Breaker

-----Kaede's POV

I never expected for this to turn out like this, but from the looks of it, the demon queen and I are now teaming up against Leon. Personally, I don't want to kill him, but I cannot ignore the immense amount of bloodlust coming from him. I try to use my charm magic in hopes to calm him down, but it gets repelled almost instantly.

It was then that Leon shot down towards us, shooting out several more blades of light. I guess I have no choice... I can always heal him if the worst case happens, but right now we definitely need to get him under control. The demon queen successfully disperses the blades of light flying towards us giving me an opening to intercept him as I create another scythe. I would've thought he'd block my attack, but I surprisingly manage to cut off his right arm as his blood sprays out in the air. Fuck! But before I could even begin panicking, his arm miraculously grows back as his entire body glows brightly. I've healed many wounds before, but this is the first time I'm seeing a limb grow back using light magic. I don't know how Leon managed to get this power, but it's definitely frightening.

Suddenly, his body gets engulfed in black flames that's coming from the demon queen. I guess she's not bothered about trying to kill Leon...

Demon Queen: "Are you just going to stay there? Or are you going to help me?"

Kaede: "R-right!"

But before I could help out, the ball of black flames surrounding Leon suddenly explodes as a giant ball of light takes it's place, blinding both of us. And before I could open my eyes, I could sense something coming towards me with tremendous speed, but before I could dodge, I feel my whole body burning up as I once again get shot back down to the ground, crashing through several buildings before finally stopping as my back slams against a wall.

My vision is still blinded, but I can feel my body regenerating once more as the pain surrounding my face and body quickly dissipates as my vision soon comes back. And what I see is yet another ball of light shooting straight towards me.

Kaede: "...Fine."

I draw out more of my blood, creating a long, massive sword in my left hand and a scythe with a massive blade in my right. I pour in my light magic into my blood weapons, enhancing them as much as I can before slashing at the ball of light before it makes contact with me. Or course it explodes, but I managed to mitigate most of the damage around my body as the explosion only destroys the wall to my sides.

Wasting no time, I shoot back up into the sky, closing the distance between Leon and I in a matter of seconds. Seems he was too distracted with the demon queen to notice I was still alive as I managed to get right up close before he took notice. Wanting this to be over, I make a slash at his neck with my scythe, but he just barely manages to dodge, however I do manage to make a slight cut in his neck.

Kaede: "It's over."

Knowing how quickly he can heal, I draw out his blood from the small cut I made. With the blood I manage to get before his wound seals up, I form several small blood spikes as I use his own blood against him, creating even more holes in his body which I then use to extract even more blood out of him. The demon queen also takes the opportunity I gave her as she pierces his back with her black, sharpened arm, as her hand now sticks out of his chest.

Leon: "!"

But once again, he engulfs himself in a ball of light, forcing the demon queen and I to quickly retreat, and once the light settles, Leon's body comes back into view, only this time, the holes in his body were all sealed up, and the gaping hole in his chest that the demon queen had made was also gone. How is this fair? But suddenly, he rotates around, showing his back towards us as it looks like he's about to attack empty air, and in the next instant, the demon queen shoots out numerous of those white strands from her hair as they all pierce his body.

Kaede: "What?"

But before I could get answers from her, she using the strands like a whip, forcefully shooting him straight to the ground as a massive crater forms where Leon's body made contact.

Demon Queen: "Fell for the same trick as you, fufu."

Not wanting to waste time, she flies down to the ground as I also follow suit. We both land at the edge of the crater, staring down at Leon who still seems to be getting up, although his movements seem to be quite a slot slower than before. And in a blink of an eye, the demon queen comes right on top of Leon, slamming his head back into the concrete, piercing even more of those strands into his body, pinning his body to the ground.

Demon Queen: "You finally out of juice?"

Of course there's no response from Leon as his face is currently buried into the concrete. It was then that the demon queen, grew out one of her black, dagger-like fingers into a shape of a small scythe as she brings it to his neck. I wonder to myself if this is the correct decision, to kill Leon. But he was trying to kill me, so I should just let her kill-

Mai: "Wait!"

Suddenly. Mai pops up next to the demon queen before she could deliver the final blow. Oh yeah, wasn't Mai meant to be helping me? Why now of all times has she decided to intervene, and to stop us form killing Leon at that?

Demon Queen: "Who are you?"

Mai: "That's not important. That boy. He's no longer under their contract."

