Chapter 10

(Osfor POV)

“You hear that?” I said to Greetman

“Yes I do…they are getting closer” he replied

We were heading back to Alsa, with every mage and warrior that survived the fight. Our forces are not enough to even be a hindrance to the Demonic army that is coming our way…more than eight hundred thousand strong…

Our forces were slowly moving, many were injured and suffering from the after effects of the prolonged fight…

We still don’t know why did the demons suddenly decided to attack…but they, seemingly going strong even after the loss they suffered at Astora and Astarte and here, still decided to continue on with the attack…

I find it strange…the last time they abandoned the breach, was just after seeing that man using Asura’s eye, and now, not even a dragon was enough to drive them back…

Whatever…It seems that we will have some reinforcement…I just hope they make it in time…

It takes a long time to travel from country to country, but the reports said that the forces are riding a flying fortress…hehehe never in my life had I thought I would be able to see such a thing…I would really love to see the mechanisms and device within it…

“What are you thinking about?” said Takeda

“Nothing really” I replied “Mostly it is just about Asura…I hope he is not angry at me too…it would be quite hard to convince him to let me do some research on his new toys…”

I looked at Greetman and saw a look of melancholy on his face…he probably still not believing that his disciple is still alive…considering that Zephra stone and all

Well let’s just hope he is wrong and Asura is truly still alive…and that the man that helped us in this war was truly him.

***

“Hey there” I said to the girl kneeling in front of my throne.

She was the one that gave me the most trouble that day…the only one that matched me before I became…this.

A stunning figure to say the least…quite beautiful and very attractive…yet still this is not what made her the warrior she is.

She was Lori of the Verda clan…wearing the same armor of that day without the helmet…

“My lord…” said the girl still kneeling and looking down.

“Don’t…” I said I really am starting to dislike this lord thing…”Call me by my name…and rise I am not a king nor a lord nor am I tactless enough to have one of my…friends kneeling to me.”

The girl smiled a bit and stood up, she looked me in the eyes and in a moment she had a small blush on her face, a blush that I made sure to notice, and not say anything about.

“Asura” she said and the blush on her face became more apparent. “I want to thank you for everything you did to my countrymen…but no matter the words I say I know that they will not be enough”

“No. your words are more than enough…worry not Lori. This was supposed to happen…So tell me, what can I do for you?” I said

The girl then fidgeted a bit, probably not knowing what to say and finally calmed down to say

“Nothing really…I just wanted to say my thanks…if it was not for your help…I would have lost everything…thank you once more”

The girl looked a bit disappointed while turning to walk away.

“Wait…” I said

The girl then turned and looked at me…passionately…

“Once everything is over…Let’s talk.” I said

The girl then smiled and bowed lightly then turned to walk away.

“Finally alone…” I said to no one in particular

The humanoids were still doing their job at cleaning up the room and have just finished.

The room looked much better but still would use some furniture.

“How much time would it need for all the humanoids to become usable?” I asked

“Not much. The core of this city is using a similar magic to the eye you have. It absorbs mana from the outer world and would gradually charge them. Most of the power that the city uses is for its flight. The Overflow will be used to charge the cannons and the forces within. By the time we reach our final destination…it should be fully charged.” Said Ashura

“Very good…” I said

“But that is not enough…”Said the devil.

“What do you mean?” I replied

If someone saw me speaking alone they would think me mad. But it seems that I became quite proficient at it.

“The power of the overlord is not so meager to be fought with but these things, and you humans…you will need something much stronger than this. If you could have used that dragon then you would have probably been able to win this…however without his help. You are doomed to fail.”

“Silence!” said Ashura. “I know more about these beings than you, devil! The soldiers are surly not enough to stop an overlord but if you, Asura, use the aspects then you are certain to win.”

I thought about it for a moment. Although I never met this Overlord I still fought against many devil lords at once using the god aspect.

It was hard that day at the crucible, but still I managed to defend myself for quite a long time…this in addition to being in my regular body. I think I can exert more energy and power, and have an even better result than my death that day…

“Enough of that” I said “We will handle that hurdle once we get there. Let’s just focus on what is important shall we.”

