Chapter 59: Crimson And Black
*Asura's POV*
Horus flew down and landed on my right shoulder and I could tell that I was not gonna like what I was gonna hear.
"2 miles north of the city near a grove of trees. I saw a few talismans pasted on the trees. A trail of blood leading out." Horus said and I nodded.
" Here have some food," I said and put some meat in my hand and he started eating.
'A grove of trees with talismans huh.' I thought and I could already imagine some ridiculous story by the Onmyōji to keep people out of his hideout. Probably how the trees held blood craving ghosts who will take the town's children and their women. Probably asked for a fat sum of money for the talismans too.
"We're gonna check it out," I said and Ryuichi nodded but I could sense he was scared. The Onmyōji certainly didn't feel like a high enough demon to keep humans alive.
*15 minutes later*
"Remember this, whatever you might find inside I need you to stay strong. I'll be beside you the entire time. You can ask to go outside anytime you want." I said and Ryuichi nodded and grabbed my hand.
Horus had gone to contact the nearest personnel from the cleanup crew. We were probably gonna need their help.
I entered the grove with Fenris and Ryuichi.
I searched but the blood trails from all directions ended in the middle of the grove with nothing being there except dirt as if everything disappeared at that spot. If the Onmyōji ate its victims then there should at least be some body parts here and there and even the blood seemed a little fresh.
[Eye of Solomon: Activated]
'I need to get used to using this.' I thought and looked around and immediately saw a hatch a few feet under the ground.
"Ryuichi back up a little for this one," I said and Ryuichi steeped back with Fenris beside him.
"Dragon Breathing Fourth Form: Wraith Steps," I said and my right leg rose in the air and gathered strength and then I stepped on the ground with enough force to create a little crater as dust flew everywhere.
The metal hatch was now in full view and I could see dried blood on the handle. I carefully opened it and could only see darkness inside.
"Hey, Ryuichi hold on to my waist. Fenris only jump after I say it's safe." I said and Ryuichi held tight. If the fall was too damaging then I could regenerate.
"Well here goes nothing," I said and jumped down into the darkness. The fall wasn't that long, probably about a single-storey building. My knees ached but we're already healing.
I looked around and it was Dark. Extremely dark.
[Eye of Hermes: Activated
Eye of Solomon: Activated]
Now I looked around and it seemed we were in some form of a cave. The walls had a bit of moss growing on them and I could distinctly smell blood. Dried and Fresh blood alike and it came from deeper in the cave. My eyes were still not perfect in the dark.
"Fenris jump in," I said and in a moment my white and purple furred companion was beside me.
"Do you see something inside Fenris?" I asked as his eyes certainly worked better than mine in the dark.
"Grr.." At first, I thought it was Fenris who growled but it was something else and it was fast approaching. I could now see two fiery eyes rushing towards us from the cave.
The path was just enough for two people to walk side by side so I wasn't afraid of it rushing behind me so I moved forward and could now clearly see the attacker had a humanoid shape with little rags covering his body, a deformed body shape, an open mouth that had pretty sharp teeth and even little rotting pieces of what I truly do not hope to be human meat stuck between them.
"Stop right there. We can help you." I said and the Demon gave a grunt and kept charging.
"Well, that's it," I said, and instead of allowing it to come nearer I rushed off and cut its right leg.
"Stay down," I said again but it just tried to bite a piece of my flesh off.
'Guess there's no other way.' I thought and slashed the Demon's limbs off.
But what I didn't expect was for it to scream. Not a scream of pain but somewhat of a call for help and immediately dozens of fiery eyes lit up in the cave and I could now hear other Demons rushing at us.
I immediately slashed the Demon's head off and burned the body with a matchstick. It was a good idea to keep some on me for when I couldn't light a fire as Lighters were too fucking expensive. The Demon wasn't disappearing into ash so it could be used as fuel and the flames that appeared from its body were a dark purple and almost black in color as I kicked its body off into the center of the cave as the other Demons became visible.
"Fenris stay behind." I immediately ordered because I knew that he couldn't possibly increase his size in the cave and would end up stuck between the Demons.
The Demons didn't care for their comrades burning body and crushed him between their feet.
"Well, this is troublesome," I said and rushed off against the Demons. Better to keep a large distance between them and the exit.
Igris and Vriska were now in my hands and I slashed the head off of the first one. The cave at least helped in crowd control.
"Wolf Breathing: Crimson Slash
Wolf Breathing: Crimson Severance
Dragon Breathing: Skull Crusher
Dragon Breathing: Wraith Steps"
I immediately started using my Breath styles as I cut off limb after limb from the Demons and used my legs to crush their heads in.
"Howl." Fenris howled and I looked behind me to see two of the Demons having escaped from my swords with their hands missing.
"No, you don't," I said and the Demons fell with two Hiraishin Kunai stuck in both of their heads.
The Demons were extremely large in numbers and I wasn't able to contain all of them so instead of killing I went for incapacitating them. If they couldn't run to the exits then I could use the time to kill them off afterwards.
I lit up two more Demons and now I had somewhat decent vision so I unleashed a barrage of Attacks at the Demons.
"Crimson Severance" Igris cut through another Demon's neck. The limited space and piling bodies were was making it harder and harder to dodge.
"Mother! Father!" I suddenly heard Ryuichi coming towards me and I could see two Demons in somewhat better clothing but Demons nonetheless and I hesitated.
"Ryuichi stay back;" I shouted but it was too late as both the Demons had already dodged me and were now running towards him.
"Crimson Slash." I tried to use my Breath style but Igris struck the cave's ceiling.
"Fuck." I immediately took out my Hiraishin Kunai and threw them at the Demons.
"Ahhhhh!" I howled in pain as I could feel a chunk of my shoulder and stomach missing but thankfully both the Demons were now down and Fenris was in front of Ryuichi stopping him from going towards them.
'System activate that shit.'
[Igris: Hollow Void
Vriska: Blood Fire Ignition]
As Vriska lit up in Crimson flames I could distinctly hear a Howl from it as it resonated. Igris, in turn, seemed to disappear but I could see its outline from the flames it was observing.
"You're all dead," I said simply and what happened next was a massacre.
As more and more Demons came out from the cave I used Igris to cut through a dozen of them with ease as their bones couldn't even be felt as I cut through each of their bodies until they were nothing but minced meat.
Vriska on the other hand made the scene as bloody as possible and covered the left side of my body completely in blood as the Demons seemed to fear its flames. Each drop of blood that came from the Demons seemed to be burning as it gave off steam.
As the bodies were still piling up I decided to give another Breathing form a try. It was still incomplete but what better time to try.
"Breathe in and out, 7 short breaths followed by 3 long ones, Breathe," I said to myself as I danced around the corpses of the Demon to get to their still alive counterparts.
"Heaven's Breath First Form: Annihilation"
I shouted and the whole cave rumbled as both Igris and Vriska made an X shape and in an instant, both of them were unleashed. In mere moments all the Demons whether dead or alive in front of me had disappeared with the only signs of them existing being the strong scent of blood in the air.
In the end, while the Demon Blood on my body evaporated into steam I gave out a single breath as the mist coming from my mouth was both Crimson and Black.
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