Watching Gerald talk to the murderer like it was just your typical Tuesday was certainly a strange phenomenon. Ogmar also knew there was a small bit of hypocrisy (as Gerald would say) in thinking that of the Antitezo. Nonetheless, he continued to focus on raising the castle, stretching his willpower to the absolute limits.

'Hopefully Gerald will hurry. I really don't wanna use this thing.'

Keeping an eye on the female (the murderer's sister maybe?), he watched with hope as she began to fall. With her out of commission, both the twins and Gerald would be able to kill the interloper. Everything was going to plan, until the Antitezo seemingly used magic to yank the twins away and teleport to the girl. They then just disappeared in thin air. That shouldn't be possible. There shouldn't be any form of teleportation on his lands, so how did that happen?

"Gerald, what's going on? Where did he go? Teleporting should be prohibited!"

"Indeed, it should be my king. I believe with you concentrating on preparing the castle, the wards stopping such a thing from happening may have weakened. Though it is doubtful that he could teleport somewhere outside the premises, no, he is more likely than not somewhere random in the forest outside. Focus on the castle my liege. Catherine, Katherine, and I shall go and find them."

That was a relief, he couldn't let them go now, not when they had killed one of his most trusted peerage members. Soon the castle will be ready, and these killers will be brought before him. Just in time for their timely execution.

The ground beneath him rumbled.

…

It was moments like these that Darius thanked his lucky stars for the instant transmission. Sure, its long-ranged uses may be locked to him for the moment, but short-range transmissions were still quite effective.

Like now, how after using force magic to yank the twins away from Evelyn, he quickly transmissioned to her and just as quickly transmissioned to the forest they had started in.

The trees were just as dead as before, yet there was a persistent feeling of movement in the air. Something was about to go down.

Mumbling a quick apology to Evelyn, he pimp slapped her.

"Ow… stop… that."

Damn, and he was going to go in for another one too.

Evelyn was still pale, her breathing heavy and with no small amount of effort. Her eyes struggled to focus on him, and overall, she looked like crap.

"Stop looking… at me… like that."

It seems she noticed his mild amount of concern. "You're not doing so hot Evelyn; we'll need to get you out of here ASAP."

He wasn't expecting her to laugh at him, even if it really wasn't a laugh as much as it was a wheezing sound.

"How?"

That was the million-dollar question. How were they going to leave? 'CASI, you got anything?'

"I'm afraid not user. There's some type of barrier keeping us from transmissioning out of it. We can do so freely within the barrier however."

'Ok then, how do we take down this barrier?'

"We'd need to locate it User, and I do not believe that she had enough time left for that to happen, much less actually remove it."

But then… Evelyn will…

"User! You are letting Antitezo's emotions interfere with your judgement! You must calm down!"

She was right, as always. If he didn't calm down now, he won't be able to fight at 100%. All he had to do was… consume Evelyn.

"He's… in there… isn't he?"

The weak rasping of Evelyns voice brought his attention away from his thoughts, and onto her barely moving, dying, form. He only then registered her words, before giving her a brief chuckle.

"I did say to call me Darius."

She could barely glare at him, but she attempted to anyway. The expression was absolutely pitiful, though her being barely able to move her facial muscles might have something to do with it. 'This cognitive dissonance is a pain.'

"So what… you two… merged or something?"

He just gave a shrug of the shoulders. "Basically. Now come on, we got to get you somewhere safe."

"No."

That managed to surprise him. "The hell do you mean no!?"

Evelyn attempted to sit up, only for her body to collapse on the ground once more. "I can't… do this anymore. Mom… Dad… Melody… they're all gone. You… arent even… really my brother."

That last admission made the pain in his chest deepen, but she wasn't done.

"I don't know… what to do… anymore. My whole life… I protected them… from the… supernatural. And I failed."

Her wheezing was getting worse, each breath rewuiring more effort than the last. It was strange, there was no blood, and the only pain her eyes showed was emotional. Her body was simply shutting down, bit by bit.

"Please… if you really… care… kill me. I have… nothing left. Just do it. Take my power… kill those assholes. Just do it… do it… do it."

She stopped speaking coherently, her eyes having lost all focus. She was little more than a vegetable. Darius couldn't speak, a knot in his throat preventing him from doing so. His skull felt too small, his head pounding as unwanted memories and emotions flowed like a river.

