Confrontation 1/2

=Alnub Forest, Unknown location=

An entire battalion of Androids surrounded the blistering wolves and Valentine. The battalion emerged from the dark shadows of the treeline and revealed their metallic nature to the unsuspecting organics. The situation quickly developed into a standoff, Valentine was alone against an unknown enemy and a peculiar man leading them.

Valentine was on alert, the slightest movements of the Androids and Artemis made her jump, anxiety was quick to take over her as the fear of the unknown loom. Dozens of Android's structure coupled with the strange muskets similar to the dwarves but are more strange they held prompted Valentine to be cautious. Unknown muskets and clearly unknown magic was in play here, or so she thought.

"Tsk,"

Valentine was regretting setting off alone as recon, the rest of the Papal Scripture was still a few hundred kilometers away and she knew that wasn't enough. The sky began to darken as a storm approached.

"So, you're Valentine," Artemis said. The surprised mage was only plunged deeper into confusion. Nobody knew her real name except for the Pope and her fellow mages in the Papal Scripture.

"How do you know?" She asked as she was grimacing at Artemis. She held onto her sheathe of her magical katana firmly which was releasing a mist of blue energy from the enchanted magic embedded onto the katana.

"A peculiar woman from a city told us, well not exactly told but.."

"A mage from a city?" Her eyes widened as the thought crossed her mind.

"A spy," Artemie clarified, maintaining his stoic expression.

Valentine didn't reply, she just stood still and awaited what was about to happen next. She knew Artemis was trying to confirm information from her, she wasn't falling for his trap.

Artemis was intrigued that Valentine caught wind on his intentions so he decided to get deeper into her emotional complex.

"There is one thing, you all have in common. It is strange but the evidence so far seems to be pointing at that specific conclusion,"

"Let me phrase this in a way, a simple-minded person like you may understand somewhat,"

The storm had finally reached them, drops of rain began to pour as the situation dragged on, Valentine was on alert but her attentiveness could only go so far. The rain began to pour heavily, the sounds of water droplets bouncing off the metallic skin of the Androids coupled with the torrential downpour of the storm gave out an eerie atmosphere which was reminiscent of a scene in a horror movie.

As the skies darkened further, the eyes of the Androids began to show their reddish glow. All around Valentine, a pair of reddish lights appeared from the Androids and from the dark treeline, the lights glowed one by one until she couldn't see the rest anymore. She moved her head from left to right and turned towards her back, she was outnumbered.

This reveal of the hundreds of Android Soldiers around her struck fear within her heart. The torrential downpour coupled with the odd darkness took a toll on her improved senses. She was using her senses to track each individual that surrounded her but she couldn't track those beyond the treeline until they revealed themselves.

It was taking a damaging toll on her body, even if she was capable of harnessing all the magic from the area, the stress caused by the overworking of her body would eventually kill her.

Artemis raised his two arms sideways as he looked up and closed his eyes. Thunder began to echo and the winds began to gain speed. The blistering wolves were all but turned to stone as the rain completely cooled down their entire bodies. They stood together as statues, coupled in a group with their mouths open tongues dangling from their mouths.

"It's had been, a great adventure thus far since we came here, a new gateway towards an unrivaled opportunity given to me solely for my purpose,"

"What purpose?" Valentine asked.

"What else? for the sake of rebuilding the pure human race,"

Valentine was of course, confused.

"Of course, you don't know what I'm talking about," Artemis said, pointing his fingers at Valentine.

"I come from a very distant world, a world vaguely similar to this but was plagued by a cataclysm even I could not dare to imagine nor remember for that matter. A cataclysm so powerful, so devastating, it wiped us out. Now, I am presented with an opportunity but also a hurdle, a hurdle which I am destined to overcome,"

Artemis then reached out his hand towards EA-1 who then took out a small cylinder containing M1, the cylinder was transparent and allowed the concentrated physical state of magic to glow blue. Artemis grabbed the cylinder and showed it to Valentine who was slowly succumbing to the severe fatigue from the strain she was pushing against her body.

"Logic and technology beyond your comprehension and understanding stand before you,"

Valentine's eyes were becoming blurry but she was still able to see the cylinder.

"Impossible," Valentine whispered beneath her dire breathes.

"It's only impossible because you lack the technology to do so. I've gathered information on how 'magic' is such a powerful energy that it can't be contained in a somewhat solid state, but that's where you're all wrong. What do you think would happen if you used magic to contain magic? Not only would the two negate themselves entirely but if one was stronger than the other, it would result in a fantastic spectacle which would obliterate everyone and everything around it,"

Valentine didn't seem to take any interests, though she reacted towards the cylinder accordingly, she was displaying good resistance against Artemis' attempts of reducing her mental instability.

"Let me jump onto the topic, shall we? Now, what do you humans here have in common?"

"Well..."

The torrential downpour continued, the Androids were unfazed, standing upright amidst the darkness. Valentine was completely drenched, her cloak except for her enchanted armor dress was undrenched considerably whilst her skin began to curl up.

