9 Killed By A King

Earlier. When the Battle had just begun.

"I only need a minute!" Seth had transformed into his demonic dragon state and was currently flying at a speed much faster than the demon's own speed, if whatever Natu was doing was going to help him fight without scaring the nearby village, he didn't mind running away from this demon for now. Anything to help his leader grow up without the fear of being hunted down for a reason he didn't even know, staring at the ground beneath him he had set up normal flame-trap formations that would instantly activate and create a miniature explosion when the demon passed, these explosions were limited by Seth himself so that the explosions and sounds wouldn't be too noticeable. The demon was completely unaffected by the explosions and flew through them like they were drops of rain on his skin" You should know of my 'Antiheat Defense', with your known ability to control flame you must have come against it before" Seth stayed silent and stared at the demon with a cold look in his eyes, seeing that Seth was not saying anything back the demon guessed his assumption was correct and smiled "So you have. Then you should know you cannot beat me!" The demon in front of him charged forward and drew a metallic, black sword - the demon then thrust the sword toward's Seth's heart. "How are you near the top of power whilst all you do is run!"

"You really are an idiot..." Whilst the demon charged down at Seth the force he felt from flying, the path of the sword that he was currently anticipating was all shattered by a ringing sound that sounded like metal had clashed with metal "To think you would actually use a weapon against me..." Seth and the demon had completely stopped moving and were both now suspended in midair, Seth had caught the pitch black sword in his hand with ease and was currently holding it in place, the demon was still holding on to the sword shocked at the fact that the man in front of him had actually caught his sword with his hand alone, how hard was his body? Frightened the demon immediately let go of the sword and flew backwards a long distance away. "What kind of monster are you that you can stop a Furious-Fire level sword from The Underforge with your bare hands?!" Seth stared at him with the same cold glare he had been looking at him with this entire time then looked in the sword in his hands "A Furious-Fire level? Nothing-" Before finishing his sentence he had taken the black sword and used his knee to shatter it into two pieces, throwing the two pieces to the ground and staring back at the demon "-of this level can even cause a dent in my skin when Im in this form. I went through hell to gain this transformation..." As Seth said this he felt a faint ripple and a giant barrier appear around the village. "Huh?" Seth had forgotten he had to buy a minute for Natu but had done it anyway.

X: "Natu? Was that you?"

N: "Yeah, I finally finished"

S: "What is it?"

N: "It's a visual impairing barrier, from the inside of the village they should feel like there is currently a massive storm. The sounds coming from the thunder and rain inside the barrier should stop them from hearing anything whilst the actual thunder and rain should stop them from seeing anything, from their perspective it looks like the storm goes as far as the horizon. They can't hear or see anything outside the barrier. I set the magical essence forming the barrier to block any kind of magic waves too. We can go all out!"

I: "Finally! Thanks"

D: "Iona, let's go!"

S: "Finally! This guy's been provoking me for so long!"

X: "Thanks Natu."

N: "No problem Miss!"

"Well now that my friend there has set up that barrier, I can go all out, prepare to die demon" The demon was terrified at his physical strength and defence but he still felt he had a chance of winning because of his 'Antiheat Defense' - from the records that he had read 'The Soaring Calamity' had relied on flame-type attacks and his physical body to fight his way to the top of the ranks, whilst he did underestimate his physical body he still had his 'Antiheat Defense' "If I'm fast enough, I can pierce one of the softer parts of his body, either his eyes or his mouth are my only options - it seems as if I can no longer hold back, with such a powerful foe I will probably have to release my full power." The demon's aura began to grow darker and denser, it also began to grow in size to about twice the size of Seth, a ten foot monster now stared down at Seth "Human, in this form I am twice as fast and twice as powerful - you will no longer be able to keep up with my speed" The demon disappeared and before Seth could react he had been sent flying into a nearby small mountain, instantly being buried deep beneath the ground "'Aura Manifestation'? I've heard of it in the past but I never knew they would send a demon who had reached such a high level, if that Demonic King was actually a good judge of our powers shouldn't he have sent this guy to go deal with Xion?" Seth flew out of the crater and looked around him but it wasn't long before he was sent crashing down once again into the ground.

"I told you! You cannot keep up with me when I have activated this form!" The demon dove deep into the ground where they had sent Seth and was extremely confident. This demon had been the strongest that was sent, whilst the Demonic King did fight against them in the past he had only paid most of his attention to 'Azu' and Seth, who had fought until one of them had died and the other had almost died, these two were the ones he had fought with the most so he had given an exceptionally strong demon to go against him. As the demon was drilling through the ground he saw the end of the hole Seth had created but there was no one there, noticing the demon instantly stopped and began to scan the earth around him. "You could barely fight me in your previous form, twice as strong, three times as strong, ten times as strong..." Seth appeared in front of the demon and thrust his hand out to grab their throat, the appearance of Seth and him thrusting out his hand was too fast for the demon to register then react. The demon was now being held by the neck, whilst Seth's hand was smaller he had used a massive amount of aura to go around the demon's neck and hold him in place, in this position the demon felt helpless. "How can you be so powerful?! Even when I am in this form!" Seth began tearing through the hole with the demon's neck still in his hand until he reached the surface "You all are so weak... Compared to back then... There's nothing you guys can do to us." Seth was now suspended in midair holding onto the demon's neck staring it in the eye with the same cold glare.

