Death or defeat?

Everyone in the building was staring at the battlefield with their mouths opened.

Liu,who has been just subdued by Hagetaka had stood up with his arms widespread roaring loudly and absorbing all the dispersed mana around him.

Hagetaka shifted his attention away from Sora and the rest and turned towards Liu once again.

"So you've made a soul sacrifice,huh?"he directed the question towards Liu with an irritated tone" I've had enough of your persistence so just die already".

"Shut up!Shut up! Iam gonna kill you right here at this very moment just you wait!"Hagetaka appeared right infront of him to pierce his heart but was instantly pushed back with all the nein being absorbed and the blade had been deflected and thrown towards opposite side.

Hagetaka shifted his right hand towards Kusanagi which instantly flew into his hand and licked off the blood from it.

"Lets get serious,shall we?"

Meanwhile,everybody else had already started to run towards the entrance knowing what was about to come.

"You idiot,what are you standing over there for?"Sora shouted at Ahihito who hadn't moved yet from his spot.

"What is about to happen that everyone's started to run away?I guess it's something big,right?"he asked while getting ready to run with the others.

"Whatever it is,we don't need to be here when that happens so it's best to observe from afar now if u don't wanna die get the fuck out of here".

Just than there was a huge gush of wind which made the roof almost collapse and great explosion afterwards.

"What the-"Ahihito was pushed aside while a boulder was about to fall on him.

He looked towards the spot and Sora had already destroyed it to pieces.

"There is still time to run so get your ass off the floor and make a run for the entrance".

"So is this explosion normal for soul sacrifice or whatever?"Ahihito asked when they had finally gotten out of the building and turned to look towards the smoke arising from the building.

"Soul-sacrifice is basically the last thing u ever wanna do. What happens is you sacrifice your soul for infinite power and in exchange you loose your sanity and life".

"Basically, a contract?"Ahihito asked with curiosity.

"Yeah,a contract with the nature but devils like us can't perform it-"another gush of wind came from what was previously the battlefield and the smoke was cleared in an instant.

Hagetaka hadn't moved from his previous spot at all but Liu was entirely different;he didn't look his normal self anymore with mixture of yellow and purple aura originating from his body and his body had gone completely brown with no sense of sanity left in him.

Hagetaka moved his left leg towards the back with Kusanagi held tightly in his right hand and shifted to battle position.

"I'll play with you a little longer"he than ran forward to strike at his neck as quickly as he could but Liu deflected his strike with his bare arms and what followed was severe offensive from Hagetaka's side.

He striked Liu's neck from the back to cut it off but with intense speed Liu punched to his right side destroying the entire boulder.

Once again,he took the opportunity to catch him offguard and cut his neck but was instead kicked in the stomach with intense speed.

"Iam not letting this one go to waste"he grabbed Liu by his armor and with all the pain he was feeling at that moment focused all his remaining strength on that blow to pierce his heart and finally shoved it into his chest to slice it through it.

"Seems like he has gotten Liu for real this time!"Sora and the rest looked amazed at that very moment.

"Don't tell me that monster can just be killed like that?"Ahihito asked with a look of disbelief on his face.

"It's just like how you do it with humans;you just need to pierce a devil's heart and they are dead and for someone in that state it is the greatest vulnerability" Sora fell on his knees in disbelief "Our only-"

"Wait!Look at that,commander!"one of the men was pointing towards the battlefield.

They all turned to look at the battlefield and it was unbeleivable.

Liu was clutching the Kusanagi in his chest with his hand having stopped it from cutting him completely.

Hagetaka had betted the battle on that strike and the tables had turned on him.

"You are really persistent,aren't you?"Hagetaka was taking deep breathes at that point.The blow to his stomach had taken quite a toll on him.

Liu raised his other hand and curled his fingers into a punch to strike once again towards Hagetaka's stomach.

"I don't have any mana right now and Iam absolutely in no condition to fight right now"he took another deep breath knowing what was about to come"but I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve".

Hagetaka was instantly punched towards what was left of the building rendering him completely immovable.

"Seems like he's done for good this time"Sora said to others in an assuring tone"Lets move and grab him before Liu gets out of control".

"And what about master Liu?"one of the men asked.

"What about him?"Sora shot back at his subordinate.

"Aren't we going to rescue him?

"Does he look like he can be rescued?If any of you is interested,you might as well try I don't care"he than started to walk towards where Hagetaka was lying.

He wasn't very close and than stood the issue of Liu over there.

"He isn't gonna hand me Akimitsu in the state he is right now so might as well have them engage with Liu"he completely regretted having to use them right than but he didn't have any choice.

He could deal with Liu on his own but the destruction might've already attracted attention so police could be on its way and last thing he wanted was for this matter to go public.

He than turned towards his men.

"Listen, four of you will engage Liu while we capture Ahihito and the other two will come with me and keep an eye on him" he ordered while pointing towards Ahihito.

Meanwhile,Liu had gotten into position to blow the final strike at Hagetaka.

Curling his fingers into a punch.he jumped again but instead of striking towards Hagetaka punched the two men who had attempted to strike him from behind.

"That piece of shit!" Sora looked towards his men who had been apparently killed.

It had once again turned to a battlefield with Sora having joined in.

"Akimitsu!Akimitsu!"Ahihito had taken him into his arms and pulled his ear to his chest to hear any heartbeat but instead he heard him trying to say something.

"Say what?"Ahihito moved his head up to look at Akimitsu's face but instead of what he was expecting it was a face full of madness and excitement.

"One.."

"What?"Ahihito didn't get him clearly.

"Two.."

"What is he blabbing about?Get him up already"Sora shot from the back.

"Three"

Hagetaka's face was lit with excitement at that moment.

At that time,everybody's eyes were fixated towards the bright light that had suddenly shone behind them