Crossing the Line (2)

Closing his eyes, Leon transformed. Up until this point, he had managed to abuse the environment and Herschel's blatant bloodlusted state to systematically break him down. This wouldn't work indefinitely. The longer he dragged this on, the more and more exposed the two of them were, and the more risky killing him would be.

'EVISCERATE HIM! KILL HIM! RIP HIS INNARDS OUT AND FORCE HIS MOTHER TO SWALLOW THEM-'

Beelzebub was now on the edge of his proverbial seat, egging Leon on. Now that he was transformed, an immense feeling of bloodlust was consuming him. The smell of blood, heightened heart rate, and the fact that Leon had wanted to kill Herschel even without all of this was too much.

Imps were the most animalistic of all Demons, and Leon's instincts got the better of him.

Bathump~~~~

A pulse of flame-like plasma flowed from Leon as his [Eternal Flame] grew excited at the oncoming hunt. His dangerous looking tail swayed side to side in anticipation, and his blackened claws twitched ever so slightly.

Opening his eyes, Leon's cross shaped pupils constricted to thin slits.

'W-what… what is that?'

Smile

"!!!"

All conditioned arrogance and confidence flew out of the window when Leon smiled again. It wasn't creepy, it was downright terrifying. 

Rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth dripped with saliva. It was as if a rabid tiger had been placed into the pen with a succulent pig, already pre-seasoned.

One step, two steps, three…

It wasn't long before Leon was the one madly dashing towards Herschel, clearly intent on finishing the job. Even in this state, Leon managed to shift his stance into the |Primeval| stance of RDAB.

This stance had similar effects to |Brute|, as it was also part of RDAB, just for claw and tail attacks. It was certainly more violent, however.

When mastered, the attacks thrown while in this stance would require next to no wind-up, allowing for maximum rate of attack without compromising power. Victims of this stance quickly find themselves in a blender of blood and bone.

Herschel raised the amount of electricity he emitted as far as he could, bracing for impact.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!"

Leon unleashed a violent flurry of claw and tail attacks. Every slash was followed by a tail lunge, sometimes complemented by a kick or another claw attack. Herschel could barely react to the speed and power Leon now had access to in his Demon form.

At one point, he managed to touch Leon, briefly shocking him, but he couldn't account for the fact that demons had an impressive healing factor even as imps. Thus, his personal hell continued with basically no reprieve.

Shash~ Splat~ Gash~

Leon threw multiple claw attacks a second, coming from above, feinting to a piercing attack from his tail that dug into Herschel's side. All over his body were fresh wounds, all gushing out copious amounts of blood.

"Gah!"

Herschel lunged in an attempt to make contact again, but Leon ducked under this hopeful attempt and tackled Herschel to the ground.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!!!"

Leon roared as he unleashed a flurry of slashes right at Herschel's neck. With great difficulty, he managed to minimize the damage. Leon, seeing this, dug his claws into Herschel's arms.

"FUCK!"

Using them as hand-holds, he picked Herschel up off the ground and slammed his head on the concrete. Once, twice, three, four times.

Blood was scattered all over the floor now, none of it Leons. His mouth opened "Haaahhh~"

SQUELCH~

A gut-wrenching sound echoed throughout the small enclosure as Leon's teeth dug into Herschel's neck. By now, Herschel had been thoroughly knocked out by having his skull smashed against the pavement, yet Leon couldn't stop himself.

In chunks, Herschel's body was ripped apart. All reasoning had fully gone from Leon as the smell of a "lesser being"'s blood assaulted his senses. For minutes on end, Leon ripped the corpse of Herschel Myers apart until he was just a pool of blood and flesh.

"Pant~ Pant~ Pant~ 

"Pant-BELCH~"

Leon threw up on the ground. In his crazed state, some flesh had made its way down his throat. This was enough to wake Leon up from his previous state.

'Ugh~ fuck…'

He stood up and shook his head. 'Fuck, this… transformation– Ugh~'

Clutching his head, Leon forced a migraine down and collected himself. 'I can't leave the body here like this. There's definitely DNA of me somewhere in that… puddle.'

Leon produced as large of an [Eternal Flame] as he could, and let it lose on any piece of DNA evidence that could lead back to him, including Herschel's body. 

In a few moments, Herschel Myers was no longer a potential Military Academy student– he was a pile of ash in the middle of the most crime ridden district in all of Tera 1.