"To the outside world I just look like a man who has a strong body and very powerful flame magic, but their all wrong, only my team and some others I trust know this but... my flame isn't a normal flame. Demon..." The demon looked into that cold stare "My flame is hellflame..." The demon's eyes widened as it instantly began to struggle to try and break free of Seth's hold over him. Hellflame and flame magic are two extremely different things, some mages can constantly practice with magic and perfect it to its absolute peak - leading to extremely powerful and hot flame magic, but hellflame was different, hellflame was a flame one directly took in their own bodies, transforming them forever to allow for permanent fusion with the flame, anyone too weak for the flame would instantly be incinerated from the inside, this was why so little people held hellflame, they didn't want to risk their lives without even being able to test such a power. People who did fuse with hellflame though would be able to freely use it - it was much more powerful than even the flame used by practitioners who trained in it for centuries, plus users of hellflame were naturally connected to it, meaning that they didn't have to expend any energy to use it. The demon knew this so he instantly began to struggle.

"Lets see how much that 'Antiheat Defense' you're so proud of fares against my hellfire" The demon couldn't even slightly break the hold Seth had on him so the only way he had a chance to survive right now was to focus all of his strength and focus into his 'Antiheat Defense', the ring of flame behind Seth blazed as it began to expand, when it was big enough to fit the demon in its centre it began to circulate around the demon. "Hellflame: Destructive Encirclement" The circle of flame surrounding the demon furiously expanded, creating a miniature midair tornado of hellfire with the demon in its centre. The demon let out little grunts at first but they quickly turned into ear-piercing screams and sky-shaking roars, Seth just watched with cold eyes as the demon in front of him was incinerated. The demon was incinerated then looked down with extreme pain in his heart, his fists clenched. "'You are all so weak'? 'You are all so weak'?! 'There is nothing you guys can do'..." Seth looked up to the night sky "I... don't deserve to say those words..." Seth had begun to think about those words that he had just said.

In the distant past, in the Demonic Realm was a party of 6 fighting against the Demonic King. This party was desperately fighting to kill the Demonic King and the King, whilst knowing he would not die in this fight, was still cautious - he knew this young man in front of him could wield the powers of light and dark simultaneously, if given the chance he could cause a mortal injury to him and force him to go into a healing process, meaning that he couldn't physically invade other realms by himself, being forced into a position of weakness was a massive humiliation for someone as exalted as him, plus this party of humans had ruined his plans time and time again. He had lost all the generals he had sent to kill these humans so he stood up to do it himself. This battle had already gone on for a day and the party of humans were beginning to grow exhausted, Iona's supply of magic was nearing it's end so she had to use her magic sparingly. The demon king was seven feet tall and had 2 horns, the sword he held in his hand was massive and was extremely sharp, he had let this sword bathe in his aura for centuries, it had taken his malevolent aura and could easily incinerate another's aura and magic supply just by slicing through them. Any aura or magic absorbed would return to him, so whilst this party of 6 humans were growing more and more tired, he grew more and more powerful.

DK: "You humans are no longer in a state to fight me, it's impressive that you've managed to last this long."

A: "You really are strong, I might actually might die here."

'Azu' had been taken to his limits already, both him and his team had been fighting for too long - their bodies were stiff and they could barely think. The Demonic King had been fighting with them for a little over a day and was getting tired of the constant back-and-forths, this fight had turned boring for him hours ago - The beginning of the fight moved extremely fast and there were constant clashes made by both 'Azu' and his team.

DK: "You've killed my generals, now I see how. Your ability as a leader might exceed even my own, or even that Celestial King's... it's a pity to see you die."

In the face of his imminent death, 'Azu' smiled.

A: "Come get me then monster..."

The Demonic King looked at him with frustration but immediately calmed down and looked to his teammates then smiled.

DK: "I know your kind very well, you lead your comrades extremely well, almost as if your minds are linked - such a connection between people can only be compared to that between family members. You may not carea bout dying, human. But..."

The Demonic King smiled and charged straight past 'Azu', whilst his teammates couldn't comprehend the speed of this charge 'Azu' could and instantly recognised what the Demonic King was targetting. He charged straight for the younger Xion.

DK: "I WOULD NOT SAY THE SAME FOR YOUR COMRADES!!!"

A: "DEMON!"

X: "Leader!"

'Azu' charged straight towards Xion but he could not make it in time. The sound of a body being impaled and blood flying in the air was the only things 'Azu' could make out and he stopped moving, the shock had stopped his body.

S: "That's not funny... demon... you can't go for girls like that..."

In the last moment, Seth had jumped in the way of the sword and had all of his aura and magic drawn out. The Demonic King saw this and pulled his sword out of Seth who then fell to the ground and fainted in a pool of his own blood.

