Chapter Sixteen: Darkness, Healing, Summons

One second Fumiko was looking up into the eyes of a soon to be dead man, and the next, she's in the middle of nowhere, although she was near to the Demon King's castle.

Still lying in the ground her rage seething out of her, shown by the aura surrounding her that burned like fire.

Fumiko tried to stand up, but she couldn't feel her legs, and her ribs were definitely broken. She could feel the pain from it now that her adrenaline was going down, because she was now out of battle.

Fumiko felt her emotions rushing through her, all the ones she suppressed during the fight, all the new ones she was feeling at her situation now.

Completely immobile, no way to move, no way to release these emotions properly, trapped in her own body. There was only one way she could release all her emotions at once.

Far away from Fumiko, guards on the tower of the Demon Lord's castle looked out in a certain direction, feeling a massive build up of mana.

"Wha-." Before that demon guard could finish his sentence, a guttural scream was heard from that spot, before a massive beam of darkness shot up to the sky, while also reaching deep within the earth, and it started to spread out from its origin.

The guards, and everyone else who saw it or felt it, looked in that direction in shock.

And when the beam finally disappeared, only a giant crater remained of what was once a massive section of a forest.

Meld was immediately rushing towards the source of it, the mana behind it feeling familiar, but he pinpoint where he remembered it from.

A few strong demons followed him, although only the Demon Generals were able to keep up with him.

Zerad looked out the window at where the giant crater was. He knew who the origin of mana belonged to, he was a Demon Lord of Magic after all, he had to know these things.

But the way the destruction was caused, pure rage and feral instinct to show that the caster of said spell, if it could even be called a spell, was the strongest. Of course, that wasn't true. Zerad was stronger than that pawn of his, so we're his Generals and Meld, and obviously whoever had made them retreat.

But still, his pawn was more dangerous than he had thought. He had made sure that Meld only taught her the way of the sword, along with some spells to enhance her strength. But after what he had just witnessed, perhaps it would be best to put some space between them.

Keeping her away from him, so that she would never see through any of his lies. And so that her sword would never turn and be pointed at his neck.

But, even if he was impressed by what he had just seen, she still lost her first battle. Her first assignment that was given directly by him, she would have to be punished.

Zerad's eyes then lit up as he thought of something, why not kill a lot of birds with one stone. If everything played out like he hoped it would, and it would, then he could get a lot of things done in one meeting between them.

Meld looked at the crater, going ten kilometres in every direction from the centre of the crater. Meld would admit, this destruction was impressive, especially with how sudden it was.

Meld looked behind him and saw that some Demon Generals were there. "Spread out. I want a search for any humans in the nearby area, if you find any, kill them. If not, come back here."

The Generals grit their teeth at the order, but knowing that he had more authority and was in Zerad's good graces, they listened to him.

"Now, let's see who you are." Meld muttered to himself. He had been tracking the life force of the one who had done this, and right now they were at the bottom of this crater… doing nothing.

He jumped right in there and in only a few bounds he was near enough to get a proper read on who the energy belonged to.

And when he recognised it, he sped up. He had been cautious before, but no more. If Fumiko was back here, and in this crater, then that means she retreated or got sent back here, for some reason.

Once he got there, he was shocked. Fumiko was strong, that much was true, but whoever did this much damage to her, must be ten times stronger.

Her mask was still on, but blood dripped down the sides of it. Her chestplate was cracked and pieces had fallen off. Her gauntlets were cracked as well, one even missing, and the arm with the missing gauntlet was also broken.

Her breathing was rough and laboured, and she was unconscious.

Meld moved fast, and apologised silently in his head as he picked her up. As he did so, he heard some bones move in her as he moved her. He grimaced at the sound, and watched as her heart rate picked up.

Wherever Meld moved from, a shockwave was left in his place along with the ground breaking beneath his feet.

He finally got into the Demon Lord's castle, not bothering to slow down for the guards at the gate.

He then finally reached the medical area, with only a few injured inside. The rest had either been abandoned and left to die, or had died fighting.

"I need a healer!" Meld shouted out, an older demon came over as he placed Fumiko down onto a bed.

The demon human Meld had placed down on the bed, not taking any action yet as he looked at Meld. "Listen Meld, you might be one of Lord Zerads favourites, but even I don't think he'll appreciate me healing a human on your orders. I mean, what do you think will happen-."

The old demon was cut off as Meld grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. The old demon choked as he tried to get his breath back into him.

Meld glared at him as his eyes glowed. "I don't care what you think." Meld punctuated the words, emphasising the words as he did so. "That's not your job, your job is to do what I tell you to do." Meld then pointed back at Fumiko who was still lying unconscious on the medical bed, the scuffle between the two drawing everyone's attention. "So, when I tell you to heal her, you do it."

Meld let go of the old demon as he slumped to the ground trying to catch his breath. "Heal her." Meld repeated his order.

