A Demon's Reality

“Release me and I’ll grant their wish right now!”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it is, Yuki. I take their heads and we’re finished here.”

“…Yumi…”

She stared down at Yuki in his cage. “What you going to do? Preach to me about the good in something that isn’t even real? This is nothing more than a game, there is no morality here.” Yuki held silent, apparently unable to find an argument to take against Yumi. ‘I’m surprised he’s still playing the pacifist even in here.’

However, even if Yuki had nothing to say to her, that didn’t mean the demons remained silent. The Lord seemed to step in to fill in the blanks that Yumi kept Yuki from filling in for her. “He’s not speaking to any sort of reservation about killing, but the nature of my clan.”

This suddenly didn’t sound like something that she wanted to hear. She hadn’t even heard them yet and already had the feeling. Yumi held back a sigh, preparing to listen as they wouldn’t be stopped.

“What he speaks of is our wish to die in battle, not simply die. If we just wanted to commit suicide, we could have done that a long time ago. But our clan is made up of warriors and every one of us seeks one great battlefield after another.”

Things definitely became more complicated. That sigh came out now. “There are plenty of Hunters in the world, no doubt more powerful than me. Find one of them that can slaughter you.”

“What did you think this invitation was about? We’ve been seeking for more than two hundred years.”

“I doubt you’ve been trying that hard. I can’t imagine there being no one in this world that can kill you.”

A rumbling erupted through the floors turning Yumi’s eyes down. She took a half step back, not very clear what was happening. The longer that it persisted the more of an unsettled feeling grew in her stomach. ‘I don’t think I’m going to like this…’ Wood planks warped and split under an unseen pressure. Rings of stress and damage spread out from the center. “Yuki…give me my powers, NOW!”

“I already turned off my Field.”

The seat that the Demon Lord had been casually seated upon disappeared into particles, not as though he summoned them, but ripped apart elementary particle by particle. “I’ve never seen a destructive force like this before!” Yumi rapidly summoned her barriers all around her. Layers upon layers folded together interlocking tightly as the destructive wave expanded. Her power was nothing near what it should be and she had no clue if it could even hold up against it. She just kept adding more intricate layers on her barrier, thickening it for the assault to come.

But even that wasn’t enough to prepare for the wave. In what had been a slow moving disintegration of the floor explosively shot out. Everything around her was gone in an instant. The beautiful crafted house was gone. Below her floating barrier was a crater that grew out of the expanding destruction. And at first, she thought she had gotten through the worst of it.

Yet waves of power crashed upon her barrier ripping apart pieces with ease. There wasn’t enough of a struggle on its part. It was like a torch to butter, effortless and lethal. The only struggle was from Yumi trying to strengthen what remained of her barrier, but even that wasn’t enough. Holes quickly appeared unable to be patched up. The raw destructive force leaked through assaulting her body directly. Her bones cracked and muscles ripped apart at the very presence. ‘It…feels like…I’m being crushed, pulled apart and exploded…I can’t…’

A shadow appeared in front of her suddenly blocking the lethal energy bringing her relief. She could breathe and witness the annihilation below. All that remained untouched was Yuki, the Demon Lord and the two of them.

It stopped.

Suddenly, an absolute stillness came over the region. All destruction ceased and then everything began reconstructing itself. The crater grew back somehow, filling in quickly with the dirt and then trees and mountain. Seconds passed resorting everything back to the original state.

Yumi dropped to the ground in pain once more.

Chapter 408 – A Demon’s Reality

Recovered again thanks to Yuki, he was released to stand next to Yumi as they stood before the Demon Lord. Yumi could feel her body still shaking from witnessing the power. ‘Even at full strength I wouldn’t even be able to dent something like that! And he wants me to kill him in combat?!’ She still didn’t even understand what happened. It was as if he was a god, bringing destruction and rebirth in two separate hands. “What did you do?”

“I exerted my power.”

“Exerted? Are you saying you can destroy things by breathing?”

The Lord leaned back a little in his seat taking a full moment to gather himself for Yumi. “What I did was a crass unfiltered demonstration of my power.”

“Huh?

Yuki stepped in for the explanation in place of the demon. “What he’s saying is that he did an uncontrolled power up. Meaning he was freely allowing his power to just release pure and raw with no concentration or focus to what it did. Which became a pure destruction wave.”

“Are you trying to show off?” She still didn’t fully understand it. Yuki made it easier to process, but there were still a lot of missing pieces to the whole point. She hoped that they would be filling them in soon.

“My Lord was making a point. Actions are easier to trust than words, which can lie. You didn’t believe in the power my Lord possesses, so feeling it first hand was the easiest way for you to understand the gulf.”

“Even with all that power, a sneak attack in an unguarded moment can just easily kill you still.”