Valentine didn't understand, she was surrounded. They could take her out anytime or even capture her with such superior numbers and most likely superior technology than theirs or magic. She wanted things to end quickly but it seemed like Artemis was purposely dragging it out.

"I was born in a windy, wonderful world of trustworthy, truthful technology, a windy, winning world I cannot remember, a wicked, whole world devastated by warm, worried war and determined, dull destruction,"

"A warm, worthless world of holy, hungry humans and naked, new nature, devastated by an unknown, fancy, frightening force which, by dazzling, decorative design had purposely destroyed what was our hateful, honest home,"

"This wonderful, windy world, on the other hand, gives me a fuzzy, fresh feeling of hilarious, happy hope, a horrible, huge hope which I have forgotten, a funny, fluffy feeling long, lost to the vile, past,"

Artemis' words further confused Valentine who understood none of it.

"You're a demon, that's all that matters. A demon I was entrusted to vanquish," Valentine finally spoke, Artemis maintained his stoic expression. He then proceeded to clap two times, the sound of which was covered by the torrential downpour.

"Ignorance is bliss," He whispered.

"Your common trait is a chronic ignorance which not only has been embedded deeply into your minds but also limit your advancements in areas you should be prioritizing, except you douse yourselves in magic which you use carelessly and ignorantly. You keep the dumb in power while the intellectuals oppressed. The dumbest of which is your Pope,"

"What did you say!?" Valentine shouted. She clearly heard the insult thrown at her beloved Pope whom she looked up to with much respect.

"Your Pope, an ignorant fool,"

"You dare!" Valentine was consumed with rage, coupled by her fatigue and increased drowsiness, she was no longer herself. Artemis had managed to break her facade.

Without hesitation, she held the sheathe of her katana-like magic sword in a japanese-like striking style and shouted.

"{EVERLASTING STRIKE!}"

[GIF]

Valentine dashed towards Artemis at horrendous speeds that is more than 12,000km/h, each nanoseconds, her speed gets more horrendous until it reach lightning speed(300,000km/h), as she reached Artemis and tried to decapitate him in one clean swing.

In a slow motion view, Artemis, easily dodged her attack by taking a small step in his left side, dodging the magical blade which is already a millimeter from his right cheek. At the same time, Valentine caught a glimpse of a cold and horrific smile, the likes she had never seen in her life. A smile from someone who wasn't even a vile beast, but seemed to be one.

As Valentine stopped, missing her target, hundreds of trees in front of her suddenly got cut in half by her Tier 10 swordart. The Androids in front of her dodged before she could strike, they knew whats coming.

Valentine, was shocked beyond her comprehension, none of the A-ranks could even notice the speed she was in, she could decapitate ten late A-ranks with one swing before they even realize it.

Unless...

But then, thats where she realized.

"You're a Demigod,"

She has one more for {Everlasting Strike}, however, she used up some of her mana and used the first one on the goblins, the second one was a moment ago, if used it again then she would run out of mana. But she knew it didn't work the second time as that demon had dodge the attack very easily, using the third time was a deathwish for her.

Her senses suddenly kicks in as she felt the army of Androids began to move.

Valentine hopped back a few meters, the Androids began to march towards her from all sides.

"The Senadate Theocracy is the hurdle, the first hurdle," Artemis announced. Valentine was frozen in place, she didn't know what else to do other than to try and escape or fight back and surely get killed. The fact that Artemis merely took a simple step to dodge her most powerful attack frightened her. He knew exactly when and where she was going to strike, he knew how far she would reach out and how close she'd come.

Her hopes are now shattered, facing against a hundred of these metal demons and one demigod at the same time is completely impossible for her, her only choice was to either surrender or die by their hands.

"Valentine!" A shout echoed through the rain. Valentine turn towards the voice with hope on her eyes, the Papal scriptures had arrived.

The ten warriors were quick to deploy barrier magic around Valentine as they descended from the sky. The ten mages landed on their feet and quickly went towards Valentine.

"Where did you come from?" Valentine asked as she slumped on the wet ground.

"Levitation magic, we tried to surprise them with an advanced illusion spell but it seems like it won't work on them,"

"Especially nearly all of them are in late A-rank!"

The group concentrated inside the transparent blue barrier. The Android Soldiers were just a few meters away from them.

"The infamous Papal Scripture," Artemis suddenly appeared directly against the barrier.

"What the..."

"Veorgh, Gord, Emma, Thourist, Freya, Quentiss and four unknown members of the Papal Scripture, I welcome you to our meeting,"

"He knows our names?" Emma asked in confusion.

"He knows my name, he knows who we are, this person isn't normal," Valentine warned

"Nor are his minions, they don't even look human," Gord pointed out.

"I think there has been enough chatter, the rest of the party have arrived. It's time for me to overcome the hurdle"

"Shit! We fell into a trap!" Thourist said.

"What hurdle?" Freya asked.

"Us, we are the hurdle he wishes to eliminate," Valentine answered, finally understanding Artemis' intentions.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

References: Demon Slayer

Demon Slayer: -{Everlasting Strike} = Thunder Breathing