The cave was eerily quiet as we followed the path towards where the demons had fled. The sense of unease we had felt was becoming stronger, but I still kept my resolve firm as we kept walking. I couldn't afford to make any mistakes, or to doubt myself at a time like this. I needed to be strong to protect the ones I cared about. Still, the whole thing was fucking creepy. The demonic mana in the air was becoming stronger the further we went down this path, and something told me there would be more to worry about than another lesser demon.
"Oh God... you poor things." Rya said in a soft voice, and I moved to step up behind her, to see what she was looking at. I wished I hadn't.
"How awful..." Nadia said, turning away from the scene.
Liz just began gagging, and had to move off to the side. She was about to lose her lunch.
Rya had said that a couple was reported to be dead, burned to a crisp, while the rest fled. We had just stumbled upon those two unlucky souls, and the whole thing made my chest hurt something fierce. They were burned to the bone, so it was impossible for us to tell them apart by gender, and I don't even think any of us knew the names of either of these two.
"These fucking demons..." I growled under my breath.
I had heard these two were in college, and that they were together. Their lives shouldn't have been cut so short like this. I will admit that I don't think people should be exploring random caves like this in the middle of bumfuck Egypt, but I also don't think they deserved to die because of their sense of exploration. They were just regular people... how were they to know this cave was full of demons? Still, this whole scene was odd.
"How did they get so far into the cave?"
Rya had asked the question that was currently playing through my mind. We were attacked almost immediately after entering this place, but these people would have had to have spent at least 20 minutes exploring and navigating through the cave to make it this far, and that's without me even knowing what was down the other paths we didn't take. If they had explored the whole thing, it could have been hours for all I knew.
Liz came back to us then, and I turned to her upon feeling the sadness pulsing through our bond. She had tears in her eyes as she gazed at the burnt skeletons that were once people.
"It's so sad. That has to be the guy on top. He has his arms around the bottom person. He was trying to protect her..." She said, and I walked over to her and wrapped her in a hug as light sniffles eacaped her.
Glancing over at the scene, she had to be right. That's what I saw too, and that fueled my drive to eradicate these demons even more.
"They'll never do this again." I said, my voice rumbling in the tight quarters surrounding us. I didn't even know these people, but I felt for them all the same. I would make sure they could rest in peace.
"This place fucking sucks." Nadia said in a sad tone, and I couldn't agree more with her spot on assessment.
"We'll make sure to gather their remains before we leave this place. They both deserve better than this." Rya said, and the rest of us nodded in agreement.
I released Liz and she smiled at me, although it seemed a little forced due to the circumstances. We moved on shortly afterwards, yet my mind was going through a lot right now. I know that people die all the time, and in terrible ways, but this stood out to me. Those two were killed by demons, paranormal creatures that they had no idea even existed. How could anyone foresee being killed by the denizens of hell?
The demonic mana was getting so strong that weight bearing down on us would have been almost unbearable for everyone else. Rya seemed fine, although she would grimace every now and then from apparent strain. My girls were fine due to our bond, although their sense of uneasiness was returning. I did my best to send reassuring thoughts to them.
The uneasy feeling was there for me, but I was able to push it aside pretty well now, which I assumed was the reason they were keeping calm as well. I still wanted to tell them to just leave and let me handle it, although they could sense that's exactly what I wanted to do, and they were very unhappy with that idea. I also discovered that both of them had already mastered the art of a glare through the bond.
"How the fuck?" I thought, and then I gulped when the feeling intensified.
Despite that though, I did feel warmth inside of me at that. They refused to leave me even during the worst circumstances, and that really spoke volumes to me. They wouldn't leave Rya either, although trying to talk her out of this would probably go even more poorly than trying to talk them out of it.
My thoughts on that matter halted as the tunnel started to open up, with a large opening just ahead of us. I jogged towards the front, placing myself side to side with Rya.
