Man I need to speed up a bit, huh? Need to get to 400 for the birthday!

Enjoy!

"Hello?!" Ultear asked, having lost everyone in the red haze Drakhosz had created. Where was everyone? This wasn't good. They needed to regroup and take this guy down before-

"Ultear!" A voice shouted. Confused, Ultear turned around. Her eyes widened and Simon stormed towards her, fury in his eyes.

"Simon?" She asked, "when did you get here? I thought you were going with Crime Sociere to-"

"This is all your fault!" Simon interrupted, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"W-What?" Ultear asked, unused to hearing Simon to furious. "What are you talking about? I didn't do anythi-!"

"Look down!" Simon told her. Frowning, Ultear did as she was told.

Her mind came to an abrupt halt as she stared at a pile of mangled corpses. She could make out her core group of friends, as well as her parents and a few others.

"I know you couldn't handle it," Simon said angrily.

"H-Huh?" Ultear asked.

"You were too weak to handle it!" Simon shouted, "we had to play around your weaknesses, and it got everyone killed! Are you happy now! This is your fault!"

"W-What?" Ultear asked. "I didn't do anything! I-I don't understand what's happening!"

"Of course you don't," Simon hissed, regarding her like she were an ant. "You've always been slow. Slower than the rest of us. All you do is weigh us down. I'm not surprised you let that kid die."

Ultear had no response to this.

"Ul?" A new voice asked. One that Ultear had no heard in a long time. Looking over her shoulder, she watched as a small girl came out of the shadows.

"...K-Keiko?" She asked weakly, unable to believe her eyes. The girl standing before her was undoubtedly Keiko. She had the same short-cut black hair, and the same big brown eyes. The same button-like nose, and the same pout lacing her lips. There was just one problem.

Half of her body was burnt horribly. The little girl raised her hand and stared at it, the burnt flesh cracking as she did.

"You did this," the girl said. "You let that monster destroy my home and my family."

"I-I..." Ultear tried, her voice failing. "I killed him! He's dead!"

"Does that bring me back?" Keiko asked. "I'm still dead. My parents are still dead. And they're blood will never leave your hands. You'll never escape the lives you took." Her parents materialised behind her, staring at her sadly.

"I-I tried my best..." Ultear whispered, her brain a storm of anger and sadness. Every beat of her heart sent pain through every fiber of her body. "I- wanted to help...I-I tried to save you...I..."

"You failed," Keiko said, "like always. Always costing people their lives."

"Always slowing down those stronger than you," Simon said.

"Always being beaten."

"Always making things harder."

"Always, always, always," Keiko sang the way she always used to. "You'll always weigh people down, Ultear. It's who you are."

"Always the burden," Simon agreed. "Never pulling her weight. Never."

"Never."

"Damn it all," Elise said, hands on her hips, "where did everybody go?" She had been right next to everybody literally a second ago, and now it was all her and the red smoke. This was dumb, where was that big demon? She needed to take him out already.

"Oho, look at who it is."

Elise's blood ran cold.

She looked over her shoulder slowly, and saw a gang of men standing behind her. She recognised them. She saw them all the time when she closed her eyes. The blonde one up front. The pudgy bald bastard. The two greasy beanpole-looking ones. She knew them.

"W-Where did you come from?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady. The blonde one laughed.

"We couldn't just let ya go, Elise," he said, "you're just too fine."

"Stay away from me," Elise warned, trying to fight off her anxiety attack. "I'll kick your ass."

"As if you could," the bald one said. "I remember last time we had you. Boy you kicked and screamed, but you weren't able to fight us off."

"Things were different then!" she shouted, spinning to face them. She activated her magic, and it rolled off of her in powerful waves. "I'm not starved or beaten this time! I'm older, stronger, faster! I'll kill all of you!"

"Sure you might," Beanpole-1 said, "but you'll never kill what we did to you back there."

"You'll always carry that with you," Beanpole-2 added. "Which means you'll always have us with you too!"

"Which is how we're here now!" Blondie said. "As long as you live, we'll be with you. That's just how it works."

Elise wanted to laugh them off. She wanted to run headlong into the fray like she always did and hit the enemy until they died, but she couldn't. She was frozen. She wasn't like she was back then, but she sure felt like she was. Every word they said burrowed into through her ears and into her brain, imprinting themselves there like some sort of horrific tattoo. She knew they were right. She was stuck with what had happened to her. She'd never escape it. Even know, practically two years after it had happened, her body shuttered with the muscle memory of the events.

But she refused to let it control her. She'd let it happen before. Not again.

"This works just fine for me," she spat out, forcing a grin onto her face. "I'm glad I'm stuck with you guys. Because that means I can pummel you all into the dirt as much as I want! I'm going to enjoy killing all of you!" Blondie laughed.

"You'll never kill us!" He shouted, "we'll always be with you!" Elise was horrified by seeing them, but she managed a snarl.

"Good," she said, "I hate it when they die. It's no fun wailing on a corpse!"