Precisely controlling it to not burn his clothes, Leon attempted to rid himself of blood. It wasn't easy, and he definitely singed some hair and his clothes, but it was enough to not make it obvious. If someone looked close, or smelled him, they would be able to tell.

'It's good enough.'

And then… he left. Retracing his steps, Leon returned home. Io was not yet back from her work, thus he had free reign to wash off the remaining blood and completely destroy his clothes.

Plop~

Leon collapsed on his bed, exhausted mentally and physically. He had just had a fight to the death. He had just killed another human.

And he enjoyed it.

Involuntarily, Leon's lips twitched as if they had a mind of their own, attempting to smile that creepy smile he had involuntarily been smiling lately. He clenched his jaw to suppress this.

Leon had read about how some transformations can affect the personality of the user, though the evidence wasn't consequential. Anecdotally, he now believed the rumors.

What was more unsettling was how natural everything felt.

'Very good performance, Imp,' Beelzebub remarked. 'It seems we'll make a demon of you yet~ though, why did you destroy the body?!?'

Leon turned to face Beelzebub, 'What do you mean?'

'That was the perfect opportunity to consume his Strand!'

'That makes no sense. Strands die alongside the owner. After I killed him, his Strand went along with him.'

Shaking his head, Beelzebub corrected him, 'Silly Imp. You're not trying to extract the Strand for further use, you just need the mana it contains! Next time, don't make the same idiotic mistake.'

'Even if that is the case, I have no idea how I'd even consume it. Next time, I'll need some instruction.'

'Naturally.'

Slightly annoyed with himself, and Beelzebub for not mentioning such an important fact, Leon was unable to continue resting. So, for the rest of the day, he trained.

.

.

.

~In the middle of the night~

'Unexpected,' Beelzebub thought to himself. 'Utterly unexpected. 

"Had someone told me an Imp born of a lower race would get this far so quickly…'

He clenched his jaw, 'I'd say it was impossible. Even now, I can't fully grasp how this is possible! Even my Lord didn't learn this fast!'

In less than one week, Leon had gone from a kid with next to no combat nor magic experience to someone who could effectively use two stances in one of the most complex and difficult to learn martial art structures of the entire demon race– who were, in fact, known across the galaxy for their martial prowess!

At least before they were completely deleted from the milky way.

All the while, he had also managed to almost master all 66 hand seals as well as reach a degree of mastery over {Spark} where he could control 6 instances at once, up from 3 in the same day!

It was truly unprecedented.

Beelzebub could only imagine what would have happened had Leon been born a demon at the peak of their civilization. Could they have fended off the Galactic Federation back then? 'Sigh…

'It seems the Lord was correct again.'

.

.

.

Rrrring! Rrrrring!

Leon shot up out of his bed upon hearing his alarm. Thankfully, as an additional attachment to the email confirming his invitation, he was also given a complimentary ticket on the mainline metro that led directly to district 0. Had he been forced to use transportation within his means, he would have had to leave yesterday.

After freshening up, Leon made his way downstairs, seeing his aunt there making breakfast. 'I'll definitely miss this,' he thought.

"Leon, don't you dare leave without giving me a goodbye hug!" she said without taking her eyes off the food.

"I wouldn't dare."

Their final breakfast before Leon went off to the Military Academy was short, but entirely worth it.

"Please try not to get into trouble, Leon," Io said while giving him one last hug.

Leon chuckled, "I'll… try," he said.

"Sigh, I guess that's as good an answer I'll get. Now, off with you, or being late will be the least of your worries," she said, shaking her spatula at him.

Leon hurriedly did so, waving one last goodbye. 

The longest part of his journey would be the walk to the station since it was in 95. After he got on the train, it would cross the continent-sized city in less than an hour.

On his way there, he saw many familiar faces going to the same place. As he crossed into 95, the crowd became absolutely overwhelming. Nearly 5,000 16-17 year olds gathered at district 95's mainline station, all headed for the same place.

"Are you shitting me? Delayed? How could they delay the entrance tournament?"

'What's this?'

Leon and many others looked curiously at an older man looking at his watch. "I read it in the memo, father. They seem to be delaying it to accommodate the common folk."

"Preposterous!"

Barely stifling his laughter at these lower district rich-folk attempting to act noble, Leon checked the information for himself.

Strangely, he couldn't find anything. 'What memorandum is he going on about?'

It wasn't Leon's fault he couldn't find this information. It was supposed to be confidential, but high society is deeply ingrained with the World Military, so it's only natural they have access to info they shouldn't.

