Battling the Shadow Demon

…

Few moments earlier…

Pio let herself lie down in the dirt. Her injuries were quite fatal, but not life threatening. Her neck was left a scar on it as a result of the demon's attempt to kill her. But with the demon unexpectedly chose to escape instead of killing her, Pio may rest a bit.

"Why…?" she wondered. "That demon suddenly got scared and run away. Why did that happen? Wah! Must've been caused by me saying something about sister," she added slightly in excitement.

"…If only sister was here… that demon wouldn't want to hurt me. Sister is scary when angry. That demon must've felt how scary it is when you're angry, sis."

Her petite body could at last relax. The fight before was a bit over the top for her. Staring at the night sky decorated with stars quickly calmed her tense nerves. She let out a relieving breath and smiled. In a quiet voice, she spoke to herself:

"Sister… you know? Pio can finally fight a scary demon. Aily and the others believed in Pio's strength. Just like sister believing Pio. It made me happy, sister."

She tried to reach the sky with her right hand, trying to grasp the stars as they twinkle in that warring night. Pio mumbled, "Sister, where are you right now…?" she asked to nobody.

"Pio… Pio wants to see you again…"

Shortly, a faint memory passed through her mind. Without her realizing it, a few drops of tears fell off her bruised cheeks.

"I… I miss you, sister. If only you were here with me…"

…

..

.

"DRAGONIA!!!"

The shadow demon, Toma Zil shouted as loud as he could, screaming angrily at his most hated people. His demonic voice is so loud that it could rupture eardrums.

Despite the ire that flows within him, he is yet to realize who was responsible behind the holy magic effect on his body. Toma has just cut off his legs to stop the endless pain caused by it. He never thought of doing something so crazy because he's concerned of being unable to regrow his legs back, but luckily for him, it allowed him to regenerate his lower part of his body quicker.

"Huh, I wonder why you are on the run now. Not so long ago, I was on the run, but even that I was not this dramatic. Well, Zeugen might be much more dramatic, because he himself is a freaking typhoon of drama." Ognist stated in a joking voice.

The demon feels insulted by Ognist's words, "How dare you?! I was not running, I—"

Toma halted his voice instantly. He asked himself afterwards, "I am… running away? How preposterous! I am one of the demon generals. I won't be fleeing from mere mortals weaker than I am!"

Behind the demon, Scias stands readily with his sword in hand ready to slash whenever he sees fit. He thinks, "Pio must've done something that forced him to flee. She was supposed to stay put with the demon until now so that we may kill him unprecedentedly. But things won't always go to plan, would it? It wrecked our initial plan to kill the demon instantly. Well it won't be a big of a deal, though. The real problem is… what Pio had with her that caused this demon to run in fear?"

"…Well put that aside for now, because there is a demon that we must exterminate."

The demon rants uncontrollably, "You damned dragonian. How dare you come back?"

"What, you miss me?" Ognist asked jokingly.

"You escape from me, trying to bring in more casualties with you so that you may not suffer alone," so said the demon general.

"What kind of thinking is that? I did run away from you because I am not foolish to force my old arse to fight you. I am not one of those kinds of people who could break their limit when faced with a powerful opponent. If I can't face my enemy alone, then I would find someone to help me out. If none available, then so be it. Know when to run and know when to fight, that's how I battle my opponents."

Toma cringed upon hearing Ognist's words. Shortly, he noticed something within Ognist's body, "Is that so? Returning to the battlefield seemingly unprepared is one stupidity of yours."

"Look at you," he pointed to Ognist. "The curse I've stilled upon you weren't gone yet. That alone solidified my victory over you, dragonian."

Ognist chuckled once and replies, "Sure, you will try that."

"I will make you suffer before you die. To you, too, foolish human! You kept on appearing everywhere, ambushing me with your bright sword every time we crossed paths. You will too suffer the same fate!"

Scias draws his sword a bit to the back and replied, "Bring it. Demons like you don't have a place in the world of Gaia. All of you demons were extinct. The era of demon lords has ended aeons ago! In fact, with you appearing again on our lands will only repeat what we had done in the past.

'Kill all demons who stir up chaos.' Of course, we w-will reenact that line even in this merged world."

Toma gets silenced by Scias words. After a short pause, he mutters, "How… dare you… I am a demon general… I will not be defeated by the likes of you! How dare you say that…?"

"How… dare you?"

"How dare you?!"

"HOW DARE YOU?!"

"HOW. DARE. YOU?!!!!"

Toma enrages crazily. Demonic aura gathers around him. They were visible because of the flame wall casted by Ognist previously. That aura of the demon enlarges greatly, showing that the demon general opted to fight with all of his might.

Toma Zil lost his intention of trying to run away. It is shrouded by his resentful thoughts. In front of him now stands his most feared and hated opponent, in which if he did not kill, he will never have a place to go to next. Meanwhile, in front of Ognist and Scias, stands one of the demon generals. If the demon general was not killed now, then their lives and the others will forfeit.

It is a battle that each side must win against another. But only one may secure that position.

"Fine then…" the demon gazes upon Scias, marking him as his first target to eliminate. He takes the same stance as before and starts his unique ability.