Her words instantly remind me of Lucien. Didn't he form some kind of covenant with spirits? Is that what Mai's talking about?

Mai: "Yes."

Demon Queen: "What do you mean?"

Mai: "Can't you tell? His aura has deceased considerably."

Now that Mai points it out, I'm not sensing that threatening aura like before. If anything, Leon seems to not have any aura at all. No... His aura is just that weak that it's barely noticeable. I'd say he's even weaker than mom right now.

Kaede: "Let him go."

Demon Queen: "Fine."

She gets off of him, taking out the white strands from his body as I quickly run over to heal his body. Knowing what it felt like from just a single strand felt like, I worry if he even managed to survive with that many inside of him, but his heart still seems to be pumping at least.

Demon Queen: "...You said contract?"

Mai: "Yes. Seems like he made a deal with the spirits. But looks like the spirits had enough with him and terminated it."

Demon Queen: "So that's why he suddenly grew weaker... But I don't remember him being this weak before."

Mai: "It's the spirits way of growing stronger to give it to the next person."

Kaede: "Wait. So the spirits steal the person's mana?"

Mai: "Correct. That's their "price" for when they're done with you."

So if Lucien was this spirit's previous pawn, that means they extracted his mana before his death and gave all that power to Leon? And the next person would inherit Lucien's and Leon's powers?

Mai: "Along with all the previous ones, yes."

Mai replies through our thoughts, confirming my speculation. The demon queen and I had a hard time with Leon just now, so I can't imagine how ridiculous the next person would be. Sounds like to me that these spirits are the actual bad guys in this world.

Mai: "I'm glad you finally understand."

After healing Leon's body, Mai goes to pick him up.

Mai: "I'll take take him back."

Demon Queen: "Wait. Then what are you?"

Mai: "Just a friend of Kaede's."

And with that, Mai teleports away, taking Leon's body with her, leaving the demon queen and I alone in the middle of the crater. I wonder if we only won that fight because of Leon's contract being terminated. Even with the two of us at his throat, he continuously healed everything in a blink of an eye while still dishing out incredible magic that burned my skin from even being near it. I take a moment to look over my arms but it seems like they've also regenerated and are back to normal.

Kaede: "...Should we head back to Fabian?"

Demon Queen: "Y-yeah."

-----Yui's POV

Sicily: "S-so what exactly is happening?"

We've continued monitoring Mell, Fleur and Faye ever since their sudden collapse to the ground, and since then, they've experienced their bodies growing cold to even burning up like a furnace. But it looks like they've finally calmed down now. But seeing as though they're all experiencing this at the same time and them somehow knowing Kaede's involved, it only raises more questions.

Fleur: "Kaede. We're all experiencing a portion of her pain."

Yui: "What?"

Faye: "It's crazy, I know. But it looks like we're somehow connected."

Lillian: "Can you tell what's happening to her then?"

Fleur: "No. But at least right now, Kaede seems to be okay."

Could this be like some sort of hivemind? I know some insects back home had similar behaviors like this. Well... Maybe not as far as sharing pain, but the fact that Mell, Fleur and Faye all know that Kaede's in trouble really does make it seem like one.

Mell: "Even still... I want to kill whoever gave mom this pain."

But it seems like Mell is the only one that's filled with bloodlust as even her tone of voice appeared to be quite dark. But before any of us could calm down, Mai suddenly appeared before us. But all our eyes locked onto the person that Mai's carrying.

Yui: "Leon?!"

Mai: "I'll be back with Fabian, but we managed to find Leon there as well."

Yui: "O-okay."

And within a second after placing Leon on the ground, Mai teleports away. Seems like Mai is pretty busy.

Mell: "You..."

But it looks like Mell's bloodlust still hasn't subsided, and if anything, I feel like it's gotten worse with Leon's appearance.

Fleur: "Mell don't do-"

In the next moment, Mell was right on top of Leon as if she teleported, and before I could even react, Mell's nails grow into sharp, mini daggers, much like Kaede's. But just as she was about to stab her claws into Leon's neck, both Fleur and Faye grab hold of Mell's arms on either side, forcing Mell to stop.

Mell: "Leave me alone!"

It all happened so fast as Sicily, Lillian and I remain frozen at what's taking place. Mell doesn't take her eyes off of Leon for a second as she tries to pry herself off of Fleur and Faye with no success. She's even baring her fang as she desperately tries to break free. Does she seriously want to kill Leon?