35: Demon Hunter
"Quick, quick, quick! Damn it! I'm almost there, hold on, please!"
I can't be late; if I'm late, everyone will die. I can't let anyone die. It will take me at least five minutes to initially control the damn awakened demon. That's too much time, I don't have that kind of leeway, but what's that...
Finally! I arrived on time!
That's what I thought at that moment. Now, at this instant, I saw the demon strike Ludwin with his scythe.
The boy defended himself with both arms; his armor creaked under the scythe, breaking in two. His arms were nearly severed as he was thrown to the side.
Ludwin was now unconscious, with both arms almost completely severed. Blood was pouring from his arms and his shattered armor.
I looked at the demon again to see him attacking Sasha. She almost ended up like Ludwin, but Sunny cut off one of the demon's legs at that moment.
He cut off its front leg, which had been cracked during its battle against the corrupt demon from the depths.
The scythe that was heading toward Sasha lost its line of attack and grazed her neck. Sasha's eyes were wide open from her near-death experience.
I ran toward them while watching Nephis barely scratch the demon's steel armor.
I noticed something else on the battlefield and knew what I had to do.
"NEPHIS, DISTRACT THE DEMON!" I screamed with all my might, my voice desperate as I saw how the demon, much smarter than its lesser counterparts, regained its balance by shifting its weight to its hind legs despite losing one of its limbs.
Its claw now aimed at Sasha again, and she raised her shield, but I knew it would be in vain. Her shield would be pierced, and she would be cut in two.
A moment before the scythe reached her, I stepped in front of the demon. Between its scythe and Sasha, a full-body shield appeared, intercepting the attack.
Even with two cores reinforcing my body, the attack was so powerful that my arms nearly broke. The shield cracked, and I was thrown back until I hit a tree.
I saw Nephis turn her head toward me for a second before returning to the battle. She seemed to understand what I meant by distracting the demon and kept fighting it.
Dodging and attacking in vain from time to time. Sasha and Sunny did the same. Everyone was moments away from being pierced by its claw or cut in two by its scythe. They were truly monsters born in a chaotic world.
When I hit the black tree, I remembered a scene from a novel I had read in my past life. It wasn't a complete memory since I didn't know what novel it was, what it was about, or the context of the scene.
But what I remembered was enough. In the scene, it described how a being that summoned a giant tree, which absorbed the life of an entire city, was attacked by people with special powers.
The characters, who only needed to prevent the tree's power from being channeled, had to kill the monster and destroy the tree. But that being was stubborn and protected the tree with all its might.
One character had the idea to attack the tree with a ranged attack to see if the monster would get distracted by the tree and leave an opening to be attacked.
It was a silly idea, yes. But maybe, this tree, which had taken and brainwashed this demon to be its guardian, worked the same way as the tree in that novel.
I had nothing to lose by trying, so I got up with the strength I had left and used a large part of my armor to create a big, sharp sword.
I raised the sword, intending to stab it into the dark trunk of the giant tree.
...
The demon was fast, strong, and tough. No attack the sleepers dealt could seriously hurt it. They were destined to die on its cold, sharp scythes.
The demon received Nephis's attack without paying much attention to the damage it could cause, trusting in its strong steel.
Then, the demon struck with its claw at the annoying woman who dodged its attacks all the time, like a fast cockroach.
On its back, there was another cockroach that seemed to dissolve into its shadow all the time. It didn't pay much attention and only used its claw occasionally while attending to it with its hind legs.
It received a hard blow from the other woman, who was strong and fast. It hated this girl a lot, who had already escaped its scythes twice.
It sent a third blow with its scythe. The blow was fast and precise. The girl was about to lose her head to the demon.
Surprisingly, the demon stopped its attack. Sasha was ready for her death when she noticed the change in the demon, now looking beyond her back or any of its current attackers.
She followed its gaze with a quick turn and saw her friend, now covered in bruises and blood on his bare torso, raising a large sword about to stab the giant tree.
The three sleepers fighting the demon saw him and none knew what he intended to do.
But the demon let out a great roar as it lunged with great speed toward his friend, ignoring everyone else.
Its speed was beastly, its eyes burning with a red flame full of hatred for the miserable creature trying to harm the tree.
As the boy was lowering his sword, a few centimeters from stabbing the tree trunk, something else happened with the demon, which was now less than a dozen meters away.
The demon abruptly stopped its advance, noticing a black sword protruding from its chest.
The sword was pushed forward and backward by a pale boy with a beautiful white cloth covering his body.
The sword embedded in the demon's chest was so black that it absorbed light, contrasting sharply with the figure wielding it.
Everyone, including the dying demon and the boy stabbing a sword into the trunk, witnessed a macabrely beautiful scene.
A pale boy dressed in white and gold, his hands gripping a long, eerie black sword. The sword he wielded was embedded in the torso of a giant demon.
Everyone was stunned for a second, and when the loud crash of a massive steel mass hitting the ground was heard, except for the boy with the sword in the trunk, they seemed to wake from a brief trance.
Everyone had forgotten about Isaac, who bore the strongest memory among them—a transcendent-rank sword.
Before the boy with the black sword could speak, or before Nephis or her companions could say anything, Jonathan shouted.
"NEPHIS!! PLEASE HEAL LUDWIN, HE'S DYING!!" His voice carried desperate urgency toward the girl in white armor.
She took a few seconds to process what had happened and then rushed to where her battle ally, Ludwin, was.
Sunny saw this, knowing what Nephis would do, and followed closely despite being injured. He ran after her.
Sunny didn't like the feeling that began to burn in his chest every time she used her Aspect and tortured herself to use it.
Ludwin had already lost a lot of blood, but Nephis could still save him with her miraculous powers.
She activated her ability once more. She placed her hands on the two arms barely attached to Ludwin's body by some strips of flesh and ignited her white flames.
Despite feeling almost blinding pain from using her abilities so much, she bit her lip as tears streamed from her eyes from the incredible pain she felt.
Sunny watched her, and something in the darkness of his heart moved, making him feel a slight burn at this sight.
Ludwin's arms began to writhe, and new flesh, muscle, and bone started to form. Everything was joining his arms to his body and healing all his wounds.
After about a dozen seconds, Nephis deactivated her ability and collapsed from the pain.
Her Aspect was powerful, but its flaw made her feel like her body was being set on fire every time she used her powers. Although she had trained to endure such pain since her defeat against Ludwin at the academy, using her powers so much and so frequently made her faint from the searing pain of her body being incinerated.
Sunny saw Nephis collapse and quickly caught her before she hit the ash-covered ground.
He looked at her face, now covered in tears and with blood trickling from her lower lip.
Her beautiful face, despite being dirty and bloody, still looked dazzling to Sunny.
He held her with both arms and, feeling that he too was about to pass out soon, sat down. Still holding Nephis, he knelt, sat in an uncomfortable position to faint but still did.
He laid Nephis's head and part of her back on his lap. Nephis's head touched his stomach, which hurt like hell, but he endured it.
He looked one last time at the beautiful face of the changing star, and his eyes closed with a beautiful view before falling into darkness.
The rest succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep where they stood.
...
High on one of the countless branches of the giant tree, a weak and fragile girl sat, crying and hugging her knees.
Many hours had passed since Nephis and the rest went to fight the demon and since Jonathan told her not to move and that he would bring their friends back.
She was angry with herself for being so weak and only a burden to the others. She hated herself for having to be protected by others and not being able to do anything to help those who helped her.
She cried from the helplessness she felt for being so useless. But before she could condemn herself further, she heard several beings jumping and making noise as they headed toward her place of lament.