Cursed Legacy

'What is this?!'

From the moment that Grim had arrived on the scene, something in Vanica's body made her tremble. Even as she faced him now, she couldn't stop.

Why?

What was this feeling?

His power... She couldn't sense it. It was almost like he wasn't even there. As if he had become one with nature's mana itself.

'Amazing.'

But if it wasn't his power, then what could it be? 

Could it be because he had effortlessly destroyed a spell combining the power of both the Heart Kingdom's Queen and the Water spirit together?

No, while it was an impressive feat it was not enough to make her act like this.

No! There was only one reason her body would be reacting like this.

INSTINCT

She had met a lot of people in her life. Some even stronger than her. But never- not even once had someone ever made her feel this way.

'What are you?'

Sensing her gaze, Grim gave her a quick head to toe glance before turning his attention to Loropechka.

"Yo Loli Pikachu."

'He's not even trying is he...'

Pointing at Vanica, he asked "Who dat?"

"Huh?" She looked at him dumbly.

"I'm sensing a decent amount of devil mana in her, but she seems a bit to weak to be the devil you described."

'Weak?! Vanica?!!'

Unable to believe what she was hearing, Loropechka had to take a look at the woman who had cursed her before she was able to answer.

"That's... Vanica of the Dark Triad."

"...Who?"

"One of the three rulers of the Spade Kingdom?"

"You're saying that like it should mean something."

-*Sigh* 'For god's sake!'

"She's the host of the Curse Devil Megicula!"

"Oh." He paused and looked at her.

'Devil host... That explains why my grimoire's reaction to her is weaker than Zagred's.'

"But didn't you say I'd be fighting devils?"

---

"Vanica."

"Huh?" Suddenly hearing a voice echoing out in her head, Vanica looked around before realizing who was talking. "Urgh, what do you want Megicula? I'm kind of busy here."

"That one... Be careful of him."

"Eh?" Her lips curved upwards. "I've never heard you talk about someone like that before! You know something I don't, don't you?! Tell me, tell me!"

"I don't know." Megicula shook her head. "I just feel my power resonating with him... How fascinating."

"Resonating? Is he a devil host to?"

"No." She instinctively denied causing a small bit of surprise to creep into her voice.

"Hmm."

While the two were in deep conversation, the feeling of warm air tickling her cheek snapped Vanica out of it as her eyes went wide seeing Grim standing right next to her.

"Yo."

*FWOOSH!!*

Acting on instinct, her heart pounded loudly as she jumped back and put some distance between the two.

'H-How! I didn't even see him mov-

"Its as I thought."

His voice rung out from behind her.

'He's behind me!'

"You're actually pretty cute up close."

*SWOOSH!!*

Spinning around and coating her hands in a thick layer of blood magic, she shaped them into giant red coloured claws and swiped at him.

*SLASH!!*

Leaning back and dodging the blood claw, Grim activated [Breath of Stone] letting his arm be covered in a thin layer of stone.

"Grit your teeth." He grinned.

"Wha-

*SWOOSH!!*

Not giving her a chance to react, time seemed to slow to a crawl as his fist rocketed out breaking the air apart leaving her awestruck.

'So fast!'

Breaking the air apart, the clenched fist came into contact with the centre of her face.

*BANG!!*

Feeling the bones beneath his fist cave in, Vanica let out a pained scream as her body shot through the air.

*CRAAASH!!*

Slamming back first into one of the palace walls hard enough that the entire ceiling shook, blood spurted out of her mouth as she fell face first onto the ground with the now unstable ceiling crashing down and burying her underneath.

Pulling his fist back and watching all of this happen from a distance, Grim spat on the ground having flashbacks of his time in the witches forest.

"Fucking blood magic." He cursed.

"Pffthahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha~"

Buried beneath the rubble of the palace ceiling, the sound of Vanica's laughter echoed out as a dark and terrible power began seeping through the cracks.

"50%"

*BOOOM!!"

Raising her devil power to 50%, all the rubble trapping her beneath was suddenly sent flying all over the place as the power of a supreme devil created raging winds that swept throughout the entire palace and threatened to blow the roof off the ceiling.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"Urghh!!"

Facing the harsh winds, Loropechka's clothes fluttered violently in the air as she was forced to raise her hands to her face and maintain her centre of gravity.

'So strong!'

But as those winds raged, Grim merely raised an eyebrow and treated it like a pleasant breeze.

Standing with a slight bend in her posture and brimming with Devil power, Vanica body glowed with an intense blood coloured energy. Running her hands through her hair, she let out a satisfied breath as black vein-like tattoos crept out from beneath her eyepatch and crawled its way down the right side of her neck.

'You were right Megicula... HE IS FASCINATING!!'

Bearing two ram-like horns on her head and two devil wings on her back, one half of each was blood red in colour and the other completely black.

"Aha, that hurt sooo good~" She giggled locking eyes with Grim. "No~ REALLY THAT WAS GREAT ♡ LETS DO IT AGAIN!!"

Digging her in feet into the ground, she burst forward with a speed that far outstripped her previous showing.

*BOOM!!*

'So fast!' Loropechka gasped watching from the sidelines.

"HERE I COMEEEEEE!!" Vanica howled wildly creating two blood claws and slashed down at him.

*BANG!!*

Sidestepping the claw and watching the they penetrated the stone flooring beneath, Grim span around and forced him heel into her ribcage.

*BOOOOOM!!*

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!"

Sent flying by the kick, the pain in her ribs caused her to laugh out loud as she dugged her claws into the ground creating sparks and a high pitch screeching sound.

"NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!"

*BOOOM!!*

Charging forward once again, the blood coloured aura around her intensified.

BANG-BANG-BANG

Meeting her head on and competing with her in hand to hand combat, like a boxer his strikes were fast and precise.

Jab, jab, left, right, back fist.

Hitting her with a flurry of combos while also avoiding getting hit himself, Vanica's laughter continued to ring out as both her nose and mouth were doused in blood.

"Yes, Yes, YES!!!"

*BANG!!*

Getting hit in the face again, she laughed loudy and roared-

"51%!"

*BOOOM!!*

Increasing her power even further, Grim noted that both her speed and power had skyrocketed.

Not that it made much difference, they were in completely different leagues.

But while he kept up his assualt, Vanica kept upping her power while racking up injuries with a smile on her face.

"52% 53% 54%!!"

Adding more and more percentages on top of the previous, Grim started to feel a hint of interest. Just how much further could she push it? What was her limit? If one percentage increased her power by this much already, what would happen if she reached 100%?

Unable to contain himself any longer, he finally decided to draw his sword.

[Breath of Water]

Coating himself in a thin layer of a light blue hue, the demon slaying water sword manifested into his hands. Grabbing hold of the hilt with both hands, he deflected her claw with the backside of the blade and slashed her chest open with the sharp side.

*SPLOOSH!!*

"Eh?" Feeling a sharp pain tear through her chest, she watched in disbelief as a fountain of blood sprayed out from her.

"What?" Grim raised his head and looked at her surprised face. "You didn't think you'd be the only one having fun did you?" He grinned as the blood splashed onto his face.

"..."

*GRINS!!*

"OF COURSE NOT!!" She laughed and ramped it up even further. "55%!!!"