“What would be more important than defeating the devil lord?” said Ashura

“No. we need to get to him first…he still have a Devil lord with him and an army above all. You think we can kill him without having to pass by his forces?” I asked Ashura

Who, then replied

“We will use the soldiers of the fortress…”

I, then said

“Don’t you give them more credit than they should? I mean, they are like machines…they certainly did great against the gores, but those were mindless beasts…when fighting devils I think that they would be hard pressed in the matter…”

“…if only I had that thing…” Ashura said

“What thing?” I replied

“No…nothing, it is something that only exits in Lagaris…the only thing that can bring the soldiers to their fullest potential. Now they are not even a tenth of their original power…”

…

“Anyway we will have to take advantage of everyone that is with us in this fortress…it is going to be bloody…”

Once I said the words, I sensed dark magic a bit far in the distance…

“It seems that we are finally here…” I said

I closed my eyes and began to ‘see’ the world outside. Even though I am still sitting back at the throne room.

It took a few moments for my vision to clear up, then I saw it.

Thousands upon thousands of demons and devils.

Devil and demons of all kinds winged and horned or even without, greater ones, lesser ones and normal ones.

Their size and shape differed from one another…some were giants and some were the size of imps.

There were even some strange monsters with them. Used for carrying devils on top of them or just dragging giant weapons of war.

Some of the weaponry looked ancient…like trebuchets and giant mounted crossbows…

There was however a monster in the middle of this sea of demons.

It had six great legs and had a gaping and disfigured mouth…it was red as blood and was marching slowly while carrying a single person that was seated on a throne of sorts.

I got ‘closer’ to see what it was and the moment our eyes met.

The gray old man grinned and the vision was cut.

“He saw me…” I said

“Good. At least he will now be expecting us.” Said Ashura “No humans were doing battle with the demons this time. Load them up.” he added

I grinned to his remark and did as he said.

That time when we came to help the Astartians, we were unable to use the ‘heavy’ artillery. Due to the gores doing battle with the humans, we had to use bolts made of holy light that was originated from Ashura himself…

Now that there is no such condition

“Give them hell!” I said

My right eye began to shine gold. Absorbing the energies of the world with an astonishing speed.

Every ounce of energy and mana that I absorbed was channeled directly toward the core of the fortress.

The fortress itself can absorb mana but with the addition of my own I can make the bolts more potent, as the fortress would accept me overwriting the basic spells and using my own texts to formulate new ones. After all I am the new administrator.

The red headed man came inside the throne room running saying

“They saw us! They are sending huge amount of flying creatures, wyverns and such, to intercept us!”

“Don’t worry…I got this” I said

I tightened my grip on the hand rests of the throne due to the enormity of the mana that I was currently directing.

Once everything was set.

The fortress began to rumble.

On the giant walls there were some standing structures, looking like giant towers.

There were about a hundred of these things all over the fortress.

Every single one of these was a canon that is able to use the mana within the fortress’s core to fire off spells and bolts of its own.

Most of them were in a non-working condition, probably due to the fight that was the reason of this fortress’s fall

But about a thirty or so were still functional.

The cannons shot a modified and miniature version of the disintegration spell.

Although I say miniature and modified the thing was still taxing as hell…but the results were more than satisfying

A loud explosion erupted, while a strong gust of wind blew all over the fortress followed by a blinding light after the implosion of the spells.

I began to ‘see’ outside the fortress once again, only to notice that most of the incoming forces had been pulverized by the rays. Most died while the very few that managed to survive were either severely burnt, or were just flapping their wings about, confused and mostly shocked.

I began to charge up the cannons again and this time I was going to aim directly at the main army.

There is no way he will survive something like this.

The aircrafts of Alsa had the same idea and they began channeling their own spells and shoot down at the forces below.

The demons died at an amazing rate, as we rained countless spells on them while they were unable to do squat to reach us.

Once the cannons were charged, I aimed this time at the middle of the army. Although the army was on lower ground, I was still able to arc the rays with sheer power of will, to make them curve and attack directly the Overlord.

I followed the rays with my sight, thinking that this will end all of our trouble with but an attack directed at the center of the demonic army.

However my hopes were betrayed. The Overlord raised his right arm up and a tornado of death and dark magic was summoned from a giant black Mahojin in front of him.

The tornado as if alive began to eat away at the rays without a single one of them escaping.

An explosion soon erupted, it destroyed the tornado from within, but was without effect as the devils around the giant monster were unharmed.

“We should just shoot at them until his mana is depleted…I bet he can’t keep doing that all day” I said

“No. the cannons are going to overheat and will stop working. You will need them to take out the infantries.”

Thousands of devils began to use their wings and fly toward the fortress.

“Damn…” I said

“The real fight will begin now.” said the devil.

Once the devils rose, they began shooting away their own spells toward the mages, and humans on the fortress. Yet none was going to just sit down and wait for that to happen to them.

