Sangimus

Trilrak readies his sword, Albo and Kos do the same.

Trilrak exclaims, "Yes, you are the one! The one I need!"

In an instant, he vanishes, Albo feels a strike coming behind her, Trilrak strikes in a flash, Albo barely dodges the blow.

"Incredible speed, I need to stay focused at all times to beat him."

Trilrak once again vanishes and is nowhere to be seen, Kos dashes to the right and deflects the incoming blow before Trilrak even showed himself.

Albo then dashes towards Kos to assist him. She strikes while Trilrak is occupied with Kos.

Albo's strikes are fast and focused, Trilrak can only deflect her blows, Albo doesn't give him any chances to strike her. With the holy sword Oukori assisting her, her strikes feel twice as strong for Trilrak.

The Demon Lord then leaps back to position himself as soon as he does; however, Kos dashes behind him to deliver a killing blow. Unable to completely dodge Kos' attack, Trilrak takes a blow to his sides, severely injuring him.

Albo and Kos then regroup to reposition themselves.

Trilrak, still bleeding from his injury, exclaims to Albo,

"Good, you're better than I thought. You're better than any so-called hero that has come here to kill me."

Albo is confused about why her enemy is praising her.

"Seems like you have a death wish, let us slay you so we can get this over with, you can end your miserable life, and I can go home a hero."

"Little lady, I haven't survived this long just to be slain, I have a plan for you. My legacy will never die."

"Your legacy ends here, and I will make sure of it."

As Albo finished her sentence, she dashed towards Trilrak, and both clashed swords. After a few seconds of a power struggle between the two, they start to fight using their incredible speeds.

Kos tries to assist, but he has trouble seeing either of the fighters, they only appear for a split second to clash weapons and shortly vanish.

"Damn these legs. I need to help the kid out."

Kos, being crippled, feels as if he is just there to support. Then, suddenly, he decides that supporting Albo would be most beneficial, as he wouldn't slowing anyone down.

"Kiddo! Take Aiea!"

Kos tosses the legendary Aiea in the air, Albo appears for a split second to catch it and vanishes right afterward.

Kos then starts to pour his mana to Albo.

Albo, with Kos' support, is now twice as fast as Trilrak, and wielding both holy swords, she begins to overpower the Demon Lord.

As Trilrak strikes Albo, she deflects with one sword and strikes with another, she swings Aiea horizontally as if swinging a bat, and unable to dodge, Trilrak flies across the room.

Trilrak is thrown to the wall, the building, unable to support the force of impact given by Albo, starts to crack.

Albo stands guard, prepared for another attack, she plans on playing safe until she is confident on what the enemy's plans are. She carefully strikes and tries to show no weakness in her movement.

Trilrak gets up from the ground. He looks at Albo and smiles. He then proceeds to touch his pool of blood on the ground.

"I bet the priest told you I only know demonic magic."

Albo instantly realizes, the hostile stare she felt at the church, the priest was a traitor.

"Well, I'm not stupid enough to use demonic magic on holy defenses. So here, a gift from me!"

The pool of blood starts to rise, and Trilrak chants.

"magicae meum sanguinem in faciem benedixerit tibi!"

From that chant, the blood turns into a giant arrow and gets shot towards Albo.

Albo uses her speed to dodge the arrow instantly but instantly realizes that the projectile is following her. While she is distracted, Trilrak finds his opportunity and goes in for a strike.

Albo, unable to dodge the blood magic attack and the blows from the Demon Lord, panics, and her shoulder gets sliced by Trilrak.

Once she realizes the arrow will strike her as well, Kos jumps in to shield her.

"Don't worry about me; just kill him."

As Albo turns back to fight Trilrak, curses start to cover Kos' body. His body is slowly getting corrupted and will soon turn into a pawn for Trilrak.

Kos realizes there is only one way to rid of himself of the curse, and that is to die. That way, even if he turns evil, Albo can strike down a mindless corpse.

"Kiddo! I'm sorry, but this is the end. I'm giving you all the mana I have. All the mana I've stored up for a thousand years. Take it and slice that demon in half!"

Albo, unable to stop fighting to talk Kos out of it, accepts in her head.

"I'm sorry that it had to come to this Kos, I will never forgive your sacrifice." Albo thought as she continued to strike Trilrak.

Kos yells out in pain as he transfers all his mana to Albo. Once he does, Kos falls, and the curse takes over him. A few seconds later, a mindless cursed demon rises.