"Girls, please stay back." I said, noticing how much stronger the presence of the demons was.
The mana I felt from that lesser demon seemed like a flickering candle in the wind compared to this. My girls nodded, especially considering the feeling left them a bit unsettled. I was too, but mainly for them. They had handled themselves pretty well, but they had been fighting what was essentially the trash mobs. However, something told me that their help would be valuable, especially Liz's healing. I steeled myself as I walked out into the next open area.
It was actually not much bigger then the first area, and despite the area be cleared of large rocks and debris, it felt more cramped due to the suffocating feeling. A visible red mist was present throughout the space, almost like a translucent blood red fog. Rya actually stumbled when she stepped through, and I reached over to steady her.
"You all right?" I asked, and she just patted my arm.
"I think so. The transition was just unexpected. I'll be fine." She said, and stood straight again after a moment.
My girls had just stepped through, and while the bond had protected them from the worst of it, they still went a little pale from the sheer feeling of the place alone. It truly was the negative feeling I'd ever felt before, like actually stepping through the gates of hell. I clenched my fists. We had to put an end to this. Leaving something like this alone just felt... unacceptable. I could see the faint outlines of two large... somethings up ahead, but the mist actually did a good job of obscuring whatever the hell they were.
"Be careful. Something is up ahead. Rya, whatever is up ahead feels worse than even that lesser demon. I don't think I need to tell you what to do." I said, and everyone else nodded, and Rya patted my back before stepping back.
I took the lead, with Rya backing up to walk ahead of the girls. We all could see mana, so I didn't need to tell anyone that whatever was ahead was even stronger than the lesser demon. That was a job for me to take care of, so her best bet was the protect the girls while I did that. I would keep the stronger fuckers busy while Rya kept them safe from any of the smaller ones in case they came back.
Once we got within range, I had to repress a shutter at the enemies before us. Both of them looked similar, yet one was taller and more muscular, while the other was a lean and athletic looking creature, and it had fucking mounds where tits would be on a woman. A male and a female it would seem. If I were to try to truly describe them, they were kinda like a shade, or a shadow in their appearance, but in a physical form.
They were both black as the goddamn void, and really had no defining features on their bodies besides the sharp curved horns on their heads and the blood red eyes that glowed with malice. They had long claws on the ends of their fingers and toes, and their auras were that same red and black, but much stronger than anything else in here. Almost every part of them ended in sharp angular points, like their faces and chin.
"That's fucking wonderful." I muttered, and I was just praying to fucking god that I could beat these things.
Behind these ugly fuckers, I saw what looked like orbs of that black and red mana gathering in a specific point, and feeling of that mana did not give me a good feeling. I would have to take these assholes out quick, and hope to fuck that it would be enough to stop whatever the hell that was.
"SID! ABOVE!" Rya shouted at me, and that caused me to turn my head up sharply.
"Fuck me." I said, counting at least 10 of those spiders falling from the ceiling directly towards me.
I threw my hands up out of reflex, and dozens of arks of electricity surged from my hands and shot upwards. The spider demons lost control of their falls, hitting the ground in twitching and convulsing messes. I sent an even larger surge of electricity into all of them, and most of the fuckers suddenly popped like zits.
"Jesus." I said, sighing in relief. I really fucking hated spiders.
I suddenly felt alarm from the bond.
"Girls! Stay back!" I heard Rya shout at the same time.
I spun around to see the girls being surrounded on all sides by even more demons. All of the ones that ran away seemed to be bolstered once again by these two fuckers that were in front of me. The girls needed me goddamnit! Rya saw me looking their way and shook her head and smirked at me.
"Don't worry, Sid! I'll handle this! You take care of them!" She shouted at me, punctuating that by punching two wolves and one goat in their faces in quick succession, killing them almost instantly.
