"Hah!" Rokurou screamed, slashing a pig-man down with his short blade.
"Heeah!" he blocked an incoming wooden hammer with the tip of his left blade, which got it stuck and stabbed the owner of the hammer with the other blade. The enemy daemon screamed in pain and dropped his weapon. The samurai stepped close to the pig, taking the blade out of the hammer and stabbed both into the neck of his now dead opponent.
Seeing his comrades fall in battle, a third demi-human screamed in raged and charged at Rokurou with a rusty double hander in both hands. The daemon samurai turned around and smirked. He easily blocked the incoming swing by holding his blades in an x-formation. With ease, he pushed his opponent backward, causing the pig-man to stagger. With a savage grin on his face, Rokurou unleashed a flurry of slash attacks, causing blood to splatter everywhere.
Velvet caught a random arm that happened to fly her way with her own, demonic arm and devoured the piece of flesh in a matter of seconds. She, Seres and Minato had stood out of this fight on request of the swordsman, who had felt the need of a bit of a warm-up.
Minato flinched when a loose finger of all things hit his cheek, leaving a tiny smudge of blood. A little disgusted, the blue-haired boy wiped the stain away and tried to ignore the fact that a demon got hacked into small, little pieces right in front of him. The display reminded him of the time where he first summoned Thanatos, all the way back in April, and how he hacked the Magician to pieces.
Luckily as savage as Rokurou was, he was just as efficient and finished the fight rather quickly. Velvet and Seres had been watching the battle with a neutral expression, seemingly not at all bothered by what was happening in front of them. After the last daemon was dead, Rokurou proceeded to clean his blades with the surrounding snow that was not colored red already.
"Your fighting style is..." Velvet thought for a second "unique" she finished. Minato found himself nodding along subconsciously.
"Just wait until I pull out the good stuff!" Rokurou replied with a grin, sheathing his weapons. The samurai rejoined the group, looking rather proud of himself.
"Not exactly what I call a proper warm up, but it feels great to be fighting again," he said.
"Are you an asura by any chance?" Seres asked out of the blood.
"Yup, you got it!" the male daemon confirmed, putting both hands on his hips. Upon seeing the questioning looks coming from Velvet and Minato, the samurai explained. "Asuras are war daemons. We live for the fight and thrive in it. We're also pretty good at what we do if I say so myself."
"You got the confirmation from my shoulder," Minato said, holding his left shoulder. On the night when the two sparred, the blue-haired boy had received a good hit from the daemon. Even though they were using wooden swords, it still hurt a lot.
Rokurou laughed in response. "Hey, you're pretty good yourself. I hope you don't mind continuing these sessions."
"Talk about training later. We have a sailor to recruit," Velvet urged the two and walked ahead with Seres following. Minato and Rokurou gave each other a look before they decided to pursue.
The group of four was walking close to the cliff. They could hear the waves of the sea hitting the rocks at the bottom, so close were they. The group needed to be careful, as one misstep could possibly end with one of them dropping down the cliffs. Fortunately taking this risk also had its upsides. For one, the chances of meeting any random travelers were diminished, until they came close to Dyle's old hometown. For two, most daemons in the area appeared to be smart enough to know that coming close to the cliff, increased their chances of dying due to an accident. Emphasize being put on the word "most".
There was a rather funny incident, where a pack of werewolves prepared an ambush for the group of four. They had hidden themselves between a couple of rocks in a place where the passage was so narrow, the group had to go one by one in order to pass through safely. Not noticing the daemons in hiding, the ambush appeared to be perfect. The wolves jumped out of their hiding spot, surprising all four of them. None of the humanoid creatures had any time to put up any kind of defense. Velvet and Rokurou managed to draw their weapons, Minato reached for his evoker and Seres hoped she would be able to throw up a shield in the last possible second. Luckily for them, those daemons weren't the brightest of the bunch.
The werewolves put too much force into their own jumps and simply overshot. In this case, merely overshooting meant they were jumping straight down the cliff and to their doom. Panicked howls could be heard, until they were interrupted by three splashes coming from the bottom of the cliff.
"Well, that happened," Rokurou said with a chuckle.
"That was close," Minato sighed in relief, putting his evoker back into the holster. "That could have ended badly."
"I didn't think daemons would attack us here," Seres said with a shake of her head.
"That means we have to be more careful from now on," Velvet concluded simply.
"Well, I wouldn't mind a fight here and there," Rokurou said with a shrug. "We could just stick to the main land and fight our way through the daemons."
"Trust me, you will have more than enough fights soon enough," Seres told the swordsman. "Daemonblight has been spreading through the lands at an almost uncontrollable rate. Some exorcists think that in only a couple of years there will be more daemons than actual animals in the wild."
"So, does that mean sooner or later we'll all have to eat daemons, like Velvet?" the samurai asked, sounding serious.
