The Demon Within

"What the hell are you doing here," the girl blurted at me. "This doesn't make sense. How did you get here?!"

"I could ask you the same thing," I said to her. "How the hell did this happen."

"HAULT!!"

A few members of the army surrounded the girl with their swords drawn and their magic ready to fire.

"What is your business here," one of the soldiers asked, demandingly. "And why are there two people laying on the floor covered in blood?!"

"Hang on a sec," I said to the soldiers. "I know her and I want answers from her, so please give me a sec."

The soldiers hesitated for a bit, but they reluctantly lowered their weapons. The mages, however, kept their magic ready.

"Who's side are you on?" the girl asked me.

"I'm going to be the one asking the questions, so just shut the hell up and answer them."

That sentence may not have made sense, but the girl gritted her teeth and kept quiet.

"When did you get summoned to this world?" I asked her.

"I was brought here five gears ago."

That's the same year that she killed herself.

"How are you still alive," I asked. "You should be dead."

"I thought I was going to die, but then a dark aura of blood red surrounded me and all of a sudden I ended up in this world."

A dark aura of blood red? When Gleam summoned me here, her magic was a bright warm light. So who summoned this girl?

"Who summoned you?" I asked.

She hesitated a bit before answering...wait...no...she wasn't hesitating, she was...chuckling? No, more like cackling. Her laughter grew more and more vicious until she suddenly went silent.

"I was summoned..." she started to say. "...by the Devil!"

"...!"

A bunch of gasps were made audible by the soldiers.

"SHE'S A CORRUPTED," a female soldier shouted. "EVERYONE, PREPARE TO BATTLE!!!"

"It's too late."

With those few words, the girl summoned a dark aura of jet-black spears from a blood red magic circle and shot them at full speed towards the soldiers. The soldiers summoned their defenses...but they were blown away like sheets of paper.

Only half of the soldiers made it out alive.

Suddenly, a think jet-black substance that looked like tar started oozing out of the girls mouth. She then shot it out like a dragon shooting out it's fiery breath. The tar stuck to some of the soldiers faces, and I could only watch in horror as I saw their faces melt through their skin, their flesh, their veins, their bones.

Nothing was left of their heads, or any other parts of their body that were hit with the tar.

Leonna was already in the battle since before the girl shot tar out of her mouth, but she knew that they were overwhelmed by her power.

Even so, she kept charging.

"DON'T FALL BACK," she shouted to her comrades. "IF WE DON'T KILL HER NOW, SHE'LL END UP DESTROYING THE ENTIRE CITY!!!"

The remaining soldiers charged with their swords ready to strike. The mages kept the girl busy by blasting a ludicrous amount of attack spells at her.

"HIRO," Leonna shouted at me. "GET THOSE TWO PEOPLE AWAY FROM HERE!!!"

She was talking about the man and woman covered in blood.

"Right, got it!" I said, snapping out of my shock.

I drew my Devil's Blade and summoned a shield made from Earth Magic for protection. I was glad that I spent some of my training in Earth Magic, because without it I wouldn't have been able to summon complex shapes with Earth Magic.

I was able to get to the two people without getting hit with anything and used more Earth Magic to carry them to a safe distance.

I looked back and saw that a few of the soldiers managed to land a few deep cuts on the girl. Leonna put some for magic into her sword and took a swing at the girl. Leonna didn't strike where she wanted to, but she did managed to draw blood from the girl's left side.

SHINK! SPLAT!

A jet-black spike suddenly blasted out of nowhere on the ground and impaled one of the soldiers through the mouth. The soldier's body twitched a few times before it bent backwards and fell to the ground, completely lifeless.

"I thought I told you not to overdue it Karen." said a man's voice.

"Sorry babe," the girl said. "I just thought that I had enough strength in me to take them all out."

I saw a man carrying the girl, I guess her name was Karen, and started to summon a blood red magic circle. I then realized that man was the same man that I saw in the alley kissing Karen.

"Don't worry Karen," he said. "I'll kill these fuckers for you."

What he summoned ended up leaving behind a complete nightmare.

Before I knew it, bodies were completely impaled left and right, even above me. The jet-black spikes didn't get everyone, but the ones that did hit left the soldiers completely lifeless. Some twitched. Some gargled on blood and choked to death. But the result was the same: They were all dead.

"Hey Hiro," the man called out to me. "I think you should look more closely at those two people on the ground.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but when I took a closer look at the couple...

"...Wha...t...?"

They were impaled through the chest, not breathing at all. The fact that they were dead, however, wasn't what caused an ear-piercing ring in my head.