Keita was annoyed. Firstly, the red smog was annoying the hell out of him. He couldn't see anything, and the others had disappeared. That was bad. Second, he hadn't signed up to fight a Demon Lord. He was willing, obviously, but the fact that he was alone was unnerving him. Especially withing the smog.

His train of thought was interrupted by footsteps behind him, making him whirl around. He made a face.

"Nami?" He asked, confused. Why was his sister here? His sister had appeared in the smog, watching him with a stone-cold look on her face. When she looked at him, she looked cold.

"What?" She asked.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, "you weren't here before." Nami frowned at him.

"Good question," she said, "why am I at our parents funeral?" Keita's stomach dropped.

"What?" He asked. Nami gestured to their left, and Keita turned to look. There, side-by-side, were two coffins. They were flung open by some sort of force, revealing his parents there. "What is going on?" He asked weakly.

"We're saying goodbye, dumbass," she said, "so we can finally be rid of this fake family thing."

"Huh?" He asked, turning back to her. Nami was watching him indifferently.

"I hated how they made us play family after they got divorced," she said. "It was always so pretentious. I don't know you, you don't know me. We're as much family as you and Elise."

"N-Nami, what are you talking about?" He asked, "you've always been so friendly with me, I thought-"

"That I loved you?" Nami asked. "Sorry to disappoint, but you're basically a stranger to me. And honestly, you prefer it that way too, don't you? You always made it a hassle to talk to you about anything."

"I-I-" The coffins disappeared into the ground, and Nami turned around. "Nami!" He reached for his sister, but she disappeared in the fog. His fingers hissed through the empty air. He was all alone.

All alone.

"Am I interrupting?" Another voice asked. Keita turned to see Elise standing there, watching him.

"Elise!" He exclaimed, jogging up to her. "Nami was here, did you see that?! I think we're seeing things, that couldn't have been real and-"

"Stop being so friendly," Elise said, taking a step back in offence. "You're weirding me out."

"What?"

"We're not friends like this," she said. "You have no friends. I'm only here to be here for Nami."

"What are you talking about? I have friends. Michael. Juno, Kyoko, Rina-"

"Naming guild-members doesn't make you friends with them," Elise shot back. "All you do is push people away. No friends, no family. Go be alone somewhere else."

"Wha-" He watched Elise disappear into the fog too, leaving him alone again. As he looked around, he saw his other friends. Juno's back was to him. Kyoko was walking past with Blake and ignoring him. Rina regarded him like an ant as she walked away. He was alone.

"This isn't real," he hissed to himself as his chest throbbed painfully. "I'm not at my parents funeral, I was hunting a Demon Lord. This isn't real, it can't be!"

"Could you stop embarrassing yourself?" Another voice asked. Michael was standing in front of him, regarding him coldly as well.

"Michael," Keita said, "I-"

"You make it so hard to be guild mates," Michael hissed. "you do realise everyone just puts up with you, right? No one wants you around. Not even your own flesh and blood sister."

"That's not true!" Keita shouted, "we've been friends since were born! Our birthdays are in the same week! We've been a pair for as long as I can remember!"

"And I hated every second of it," Michael replied. "Being lumped together with a sad sack like you? The worst curse in the world. Everyone always assumes we're a pair, like our parents. Not in a million years. I just grin and bear it because everyone just assumes it. You should thank me for putting up with you."

"Stop lying!" Keita yelled, getting in Michael's face. The blonde's expression didn't change from mild annoyance. "I know we're friends! I know we are!"

"You have no friends," Michael said simply. "You're all alone. No one wants you, no one likes you. Go and hide in the shadows like you should, you sad excuse of a human."

Keita felt like a knife was being driven through his chest. He knew he was a bit awkward and shy sometimes, but he'd thought...Well, he thought that his friends looked past that. But did they just tolerate him? Was he a burden of those he cared about? Was he really just an annoyance? He had to be. No one liked quiet losers like him. Michael, Elise and Nami had spelled it out quite well.

This was who he was, through and through.

"Shut up!" Neptu shouted, "you aren't real!"

"We're as real as we've always been," his father said. Both his parents stood before him, regarding him quietly. His mother let out a strangled sound.

"How could you?" She asked, "I didn't fight that monster and savr you so you could run around killing people."

"He created you!" Neptu shouted as he turned his back to them, "my parents are dead!"

"And yet it hurts, doesn't it?" Drakhosz asked. Neptu glared as the Demon Lord appeared from the fog, a smirk on his face. "That's the most delicious part of psychological pain. It doesn't have to be real, and yet the nerves alight with pain all the same! Delectable."

"...Why?" Neptu demanded as Drakhosz moved to stand in between his parents, providing a stark contrast to their sad expressions with his gleeful smirk. "Why do you go around sowing such chaos? I never heard of Demon Lords causing as much destruction as you!"

"I suppose I am unique in that regard," Drakhosz said as he inspected his hand. "My brothers and sister prefer to cause less destruction then me. Only Mortavius gets as excited from bloodshed as I do. Not even Xisplate, the Demon of Death, seems to enjoy killing anymore."

