Clash at Nocturne

'Slash'...Another spur of blood coloured the dimly lit early morning skies. The sounds of screaming men resonated across the otherwise desolate lands, that are the borders of Luna city. The source of this disturbance, the screams and death of these men are a group of 7 people, 5 of whom appear to be girls and 2 who are boys. The age of each person in this group does not appear to be very old. Rather they are very youthful and a few of them even appear to be children in their early teens. The older looking ones seem to be in their later teen-ages at most. This group of children clad in black...no, they are monsters giving off the same feeling of terror as us, the 10 devil generals. This terror, this power...it makes it very hard to believe that the group of children massacring the seasoned warriors of the order are really children.

"Those fools down there won't be able to handle those children. Their power is clearly unfathomable. They are masquerading dressed in black, its reasonable to assume that they belong to an organisation and if all these members have such powers, they will be a thorn to the order's side. At the very leat they will make valuable experimentation subjects."- said the man looking down from the window.

He is the devil general Tristan Spire, a half demon and man of immeasurable power. At least he would be if the general public and the worlds governments observed his martial prowess.

"I should go greet them personally."

****************

"Omega, remain calm. I understand that you are feeling very ecstatic hunting this mob but keep it in control." I spoke to the rampaging 12 year old elf brandishing her broadsword.

I almost feel bad for the order getting attacked by Omega. The damage to property is very excessive. The plan was to keep things quiet for as long as possible but I forgot that I had Omega on the squad. A failure on my part to not keep an eye on her, but I think that Max-sama expected Omega to go berserk anyway. It would be hard for someone with his intellect to not foresee this outcome. Anyway I will apologise and make amends later, that is what I must do to set an example as Max-sama's closest advisor. Oh I forgot that right now he is hades and I am 'Nu'. Its fine for Omega and Aurora to not have any alias as all their records are destroyed, but in my case, Hades-sama had a new identity and record made for me as 'Emilia-future advisor for the stone family'.

After all is said, the squad I am leading right now is quickly mowing down on the order's guards. Some of them seem stronger than the others, so its safe to assume that those are members of the the devil generals personal retinue. That said, they didn't amount to much. Most of the guards stationed at the front gate are already slain. Of course, me and Omega are doing most of the fighting as we have the most experience. The other five members accompanying us are relatively new recruits who are showing promise and so we want them to gain experience.

You ask if we are ok with killing? I can't say anything about all the new members we have since we started expanding our organisation, but at the very least me, Aurora and Omega do not mind it at all. These people ruin others lives and if they accomplish their goals, they will ruin the world. The 3 of us if not anyone else are determined to see things through along with hades-sama.

Saying that I quickly slashed one more head with my 'katana', I think that's what hades sama called it. Omega was still going berserk killing and destroying anything in her path with her broadsword. There were still more people on her side. I'll let her enjoy then.

"Nu-sama, it seems that 3 people might have escaped your way after running away from hades sama. Hades-sama also told you to speed up the operation if possible, in case those 3 inform the devil general and move Nicole sama in the midst of the confusion."

It was Aurora who informed me just now.

"I see. We will finish up as quickly as possible. Has Hades-sama entered the underground laboratory?"

"He told us that he has cleared up the rest of the enemies on his side and in entering the laboratory as we speak."

"As expected of Hades-sama. Even with 7 of us here we have still not cleared our side. We will speed up the operation."

"Roger. I will keep you posted."

Aurora cut the magic transmission after that. I suppose I can leave these guards to Omega.

"Omega, take care of these guards. I will head on inside since we need to speed up the operation."

"Ok, leave this to..."

"Leave what to whom may I ask. Although those guards may be lousy, they are still my soldiers. I can't have them die due to a bunch of kids." A sharp voice cut through Omega's confirmation. Although the person in question had not yet come out into the front courtyard where the fighting occurred, the magical pressure that was felt was unlike these goons.

"Tristan Spire, the 9th devil general, is it?" I spoke with a smile

As soon as I said that a tall, burly man wearing armour consisting of a grey chest plate with similarly coloured grey trousers covered with black greaves appeared. He held a large glaive in his right hand which looked very heavy to be honest. Although he was very well built and can be considered to look rather barbaric, his way speaking was unusually cultured.

"And may I ask, where exactly did you hear about the devil generals. Well, after coming all this way knowing the presence of a devil general, I doubt that you would be willing to divulge any information."

"Of course I won't tell anything."

"I thought as much. Young lady, you seem to be the leader of this group. As a devil general, I can tell that only you and that elf girl over seem to be particularly powerful. Even if you don't tell anything, I doubt that the 5 greenhorns behind you will do the same."

"It won't come to you being able to question them. If you think you can defeat us just because you are some half-demon, you might be disappointed."

