It was a really good thing I survived fighting against Caules, come to think of it. If I had failed, then this would have been the end of the world known as Terra. I could not allow that to happen. Hear all that I have to say, please, but silently.

~Gato, when talking about fighting Caules, before it wrapped up.

#

Gato growled when he realized that he was about to continue tussling with Caules, as if he didn’t have enough to deal with at the moment. He needed to figure out how to stop the demon, once and for all.

Then again, what am I supposed to do in this case, anyway? It’s not like we have a way of defeating Caules without some sort of Divine Spirit intervention... or do we?

He thought about what M’thr’ln was likely to do, before an idea hit him. He looked at the dragon and saw something that was different.

M’thr’ln the Platinum Dragon, LVL 51

Oh, fer cryin’ out loud! How come I never saw that happen just yet?! Gato raged out in his mind, before he felt something calm him down forcibly.

[Player’s Soul activated.]

Thanks… I needed that, Gato thought, wiping sweat off of his brow with one hand. I just hope that he knows about how to allocate stat points to his individual stats by now.

[He knows. He got help about that part of this.]

Wait… what sort of help are you talking about?

[System Administration is helping both you and your party member M’thr’ln. It wouldn’t do to have you both die at a time like this.]

Gato nodded, before he yelled to M’thr’ln, “Hey, buddy, how much stronger did you get with regards to the new level up?”

M’thr’ln looked at Gato and called out, “I allocated the gains to Intelligence, which gave me a new skill when I hit a minimum of 100!”

Gato’s eyes widened, before he closed off the boxes that he had read up to this point. “Well, this is proving to be a lot more fair for us,” he declared. “Now, what do we do with—”

“What are you two talking about?!” Caules roared out. “How does any of that make sense in the real world you’re in?! Pro tip: it doesn’t!” He swung his battle-ax at Gato, who swung his sword to block the ax head again. “You’re all supposed to fall before the superior might of one like myself! So how come you’re successfully resisting me?!”

M’thr’ln and Gato glanced at each other, before they nodded. Facing Caules again, they said as one, “‘Find out yourself.’”

“Why, you…!!” Caules snarled. “Fine! I’ll find out for myself by ripping the information from you, body, mind, and soul!”

This doesn’t bode well… Gato thought. How are we supposed to keep that from becoming a big issue? I dunno…

“Gato, what’s the plan?” M’thr’ln asked. “What do we do?”

“I’m still working it out, M’thr’ln,” Gato answered, his voice slightly trembling. “We need to find a weak point in this guy’s abilities and natural armor… you know what I mean?”

“I get it,” M’thr’ln said, nodding his massive head. “What weakness can you determine about him from your abilities?”

“I have no weaknesses!” Caules exclaimed in defiance. “You’re going to lose to the perfect being that is yours truly!”

Gato shook his head, a sigh of irritation escaping his lips. “I need to check again, mainly to see if he even has a true weakness that we can exploit.” Looking at Caules, he muttered, “Analyze.”

[Caules’ greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. He’s literally incapable of dying outside of his home realm. This means he’s able to get tortured and so on. If you do manage to defeat him outside of his home realm, then you’ll have to deal with him waking back up after eight days of recovering his lost strength. Who’d have thought it?]

Gato facepalmed. “Just our rotten luck…” he groaned. “How did this happen, anyway?”

“What do you mean?” M’thr’ln asked his partner.

“I mean, Caules literally can’t die outside of his home realm, which this place we’re in does not count as… or does it?” Gato mused.

[No, sorry, it does not count.]

Gato shook his head. “It doesn’t,” he said. “Thanks to what I have gleaned of this…”

“How did you know?!” Caules demanded of Gato. “You aren’t supposed to know that!”

Gato removed his palm from his face, before holding onto the pommel of his longsword again. “That’s for us to know,” he snarked at the demon, “and for you to never find out, understood?”

“Why, you little…!” Caules growled, before he started glowing a strange shade of green.

Uh-oh… what’s going on with him?

[He’s preparing to sever the contract binding him to this world you call home.]

He’s WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! Gato mentally exclaimed, his eyes nearly bugging out.

“This doesn’t look good…” M’thr’ln muttered.

“Great… this just sucks,” Gato moaned. “How are we supposed to defeat Caules at this rate?”

“You’re not supposed to know that, either, you inferior beings!” the demon in question snapped at the two of them.

