Crudeness is the way to a man's heart

Failure's expression couldn't help but darken after what he had just witnessed. That attack was unlike anything he had ever seen before, it just wasn't comprehendable.

There was just a long line of nothing that spanned as far as the eye could see. Dozens upon dozens of moon beasts and humans had been caught in the attack, but nothing remained. No corpses, no trees for Failure to take advantage of, just nothingness.

The full moon abomination axe shuddered as the red glow slowly disappeared from its head while a few flakes of flesh fell off its body. It seemed that the skill or whatever move it had just used was not one that could be used often.

But even though the attack had missed both Aldred and Failure, the only two threats in its path, the Demon had still achieved its goal.

Both Aldred and Failure were wary.

They didn't know how long it could take before the Demon could unleash an attack like that again. It could be minutes, hours, even seconds. An attack like that would certainly be able to heavily injure, if not kill, both Aldred and Failure.

"It is foolish for you to even attempt to fight me. The Lord's commands are final, anything you try is futile, your fate as already been decided."

Failure grinned darkly, a small hint of excitement evident in Kai's blue eyes.

"Fate? You're really going to talk about fate? Didn't your dear old god say that Princess Ethania's fate was to go with him? It seems like that fate didn't come true, did it?"

The aura around the Demon intensified as it raised the double headed axe once more.

"He has plenty of women by his side at all time, what use is one who managed to get away only to become a corpse?"

Failure's grin was quickly wiped off his face.

"A corpse that is still haunting your fucking ugly ass considering that the god you follow like a puppy still hasn't sent his little moon beam to reclaim you."

The Demon froze for a split second at Failure's crude words. It seemed that while Kai had also learned some thing from being around Failure, the same could be said about the charismatic man in return.

Even though he knew it was kind of messed up, Kai was enjoying the show as he watched along through his eyes. He even kind of wished he had some popcorn as it would perfectly fit the situation.

Failure's attitude was just perfect. Everything he was saying was just incredible. Every one liner sounded like it was straight out an action movie.

The thing is though, the winners in action movies are meant to be the good guys, but it wasn't looking so good for Failure and Aldred. But what could Kai do? He was just a spectator in his own body after all. Then again, it's not like he had to do anything for now anyway.

Growing sick of the conversation that was growing even more volatile than it already was, the Demon gripped the hilt of its weapon as it jumped at Failure.

Failure simply closed his eyes and sighed, slowly turning his body to the left, he knew how the Demon was going to attack after all.

Every root in the ground was a tell, they felt every vibration that occurred in the forest. From the soft steps of people walking to the sound of dead bodies hitting the floor, roots could feel all.

Even the slightest tremor could not escape Failure's senses, especially when combined with Tree Sense. It was basically a way of seeing a few milliseconds into the future. Failure could sense movements slightly before they even happened.

So when the Demon lunged to try and cut off the charismatic spirit's arm, Failure was already dodging.

As soon as he knew that the Demon's attack would miss him, Failure gritter his teeth and swung his wooden sword upwards with all his might.

The Demon had a shocked expression on its horrid looking face, but it only lasted a moment as it quickly adjusted the axe in its hand and managed to block the attack.

A loud bang echoed throughout the forest as the two weapons collided, a shockwave being sent out from the epicenter.

Neither weapon gave in though. Failure's wooden sword did not bend while the Demon's hideous axe did not show any weakness.

Not even a second later, Aldred was already pouncing at the Demon. Whatever berserk type skill the gray wolf had used had boosted its stats by quite a large margin as he was now much faster than Kai had ever seen him.

Then again, Kai had never seen Aldred go all out, maybe this was without the effects of the berserk skill.

Aldred's claws grew a few centimetres as they thinned a small bit, giving them even more shredding power. Just as the powerful claws were about to dig into the side of an unsightly abomination, the Demon reacted.

Quickly moving one of its free hands to intercept the blow, The Demon's hand slowly changed shape as it expanded into a large, reinforced meaty circle. The flesh shield managed to barely block the blow, but the Demon suffered a bit of damage as he was pushed backwards from the force of the attack.

Without delay, Failure even more roots around the Demon's legs as he dashed forward, hoping to keep the full moon abomination still for even a second.

The Demon roared as it tensed the muscles in its legs, pulverising the roots wrapped around it while also creating two small craters in the ground beneath its feet.

The wooden blade in Failure's hands plummeted down onto the Demon's shoulder, but it simply just lifted up its axe to deflect the blow. At the same time, it swung one of its free arms, hitting Failure in the side and damaging him slightly through his resilient wooden armour.

