Holy Queen Calca Bessarez took in a shaky breath and put on the bravest face she could muster as she made her way towards the city square where the demon Jaldabaoth had been reported to be. She knew that her forces were woefully underprepared for the coming fight, but with the demon making a direct attack on the capital she had no choice but to order them into battle.
Knowing that Jaldabaoth had the ability to bring down a huge section of the great wall that had kept her country safe with a single spell meant that her advancing forces had been split into smaller sections to avoid being crushed all at once. Their group's advance had been slowed on the way in to heal some of the town's guardsmen who had been caught up in the fighting before they got there, but they were now moving at full speed towards Jaldabaoth's location.
As they made their way down the street, a pungent smell began to fill the air, but any reactions were cut short as the group heard the unmistakable bellowing of Remedios Custodio from around the corner.
Calca almost groaned with exasperation; clearly the irrepressible paladin had just charged on into the fight without waiting for the rest of them.
"Quickly now, the fight's started without us!"
With those words, the Holy Queen ran ahead of her group, her paladins and priests hastening to keep up with her. As they rounded the last corner however, more than one of them gagged and began retching into the gutters. The scene in front of them was a vision of hell: blood and burst innards coating the cobblestones and walls of the plaza in a grotesque mural.
In the middle of the plaza, just a few steps away from Remedios was a tall, exceptionally well dressed figure who could only be Jaldabaoth. While he lacked the wings or horns of a demon, a pointed tail sprouted from his waist, and an aura of oppression surrounded him that felt like it was pressing down on the entire group as they fanned out into the square. From behind him, Remedios called out to them.
"You two! He's very strong! If you don't pull your men back, they'll only die for nothing!"
Acting immediately, Calca waved back her troops and stepped forward with Queralt who had accompanied her, while the rest of her paladins withdrew to protect the priests behind them. She spoke quietly to Remedios, who had circled around the demon to stand between them.
"Remedios, please don't push yourself!"
Queralt quickly seconded her.
"She's right, sister. Shouldn't you take him on with everyone at once?"
Jaldaboth, for his part, had barely moved at all and had simply turned on the spot to continue to face Remedios. His inscrutable face looked at each of his foes in turn. Taking a step forward, Calca called out to him in a raised voice.
"So, you are Jaldabaoth?"
The demon responded with a very casual shrug, an action which seemed almost comically out of place among the carnage that surrounded him.
"Indeed. Your slave charged right at me without saying a word. What would she have done if it was a case of mistaken identity? It certainly interests me that there are savages in the Holy Kingdom who are incapable of speech. Ah, just to be sure, may I ask if you are the reigning Holy Queen?"
"Indeed."
"There's no need to tell him anything, Calca. All you need to know is that he's Jaldabaoth and all we need to do is kill him and send him back to hell. Talking with him is just going to taint your tongue."
With her back turned to them, Remedios shifted her stance for a moment and was clearly going to attack, but they'd not had a chance to cast their spells in support, so Calca spoke up to interrupt her.
"Ah, Remedios, we're talking here…"
To her left, she heard Queralt whispering, and then her hands flashed with an orange light as she intoned
"[Bolstered Physical Enhancement]"
The demon responded with a sardonic tone.
"I am magnanimous, so I shall chat with you for a while. Please, prepare yourselves until you are satisfied. The sight of you - who are so desperately preparing yourselves to defeat me - being trampled by a power which surpasses anything you can muster; truly it will be a sight to evoke ever greater despair in those who witness it with their own eyes. What a wonderful sight it will be!"
"I won't let that happen!"
Remedios cut in again, and once again made a motion to attack. Her approach being trampled over for a second time by her subordinate, Calca's reproach was far steelier than her first.
"Remedios, could you quiet down for a bit and step back?"
"But...but if I move back I won't be able to cut him down if he does anything weird…
The demon chuckled and cut in.
"Fear not. I will not attack until we finish speaking, or until you launch an attack of your own."
"As if we could believe what a demon say-"
Sick of it by now, Calca snapped at Remedios
"Remedios!"
"...understood."
A suitably cowed Remedios stepped back to stand beside her sister. That out of the way, Calca turned her attention back to the demon and addressed him.
"Now then, Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth. I have some things to ask you. Why have you come here? If you wish to trample this country, why not move with the demihuman army from the fortress? Could it be that you-"
Raising a hand, the demon cut her clean off with an interjection
"You need say no more. I can imagine what you wish to believe, but you are mistaken. The reason I have come here alone is not to parley with you. There are two reasons why I have come here alone. The first is because crushing you by myself will deepen your despair that much more compared to if you were slain in a chaotic battle with the demihuman forces. The other reason is so that I might avoid making the same mistakes as in the Kingdom. I had not expected to meet a warrior there who was as powerful as myself. Therefore, the fact that I have come here alone is to see if there is a being comparable to me."
"There might be, you know?"