A: "Seth!!!"

With anger in his eyes, he charged towards the Demonic King and began an all-out battle of clashes, leading him away from the area where his teammates were.

A: "Take Seth and get out of here!!! I'm dying here alone!"

That was the last thing they heard from their leader before he pushed the Demonic King extremely far away where they kept fighting. Iona immediately used the rest of her magic power to heal Seth's wounds - a scar was left where he was impaled but he was still barely alive.

X: "Seth!"

I: "Miss Xion. he'll be fine don't worry."

D: "Calm down, the leader told us to flee!"

I: "We're just gonna leave him there to die?!"

D: "I don't want to accept it either! But this is a direct order from him!!!"

N: "It doesn't matter! The only way we're getting out of here is with the leader!"

X: "We can't move with Seth like this!"

They all began to argue amongst themselves as Seth began to wake up, he had his eyes closed but he had been listening for some time now.

S: "That guy... really does intend to die here..."

Everyone looked down at Seth but they couldn't show their happiness that he was fine, because their leader would undoubtedly die without their help.

S: "He's never been one to give up on something as soon as he's said it."

Sitting up, ignoring the pain he looked into the distance, all that filled his vision was a hellish, red outland with a violet moon in the sky, this Realm was in a state of perpetual night with the only light being the violet moon, artificial lights created by demons or the numerous flames that were as common as foliage in this realm.

S: "I'm going..."

X: "What?! No!"

I: "Not in that state!"

N: "We need to help him!"

D: "The leader told us to leave!"

S: "I can't leave!"

Everyone went silent at this shout from Seth.

S: "You guy's can go. I'm staying here to die with him, I told him that we were strong enough to win any battle in the past... but here I am... running from a fight. I can't live with that if he dies..."

Standing up he looked in the distant shockwaves that were being generated by the fight with that their leader was fighting.

S: "See those shockwaves? That's our leader fighting, for us... it annoys me so much, that guy never cares for his life and just jumps in alone by himself. Not anymore, a guy like that..."

Seth turned around and smiled to his teammates.

S: "Is one I would happily follow into my death."

Seth, with a burst of speed instantly disappeared and flew towards where the battle was.

X: "He's... He's gone..."

Natu looked at the ground where Seth stood on and with a firm resolve in his eyes, he also disappeared and flew towards his leader.

I: "Natu!"

Iona flew after Natu to try and bring him back.

D: "Iona, damn it!"

Dezrin quickly followed behind Iona.

X: "Why?! I'm not leaving by myself!"

Xion quickly chased after her team.

In a hellish landscape with fire's rising from each crack on the ground there was a battle raging on. "You've improved! The rage you feel is empowering you!" 'Azu' stared at this massive demon in front of him and had felt extremely exhausted, by now he had been cut by that sword many times whilst the Demonic King was virtually uninjured. "Your will impresses me. Your power is exponential and your ability to lead is unmatched, given a couple more centuries, you would most likely be able to rule all the realms with no problems at all. Sadly you are still young, you haven't even lived for a century yet. 'Azu' smiled "Realms? Conquer them?" the fury in his eyes still rolling around like crashing waves in a storm "I couldn't care less about that. Living with them was all I needed to be satisfied with my life. They ain't dyin cause of me..." The Demonic King frowned "Such a fragile ideology... you'll never reach the heights of power like that with something like that holding you back - our talk is over. Your life ends here." The Demonic King charged forward and thrust at 'Azu' with his sword, 'Azu' readied his fists to continue the fight but he was exhausted, he then had an idea and let down his fists. The Demonic King had seen this and smiled "Accepting your death like a warrior? Fine! You are one of the finest I have fought! Die with honour!"

The pain in his stomach and his aura and magic being slowly sucked into the sword. 'Azu' had been completely impaled, with both hands on the sword he spat blood out of his mouth. The Demonic King smiled at his victory and saw a distant figure approach then stop in midair, with a shocked expression on his face. "L-Leader?" 'Azu' looked towards this figure, it was his good friend Seth, seconds later 4 more figures appeared next to him with the same expressions on their faces. With blood still flowing from his stomach and his mouth he smiled at them and looked straight at the Demon King "Hey... Demon... Lemme tell ya something... Innate abilities..." With a bright light and a furious release of darkness his gloves began to push against the sword in his hands, one left, one right. "Don't require aura or magic energy." With the force coming from both directions the sword slowly shattered and broke in half, with half of the sword still impaled in his stomach he grabbed onto the King's horn and used the propulsion from his dark energy to forcefully rip it off of his head. With a shattered horn the Demonic King began letting out agonizing screams of pain and he looked at the dying human in front of him. "You- You!!" The Demon King's rage exploded forth and kicked 'Azu' into the ground below, creating a crater hundreds of metres deep. After confirming he was about do die he immediately fled. This entire exchange happened in less time than the team could react, by the time 'Azu' had been shot into the ground the Demonic King had already disappeared. With tears in all of their eyes they charged down towards that crater. "Azu!"