Chapter 109 - What Pathetic Demon Are You

"Ya-ya?! Ya-ya! Why are you speaking like that??"

Her black eyes snap around to glare at the man trying to grab her. "Silence, traitor. You are lucky I cannot control the two of you at once. But I will take care of you soon."

I bolt onto my feet, reaching slowly to my right. Her head snaps back around, dark hair flying wildly. "Ah ah ah! Can't hurt her, can you? She's your precious informant, right?"

I freeze, my dark expression locked onto the gleeful grin. "Good Saint. Now, a small speech."

"The Sword Saint was not hunting the Assassin. He WAS the Assassin. He killed members or sponsors of the Mafo, one by one, until they had no chance to recover."

Pantholeo stomps his foot. "They were slavers anyway! You never let us finish him! The things Yauln went through… Let her go!"

The whole group falls silent, and I feel their heavy stares all laying onto me. The weight sitting on my shoulders grows, trying to drag me through the floor.

But, I hold my ground against it, subconsciously shrugging the phantom hands grabbing at me as I step forward. "You're pathetic. You coming up with random shit to try and drive a wedge between us?"

The following silence is deafening, the twisted smile gone. "You won one or two games, Sword. But… Can you really win them all? Don't worry about answering. I'll show you. You can't."

The grin returns, and I'm confused.

Until I see it.

***

In the next few seconds, only a small number of the people in the room would understand what was happening.

The first was, of course, Eniyala. She already had her Magic Eyes active. She had heard the story from Klum of what had happened when he originally left, but she wanted to ensure that nothing happened to Yauln's sprouted Dark Seed.

Now, a few seconds later, the blue Mana was fading away, and the black core in her chest was spreading rapidly, surging violently through her veins.

'Shit,' she thinks, grabbing her rod from the Inventory.

The second was a certain Dragonling who was currently deaf and blind. He had grown disinterested in the conversation, and remembering that he missed his sister and thus bringing back his depression, he pulled out a dirty rag and a golden bracelet to shine, which slightly improved his mood. In the corner of his eye, he watches a shiny core form. 'Oooh, new shiny thing? Aw, I miss my sister. If only I could show her the new shiny thing.'

With renewed vigor, the young man shines his object to forget the pain.

Yet, there was only one person who saw the magic String materialize from the back of her neck as it grew taut.

There was only one person who could watch in horror as it finally snaps free, disappearing as if it hadn't existed in the blink of an eye.

And there was only one who saw not only the true form of the Dark Seed within her open up fully, but another message to confirm his fear.

[Skill Detect Dark was forcibly activated.]

[Warning! Dark Seed sprouting!]

"Fuck."

***

A screech from the shifting woman nearly splits everyone's ears, rendering their hands useless as they all try to protect their ears from the scream.

"Fuck!" I repeat, my knees shaking from the piercing sound.

[Yauln has transformed into Low Demon Freyal.]

"Low Demon? That's new…" I mutter absentmindedly, trying to shove the guilt welling up in my chest and throat back down and grabbing Beholder's Eye from the Inventory.

{A/N: Remember, the sheath went flying who-knows-where when Klum learned that he couldn't fly. Heh, loser. Also, sheaths are faster than Inventories in most cases, as you can usually only access the Inventory inside your field of view. Klum is just proficient at using screens, obviously.}

A warped laugh/caw grows in volume as the Demon turns to Pantholeo. "You two had quite the connection, huh?"

Freyal is much different than Yauln. Her head is a crow's head, but the feathers thin out and disappear by the time it hits her collarbone. Her skin is no longer black; instead, it's a smooth dark gray, like stone. Her fingers end in sharp claws, and right below each joint is a feather on the back of her hand. Longer feathers jump out by her elbows and from the side of her knees. Her ankles and below are leathery and birdlike, and while Yauln's were the same size as her normal feet, which were somewhat small, Freyal's are big enough to easily wrap around my back.

Pantholeo growls, turning almost fully into a lanky, but incredibly bulky lionlike creature. He lets out a thundering roar, leaping at the demon. I step forward, trying to stop him, but he isn't listening to me. "Wait!—"

Freyal gives the airborne werelion a disturbing smirk, and in a flash of silver a giant wing slams into his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs and into Termi, both of them going flying through a wall.

'She instantly took two fighters out,' I note, my eyes widening. 'And I could barely track the movement.'

As I expected, she turns to me next. "She has Yauln's memories."

"I know," Eniyala replies, firing three fire spears at her. Holding her transformed wing up, she easily swats them away, sending them flying out the window, eventually exploding. "Maybe less fireworks?" I say, springing forward — while keeping notably lower to the ground. "So, how about you get the hell out of my friend's body?"

I plant my feet firmly, slashing diagonally at the woman's arm. I held back slightly; subconsciously. I can't bring myself to try to kill her.

But the blow never even comes close to hitting, as my blade slices the air. "She can disappear?"

An evil sneer over my shoulder freezes my blood in place. 'When—'

"You're so slow. And yet you dare talk back to Freyal?? You deserve a slow death."

MOVE.

But I can't. She's too fast.

MOVE. MOVE. MOVEMOVEMOVE—

As I try to push through the limit of my speed for the deathblow that's coming, I barely notice the sliding feeling running down my back.

When he flexes, he becomes sturdy, and rock hard, while his belly, still against my back, remains soft. And it's just fast enough to react before the blow.

A cracking sound hits my ears violently, and I'm kicked through the same wall the other two were, making a notably smaller hole to the left of the first one.

Thankfully, this suite either belongs to one of the party, or just so happened to be empty, as there is no one inside. 'Or maybe they ran out screaming already. Who knows.'

