"Speech"
Thought
"Telepathy"
'Familiar bond'
Hello everyone, I've got another chapter, and something small to note. In the last chapter I made a mistake, it was Izumi whose screams temporarily overcame the sounds of battle, not Seishiro. That's the only thing I'm changing in the last chapter so you don't need to go back and reread it or anything. Also warning here. There will be death. And perhaps a small cliffhanger. IndigoisBlue beta read for me again with this chapter.
After Shiro pushed the pulpit back over the trapdoor, closing his sons into the secret room, he pushed his magic to his eyes, looking around to see the situation. He barely withheld a curse from years of practice upon the realization he couldn't see any living auras outside the room, other than the dragons above as he pulled out his shotgun. He rushed to a window and looked outside to the horde of undead, just in time to see a stream of fire from Pyro set a few dogs alight.
"How did they get in?" Shiro questioned the other exorcists while watching the window out of the corner of his eye.
Seishiro opened his window after laying a line of salt right behind the pane of glass, "A truck crashed into the gate. This isn't an ordinary horde, there's a high level demon in charge." He stuck his hand out the window summoning a small lizard, who was then possessed by a small parasitic fire demon of some kind after a brief chant.
Shiro grabbed a holy water grenade from his belt as he turned back to the window. He armed the grenade, before opening the window for a split second, and lobbing the grenade out. He brought his shotgun around and unloaded into the now soaked and smoking demons, the bullet holes allowing the holy water to get inside their bloodstream. The instant he was out of ammo, he threw a second grenade and slammed the window shut just as an injured necrotic fox lunged for the vulnerability in the monastery's wards.
The newly patched hole in said wards proceeded to attack the weaker demon, and in combination with the damage from the holy water and shotgun bullets, the demon succumbed to its wounds, but not before putting a crack in the window. Thankfully a few acid bombs from Arsenic was enough to keep any of the demons from noticing.
"Someone toss me some salt, this window is compromised." Maruta tossed a fist sized bag over but before Shiro could do anything Seishiro let out a strangled scream and collapsed, holding his left shoulder while the arm went limp. Shiro ran over letting a quick flash of magic through his eyes confirm his suspicions. "Take him to the middle of the room, he will be fine in a couple minutes. He is feeling Chrono's pain."
Shiro darts back to the cracked window, placing a line of salt to reinforce the wards there, before running over where Seishiro was defending. Shiro started chanting a mantra as he started blasting demons in their heads with his shotgun. He couldn't use any fatal verses in this mess, but he could use some that help slow down healing factors. His eyes widened and he ducked just as a large stone shot through the window. Poking his head back up he felt his blood run cold.
Limping its way over from the gates was a zombie. This particular specimen had a large shard of glass embedded in its skull. "Zombies" the paladin cried to his comrades, just then, Izumi let out an agonizing, shattered wail of pain and despair that knows no limits. A scream that Shiro himself had only heard twice before. The scream of a part of your soul being ripped away, torn jaggedly and unevenly from what is left of you. The scream of an individual whose familiar has fallen. Without hesitation Shiro turned, and ran over to his friend, slamming the butt of his shotgun into the man's jaw, knocking him unconscious.
He felt a brief twinge of regret, but knew it was the right decision, if Izumi remained in the battle, he would have allowed the demons to take his life. Izumi might not be able to live a normal life, but if he retired he could potentially find a new normal eventually. He dragged Izumi beside the pulpit, wondering what killed Arsenic. Shiro's eyes burned but he shook it off, now wasn't the time to grieve. Shiro ran back to the window, as he saw Maruta expelling a large volume of flame on the zombie, and noticed the glass was red hot, but yet to melt. He discarded the shotgun, it wasn't the ideal tool for the job, and ran over to the cupboard in the back, opening it and pulling out a rifle.
Immediately after he returned to the window he rested the barrel on the sill, took aim, inhaled, held it for a beat, before slowly exhaling, tracking his target. As his lungs ran empty, he pulled the trigger. There was a crack from the rifle, and the paladin used the recoil to help him adjust his aim to a bat, firing a second time. The bat fell a fraction of a second after the sound of shattering glass rang out. Looking back at the zombie revealed there was much more glass inside it's head than he had thought, for now there was a shard coming out of each eye. It made it a couple steps closer before finally falling. Shiro breathed a sigh of relief, and noted there were no demons left outside, and turned to do a head count.
Shiro let out a quiet sigh of relief, Seishiro was back up, and while pale, he had a pistol in his left hand and had clearly mostly recovered. Maruta had a cut on one cheek, but it was minor, and other than Izumi, all the other exorcists were visibly fine. Shiro closed his eyes to confirm his suspicions. 'Syl, how are things out there?'
