My Calling: Night Warriors

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Demon Language"

MAKAI! Separates Paragraphs

Chapter 6: Intrigue

Inside the darkness of the numerous crevasses that criss-crossed the land, small numbers of demons were lying in wait for their next meal. Sensing movement, the larger, stronger demons scrambled out of their hiding spots… only to receive a gauntlet-covered fist to their faces. Undaunted by this, they went on the attack again, and promptly found themselves missing a couple of limbs.

Nelius, having gone off on his own, not wanting to reveal himself as a demon, morphed one of his wings into a guillotine blade and launched it at a group of the demons, slashing many of them at the waist. Two demons attempted to attack him from behind but found themselves impaled on his other wing.

'Little bastards are everywhere.' He brought a hand down, slamming the head of another demon into the dirt. 'Alone, they're less than nothing, but in numbers like this…' Recalling his wings, he darted out of the way of another demon's attack, brought his hands up, and slammed them into the ground, creating another flame rift in the ground. Much like the Huitzils, they were swallowed up by the fiery earth and burned alive.

"Brothers, retreat! This one is beyond our power!" The other demons, seeing the futility of taking action against him, decided to turn tail and run.

"Looks like they've backed off, for now." The imminent danger passed, Nelius resumed his trek.

He'd hoped to find a structurally intact city, but no matter where he went, most of the small towns he'd seen were largely destroyed. Around each town, though, he kept finding remains of demons, the same damage marks caused by fire, ice or electricity all over their bodies. 'It's all the same. Whoever it was that came through here, he or she must be pretty strong.'

Clank! Something metallic sounded from beneath his shoe.

'Hm?' Looking down, Nelius noticed the slashed and broken remains of weaponry. It looked like whoever came through here had one hell of a fight, and he must've brought a few friends along, as he took notice of several human and demon bodies on the ground. From the looks of pure terror etched upon their faces of both man and demon, something took them out mercilessly. The stench of blood was quite heavy around this area, and Nelius was having a tough time keeping his thoughts straight.

MAKAI!

'So, another has come. I may have missed my chance with the previous one, but this one shall not escape me.'

A sharpened katana, embedded in its sheath, flew over to what could be described as a suit of samurai armor, but this armor had something resembling a face on its torso.

'These fools who tried to possess me are far too weak. Their blood lacks what I need to become animated again. But this one…'

MAKAI!

"Hey, what's that?"

Near a cliff, a suit of armor sat overlooking the area. Strangely, it appeared to have a demonic face on its torso.

'Come closer…'

There appeared to be some kind of pulse emanating from this armor.

'NOW!'

A blade could be heard unsheathing itself, and Nelius turned toward the source of the noise, only to just roll out of harm's way as the blade flew straight at him.

"The crispy shit was that?" The blade circled around for another attack, and was repelled by Nelius' hand.

"Hn, you may be stronger than those fools who dared to possess me."

"Wha—AGH!" Distracted by the voice, Nelius turned around, only to have his arm sharply impaled by the blade. Seemingly having a mind of its own, it twisted around, slicing through muscle tissue and bone until it was yanked out and tossed away, at which point it hovered over to the armor.

"Hmm, delicious. The blood of an intelligent dark one." The armor began hovering in the air as ghostly limbs appeared to, in a sense, hold everything together. As the "eyes" of the armor glowed, a human face appeared beneath the helmet. "I require more." Blade in hand, the ghostly samurai leapt over to Nelius, intent on cleaving the young demon in two.

Flipping away, Nelius was hard-pressed to avoid the samurai's attacks, which were becoming more and more focused by the minute.

'Damn it all. If this keeps up, he'll cleave me into pieces. I need something to—WHOA!' Rolling backwards to avoid a slash, his hands skittered over the ground, trying to find something intact that could stand up to the sharpened demon blade. In his right hand, he brought up, of all things, an axe, which managed to hold up surprisingly well against the sword.

"Hn, daring to cross blades with me? I thought you'd be smarter than this."

"Just wait, I'm full of surprises!" Breaking off the stalemate, Nelius jumped a few feet away, then threw the axe toward the samurai. As expected, the samurai deflected the axe, but unexpectedly, Nelius jumped up high, catching the axe, now intent on slicing his opponent.

The samurai in red, Bishamon, looked up in time to get a faceful of axe blade. The helmet was shoved through the neck of the armor. With the "head" out of commission, the face on the armor's torso became animate. Taking up his sword, Kien, once more, the battle raged on into the morning hours…

'Wait a second, it's been nothing but dark ever since I arrived, and from what Morrigan told me, the darkened sky was all Demitri's doing. How is the sun coming up?"

Sunlight, or something remarkably similar, began spilling over the battlefield, illuminating both fighters. One of them, however, didn't take it too well.

"Agh! This accursed light! Who would reintroduce such a horrid light upon this land?!" Bishamon was having a hard time adjusting to the sudden reintroduction of the light.

Seeing this as a prime opportunity, Nelius drove the axe through the eyes of the armor, causing it to stumble around in blind pain.

"Time to end this." Tossing the axe straight up, the demon charged in with the Tiger Charge maneuver, appearing behind the samurai, then quickly flipped onto his hands, using his legs to propel Bishamon into the air, where he performed the King of Beasts aerial combo maneuver. Upon throwing him to the ground, the finisher, a vicious diving kick, was aimed at the armor's teeth.

CRACK!! With the force of a near atmospheric reentry, Nelius' foot shattered the teeth on Bishamon's armor, causing the armor to fall silent once more. With one hand to the air, he caught the axe.

"Jeez, what a pain." Turning to leave, he'd scarcely had the chance to take notice of a figure rising from the armor.

"Now, I can finish what I once started, thanks to you."

MAKAI!

"That's not natural."

A gigantic sun, or at least some kind of a representation of one, was plowing through a local village, shooting off fireballs in every direction, burning humans to a crisp. Those lucky enough to survive were hauling major ass out of the town. One such fireball was headed in Nelius' direction, also where a fairly good sized group of people.

"Ah, hell no!" Pushing his way to the front of the crowd (or perhaps they retreated), he thrusted his hand forward, creating a force blast that stopped the trajectory of the fireball. With his other hand, he redirected the blast upward, carrying with it the ball of fire.

"Sis, you see that?"

"Yeah. He has the dark's power, but he chooses another path. Just like…"

"We'd best keep one eye on him."

MAKAI!

Until Next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough