Chapter Four: Pinnacle Of Magic

Rifts are the pinnacle of what any being can create with magic. A reality of their very own soul imprinted into the physical world. Andrea, crackling with electric energy, placed her hands on the ground as Lucas, Lily, and a stumbling Kieran joined her. This was the best she could manage for now, forming an essence barrier around herself and her team and cutting off the flow of the demons rift from the space they inhabited. Her barrier flows like lightning strikes all around them, disrupting invisible blood slashes from the opposing demon.

Lily did her best to repair Kieran's throat with her very limited control over the speed of his own healing body. He wouldn't be able to speak, but this would at least keep him from bleeding to death internally. Kieran looked at the ground of this bloody rift, his palms pressing against the twilight of destruction and bloodlust that inhabits this demon's soul. He thought to himself of what he could do in this situation: either Andrea isn't able to stop defending herself with her barrier or they die.

Next, Lucas is probably the weakest member offensively. He hasn't displayed or even tried to attack the demon, so it's unlikely he has an offensive move capable of harming it. Lily is great, but her ability would be best used in tandem with Andrea or one of Kieran's own techniques. He didn't have anything to use! His eclipse sword would require him to get close, and within this rift, fighting that thing head-on is basically suicide.

Kieran looked at the twilight-colored ground and came to the conclusion that he'd make a technique on the fly. It's not exactly impossible, but it usually takes time and training to refine a technique into a usable move. Kieran would draw shadowed letters in the ground, tugging on Lily's shoulders to see what he wrote.

"Seriously? Do you think it'll work?" Kieran would nod, giving a half-hearted smile. It was his best idea.

The demon approached the edge of the lightning barrier nonchalantly, tracing its left blood axe across the edge. "This will not hold; you are within a reality I control. Do you really believe such simple magic is enough?"

A shadowy drill appears above the demon's head, and he quickly slashes it away, his axe seemingly never even moving when his gaze would turn to Kieran standing a bit away. "The shadow user? Your throat is gone beyond repair; I'll gore your body next."

An invisible force came barreling at Kieran, but it just phased right through him, being destroyed by the edge of the rift. "Hmph, it seems you intend to phase into a shadow every time you suspect an attack? You misunderstand this rift and the abilities I gain within it. I am not slashing or cutting your body; I am cutting your very core, so I know you are nothing more than a decoy."

Kieran's true eyes widened, and so he sprung his plan right at that moment, erupting from the ground beneath the demon, his eclipse blade nicking the demon's cheek as he swung at its neck, but it narrowly avoided him. 'Now that his attention is directed towards me...'

The shadow decoy appeared next to the demon solidifying itself as a hardened shadow, throwing a left hook to its body and then a right straight across it's jaw. A surprise attack! Allowing Andrea to lower her barrier and go on the offensive along with Lily and Lucas. The first to act was Andrea, launching herself from her crouched position. Lily's momentum on her had ended, but she was still the fastest of any of the students.

Narrowly arriving in time before it could act, kneeing its face before activating a technique. Lightning Flowing Fist, a combination of blows where she uses the charge of her last attack to arrive with faster and harder-hitting blows in succession.

Her first blow was a head-snapping left jab, as she descends downward, turning into her second blow, a lightning-fast spinning heel kick. Her third blow arrived with enough force to shake the very air within the rift. With her feet touching the ground, she launched that third attack, a lightning bolt from her right fist impacting and blowing the demon's head clean off.

The bolt struck into the rift wall and dissipated before she went for the killing blow with her fourth attack. If she could damage it enough to the point it couldn't regenerate, then the rift should dissipate. What Andrea knew of these rifts was that it was impossible to escape once trapped in one. She had no techniques besides her automatic barrier that could withstand his onslaught of slashes either; this was her only chance.

Her left hand moved for the oni's chest, but even with its head blown off, his left arm twitched. Her left arm was split from the elbow down, her forearm and hand clattering into the ground as she screamed in agony. The others were simply too slow to help her overwhelm it; Lily was only just arriving with her spear, now turned staff since she no longer had the metal tip. Her swing was stopped by the force of the demon kicking her legs out.

It's head then regenerates in an instant, just in time for his six eyes to lock onto Kierans position beneath him in a shadow. Normally an attack wouldn't be able to travel through his shadow, but he felt the invisible cut slash straight through his shadow, only being able to teleport behind the demon to avoid it.

Kieran had theorized that its eyes were what were generating the slashes, but it could be its perception generating them. It probably doesn't perceive things normally either, so its sense, especially its detection of energy, is likely on par with, if not greater than, most grandmaster exorcists.

Almost like it locks onto a position then travels from it's axe to the energy source, with it's senses focused on him, it allowed Lucas time to catch Lily, who had been flung by the kick. It had broken her arm and probably cracked a few ribs; even with their reinforced bodies, their basic attacks were fatal! Kieran had no time to think about going on the offensive. With his shadow attacking low while it attacked high, it jumped over his eclipse blades swing, catching his clones arm.

Lifting the clone up and slamming it down onto Kieran caused him to cough up blood as it then lifted its axe, ready to behead him. However, in its confidence, it had forgotten of Andrea's blood spurting from her arm. She finished her fourth attack screaming as her lightning essence not only burned her wound closed but also shot out her fatal attack. Five lightning bolts poured out, obliterating its chest and abdomen.

Just the aftershock of these bolts striking made Kieran shell up in a shadow, only for it to be obliterated. His clone was also killed by this attack. Her ultimate move was enough to rival the raw power of a master exorcist, but sadly, it wouldn't be enough.

As the arms of the demon fell, they stopped in the middle of the air, spinning and sending dozens of slashes out. The demon reformed its body, standing over the bloodied Kieran, whose second shadow shield had made the slashes shallow, while Andrea had been sent flying. Her reinforcement only allowed her to survive with her legs; she is now unconscious and without both of her arms. It had not forgotten the other two, three slashes cut through the earthy barrier made by Lucas; Kieran had no idea if they were alive.

He looked up in fear at this monster standing over him, its voice like nails on a chalkboard in his mind. "I underestimated you all. No more."

Death. Once again, that was all he could see; it was hopeless. This was the end. Kieran raised his right arm, charging several shadow spikes that spun in front of him rapidly. It only looked down at him with a demonic grin.

"You can't do anything! No human can slay a demon of my caliber! A living catastrophe can't be killed! I could keep you alive right now, and there is nothing you or anyone else can do."

He fired his shadow spirals, but they just dissipated against its hard flesh. It was reinforcing its already durable body with its own tainted energy. "Feeble humans like you can't grasp the true pinnacle of magic. Within this barrier, I control time, space, and the very existence of your soul!"

-KSSSSSHKKKK-

The sound of glass breaking filled the air. Next to Andrea was a crouched figure, his red cloak blowing from the wind being let in by the hole in the roof of the rift.

"So this is what was happening?" Alistair questioned before he stood up and in leapt the old man who had been training him. Eorlund is the battlemaster of the school and was the one teaching Alistair in the basement.

Eorlund: "Must have been the rift dilating their sense of time... I guess this battle took less than a minute, huh, demon?"

"You dare address me within my own domain! Insolent, I will kill you like the rest."

"Ah, no, your fight isn't with me. It's with him; you see, you'll be the first proper demon he fights." He points at Alistair, who is now standing as he walks away from Andrea.

It's eyes focused on him; it's thoughts poured out. He has no presence; hell, he doesn't even have anything in his core. A weakling who doesn't even know of essence or his own core.

"First, your kind sends weaklings, then they present me with a boy with no ability at all? What if I refuse? I shall-"

Alistair moved first, his left palm smashing into its chest, knocking it into and out of the rifts edge, which quickly caused the rift to fade. Eorlund said, "Give em' hell, kid; I'll make sure Andrea survives."

"Way ahead of you."

Kieran couldn't believe it; he broke the rift just by hitting him. Not even six hours ago, he couldn't even use magic properly. Eorlund carried the injured Andrea to Ethan, who was placed near a building and had begun healing Andrea. Kieran looked at Eorlund like he was crazy. Eorlund smiled as he presented his own essence helping to heal the vocal chords of Kieran, who quickly put them to good use. 

Kieran: "What are you doing? Help him fight that thing!"

Eorlund: "I know what it looks like, but you were all in that rift for a week. This is part of something much worse. Let him handle it, he needs this experience."

Kieran: "What? Are you stupid!"

Eorlund: "Please just hear me out, I will explain everything, but first, you're going to want to watch this."

Alistair stepped closer to the downed demon, who quickly sprung to his feet, gnashing its razor-sharp teeth as it regenerated the hole that had been punched through it.

"I SEE! Hahahahhah to think an exorcist would go this far." It roared in laughter while Alistair looked at him curiously with his amethyst-colored eyes.

"What are you giggling about, you damn demon?"

"YOU! I mean, it's foolish, but you must have traded all of your energy in some kind of deal or even made a contract with your own core for enhanced physical statistics. It's a pity it won't matter; you can't exorcise me with strength alone."

"Hmph, old man, how long did you say?"

Eorlund: "Three minutes."

"Alright then, in three minutes you'll be exorcised, but first tell me your name."

"Oblivion, incarnation of bloodlust."

Alistair: "I am the void walker, Alistair!"

"Exorcists always give themselves the dumbest names!"

Eorlund: "Hey, I thought it was cool."

Kieran: "Did you tell him he needed a nickname?"

Eorlund looked around nervously, rubbing his hands together. "Uhhhhh no."

Alistair: "He's lying; I thought you said every exorcist needs a cool name."

"FOCUS ON THE FIGHT, DUMBASS!" The old man screamed as Oblivion swung his left axe at Alistair's neck. It's frightening speed on full display. Alistair lifted his right hand, blocking the blow by catching the blood axe. A deafening bang cried out cracking the ground from the shockwaves of the blow. Alistair threw the demon using the axe as leverage dumping it on its own neck before backing off. 

"Keep coming at me, you'll find I am harder to kill than anything you've ever known."

"YOU WILL KNOW MY BLOODLUST HUMAN!" It snarled as it launched at him brandishing both of its long axes.

The battle of Silverpeak continues with a ray of hope arriving once again in the form of an anomaly! This time it would be different, Alistair thought to himself remembering how Leo had to save him. This time, he would win because of his own strength, nobody else would be needed.