'Chrono was hit by Astaroth. His front right leg is gone, decayed in an instant. I think I have a couple broken ribs, and Arsenic…he sacrificed himself to buy us time to regroup. He carried Astaroth as far as he could before throwing him. There is almost nothing left.' She replied, a soft tremble from grief in her thoughts, 'Astaroth will be back. His body looks intact, we don't know if he is possessing a boy or a corpse. What's more, Nautilus has used up all his water. He needs to get in melee range now.'
Shiro felt a moment of grief, before dismissing it. A demon king is here, we don't have time to mourn. Shiro frowned. Where is Mephisto, surely the destruction of the wards should have alerted the exorcists that things are...bad...no. The wards weren't destroyed by magic, so I'm not sure the S.O.S. signal would have gone out. So we are up against a demon king, we definitely don't have enough people to defend me as I chant the fatal verse. That's even assuming it would work in the first place.
He looked over his men, frowning in thought. With a sigh he accepted the facts, they would die today. He just hoped that they could save the boy being possessed before they succumbed to their injuries. "Everyone, gather your strength. We may fall today, but we fight for a righteous cause, the lives of three children. Two of which are our family. Naoya, you are with me. We will keep the demon busy with close quarters combat, and try to wear it down. Seishiro, are you feeling up to any summoning?"
The tamer pursed his lips considering. "I...believe so sir," he hesitantly replied.
The paladin shook his head. "Don't summon a demon until you are confident that your mental state will be able to keep it in check, if you get the chance, summon the guardian spirit. Everyone else, I want you to stay with your dragons, with you right there they may be able to withstand an attack a little better. Attack at long range, and do everything you can to slow him down. Let's go exorcise a demon king, and save his host." The priest walks out the front door, his heart and mind racing as he prepares to fulfill his duty. Hold the line, and slow down a demon king as long as humanly possible, until the King of Time takes notice of the clash.
Looking up he sees his dragon balanced on the roof of the monastery, as she watches out the ruined gates for any sign of the demon with her fangs bared, and wings spread to take flight. Looking over to the hanger, the Paladin's stomach churned as he saw the blackened decayed flesh at the end of the short stump of Chrono's leg. In his heart he knew that more than likely the dragon would succumb to his injuries if he didn't get treatment soon, but instead they were going to keep fighting, and the dragon's heart would beat faster, spreading the rot through its blood, and agitating the wound, making an already dangerous injury even worse.
He closed his eyes, and locked his remorse away into the box in his mind along with his grief.
He opened his eyes as the dragons howled out their challenge, and allowed his magic to flood into them, turning the world greyscale, and the auras of humans and demons alike to shine through and be seen. He felt a flash of relief at the human auras in nearby buildings, terrified but blessedly alive. Then he looked out the gate, and at the towering aura of malice death and rage. And hidden beneath it, faint but still there, the soul of a child, young, innocent, and horrified by what they are seeing. 'Syl, let the others know the boy is alive, we are cleared for weapons, but aim for non-vital areas only.'
The demon stalked through the gate, ignoring the flash of magic from the weakened wards that attempted to force him out. Shiro took a breath as it noticed him and sneered, and he saw murderous red flicker through its aura. "Naoya, I will go first, switch every thirty seconds until one of us dies or gets hit." The exorcist pulled out a pistol from inside his coat apprehensively. He started walking towards the king, watching his aura for the flicker of intent.
"Tell me human," the demon began surprising the paladin, "where is the young Prince? I can smell him, but I can't seem to locate exactly where he is."
Shiro smiled grimly, well that's good. It seems the enchantments Mephisto used really did work. My sons are safe. "Like I'd tell you. He may not be my blood, but he is my son, and I won't let you hurt him. If you take him to Gehenna he will no longer be able to choose his own destiny. Satan will use him as a weapon against humanity, if he doesn't just mold him into something he can possess."
Astaroth scowled, and Shiro saw a flicker of...doubt? He wasn't sure, it was quickly wiped away with determination and loyalty to his father, and then a flash of intent down the legs and up the arm. The King of Rot lunged forward at speeds the human eye almost couldn't track, and threw a punch at Shiro's face, who bent backwards and kicked at the king, which was deflected upwards. Shiro used the momentum to lift his other leg and step on Astaroth's face. He pushed off landing in a handstand, before springing to the side to dodge the king's axe kick, when he landed on his feet he pushed a punch slightly to the side while leaning the other way.
Man pointed down shooting the king's foot, and demonic magic flared protecting him, as he brought his knee up to strike the exorcist, only for him to step back. The demon stumbled as heat washed over his back, and the exorcist used the opportunity to take a couple more shots at the same foot. Astaroth snarled, turning and pointing at the fire dragon and magic flowed from his finger, ripping through its wing and causing the surrounding tissue to rapidly decay. The dragon roared in agony. Before the demon could move the water dragon slashed him with its talons as it flew past. The demon was knocked ten feet up and his foot was shot a few more times, before Sylvia slammed her tail down on him, making him crash to the ground and winding him. She turned her head and applied a point blank shriek filled with her magic, instilling a terror that overruled all of his colors. In that moment he was bathed in flame from the grounded fire dragon.