Just as the Demon was about to go on the offensive, one word escaped Aldred's snout.

"Restore!"

The ground which had given in beneath the force of the Demon was quickly brought back to the way it was, trapping both of the Demon's feet beneath the surface of the earth. Of course, this was a terrible attempt to pin the full moon abomination down, but all Aldred was aiming for was a moment.

Failure quickly recovered in the air as he turned his body mid flight and quickly barreled back towards the Demon. Using his blade as a spearhead to cut through any air that tried to slowl him down, Failure aimed at the abominations chest and tried to plunge his sword inside it.

A second later, the tip of Failure's plain wooden sword was kissing the outside of the Demon's chest, meanwhile three of the Demon's four arms were gripping onto the wooden blade with all its might to stop it going any further.

Both Failure and the Demon strained their bodies as they each tried to desparately push at the other. Failure quickly made some roots appear behind his feet and commanded them to push himself forward even more, meanwhile the Demon just used raw strength to hold the attack back.

Letting out an enraged roar, the Demon twisted its torso while still gripping tightly onto the wooden blade and yanked it to the side, taking Failure, who was still holding onto the hilt, with it. The Demon let go a second later as Failure was sent flying through the air, crashing into the body of one of the surrounding trees.

The tree he collided with quickly reacted as some tendrils shot out from its bark and wrapped around Kai's body. Some tendrils started massaging his shoulders, some tending to Failure's wrist, while some swiped some of the dirt off the durable wooden armour he was wearing. It was like an intermission in a boxing match, only with no towels or bottles of water.

... Or ring.

The Demon promptly pulled its feet out from the ground they were stuck in and glared coldly at Aldred. The gray wolf's eyes were still glowing a dark red, but they were already slowly starting to turn a lighter shade.

Just as Aldred thought the Demon would attack him, the abomination went and did something completetly unexpected.

It turned around to the surviving humans and beasts behind it.

Without warning, it inflicted its aura upon all of them again, subjecting them to the same torment Kai once felt while under the incinerating gaze of the moon.

But there was one problem now though.

Since Failure was possessing Kai's body, he was not wearing the gold and purple crown he was wearing earlier that allowed him to protect everyone from that attack.

All around him, countless humans and beasts fell onto the ground, each one clutching their ears and howling indiscriminately.

The Demon had decided to play dirty. If Aldred and Failure were both able to protect themselves, then it would just attack those that were unable to.

The tendrils that were wrapped around Failure quickly retracted as the charismatic spirit's eyes flashed with anger. Without delay, he pushed himself out of the embrace of the tree as Aldred went to charge along side him.

Only Failure stopped him.

"Aldred! Gather everyone into one place!"

A look of confusion appeared on the gray wolf's face. Wouldn't it just be better to face the Demon together rather than Failure fight it himself? Would it be safer that way?

But Aldred knew better than to ask questions. Whenever Failure said something, he always had a plan to back up his words.

Letting out a grunt in response, Aldred split away from Failure and started rapidly growing in size. He then started picking up any squirming being in his jaw and carrying them all to one location.

At the same time, Failure once again engaged the Demon in a furious clash, hoping to buy Aldred enough time to get everyone together. After that, Failure could only hope it would go well.

Time passed excruciatingly slowly as Failure continued to push back against the Demon's ravenous onslaught of attacks. The axe in its arm was an extremely dreadful weapon, powerful and sinister.

That didn't mean Failure couldn't handle it though.

While he could barely manage to keep the Demon at bay, Failure also had to make constant use of his Tree Sense to know when Aldred had everyone gathered.

Failure's mind raced as he desparately deflected another one of the full moon abominations blows, inwardly wishing that Aldred would hurry up.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity but in reality was only about forty seconds, Aldred managed to collect all the moon beasts and humans that were on their side and bring them all to the same spot, a mass of squirming and howling bodies.

The ground around them shook softly as a small wooden dome erupted from the ground around them and encased them, protecting them from the Demon's aura. The strange thing though, was that he also trapped Aldred inside the dome, they gray wolf having shrunk to a much smaller size.

But there was another reason why Failure had gotten his comrade to get everyone in the same spot.

Now, now they were all out of the way.

Failure gazed coldly at the Demon as the long red hair of Kai's head moved softly in the breeze.

Taking a deep breath, Failure closed his eyes and raised his sword above his head. After a moment of silence passed, he spoke three simple words.

"Garden of Ethania"

Then, the whole forest shook.