Especially if nearly all of them are, or used to be in the World Military themselves.

Content to wait and see, Leon boarded the train. It was packed to say the least. He had to walk through seven sections just to find a seat. 

"Is someone sitting there?" Leon asked a scrawny, timid looking guy sitting alone.

"U-u-uh… n-no?" he squeaked out like a hamster, looking around to see if Leon was messing with him.

"Thanks."

Ignoring the guy, Leon sat down. The train was set to leave only a few minutes from now, and the trip wouldn't last much longer– 'So why is he still bloody squirming?'

Just as Leon was about to get up and leave, a group of four guys surrounded their seats.

"I thought I told you to not get on this bus!"

Leon was stunned, flabbergasted, bamboozled. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked, cocking his head. 

"And it seems you've found yourself a friend, Lee," the apparent leader of the group said, mirroring Herschel's over exaggerated bully persona a little too closely. "And you, I'd recommend you not get involved with this useless coward."

Folding his arms, Leon asked "And why is that?"

"What else-"

"Wasn't asking you," Leon snapped. Looking towards the guy– "Lee"– next to him and raised an eyebrow.

Both Lee and the goober behind him had hilarious reactions. Lee seemed to almost collapse in on himself, while the other guy in addition to his goons let their jaws hit the floor.

Caving to the odd pressure Lee felt from Leon, he answered, "I-I'm… weak?"

Nodding, Leon turned back to the other guy, "And why the hell is that a reason for me not to sit next to him? Even more, why do you care if he goes to the academy or not? If he really is weak, he'll get kicked out within the week."

There were no flaws in Leon's logic, but both he and everyone around him knew that wasn't the point. 

"Take your seats, the train is departing," a robotic voice announced over the intercom. 

"You, what's your name!" the guy ordered while pointing at Leon. 

"-Why should I tell you?"

Glaring at him, then to Lee, the guy and his goons scurried away. If they didn't take their seats, they would get quite injured on the launch even if they were awakened.

"...why…"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you do that!" Lee said in a hushed tone. "Now they're gonna kill me!"

"Then kill them first," Leon responded, shocking Lee once again.

"If only it were that easy…"

"It depends on how far you want to take it. It could be quite easy, you know. Just plant explosives in their room, or poison them, etc."

"You- sigh–" Lee scratched the back of his neck, "you're very frustrating to talk to, you know that?"

Leon smiled, "My name's Leon, and yes, I know."

He extended a handshake, which Lee took, "You can call me Lee. Sigh, even though you probably gave future me a hard time, thanks for sticking up for me."

"No proble-"

"""Grrrrunnnnntttt"""

Everyone on the train collectively grunted as it absolutely launched forward. Despite how fast it accelerated initially, this wasn't even close to the top speed. 

Slowly but surely, the train broke the sound barrier, twice, thrice, nearly four times over. When the outside cities were practically a blob of grays meshed together, the cabins finally pressurized, returning them to a more comfortable state.

"They definitely do that intentionally," someone said in front of them. "Couldn't they have given us a countdown at the very least?"

'Couldn't agree more. Maybe that's a special thing they do to mess with new students.'

After fully recovering from that gut-wrenching launch and acceleration, Leon finally turned back to his seatmate. "So, Lee, if you really are 'weak', why'd you bother even going to the academy?" he asked.

Lee looked down at his hands. After fidgeting for a moment, he answered. "I… I had no choice. I'm the first person in my family to have an E-rank strand, so I had to try."

"Can't argue with that logic. That's likely a better reason to join than half the people on this train."

Lee smiled, inaudibly muttering "thanks" under his breath.

"Well Lee, it was nice talking to you. I'll be training for the remainder of the ride, so I'd like it if you didn't freak out, nor disturb me."

"Freak out…?"

Leon transformed. Thankfully, nobody apart from Lee was paying attention to Leon after the intense launch, so they didn't notice his tail (which he hid under his shirt), his claws (which weren't that big to begin with), nor his ears, though that was probably the first thing anyone would notice if they looked for more than a moment.

Thankfully, many of those around him began to use their watch to do… any number of things. All of which were irrelevant to Leon.

Ignoring Lee's shock, he began to practice internal mana and [Eternal Flame] control. Leon's biggest weakness now was his lack of experience being awakened, and while he was a fast learner (supernaturally so…), the amount of time was too short even for him. 

If he stopped utilizing his time to the fullest, he was in serious risk of not making the cut.