall with a grunt. As Devour moved forward though, Nico stepped between the two, katana at her side, blank stare burning into the girl.
"If you try to step past me, I'll kill you, Devour. Back down. Maki doesn't know what's going on."
Despite all of them believing that the girl had lost control, Setsuna seemed cautious of Nico. She was definitely still able to gauge a person's ability even in that state. She backed up a step but kept her katana drawn.
"Prince…!" She let out that growl again and narrowed her eyes. "I'm not afraid of you, Prince. Don't stand in my way!"
The tiles around Setsuna burst into the air as they were sliced to bits, an almost perfect circle carved into the ground around her feet, cuts travelling along the floor from Devour back to Nico. A drop of sweat fell from Setsuna's chin and audibly hit the ground in the silence that followed. If she was going to draw her blade on Nico, that flipped in an instant.
"I said. Back. Off." Nobody had seen Nico draw her sword and all but Erena released a breath they were holding when the girl finally spoke.
The silence and tension grew until Setsuna finally stood straight but refused to sheath her katana. Her body was still fully tensed, and she looked ready to launch at anybody who tried to get in her way should she decide to attack Maki again, but she remained still. Nico turned to the redhead and walked over to her, holding out a hand.
"Are you alright, Maki?" Maki nodded and took her hand, scrambling to stand. "Sorry about that. We're here for a reason. Ah, um…" Nico awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, trying to think of a way to explain herself.
"The Prince of Blades, right?" Nico's mouth fell open. Maki giggled. "I've always known, Nico-chan. My mother is a Head, you know. I've heard about the Yazawa line long before I met you."
Nico just sighed and shook her head. "And you still argued with me that much?"
"Well, by the time I met you, I was no longer the heir to the Moon. Besides, you should've been able to sense the Moon about me and you didn't say anything. I figured you probably wanted to be treated normally." Nico let a small laugh escape.
"I should've guessed you would know." Void cleared her throat and Nico threw her a glare before turning back to Maki. "There's a lot to explain, but we don't have much time. We're not here for no reason, obviously."
Erena stepped forward and gracefully bowed. "It has been a while, Moon. Though we met as the Master of Void and heir to the Moon when you were very young, you might not remember me. Toudou Erena, Master of Void." Maki just nodded to acknowledge her, but her eyes were fixed on Umi who shifted uncomfortably before she walked up next to Void.
"Hey, Maki…"
"Umi…?"
"It's… a lot to explain."
Erena waved a hand to dismiss the conversation. "We don't have time for this. Although I'm sure you would like explanations, we're in a bit of a hurry. You can probably sense something amiss; your friend here has the Sixth Demon Lord inside her. All good now? Let's talk about what's actually important now."
"What!?"
Erena sighed but Umi stepped up. "It's true, Maki. We really don't have time to go into detail on it, but he means no harm. He's helping us. Honoka was dragged to the Underworld and we need to help her."
Too much information for Maki and she brought a hand to her head and decided to focus on the easier issue instead of why one of her close friends had a Demon Lord inside of her, and one that should be dead at that. "Why… Why is Honoka in the Underworld?"
"First." Erena spoke up again. "The First Demon Lord has taken her there. Unfortunately, we have no way of getting her out of there right now. Though my true body is on the way to her as we speak. Four Seasons will not avoid a confrontation with First in the Underworld. So, we're going to take advantage of it." Everybody looked at Erena at that. "Well, saving her will be a byproduct." She shrugged. "The First Demon Lord has split himself between a false body and his true body. Unless both are destroyed, he cannot be killed. And so, we've come to claim the true body of the First Demon Lord."
"You're… You're counting on Honoka killing him in the Underworld? Alone?"
"My heir is with her." Erena said as if that was enough.
"I know you hold confidence in the Void, but…"
"Worry not, Moon. The Witness and Sun accompany her. I see no reason to fret. Perhaps you are underestimating your friend or perhaps you are overestimating First."
"Overestimating!? He's the First Demon Lord! With how much shit he's caused and how many he's killed over the years, should I not expect him to be powerful?"
"N-Now, now." Riko spoke up for the first time since they arrive, trying to defuse the situation.
Erena started to speak again but they all stopped when a low growling reach their ears and they all turned to face Setsuna who was on all fours again. As opposed to attacking Maki again though, she was sniffing the ground around her.
"He's there… You won't escape me!" She jumped to her feet, swiping up her katana and held it above her head. "Devour style, 4th blade."
Nico looked ready to kill the girl right there but Erena held out a hand to stop her. "She won't attack any of us. She may have gotten distracted by Moon, but she's looked onto him now. I would not be so hasty as to attack her in that state. She will open the path to First for us."
"Vicious pursuit."
Nobody quite knew what happened in the next moment. A loud scraping sound that made several of them flinch. One instant, Setsuna was holding her katana above her and the next she was gone. Everybody looked around but Erena laughed and walked past the girls, all of them sharing some looks before following after her.
Maki wanted to question why she seemed to know the layout of her house so well, but she refrained as Erena made her way up the main stairs and to her father's old study. Nico rolled her eyes as they entered.
"What a generic place to hide something, is this a shitty mystery novel?"