Albo slices this demon of Kos in half with extreme ease.

"Looks like your partner decided to take the easy way out."

"I won't let his death be in vain. I will strike you down, and I will make your death as painful as possible."

Albo dashes towards Trilrak, she uses Aiea to strike Trilrak. He deflects the blow, however, and the sword shatters.

Albo jumps back as she has now lost a weapon so suddenly.

"Aiea broke?"

"You should know blood magic curses someone. My curse for him was for his soul to be severed with the sword. Once he died, the legendary sword Aiea was nothing more than a random sword you would find in the market."

Albo readies herself with Oukori.

Filled with rage, hatred, and motivation, she strikes Trilrak with speed that he has never seen before.

As Albo continues to strike, Trilrak gets cut little by little and eventually is brought to his knees.

"Trilrak, you lived a long life. Find peace in death."

She thrusts her sword to stab him on the head, but Trilrak jumps so that the blade hits his stomach.

"You wish to live that much? Do you value your life so much you would resort to such desperate actions?"

"No little girl. I just want to give you a parting gift."

Albo tries to let go of the sword, but something binds her hands to the sword. When she looks down, she realizes that Trilrak is using his organs to hold her.

"I have the holy element, and my armor can resist any type of magic, is there any point in resisting me?"

"Resistance to any type of magic? If I recall correctly, you were avoiding my blood magic earlier."

"Your curses will not last. I will strike myself down if I have to."

"That's what I'm hoping you do."

Albo, panicking, tries to get out of Trilrak's hold, but something has weakened her. She looks down and finds that a curse has been put on her using blood magic.

She squirms, trying to be free of his hold, but it is no use. She starts fully panicking and tries to move her sword up to slice him.

Trilrak smiles and yells,

"I command you with my blood magic! Curse Albo Flore to become the next Demon Lord and let the curse pass on to whoever strikes her down!"

As Trilrak finishes, Albo feels the hold on her weaken and uses that to break free and cut Trilrak's head.

The curse was fully activated and is still spreading all over her body.

Albo looks down panicked. She could not kill Trilrak in time. The curse he put on her was quickly spreading. She calmed down and tried to think of a way to counter the curse.

"It's a long shot, but I'm going to try holy magic on this curse. See if it destroys it or weakens the effect."

She closes her eyes and activates her divine magic, she looks at the holy sword, Oukori and decides that she should try to use the power from the sword too.

Albo's sword glows brightly. For a moment, the curse seems to have slowed down. Albo then feels sudden pain. She feels pain all over her body. Albo falls to the ground and drops the sword; she looks at her hands and sees that the curse had caught up.

As the curse moves upon her body, she feels intense pain. It is almost as if her blood was boiling.

She looks down, and she finds that demonic magic has also made its way into her body.

"This is bad, real bad!" Albo exclaimed as she struggled to stand.

"The holy water, it was for this, in case this ever happened, so why? Why am I feeling so much pain?"

As Albo said that, her inside started to burn. Her blood was cursed, due to the holy magic inside her, she felt as if she was being burnt alive.

Albo falls to the ground, vomiting blood, and starts to cry in intense pain. Her entire body feels itchy and uncomfortable. She forcefully takes off her armor and starts to grab herself intensely to ease the pain somehow.

Albo breaks into tears. This was pain she had never felt before, whenever she moved her limbs, it would feel like she had lost that limb. She felt a burning sensation all over her body.

Albo finally lets out a loud yell with tears on her eyes. Because of her pain, she struggles and lies on the floor nearly naked as she tore her clothes, trying to ease the pain.

She lies on the floor, crying and vomiting blood every second. Unable to move, she tries to find a way to ease the pain somehow.

"The armory..." Albo whispers, "It had holy magic nullification clothing. I need it."

Albo starts crawling on the ground. Every time she crawls, the pain gets worse and more potent. Albo scratches herself and tears parts of her skin unintentionally. As she does, she continues to scream. She can't handle it, the curse that was put on her, was killing her from the inside.

She reaches the stairs and, with no way of walking down, lets herself fall and stumble down the stairs.

She continues this same ritual until she reaches the 11th floor. She desperately looks for the cape and clothing she saw earlier with Kos.

She is out of breath; she feels dizzy; she can barely stay awake and move. But at the same time, she can't sleep or rest due to the boiling of her blood.

