"No! Please! I beg you! Please let me go! Please! I'm begging you!" A voice cried in pure terror as he scrambled across the floor, blood flooding from every inch of his skin as he constantly tried to move faster than the oncoming threat, but it was futile. A simple stroll would have caught up to his pitiful attempt to flee.
"What a waste for your last words," A rough feminine voice spoke as they kicked the ailing man over, raising a pair of scythes into the victim's line of sight, as any vision of the moon, his last light, was obscured.
"PLEASE WAI-!" He desperately tried to plea, but it was far, far too late.
The scythes joined together as they slit deeply through the man's throat, flinging a beautiful scatter of blood into the atmosphere, painting the moon red as all desperate screaming finally ceased.
"Spade scum," She spat on his body as she booted him off to the side, leaving a stretched trail of blood, "all of you will diethe same, begging for the least bit of mercy that you deny so many others."
"I never expected there to be more of a party though after these fodder," The woman groaned as she glanced to the open plains behind her, seeing multiple troops rising with standard weaponry in hand, "though I do appreciate the sentiment that you're lining yourselves up to die rather than making me hunt you down."
There was a long silence as the waves of enemies continued to grow, but there did seem to be an end to them as the combined units lined up in a static formation, several greater figures seeming to be lined up towards the back of the force.
"Unfortunately though, this isn't my preferred method," Her grin began to grow as it became more visible to the light, even if the rest of her face remained concealed by the darkness, "you see...nothing quite matches the exhilaration of a good hunt, so feel free to start scattering now!"
"We shall not scatter, not to scum like you, Libra," a greater figure that began stomping through the lines of forces began, "this is where you will finally be put to rest."
"Using my name, hm? I'd stick to 'scum' if I were you, I wouldn't like dirt like you so liberally using my dear name," Libra puffed as the grip on her scythes tightened, "also, 'put me to rest', you say? Ha! What a joke! Definitely the best you've managed to muster up to now! The only souls that will be descending to hell, are yours! More importantly, what should I call you? You seem like the big-bad after all. How about 'Fatty'? Or I suppose more formally I should be saying something like 'Mr Obesity'."
Shaking his head, the figure struck his arm out to the side, his grimoire rising, "No. It's Grosse to you. This is just a small fraction of my division unit, so I'll let you decide for yourself if you want to quit while your ahead. You can never hope to slay your whole way to the Zogratis siblings, never mind defeat them. You may as well offer yourself up now, and you may be spared, I'm sure your psychopathic nature would appeal to them, perhaps if you shared the Devil's power, you could grown so much stronger..."
"Fodder is still fodder. I don't care if there's a million to a billion of you freaks, I won't give in to such weaklings. I never will. And also, don't go talking to me as a psychopath as if you're normal. Yes, you Spade scum, all of you, are the most psychopathic of all!"
"Well that is a shame. If only you could listen to reason. I suppose though that wild animals often have this irrationality. As such,they must be tamed. Go, men!"
Despite her loud and boastful nature moments ago, she suddenly entered radio-silence as the seas of enemies launched towards her all at once, muttering only a few mute words, "Finally, the hunt can begin."
It took mere moments for blood to shed. The entire mob of front-running men closest to Libra were all annihilated at once, a large row of steel pike structures erecting from the ground and penetrating straight through every being in range.
"I can sense their power, and it's..." Libra began as her hood slowly began to fling back by the wind, revealing her psychopathic gaze, "absolutely pitiful!"
After killing the first mob so easily, she was given a moment to breathe as she surveyed the immediate hesitant nature of following opposition. She had a beautiful blend of hot-pink and a dark purple to colour her medium-length hair and a gleaming pair of dark purple eyes to accompany. The moonlight highlighted this beauty as well as the slight patches of her leather-padded armour which dwelt beneath her cape, only being visible whenever she moved or if there was a strong gale.
"I wouldn't feel too bad about your deaths though..." Libra said smugly as she began forth, trampling completely over the ball-pit of dead bodies, "to get killed by someone as beautiful as me...I understand it's hard to fight back!"
"The main threat retreated," She reset her thoughts as she reset her movements, "he wants to try and wear me down by killing all his fodder first before facing him. That means he's confident he can still take me on, or he's confident in his men to set me back enough. In a normal situation, I'd suspect the latter, but surely even he can tell the magnificent difference in power? None of these fools have enough punch in them to even begin withering me away!"
