20 Devour

Vanitas stood after handing the sheet of paper to the stupefied Eleanor. She probably had a lot of questions to ask but all that will have to wait.

Vanitas gripped the sword tightly having decided what he would do next.

A voice reached his ears and to none of the others present. It was a voice only he could hear, for it was the voice of the demon within.

"SO YOU HAVE FINALLY DECIDED TO USE MY POWER, EH?" The demon snorted at him and cackled afterward. The voice felt masculine yet feminine at the same time. The voice felt familiar yet felt strange at the same time. He had no idea how and where he had managed to get contracted to this demon but as far as he could remember, the demon had always been with him. Almost like a companion on his arduous journey.

Vanitas responded to the demon without opening his mouth. In order for Vanitas to communicate with the demon, he didn't need to speak out loud. Just thinking about it was enough for it to understand him, almost like telepathic communication.

'I don't need much power. Just enough to kill all these monsters in this forest."

"KYA-HA-HA! IS THAT SO? OKAY, I WILL GIVE IT TO YOU! THE POWER THAT YOU SO DESIRE. BUT-" It paused and then whispered into his ears like the corrupted spirit it was, " - GIVE ME MY OFFERING~"

'Yeah, take it. Devour my memories.'

The demon let out an enraptured gasp and it felt as if it were licking its tongue, saliva dripping from its mouth.

"THEN, I WILL TAKE THEM GLADLY~"

The voice of the demon disappeared and for a small moment, he felt something akin to a loss in his heart.

*****

There seemed like there was a hole in his heart - or rather - a hole in his memories.

He looked around.

Where am I?

He asked but all he could see around him was the thick, green forest.

"Graaahh!" He heard the howl of a monster. He looked towards the voice and he saw a seven-headed hydra in front of him. It was opening all seven of its mouth and something that looked like black-colored water was forming in between its large and sharp jaws.

He realized that the hydra was aiming at him. He tightly gripped his sword, which he didn't know why he was holding. In fact, why was he in this forest in the first place?

Then, he heard a voice, that felt masculine yet feminine; that felt familiar yet strange.

"HEHE! COME ON, BOY! GO AHEAD! DEVOUR YOUR NEMESIS; BURN THEM TO ASHES WITH YOUR RAGING FLAMES; DEVOUR THEM ALL! LIKE HOW I DEVOURED YOUR PRECIOUS MEMORIES!"

After hearing those words, Vanitas came to one realization.

'I see. I used its power once again.' That would explain why he felt a gap in his memories - as if a bridge connecting his life had been destroyed at some point.

Black flames started dancing around in his sword and he could feel the power it contained. It was overwhelming. It was crying out and rampaging. It wanted to be let loose. It wanted to bring destruction. It wanted to eat everything up. It wanted to burn and devour everything it stood in its way. Vanitas could feel its emotion all too well.

He raised his sword high and then muttered in one single breath:

"Ye who is mortal shall burn till ye die; ye who is immortal shall burn till ye live; one thing is for sure, that there is no escaping the clutches of these black infernos that have burned the Heaven and survived the Hell - Hellfire!"

Black flames rose from his sword as he swung it down in one swift arc and they traveled around him at an almost impossible speed.

The flames moved and flowed as if they were a fast-flowing river and burned everything that stood in its path. The ground was burnt; the trees were burnt; the monsters and the demons - all of them were reduced to a heap of ash in less than a second.

The forest that was teeming with monsters that seemed impossible to reduce the numbers of, were all gone. The goblins, the orcs, the incoming horde of minotaurs, and even the chimera flying were all burnt to a crisp. An eerie silence settled in the equally dark and eerie forest as Vanitas stood in the middle of it all while the black flames lapped around him.

The hydra was no different. It was also burning but it didn't die because of its fast regenerating abilities. However, that only meant that it was going to suffer for as long as it lived.

The unforgiving and cruel black flames from the hell continued to burn it but it didn't die as its body regenerated quickly. However, that meant this process of burning will continue like a vicious cycle.