Nadia summoned two illusions in a large group of them, and the demons actually started attacking them, and many of them were too fucking stupid to figure out that they were real, as they couldn't hit any of them. She also burned a few spiders and a couple of wolves to a crisp. The fact that her fox fire could burn demons was actually kinda fucking nuts. Liz stayed back, and sent healing to Rya, who was taking a few cuts and scrapes here and there.
"Right. They can all handle themselves. They are all capable." I said, and the confidence I felt from my girls, Nadia especially as she kept roasting demons, eased a lot of the concern I felt.
I turned back to the demons, who were still just standing there. I had been paying attention to them with my senses the whole time just in case they tried something, but these fucking weird ass things seemed to find something fun about just standing there and staring at us. That lesser demon did the same thing, but these fuckers had a leg up on that dude in the creepy department.
"You guys gonna fight or just stare?" I asked, readying myself by coating my limbs in my power.
They both actually did something different, as they both turned to look at each other. Then, some of the most inhuman and most disturbing sounds I'd ever fucking heard in my life came from the mouths that I now found they had. The fuckers had what amounted to sharp spikes for teeth. These things just got worse. Then, the larger demon turned me, and what came out of its mouth, disturbing as it was, I found I could understand.
"You... not human... not mortal..." It said, and I just blinked rapidly.
"Uh... I beg your parden?" I asked, stunned.
I should have figured that some of these demons would know how to speak, but it just kinda didn't occur to me. Plus, what they were saying to me. The female demon spoke next, and while there was a femininity to its voice, it still reminded me of nails on a chalkboard as it from the words.
"Never seen... this mana... unsure what you are." That one said, sounding confused.
Well, isn't that just lovely? Two talking demons were standing there trying to figure out stuff what I was. I honestly wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not that they didn't know. Hell, no one knew apparently, and these creepy fucks were no different. It didn't matter right now though. I needed to get rid of these two sooner rather than later. I addressed them both.
"How about you two come and find out what I am. Unless you're too afraid, that is." I said, feeling the King making its way to the surface of my mind.
I wasn't sure if taunting these things was the best idea, but I was sick of these things just standing there not doing anything. I felt like they weren't taking me seriously, and that was a fucking mistake I would make them regret. It seemed to work, as both demons narrowed their eyes at me. Then, both of the demons claws erupted with hell fire.
"Oh nice." I groaned.
"Insolent." The male demon growled.
"Will not... tolerate. You will... learn place." The female hissed.
"Oh, it's fucking on." I snarled. I'll show them their fucking place all right.
Both demons suddenly rushed at me at a speed I was not expecting. The male demon shot to the left, while the female shot to the right. I covered my whole body in electricity, and readied myself as the female reached me first. She was much faster than the other one, and he was pretty goddamn fast too.
She went for my throat immediately, and I barely dodged that attack. I actually saw a few strands of my hair falling to the ground, the ends burning with that sickly hell fire.
"That's not fucking good." I thought as I threw out a blow of my own.
To my surprise and annoyance, this motherfucker actually dodged my attack by mere centimeters as well. She threw out another slash aimed at my stomach, and I backstepped, the claws missing me by a hairs breath. I did not like how fast this thing was.
The other demon had reached me by this point, and I cursed as I had a claw coming at me from my right side, and another from my left. The female's blow came at me much quicker than the other one's, this one aiming for my face. I had to duck to avoid it, which ended up leaving me open, as the male's blow was aimed in a downward slash.
Thinking quickly, I sent extra mana to my left arm, and used it to strike the side of its forearm in an attempt to drive the blow away from me. To my absolute fucking shock, it was only partially successful, and the blow aimed for my head was knocked off course, and instead it's claws sank into my left shoulder, digging in deep. Let me tell, that fucking HURT.
"FUCK!" I yelled as its claws continued to dig in deeper.
I was not used to getting hurt, or feeling much pain due to how tough my body was, so the blow was a shock to my whole system. This actually triggered something inside of me, and a huge bolt of electricity shot from my body, and struck the demon square in the chest. This sent the ugly fucker flying backwards like a rocket, causing it to smash into the back of the cave wall, dust and debris filling the air at the point of impact.
