The Demon Heart

"Seneca?"

When Ru whispered this name, it was as if his heart was screaming.

"Are you Seneca's?"

Although his shadow kicked and stomped beneath his feet and told him to "shut up," Ru neither saw nor heard Alter Ru.

"Yes, you are the heart of Seneca."

The name, he'd hoped, would ignite a spark within him. Instead, a chilling silence enveloped him. A sudden, deafening buzz filled the air, followed by the lights going out.

Even though he didn't know it, his city had been plunged into complete darkness.

"Has the greatest demon attack begun?" Ru muttered, his voice strong in the eerie silence. He clutched his chest, a mix of fear and anticipation coursing through him.

A response came, not from Seneca, but from the shadows. A pair of glowing eyes appeared on the mezzanine railing, followed by a horde of gray creatures. Their sharp teeth, claws, and multiple eyes glinted in the darkness.

Without hesitation, Ru lunged into action. He grabbed his vacuum cleaner and swung it at one of the demons, sending it reeling back. He spun around and took a defensive stance as another creature lunged at him.

"Let me show you hell," Ru taunted with a demonic voice. "Unpaid bills, for example?"

The demons were unlike any he'd ever seen. It seemed that they were more coordinated and more stylish than ever. Their ash-gray skin was covered in spikes, their limbs elongated and twisted. Some had extra limbs. Even their tails had different shapes from each other.

"What the fuck is that?" Ru exclaimed, his eyes wide with disbelief.

One demon wore a lampshade on its head and had four arms adorned with aluminum foil. Another sported a pink skirt, a relic from Vaelan's childhood teddy bear, and its tail was wrapped in glowing little bulbs. The one with a hat and bat was ready for a baseball game, while the creature dressed in a net curtain had fashioned a crown from discarded beer cans.

Ru was dumbfounded; he found himself on a fashion podium of nightmares. The demons' grotesque appearance was somehow juxtaposed with their bizarre, almost comical attire. Their "fashionable" behavior was both absurd and terrifying.

Ru scoffed, "Biggest demon attack, huh? Big joke!"

Nevertheless, the demons' repulsive squeaks, produced by their teeth grinding, served as a constant reminder of the danger they posed. They were faster, stronger, and more relentless than anything he'd ever encountered.

"Damn, they upgraded because I leveled up," Ru said. And he started to confront the arrivals with the vacuum cleaner.

A few of them jumped on Ru individually, some without waiting for their turn. Their tactical aim was obviously to pin the victim down. However, with a quick thought, Ru turned his back to the windows. One of them was open; he would jump over the demons and reach the window.

He swung the vacuum cleaner many times. To no avail, he grabbed it with both hands and whirled it around and around rapidly. Some of the demons' skirts flew.

"Whew!"

Ru was saving his breath for his attack, which he called 'red dragon fire.' That's why he wasn't singing or whistling for now. Instead, he tried to use everything around him as a weapon. Armchairs, Vaelan's dirty laundry, the coffee table, stale pizzas, books, beer cans, etc.

Suddenly an idea came to his mind. The ultimate attack idea for the big demon attack. However, he needed electricity to do this.

"Hmm," he thought while dodging the demons' claw and tail attacks with acrobatic moves. "If not, I will create it; after all, my bro is rich."

Ultimately, he somehow managed to evade demons and activate the power generator. He rolled quickly on the floor and grabbed the main control remote for the sound system. He leaped onto the kitchen counter. He cranked up the volume to maximum and kicked the garbage and dirty dishes around. He leaped up, swiftly walking by stomping on the heads of the demons. Upon landing, he seized the electric guitar from where he fell and stood up.

"It's showtime, baby," he exclaimed as he plucked at the guitar strings and let them go.

Ru's guitar was spitting fire. The sound was a weapon, a sonic blast that ripped through the hall, shaking the mezzanine and echoing outwards. Each note was a physical blow, vibrating through the building. The sound intensified, a series of concussive explosions, a continuous, vibrating hum. Demons were blasted back, some disintegrating, others flung against the shattering glass.

"Hell yeah! That's it," Ru shouted, deciding to solo. "Seventh symphony, bitches! Muhaha!"