Evelyn never stopped mumbling, even as he gripped her head. His eyes began to burn, as words spilled from his mouth, but they were not his own.

"I'm so sorry Eve."

CRACK!

Her murmering stopped, as did everything else. Tendrils came from his back, and they consumed only what was necessary, leaving the bulk of her body intact.

And that was when Evelyns cherished memory came in.

Normally he would simply push it aside and ignore it, but this one was tied to him. He couldn't dismiss it, he could only watch as it pulled him in deeper, making him fall into it.

Deeper…

…

Evelyn sat in the flower garden, quietly moping. Her life had just turned upside down. Magic was real, and so were all the monsters that were once simple fairy tale. It was too much for her sixteen year old mind to handle.

So what she had a Sacred Gear? What was the point if she ahd no idea how to use it, much less actual magic. It was borderline hopeless. Her familt would eventually be targeted because of a gear that she didn't even know how to use.

"Whatcha doing Eve?"

She sniffled slightly, before quickly wiping her eyes and smiling at the new arrival.

"Nothing really, just sitting with the flowers. What about you? What are you doing here Darius?"

Darius just walked next to her and plopped down in the seat by her left. "I saw you crying and I wanted to know why. So… why are you crying?"

His concern was sweet, but she doubted he could help. Her little brother was a bit out of his depth here, even with all ten years of experiences the boy had.

"It's nothing, just… girl stuff."

He began to nod, as if some great understanding came to him at that moment. "Oooohh… like vaginas and stuff."

She almost choked on her own saliva at that one. "No! Not like vaginas and stuff!"

That just seemed to confuse him. "But mom said that if you're ever really moody that its because your vagina was cursed by God to bleed for no reason. Was she lying?"

Damn it mom. "No, no, no. Look Dairy, I'm just dealing with some stuff right now. Its not my period."

That brought his concern back with a vengeance. "Then what is it Eve? I can help!"

His enthusiasm was adorable, so much so that she couldn't help but pinch his cheeks. "Eeeevvvee! Shtop it!"

"Sorry Dairy, but I couldn't help it. Besides, I think this is a bit complicated for you."

Darius just pouted and crossed his arms. "I could totally understand."

'I could humor him I guess.'

"How would you feel if suddenly magic was real, but all the monsters that were once only stories are real too?"

He seemed to think for a bit, before shrugging and answering with, "I'd beat 'em up with magic, duh."

Gee, if only she had thought of that. "Well what if you don't know how to use it, and had no idea how even go about learning it?"

That gave him a bit more to think about, his brows furrowing in obvious uncertainty. "Well then how do you know magic is real if you don't have it? Did you see someone else do it?"

That was fair, but it wasn't an answer. "Well kinda. I was being attacked by some scary monster when an exorcist protected me."

"Then why not ask him?"

She refrained from snorting at the question. "I don't even know how to find him, so how would I even ask him?"

"A church?"

That… was a good point. Why hadn't she thought of that? "Huh, good idea Dairy. I guess you deserve a reward for your hard work, how about we go out for milkshakes?"

He smiled widely, pumping his arm in the air in victory. "Awesome! Let's go right now!"

It was adorable, and it was in that moment that Evelyn came to an epiphany.

No one was ever going to hurt her family, she would guarantee it.

…

Darius' vision was swimming. He could barely stand upright, but it was passing, albeit slowely.

"Are you alright User? If so, you need to hurry! I can sense three energy levels coming straight for you!"

'Yeah, I can too.'

The new sensing was useful, if only because now he can actually figure that kind of stuff out himself rather than wait for CASI to spell it out for him. Though that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The sacred gear Evelyn had was definitely useful. The ability to fly without wings and absorb ambient magic to use it to power yourself up was great, and with his strengthened body he could absorb far more than what Evelyn could. Now all he had to do was summon it and see how the corruption affected its utility.

He activated it and felt the power flow through him. 'CASI, analysis.'

"Already on it User! Not much seems to have changed, but your ability to absorb ambient magic is strangely potent at the moment. Perhaps you can figure out a way to actively absorb the magic from a person!"

Awesome.

He floated upwards, ready and able to fight. And his opponents did not disappoint. There they floated, a good three dozen feet ahead of him. The twins were still angry, if their snarling faces were anything to indicate it. The butler was just as stoic as before, though there was a sense of weariness in his stance. It seemed that he may have sensing abilities as well.