The old demon got up, despite still feeling out of breath and light headed. "Yes sir." The old demon wasn't willing to test Meld's patience a second time. He removed some of her armour pieces so that he would be able to heal her properly, including the mask on her face so that her breathing wouldn't be restricted.

He got up and started healing the human, despite his reluctance. He started with the lower back, knowing that the longer a bigger injury was left alone, the more difficult it would be to heal properly. Although it seemed that the human had a high healing factor, with their body already trying to heal itself.

Once her lower back was healed enough he moved to her lungs and ribs, realising that her ribs were moving dangerously as the body tried to heal, but in the wrong way.

As he did so and the ribs were back together but with small cracks in them, as he wasn't finished healing her yet, something changed. She took a deep breath and her eyes opened wide, a wild look in her eyes. The first person she saw was the old demon.

Her gauntlet wrapped around the old demon's neck as the claws on it dug into the demon's neck as drops of blood dripped down.

"Where am i?" Fumiko growled out. The grip around the old demon's neck was choking him again, and in his delirious state he wondered if him getting choked was going to become a common thing.

But luckily for the old demon Meld was feeling kind since the old demon had actually healed her. "Let go, Fumiko." He said as he grabbed her wrist.

Fumiko's eyesight expanded behind just the old demon, and she finally saw the room and Meld, now realising that she was back in Lord Zerads castle. "Meld." She sighed out in relief, her muscles relaxing as she let go of the demon's neck.

As she did so, she realised that there were still faint pains in her body, but knew that there was no more 'major' damage. Although, if she was a normal human and she didn't get to a hospital, then the injuries she currently had were definitely threatening for a long life.

"What happened out there, Fumiko?" Meld asked, grabbing a stool as he sat down. While also ordering the old demon to leave them be.

Fumiko thought back to it, now that she thought about it, the fight had been relatively fast. The fight between her and her replacement hadn't even lasted more than a half hour, and then the fight against that other guy… lasted around five minutes, but only because he was teaching the other hero, if he took it seriously… Fumiko didn't want to believe it, after all her training and effort she had put in, she could still be defeated in a few seconds.

"I lost." Fumiko said simply.

Meld nodded, knowing that already. "That's obvious. But how? Who did you fight?"

Before Fumiko could answer, a demon maid entered the medical room and walked over to Fumiko and Meld.

"Lord Zerad demands that both Meld and Fumiko come to the throne room to discuss what happened with the mission." The maid said to them, she wasn't looking in Fumiko's direction, but when she did, Fumiko saw a blush appear on her face before it vanished, replaced with a stone cold demeanour.

Meld looked reluctant, knowing that Fumiko was still healing. But Fumiko didn't hesitate, she got up and started walking towards the door on shaky legs.

"H-Hey, you're not properly healed…" The old demon pointed out, but one fierce glare from Fumiko was enough to silence him and pretend to not be talking to her but another demon in the medical bay, who was clearly fully healed.

The demon maid walked up to Fumiko. "If your having trouble walking, Fumiko, I can help you." The maid offered, but when she reached out Fumiko jerked away.

"Go away, I don't need help." Fumiko said through gritted teeth. The maid only nodded at that before walking away.

Fumiko knew she needed help to walk, but her pride wouldn't allow it. Her pride was already damaged by that humiliating defeat by a person who wasn't even taking her seriously. She wouldn't let a maid unknowingly trample on it by helping her.

Fumiko grit her teeth as she began to walk, her hand going to her left ribs as they still hurt. While she walked through the tall hallways with a limp in her step, even though she tried to hide it, to not show weakness, it was obvious.

Meld was walking behind her, letting Fumiko walk until she inevitably fell over. He could understand what she was thinking. It was probably along the lines of 'My pride won't allow it' or something. He had seen demons with that line of thinking, it almost always got them killed unless they actually had the power to back it up.

It seemed his vision of what she wanted to be when they clashed was right as well. She looked like what the vision had been, if anything this Fumiko seemed even more beautiful than the vision. It almost meant that the other things with that vision came through, like her viciousness.

He had sparred with her whenever he could, and although she used the style he had thought of her in their spars, he could tell she didn't use it anywhere else.

The Seven Orbs had also, like Meld expected them to, taken a massive effect on her personality. From a shy girl that was reluctant to speak good about herself, to a prideful girl that seemed to have never ending compliments about herself at the ready.

But although he said that, the compliments she gave herself weren't false. It seemed her pride had her to develop into arrogance, although maybe it did but she didn't show it around Meld, but he knew that if she was arrogant before, she definitely wouldn't be after her defeat.

The way she was acting now was proof of that. But whether she would admit her loss to Zerad was because her enemy was stronger than her or some other factor… that was to be seen.

Just then Fumiko let out a grunt as she lost her footing and tripped.

She was about to catch herself, but Meld was already by her side bringing her back up. "I'll make sure you don't fall from now on." He told her, making sure she knew she was going to get out of this.

Fumiko rolled her shoulder to see if Meld would actually let go, but like he said, he wasn't going to let go. Fumiko huffed as she looked away from Meld as he helped her walk towards the throne room.