CHAPTER EIGHT***MORTAL REALM***JUDGEMENT

Despite the fact that the size of Batister’s body appeared to be twice as huge as that of Todu when he confronted him, Todu was unfazed and kept his calm look at Batister who appeared to be wildly out of his senses. Having been made to kneel down before the mercenaries by Redmond, I started to feel that things would soon began to go out of control the very minute I saw Todu take a step back to avoid being overwhelmed by the boorish Batister.

“Keep your mouth shut and don’t say a damn thing.” Batister barked and glared at me. I didn’t flinch when his eyes met mine entirely because I was still yet to understand human reactions which still appeared strange to me. Added to my blunt expression even in the face of being smashed to pieces by Batister, I kept wondering why some of the mercenaries were afraid of me and why they all had the intuition that I had been possessed by a demon. I did not blame them for thinking this way since I knew inside of me that I had been trapped inside the body of human whom Ayden and Ashtaroth had believed to have died from their attack.

Before I could think of what to say to defend myself, Batister walked close to me and drew out his huge double-edged curved sword from its scabbard. He aimed the sword at my face and threatened me with the sword but I was unfazed and was still lost in thought wondering what really was happening around me. I had the notion that I was in the mortal realm and was wondering if what was happening around me was real or not. Not to mention I was starting to comprehend their manner of speech. Their words was so easier for me to understand as though I was like them but I know for a fact that a whole part of me was able to comprehend what was happening because of the human body I had come to become trapped in. I knew I sensed fear when I saw Batister’s sword aiming at my face. His goal was to see how I would react and I slowly came to realize that was his intention. He was curious to know if I would react in a demonic way and his compeers were curious as well especially Ashtaroth whose silence was more profound than the others.

I started to feel the sense of fear but Ironically, I was not scared but rather, I was curious to know if the feeling of fear was as a result of human instincts. I looked at Batister whose huge presence and curved sword was about to pass on a deadly sentence on me. Everyone was silently waiting for something to happen but nothing happened. I remained unfazed even when the tip of his sword was barely touching my forehead.

“Most weaklings like you would tremble in fear at the sight of this sword pointing to at their face but you—” Batister said and took a slight pause when he hesitated. Then he looked around at everyone only to realize that they were also curious to know what his plans with me are in the absence of their leader.

“But you….” He stuttered, “You really are a demon!!” He yelled at the top of his voice to the point that my ears could bleed.

“I had doubts that you really were a demon but I see now that you are really possessed.” He said after cooling his temper. No one challenged him after he was about yielding his sword but little did we know that he had other intentions.

“I’d love to leave you alone but I really fight that demon inside of you. Maybe you would be more interesting than all these weaklings standing around me especially Ayden.” Batister said out of the blue.

“Weakling?! How can you say that in front of the new recruits?! Damn you knucklehead, I aren’t no weakling!!” Ayden yelled in anger in such a distressful manner than I had witnessed him reacted but I was still wondering if I was still dreaming or something I had yet to figured out why I had ended up in the human realm was still bothering my mind.

“Me Neither!” Todu retorted harshly.

“Batister, you really are proud of your strength but we both know that you are no match for me in close combat.” Ayden said still upset as ever.

“You’d be right if I was still at the same level as I was two months ago before you all left for the raid but currently…” Batister replied and stared with hot-bloodshot eyes at Ayden was somewhat terrified with the way he peered at him, “But I have increased my Ki level tenfold as a result of my hard training and have heighten the flow of chi around which have increased my mana powers profoundly.” Batister explained smiling maliciously. The others including Ashtaroth were confused at his words and Ayden wanted to rebuke him for telling him something so audacious but he was taken aback when he sensed some strange power streaming forth from Batister. I sensed it was as well and gasped out in fear in a sort of way that everyone noticed that.

“That power—" I muttered in fear. It was the first time I realized that I had the power of speech like any human and was terrified at the fact that I instinctively picked out Batister’s hidden powers within his body.

“That’s right. You can feel it too.” He said aiming his sword further at my face. Ayden felt it as well and so did the strongest in the mercenaries.