"You are significantly stronger than just a few minutes ago. Did you consume the young miss after her death? That is quite barbaric."

Darius scoffed at that. "The only thing barbaric about this situation is what I'm going to do to your corpses when I'm done wiping myself with them."

The left twin decided that she had a good comeback. "Big talk for someone who was struggling against one of us, even if you're stronger than before, there are three of us now."

Normally he'd snark back, but she seemed a bit easy, so he probably wouldn't have to try that hard. "And?"

That got lefty, as she began to growl and was about to jump forward, had her better half not stopped hoer from doing so.

"He's just trying to rile you up sis. Ignore him, got it?"

She begrudgingly nodded, though that didn't stop her from glaring at him. Fun.

"As much as I like pre-fight banter, I literally have a million better things to do. So, lets get this over with, shall we?"

It was as if the start whistle had started, as both (all? What do the twins even count as?) rushed him with speed that was once formidable.

He grasped the twins by the arm and used them as a bat to smack the butler away from him. He then lifted them in front of himself and shocked them. He would have kept going, but the butler made his opinion on the matter clear as he kicked Darius in the back of the head. This was going to be annoying.

He forced the gear to absorb even more magic, increasing his power further. The butler began shooting various forms of fire at him, possibly in an attempt to stop him. The twins must have thought that was a good idea, as they began throwing spectral blades at him.

The grace that Darius showed while dodging these attacks must have been nothing short of legendary. While making sure their attention was on him, he focused on the area between the two (three?) and slowly brought his hand to his forehead.

They were obviously startled when he appeared right between the two of them, but to their credit it only lasted a moment before they were already attacking him.

Catching a leg in his left hand, he tossed the butler into the ground beneath them before trapping the twins' arm in his armpit.

"Please don't break our arm."

"Hmm, no."

SNAP!

The limb snapped like a raw noodle, and the twins held it while screaming their heads off. It was annoying.

He bent over backwards to avoid the "surprise" jab the butler attempted, before using the momentum to kick the man's head and slam him down near tree level. He then quickly asked a favor of the butler. "Hold on just one sec."

He kidney punched the twins before grabbing their wings and ripping them off, leaving the two flightless and in his grasp.

With a quick application of force magic, he sent the twins flying upward before he followed them on their path upward, all the while growing some feeding tendrils. Once they hit their apex and started descending, Darius gripped the two by the necks, and pulled them apart. Their screams mixed with the cracking of bones and ripping of flesh was music to his ears, and the feeling of consuming her alive made his murder boner rock solid.

Soon all that was left was some leftover blood that had spurted on his armor, tough even that was being cleaned away.

"Catherine! Katherine! No!"

The butler was racing forward with more speed than he had ever shown before.

What surprised him was when the Butler began flaming during his ascent, though not from speed. A flame aura of sorts was surrounding him, clearly increasing his overall strength. Not that it would make a difference.

A dodge to the left was enough to evade the initial attack the butler had in store, and he was simply too slow to connect any of his follow up attacks. A pity.

Darius stopped dodging, simply tanking whatever blows came to him. His gauntleted fingers sharpened, and he punched the side of the butler's head, stunning him briefly. Using the window of opportunity, Darius' hand punctured the butler's chest, a picture-perfect visceral attack.

The flames flickered, before ultimately dying out entirely. His tendrils were already doing their job, consuming the body with almost record speed.

And that was when the earth beneath him began to shake.

"User! There is a massive amount of energy originating from the castle! Be on your guard!"

That much she was right about, though her warning did not give justice to the source of the power.

Finishing off the body, Darius gaped at the once stationary castle, standing up. Its colossal body made of stone, and there were still bits of gothic architecture hanging off it. Its body was skeletal looking due to the columns and arches it was made up of. A large tower made up the head, with an opening where a mouth would be blocked only by columns going along it, forming a teeth-like structure. Arches formed the eyes, with a fierce glowing fiery orange light emanating from them.

Then it roared, and the rest of the island came to life.

The once dead trees began moving and ripping from the ground, forming demonic ent-like creatures. Giant earthen golems sprouted from the ground, easily a hundred feet each.

'CASI… that's a lot of demons.'

"I've noticed User! Quickly, summon those specters and head to the colossus! The boy is probably in there!"

