Bab 14: And So It Begins (5)

Previously

Willow knew manipulating the man like this was low but he had no choice. He considered himself far too valuable to get killed from something like that.

Rufus gritting his teeth with hardened resolve. "You're sure I can kill it in one strike?"

"One strike," Willow nodded. With a holy-enchanted, steel sword and a clean strike to the chest from the back? The demon stood no chance. If they actually managed to kill it, the both of their emblems should somewhat evolve as well considering that they were both only still novinces to their emblems. No matter how small, being a little stronger would go a long way in this apocalyptic nightmare.

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"Fine. For my daughter," Rufus said, before holding out his sword over his heart like a knight. Willow held his right hand out over the sword and closed his eyes, focused. It wasn't as hard as he thought to draw out his ability for the first time. It felt natural, as natural as having to breathe or moving an arm. In the game, it was stated that under the Humlic Domain, or the Human God's domain, his people were granted the power of Emblems even though it was later revealed that his power just helped guide it to materialize.

Each Major God's power system had their own advantages and disadvantages, but the Human God was stacked with disadvantages. . .at least in the short term. One of them being how you had a classification your power would fall under, and you could only practice skills under that classification. For example, you could get the Emblem of Fire and therefore, you would only be able to practice Fire-related skills. No ifs, no buts. Not to mention how hard it was to even make/practice said skill. Luckily for him, his emblem was of the Abnormal category, along with the Celestial Hero, and it was mostly of the support - holy category.

The first skill was presented to you, practically handed to you by the Human God as a freebie but the later ones, you had to do it yourself. His first skill was exactly like in the game.

"Purify," Willow commanded. A dim light appeared over his hand, the soft white glow transferring over to the length of Rufus's steel. He opened his eyes to see that Rufus's sword was glowing a soft white glow and smiled. "It's done. Remember. Make sure to hit it's left chest. Stealth is key."

Rufus nodded, crouching and taking a breath of confidence before slowly moving out. Willow watched in anxious breaths, thanking the gods that the demon was still too focused on it's feast to notice Rufus who was circling around it, to position himself at his back. Soon enough, he was there, light on his toes as he aimed his holy sword, lunging back to prepare for a sharp thrust before he let out his breath, "Die!". The demon heard Rufus's silent roar but only managed to look up from it's food before it felt a sharp sting on its chest, roaring in pain as it looked down to see that a sword was poking out from it's left chest, where it's heart had been pierced.

Rufus quickly drew his sword back, his gleaming sword now drenched in demonic black blood as he hopped backwards, taking a stance to fight or die there and then. Luckily for him, Willow's plan was a success as Rufus watched the demon writhed in pain, scratching at it's own skin before it's bone-white flesh exploded into motes of white light.

For a moment, both Rufus and Willow were quiet as they were still trying to process the fact that they had just killed a demon. Willow even more so, as this was his first time actually killing anything, both in his past life or in this. Then, Willow jumped up to Rufus, giving him a hug as the old town's guard gave a wide smile as well, carrying the boy and twirling the both of them around in silent celebration. Rufus felt a weight off his shoulder, feeling as if he had somewhat avenged his daughter and felt extremely thankful for the beautiful boy that helped him accomplish his goal so quickly. He looked up to the sky, tears falling down his face as he hugged Willow, asking if his daughter was watching his father from the heavens.

"We did it, old man!" Willow yelped as he was put down. He raised his hand high for a high five. Rufus looked confused. Willow showed him the ropes. "It's called a high five. We slap our hands like this, yeah, just a little up and yeah - like that! Again!"

"We killed a demon," Willow raised his palm up high. "High five!"

"High five!" Rufus smiled, giving the shorter boy's hand a satisfying slap. He wasn't sure why but he felt encouraged at the act, noting to himself to share it with his other brothers when they met up again. "Boy, you won't believe how than-Gfuk?!"

Warm blood splattered across Willow's face. "Eh?" He felt Rufus's heavy body fall into him. His body was still. His mind was in shock. Willow slowly turned his head around and saw why Rufus wasn't replying. Something had shot through Rufus's forehead; a large, steaming hole had appeared in the middle of his head as bits of brain matter and chunks sloshed, falling onto the ground. The smell of burning meat and taste of iron blood spread across his senses.

His stomach curled, making him gag. He lost feeling in his legs and dropped down, eyes shaky as he tried to take in what just happened. A sense of utmost dread filled him then, telling him to run so he did. Or at least, he tried. Everytime he got up, he would only fall back down like a little fawn learning to walk straight out of it's mother's womb. His heart thumped hard against his chest.

With as much courage as he could muster, he traced the trajectory of the throw and looked up. He let out a defeated chuckle. "Why is she here?"

The clouds had darkened. The sky and the moon turned blood red, heralding the forthcoming of the source of all evils - granting it's evil light on the demonic red skin of the Demon God. She stood on the clouds, two reddish-black wings with mouths moaning from it's feathers lazily flapping about behind her. She was dressed in seductive darkness like a mistress of the highest wealth, it's little tendrils gracefully covering her tall, large body, leaving only her reddish shoulders and succulent upper thighs to show. You weren't allowed to see her eyes, the upper half of her face covered in a veil that sprouted satanic concentric eyes that rolled about manically. She looked as eldritch abomination as she did satanic. She was the Lady Of Evil, the One Whose Name Is Shrouded In Darkness; the fucking Demon God herself.

And it was fucking terrifying for Willow to even stand in the presence of such a end-game being. All he could do was simply stare at her before he blinked. She was gone.

"How curious," A sultry, ringing voice appeared from behind him.

He looked back to see her standing right in front of him, pulling out the blood-red spear that had killed Rufus and. . .ate it? Her jaws parted inhumanely as she devoured the spear and smiled at him like nothing was wrong. Willow could say nothing. His mind was a mess. He was about to shit himself right now.

The Demon God circled around him, sniffing the air, tasting it a little with her long, long tongue and after a sultry smile from her dark lips, all the eyes on her veil snapped at him in one movement that was seriously creeping Willow out. "You taste. . familiar." She got close to him, leaning down from her giantess height which made Willow wince.