Everyone was shocked by the sight of the Demon withering away. I openly laughed at the predicament she found herself in. No matter how much she struggled, she could not pry herself free of the claws clamped down on her arms.

The wind Demon rushed to her side, careful not to touch the wicked core that was eating away at the second Demon’s lifeforce. Realizing that she would die if this went on any longer, the Demon conjured a blade of wind.

Blood splattered to the floor as the Demoness screamed in agony. Her right arm and half of her left hand still glued to the core as she stumbled free of the terrifying crystal. The dismembered body parts continued to wither away until nothing was left but dust.

The wind Demon frowned as he threw a few cautionary blades at the core from a safe distance. However, as soon as the wind got close, it faded away without doing any damage.

“What exactly is that thing?” The Demon asked in disbelief.

The Demoness was much less composed as what remained of her left hand felt the sagging aged skin on her face. As she realized what had happened to her appearance, she started roaring like a wild animal. “I am going to murder all of you!”

“Berith ordered us not to kill the family, they are still of use to us,” The Demon spoke calmly.

“I don’t care what Berith ordered!”

With another beast-like roar, the Demoness charged towards the closest target. Lightning gathered around my mom as she prepared to move away from the enraged Demon. As if to show how little they had been trying the first time, the Demoness erupted with sickly red light far more powerful than anything she had shown before. My mom tried to move out of the Demoness’s path but was only able to wobble unsteadily for a moment before collapsing.

Everyone else was affected by the light as well. It slowed their response. My dad managed to raise a wall of ice between my mom and furious Demoness but she crashed through it without even slightly slowing down. I attacked as well but while I did see the Demoness’s domain armor begin to crack, my whip strike was not enough to stop her.

A taloned foot slammed into my mom’s chest. The blue light protecting her flared brightly as a sound like shattering glass echoed through the room. The protection provided by the core was broken from the force of the blow. My mom was sent flying into the far wall like a rag doll.

I screamed in pure rage as I directed an explosion of flame at the Demoness. Glyphs started to form around me like snowflakes. With control beyond what even I knew I was capable of, I directed a barrage of golden flames with the intent of completely obliterating the Demoness. The cracks on her domain armor began to spread under the weight of my furious assault.

Suddenly an invisible force hit me like a sledgehammer. An explosion of air threw me against the far wall. My domain armor and the blue light protected me from any injury, but the blow disrupted my attack.

Free from my assault, the Demoness did not even look at me before leaping at her next target. Sigmund steadied himself and tried to intercept her, but once again the wind Demon interfered. Despite not condoning her actions, the Demon appeared to have no intention of letting either of us kill the Demoness. His wind filled the room and began to batter our protection like a hailstorm of invisible blades.

With no one to stop her, the Demoness leapt at my dad next. Thanks to his domain, my dad was better off than my mom had been. He did not immediately collapse from the sickly red light and raised his sword to meet the bloody hand clawing at his head. Simultaneously, a dozen spikes of ice rose up from the ground to strike at the growing cracks in the Demoness’s armor.

One of the ice spikes manage to pierce a pin-sized hole through the damaged armor but did not have enough force to injure the Demoness. Despite getting thrown around by the wind Demon as he tried to break my defenses, I noticed that the Demoness did not repair that break in her domain. She had to be low on energy after whatever happened with the core. If I could just get free of this wind Demon long enough to strike her even once, it would be enough to bring an end to her rampage.

Unfortunately, this Demon was determined not to give me an opening as hundreds of invisible blades sliced the light protecting me again and again. It felt as if I was stuck in a blender. No matter what I did or how I dodged, I could not escape the blades that whirled around me.

Sigmund was faring even worse than I was. He had already been injured after fighting the other Demon and even with the blue energy protecting him, the wind blades were proving to be more than he could manage. It appeared as if he had given up on resisting as he closed his eyes and focused on bolstering his defense rather than fighting back.

Meanwhile, my dad had barely managed to block two more of the Demoness’s attacks. Each blow forced him back until his back was against the wall. Broken shards of ice littered the ground around him

The Demoness grinned wickedly as she lifted her leg and kicked towards my dad’s stomach. Ice gathered around my dad’s sword, connecting to the wall like a spider web as he braced for the kick. The Demoness’s smile grew larger as her blow connected with the blade.