Unfortunately for me, this caused the female to growl menacingly and attack me with renewed vigor. It's eyes glowed an even brighter red now, and its intent was clear. It was going to try and tear me into bits. At the same time, I felt a huge spike of worry through the bond.
"SID!" I heard both Liz and Nadia shout.
I didn't have time to look back them though, as this other fucker was in full on rage mode. Thankfully, if I did somehow manage to get hurt, my body seemed to be up to the task of repairing that damage. The pain was already almost gone, and I felt that the wound itself was already nearly closed. Then, the process sped up even more as I felt a warmth on my shoulder as a green light emitted from it. I sent feelings of love and gratitude through my bond with Liz.
"Yeah, fuckers. I'm not alone." I growled as I side stepped another blow, this one aimed for my now healed arm. I actually saw it squint in confusion at the lack of a wound.
I felt encouraging feelings through the bond. Trust. Belief. Victory. That made me grin. They both knew I could do this, and that was all I needed. I wouldn't let them down. A King must never disappoint his Queens. I didn't even fucking care how that sounded right now, because I was going to embrace it right now.
I roared, which caused the ground below my feet to shake, as my body exploded with arks of electricity. The female's eyes widened as it stumbled slightly from the force of my mana. This gave me an opening to surge to my feet into a shoulder charge, and the movement was much faster than I had ever moved before.
I slammed into the demon with the force of a runaway train. Electricity coursed through its body as it was sent flying backwards at speeds that broke to sound barrier. When it crashed into the wall, it did so with explosive force, chunks of rocks flying away from the point of impact. The noise was like a tank shell slamming into a building, and the reverberations that traveled through the cave made the ground rumble, and small rocks fell from the walls and ceiling.
"Holy fuck." I said, my strength once again surprising me. Sometimes, it seems it just takes the proper motivation.
I heard a noise to my left, and upon glancing over, I saw that the other demon had pulled its way out of the hole it had made. It had a decent amount of cuts and scratches over its body, and on its chest especially, there was a circular hole on it. The wounds leaked an unnatural red color that fell to the ground with a hissing sizzle. Oh, and it looked fucking pissed.
"YOU... MUST... DIE!" It roared, and then proceeded to dart towards me.
This was one not as fast as the other one, but it was still been pretty goddamn fast. Now though, it felt like it was moving much slower. When I had unleashed more of my power, I felt that I was even faster, and even stronger than ever. My whole body had gotten a boost from what it felt like.
The demon reached me, and it slashed out once again with flaming claws. For some reason, now I was just disappointed that these things weren't attacking me with something else. It threw out a diagonal slash, aiming to cut me from my left shoulder to my right hip. I danced out of the way quite easily, while charging up my right fist with a gauntlet of electricity.
The demon seethed, looking quite pissed off that it missed, and threw out a straight jab at my face, its claws seeking out my eyes. I grabbed its wrist with my left hand, feeling immensely satisfied when it stopped its blow cold this time. Its angry red eyes widened with disbelief, but that only lasted a moment before my fist met its face. I wasn't exactly sure what these things were made of, but I felt and heard the familiar sound of something breaking, and well as felt the feeling of snapping bones on my fist. The sound of the blow echoed throughout the cave like a thunderclap.
One moment, the demon had a head, and the next, it didn't. A shockwave traveled away from us after my impact had landed, and the sounds around me went still for a brief moment. I released the wrist I had been holding, which was the only thing keeping this demon's body up, and it limply fell to the ground with a thud. It's blood covered my fist, and despite the burning and sizzling sensation, it actually wasn't enough to do any damage to me. The shit actually burned holes into the cave floor as it hit the ground. I looked at the body with disdain.
"Asshole." I said to the corpse, now surveying the rest of the scene around me.