The mages began to shoot at the flying devils, and those that decided it was a good idea to come down and kill some humans, found the warriors of Astora and Astarte waiting for them.

An Arial battle unfolded, even the aircrafts from Alsa were suffering from the flanking of the now flying devils.

I began using lower tier spells and made the cannons shoot away at any target that was flying.

With the sheer number of those damn devils I would just shoot something and it was bound to hit.

Another surge of magic energy made me realize that the Overlord was not going to let us ignore him

A ray of death shot at the fortress damaging a part of it from bellow.

The strength of the attack was enough to shake the whole thing.

“God damn it, what the hell was that.” I said

“You are a target practice for him.” Said the devil

“Hell with it” I replied

Then I opened the hatch that was below the fortress.

I will have to make him focus on something else other than shooting at me like that.

The golden soldiers began to descend by the hundreds.

Every time one of them fell they would dent the ground and would rapidly transform back to their humanoid form from their ball like original state.

They would stand up and walk forward and instantly engage upon the demons.

They were overwhelmed at first and most were destroyed instantly but once the humanoids began to become more and more.

They began to open up a space. Most of the humanoids that got destroyed would mend back and go back to the fight like nothing had happened.

Some mages then began to descend this time however they used flight and gravity magic to bring a few hundred soldiers down at a time.

Some were unlucky and got shot down by some stray demon, which managed to get a lucky shot but most managed to land safely.

The cannons kept on shooting any flying demon

Another surge of magic this time from within the fortress.

The clan leaders summoned their own sacred beasts and began engaging on the flying devils.

The fire dragon of the old man began to rampage through every unfortunate devil to cross him.

While Yuna’s ice Dragon would freeze them and crush them if they were stupid enough to try and fight him.

The most interesting was the Lightning beast as he was just roaring loud enough that he would make clouds gather and blue lightning to strike down.

This blue lighting began to fire down and was perfectly accurate as it would strike down any devil from the sky.

“It is time to give them a hand. We are going all or nothing here. Morfii Drakh!”

Using the art of the aspects I changed form.

Growing the wings and scales while changing my hair color to white was the effect of this aspect. It gave me more insight on my own power.

“You should use the god aspect…” said Ashura.

“I will be needing this one for a while.” I said

And then I stood up and walked out from the throne room.

Once I got to the gate I took off to the skies.

I had both the devourer and the similar looking white sword from Drakhsis, each in one hand.

I already wore the mask and ascended fast enough to look like a meteor.

Some of the flying devils were throwing fireballs at the mages and warriors already fighting bellow creating more havoc.

Yet the second I passed even near any of them they would be cut in half not even knowing that I already slayed them.

At one point I was zigzagging between them and they would barely have the time to notice me.

Some tried to escape from my onslaught but would find it impossible.

I was fast, too fast actually, the draconic body combined with the hyper recognition made me far too strong and far too agile for these things.

After having enough, (after killing off most of those that were flying above the fortress) I began my descent.

The fortress was still shooting away at most of those that were flying above its air field and would shoot some occasional shots down at the demonic army.

The Astartian, Astorian and some of the Alsian forces were now down and added to the humanoids from the fortress they wreaked havoc on the battlefield. I even caught Lori ripping apart some unfortunate devils as her martial poise was working full throttle.

I ascended fast toward where the fighters from Astarte and the devils and demons were fighting but still fired a few void rays of disintegration toward the army. to lessen the burden of those fighting and clear away some space.

The Overlord was too, shooting some spells that would quell the life of any that was unfortunate enough to be on their path.

However most of the spells he was shooting did not have area of effect damage.

I think he was trying to spare his own kin the damage from the death spells. I never thought a leader of devils to be one to value the life of his minions…

Once I descended I began to ravage through the field.

Ripping any that stood in my way be it a giant devil or an imp like demon. Anything suffered from the might of my blades and the strength behind each and every strike.

Shooting some occasional fire breaths and acrobatically dodging attacks and attacking at the same time I spent some time dealing with the devils at hand.

I was still willing the fortress to focus its fire toward the army and occasionally shoot toward the overlord. He however, would just flick his hand and make a black Mahojin eat away at the ray.

This was of course just to keep him distracted enough to not consider shooting another ray of death to the fortress…that thing is in serious need of renovation and I really don’t want to damage it anymore.

The humanoids now began to overpower the devils and were soon able to reach the backline of the devils.

The last line of defense before the Overlord.

Once they managed to get there. A slim devil was standing alone and right behind him was the monster that the Overlord’ throne was atop.

