37 Chapter 37 Argen’s Father

Airow shot his bow, turned, shot again, turned, and shot a third time. Each bolt hit a demon monster in the face, killing it immediately, and yet more seemed to come. Turning again, he found himself facing one, it's hairless face opening to expose a needle filled maw. The smell of its breath knocked him back, just out of range as it snapped its mouth shut where his head had just been.

Pulling out his sword, he slashed in a quick motion, not really having time to aim for a proper blow, but still managed to slash its throat. It pulled back, spraying blood all around it, and roared. The thin frill of fur around its face vibrated with the force of its cry.

Guit jumped forward, slashing with his sword and cut the demons head off.

"Thanks!" cried Airow, turning to block the blow of another demon.

"Don't mention it!" laughed Guit, jumped past the carcass at another demon that was charging at them. His tail whipped forward and stabbed it in the side, as he ducked under its swing and swung his sword at the back of its legs.

It stumbled and fell, giving him a chance to jump on its back and stab down between its shoulder blades. Ducking the blow of another demon, he saw it get hit with a solid pink blast of magic, that knocked it back. Pulling his sword free, he stabbed it in the belly, then moved on to another demon.

Cherry was throwing pink balls of magic at every demon she could see. The balls stuck to them like bubblegum and distracted and burned them with the love magic. When they tried to pull the magic goo off of themselves, it would stick and stretch. Giggles could be heard over the roars and noise of battle as she watched many of them get completely entangled with the pink stuff.

Stasia had joined in the fight, slashing and stabbing the demons that had been blinded by her light. They couldn't see any longer, so taking them out was easy. The problem was that she didn't see an end to the incoming stream of them.

"How can there be so many?" she asked out loud, cutting the arm off of the nearest demon, as it went to swing blindly at her.

"The elder demon, we are heading towards, must know that we are on our way, and has summoned this swarm to stop us," said Argen, sidestepping a blow from one demon, then tripping another as it ran by. He stabbed it in the back, before it could stand, then moved just enough for the next attacking demon to miss him and trip over the corpse of the demon he had just killed, so he could stab it, too.

"That can't be good," gasped Airow, shooting several demons with one bolt, as they lined up just right.

"These things are just big brutes; they don't have wings. We could just fly over them, and get to the elder demon," said Guit, jumping off the shoulders of a demon as it fell dead from multiple stings.

"That may be a good idea! We're going to get overrun if we stay here," said Cherry, throwing several pink balls at a group of demons that were breaking through some brush that hadn't been trampled yet.

"Can you fly yet, Airow?" asked Stasia, stabbing a knee before jumping back out of reach of its blow.

"No," he said, "Not yet."

"Guit, can you and Argen get Cherry?"

"Yes, I think so," he said, dodging another blow, then jumping into the air with a flap of his wings.

Stasia stabbed the next demon, causing it to fall to its knees, then shoved her sword into her scabbard, and wrapped her arms around Airow as he continued shooting his bow. Flapping her wings hard, they rose into the air, leaving the demons behind.

It wasn't hard to follow the stream of demons back to the source. As they reached the portal the demons were streaming from, Argen gave a gasp of surprise.

What appeared to be a man at first, turned to reveal a demon. If it was possible for there to be an elven barbarian with a beard, this person would have met that description to a tee. His hair was tied up in a long ponytail with two strands that were thick braids hanging from just behind each ear and secured by the skulls of small animals.

He watched them, as they approached with silver eyes. His hand rested on the hilt of a sword, but he didn't seem overly concerned.

"That's my father!" exclaimed Argen, panic evident in his voice.

"Your father!?" everyone cried in surprise.

"Will this be a hard fight for you, Argen?" asked Stasia, as the demons streaming through the portal started to form a circle, awaiting their landing. The elder demon, Argen's father, waited in the circle.

"Absolutely not," he said, landing heavily, and stepping forward in front of them all. The panic that had been on his face a moment before, was gone.

"You've grown, welp." The demon's voice was deep, causing the very ground beneath their feet to rumble.

"No, you've shrunk," Argen said, for the first time since they had met him, sounding ready for a fight.

"Yet here you are, with angels," his father sneered, making the word angels out to be a curse worse than anything else.

"Where are your consorts, your followers, your armies?" asked Argen.

"Taken from me by your mother. She leads my lands now. I was given the option to come here, or be killed. I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you already dead."

"She appears to have a favorite way of dealing with those she hates."

"Join me and we'll return to overthrow her and rule together."

"I don't believe you would share."

"I could make you my top general?"

"I know what happened to your last general."

"Then I shall give you a portion to rule over."

"As you did my brother? Perhaps…" Argen began to walk towards him, and Guit went to jump forward, but Airow held him back.

"Let him go, if he wants," whispered Cherry.

"We can't take both of them, and all of these demons," said Stasia.

"I know," said Airow.

They watched, their breaths held, as the two approached each other. Argen looked alert but relaxed, and his father didn't move. Even the demons around them were watching the interaction carefully.

"Your brother died a good death. He killed a large number of invaders before succumbing to poison from his many wounds."

Argen had almost reached him.

"Did you ever find out who had sent the invaders?"

"I believe it was your mother."

Argen stood in front of the man he called his father and look up into his face.

"Did you know that I still had your sword?"

"You do?" exclaimed the demon, interest and greed lighting up his eyes. "You should give it to me! With that blade I can retake my lands easily!"

Argen nodded and reached into his shadow pocket.

"No!" whispered Guit, horror flowing over his face.

Before any of them could blink, he pulled out the black sword. The aura of evil that it gave off drove all of them to their knees. The demons around, roared in delight at the feeling of the evil as it washed over them, and his father raised his head to roar in laughter. That's when Argen struck, driving the sword into his father's chest up to its hilt.

The laugh halted abruptly, and everyone froze. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. They all watched as the elder demon turned to dust and blew away. The sword shattered, throwing shards everywhere. Argen threw himself to the ground, avoiding most of the blast. The demons who were closest though, writhed in pain, howling, as the shards killed them.

The portal didn't just close this time, as every other portal had. This portal inverted and started to suck the demons back. Not all of them were sucked in before it exploded, throwing bits and pieces of demon parts back out.

As they stood, shakily, pulling their weapons to fight the demons that remained, there was a loud noise, and the upper branches of the trees quivered and shook as an elder angel dived through it. Its eyes glowed red in anger as it screamed in rage.