"This depends," Seres replied equally serious. "There are a lot of factors to consider, but if the daemons aren't reduced in numbers, it will be only a matter of time, until animals will only be found inside human settlements."
"Huh, I see. Hey Velvet, do you happen to know any good recipes on-"
The black-haired swordsman found himself interrupted by the sounds of battle going on in the distance. Sparing each other a glance, the group of four quickly advanced through the snow, the sounds of fighting growing ever louder as they came closer to it.
"Look, over there!" Velvet pointed with her finger at the remains of a wooden wall that had apparently been broken down by force.
"Isn't that the village where Dyle lived?" Rokurou asked, drawing his weapons.
"I think so," Velvet replied.
"Daemons must have broken through," Seres explained while running. "Villages, especially lightly defended ones belong to the favorite hunting grounds of daemons."
After awkwardly making their way through the remains of the palisade, the group mentally prepared for the worst, as they charged into the village, weapons drawn. However, what they actually found surprised them. Bodies covered a good chunk of the square of the town, however, those bodies weren't human. Those were dead daemons lying on the ground. With gashes, burned skin, cut limbs and sometimes even crushed body parts, it looked like someone had put quite a bit of work into disposing of all of the daemons. And that someone was currently fighting against a demi-human, wielding a two-handed hammer.
Minato recognized the figure immediately as Eleanor, the woman he had run into just the other day. She was wielding a spear and dodged the incoming attacks of the clearly enraged and injured daemon with ease. After the hammer crashed into the ground, Eleanor thrust her spear forwards, piercing her opponent's heart. It let out a blood curling scream, its arms desperately trying to take the weapon out. But the damage had been done.
Eleanor herself retrieved her weapon and watched as her last opponent collapsed to the ground. She didn't look like she was injured. In fact, it only seemed like her clothes had been damaged and dirtied a bit during the fight.
"Thank goodness I was here," she spoke to herself. "But any further attacks, and..." She didn't dare finishing that sentence.
"An exorcist," Rokurou stated the obvious and looked around. "Wow. Wish I had been part of that fight. She must be powerful if she can take on all of those daemons by herself."
"Let's just hope Dyle isn't among the dead," Velvet said, inspecting each and every corpse in the vicinity.
Minato decided to step up and talk to Eleanor directly. She must have heard his footprints in the snow, as she turned around in the snow when he came close.
"Oh! It's you."
Minato nodded. "Are you alright?" he asked. "It looks like you had your work cut out for you," he gestured at the corpses littered around the snowy area.
"D-don't worry," she replied with a small smile. "I am fine." She turned her head around. "It's just... everything that is going on," she said with sadness in her voice. "Daemons run rampant in the outlands, and yet the Abbey explicitly chose not to come to the aid of those living here."
Minato frowned after hearing that.
"It's true we haven't the forces to be everywhere at once," she clenched her fists, "and the people of the outlands refuse to obey the Abbey's rules." She took in a deep breath. "It's a heartless decision, I know, but it follows from the Abbey's perfect logic and principle."
Minato's frown deepened.
"And yet, you're here and saved this village all on your own," the wild card pointed out.
"Well... I... oh!" Eleanor looked past Minato. "I didn't know you were in company. Wait a moment. Is that Seres?!"
"Indeed, I am," Seres replied in a monotone voice and stepped right next to Minato. "I am under Lord Artorius' orders to escort these people to the capital," the Malak explained.
"Ah, I see. So these are the others you have told me about the other day," Eleanor concluded.
"You know this exorcist?" Velvet asked Minato, who nodded in return.
"I met her in Hellawes," he simply explained.
"Allow me to introduce myself. Eleanor Hume. I am a praetor patrolling for the Abbey. Tell me, what business do you have here?"
"Sightseeing," Minato answered spontaneously. "We ran across a few complications and it might take a bit longer until we can finally head for the capital. So we decided to look around the island for a bit. And with protection coming from Lord Artorius himself," he gestured to Seres "what could possibly go wrong?"
"Well," Eleanor bit her lip "it is not in my right to question why Lord Artorius wishes to see you. But, might I suggest you stay in Hellawes, until you're ready to depart? There is a terrible daemon on the loose and until the Abbey has caught him, it is dangerous to go out. But do not worry, I am already investigating the matter personally. It's only a matter of time, until the daemon is dead."
"Speaking of dead daemons, something must be done about those," Seres gestured at the corpses. "With my fire Artes, I am capable of turning those corpses to ash in no time. This will allow you to continue your investigation unhindered."
Eleanor thought about the suggestion of the Malak, before nodding. "Yes, do so. But make sure the fire doesn't accidentally spread to the houses or burn anyone nearby."
"Naturally," Seres replied.