"Of this I am certain - there are none. That is why I have given you all this time. If anyone like that did exist, they would be in this city by your side as the most important person in the nation. As it is, I have found nobody like that, including the snivelling rats hiding themselves from view"
"You bastard! Are you saying we're weaker than that warrior?"
"That is exactly what I am saying. Did you not hear me? Is that all you wish to know, Holy Queen?"
Gritting her teeth in displeasure, Calca raised her voice loud.
"Just one more thing - Angels, advance!"
With a rush of powerful wings, the angels hidden among the ranks of the priests spread their wings and took to the sky before hurling themselves towards the demon. Her own Principality of Peace soared overhead, the wake of golden light in its wake blessing those beneath it with confidence and clarity of mind as it swooped towards the demon with the rest of its kin.
In front of Calca, Remedios surged forward in a charge, her sword glowing as bright as a torch as she closed the distance between her and her foe. Behind Jaldabaoth, five of the adventurers who had been hired to help kill the demon suddenly appeared out of thin air, expressions of surprise written across their faces. They had clearly used [Invisibility] to get close, but something had cancelled it early.
The demon took no notice of the adventurers at all, but a horrid set of wings exploded out from his back and impaled them all instantly, with only one of them surviving long enough to rain some completely ineffectual strikes down on the demon before collapsing to the ground dead.
At nearly the same time, Remedios shouted as she crashed into melee with her foe and struck down with a savage diagonal blow towards Jaldabaoth, who hopped back a step and stabbed at her with his wings. Taking one hand off the sword, she smacked the wings aside and activated a martial art as she thrust forwards.
"[Flow Acceleration]!"
The sword thrust straight at Jaldabaoth's throat, but the demon was quicker, and a set of claws sprouted on his hand as he grabbed the sword.
"[Holy Strike]!"
A metallic sound rang out as the golden light on Remedios's blade dissipated against the demon's claws, and she jumped backwards and out of the way as the summoned angels swarmed the demon.
Calca watched closely as the angels did their best to attack Jaldabaoth, but she could tell they were doing very little to bother him as he nimbly parried or dodged out of the way of the strikes with ease.
"[Penetrate Magic - Holy Ray]
Beside her, Queralt had prepared a spell, and drew her hands together, a beam of light erupting from them and stabbing towards Jaldabaoth, but to her shock it just fizzled into nothing about a foot from the demon's face. Seeking to test his resistances, she cast a spell of her own as well.
"[Twin Penetrate Magic - Holy Ray]"
This time, two beams of light shot from her hands towards him, but these two fizzled out just as Queralt's had. Calca was quite shocked, that was a spell specifically good against Demons, cast as a magic penetrating variant, from a pair of the strongest casters in the kingdom, and Jaldabaoth hadn't even seemed to use a skill to negate them. Understanding her spells would likely not be effective, she called out to Remedios.
"Use your head and let the angels fight! There's no point in this!"
As some other adventurers ran in to grab the bodies of their fallen comrades, Jaldabaoth giving them almost as much attention as he would to a fly, the demon spoke again.
"How bothersome. Even if they're nothing more than insects to me, a swarm of them is still unpleasant…"
The angels charged forward again at the demon, trying to tackle him and bring him to the ground. In response, the demon slashed his talons and returned more than one of them to the void, but the angels in reserve simply moved in to fill their place. On all sides of the plaza there was the chanting of voices as the priests began resummoning their angels that had been destroyed and sent them back into the fray. This couldn't last forever, but Calca hoped they would be able to wear the demon out before they ran out of mana.
Under the mass of angels, Calca saw the form of Remedios dash forth and swing her sword almost like a club, the sword making a faint whistling sound as it slashed forward and crashed into the side of the demon and hurled him through the air like he was made of sackcloth. Jaldabaoth crashed at blistering speed into a shopfront and disappeared into a cloud of debris and falling bricks.
"Sister, you did it!"
Remedios was quick to respond angrily however.
"It's not over yet! How could he have flown so far?!"
"Given your brute strength, I think it's possible, Sister…"
"No, he must have flown out by himself!"
Calca thought for a moment, this was definitely possible, but she wasn't sure how to react to that information - why would he do so when he had shown himself to be impervious to everything they'd thrown at him?
"Remedios! What should we do?"
"Demolish that building without going near it!"
Turning to wave forward the priests behind her, Calca stepped forward and began hammering the already damaged structure with spell after spell, quickly joined by Queralt and the other priests when they realized what she was doing. In short order, the building was reduced to so much rubble, though it was unlikely to have caused the demon that much harm. Even Remedios could have survived that after all. Behind her, Queralt spoke quietly to her sister.
"Say, why hasn't Jaldabaoth come out yet?"
"Could he have already escaped by teleportation?
As they started planning their next step, Jaldabaoth's voice came out from among the rubble.
"Kukuku, my, this is quite vexing… It would seem that it is time for me to get serious."
Remedios immediately ran up and positioned herself between Calca and the rubble, gesturing with her hand for the priests to fall back. She called out to the demon in a taunting way as if to draw its attention.
