22 Chapter 22 Juggler

Airow paused once they entered into a larger room. His arm was tired from shooting so many arrows. The many demons they had defeated up to this point left them all wondering just how many demons there were.

"I see light up ahead," whispered Grey, pointing up ahead.

"That's probably where the elder demon is. There will be harder demons guarding him then we have fought so far," said Guit.

"We'll go when Airow has a chance to rest," said Grey.

"No, we need to go, before the elder demon has a chance to bring more demons through the portal. I can rest after we are done."

Grey frowned but she knew that they could not fight like this forever, and there were enough demons to pour through the portal for a very long time.

They made their way across the room, and spied the waiting demons guarding a door. Their vines almost completely closed off the tunnel, and they could see that these plant demons had arms, locked in a bent position like that of praying mantis arms.

Grey caught herself on fire, then charged down the tunnel, with her sword swinging. Guit followed right behind, with his sword out, and Airow brought up the rear with Argen.

Slicing through the vines, they withered at the touch of her flaming blade, and the plant demons chittered and howled in pain. She cleared the way to the doors, leaving the tunnel cloudy with the dust from the demons.

"I guess they weren't that hard after all," said Guit, looking around.

Panting slightly, Grey rolled her eyes and reached for the door. Pushing it open, they all rushed inside at once, but none of them were prepared for what they saw.

The demon from the square, still dressed in his jester-like outfit, stood from where he was kneeling, playing with a small girl, who was dressed kind of like him, in a white and black checkered dress. The white only touched black and the black only touched white.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" he asked, standing up to face them as the girl stood and hid behind him.

"We are the ones who will defeat you, elder demon!" declared Grey, raising her sword in preparation to fight.

Airow drew his bow back, and started to charge a blast, as Guit shook off his human form, and flexed his claws.

Argen had slid along the wall, to watch from the very back of the room. As he leaned against the wall, a form started to appear before him, and he raised an eyebrow.

Everyone was oblivious to the giant hulking demon that was materializing in the back of the room, except for Argen. It had thick bark-like skin, with giant thorns protruding from its right shoulder. A ring of thorns crested its head, much like a crown, and Argen could see it holding a demonic sword, that was probably more than capable of killing his fellow team members.

It was immediately obvious to him that the jester demon wasn't the real elder demon. He was being used by this demon, the real one in power.

Making up his mind quickly, Argen slowly reached to his side, but instead of drawing the sword that came from Ray, a black pool of shadow magic appeared, and he grasped the handle of a great sword. Pulling it slowly from the black pool, he gritted his teeth as the overwhelming aura of evil emanated from it.

Airow and Grey fell to the floor as the aura of evil reached them, unable to handle it. Grey fought not to throw up, but Airow vomited what little he had eaten last. As everyone turned their eyes in the direction of the aura, they saw the demon finally finish forming.

Before it could do anything, a black blade, covered completely in demonic ick, protruded from the center of its chest. Opening its yellow eyes in shock, and its beak-like mouth to utter a surprised squeak, Argen quickly pulled his sword back out of it, and shoved it back into the black pool of magic.

The elder demon fell to its knees, dropping its sword, and began to disappear into black dust, as it blinked in confusion.

The moment the sword was gone, the aura disappeared, and the two angels breathed a sigh of relief. The sounds of fighting drew their attention back to the jester demon.

Behind where he had been standing, the portal had revealed itself and opened. Large tree-like demons were spilling into the room, and the jester demon was fighting them off. For every one he killed, however, two more were stepping through the portal. As the elder demon died, the portal began to close, cutting one in half, but that still left five.

Grey and Airow climbed to their feet, and quickly joined the fight. They weren't sure what was going on, but these new demons were definitely evil, and needed to be dealt with. They stood ten feet tall, having to stoop to fit in the room. Their feet looked like roots, and their arms branches. Thick bunches of mushrooms grew at the joints, allowing them to step and move. Each hand sported metal tipped claws, unnatural with the plant qualities of the demons, but very effective in causing damage.

Grey quickly discovered she couldn't do any damage to them, without her fire, and even then, it wasn't nearly as effective as it had been with the flower demons. She could whittle away at the bark of the demons, and occasionally cut off an arm or leg, but they seemed mostly unaffected by her.

Airow wasn't having much better luck, as he had to charge each bolt longer in order to blast them with high powered holy fire bolts. But then he had to make sure that they weren't ready to block his attack, because he only dealt damage when he hit a crack in the bark.

Guit had climbed one like a monkey, and was furiously digging at the bark and mushrooms with his claws, trying to slow it down and distract it while the others attacked it from the other side.

The jester pulled out several juggling balls, and began to juggle.

"You can't stop the Juggler!" he laughed, tossing a ball at one of the tree demons, and hitting it in the face.

The demon roared in pain as the ball exploded and glitter dust rained into its eyes and mouth. It clawed at its face for a moment, before it stumbled and fell. Another ball hit another one in the face, and soon there was only one left, standing in a swirling cloud of black dust.

Juggler threw his last ball, but the demon swung its hand, attempting to catch it. The ball exploded, but the dust didn't get into the demon's face. Picking up the little girl that was clinging to his coat tail, he threw her at the angels, before drawing a curved dagger and charging the demon.

It swung at him, to slash him with its claws, but he ducked under the blow, jumping up and shoving the dagger deep into its eye. As the dagger was driven deep, the demon shoved its other hand into the Juggler's stomach, causing its claws to protrude from his back.

He fell to the ground as the demon disappeared to dust, and the little girl, who Grey had caught, squirmed out of her grasp and rushed to his side.

"Daddy! You can't die! I don't want to grow up!"

"Sorry, Cherry, but I don't get to make that choice. You're free now. These are good people, who won't hurt you. Go with them, until you figure yourself out, and find a safe, good place to live. I love you…"

His whisper faded into silence as they watched his body disappear into white dust.

"He wasn't a demon?" asked Grey.

"No," whispered Cherry, looking up at her with tears streaming down her face. "My daddy was a dailmond."