"Demon Aspect – Accursio Anathema"

Then, the demon launches towards Scias with fierceness. His speed is high enough to make it hard for anyone to see, but not for Scias, however. He saw through his movements. And when Toma gets close enough to him, he had decided what he will execute.

The demon sends a flurry of punches toward Scias, but unbelievably, Scias dodged most of Toma's strike. "He's… fast!" he grunted.

"But still…!"

Scias got tricked by Toma's feint movement and he received a direct hit to his shoulder. He is sent off back a few meters but he did not fell off his feet. Surprisingly, however, Scias does not picture any sign of getting harmed.

"With this… that human is done for. A single direct hit will half his stats and he will be far weaker than ever!"

But suddenly, Scias activates one of his sword skills.

"Sword Art – Ascending Light"

In a quick motion, Scias charges in and swings his sword upwards in an arc, tearing the shadow form of the demon general. Toma is incredibly shocked to see his capabilities unchanged even after receiving a direct hit from [Accursio Anathema]. For Toma, however, the injury he just received is nothing more than a dent that can be instantly recovered. He quickly regenerated his torn skin and begins to attack again.

But before he could launch his attack, steps of metal boots rolling fast were heard and shortly, a flaming sword lands from above Toma. The shadow demon quickly forms a shield with his shadow hands and protected him from being burned. When Ognist finishes his attack, Toma quickly lands a counterattack and punched him directly to the stomach.

Shockingly, Ognist is unmoved even after receiving a hard blow. Instead, Toma's arm is evaporating as if soot flying into the sky.

"What the—

Not even completely assessed his situation, Scias attacks again in combo with the fire dragonian. Both of them send relentless slashes of their weapon unto the demon general. Toma cared little for what will happen next and proceeded to regenerate his arm back and struck Scias with his regenerated fist and Ognist with his foot.

Shortly, layers of green magic appeared coating the human and the dragonian. "T-That's… what the heck is that?"

He counted the amount of those magical layers, "Five… six… seven… SEVEN?! There are seven barriers stacking up around their body? How does that even possible? Where did they get such protection?"

Ognist taunts, "Ho? So you realized it, eh? These magical barriers were the creation of our friend. If you think we returned here unprepared… then you're terribly wrong."

"A single barrier you hit could only half the effects of the barrier, but not our body. That way, your abilities that require a successful hit won't affect us anymore!"

Toma rumbles in seething fury. "Such feat is impossible to have!"

He strikes again and harder towards Scias in focus. But Scias meticulously avoided every of his punches. But when Toma renews his ability, Scias was late to move, allowing Toma to land hits at him. Flurry of punches barrage the tall human. Toma is getting desperate on defeating his foes.

Instead of Scias that gets damaged, Toma lost both of his arms. They're evaporated into the sky just like earlier. He failed to cause any damage to Scias, only breaking several barriers around him.

"W-What the heck—

"My turn,"

Beneath Scias' boots emerges a small magical circle that does not belong to any of the eight elements of the world. That magic circle appeared shortly before vanishing. And then, Scias casts.

"Instantaneous Art – Katzbalger"

Scias swings his sword nine times in a row in blinding speed. Nine bright slashes taking the form of tiger claws are seen visible in midair charging at the demon general almost instantly. Toma had no time to react. He let himself get sliced and diced by Scias' sword skill, leaving him only several parts of his body.

But the battle was not over yet. Toma isn't giving up and he regenerated faster this time. He reconnected every piece of his cut off body together and reformed into his shadow form once again. But soon, the same painful state ache him badly as if he were exposed to holy magic.

"Damn you…! So you're the one who has the… uuuuurgh…! I will kill you… I will KILL YOU!"

And when he finished regenerating and going to strike again, Ognist has prepared a magical attack from behind.

"Watch out, Mister Scias!"

Ognist then casts:

"Massive Combustion"

A large ball of fire is generated from the tips of the dragonian's fingers. It is unleashed directly at Toma. In its trajectory, it devours, burns, and destroys literally anything in its path and grows larger. Toma embraces upon it, trying to stop it head on.

Ognist predicted this and detonated the growing ball of fire, causing a massive explosion that shrouds a large area with fire. Scias, however, is not so affected because he has resistance to fire magic.

That explosion left the demon general burning to crisps. Toma attempts to regenerate but suddenly, he felt something was amiss in his body. His body fails to recover from injury. Most of his body parts are evaporating into the air.

His regeneration system is failing.

"This… is…! Huh—?!"

Scias and Ognist charges in, together they struck a combo at the demon general.

"Instantaneous Art – Cross Strike"

"Fire Sword Art – Ascending Fireblaze"

Toma felt incredibly desperate and fears that he's at his death's door.

"I can't regenerate… I can't recover my body… I can't react to this attack… I… I will… I will lose…!"

The shadow demon gets intensely sliced by numerous amounts of slashes sent by Ognist and Scias. Steel katana tears through the shadow body diagonally from two directions in a row, forming a cross shape slash that chopped off the blackness of the shadow demon. Another strike coming from Ognist is his magical sword slashing upwards from below while heated up in high temperature and decorated with intense fire magic, cutting the demon from his crotch upwards past his head, slicing him into half.

Every part of his body is disfigured. Each has been cut into small and tiny pieces. His limbs are not an exception, even his head, too.

…But he's not dead yet.

"This… is not the end for me. Not… yet…"