She took one greater stride forth in the middle of her sprint, stomping her outstretched foot down with immense force as the rows of steel pikes launched again, producing similar results as dozens upon dozens were impaled, however, this time some managed to leap out the way, seeming prepared for the move.
"Even so, I suppose it'd be beneficial for me to still take care of these idiots at least semi-efficiently. With that, I can at least let-loose against the final boss," Libra figured as she connected her hands to the ground just below.
The pikes which were sticking out of the ground suddenly extended further in response to her actions as they all wriggled towards their nearest opponent, penetrating through their chests as if they were made of paper. Not finished though, all the extended pikes only continued, all blasting through the masses of foes ahead as the steel quickly became a pure shade of blood.
"How disturbing," Grosse spat as he landed at the furthest back line, "I can already sense it, how little this is draining her. She's using such simple attacks and using them to kill masses so easily, she's hardly being drained of mana at all. I have no doubt that her stores are boundless, so if only the mere surface of her storage is being drained, then she can practically continue on indefinitely. Perhaps this attack in particular drains less than most, but even so, if she can make attacks such as this so effective at killing, then how powerful will her later attacks be?"
"Come on, fatty!" He could distantly hear, seeing another swarm of soldiers so easily massacred, the constant splashes of blood practically formed the illusion too that it was raining blood at such a torrential rate.
Shaking off the remarks though, he maintained his keen eye, "She seems to be using some sort of steel magic. Normally, such alloy magic is standard in many, but nobody can usually become such a killing machine with it if there wasn't much more to it. It's main character though is it's flexibility. It seems to interchange forms so seamlessly as if it was a liquid, and furthermore, it seems to have a much higher compression of mana than standard magic of the sort! I suppose my main question is...who is she really? What sort of rat off the street could be blessed with such power? It goes against all natural order!"
"I said come on!" Libra screamed in Grosse's face as she suddenly appeared before him with great momentum. Behind her, there was a deep trail engraved in the ground, with a coating of blood painting the indent as well as Libra herself.
With such momentum, Grosse of course couldn't react. But rather than pierce him, Libra curled her right hand into a fist and struck him strongly across the face with all the momentum she had.
The feeling of impact spread to every soul even slightly within range as Grosse tumbled relentlessly across the floor before he eventually found his footing, "I couldn't even react! She killed so many in an instant! More importantly, she could have killed me right then if she had used her weapon...so why didn't she!?"
"Oh dear, did that hit shake your core?" Libra licked her lips before licking a droplet of blood clean from her index finger, sucking on the finger a brief moment before releasing it, "your blood doesn't have a very good taste..."
"What's going on in that sick head of yours?" Gross spat blood off to the side as he suddenly exerted a sizeable amount of mana, "you could have killed me, and yet you didn't? Don't you have any common sense when it comes to the battlefield!?"
"Oh...I see," Libra sighed as she snapped her weapons back in hand, "I just didn't want to kill you so quickly, I was hoping that way you'd be able to give me a real fight. Your 'men' are already scared shitless after a few attacks, they already know that they don't stand a chance. I suppose if I could compliment you for one thing, it would be for recruiting some smarter fodder." In-between her flurry of phrases, she looked down her opposition, noticing his pent-up anger, "But man, if you really want to feel the glorious edges of my blade, then I suppose it can't be helped...I'll just have to slice you up to pieces now. However, if you be a good obedient fool like the rest of your men, I may consider giving you an instantaneous death."
The waves of opposition which had so recently been out for her blood were now far too scared to even approach her, in fact too scared to even move at that. She had complete control.
Grosse's frustrations were maximised as he finally decided to make a move of his own, jolting his right arm out suddenly as a blast of wind surged towards Libra. However, it was effective as a gentle gust of wind as she stood through the attack with her right arm shifted to her hip, a smug look staring forth. By the end of the blast, she hadn't moved at all, not a single micrometer.
"Huh? What was that meant to be? An attack? You've got to be kidding me! You're the head of these lunatics, and yet you can produce such a miniscule density of power? It's hilarious!" Libra chuckled, "you people...REALLY ARE WEAK!"