#

M’thr’ln put a claw to his chin, deep in thought. Well, this is going to be a problem, he mused. How do we defeat this demon without keeping the body around in this realm? That would be a specific issue we don’t want to deal with in this entire fight.

He sighed, before he noticed that Gato was forced to block all sorts of blows that were headed his way by means of Caules’ battle-ax. It was beginning to cause a lot of grief in the dragon, especially since the quality of the longsword was not as high as the quality of the battle-ax. In fact, M’thr’ln was beginning to worry that the blade would snap in half or something.

Please don’t break, please don’t break, please don’t break!

[Well, this is going to be a massive problem, I’ll admit.]

M’thr’ln’s eyes twitched when he read that. What makes you say that?

[Because you aren’t doing your part to help Gato win this fight, or so it seems.]

M’thr’ln gaped for a second, before he closed the messages that he had read. I need to help Gato out with this! He took a deep breath in, before he added a prayer for what he was going to do. Grant me the power to banish this demon from here, Lord AO! With that, he waited for an additional fifteen seconds, before he used his tail to signal to Gato to dodge.

As he and Gato performed the move needed to defeat Caules, M’thr’ln sent a huge blast of fire out towards the demon, which proves that demons aren’t resistant or immune to fire… especially Holy fire at that.

[You have dealt 198,000,000 points of damage to Caules of the Prideful Wrath.]

“AAAAAARGH!!” Caules screamed out in fury and pain. “What have you done?!”

“Just the right thing to do to you,” M’thr’ln answered, smoke flaring out of his nostrils. “Now, are you ready to go back to your plane of existence, or do we have to knock you around a fair bit more?”

Caules growled for a little bit, before he started chuckling.

This isn’t good… what’s going on?

#

Ow… I need to get out of this mess as soon as possible, Caules thought, even as he chuckled in the face of the dragon and human he was fighting. I can’t let them find out that I’m actually almost down for the count… at least for now.

Shifting his grip on his battle-ax, he began marching towards the dragon, while making sure to keep an eye out for the human who was messing with everything. He didn’t want the blockheads involved in this fight to get the wrong idea… even if that idea was proving to be more accurate than he’d like it to be. He didn’t want them to think that they could win against him… no way.

Soon enough, he stopped marching a few dozen yards away from the dragon, allowing him to have some distance between himself and his foes before he could do anything. Now, how to keep these idiots from getting any sort of advantage on me, he thought. I mean… Suddenly, he howled in laughter.

“What’s so funny, huh?” the human boy questioned.

“I’m afraid that your information on me is somewhat… inaccurate,” Caules said, before he pulled a vial of something out from a hidden pouch. “Behold! Infernal Ambrosia! With this concoction, my wounds will close, my health will be restored, my strength will be doubled, and my tenacity will be tripled. No cost to me for drinking this liquid, but all the drawbacks for you when I fight at full power once again!”

I think that this set of information is enough to get them to lose their minds about this, he thought. After all, I’m not about to drink this if they’re about to attack me at my weakest, not unless I can drink it all in one gulp… that might be for the best, actually. I don’t want to find out what happens if I drink the whole thing in one gulp…

“Are you sure you want to drink that, Caules?” the human boy asked, as if he was aware of something he shouldn’t be. “I mean, there’s no way that you want to be so crazy that it’s not funny, am I right?”

How did he know?! No, wait, he’s probably guessing. I need to stop this boy… “I can assure you, there won’t be a problem for me to drink it all, if you’re anywhere near that much of a threat. I hardly rate you as a threat worthy of the whole drink.”

“I’ll bet we are a threat worthy of it, actually,” the dragon snarked at him. “How about it? Why don’t you prove your claim of superiority right now?”

Caules growled, before he undid the stopper and drank the whole thing in one go. Why did I do this to myself…? Oh, wait, that’s right. “I hope you fools are ready to die and become demons oF PRIDEFUL WRATH!”

At that point, the green glow around Caules shattered, proving that he was able to stay without relying on the summoning contract binding him. He then began to laugh maniacally.

…if only he was less crazy.

#

The Onmyoudou Hunter looked around as he sat on a tree a half mile away. That’s odd… he thought. Where did my contracted demon go to at this rate? It shouldn’t be possible for me to lose track of it.

He pulled out a slip of paper from one of his sleeves, making sure that it was one of the ones that caricatured a human being in appearance. “Shikigamijutsu,” he intoned, even as he flung the slip of paper into the air in front of him. “Torii.”

