Confrontation

After the demon told us her name, it took an awkward pause for her to speak again. She kind of expected a reaction by us, but no one had heard the name Meteora before.

"Why are you all looking so questioningly? Sheesh, kids these days. What do you even learn? Well I guess it has been a while since I made any contact with the human race so they might have forgotten about my existence. At least they probably hoped I faded away or something like that by now."

I didn't really get what she talked about, but her monologue gave us more time at least. She seemed like the typical villain who will tell you all their plans and unnecessarily waste time with it. Iris took the chance and bravely asked:

"So who are you? We can help you out in that regard, if you wish so."

"It doesn't matter, forget about it. Even if I told you about my background, humanity wouldn't be able to do much with it these days. Too much time has passed by now. Should've have been a couple of generations…"

"A couple of generations? Just how old are you?"

"Hey, you don't ask a lady about her age…"

By her playful way of answering questions I could tell she didn't take us serious at all. She even pouted while answering. This was all just a game to her. Hopefully Mr. Black can get us out of this.

"Anyway kids. Let's drop the charade. Why are you trying to waste time? What or who are you waiting for?"

Iris looked at her flabbergasted. We apparently had only been dancing in her palm all along. The demon knew perfectly well what our end goal was. Before Iris could answer, though, the demon continued speaking and her hands started to glow in a weird fashion. It probably had to be celestial energy, but I couldn't recall ever seeing it so densely before.

"Well, you don't need to answer. It's not like I don't know who you are waiting for. It's this guy, right? Your teacher, who watched over you in the shadows. Kinda creepy if you ask me though."

As she said that, her hands glowed brighter and a sort of portal opened up. She struck her right arm in there and pulled out something, dropping it on the ground.

I looked at it with shook. Now Mr. Black, our guardian, laid before our feet. His clothes were drenched in blood and his right arm, his sword hand was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully he still breathed, although rather weakly.

The demon had already taken care of him before approaching us, our ticket to get out of her didn't exist to begin with. Things looked hopeless. Tears started flowing from my cheeks, I could hardly control myself anymore. I tried to raise my voice to agree to the demons demands and go along with her, but before I could do so…

Iris pulled her sword out and shouted: "Run,… Run as fast as you can. I will buy you time. Don't look back. Just… run."

The others managed to get on their feet and hastily managed to get away from our current place. Julian grabbed the unconscious Althaia and Lander the wounded Mr. Black. As for me, I still stood there in shook. I couldn't believe what was happening to us.

But before I could think any further, Iris smacked me in the face and I finally woke up from my despair.

Despite that, I couldn't get myself to leave Iris behind. I tightly gripped the katana hanging from my waist, ready for battle. Although Iris didn't like what I was doing, she also didn't try to talk me out of it. She knew of course, she wouldn't stand the slightest chance against the enemy before us.

"Oh, so you want to fight me. So be it, show me what you've got."

Iris took the demons encouragement and charged at her. She showed a speed far surpassing what she ever achieved before and swung her giant claymore right at the unarmed enemy. But her sword didn't connect with its target; sparks flew all over the place.

The demon seemed to have used one of her portals, which was distorted to look like a spear, to parry Iris. These things were far more solid than they looked at a first glance. Another one of those aimed right at Iris neck, but it was intersected by my katana. I barely managed to keep up with those two, but I still saved Iris there. The demon really wanted to kill her.

"I wonder how long you can keep this form of yours up. You are certainly surpassing my expectations, you might even manage to temporarily transform into a full demon if you continue training yourself. A feat only a negligible amount of hybrids can achieve in their lifetime and you are quite close to it despite your young age. Someone must have taken care quite well of your training so far. You don't happen to have a demon father, who visits from time to time. Arus, that old bastard, has grown soft over the years, he surely spend a lot of time raising you. Well too bad, it won't help you much against me."

Iris looked at her flabbergasted. She certainly hadn't expect for her father's name to be mention right here. This time I was the one smacking her in the face, bringing her back to reality. Now wasn't the time to ask any more questions. The demon seemed to have taken the fight a bit more serious. That blow just now would have ripped Iris head of, if I hadn't parried it in time.

She looked me in the eyes, I could tell she feared the demon before us just as much as me. Despite that she pulled through all this time and tried her best to protect us. We now both knew hope was lost, we wouldn't be able to hold our ground for long against this enemy. A wonder had to happen now to safe us….