"It's here," Albo says as she finds the clothing.

Albo puts on the clothing. However, although the demonic clothes nullify holy magic, it causes her pain to worsen.

Albo feels blood getting clogged in her arm, and because of the pain, her arm explodes, and blood pours everywhere.

Albo yells and screams in pain, her cries of pain could be heard through the echoes of the empty tower.

Still struggling, she picks up her arm, and she gets an idea. Struggling, she walks up to the alchemy station on the 14th floor.

Albo then bandages the end of the severed arm so that no more blood would spill out.

She injects demonic blood into the severed arm. Once her process is done, she gets a random sword on the ground, she uses her knee to hold the sword down and punches it with as much force as possible and shatters it.

Albo picks up the shards, she removes the bandages of the severed arm and starts to stick the sword fragments into the end of the arm.

Afterward, she re-attaches her arm and finding nearby human hair from corpses; she sews her arm back together.

"I know I'm gonna regret this, but this is my last resort."

She uses healing magic on her re-attached arm. She once again starts to yell in pain. However, the self-surgery is successful, and although she can barely move her arm, she finds it successful.

The re-attached arm starts to turn black due to the demonic blood. Due to demonic blood fully being in her system, the pain is eased as the holy water in her blood is being overwritten by the new blood.

Albo tries to walk; she still feels intense pain when she does any form of body movement, so she decides to refrain herself from doing much.

She plans on leaving the tower and starts to head towards the stairs.

"Kanami, shes waiting for me, I promised her I would be back." Even more, tears start to fall down her eyes once she realizes that she cannot leave the tower.

"If I leave this tower in this state, someone will most likely kill me. The curse will spread, and others will feel what I felt just now."

Albo falls on her knees, defeated.

"I can't do that, they might feel less pain than I have, but I can't let a man with a family, a woman with kids, or kids with a future feel what I felt."

Albo falls on her stomach, still feeling the burn inside her, she thinks to herself.

"Sorry, Kanami, I know I promised, but I have to be a hero. My way."

After a few moments, she gets up while struggling intensely.

"I couldn't kill Trilrak before he cursed me, but if me being here helps people live their own lives. I will stay here for eternity."

She walks very slowly and spots Oukori on the floor. When she attempts to pick it up, her hands get burnt.

"Ah, that's right, I can't pick it up anymore. Not with demonic blood in me."

She leaves Oukori on the floor as she tries to make it up the stairs.

After a few hours, she finally reaches the 18th floor. She looks around and spots the corpse of Kos.

"I'm sorry Kos, you had a life in your village, and you gave your life for me." She holds the hand of the dead Kos. As she starts to cry again, she says,

"You gave your life for me, but I couldn't even achieve my goals. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

She looks at the crystal wall; they reflect Albo's image. She sees herself, and her heart starts to ache.

She is wearing clothes that a Demon Lord would wear, her skin has turned pale, and an arm is black. Her hair has turned gray.

She once again looks down at Kos' corpse.

"I'm sorry, friend. But I can't give you a proper burial. But since I won't be able to eat, Ill use your mana little by little to give myself nutrients."

She walks over to the crystal throne and takes a seat. As she does, she tilts her head down.

"It hurts."

Albo grits her teeth and starts to shake.

"It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. Please, someone. Save me."

A few months pass, the behavior of the demons becomes far more aggressive as if nobody was controlling them. This encourages the adventurers to travel to the old, nearly collapsed Demon Lord castle to claim the treasure.

A group of forty adventurers bands together at the village to raid the Demon Lord tower. The raid leader of these adventurers steps up to make an announcement.

"Today! We profit! The monsters have run rampant! If nature tells us anything, this means the Demon Lord Trilrak is dead. I know some of you are still unsure, but head to the tower, the evil aura that was once present is now gone. We storm in there and get whatever treasure we can before that old tower collapses!"

All the adventurers let out a battle cry and head out to the Demon Lord tower. They march in an organized group. They reach the floating tower.

The leader exclaims to the group, "Alright! Those who can use magic! Help others get up to the entrance!"

The adventurers follow the instructions given to them and assist others in getting to the entrance.

They approach the door and open it, once they do, Albo slightly lifts her head. She stands and heads towards the stairs.

Meanwhile, the adventurers are confused as to why armor and weapons are just lying on the ground with no corpses.

"Stay alert." Whispers the raid leader, "Although this place is supposed to be empty, I wouldn't be surprised if a few monsters were lurking around."