All of the smaller demons were now dead. Bodies were littered around the girls in bloody and ashen piles. Rya was currently wiping off her fists with a rag while staring intently at me, a look of wonder on her face. Nadia was breathing heavily, no doubt from using so much mana at one time, while Liz's hands glowed green as she had her magic readied. They both gazed upon me with shock and pride. I gave them a smile and a little wave, and they both smiled back at me.
Suddenly, Rya's face scrunched up, then her eyes widened and she pointed.
"SID!" She shouted, and I whipped around, looking in th me direction she was pointing.
In the far back of the cave, the very bloody and very fucked up form of the female demon had somehow crawled out of the nice hole it had made, and was now near the orbs of red energy I had seen before. It began to speak a few words of that garbled language before its mana began flowing to intermingle with that energy. I shot towards it, my legs crackling with power.
The demon actually looked towards me with malice in its eyes, and then the fucking thing had the nerve to grin at me.
"Too late... you will die... you- AGGHH" It said, but its words cut off and its eyes buldged as my foot connected with its torso.
The results of my blow were both unexpected, and quite damned satisfying. Most of its flesh at the point of impact was simply obliterated, bloody and meaty chunks flying from where my foot connected with it. It's glowing red eyes dimmed before going blank like a fire being extinguished as the rest of its body flew backwards before smashing into the cave wall yet again. Although, this time, it wouldn't be crawling out again.
"Bitch."
Since they were both dead as fuck, I took stock of the situation. The energy in front of me began to crackle with red energy, and I wasn't sure what to do, because I didn't even know what the fuck that demon did exactly. Rya and the girls were making their way towards me, but I held out my hand to stop them.
"Sid, what is it?" Rya asked me.
"I don't know." I said, looking at the energy warily.
"Sid, are you okay??" Liz asked me, completely ignoring my warning, as did Nadia.
"Sid!" Nadia shouted, and I slowly backed away from energy to meet them further back. It might be best not to take any chances, and I didn't want to risk hitting it with my power, as I might inadvertently make it worse.
The girls crashed into me, with Liz inspecting my shoulder almost immediately. Nadia just kept running her hands up and down my body, and my face, looking for more injuries. Damn, and I thought I was acting overprotective at points. Once they both found that I was okay, they both squeezed the air out of my lungs.
"Ugh... girls, it still might be dangerous." I wheezed, and they let up just a bit.
"Thank god you're okay." Liz mumbled into my side.
"You scared me... but that was pretty fucking cool." Nadia said as she nuzzled my neck.
"Girls! Did you forget where we are??" Rya yelled, causing us all to jump.
"S-sorry mom." Liz said sheepishly as she released me.
"I got a little ahead of myself too.." Nadia muttered as she more reluctantly released me.
I didn't mind them doting on me, but Rya was absolutely right. Trying to get them off of me would have been a harder fight than the damn demons. I looked back to the crackling energy, and found that it was now swirling around in a circular motion. I did not fucking like that one bit. More and more energy gathered, and I stood in front of my girls while urging them to fall back.
"Girls, get far away. Something is coming and I don't like it." I said, and they did as requested upon hearing the grave tone of my voice.
It was true, as the power gathering here was a type of dark I'd never felt before. The energy swirled faster and faster, until...
*CRACK*
It was like a hole was torn in reality as what looked like a fucking portal opened before all of us. The energy shooting out from it was violent, and I instinctively used my mana like a shield to cover myself as well as the girls behind me.
"What in the world??" Liz shouted.
"That's probably not good." Nadia added, and well, couldn't disagree with that.
"Oh no. This is really, really bad. They opened a gateway to one of the hells." Rya yelled, and there was a lot of questions I could ask from that simple sentence, but I was transfixed by what I saw inside of the portal.
Staring back at me with hatred and a sense of pure evil, was a pair of glowing yellow eyes. They locked on me, and it actually sent a shiver down my spine.
"Definitely not fucking good."