In retaliation for his brutal magic of annihilation...
The Demons descended upon Asmodeus's force like a tide of darkness.
Their bodies were thick, clad in black scales, hands deford and shedding sharp, blade-like claws sared in blood and black tar. A viscous liquid that dripped down the ground.
"Charge!"
Asmodeus ordered the Demon Knights to rush forward and stop the swarming demons, who looked like nothing but locusts to his eyes.
Erika led her group into battle, galloping on their demonic steeds with low, drumming sounds as they struck at the earth.
The Demon Knights and their charge tore through the frontal swarms, bodies falling apart at their blades' touch, causing many of the lesser Demons to explode in gory bursts.
A sense of victory and superiority took seed in their chests as they beca confident.
Alas, this might have been the reason...
The reason which caused Erika and Asmodeus to rethink the classification of their enemy as "locust" was because in the blink of an eye, a second wave of Demons rose in place of the fallen ones. Their mouths opened wide with a deafening roar that made the air quiver. Their bodies are bloody and destroyed, yet they still "live" on.
"What's happening?!" One of Erika's knights muttered.
Her guard lowered for an instant, and in that instant, the revived demon cut through the air and beheaded her. With a sickening squelch, her body flopped down from the mount, lifeless.
"Watch out!"
Another Demon Knight scread as she lifted her shield, blocking a similar attack... "Their bodies aren't normal!" To her credit, this shout brought a chance to Erika and her demon knights.
The mont the demons attacked, their arms beca like ash, like a mist of energy that cut into the throats of their targets before the demons themselves dissipated.
A single attack after death.
It was a brutal way to use an ally, but for an enemy, it was an effective thod.
Asmodeus watched it happen, noticing that when his knight's blade killed a demon, they would revive and attack once more, only to fade away after causing damage or not.
"Are these monsters using suicide attacks?"
He saw the Demon warriors and knights cut down countless demons, only to have their numbers swell as each monster revived. If this was all there was to it, then Asmodeus could still win...
"Wait..."
His eyes widened when he noticed a group of Demon warriors killing a single demon in a group. The demon revived the sa. But its body started to swell, like a balloon filled with too much air. With a deafening explosion, the demon blew itself up and killing many of the demon warriors.
If one person kills a Demon, it revives and cuts the enemy, but if multiple people do so, it explodes. OR can that choose how their final attack is... wait? Is it really their choice?'
Asmodeus narrowed his eyes, spreading his aura wide like a net.
The chaotic battle and clash of steel and flesh echoed around him as he ignored these insignificant things, searching, convinced.
'These demons aren't normal. Sobody is controlling them.'
As he stretched his aura wider, the mont he touched sothing.
An instant later, the enemy moved with such precision that it was frightening to watch. All the demons on the front line turned to Asmodeus, an eerie and unified action.
He touched a dark and ancient mind, which was observing him.
'A telepathic link to a single master?'
"Impossible... I didn't know it was possible for a demon to use such an ability." Sariel shouted beside him, constantly casting ntal protection magic on Asmodeus because of the ancient demon's special ability to eat away at his mind this very second.
Asmodeus never noticed the pain.
That ancient mind, which used a strand of sentience to invade his targets, had thousands of thin black threads now tied to the demons attacking the village. It was much more advanced than any ntal magic, and which most demons and humans would never hope to understand.
"A necromancer!" Asmodeus shouted the mont he saw the corpses of Demon Knights starting to stand up. Unsteady and swaying with their heavy equipnt, they all had but one target.
Him.
The demon knight zombies marched forward with their swords in hand.
They looked pitiful, like ragged dolls stitched together. So bodies were missing legs or arms, others with their throats slashed open and blackened blood dripping down their chin and onto their breastplate, only to splatter on the ground.
The Demon Knights were made from Asmodeus' bloodline.
Asmodeus watched them with sharp eyes, unable to accept the filthy demon toying with their bodies and minds. He bit his lower lip, the sour and coppery taste causing him to snap out of his emotional surge.
"I will kill them." A hoarse voice sounded from his bloody lips.
A dark fla burst out as an aura around him, forming into a large vortex that shook the air and cracked the ground beneath his feet.