The slip of paper morphed into a bird, before flying back to him, as if it were a messenger bird. “Coo?”

“I need you to be my eyes while I’m far away,” the Hunter said, holding out a finger for the paper bird to fly onto it. Upon landing on his finger, the bird waited for more to be said. “I need you to fly out to where a demon is fighting what have to be a pair of normal people, see what is going on over there. I need you to record all the details around you while you fly to the demon, alright?”

The paper bird nodded, before flying off to reach where the battlefield was, leaving the Hunter to wait for more stuff to happen around himself. Now, where is that dratted brother of mine? I’m sure he should’ve been here sooner…

At that point, a separate paper bird flew up to the Hunter, landing on his finger that was still outstretched. “Brother, sorry for the delay,” his brother said through the bird. “I’ll be sure to share more details when you’re not busy with something.”

Oh, right, shikigami are able to wait for when the message can be received… what do I need to say to my little brother at this rate? As he thought that, however, the paper bird he sent to investigate what was going on over with the demon disintegrated. What the… why did it disintegrate when it’s not even fifteen yards away from here? This doesn’t make sense.

“Brother? Hello?”

The Hunter snapped his attention back to the newcomer paper bird and said, “Begin transmission.”

“Sorry for the delay, again,” the little brother said through his shikigami. “I need help figuring out where to find you. Do you have any location names to give me so I can find you? Please send a new shikigami to me with the directions when you get a chance, big brother. I don’t know how else to reach you.” With that, the shikigami came undone, forming a normal paper slip that made up the normal shikigami paper.

Okay, now I need to find out how to get my baby brother his directions, the Hunter thought. Pulling out a blank new shikigami, a pen, and a pot of ink, he began to write the characters needed to create another paper familiar. “Shikigamijutsu,” he intoned when he finished writing, flinging the paper in front of him. “Taka.”

At that, the paper morphed into a falcon, which flew over to his outstrecthed arm and landed on it. “Kaw?”

“Begin recording,” the Hunter said, making sure to face the paper falcon. “Baby brother, I’m currently in the area of Alfheimwood, more specifically in the woods near the local snake farm — yes, I know, who wants to breed snakes in the first place? It doesn’t make sense — anyway, please make it to the snake farm in a few hours at most, so that we can discuss what to do from here on out. Also, for the love of the Jade Emperor, don’t go off on one of your assassination trips again without giving me a heads up about your imminent plans. End recording.” When he said that, the falcon strutted its wings, giving off a signal that the message was recorded. “Begin playback.” As the falcon repeated what was last said, he nodded and said, “Good. Now, rewind to the beginning, then find my brother. He needs to know where to go from here.”

At that, the falcon took off and flew over to find the Hunter’s brother, flying over to the road for ease of sight.

Okay, that should do it, the Hunter thought. Now, I need to find out what’s going on with my contracted demon. What could possibly have happened to it, anyway?

He got off the tree he was sitting on, walked in the direction of the battlefield, and stopped when he got to ten yards away. “What the… this is a Demon Realm! What’s one of these doing in the mortal plane?!”

Demon Realms. A portion of space that was changed by a high-ranking demon to fit a distorted reality that only demons possess. To imagine that the demons of the Underworld would be able to pull this stunt off… it was completely inconceivable.

Now, why do I get the feeling that something crazy’s about to happen, here?

With a shrug, the Hunter turned to walk away from the battlefield, aware that he couldn’t witness what was going on inside —

*CRASH!!*

—he turned around, looking at the Demon Realm again. Oh, for the love of… did my contracted demon get banished from the realm?! How can I call myself a proper Onmyouji if I don’t know how these things happen?! This is going to be a massive pain. He then turned to head out of there. As he walked on his way out of there, he couldn’t help but think of something. Why do I get the feeling I missed something important about this Demon Realm?

#

“FINALLY, MY TRUE POWER IS ABOUT TO BE UNLEASHED!” Caules declared to M’thr’ln, his voice becoming even more distorted by the second, as he prepared to strike out against the Platinum Dragon. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW DOOMED YOU ARE RIGHT NOW, FOOLISH MORTALS OF A DISGRACED WORLD, NOT JUST YET!”

Gato grit his teeth as he snuck around the demon to reach his partner. All things considered, the battle was a lot easier to handle than before, especially when there weren’t any waves of minions that Caules could summon to supplement his ranks. Unfortunately, though, Gato needed to get a bit more in the way of evading the demon’s enhanced senses, which came as a shock to him, all things considered.