"So why do you?!" Neptu shouted, "why do you need to hurt humans like this?!" Drakhosz made a face.

"Let me answer your question with a question." He said, "do you know why we Demon Lords have hosts?"

"Of course not!"

"No need for the hostility," Drakhosz laughed at that. "Regardless, the reason is quite simple. When we were charged with the Circles of Judgement thousands of years ago, our father decided that we would be unable to truly and accurately judge humans if we were like Gods. After all, when has a God ever truly understood humans?

"So, our father enforced this rule on us. We would take hosts in the human world, and from there we would have the human experience. We would see them live their lives, and from this we would gain the perspective needed to judge them fairly. There would be no fair judgements if a God was in charge. God's are absolute. But us, the 'Demon Lords' as you've coined us, we are different. We learned. We persevered. And we changed as we saw fit.

"I was not initially opposed to humanity, you know. We evolved through our experiences. I learned very quickly that humans can be foul creatures. Awful, lesser beings that would screw over those they love if it got them ahead. This is to say nothing of the hubris of Dragons. As far as I'm concerned, you all deserve the pain I bring you. Your existence itself, in my opinion, is a sin."

"How is that a fair judgement?!" Neptu demanded, "we aren't all evil!"

"Do not impose your less than thirty years of existence with the thousands I have seen," Drakhosz spat. "But you are right. It is but only my opinion. Some of the others, many of them in fact, are much more forgiving than I. They see you as flawed, struggling underdogs. And so the consensus often overwhelms my judgement on all but the worst sinners. That is to say, of course, that I often have to live with the fact that you humans do not receive proper punishment. So I suppose I dole it out my own way!"

Neptu was at a loss of words. What could he say to that?

"So let me get this straight," he said, "you're doing this because you hate humans?"

"Utterly and completely," Drakhosz replied.

"How could you say that even as you torture and break Eastyn's spirit? You've taken an innocent person, and the countless others who have hosted you, and broken them! The only evil one here is you! How could Anhkseram allow this?!"

"And yet Eastyn wishes to curse someone else with the burden of hosting me," Drakhosz replied. "He cares not for a baby's suffering, he only wishes to be relieved of his own. Selfish, if you ask me. And as for Anhkseram, well, let's just say this is much better than the alternative he used to deal with." Neptu had no idea what he meant by that, but anger began to well up inside of him.

"You're a hypocrite," Neptu spat, his power increasing drastically as tattoos covered his body. "You talk of fair judgement, but have written off my species as evil. Of all the Demons I have seen and faced, you are, without a doubt, the most evil and horrible being that has graced this world."

"Big talk from a guy who had written off every host of a demon as a blight of this world you say you care about so much," Drakhosz replied casually. "You are very deserving of all the pain I give you, Neptu Skylancer. How can you call me a hypocrite when you've sinned as much as you have?"

"I-"

"Have you forgotten your biggest sin?" Drakhosz asked, "you know the one. I was going to start with this one, but I wanted to see you myself , I know what you fear most, the thought that causes you the most pain. You worry over those you sentenced to death as a Demon Hunter, don't you?"

"Don't you dare-!"

"Would you like to know," Drakhosz asked as he traced a finger down his mothers cheek, "just how many innocent people who hosted a demon died because of you?"

"Shut up!"

"Because, as a guardian of the afterlife, I know how many. Myself and the others passed Judgement on all of them. We saw how they died. And it's your fault."

"It's your fault!" Neptu screamed, voice cracking, "because you took everything from me, I wanted to-!"

"Passing responsibility to someone else for your heinous actions?" Drakhosz asked. "How deliciously human of you. I'll tell you, Neptu Skylancer. Of the over a thousand people your Hunters sent to the grave, I'd say about seventy percent were innocent, and all died cursing your name. I knew I had heard your name before when we met earlier. You deserve every bit of this and more."

Neptu watched, as frozen as a statue, as countless faces and bodies materialised around them. Men, women, children, countless people. All of them had various burns and wounds on their bodies, ones inflicted by Holy Magic. And it was his fault.

"You claim humans are not evil?" Drakhosz asked, "I say anyone who employs psychos and does this to people deserves to rot in hell. Every one of their forgotten names is on your shoulders. They died because of you, Neptu. This is on you."

"On you," the crowd chanted. "On you."

The corpses rushed Neptu, enveloping him as he screamed. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe. All he could see were the faces and eyes of those he'd ordered to die. They all emptily stared at him, their expressions haunting him. Drakhosz was right. He deserved to die for this.

A roar of pain cut through the sound of the corpses overwhelming him and, in a flash, they all shimmered out of existence. This left Neptu on the ground, curled up in the fetal position. Lifting his head ever so slightly, he looked towards Drakhosz.

And saw Zynna had run him through with a silvery weapon, crafted by her magic. The spear had run through the Demon Lord's stomach, hissing with steam as it's point gleamed in the fog.

"Get up, brother!" Zynna shouted, "or I'll take all the credit for killing Drakhosz myself!"

Yeah Drakhosz is an interesting guy, huh? I hope you all enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!