The group continues to march on; they reach the 8th floor and spot a shadow in the distance. The adventurers ready their swords, and the sorcerers ready their staves. While they focus on the shadow, they hear a faint voice.

"Please, you have to leave, you can't be here."

The raid leader, not listening to Albo's request, yell out, "Kill that thing, we kill that thing, and we go home rich!"

The sorcerers then blast Albo with fire magic, and she goes flying across the room.

Once Albo falls to the ground, she closes her eyes. For a moment, she is happy, relieved. Then, the voice of Trilrak echoes in her mind. "Pass on the curse to whoever strikes her down."

She couldn't let these people get the curse, and even worse, if one of them succeeds in becoming a Demon Lord, they might cause harm to even more people.

"Whats forty compared to thousands?" Albo thinks as she struggles to get up.

The raid leader notices her trying to stand and orders the swordsmen to cut her down. The adventurers that use bladed weapons rush her when suddenly, there is an explosion of mana.

Albo yells in pain as she dashes towards the adventurers, cutting the ones charging her in half with a random sword she picked up from the ground. As Albo ran, however, she could feel her body ache and burn as she did even a small amount of movement.

For the raid leader, the attack happened in an instant, he barely saw the shadow moving, and his group got sliced in half.

"I told you to leave. If you kill me, you'll get this curse, if you live, you will be back with more. I can't handle that." Albo then starts to burst into tears, "I don't want to do this, but you leave me no choice."

As Albo said that, she raises her healthy arm and blasts the sorcerers with fire magic, burning them to a crisp.

At this point, there were only around twenty adventurers left; they all fall in fear of this character. The raid leader, still being alive, calls for the rest of the adventurers to retreat.

A few of the remaining sorcerers put up a wall of ice and run towards the entrance. Once they exit the tower, they see Albo in front of them. They didn't outrun Albo; Albo was waiting for them.

Some adventurers, out of fear, start to jump off the floating tower, dying. The rest prepare themselves to fight. They focus on Albo, ready for every move.

Albo then lifts her cape. The adventurers look at the cape and see a shape forming inside it. Crows then start to emerge out of the mantle. They assault the adventurers; the crows begin to peck their eyes and rip out the skin of the adventurers.

Once they are distracted, Albo dashes swiftly to quickly behead the adventurers.

"I'm sorry you had to suffer like that for a moment, but right now, I can't move very well. So I have to do what's necessary."

As she said that, the remaining survivors reach the ground and start to run. Albo sighs and forces herself to move towards the running adventurers.

"Damn! Damn! Damn! How? I thought the place was empty! I thought the Demon Lord is dead!" the raid leader yells out in panic.

As he runs, he turns around to see Albo dashing towards him. He falls to the ground in fear and looks around to see the other survivors' heads. He was the only one alive.

"Why? We haven't done anything, please, spare us!"

Albo looks down at the leader, and in a defeated voice, tells him,

"In the end, I'm doing you a favor, may you rest in peace."

Albo beheads the raid leader. After she does, she falls to her knees due to the pain of her moving too much.

"I wish you would have killed me. But for the sake of everyone. I can't let that happen."

She visits each corpse and starts to drain the remaining mana in their bodies. She used too much mana for the fight, and she needs it to provide nutrients for herself.

Once she finishes draining every corpse's mana, she heads back to the 18th floor. She sits on the throne, puts her head down, and starts to regret her actions deeply.

"I wanted to be a hero. Now I'm doing something a villain would do. These people wouldn't understand; none of them would."

She lifts her head to see Kos' corpse still there, Albo feels terrible, unable to give her friend a proper burial. She looks up at the ceiling and starts to tear up.

"When will it be my turn? When will someone get rid of this curse?"

Due to Albo unable to clean up the corpses left outside the tower, when merchants come across the dead bodies, they report it to the knights.

The knights report the news to the queen. A bounty is then instantly placed on Albo's head. The queen looks at the document, she bites her lips and talks as if someone else is in the room.

"Remember that this is all your doing. Never forget that."

A small figure then emerges from the shadows, she has pink hair and a large fluffy dress. "Unlike you, I'm not afraid of taking responsibility."

The pink-haired girl picks up the piece of paper that is Albo's bounty, "So, why put a bounty on her? Nobody is ever going to actually kill her."

"Because it's the only way for me to get HER attention."