“This huge pressure presence built inside of this man.” Ayden said to himself in deep thought. “He must have been training in secret in our absence while Tomaru was away and while we were raiding those merchants in order to increase our bounties.” Ayden thought and felt insignificant in Batister presence.

“In order to slay a demon, one needs tremendous amount of power to do so and that’s why I am showing my true powers.” Batister explained triumphantly. “I wouldn’t have done so if this demon possessed human had reacted to my sword.” He said and retracted his sword away from my face. I started pondering on the fact that this kind of human possessed such great powers which might be equivalent to those first and second level Elvanians. Back at my sect, Elvanians with the lowest ranking powers would easily defeat any mortal but for the likes of this mortal man called Batister who was about passing judgement on me, they would have been defeated by this man though compare to his inner mana powers, he would likely be equivalent in strength to a fourth level Elvanian. It caught me as a great deal of surprise that some humans possess this kind of strength in the real world and wondered if truly my presence here in the mortal realm was as a result of someone’s plan for me being reincarnated in the human world. During my years as an Elvanian warrior, I had heard about traitors hiding in the human realm as reincarnated human beings who retains their physical form after transforming into the land of mortal beings. Likewise I had heard that the humans had taken notice of this and regarded these traitors as demons sent to ruin their lives since they possess superior powers much more than a lot of fragile humans.

As a result of this discovery, throughout the centuries till now, they had formed many special squads of powerful humans who had superhuman abilities compared to the demons that entered their world to stop them from encroaching into their worlds. Batister possibly these mercenaries standing around me must have some history to connected to these group of powerful humans that had lived in their realm for centuries and for the first time, I was awed at such a discovery and wanted to know it was possible for me to restore my powers in the realm of mortals in order for me to return to Elvanian. Maybe they knew something about transporting to realms since I heard from the Elvanians stoics and scholars that they have centers of learning scattered in the civilizations within their realm. So I thought after witnessing Batister’s hidden strength but before I could do anything to express my feelings, Batister said something that I would never forget.

“Since Tomaru is absent, I believe it is right that we exorcise this demon and send it back to wherever it came from before it can harm anyone of us and more importantly, to avoid the authorities from arresting us for harboring a demon.” Batister said and lifted his sword up to slice me to shreds. Like the others, I sensed him pouring his mana powers into the sword in a strange kind of technique that I could hardly grasp.

“And to do this, you need your mana powers, right?” Ayden asked curiously,

“Exactly. It is no news to anyone that I used to be a demon hunter just like Tomaru was before he gathered us together and it is not surprising that I have to do this to exorcise this creature before the collector gets here any minute from now.” Batister said infusing more mana into his sword.

“Batister, wait—” Ayden said trying to stop him.

“No, Ayden. This demon has been judged and found guilty of entering into our world to cause harm. Now that he hasn’t showed his real demonic side, we have time to kill him and we will regret it if we let him go.” Batister said with all seriousness written boldly on his face and peered at Ayden who felt too dumbstruck to speak since he knew Batister was telling the truth. The others felt Batister was saying the truth and did not speak.

“Batister’s right. It’s best we get rid of measly problems before it can complicate matters.” It was Redmond who spoke and the others including Todu nodded in agreement.

“Then I guess we better hurry and get it over it.” Todu said wanting to leave but Ashtaroth stopped him.

“If you want Batister to kill the demon, it’s better if you stay and watch instead of running to avoid being punished by Tomaru.” Ashtaroth said but Todu was obstinate.

“Fine. I admit I was leaving to avoid being involved in this mess of things but since you are taking Ayden side, why don’t both of you stop Batister?” Todu asked curiously, “You can’t because you two together are not as powerful as he is combine.” Then Todu walked away and left the house right before everyone’s eyes.

“You know what I am saying is the truth, right?” Batister said to Ayden. “I know you are really against killing him because of your old friendship with Kimura but Kimura’s gone and this demon is not understanding like Kimura.” Batister said getting ready to pass the sentence after explaining things to Ayden.