Chapter 51 #2
Camden laughed and was suddenly standing amongst the Kailash Clan group. His hand plunged into one of their chests, and he pulled out their still-beating heart and popped it like a grape in front of them all.
"I'm afraid it's you all who lack qualifications," he said, as they stared dumbfounded at the heart in front of them. "I will make you all scream until Shiva hears."
Camden grinned as several of them scattered quickly.
***
Shiva arrived back at the sprawling palatial estate that his clan called home—only his home no longer looked the way it should. Everything was scorched, burnt, and torn apart.
The crown jewel of the space was a monolithic white building that had been cracked and peeled open.
His face settled into one that would give away absolutely nothing as he floated over the main building.
It had been ripped and cracked open, much in the same way an anteater popped open an anthill, and sitting at the center of the wreckage, encircled by the armor and weapons of his many descendants, sat a calm, handsome man sipping tea.
"Ah, you came." Camden looked up to meet Shiva's eyes.
"You said I had an hour," Shiva growled, looking at the destruction around him.
"Yes, well, they invited me in for snacks, and when I came to tell them I wanted them to eat, they denied me. It was terrible service. Who doesn’t serve a demon souls?" Camden shrugged, not even bothering to guard himself against the world's most powerful man standing not a stone's throw away.
"You truly have no fear of me," Shiva observed. There was something wrong here.
"And why should I fear you?" Camden said, not looking up from his tea. "Humanity's strongest," he said, with a laugh riddled with mockery. "Humans and demons cannot even be compared in the same sentence."
Shiva moved. One second, he was standing in the sky, and the next, his palm was crashing into Camden's chest, sending the Demon Lord flying out the side of the building and crashing through the already wrecked remains of the clan.
"It seems you're all talk," Shiva said, standing proudly before the Demon Lord, his body beginning to glow with golden fire, ancient script rolling down both sides, his face shuddering as if five occupied the same space before settling on a single one fixed in a deep scowl.
Shiva could not maintain this forever, but his blood was running hot enough that he would not hold back.
The Demon Lord had slaughtered his entire clan; this was not a time to test the waters and hide his strength.
"Die!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, and a massive seal slammed down atop Camden, where he had just begun to peel himself from the wreckage.
The Demon Lord managed to get his feet set and lift his hands to catch the massive seal, his arms braced against it and holding it off, for now.
Shiva was far from done. That the seal was set might as well have been the beginning of the end. A lotus flower bloomed high in the sky and began twirling as it shed black petals. Each petal fell down upon the seal, stamping it into the ground as if each one were a meteor come to Earth.
The Demon Lord shed his human facade, roaring into the sky as he was pinned under the seal, each petal striking it and sending a golden glow that burned the demon beneath it.
“You shall meet your end,” Shiva said, still floating in the air. “Your kind shall be purged from the world to restore order.”
The Demon Lord laughed, even as his skin peeled and black demonic blood poured forth. “Wrong. Your kind will continue to be harvested. Really, this was a shame. I wasted so much potential by killing your clan, but there must be a response.” His eyes shone as he met Shiva’s.
It didn’t matter. Each new petal hammered down onto the seal, with enough force to blow the earth beneath the Demon Lord away with each strike.
By the time the lotus flower was completely bare of petals, the seal was set in a mile-deep crater.
Shiva floated down to see if he had successfully finished the job, lifting the seal and finding a crushed body underneath.
Though a quick use of Inspect told him the Demon Lord was still alive, and he aimed to fix that shortly.
Shiva’s brow stretched, and a third eye was born from his forehead, opening to the world to witness destruction.
"Demon, do you have any last words? I've spent my lifetime hunting your kind. That seal, and my power, was specifically meant to kill you and your ilk," Shiva said, a single hand raised in prayer in front of him.
“You didn’t do the Amazon, nor Africa?” the weakened Demon Lord said.
“Hmm?” Shiva paused. “What of those places?”
“You’re strong, but you’re not strong enough for all of that.” The Demon Lord struggled back to his feet.
“Good, stand and be cut down.” Shiva’s eyes burned with destruction, but it never came to pass.
A hand appeared behind Shiva and blasted him into the side of the crater as another Camden melted out of thin air.
"Tricks." Shiva snarled, glancing down to see the one in the crater still present, only for a third, fourth, and fifth to join the growing number of opponents.
"I see you've let your rage blind you. I am the Demon Lord, but I am an army unto myself," all of them said in unison, even the one crawling out with a ruined body.
Shiva squinted, and suddenly, they all attacked at once, from every side. Shiva managed to block two, but a third hit his back hard enough to plow him back into the crater as they all stood in the air, hovering far above him.
A blast landed where he’d just been as Shiva shot back into the sky.
Shiva spun his third eye, setting the world aflame as he destroyed a huge swath of land.
"Humanity's greatest hope," Camden mocked as all five circled him. "What I see is a failure who will never amount to much, clinging to long-gone hope. Hope is a drug that allows resistance, and your death will shatter humanity." Camden grinned, and all five of his bodies attacked at once.
Shiva might have been able to take one, but all five together were more than he could handle. His fist was blocked by one as another latched onto his legs.
A third slammed into his chest, while a fourth grabbed his other arm.
Shiva strained and sent out a pulse of power that rang in the air like a struck gong, but the three holding him weathered it fine as the fifth appeared with fingers transformed into claws as they ripped out Shiva’s third eye.
“Die,” he promised as the one who’d struck him in the gut appeared silhouetted by the sun, and a massive blast came from the sky. It raged like seething purple hatred and boiled Shiva as it rocketed the last of his people to the crater below, blowing it out even further.
Four more such blasts joined the first, and by the time they were all done, the crater was several times larger than the one Shiva had made.
As the dust cleared, Shiva was still there, barely clinging to a thread of life.
"Why?" he eked out.
One of the Camdens floated down low enough to speak.
“At the end of the day, even demons need cattle to feed.
However, when the strongest bull attempts to break his fence, it is but a simple measure to remind him, and the entire herd, of their place.
" Camden stepped on Shiva's head and dug it into the crater even further.
Shiva reached up and grasped the ankle that was pinning him down, refusing to go without a fight, but two more of the Camdens went down and grabbed each of his arms, pulling them to either side.
The one in the center laughed maniacally, put his boot on Shiva's throat, and leaned forward one more time, finishing Shiva and removing his strength from the world.