Chapter 50
And the big demon moved again. This time I was prepared. My Crimson Barrier snapped into place, buying me a small second of time for my new weapon, Bloodsucker, to fall into my hand. I swung up to sever his arm, but it didn't work entirely as planned.
The Demon Lord pivoted ever so slightly at the last second, and I managed to carve off a chunk of flesh, but not as much as I had hoped.
His expression indicated he barely even felt the cut.
The demon he was inhabiting, after all, was a brick house of constitution, and his possession likely made it even more so.
"Ah, yes. The best way isn't to attack you directly, is it?
It's to go after your people." Where my initial opponent had been dumb and worth a moment of teasing to see what I could draw out, the Demon Lord here simply went right for my soft point, trying to deal the greatest damage he could, as if it was simply his nature to break and crush everything he encountered.
"They're tougher than that," I said, even as the Demon Lord appeared at Ozzy's side.
A massive cage of bones appeared in time to stop Ozzy from being crushed, only for the cage to cave and crack under the pressure.
But the Demon Lord didn't stay on Ozzy for long, immediately pivoting and rushing for Winnie, who adroitly sidestepped out of the way before she twisted, and a dozen icy blades sprang into the Demon Lord's path.
He paused, recognition dawning on his face.
"As I live and breathe, Winnie dear," the Demon Lord said, then twisted, raising his hand with devious delight and squeezing.
I could see a glow beneath Winnie's clothes as lines of her curse stretched out beneath her. Yet she stood and stared back at the Demon Lord with eyes full of defiance.
"I think you'll find I'm well past your juvenile attempts to affect me," Winnie told him.
The Demon Lord's eyes glowed bright red. "I see. But don't let that delude you into thinking you've escaped me." He lifted his hands again and tried something else. The woman was aglow with her curse shining through her clothes.
This time, Winnie simply crossed her arms and leaned on her scythe. I let her have her moment. She needed to show the Demon Lord that he did not have her in the palm of his hands.
Winnie stared back, then picked her scythe up and began spinning it around her. "Why don't you stop? It's not going to work, and perhaps if I kill you, Bran will reward me. You know, he's not the kind of man who has to curse a woman for her to want to get into bed with him."
The Demon Lord's face twisted into a snarl, and I laughed. "Have you lived on Earth so long that you’ve developed some kind of male ego?"
Both Winnie and I were deeply amused. Winnie, however, seemed absolutely delighted to have won against the curse.
"Well, I suppose you can take him if you want, Winnie," I said, "but at the end of the day, I do feel like I owe him a considerable debt to be repaid." I needed to destroy whatever fragment of the Demon Lord’s soul resided in this demon.
"By all means." Winnie sidestepped with a curtsy, bowing and letting me go first.
The Demon Lord roared, his eyes growing a deep, unsettling red as he waved a hand and killed every other demon in the area.
Their strength turned into beams of light that flew straight into his chest, the already-enhanced demon growing even stronger.
His body continued to bloat to the point it appeared strained and ready to burst.
I had seen this before and wondered if I would be able to get the Demon Lord inside my soul this time to wring even more stats from him.
I charged, using my Bloodsucker to lash out and clash with his bare palm. My blade rang as if I had struck a high-ranking item.
The Demon Lord's expression was beyond smug before he twisted, only to find Winnie's scythe in his shoulder, stopping him from swinging again.
I activated Monarch of Rule, watching the strength of everyone around me swell upward as the Demon Lord spun around, grabbing Winnie by the head and slamming her face-first into the concrete. The hit was hard enough to drive a furrow through the concrete.
With no other targets nearby, the others descended on our area while the broader masses kept the perimeter.
Merlin attacked first, tendrils of darkness crawling up the Demon Lord's legs to hold him still as Winnie came charging back in.
He batted her aside and turned, blasting a ghostly hue from his palm that swept Merlin off her feet.
Nyx was next, getting close and personal as her snake hair fanned out in a dozen directions.
She blasted him with a ray meant to petrify.
His eyes turned to stone, and it spread across his face before he snarled and stomped hard enough that a fissure rent through the ground, depositing Nyx below.
Then he stomped again to seal her inside.
"I will kill all of you, and then I will make an example out of Winnie!" he roared.
"Over my dead body," I said, clashing with him again, a Sanguine Slash rippling off my blade and past him as he grimaced. The hit pushed his brow down and broke the thin layer of stone that had blinded him, allowing one of his red, glowing eyes to peer through.
"Your efforts are for nothing," the Demon Lord boasted.
"You don't understand. Every demon in this world is simply a container for me to unleash greater and greater suffering upon the world.
You and your kind, Bran, are nothing but hosts to be farmed for my future.
You are plentiful fodder to ensure our growth lasts long into the future. I am inevitable."
His monologue was interrupted as Venthra dove on top of him, her daggers finding his neck and ripping free a thick pulse of black demonic blood. The Demon Lord boomed in laughter as he backhanded Venthra and sent her flying.
The forces around us were throwing out spells, but the simple reality was that those spells weren't enough to bother the Demon Lord, even with their volume.
But what was effective was when the Mul Branova began summoning dozens of bloody simulacrums of myself, which swarmed over the Demon Lord and attempted to hold him down.
The large, bulbous demon at this point was practically cracking at the seams, as if his body could barely contain the strength of the Demon Lord in his fleshy vessel.
"Bran"—Gloria slid up beside me, a small ball of purple fire rolling in her hands—"Simone is almost back," she told me.
I gave her a sharp nod and activated Blood Rage Ascension, growing into a sixteen-foot-tall giant, my own strength so abundant that my flesh was barely holding me together. I stood toe to toe with the Demon Lord and charged him.