As her emotions began to run riot though, her attention was still found as she glanced off to the side, spotting a fleeing pawn. He seemed to be one of the lucky ones, having not been even breathed on by one of Libra's attacks, but that wouldn't last for long.
"Not so fast," Libra grittily murmured as one of her scythes blasted towards the scuttling bug. There was no wait for it's effect though. Within an instant, the blade cleanly sliced off the bug's head, his life instantly ended. The blade, like a boomerang, returned to the sender's palm as she fiercely stared out to the masses. She wasn't portraying her usual stern gaze though, her glare now was something much more sinister.
"Anyone else fancy the same fate?" She rolled her eyes as the forces were left trembling to their core, unable to move, "no, hm? Then be good little roaches and sit still." "I'll finish you all after this dumbass," She murmured under her breath as her scythes enlarged, becoming engraved with unidentifiable symbols all across the sharp edges as they stood out with a slight glow.
Noticing the change too, Grosse immediately prepared, the mana around him intensifying as wind swirled around the tips of his fingers, "Is that a buff of some kind? What is it doing to her weapons? Either way, it's easy enough to assume it hasn't made her any weaker."
"It's starting to get a bit boring, holding back so much, so I'm going to up the intensity a little bit," Libra began forth in the most casual of strolls, "I'd love to play around with you a little, but you're not strong enough to give any sufficient responses to my attacks. If you die from now, it's all on you."
"So before wasn't even an outright attempt to kill me?" Grosse began to panic as his eyes widened, "dammit, she's incredibly strong! Ridiculously strong! I can already tell now how this situation is going to go… Yes, being in the presence of this strength now, the only people that stand a chance...are them."
After taking a few steps, she already grew impatient as she leapt forth, triggering an instant reaction from Grosse as he raised a tornado around him to act as a guard, however, an intense amount of mana remained in his right hand which was concealed to his hips. The plan he was formulating in his mind though was quite short-lived as his guard lowered only moments into action again. As he looked ahead, his concentration lapsed, and he suddenly found himself looking off to the side as she rushed passed him, not through him. What he had failed to notice though, was the missing scythe from her left palm.
"She's missing me? But wh-?" In the middle of Grosse's question, he was given an immediate solution as a dense chain rapidly wrapped around his neck multiple times over. What was at the end of this chain? The missing scythe, of course.
"What!?" Grosse panicked further as he realised his immediate error, but it was of course too late, "she flung one of her weapons off to the side, using her positioning to distract me! Just as she reached me, she formed a chain between them to attach to me! She used her own weapon as a vector to create the link!?"
"Tch," Libra spat as she had the chain in hand and was already in the process of pulling on it as Grosse was dragged from his feet, "you're not really as much of a veteran as I thought. No better than a pebble." Grosse was flung and glided like a kite in the sky briefly as Libra finished her movement, slamming the chain, and Grosse, into the ground with unrivalled force, "Be a good pebble, and return to the ground!"
The aftershock from that attack produced a force no other had felt before, large masses of rock and other sediments resurrected from the ground, leaving a humongous crack in the ground as pieces of the already shattered area began to further crumble.
"DIE!" Libra finished as the chains which had pulled Grosse down, began to solidify a more rigid shape to push him further into it. In the mist though, Libra still kept her guard up, "Huh?" Libra spotted a sudden oozing black smoke and a growing beam of red as she flipped backwards, narrowly avoiding a sudden blast of a plasma-like beam. Following though, a large tornado formed over where Grosse was pummelled, pulling up massive chunks of rock and flinging them in random directions.
Despite the chaos though, Libra remained unharmed, no rubble having been flung her way. And as the wind began to drop, her opponent was made apparent once more, looking far more prideful than before, as he boomed, "I expected to use this power, and I've been pushed so far to use this! Limits Released: Devil's Power!" He did look far more sinister than before, his entire body seemed engulfed in an intoxicating aura of darkness, creating much more weight behind his each and every movement, "This is what shall separate us now, the power of the devil. As strong as you are, it's just fact that you will lose out to the devil power, especially against the likes of I, that can used it at a much higher concentration than most, at 50%"
"That so? Bring it then," Libra tut, seeming as if she was blissfully unaware of the power before her, "let me shatter that confidence of yours." "This guy isn't an actual devil user, he's just a vessel of power, he's not contracted to anything at all. Devil users have two types of magic, their own, and the devil's; that plasma-like attack from before was only similar by vision. It was just immensely concentrated streaks of wind. This guy isn't special at all. On top of that, he's my only opponent at this point, the rest of his troops are trying to flee away in their bloodied states, and as fun as it would be to hunt each of them down, I should take care of this pain first, then play a little scavenging game!"