Come on, how am I supposed to handle this mess? I mean, how do I manage to kick Caules back to the Underworld where he belongs? This is a right pain in the—! At that moment, a brief pulse of energy hit him, causing Gato to sweat excessively. What in the—?!

[Due to exposure to a dangerous amount of killing intent, you have developed the skill {Detect Killing Intent.}]

What’s this skill supposed to do for me?

[{Detect Killing Intent (Level 1): This skill is a Godsend from the most Divine entity of this realm, since it’s able to eventually give you a clear idea who wants you dead by any means necessary, and how many people want you dead by looks alone. Right now, you can only get a general idea of who wants you dead.}]

Useful information to have… I think.

“AND JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” the demon demanded of Gato. “TRY THIS AGAIN IN ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS, SNEAKING PAST ME LIKE THAT!”

Well, now I know better, so it seems… I just need to be more direct and get to M’thr’ln without sneaking past a demon like Caules.

Gato shook his head, before he did the only sane thing he could think of in this fight. He rushed past Caules and stood in front of M’thr’ln as if the dragon needed protecting.

“Gato, what are you—?!” the dragon exclaimed, before he gasped.

At that moment, Caules laughed maniacally again. “WELL, IT SEEMS YOU ARE SUCH A FOOL! NOW YOU’LL DIE! PHASE SHIFT: GEHENNA!”

As the demon exclaimed that, a burst of energy flooded the area, sucking out all the life that was supposed to be there… or so it was supposed to. As a matter of fact, the area where Gato and M’thr’ln were located was unaffected, as if it was being shielded somehow. However, the area surrounding the two of them was turned into charcoal almost instantly, which made Gato worried.

Wait… how does this even make sense?! Gato thought. How can we be protected from something like that?!

“HOW?!” Caules roared out. “NOBODY SHOULD BE ABLE TO WITHSTAND THAT POWER!”

Gato would have answered right away, but there was a new notice for him to read.

[You just no-sold a power designed to steal a person from the Material Plane to an Outer Plane! Your Luck score has gone up by 5.]

How did I do that, though? Gato questioned. I mean, there’s no way that I could have done that without some form of help… right?

[It seems like there’s a benefactor who wants you to survive as much as you possibly can.]

Er… please tell me you’re joking.

[I wish… sorry to burst that particular bubble of yours.]

Great…

“NO MATTER! THE PORTAL TO GEHENNA IS OPEN! YOUR PRISON AWAITS!” Caules declared. He then tried to suck Gato and M’thr’ln out of the space they were standing in, only for something to go wrong… namely the section of field they were on refusing to even let them budge. “WHAT?!”

Well, what do ya know? Gato thought. Whoever my benefactor is, they sure don’t want us to go to this Gehenna place… wherever that is, anyway. I don’t think I want to know where that place is… do I?

[Of course you don’t. Let’s leave that speculation far away.]

Thanks… now, how do we send Caules back to where he belongs? Gato thought, before he suddenly noticed something with his feet. Eh? Why are my feet glowing?

[Well, this is strange… try jumping forward and landing a kick at Caules.]

Jumping forward… and landing a kick at Caules? Wait a second… Gato put a hand to his chin as he raised his head up to look at the demon. If I were to jump purely forward, then I wouldn’t have the right amount of power to knock the demon onto his back. However, if I were to jump upwards and forwards, I would be able to knock the demon down to where he belongs. Now, the question becomes… why do I need to land a kick at Caules? He then looked over the demon’s shoulder. Oh, okay, I see. So that’s how Caules is trying to send us to Gehenna… there’s a portal right behind him.

[For correctly deducing the reason why you need to land a kick on Caules, as well as working out a reasonable way of knocking the demon out of this reality, you have gained +4 Wisdom.]

Gato growled a bit, before he closed the notification and knelt to the ground. Let’s hope this works. Finally, he jumped up, spun his body in the air going forwards, and called out in the process, “Hero Mega Kick!”

“YOU FOOL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Caules cried out, staring at Gato as he finished spinning and pointed his foot in front of him.

With that, the sole of his right foot hit the demon square in the face, knocking Caules backwards into the portal... and forcing the goat man to become electrocuted as he went through the portal.

Gato gave off a sigh of relief, before he looked at his party member again. “Well… glad that’s over with.”