As the fear faded the color of blood overtook the demon's aura, and with that color, a ball of blindingly intense intent in his chest that was growing rapidly. "BACK," the Paladin called, voice filled with terror, as his dragon grabbed his outstretched arm.
"ENOUGH," the demon screamed in rage, and his magic flowed, decaying and eroding everything nearby. The walls crumbled, and the stone and dirt turned to sand. The flames died and even the air turned foul, but as this occurred the boy's body couldn't withstand the power, and his leg and foot grew sores as the clothes partially disintegrated.
The paladin's eyes watered in pain, even as he internally heaved a sigh of relief seeing that none of his comrades were caught in the attack that tore off the tip of his dragon's tail and rendered a third of the compound as well as the streets outside unfit for life. "SWITCH!"
Naoya, eyes wide with fear, blood pumping with adrenaline, charged forward and felt the sting in his lungs from the magic still in the air. He pumped magic into them so as to keep them healed more than they were destroyed, and gave the demon king a surprise right hook as he reoriented himself, fist landing on the demon's jaw, making it skid across the ground. Naoya pursued, hoping to keep the king off balance and managed to sweep his legs out from under him, and bring an axe kick down on his neck slamming the king to the earth, but only just avoided the retaliatory blast of magic from his hand that cut through the monastery.
Naoya felt a flash of anger, remembering his friend lying helpless inside, and let that anger fuel him, and charged forward, letting out a rapid flurry of punches, attempting to dodge each of the kings attacks, though each grazed him, causing bits of his skin to decay even as his mana protected him from the blunt force of the blow, though only just. He pumped magic to each new injury as it arose, allowing his berserker magic to heal it rapidly, but with each new injury he had to pull a bit more mana from his augmentation, and right as Shiro called out to switch he was just a fraction too slow, and the demon embedded its hand in his stomach. Naoya had a flash of intuition, grabbing the wrist and abandoning Mana Skin and augmentation, and put all his magic into regenerating the flesh around the demon's hand. Astaroth frowned as the flesh closed around his hand, and flexed his fingers.
Naoya screamed in pain, but held on. "NOW!"
Astaroth's eyes widened, and the demon started using his magic, Naoya screamed even as he regenerated the flesh around the king's hand. He did however get a grim sense of satisfaction from the demon king's confusion about why he wasn't dead yet. The warrior held on for the few seconds he could, life flashing before his eyes, watching As Chrono dove from the sky behind the king, landing with a heavy thud. Astaroth looked back to see the time dragons maw opening in a roar, and at last Naoya knew peace.
After Chrono roared, Pyro and Maruta both let out their flames, burning at the king, and his clothes without the magic of the demon protecting them cheerfully ignited, burning the demon along with the exorcists. Before Chrono could let another roar out, the demon kicked it in the jaw, making it bite the tip of its tongue off while his magic destroyed a dozen of his scales.
Nautilus roared in agony, and charged the demon, mentally screaming to any who could hear him "Killed-mine-killed-him-kill-you-kill-me!"
The dragon slammed his body into the demon, snatching him up in his jaws shaking him like a ragdoll, only for the demon to overpower the dragon's magical defenses and decay it's head into nothing, corpse and demon both falling to the earth. Astaroth hit the ground running, and charged the fire dragon, only to get his foot impaled by a pitchfork. Astaroth snarled, grabbing it, pulling it out of his foot and the ground, and threw it back at the scarecrow guardian spirit.
The pitchfork cut straight through its head, dispelling the demon, for the host was too damaged to support the demon. Then all Astaroth saw were blue flames.
And now for the review responses:*dodges thrown vegetables with a smirk*
ChaoticMercy: fairly certain I've already said this, but I've felt the demon kings were severely underwhelming. Rin may be half demon but facing off against demon kings from the start of the anime just didn't seem right. At least not if they are using more than a fraction of their strength. He is half human too, so I wanted the demon kings to be viewed more along the lines of forces of nature, sure you can slow them down with magic, and if you play it smart you may even be able to win, however playing it smart would have many civilian casualties for the battle would drag out.
ShadowWolf223: I don't know if you would call this pummeling considering most of the damage was self inflicted, though even his mana would take a decent amount of damage from the assault of the dragons.
Nina-Chan202: I suppose a small spoiler is in order, the deaths of Arsenic, Naoya, and Nautilus will not be in vain, Rin and Yukio will survive, everyone else involved, you will have to wait and see. Some developments could surprise you, and thank you for thanking me. I certainly wasn't expecting you to.