"Fear is the founder of true, uncontested dominance," Libra licked her lips, "I like it." She began her stroll forth once more as her scythes formed in her hands once more, "But I don't like you. You're too confident, it's annoying how full of self-belief you are. I want to see your fear, not how you prowl around in confidence!"
"The only person who'll be on the floor, quivering in fear, is you," Grosse thundered as his chilling winds tried to push back the devilish girl, "this power, will be the difference!" Slamming his hands together, the ground crumbled beneath, a great shock wave meandering through towards Libra. Many red rays began to surface through the cracks at they were formed, and it took not a second for Libra to react, leaping out the way as the ground more vigorously combust from where she once stood.
Sighing a massive breath of disappointment, Libra rolled her eyes and the purple in her right eye began to slowly distort, "You really love to mutter on about that stupid power of yours, don't you?" Her tone was the most sever it had been up to now, and had a harrowing, underlying, threatening tone, "I don't need the devil's power, you know why?"
The bravado that shrouded Grosse rapidly began to wither away as he was faced with a growing, overwhelming power, "What...is this!? Her power was already grand, but it's swelling even further, and isn't stopping! I need to-!" Grosse held his two hands together as a great mass of mana began to develop between his palms too, but this sudden development of Libra's power was far too abrupt to respond like-for-like.
The distance between the two was immediately closed as Libra dived past the offence of Grosse, his arm too far away to act as her scythes were at his neck. It was then that he understood the difference in their power, watching in his last moments the streaks of black which meandered through her face and across her once right, purple eye, which had mutated to a red colour.
"I don't need an offering of your vaunted devil power, because I already have a power of my own."
The shock of that realisation was the last thing Grosse felt though, as mercilessly, her scythes became infested with a purple shade, cutting deep into his neck and poisoning his blood on connection. It took a mere moment for the action to finish though as Libra glided past, a fountain of blood falling upon her and the sound of the thudding remains of her opponent filling her ears.
"Pathetic," Libra sighed as her scythes slowly lowered, the new shade of them only intensifying, "that ugly power of yours, will always pale to my own. You were dead before you challenged me."
"At this rate, it won't be long until I can finally die..."
Despite the battle's end though, Libra never changed forms again, the streaks of black across her face staying in their place as she glanced behind herself.
"Ah, so even 50% was nowhere near enough to sweat you? How mightily impressive!" A voice beckoned from beyond as their figure remained shrouded in the darkness, "though, for a fool who aspires so dearly to kill me and my siblings, I suppose you would stand no chance in the slightest if you struggled with such arrogant fodder."
Quivering very slightly, Libra turned to get a clearer view of the figure as the snow storm enveloping them began to cease. Finally, she uttered his name, "Dante."
"I came all the way out here on special request, so please at least humour me! I heard that a devil user was waging some issues on this bordering area, so I assumed it to be the rat of the Clover Kingdom...I believe 'Asta' was his name? But I suppose it's a pleasant surprise to be greeted by yet another devil user. Who knew there were so many of us?"
"We can all go and rot in hell together than when all is said and done, but I'm sending you down under fist, scum," Libra coldly said as the purple of her scythes consumed their metal lengths, "I'll pay you back tenfold for everything you've done to the innocent people of this country."
"Kill me? How humouring!" Dante chuckled as he stared one last sinister gaze forth, "sorry, but I can't die to you."
Thanks for reading! I know it's been a long while, but it's been a product of many things going on in my life. Even now, exams are still waging on, and so I'm forced to use the majority of this this time I have now to revise, even though I would rather not.
Exams will eventually end though, and from there I'll try and create some consistency once more! This was originally going to be a far longer chapter, but I thought better to keep this one short and sweet ;p
Take care, and happy reading!
NEXT CHAPTER: A FORGING BOND