"Then you should have done it earlier. I'll wait, so come show me your power!"
As the priests fell back, Calca and Queralt went with them, each of them commanding their angel to move forward to screen them from the demon.
"Oh yes? In that case please move back. It would be quite disappointing if you were to die from just this…"
As the demon spoke again, the pile of timbers and bricks swelled up before exploding up and outwards in a shower of debris as a colossal figure rose up from the ground. With huge flaming wings, and a burning tail, this vision of death had none of the class or poise he had before, and Calca for a moment wondered if this was not another demon altogether. The huge flaming fists of the giant demon crashed together as it stretched its neck, dislodging the last of the flaming debris on its form.
"Priests, order the angels to charge!"
As Calca called out the order with a hint of fear, her angel sprung forward with the others and began slashing at the demon. To her despair the demon didn't even bother dodging or blocking, but just sat there and ignored the strikes completely. With a rumbling basso voice which rocked the plaza and sent their spirits plummeting, the demon bellowed at them.
"This is my true nature! Now, you foolish and bothersome insects, disappear."
On that word, the demon punched forwards and a massive shockwave followed his fist. With just one strike he annihilated all the angels in front of him. Calca gasped and stumbled slightly as her connection to her angel was severed. In the shock of something destroying her most powerful summon in a single swing, she almost didn't notice Remedios throwing herself forward with a warcry. Her strike was a savage one that would have bisected almost any human fighter, but it bounced off the demon's lower leg with laughable ease.
The demon seemed to be taking absolutely no notice of the strongest paladin in the kingdom, and was staring straight at Calca.
"Dealing with you empty handed is a little troublesome, but I see there is an excellent weapon right there…"
His eyes locked on Calca, the demon stepped forward, paying no heed at all to Remedios who began desperately hacking at him in an attempt to slow him down. Newly summoned angels surged forwards to help and attack spells speared forth, but nothing so much as scratched the demon's metallic skin.
"You lot, do something! Stop him! Hurry up and stop him!"
Remedios shouted orders with desperation in her voice, and the Paladins rushed to form a wall between the demon and Calca.
"Let Calca and Queralt pull back! He's going for the two of them!"
Looking up at the demon, Calca could clearly see his eyes locked wordlessly on her as he strode nonchalantly towards her.
"Stop! Stop! STOP!"
She could hear Remedios' increasingly desperate voice as she threw everything she had at the demon, but to no avail. The paladins and priests in front of her attempted to attack it, but their attacks did nothing either, and those who strayed too close to the path of the demon were enveloped by hell flames and fell to the ground screaming in pain. Throughout it, Jaldabaoth kept walking, wordlessly, towards the Holy Queen.
"The two of you, run! We can't stop him as we are now!"
Remedios shouted out in desperation from behind Jaldabaoth. Through all her training, spells to resist evil, and will to be a good example, this untouchable terror broke her will. Calca turned and fled, Queralt and her guards running with her to provide whatever support they could. From behind, she heard the Demon snort in derision.
"Hmph. [Greater Teleportation]"
In an instant, the demon appeared directly in front of her and with a single finger hurled her to the ground. Around her, her guard all threw themselves forward to try and protect her, but they were all instantly covered by a wave of fire that reduced them to a pile of writhing bodies on the ground. Calca tried to scramble backwards out of the way, but the demon reached down and grabbed her legs around the shins in one hand and lifted her up into the air.
The flame-wreathed fist of the demon heated the metal of her greaves to ridiculous temperatures within an instant, and Calca wailed in pain as she felt her legs sear brutally against the unbearably hot armor. Through her pain, she felt as much as heard the words of the demon.
"An excellent weapon! From the moment I first saw it, I felt that it would make an excellent weapon."
As the demon raised her up and started swinging her around, a terrible thought suddenly occurred to Calca. She was the weapon he planned to use against the paladins. As awful as it was, she had little time to think on it, as the force of the demon's swings fully dislocated her knee in a way it was never meant to go. Unable to contain it, a whimper escaped her clenched teeth.
"All right, is it my turn now?"
Through her delirious pain and disorientation, Calca heard the frenzied cries to retreat away from the demon, and heard the demon cast a fireball from its other hand. None of it got through to Calca though, as she was possessed with no other thought than a desperation to escape her fate. Her writhing seemed to irritate the demon though, and he brought her close to his face to shout at her.
"What an annoying woman. You are a weapon now. Act like one."
She heard a mournful cry from Remedios, and then a rush of wind as she was swung viciously downwards, before finally her head crashed straight into the cobblestones in a mind-shattering impact. Calca was barely conscious a moment later when she felt herself get launched headlong into another object, unknowingly caving in the chest of a charging paladin and sending him flying across the square. This impact was the very last her body could handle, and her consciousness began to fade.
The last thing her fading mind saw before everything went black was the feathered underside of a great winged beast spearing down from the sky with a screech of fury fit to shatter the heavens themselves.