The two of us began going at it in a wild slugfest. My first two hits drove him back, only for his knee to rocket up and crack my chin hard enough to blow my arms out wide.
My head snapped forward in a bloody headbutt that sent us both stumbling back.
I gave as good as I got, which was significant given that the two of us were hitting each other hard enough to create shockwaves, blowing away other participants who had tried to get in close.
"You'll ruin yourself, Bran," the Demon Lord tried to mock me. But I could only shift my head, grin, and punch him again.
My skin split, and the Mul Branova knelt around the whole area, streams of blood pouring off of them and turning into a dozen ribbons that fanned from my back.
"I think it's you who fails to understand the situation.
" I clocked him in the face, and he returned it twofold.
But I ignored the brief pain, the broken skin on my jaw sealing up and healing over a brief moment later.
Not only did I have Immortal Body to heal me, but I had an army behind me, suddenly beginning to cast every heal and shield they could on me.
The Demon Lord caught my arm and tried to crush my elbow, only for a glasslike barrier to wrap around me and shatter under his palm.
My body was untouched as my knee shot up, catching him in the gut. Shadows swallowed me and deposited me behind him. I grabbed him from behind and carried him into another building for a full-bodied slam.
The Demon Lord scowled at me.
"Don't say anything about fairness. Just because you eat all of your people, it doesn't mean they aren't fighting with you.
We've just chosen our power as leaders in two different ways: you take everything from your people and use it for yourself, while I support and grow mine and let them work alongside me for the same goals.
" I could not help but rub in the family protecting me as the Demon Lord came for me once more.
This time, a pearlescent barrier sprang around me and stopped his fist dead as a soothing energy washed through me, and I suddenly felt fresh. I smiled, feeling like I'd just picked up my sword for the first time that day.
"In Bran we trust," Simone called out, her head bowed.
The Demon Lord sent a sickening sneer toward me before charging Simone.
But my woman didn't so much as flinch as a wide barrier dropped around her and those gathered nearby.
The Demon Lord's fist slammed into it and, against all odds, completely bounced off. My surprise was mirrored in the Demon Lord's as he stood staring back and forth from his fist to the barrier.
I couldn't help but laugh as an idea struck me. If her spirit matched mine, then it was enhanced by my ultimate as well. We could finish this.
"Simone, please protect everyone. We must pin the Demon Lord down," I told her.
"By your will," Simone intoned, clasping her hands in prayer as she sent multiple protections throughout our army.
I watched as Almeria and Venthra rejoined the fight, looking hale and whole for their prior experience.
And the rest of the Mul Branova seemed invigorated, deciding to get close and personal.
Winnie swept in, ignoring the Demon Lord's attempt to rebuff her as Merlin's shadows snagged his arm.
Winnie's scythe went straight through his foot, nailing him to the pavement.
And Venthra threw herself bodily forward, grabbing his other arm and twisting it around until she had it in an arm bar, even while he was still standing, exerting the full strength of her body to keep it from doing anything else.
Gloria, who had been hanging back, came in next, her fire exploding against his chest, knocking him down as the others did everything they could to topple him completely.
I stood over him and fished a talisman out, smiling down while Simone drew close and put a barrier over the two of us. "Does the Demon Lord have any final attempts to endanger the rest of my people?"
He bellowed a laugh, eyes fixed on the talisman. "And what do you think that's going to accomplish?"
"Well, the goal is a battle of souls, if I'm honest," I told him.
The Demon Lord laughed, and I slapped the talisman to his forehead. "You dare think you can win a fight like this? I will wear your flesh like a costume and devour your people when they trust you most."
"I don’t think that’s going to happen," I said calmly. "But you getting a little mouthy makes me think you're the one who's afraid."
He only grinned, as if he'd caught me. "Go right ahead, jump into my maw."
"Bran, we will be right behind you," Simone said, calm and composed. Her composure caused a crack in the Demon Lord's smile, but still, I could see the moment he opened himself up.
"You should be careful." He grinned. "Inviting a demon into your soul is a recipe for possession."
I was done with his words and headbutted him hard enough that I hoped it hurt, pulling him in as the world of my soul twisted.
Both of us wrestled for control, only for the wrestling to disappear a moment later as Simone appeared behind me, followed by Gloria, Merlin, Nyx, and the others, each one of them reinforcing my already-stable mental world further.
We all knew where we were going with this.
Soon the world shifted and became the scenery of the Citadel of Blood. The Demon Lord was pinned down much like he had been outside my soul, stretched out above the blood peach while Simone knelt with thousands of Mul Branova standing behind her in prayer.
"We offer another fragment of the Demon Lord to our Lord Bran. May he grow stronger evermore and cleanse the demonic threat from our world," Simone prayed, the Mul Branova echoing her every sentence.
I stepped forward, stabbing my sword straight into his heart as it bled down into the soil. I breathed deep and drew on Soul Absorption Arts, using the symbology to draw strength free of the Demon Lord, his face twisting up as understanding dawned on it.
"No, you cannot," he roared. "Impossible."
I smirked, peeking out of the corner of my eye, a grin I couldn't contain spreading across my face. "That's what your fragment in the Amazon said as well."
His eyes went wide. "I am no prey," he spat.
"You said it, not me," I replied calmly and continued to drain him. Within my own soul, I had him beat by a large margin. With the addition of Simone and the others, he was completely outclassed.
Though by the way he screamed and wailed, you’d think we’d have something to fear. But the ladies who’d joined me in this and myself were calm, watching our combined efforts strip free the Demon Lord. I just knew he wasn’t going to let a second fragment dying so soon after the first go unanswered.