"I found it a little fucked up to do myself," the man said. "But the Devil herself gave us orders, so we had to do it."

I fell to my knees. Tears streamed down my face as I looked down at the dead couple. My hand that held my Devil's Blade trembled. In fact, my entire body trembled at the horrifying sight.

I was crying.

"Hiro...what's wrong," Leonna asked me, walking towards me. "Who are those people?

I must be going crazy. They aren't dead. No. Hehe...Hehehe! They're just sleeping...yeah. I'm at home with Leonna and Xylvia and the others are out doing some shopping. I'm just here introducing these two to Leonna...nothing...wrong...

"Hey guys," I said, tapping on the woman with an innocent smile. "You got to wake up now. I have to introduce you to my lovers. One of them is out shopping, but Leonna is here...hehe."

I could here Leonna crying behind me.

"No...n-not again...please..." she said through her tears.

"Hey, no need to get too excited Leonna," I said with an innocent smile. "There's no need to worry. After all...they're my parents."

Those last few words hurt when I spoke them. It was as if a knife was trying to cut through my heart.

"No...Hiro..." Leonna said.

"That's right Hiro," the man said. "I killed your parents. They're dead because you were selfish and left them behind."

"No...they're not...dead..." I said shaking my head. "They're not dead. They're not dead. They're not dead. They're not dead. They're not...dead..."

"Your selfishness killed them," the man continued. "You only wanted what was best for you."

"No...NO!!"

"You wanted to get away from them!"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UUUUUP!!!!"

"In reality...you're happy that they're dead."

The last one was enough to ignite me into a dark flame.

"Shut the hell up." I said with a demonic disembodied voice.

The jet-black flame engulfed me and the sword as I got up and growled with rage at the man. He showed no fear, but I didn't care. I just wanted to see him scream as he bleeds to death.

"I wonder," I said through a demonic disembodied voice. "WhaT dOEs yoU'Re BLooD TaSte LiKE?"

I felt something heavy sprout through my back. When I looked behind me, I saw two jet-black wings engulfed in black flames attached onto my back.

"Holy shit," the man said. "You look fucking badass!"

"Hey Akito," Karen said. "I don't think we should get close to that...thing."

"InsIDe," my disembodied voice said. "i wAnt to TAste hER InSiDEs."

"You want to put what inside her," Akito asked," a little pissed. "Damn your a pervert. If it wasn't for the Devil lady I would've killed you already."

"YoU'Re GOinG tO diE. AlL of yOU aRe GOinG To diE."

"HIRO, SNAP OUT OF IT!!!" Leonna shouted.

"NOw DiE!"

I ignored Leonna and swung my sword at Akito and Karen, the couple that turned my life into a living hell.

I was expecting this to end in failure, but instead I was completely surprised by the amount of destruction that followed. The ground cracked open and chunks of the earth flew all over the place. Akito summoned up a shield and blocked the blow successfully, but he was knocked to the ground.

"Damn, how strong is he?" Akito asked himself.

"We have to leave now," Karen said. "We'll just let the demon destroy the city."

And with that, the couple disappeared through a blood red light.

I turned to see my parents laying dead on the ground. I looked down at my hands. They had streaks of jet-black matter attacked to them. In fact, it was attached to my entire body. I even felt it on my face. Tears streamed down my face, emotions overwhelmed my head, and I trembled where I was standing to the point where I fell on my knees.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAUUUUUGHHHHH!!!" I roared.

I couldn't take it anymore. Insults filled my head, the couple filled my head, my party filled my head, my parents filled my head.

Every single one of them filled my head...and they all laughed at me.

"GO AWAY," I scream, swinging my sword at everything. "GET AWAY!!!! DIE!!! STOP LAUGHING!!! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIIIIIIIIE!!!!!!"

"HIRO-!"

SHINK!

My head cleared. My vision cleared. The laughing stopped after I heard the sound of my sword striking something.

"Hi...ro..."

I looked in front of me to see Leonna, her hands covered in blood as she reached over and caressed my cheeks.

"...Le...onna...?" I said.

I looked down. The sword was stabbed right through her. Leonna fell down to the ground in a bloody heap.

"...N...o..."

I fell to my knees as I saw a pool of blood begin to grow around Leonna.

"Hiro...d-don't...let the demon...control...you..." Leonna said.

She coughed up blood. Some of it hit my face. It felt cold.

"Hiro," Leonna continued, holding my hand tightly. "I.. l-love...you."

Leonna smiled one last time...and let her eyes close. They never opened again...