Snapping the thought out of my head, I quickly clamber to my knees, gently grabbing a small Crested Roller and cradling him, trying to settle the panic in my chest. "Panko, buddy, you're okay right? It's okay… You just need a little rest, man…"

For what felt like the first time since I woke up as Klum, I feel tears welling up in my eyes. 'This is all too much. You're getting too emotional.'

But I couldn't stop it, looking at the unconscious baby creature. Blood trickles from his mouth and a deep cut on his back, and I sigh as I put him down gently.

'Fuck. Sorry, Alyphia.'

Ever since I had started taking down the Mafo, Alyphia had refused to talk to me. She hadn't agreed with what I had been doing, even if we both knew it was somewhat necessary. But I felt like I had to say that before what was about to happen.

"Get… off!" Termi says, trying to wiggle her way out from under the werebeast on top of her. A mousy expression sits on her face, nearly making me laugh.

I push him off, helping her to her feet. She looks up at my face with a hint of fear, sliding her hand away slowly.

"… Klum?"

I smile, placing Panko gently into her arms. I had kept him in one arm while helping Termi, but I was going to need both for the enemy.

I turn and walk back through the larger hole, Termi watching my back until I'm gone before finally taking a deep breath.

"What the fuck was that?"

* * *

Eniyala was running out of options faster than she could strategize.

Chains of fire and lightning swirl around the demon, occasionally attacking to no real effect. The demon would simply swing her arm/wing around, knocking back the chain, wasting through her Mana and reaching her limit on how many chains she can control.

Not only that, but Freyal's face had quickly grown into one of boredom. Transforming both arms into wings, she crosses them over each other and whips them outwards. Silver lines of sharp wind burst from the movement, breaking all the chains. Luckily, Lynsel has moved behind Ro, who sits on the bed, still shining his bracelet, which snaps from the attack and knocks his head back, the rag flying out of his hand and landing on Lynsel's head, who suddenly finds himself deaf and blind.

Eniyala survives as well, although only thanks to the chains cushioning most of the blow. Her hands spill her blood onto the floor, shaking heavily. "Shit… Th-that's not great…"

"It is for me," the demon grins, before reappearing right in front of her. "The other one looks a bit tougher to take on, so I'll just take you out first."

She lifts a wing high above her head. The sharp feathers lining the structure of her limb turn to create a naturally serrated edge, held over the smaller woman. Eniyala's mind is filled with flashes of Raeki, her mom and dad, and Klum, as the wing comes down.

And is stopped, sharp black nails curling and gripping the other edge of the demon's limb and yanking it back. At first, Freyal seems amused by this development, throwing her wing forward to throw the body over her. The look disappears when once again, her wing doesn't move. She flexes the other one, driving it backwards, but it stops as well with a loud CLANK!

"You're the one who broke my shiny thing?" A deep voice growls. "… Did you hurt my friends too?"

'That was a secondary thought?' Eniyala finds herself thinking as Ro's head pops out from over Freyal's shoulder, his forearms more dragonlike than human. The only indication of any damage is a thin line of blood tracing along his bright red scales, the occasional black one in the mix like a mole or freckle.

Turning around fully, the demon raises both of its wings up. "Guess I HAVE to take care of you first," she snickers, slamming the sharp feathers at his face.

"That's not nice," Ro notes as he blocks the swings with one arm; the feathers scrape on the scales until finally digging in, cutting through nearly half of his arm. He winces as the feathers get lodged in the bone of his arm, locking her wings in place. "Ouch! Your turn, meanie!"

Drawing back his other fist, he throws it forward full-force. Two cracking sounds signify the sharp limbs of Freyal bending in an odd manner, and more feathers dig into his fist. She can't stop the excess force from hitting her gut, and flies backwards five feet before she spreads her wings out and burrows her claws into the ground to stop herself. More cracking sounds can be heard as the wings right themselves back into the shape they were before. "You fucking insect," she growls, trying to catch her breath. "You aren't even a full dragon. And yet, you wish to challenge me?!"

"No. I wish you could give me my shiny thing back. My sister says wishes aren't real, though, so I was just going to kill you." Ro states plainly, and Eniyala spurts saliva from her mouth as she tries to hold back her laugh. Freyal's expression darkens, and the blade-equivalent feathers quiver menacingly.

"I'll kill you both in a single blow."

"You've actually already hit us both, so it's not really a SINGLE, but…" Eniyala shrugs, and the demon rolls her eyes. "Enough. Prepare to die."

And then, she disappears. Instinctively, Ro raises his arms to protect his face, and Eniyala activates a Spell she and Termi had crafted together. "Land Spike!"

A large gash cuts three-quarters of the way through both of Ro's arms, just below where the scales are forming, trying to protect him. Eniyala can just make out the glint of silver passing, turning to split her head vertically. She doesn't even have time to blink; the large blue rock spikes aren't going to stop it.

When she does blink, she finds that she is still in one piece, and silver feathers litter the ground around her. A bladed black object slithers past the crouched demon, past her, back towards the two holes in the wall. Occasionally, a black arc of lightning jumps from it, and from the shadow of the hole. A figure steps through, and a pang of fear hits her heart.

Medium length dark gray hair fails to hide a glowing black crosshair iris locked onto the demon. As he steps into the light, his pale skin is plagued with deep, black veins tracing up his right arm and spreading from the same eye. A small smirk sits on his face, and his sword slinks back into place as he turns it up to lean the blade against his shoulder.

"What pathetic excuse of a demon are you?" Klum sneers.