The Way It Is

Back then when she first encountered this person she was only a weak young girl who had decided to visit one of the towns near the outskirts of her home by herself where she had met her first Hunter's. At the time she didn't have the strength or understanding of them to defend herself which almost resulted in her death. If not for some of the people that were there at the time she would have died. Thanks to their help she managed to run all the way back home without looking back. " It was one of the few times mother scolded me." After that though for years that image was stuck in her head as a nightmare.

"Oh, so you know what I am then."

"Of course I do, your kind has hunted us down for years, I'd have to be an idiot to not know. Damn Hunters."

She knew they had a different name they liked to call themselves but calling them Hunters tended to piss them off. "Celestial's is the name they love to refer to themselves as." Shrouded in good they thought they never did wrong but all they did was hunt anyone down who touched demonic energy. Human, Demon, Astral Beast or anything else out there in the world it didn't matter to them. If you used it you were evil and against the power they wielded most people who had some form of demonic energy inside them were severely weakened and it tended to be the worst against demon kind. "Like me." Just his presence alone had already sapped a lot of her strength.

"Ahh It's been a long time since I've been referred to as by that...I wonder if you're a part of that family then."

Not catching the ending of his little ramble Althea saw her cheap tactic didn't work but that was fine. Ever since that day she had learned ways to fight back against them in case she ever fought one again and that day had finally come once more. Straightening her back she made sure she held herself upright as she moved the two girls closer to her that were still burning and threw them behind her as well. She didn't care if they died but she needed something to try and cover up Xilo's energy and they were perfect for the job. Along with her massive energy she hoped it was enough if not she would have to protect him as well and she didn't know if she could against someone like him.

"I don't know what you're rambling on about but I do know I'm not easy to kill so you better come at me with everything you got or you're going to die."

"Die? To a demon? Doubtful but I respect your spirit girly. However I'm afraid your time comes to an end here."

Saying that he grabbed a small piece of paper from his pocket that he had made earlier and crushed it in his hand. Feeling pure power fill his body he faced the silver haired woman with confidence as another piece of paper came out before crushing it too. Watching the old man turn younger in an instant she wasn't to surprised as she waved her hand causing black flames to appear around the room. "Rejuvenation. Something that occurs when intaking pure energy from the world itself and while temporary it's something no one can replicate and their main way to fight." Remembering her mothers words she crushed her hand as the black flames that circled throughout the room exploded. She knew it wouldn't do much but she wanted to clear up the obstacles in her way while testing the water.

"Tsk."

Unfortunately besides uprooting some rats that were hiding around she didn't accomplish much of anything. "He even protected them too." Looking at the random humans that were gawking at them as a barrier surrounded them she sighed as another piece of paper appeared in his hand. "They mostly use techniques that are carved into objects of any kind to hold the World's power." There bodies couldn't do it themselves without breaking over long periods of times so they resorted to using mediums to hold it.

"Even now you're still trying to hurt innocent people. Haa...."

"Innocent? Are you really that blind to the world or an idiot. Well whatever."

Spawning a snake made of flame she flung it at the man and attacked him with it while she began to control the Astral Energy in the air. The Astral Energy in her body wouldn't do her any good since it was tainted with her Demonic energy so if she wanted to win she had to manipulate the pure energy first. "There are four types of known energy in this world. One is Astral Energy that most creatures use human or Astral Beast. Two is the World's power, a rare few use like Hunters. Three is the raw strength of your body and spirit that any can use and finally is Demonic Energy that only primarily demons use. However Demons also need Astral Energy too to balance themselves out. Without it we would all just go mad in the world." When she had heard about that from her mother one question had gotten stuck in her head at the time.

"Hey Mom, If that's the case why don't we just get rid of the Demonic Energy in our body?"

The words in that moment had been burned into her memory for her entire life.

"Honey, If that was possible I would have stopped being a demon long ago."

"But..."

"I know but unfortunately no matter how hard I've tried and experimented it's simply just a part of us. It's just the way things are and I've learned to accept that. In this life I've found many oddities that are a part of us but all demons who lost that energy over time became mad...Maybe we were just meant to have a little madness in us. Besides, it makes us unique, no?"

Sitting on her bed she remembered seeing her mother shed a few tears as she silently petted her head and smiled. At the time she never really understood what those words had meant but as she got older she had learned their meaning when she found an old journal that her mother kept. "Maybe you could never figure it out but maybe I can." With that she looked at the old man getting distracted as she filled her body with pure Astral Energy and purged the demonic energy inside her. "This won't work forever but I should be able to do something about him." Watching her flames disappear without another sound she felt her mind going blank as her distraction had bought her enough time.

"Die!"