He did as he was told, summoning his specters and twirling the poleaxe in his hand.

"You know what to do boys!"

He swore that he could feel their excitement for the coming battle.

Putting that to the side, Darius rocketed forward, straight towards the colossus. The demons on the ground could barely do anything as he whizzed above them, his specters doing the same. Arriving at the towering beast, he turned towards his Specters. "Alright you guys, find out where this kid is. I'll distract it."

Off they went, leaving their creator to deal with the beast in front of him. 'Well since its so big, it should be way slower than-'

The colossus pimp slapped him to the ground, burying him three feet under. 'Oh man, it's just as fast.'

If that wasn't enough, hands began to pull him deeper into the earth, attempting to bury him. Summoning that butlers flame aura, he snapped the arms off of him and flew out the hole he found himself in. That was when the earth golems began attacking him as well.

"Oh come on!"

He punched through golem after golem on his way out of the mash pit. Finally getting free of them, he was able to narrowly evade the colossus' punch. The golems beneath him were not as lucky, getting crushed by the giant hand.

Taking advantage of the moment, Darius slammed into the hand, breaking it off from the rest of the body. "Ha! Suck it you outdated historical monument!"

The colossus wasn't even phased, and the stump began to grow back into a new hand, finishing in mere seconds. That wasn't very good for him. The colossus than grew three more arms out of its back, which also wasn't very good for him.

The new limbs pushed his newfound speed to the limits, forcing him to dodge and destroy multiple limbs, not that he did any lasting damage as every limb he destroyed grew back within mere seconds.

That was when a spectral blade rammed one of the arms. It seems one of the specters found the boy. The specter in question then pointed to the very top of the colossus, pointing out where the boy laid. "Well it was either there or the heart. Good work."

He called the rest of the specters in to distract the colossus while he transmissioned to the back of the beasts' head. Darius quickly hugged the side of the colossus' head, inching his way forward towards the large mouth opening at the front. It was a monumental task, especially with the fight the beast was having with his specters. A fight that it would win very soon.

Entering the mouth (heh), he found himself in what appeared to be a throne room, only the king was missing.

"HYAAH!"

A soft thud hit the side of his stomach, revealing the location of his target. Seeing that his plan didn't work, the boy began to run away towards the throne, in some vain attempt to get to safety. Not that Darius would allow that.

He grasped the boy by the neck of his shirt and hoisted him up to face him eye to eye. "Hello there child. I hope you didn't have too many plans, because I'm about to force you to cancel, if you catch my drift."

The boy was terrified, shivering like a leaf and babbling nonsense. "P-Please don't kill me! I-I'm sorry! I won't do it again! Please! I don't wanna die!"

He tossed the poor sap to the side, watching him land with a thud. The worm began to crawl away, to scared to even think about standing. "Come on now kid, do you really think this place needs a king like you? I mean, you got your entire peerage killed! That's pretty bad."

The sound of sniffling entered his ears, and Darius couldn't help but feel disappointed. "Seriously? You're crying?"

It wasn't even just crying either, the worthless king was begging for his daddy. It was actually quite infuriating.

"I am one hundred and ten percent done with you right now kid."

He knelt over the kid, lifted him with both hands on his waist and began to pull. The kids crying morphed into screaming and he was thrashing around, trying to escape the inevitable. As this was going on, his feeder tendrils began to feast on the boy, making him scream even further, until something gave. And by something, he meant the boys spine.

Holding the lower and upper halves of the former king in each hand, he felt his tendrils fervor increase and finish off the body. Soon, everything was gone. Everything, except for the crown, which floated in front of Darius invitingly. 'Don't mind if I do.'

He grasped the crown and placed it on his head. A strange power came over him, and he suddenly felt connected to each and every demon below him.

"Heh. Heh heh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He couldn't help but laugh, the events of the day finally catching up to him.

"ALL HAIL ME!"

All hail him indeed. All hail Darius, the demon king.

…

Whew, longest chapter yet. That's the end of what I'm going to tentatively call the Family Matters Arc, and the beginning of the next one I have planned, which is definitely going to be interesting. I'll give you a hint, it has a lot more to do with this story's namesake.

The next chapter will be a filler one, in order to bridge the gap between where this arc ends, and the next begins. As always this has been A Decent Hoonter, thank you for reading.