Chapter 111: Hiding in Plain Sight (II)

Hardened arms swung towards Bie as he stepped backwards, and he batted away the attacks with his hand axe as he kept himself more than an arm's length away. Heatless white flames rose upwards from his feet as phantasmic feathers followed his movements like falling petals.

Legs joined as a pivoted waist lead to a cleaving blow, blocked by three ridged, stony left arms. Bie's feet shot out as he suddenly moved, a smashing downward kick replacing where the bearded blade once was.

The imprint of a smile emerged behind Bie's lower back, the black shark-like maw emitting gray particles as suction force brought the interrupted demons closer to the grinning Guide. Lines were drawn in the crackling sand as their green flames couldn't resist the pull as well, and a heavy punch embedded itself into an advancing mangled nose as blood splattered on Bie's face.

Two shining black lines were drawn as the swift swings displaced odd heads from grayish necks. Before the heads could hit the floor, Bie darted towards another group of the cultists, meaning to fight as simply as possible without wasting any of his recovered energy.

Cruel Thesis emitted dangerous fluctuations as it wanted to form the baleful angel face, but Bie did not allow it to do as it wished. He was quite aware that allowing it to form that indifferent gaze would consume a lot more energy than he felt he could spend right now, his current situation akin to a castle under siege.

The energy that wasn't fully his yet rebelled under his grasp, but the shadowed maw from Smile of the Mountain shifted its attention from the demons and instead suctioned energy from the Cruel Thesis. As if afraid, it stopped moving towards the sky and instead materialized within Bie's yellowish white aura, softly shimmering as it faded above his shoulder.

Bie smiled, and his vision momentarily went black as his wing ears covered each other in a veil. Bie didn't bother to activate the Cassius Eyes, choosing to let his body guide him forward instead of having to aim his gaze everywhere.

It wasn't long before he stopped trying to be precise with his targets, instead feeling the air as presences rapidly crept closer and disappeared. The wet sensations of spilling lifeblood pelted against his skin, staining his light baby blue physique with various shades of green as he kept advancing.

Smile collected the rampant resentment his movements wrought, and his shadow danced amongst the light of the flickering flames. Sometimes, he bashed into the walls of houses as he quickly reaped the lives of anyone that stunk of demonic energy and the odd mist that the cultists of the morgue couldn't help but spread.

"Whew, he's mopping up! Can't lose to him, hm?"

Lah let her wings stretch out, and vertical columns of black feathers gleamed underneath the bleak light and verdant flares. A single flap caused her image to blur, and the thin blade energy around her index finger was already sinking into demonic blood.

Swiping her finger away before wagging it, she shook off the blood as her horns began to release a dark red haze. Within the haze, her movements sped up until she began leaving afterimages, her accurate exertions resulting in a pool of blood lining her feet.

If that wasn't enough, her feathers began to leak black light that shot out towards the encroaching demons. Streaks streamed out of her wings as they left holes in their wake, traveling up towards the sky as their energy dissipated.

Rising into the sky, Lah landed right atop one of the cultists with a lighter green veil, her legs wrapped around its neck. Retracting the blade back into her finger, the black energy drew a simple circle around its head before she swatted away the top of its skull. With hearts in her eyes, she scooped out the brains and shoved them in her mouth.

—

"How…hm. It is an interesting way of cleansing, I suppose."

"What the hell are you talking about, Hugo?"

Balir wiped the blood off of his great axe as he squatted down in an alleyway, several bodies smashed and sliced into pulp and ribbons that splattered across the thin space.

"…Lah is here."

"That's good news. It'll make the cleanup easier if we find her quickly."

"Do not get up. You have no place in that skirmish…"

"Huh. I didn't know angels smoke."

"…What?"

"I'm saying that you're high. You know, because you don't make any sense? Bye."

Hugo sighed, but followed after Balir. The flames raged on and became a rolling sea of fire as they moved further towards the swarm of demons, and that was when he saw it.

Two wings wrapped around the eyes, their forms obscuring portions of a baby blue nose and blue violet lips. A pearly white glimmer flashed before being covered by green geysers of blood, the person it belonged to gone when the verdant liquid hit the floor.

Auric feathers trailed his steps as white flames wreathed around his feet, yellowish white aura thinly enveloping him. They could faintly see the imprint of a monstrous mouth that seemed to be from another plane of existence entirely, each second spent gazing at it evoking a sense of helplessness as an avaricious hunger beset them for as long as they watched it. Their clothes even began to flutter, suctioned towards the smile, but they quickly looked away.

A hand separated from its arm, bound to it with a crisscrossed red thread. The hand axe it carried was soaked as it hewed forth, ripping into flesh without fail. Sometimes it would be stopped by the horn of a cultist, though that arm would soon be shattered by a dense weight that filled the boy's fist before quickly dissipating, the ethereally charming lad trying his best to conserve.

Following after him was a bloodthirsty Lah, who couldn't help but continue to feast until she had her fill. Her green lips concealed the several rows of twisting and rotating teeth inside her mouth, which crushed bones and brains alike as her Index Blade qi slashed and pierced without restraint.

The red haze around her was now a swirl of cherry red and dark lime, and mottled, rusty looking amber wisps arose within the aural light.

"…Monsters. With that kind of tenacity, no wonder Casmere has been getting soft. That kid is just like THEM."

"Shut up. Don't try and lump another innocent soul in with your godly fervor shit. First it was me, who you barely succeeded with, and then it was Lah, who you fucked up with. You don't need to make ANY more mistakes…"

Speaking through a clenched jaw, Balir hefted his axe and brought it up in half a second. The very floor beneath him jutted up, smashing a demon into the flames, and he took his place by the warring two as he began to fight within the horde.

Hugo's expression was slightly disgruntled, but he kept on watching the three fight valiantly. Shaking his head, he harkened back to the head of Juther he had already disposed of, wondering to himself silently.

'Can those priests really measure up to something like this?'