My dad’s sword was a powerful artifact of the Ninth Division, designed to allow noble soldiers to fight against Demonkin. However, it was not capable of withstanding several direct attacks of a true Demon like this one. The previous three blows my dad had blocked left the blade chipped and bent. With the fourth blow, the metal finally gave way. With a snap that resonated through the room, the sword broke.

The Demoness’s blow continued through the broken blade and connected with my dad’s stomach. His defenses were not enough to resist the blow. As his domain armor shattered, he retched and vomited before collapsing to the ground.

The demoness raised her foot to stomp down on my dad’s head but before she could an explosion knocked her off her feet. The Demoness growled in annoyance as she turned towards the source of the explosion.

Charly’s hands shook as he held his crossbow tightly. He looked pale from overexertion after that explosion. He was gasping for breath even as his crossbow began to glow again. Another explosion shook the room and more of the Demoness’s armor fell away but she did not appear to care.

She slunk towards the trembling Charly with a murderous glint in her eye. With a light tap of her foot, the crossbow was knocked from Charly’s hand and sent flying across the floor. Charly collapsed to the ground. The Demoness’s taloned foot rested above his neck. Only the thin layer of blue energy prevented his neck from being crushed but as the Demoness exerted more force, that blue energy began to waver and fade.

“Alive,” the wind Demon growled.

The Demoness hesitated for a second and looked somewhat conflicted before a twisted grin appeared on her weathered face. “That is fine, I will simply rip off his arms and legs, then tear out his tongue and eyes. That still counts as alive, right?”

The wind Demon shrugged and the Demoness began to press down harder. The blue energy did its best to resist but it could not withstand the strength of the Demon.

I felt my heart tear in grief and rage as I was helpless to get past the wind that constantly threw me back against the far side of the room. No matter what I tried, I was still not strong enough to fight a true Demon in its prime. All I could do was watch as the Demoness prepared to mutilate my brother.

“I will not let you hurt him,” a soft voice spoke from the far corner of the room.

Injured and bleeding, my mom slowly rose from her crumpled state. She collapsed back to the ground as her injuries caused her to start coughing blood. However, she still struggled to stand. With slow painful movements, she barely managed to stand. Her arms were too weak to lift her sword. Its tip slid across the ground behind her, but my mom never loosened her grip on the weapon.

The Demoness smiled as she continued to press her foot down on the blue energy protecting Charly. “Good, you are awake. I want you to watch. Watch as I slowly rip this child apart and cripple him forever.”

“You will not harm my son!”

My mom’s shout was like thunder. It felt as if a storm had descended upon the room. Electricity flowed down my mom’s arm as she slowly lifted her blade. The hairs on my neck stood on end as an invisible force radiated out from her.

I felt the presence of a new domain being born as my mom slowly thrust out her sword. This domain was nothing like my dad’s or mine. Instead, it reminded me of Sigmund’s. It was a domain that had discarded everything for one singular goal. It existed solely to strike down the enemy that stood before the storm.

My mom’s movements appeared sluggish to everyone in the room. Her sword thrust towards the Demoness despite being on the far side of the room from the woman. However, as the blade reached the apex of the thrust and her arm fully extended, it seemed to blur. There was a sense of disconnect as if the sword was suddenly in two places at once.

Blood dripped to the ground. The Demoness looked down at her chest in disbelief. Where her domain had broken, there was now a bloody wound that pierced straight through her chest. The Demoness released Charly as she stumbled backwards and started coughing blood.

“This isn’t right,” the Demoness said with gasping breaths, “None of this is as Berith said.”

My mom took a single step towards the Demoness before wobbling unstably. I felt the domain falter. My mom’s energy ran dry with that single attack. She could not remain standing anymore as she collapsed to the ground. Even as she lost consciousness, her gaze remained focused on her son, tears in her eyes.

The Demoness no longer seemed interested in torturing my family as she dragged herself across the room to where the wind Demon was. “Take me from here. I need to recover,” she said through a coughing fit.

The wind Demon shook his head as he looked down at the Demoness. “Pathetic. You are too weak to be worthy of serving Envy.”

The Demoness's eyes went wide as panic began to take over. “I can still be of use! I only need a few months to heal. I can still…”

The Demoness was cut short as a gust of wind blew past her. A red line appeared across her neck. Her expression was forever frozen in desperation as her head tumbled lifelessly to the floor.

“I never did like you,” the wind Demon said as he brushed a stray blood drop from his suit.