It will get burnt and it will regenerate again just to be burnt again. These unforgiving fires didn't let up and continuously tortured and tormented it as they didn't extinguish unless their flames snuffed the life out of it. Meaning it will continue to burn endlessly. It doesn't want to die but death didn't mean it will be any easier for it now.

'I wonder how long will the hydra last.' With his equally black eyes, Vanitas watched as the hydra struggled and screamed in a sea of endless torture.

This continued for a while, the pain-filled screams of the hydra piercing the silence of the forest.

But, then, it gave up. It couldn't go on any longer. It was not able to feel the pain any longer.

If dying meant it will no longer have to feel this pain of continuously and eternally getting burnt by these cruel flames, then it will happily embrace death. Never had death looked like a ray of light to anyone before.

The hydra stopped its regenerative abilities. The moment it did, the black flames reduced it into a heap of ash in an instant, finally ending its gruesome torture.

*****

Eleanor watched as the hydra screamed in pain.

It was cruel and Eleanor felt her heart constrict upon the sight of the hydra reduced to such a pitiful state.

The very power of fast regeneration that made it almost invincible was the cause of its undoing. It was ironic. And it was cruel. The hydra finally gave up and the flames extinguished the flames of its life. With the hydra dead, the black flames disappeared as well.

Vanitas stood in front of the now-reduced-to-ash-hydra and looked on with silent indifference.

The battle was over.

Moments ago Eleanor had felt hopeless. She was sure that she will meet her end here in this forest. But, she was still alive. She was breathing and so were Dominique and Captain Elina.

Things had happened too fast for Eleanor to make sense of everything immediately. The tables had been turned by one single person. He obliterated every single monster in the surrounding with just one swing of his sword. Those black flames were scary. It was cruel and unforgiving, lapping around until it destroyed its target into oblivion. Even though she knew the one who used the flames was her friend, she couldn't help but shiver thinking of its sheer power.

Without realizing it, she clenched her fist tight and that was when she felt a soft sensation.

There was a sheet of paper in her right hand. Then she remembered the words Vanitas had left for her before engaging in battle.

'Immediately after the battle ends, hand this paper to me. And without fail. Please. Can I entrust this role to you?'

Eleanor got up and slowly made her way to where Vanitas was standing.

"Um, Vanitas?"

Upon hearing Eleanor, he slowly turned around and looked at her.

Eleanor felt strange.

When he looked at Vanitas's eyes, she felt as if he was looking at her with indifference or maybe with unfamiliarity. It was as if he didn't know who she was. His eyes looked at her the way someone would look at a stranger or someone they were meeting for the first time. It was strange and it made Eleanor uncomfortable.

"Yes, what's wrong?" His voice was the same as she had heard before but there was a certain distance to it now.

Without taking her eyes off Vanitas, she handed him the paper.

He looked at it as if he didn't know what he was supposed to do with it when, in the first place, it was Vanitas himself who had given her the paper.

Vanitas unfolded the paper and ran his eyes over the content.

From where she was positioned, she could see that he was running his eyes on the contents of the paper. 'Wait, is he reading it?' Eleanor wondered. That was what it looked like to her. And if that was true, then was he lying back then when he said he couldn't understand them? Everything was strange and Eleanor was feeling spooked by it all.

Just then Vanitas folded the piece of paper and put it back in his coat pocket.

He then walked past Eleanor without saying anything to her.

She was shocked beyond belief. She felt that Vanitas was acting cold to her. What was really going on? It almost felt as if he was avoiding her.

'Now that I think about it, he hasn't used my name ever since the battle began, has he?' It was almost as if he had forgotten her.

Just as that cold suspicion racked her, she heard Vanitas speak from behind her.

"Hey, Eleanor, we should head back now. Everything's over and fine. And I don't think we will likely meet any monsters on the way."

She turned around so fast that her legs sent the black ash underneath flying into the air up to her knees.

"Y-Yes!" Saying that she walked towards where Vanitas was squatting, in front of Dominique and Captain Elina, as relief washed over her. Vanitas had called her by her name. He hadn't forgotten Eleanor. Her uneasiness, although not completely gone, abated significantly.

The two then returned from the forest as Eleanor walked limply while Vanitas tied Elina to his back and carried Dominique in his arms the whole way.