"I am sorry if this is a little sudden, but I must be off. Take care." And with those words, the redhead left the village. Rokurou and Velvet kept their expression neutral as the woman left. Once she was out of earshot, Velvet began to speak.
"She was crying," the daemon woman stated.
"Pardon?" Rokurou asked.
"That girl, she was crying."
"Really? I didn't notice."
Seres in the meantime was talking to Minato. "Help me pile those corpses together. You brought us into this situation, after all."
The blue haired boy shrugged. "It wasn't that bad of an excuse," he told the red-haired Malak, but went to work nonetheless. He dragged the corpses across the ground, leaving trails of blood. Seres observed him, waiting for him to be done, so she could lit the bodies on fire. Rokurou in the meantime made an observation.
"Where are the people?" he asked.
"Hiding inside their buildings, I assume," Velvet replied. "Unless they were turned into daemons. Then they're probably among the dead."
"True, I guess," the samurai replied. "But this exorcist, she would be a worthy opponent to fight. If only all of them were like her, then I could have the time of my life."
"It doesn't matter how strong they are," Velvet replied offhandedly "I will kill them all if necessary. And if I can't beat them, then that means my whole endeavor was for naught anyway."
After a couple of minutes of work, Minato was done and stepped away from the pile he had just created. If his clothes didn't need some serious cleaning before, they certainly did now. He was seriously considering taking off his vest and shirt and equipping Jack Frost for the rest of the time he was here.
Seres in the meantime summoned a gigantic phoenix made out of fire. The avian beast descended downwards on the pile of corpses, setting it ablaze in an instance. Rokurou whistled, impressed by the display of power. Minato shielded his face from the sudden heat.
"We have wasted enough time here. Let's go," Velvet declared.
"We should check the caves first," Seres said, referring to their earlier discussion. "Lizards don't like the cold, after all. According to the map, we have to head over there," the Malak pointed in the opposite direction of the village.
"Then let's go," Velvet said and walked ahead of the group with the others following closely behind.
As Minato began to turn around, he could see someone looking at him from behind a tree. It was a child, no doubt curiosity having gotten the better of it. Deciding it was best to act as if he hadn't seen it, he quickly caught up to the rest, who were already heading out of the village again.
"That woman said she was patrolling for the Abbey... What's that mean, exactly?" Velvet asked out of the blue. Seres was about to answer, but surprisingly, Rokurou beat her to it.
"They're handpicked agents who travel the kingdom gauging the Abbey's success in the daemon fight. They also make sure the other exorcists are conducting themselves properly. I suppose you could liken them to military police. Since the Abbey imposes so many rules on the populace, they want to show they're aboveboard."
"But if they need to police themselves, isn't that as good as announcing corruption in the ranks?" the female daemon asked.
"Nah, some would say it's more honest this way. Idealism alone won't change the world," the daemon man explained.
"It's exactly because of that," Seres confirmed. "The populace is reassured that all people in the Abbey abide by their own rules and at the same time, the Abbey can wheat out anyone they deem is best removed from the board."
"I have a question," Minato spoke up "why doesn't Abbey help the people that do not follow their teachings? Is it because they want to have absolute control? It can't be through a lack of manpower, can it?"
"Both reasons apply," Seres answered. "There are only so many exorcists and not all of them are of the same rank as Eleanor. As a praetor, Eleanor is a very high ranking member of the exorcists. However finding someone who has the capabilities of a praetor is not easy. A human can't learn becoming an exorcist. You're either born with the power or not. And the power you're born with cannot become greater."
"Hmm, very different from personas..." Minato muttered, taking out his Evoker.
"Oh? How so?" Seres asked, genuinely intrigued.
"Personas grow with you. The more you battle, the stronger they become alongside you. Personas also influence your body to a certain extent. Generally speaking, a persona user will always, be stronger, smarter, more durable, faster and somehow luckier than the average human."
"Excuse me, luckier?" Seres asked.
"Don't ask me how that works," Minato replied in a deadpan. "Somehow Personas also influence the amount of luck you have in life. Granted, it all depends on what your persona specializes in. Orpheus, for example, gives me more physical prowess, whereas Jack Frost focuses more on magic."
"That's interesting," Seres mentally noted down the information she got.
"Wait, so let's say, one of your personas makes you incredible lucky," Rokurou spoke up. "Does that mean, the chances of you coming across valuable items is also higher?"
"Items, money, gambling games," Minato listed up, "However, unless your persona really specializes in increasing your fortune, the effect is almost unnoticeable. But this ability did save my life a few times when I got a lucky hit on an enemy's weak point."
Any further discussion upon the matter was halted when they arrived at the entrance of the cave system they had been looking for. Granted Seres, Velvet and Rokurou were still curious about just to what extend a Persona could influence a person, but this topic had to wake, as the group found themselves getting charged at by very hungry looking centipede daemons.