The wooden boards of the study were shredded, the bookcases destroyed, the desk cut cleanly in half. Setsuna kneeled in the centre of the study, slamming her sword at something metallic. Erena and Nico moved around her to look and saw a small metal square embedded into two of the boards. Those boards lacked any scratches as did the square despite Setsuna's constant slamming of her sword into it.
"A curse… That's surprising. I should have known the Heads would dabble in a bit of forbidden magic from the old days. Though… Mm. This curse had definitely been here a long time. I doubt it could be recreated nowadays."
Setsuna stopped her slamming and turned towards Void with a snarl. "What are you waiting for!? If you can, open it! Or force the Nishikino girl to do it!" She turned her gaze to the redhead, but Nico once again stepped between them, this time glaring and Devour turned her attention back to Erena. "Now!"
"Now, now. Dismantling a curse is something only the one who created it can do. Well, at least in this day and age. The means of doing so have been lost to time. But…" Erena giggled and turned to send a sidelong glance Maki's way. "I suppose I could do something about it. If just to remind a future head of who holds the power in this… working relationship." She turned back to the square. "Move aside, Devour."
Erena's voice had changed from jovial to emotionless, a cold voice that made Setsuna take a step back before she even realized that she had. Void ran a finger along the square and sighed.
"You all should be grateful to see the Void in action. A blade capable to destroying even a curse, capable of wiping away. No. I cannot destroy a curse. But it will no longer be here. Why? Forget the past. Forget all that has occurred. The Void will remember for you. So, take heart. And forget…" Erena slowly, painfully slowly, drew her katana and pointed it down at the metal square. "Void style, 8th blade." She gently tapped the very tip of her katana against the square. "Lethe."
Something happened. Something definitely happened. A shrill shriek as if wind was travelling through a window that didn't exist sounded for a brief second. To all in the room, it felt as if the room itself shifted slightly, just ever so slightly. The floor vibrated beneath them, the air suddenly went stale, dust blew off the remaining bookshelves, a low humming centering on Void began to grow louder… louder… The girls covered their ears but right as they did it finally subsided. The dust settled once again. Silence fell over the room until Setsuna finally broke it.
"Void, it's still…!" She started to growl, but Void waved her off.
"That was simply to remove the curse that prevented us from accessing it." She turned to the others and prepared to say something, but her eyes locked onto Nico's. "Is something the matter, Prince?"
Nico snorted. "Removing a curse. No. Making an object forget that it even was cursed. That blade… Hmph. Just reminded me of a memory from an ancestor of mine. Don't mind me. Let's hurry up, that was sealing First's body, right? Come on."
Erena laughed and turned back to the box. Just like before, she tapped the tip of her katana onto the square and this time it cracked. She tapped once again and the box shattered like it was made from glass, the pieces of metal closing in on the space before expanding out. The metal stretched thin until a much larger version of the square from before rested in the ground, a set of clean metal stairs leading down into darkness.
"A pocket dimension. Did Moon dabble in this? Haha." Erena moved to take the first step but Setsuna shoved past her, sprinting down the stairs. Void just turned to the rest of them and sheathed her sword. "Shall we?"
This smell. It's disgusting. Terrible. It makes me want to puke and yet I want to pursue it, to chase it down to the ends of the earth and tear apart the source. It fills my head, promises me that it will sate this hunger that grows within me. I can no longer smell anything else. The dust from that room, the metallic stairs, the people behind me. None. Just that intoxicating, addictive smell.
I want to kill it. I want to kill it! It's there! It's close! A Demon Lord. A Demon Lord is close… It beckons me forward. The Devouring Sword pushes me forward. This is what it has always sought after, this is what my line has sought after, this is what all demon slayers should seek! First! It's the smell of the First Demon Lord!
Metal stairs bend under my steps, but I can't slow myself, can't hold myself back. Why? Because it's there! Do those behind me not understand? Do they not get what is right in front of us? First! The First Demon Lord! I want to kill him. I want to tear his body apart, to taste the blood pouring from his corpse. I want to. I need to! I need to see him dead! I need to slice him up! I need to! I have to!
Is this not why I am a demon slayer? Is this not why I was given a second life, another chance? I promised the Devouring Sword, I promised my master that I would pursue the Demon Lords to the ends of the earth, that I would destroy them! Unlike those others who were nurtured by Sixth, we are different! We come from the pure desire of humans to destroy the Demon Lords. We don't defend ourselves; we eat those who are in our way, we tear them apart!
Everything becomes a blue as I pass by. Nothing but the Demon Lord is important. Nothing but finding him is important, tearing him apart, tasting that blood! Somebody yells out at me from above, but I ignore it. The sound is so distant it doesn't seem worth it to turn around and respond. It'll slow me down too much.
There! I see it! Light! Something! The smell is overwhelming. It's all around me, suffocating, intoxicating, it feels so right! It's right here! It's… It's…
This is…
Setsuna-chan is scary.
I never really showed them, but there are actually plenty of blades that may not be directly used offensively and Vicious pursuit is the first one I've shown, I believe. But yeah, just know that they do exist.
Till next time. Be seeing you.