Chapter 18 : Demonic Visage

Compared to what he had previously seen, the imagery that it invoked was nothing short of a nightmare. Mouth agape at the sheer size and sight of the creature, Lucius took a few steps backwards and turned to his companion for reassurance.

The boy, Harux, too, was appalled, though not in the same sense. As abhorrent as the visage of the beast was, it was the smell that had gone to him. Repugnant, it stunk of death and decay. Particularly nasty, it had penetrated the nostrils of each individual there. For its sphere of influence, had extended as far as the crowd. Like the shadows cast by the setting sun, its influence was indisputable. In a sense, it could only be said to be fitting to its visual counterpart.

While Harux did not have the concepts of fear of the unknown or alien ingrained into his mind, he did still have a most potent nose. What one would normally perceive to be the scent of tens of rotting corpses amalgamated into one, Harux distinguished the number into the hundreds.

The Elf boy looked up at the creature and breathed.

Concentration in full gear, he steadied his mind and assessed the demon's capabilities.

For what it was worth, the beast appeared to be quite nimble. Sporting four arms in total, with two in the front and another two attached to its back, it seemed like some mad scientist's idea of a wing. Tracing his eyes down its lower body, Harux saw two legs. Longer than its arms and even more muscular, Harux doubted that even he could outrun it and was thus made aware that getting caught was a plausible threat.

Yet something was off. Sure, a lone head sprouted from between the two central limbs, but was that it? Lacking any human orifices, the creature did not have the body parts known to people as 'ears', 'eyes' or 'mouths', so how could it see, or much less detect anything?

How odd. The demon had dozens of wide gaping holes throughout the entirety of its body, of which no light or sound escaped. But that was it.

Was it through those small gaps of darkness that it was able to see? Harux wondered.

Not that it mattered, no matter how it smelled, saw, or breathed one thing was for certain.

And that was, that the beast before him would be a fun opponent.

"Heh, you can summon demons?!" Harux shouted, his excitement clear as daylight.

It would be his first time facing off against such a beast, and with a deep breath, he closed his eyes. Searching through his memories once more, his mind would trace back to that of his master's teachings. If he remembered correctly, this type of demon had a crystal somewhere in its body that was crucial to its survival.

While Harux pondered his own course of action, the demon had just received his.

Kill. Remove. Exterminate. The command of its master Tommy relayed to him, the demon, in spite of the absence of any mouth, was now beginning to show signs of something you would expect out of any other lifeform. Showing signs of air leaving and entering it, the holes throughout its body expanded and contracted in steady intervals.

Now it would hunt.

Fast, that was the first impression Harux got as it charged at the duo. One of its hind arms swept forwards. Fleet footwork and a reactionary jump enabled Lucius to dodge it, cracked earth forming in his wake. However, Harux was not as fortunate. A fraction of a second faster, and he would have been, and yet he wasn't. Tightened around his body. The demon's hand had caught him.

The grasp of the creature that threatened to crush the poor elf swung him up above the ground.

"Gragh!" Though the creature yelled, it was seemingly resilient to all manners of pain.

Harux's sword, Elenhethel, was still in the palm of his hand. Rather than drop it, it was instead lodged inside the monster’s wrist. How convenient, that his usual commendable perseverance now proved to be his downfall.

How satisfying. To Tommy, what he saw was nothing short of cathartic bliss. I mean, what else could it have been? As far he was concerned, he had won. No reasonable person could escape from 4500 newtons of raw force, much less in a position like that.

Now then, Tommy pondered. What would his last words be? The earnest cry of desperation for his parents, a plea for mercy? Whatever it was, it was of little consequence. Harux's insolence was beyond forgiveness. Or was it?

As if his conscience was being cut in two, a duality of opinion manifested.

On one hand, he wished but to let Harux go, and end the confrontation.

On the other, Tommy wished to hear the Elf's lamentations, sorrows, and despair.

Derived from cruel malignance, the demon within ran out of patience.

Signals akin to electricity sent themselves through Tommy.

Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Stimulants sent his nerves into sensory overdrive. They were almost not unpleasant in nature, merely being signals that signified what he would receive if he did not hurry.

With all that had occurred, the pain that he felt, no longer felt real. Ethereal and almost dream-like, it was akin to watching your body being tortured in a dream.

Signalling for action, the demon inside of him beckoned the incoming end of the elf.

Therefore, submissive to the will of the demon within, Tommy would end the powerless Harux's life. Remorse threatened to kick in if he didn't any sooner. Like a switch that had been flipped in the back of his mind, Tommy’s body now operated under a new set of principles and rules. What little remaining power he had in his body would be put to good use. And so he waited, counting the seconds before Harux spoke his last words. It would be the last mercy he could raise for the poor fool.

Tommy’s expression, now cold, awaited.

Following a few seconds, the very words he anticipated came out.

"Damn it, I still… lack training," Harux mustered, his face contorting in pain as he vainly smacked his arms against its limb.

Most likely, were it not for those words, that Harux and Lucius would have lost.

Hesitation had seized Tommy’s soul.

Life, as it were, happened to be a whimsical mistress at times. Fickle, and subject to change from hearing the quaintest of things, she had now changed her mind. The winds that now blew in Harux’s favour, shattered the demon’s control over Tommy.

In an instant, his thoughts, actions and emotions, now belonged to him alone.

Huh, training? Was that the truth that awakened from the depths of one's heart. Teetering as they were about to die, training?

His focus, shattered like a sledgehammer to ice, had cracked. For a second, both the mind of the monster and man faltered. In a dichotomous fashion, not only had the mental connection between Tommy and the demon loosened but the physical one that had coiled around Harux too.

Lost in a state of utter confusion, a certain someone had been given ample time to aim.