He shook his head at Yumi, as she clearly didn’t realize the difference. “You suggested before that you could just kill us and be done with it. While that might be true of myself, you would not be able to kill my Lord even like that.”

“Now who’s lying with words.” A bold and arrogant claim such as that almost seemed fitting from a demon, especially the Lord of all demons. She crossed her arms in doubt as the demon wanted to interject, but was stopped. To her surprise, she got an invitation from the Lord himself. “Are you telling me to kill you?”

“If you think you can.”

Yumi tilted her head to the right trying to figure him out. He taunted her to kill him even though he wanted to die as a warrior. ‘He’s really that confident of his power? That he is unkillable by me?’ Staring at the demon, she tried to get any sort of read on him. But he was an intimidating stonewall that wouldn’t move. The piercing cold stare of him that egged her on to do it, also instilled hesitation and doubt. It told her that she couldn’t do it, but toyed with her to try anyway.

She couldn’t move. Her body still couldn't stop shaking. It remembered the power that he used too well. It didn’t matter what words she used, none of them could convince her body that she had any hope. And not even the slightest sliver of hope. It was a completely zero percent chance, if values could be negative, they would be.

“I’m not at full strength right now, thanks to your friend.”

“While true, all you might be able to do is scratch me. For a reference that might help you, if I’m a ten, he is a one.”

While she didn’t want to believe such boasts, it almost felt like an underestimation of his power. It worried her that she didn’t even see his peak. ‘There’s nothing I can do about this. What’s the point of any of this then?’ She looked over at Yuki, reminded that her goal of finding him was satisfied. In the end, that was really all that mattered to her. She could just leave. “Why did you even bother then if you knew there was no one that could compete with you? You know I’m not in your league.”

“We didn’t know until you fought. We heard rumors about you, but needed to find out the true depth of your power.”

“Well you found out and now I’m leaving.” Yumi turned around waving to them wishing to just put it all behind them. She didn’t want to see them again.

However, the doors to the exit of the chamber closed. The Lord didn’t seem to be done with them. Yumi looked over her shoulder back to him. She felt a new unsettling feeling developing. “You have potential though, so I will train you.”

“Eh?!” croaked Yumi, unable to stand straight up listening to him. She turned to face him directly. “I’m not interested.”

“I can make you the most powerful Hunter in the world!”

“Still don’t care. I don’t have any desire to be the strongest. I have enough for what I need.”

Then the cat demon stepped out in front, standing between them. He looked far more recovered than Yumi felt. “I know that’s not true. While fighting a truth that can’t be expressed through words is revealed. And I could see it in your attacks. You seek power. You desperately crave it.”

Yumi glared at the demon, narrowing her eyes. “Stop there before I actually get back that urge to kill you.”

“You’re running.”

“Silence! You don’t know me and your babble about truth in fighting is nonsense. You’re seeing what you want to see because you want that stupid warrior’s death. I’m not the one you’re looking for. So stop before you make me angry.”

“It’s the truth, Hunter. You will have to face that one day.”

She heard enough of his ramblings and turned away again. A closed door wasn’t going to be enough to stop her. If they wanted to keep her they would need to use force. That much she made clear in her walk as she pulled along Yuki. “We’re leaving, Yuki.” Throwing out her hand, she pushed open the heavy doors with her power.

In the halls of the mansion, they reminded her that she had no clue where she was going. It felt like they were almost mocking her like even the house wanted to keep her from leaving. But that wasn’t going to be enough either to stop her.

Generating a gravity orb in front of her, she ripped a hole in the wall crushed under the pressure and presented her with a door out. “I’m going to be glad to have this place far behind me.” She hovered in the air picking up Yuki to take with her.

While being carried out, he looked back at the house. “You know I knew the way out. You didn’t have to wreck their house.”

“The demon can create things from nothing, a hole like that is meaningless to him.”

“It’s still bad manners,” said the cat demon from Yumi’s right.

Jumping in the air away from the demon, she tried to keep her shock to a minimum. ‘I didn’t even notice him there…’ She ground her teeth getting a feeling that things weren’t as over as she would have liked them to be. He wanted another fight she assumed, one that would end with her death she knew. Yumi looked around cautiously for an escape. “I have no good manners to give for those that want to kill me.”

He gave a small chuckle to Yumi’s empty bravado. It still seemed to amuse him. Though he wasn’t giving her any signs that he would leave her alone either. “I guess that is fair. I have a promise to keep.”

Yumi summoned up her barrier as best as she could manage in her state. “I thought you wanted a fair fight. No honor after all?”

“No, I do have honor and it’s not what you think. I shall be traveling with you. I’m not going to miss my chance to finish our battle once you’ve recovered your strength.”

“What?!”