Anger seemed to well up inside him. It seems he takes pride in being demon kin and being looked down upon by a teenage girl touched a nerve. Well, I knew anyway that that cultured manner of speech is just a facade. His true self is just a barbaric man who can only talk with fists. Even if me and Omega are fine, the pressure he seems to be applying on those 5 seem to be rather unnerving to them.

"Now you've said it, you bitch. The one thing I can't tolerate is big fish in a small pond thinking they are the greatest."

"Is that so? Shouldn't you be looking at yourself then? Just because the order has concealed its powers for so long doesn't mean that they really amount to much."

"Ohh, let's see if you can keep up those words after a while. I bet you will be begging for forgiveness in front of the might of the great demons."

He raised his glaive and imbued it with his mana.

"Omega lead those five away from here. Staying here will only serve to be a nuisance."

As soon as Omega left, I turned back to face the devil general and raised my sword. Tristan then lunged forward with a speed contrary to his huge physique.

"Eat this and beg for mercy, hahaha."

He slammed the glaive into the floor as I jumped back about 10 steps at the last second. The impact from the glaive caused the floor to shatter making a crater where I was standing earlier.

"Oh, so you didn't die from that hit. I expected at least that much otherwise it would be too boring."

Just shut up already. Are all devil generals like this guy who constantly keep jabbering nonsense. If you want to fight then just use your weapon instead of your mouth. It seems that I hate this type of people.

He then continued trying to hit me. Five, and ten, the number of craters that appeared on the floor increased.

"Is all that you can do is to run around."

"No, but its fun to see you failing to even touch me after all that talk."

He got angry again. Oh, I also seem to love making guys like him to get angry.

He then raised his glaive and poured a huge amount of mana into it, probably enough to destroy the building. I should prevent Omega from becoming like this guy, since they both seem to be similar in how they fight. All that mana leaking out of the glaive, such a waste. It seems that he got drunk on his power and never learned to truly control it. Its still understandable. Their pure powers are enough to overpower the world governments so they never really have to care about anything else. I should be thankful, this just plays in my favour.

Hey slashed through the air from about 15 feet away. The mana stored in his glaive got released as it headed in my direction. Mana can only be physically visible if its highly concentrated. This means such attacks are impossible for people whose mana core readings are below 50. 50 is the very least benchmark for higher tiers of magic after all.

I raised my hand so that my palm was facing the incoming shockwave. Boom...there was an explosion on contact and a huge dust cloud formed.

As the dust cleared after a few moments I looked around. The area behind me was affected by the explosion and destroyed. A few trees had also been cut. A 'v' shaped indentation was visible on the ground going all the way back until the front gate which was in shambles. I assume that after the mana surge hit my palm, it was diverted to the back forming this depression and destroying anything in its path.

"How the fuck are you still alive. Not only that, you don't even have a scratch?"

"No need to be so surprised. Was that your final move? Its easy to fight you since all you do is use your large amounts of raw mana with no control at all. All I had to do was emit mana from my hand and created a dense enough barrier to shield me from your attack."

"The fuck? That attack was enough to destroy a building. I won't believe some lousy magic can block it."

"Is that all you have to say...?"

Slash...

"Aaaahh....Arrg, dammit. How the fuck did you do that?" Tristan yelled grasping his left arm which had been cleanly cut off. The dripping blood collected into a puddle near his feet.

"Nothing really. I used an attack similar to yours and just sliced through the air."

"There's no fuckin' way that's possible. My body is...argh...stronger than that of you puny insects. Don't look down on a demons power, brat."

"Believe what you want. It must be hard for you to admit that a small girl is stronger than you."

He was still bursting with anger and spewing curses.

"Just you wait, you wretch. I'll get back to you." He grabbed the dismembered arm which lay lying on the floor and raised his glaive.

"I'll definitely make you regret this and make you beg for a painless death...bammm"

He smashed the glaive into the floor and another dust cloud formed. As it cleared he had run off into the base. Just as I was about chase after him-

"Nu-sama, have you found Nicole-sama yet?" Aurora spoke via magic transmission.

"Not yet. I have not even entered the base yet. Tristan, the devil general came out onto the front yard and so I had to engage him in battle."

"I see. Then has he been slain yet?"

"No. I cut his left arm off and just as I was about to deliver the finishing blow he ran away into the base in Hades-sama's direction."

"Understood. I will now relay Hades-sama's orders. Nicole Sama is not in the underground laboratory. He has told you to go find her and get her out of the base immediately. As for Tristan, Hades-sama wants to engage him in battle himself and has ordered you to not kill him."

"Himself? Is there a particular reason?"

Why does Max-sama want to prevent her from fighting Tristan? He normally does not mind the method of achieving goals as long as the goals themselves are achieved.

"I do not know about that. All I can say is that he seemed particularly angry."

Angry, is it? While his personality is mysterious he doesn't show emotions like anger on the surface. What exactly happened?

"Alright. I will finish the mission immediately."

As I cut the transmission, I began to ponder on the questions in my mind.