As he enthusiastically played the guitar, he continued to send everything flying and shattering with the mighty sound waves. Even though Vaelan's villa has a rather large garden, Ru's sudden concert made even the neighbors jump out of their seats. As the doors and windows of the houses opened one by one, something else happened—a humming, vibrations, and then a strong tremor that came closer step by step.

Screams, shouts, and wild honking...

While Ru was fighting a musical combo for demons, he saw the gray catastrophe approaching. A gargantuan grayness with burning houses on its horns was coming toward him.

"Is this a demon?"

The demon looked like a gargantuan centaur. It had the body of a horse from the waist down and four legs. Lava flowed from its four legs, and its hooves burned. And its flaming tail gave the night its fireworks.

"Padre," came his voice buzzing through the neighborhood. "Where are you, Padre?" Each shout became a hot wind, scorching dry trees and grass.

The resulting symphony of doom ignited a forest fire in Ru's subconscious. He was startled from head to toe. In a sense, at that moment he was continuously experiencing all the sensations of death in one breath. But the cries of the animals and the crunching of the plants caused him pain worse than death. The pain was unbearable...

Tear after tear flowed from his eyes, quickly evaporating in the intense heat. His skin was dry; it itched. But his back was damp, as damp as if he had been drenched with water, and just as warm.

The gargantuan demon continued to mow the air with its howls: "Where are you, Padre? Come out! We've come to take you home."

His ribs had become knives stabbing into his lungs and heart. The pain in his back was unbearable. He couldn't breathe; he couldn't move. He was unable to regain consciousness. At that moment, the huge eyes of the demon, which consisted of two suns, turned towards Ru.

"I found you, Padre! There you are," the gargantuan demon said and began to gallop.

Ru's imaginary little girls squealed in unison.

<No, Daddy! You can't do it!>

<Run away, Dad!>

Ru's fingers moved but failed to pull the guitar string.

<Give it up, Dad!> said one of the girls.

Ru seemed to hear them in his dreams, but he could not regain consciousness lost in the smoke.

Horror ripped through even the Almighty Ru. He had defied destiny, uttered the name, and now he was facing the consequences. And he had done all this against his will. Clutching at his chest, he felt the agonizing throb of Seneca's heart. "So that's your name," he snarled, the words laced with pain and fury. He surged to his feet, ignoring the agony that threatened to cripple him. "Go!" he roared, his voice echoing with ancient power. "Save my clone. At once!"

The girl wearing the bone crown stepped forward to lead them and shouted. <Let's fight, girls!>

At that moment, a frantic driver in a White Falcon automobile intercepted the gargantuan demon.

"Vaelan," he was the one who raised Ru's consciousness from the pit in which it had sunk.

Vaelan slammed the car door and leveled his rifle. "Eat this, you motherfucker," he yelled as he unleashed a hail of bullets.

"Vaelan, don't! Runaway," Ru shouted, threw the guitar, and started running towards there.

Ru screamed as loud as he could. The flesh of the demons hit by his scream was peeling off their bones. But he couldn't make his voice heard to Vaelan.

Suddenly Clockmaker's voice, deep and resonant, filled the air. "Time stands still. The world pauses. Let the battle commence."

The bright hourglass summoned with magic words shattered. Sand poured out of it, flowing in great waves over a wide area. Caught in this suspended moment, the demons seemed to freeze. But the gargantuan demon, its monstrous form looming over the city, was only slowed, not stopped. Its eyes, glowing with an unnatural intensity, remained fixed on Vaelan.

Vaelan kept firing his rifle. Bullet after bullet struck the demon, but it seemed impervious to the pain. Eventually, a fortunate shot found its target, piercing its right eye.

"Vaelan! Don't it!" Ru cried as he kept running.

But it was too late now. The demon, now transformed into a whirlwind of rage, destroyed Vaelan's chariot. Its tail, as thick as a sycamore trunk, swung with terrifying speed and connected with Vaelan with a sickening thud. Vaelan was thrown into the air like a doll and disappeared into the smoke.

Ru fell to his knees, a silent scream escaping his lips.

"Vaelan! No! No!"