The devil or devil lord in this case, was ripping every humanoid that got close to him in halves.

He had a tall figure if not for the red horns and the wings one would mistake him for a very handsome human.

Every time he would strike at a humanoid they would rise back and fight him but he gave no leeway nor did he stepped back. He then began channeling a spell that made the earth in front of him open up.

The hole was deep, and each time one of the humanoids would try to attack him he would gracefully dodge, attack and push it towards the hole.

Once a few of these humanoids were inside the hole he willed it to close.

They were now trapped underground and my connection to them faded.

“You!” loudly said the devil lord and this was clearly directed at me

“Human of unknown origins I challenge you to a duel!” said the devil lord.

I looked at him and said

“Why should I accept such a thing?”

“It is the costume of old, that once a devil deem another worthy, that they would challenge them to a fight.”

“That still did not answer my question. Why should I accept?”

“Because you are a devil yourself…”said the man

Not that convincing…but you have to give him his props for trying.

“Hmm…alright I accept.”

Once the words were spoken most of the devils around us gave space and the fight near where I stood lessened to a halt.

The humans were surprised at first but once they noticed the two of us staring at each other and the words said they too stopped their assault.

I even forced the humanoids to stop and made most of them encircle us and make sure that if anyone was fighting to not pass the thine line of defense they made.

It was like a small arena where devil and humans stood…no one was fighting and everyone was waiting and some even shouting for the one they favor.

“Perzahar…Kill this human for me…” said the Overlord who by now was standing atop the giant monster, with a loud and eerie voice that matched the Devil lord’s

“With pleaser my Overlord.” said the devil lord without turning back to see him.

The devil lord had a long sword that had some golden and erased symbols on its blade. Yet even though it looked old, the blade was clearly still sharp as it glistened from the rays of the now setting sun

Wore some hard dark leather that made him look more of a fighter than a mage.

We both looked at each other waiting for the other to move first.

The pressure that he was releasing was immense yet mine matched and even overthrew his.

I forcefully activated hyper recognition as I knew that even a second of latency would prove to be problematic.

The devil lord was the first to make a step forward only to be surprised by me appearing in front of him, after using a Shunpo and having both my blades shoved deeply within his torso.

I was not one to give up on a chance as I saw him hesitate for a single moment once he sensed my presence.

I twisted both blades and violently ripped them away from within his body.

Blood poured from his open wounds and in a single second the Devil lord dropped. Dead.

The whole crowd went silence…no devil nor human, could utter a single word.

This silence went on for several seconds until it was cut short by the loud screech of the Overlord.

The old looking man was screaming loudly that the voice itself was damaging and nauseating.

The monster he was atop began to shake from fear and fright.

Once he calmed down he said

“You will die today human!” roared the devil lord this time death magic was engulfing his very body as a cape and cover.

The pressure behind him became ten times the original. Some of the humans began to pant heavily and they were not the only ones…even some devils were probably under this pressure.

‘You need to change your current aspect…the death and dark aura surrounding him will kill you. Use the God aspect, the divine light will give you some protection.’ Calmly said Ashura. As if he was comfortable with the situation at hand…frankly, I was a bit nervous…the pressure that this Overlord is releasing is more than my own…enormously so

‘Can I ask something Ashura?” I said

“What is it?” he coldly replied

“You said before that if I use the aspect I would be certain to win, right?”

“…Yes…I said so” replied asura with a bit of hesitation probably knowing what I was thinking about.

“So…the overlords you spoke about…were ones from your world right?”

“…yes…”

“So…if an overlord of your world was to fight this one…who would win?” I said

“Well…Overlords rarely fight each other, so you don’t have to think about that” he said clearly trying to avoid the subject

“Let’s just presume…”

“…well…I think that this one is a bit special. So probably this one will win.”

“Aha…special you say…so on a scale of one to ten with ten being certainly dead…how much would you rate this situation we are in?”

…

“…nine and a half…” he said

…

“Seems fair enough. Morfii KAMI!”

I roared changing to the god aspect, sprouting six hands and glowing like a torch in the dark, the divine light was strong enough to force many devils to unconsciously take a step back while the humans would cover their eyes from the bright light.

My body pulsated with power.

My two main hands had the devourer and the white blade in each arm.

While the other arms were now holding similar looking sword made of divine light.

It seems that the time that Ashura took over my body it ‘remembered’ this thing.

We have some odds to break and a devil lord to slay.

The Overlord then looked surprised at my sudden transformation while he could only say

“The Ashurian!!”