The zombie demon knights approached Asmodeus and the ones remaining by his side... His mind could send the order to stand down to thousands of his demon knights and warriors in an instant.
Step. Step... he approached the crowd in silence, his axe not drawn and only the slight flicker of magic flowing from his body.
Erika tried to stop him but was forced back by the violent force of his dark flas and demonic aura.
With her eyes widened, she shouted, "Asmodeus! No!" A desperate tone echoed from her throat.
She wasn't the only one. Alice, Velvet, Vinea, Asmodea, and Ciela.
All of them cried out for him to be logical... to stop acting so foolish. Even they couldn't go against his orders, his anger beyond control.
But he didn't care.
He just needed to destroy this foul magic and free their souls from this tornt, even if he would never forgive himself for killing them a second ti.
"I will let you all rest. Thank you for fighting beside for the past year." A gentle voice, like a father to his young children, about to put them to sleep and read them a bedti story. "I will conquer this land and ensure you are never forgotten."
Standing at the head of the demon knights was Fredricka. Her tattered blonde hair and broken body shuddered for a slight mont after he spoke, but the dull, milky colour of her eyes soon returned.
'I shouldn't be affected. Battle is a place where people die. No life is above another in value...'
Asmodeus stood still, watching the demon knights and warriors stagger towards him. His eyes narrowed as he started to see the black thread, and the more mana he poured into the atmosphere, the clearer it beca.
"Fredricka..." He called out the mont her head rolled forward, lifeless, before raising itself and looking at him with empty eyes.
She lifted her hands and held her sword with two hands.
Her undead hands slashed at Asmodeus.
He took a deep breath, drawing his axe and with a swift cleave, cutting her body in half from her left shoulder diagonally.
Her body turned to ash as he whispered one last ti before she disappeared. "I am sorry." With a flick of his wrist and turn, he slashed another two zombie demon knights.
'I will not kill them with magic... each and every one of you. I will kill with my blade, shouldering your curses, regrets and souls.'
The Demon Knights and Warriors were slain by the enemy's hand and raised once more.
Asmodeus didn't want to use his powerful magic on their bodies as if they ant nothing. He tried to free them—no matter how they felt in their death, he would accept everything.
"Sleep!"
His muscles bulged as he rushed forward
He twisted and turned with grace and purpose, each swing of his axe killing a zombie demon knight or warrior. All of whom fought for his sake until their deaths.
"I will take it all, so please... REST!"
BOOM!
With one final strike, Asmodeus had killed the last demon knight, their ashes floating in the wind as he stared into the sky.
The ancient demon hiding in the darkness scread out in pain and anger at the loss of its undead puppets. However, he didn't know... the tenacity of the demon nad Asmodeus or the human male known as Ryuji Vincenzo.
'I can feel it... his disgusting words and power seeping into my mind...'
Sariel's eyes quivered, as she knew his plan... to accept one of the threads from the Ancient demon, to endure the dark power in order to kill him. A reckless thod which would end with death if he couldn't survive the ntal damage and erosion.
But Asmodeus wasn't weak. Fuelled by the loss of knights he would train with daily... those who once hated him but grew to accept him enough to abandon their humanity.
They were akin to his children...
'There are a million things I want to say...'
The succubus saw the feral expression on Asmodeus' face, His head leaning down with his long blonde hair matted and covered in dirt, blood and sweat, covering his face.
She felt fear when seeing Asmodeus for the first ti.
'I will kill you, ancient demon!' He roared in anger.
A single thread invaded his mind through the body of a zombie demon knight, and he accepted it—embraced it even—to use it against him.
No matter what, the desecration of his people overwheld him, normally telling himself death was a part of life and that battle always ca with consequences.
Yet... to even deny them death.
Black and red auras swirled under his feet.
With each step he approached the enemy army, demons swung at him with their pale white claws and tried to kill Asmodeus, who seed to be in a trance.
The battle didn't stop. The fighting echoed in the distance, screams of deford beasts, shouts of desperation from the demon warriors who clung to their humanity.
'All of it, I will hear it. This is my punishnt.'
Asmodeus accepted the thread of ancient magic and power as if he embraced the cold darkness, a voice whispered in his mind, told him secrets that couldn't be understood.
"I am coming, ancient demon."
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