The spear tore free, ripping muscles and tendons with it. He cried from the pain, but instinct finally kicked in and he channeled a wild blast of demonic energy through his injured palm. The combined pain was so hot he almost lost consciousness, but he was too angry to care.

  “DIEEEE!!!”

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  |DxD|- Chapter 4- A Mother’s Will

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  ..

  .

  A few seconds prior…

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  Fear, unending fear. When Igor first saw the man, lightning flashed through every single limb. The world was frozen in time. Was it an effect of passing through the gate? He didn’t know. His vision was full of black and white. Everything around him existed in different shades of grey.

  His body was frozen solid. He could not move a single finger or even his eyes. Every fibre of his being was begging him to run from this…this monster. There was nothing normal, nothing human about the man in front of him. He was a pride of lions in one body.

  The world remained frozen for long agonizing seconds. Each one forced him to confront this seemingly ordinary man seated with his back against the tree. If Igor could sweat, he would have, but the time allowed his mind to coordinate.

  There would be no running from this stray devil, not unless he blinded it. Those were Marcei’s words before he stepped through the gate. Igor could now understand why he said that.

  The colour had almost bled in. Some movement had returned to him. He swallowed nervously. He tightened his grip on his spear. Moving his limbs wasn’t possible, but subtly shifting his body was.

  Eyes trembled in their sockets. His heart pounded in his chest. There was a feeling of weightlessness throughout his whole body.

  [Go for the eyes. Go for the eyes. Go for the eyes.]

  He repeated the words like a mantra. The last splotch of colour returned around the stray’s nose. When it bled in, Igor struck before he realised what he was doing.

  *Puchi!*

  “AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”

  The man’s scream paralysed him with guilt. The sinking feeling in his chest nearly made him let go of his spear, but the sense of fear was so overwhelming it prompted Igor to continue in panicked haste. If he stopped now, he would absolutely die.

  He attacked again, steeling himself and remaining true to his training. He thought no further and only struck. He had to get out of this alive through any means.

  “DIEEEE!!!”

  The man charged a wild demonic blast of energy through his injured palm. The ominous red glow made every nerve in Igor’s body scream at him to dodge. His eyes widened and his pupils dilated. Every muscle in his body tensed. The stray’s arm swung around like a hook. The ball of energy sizzled his palm and made his blood feel like it was boiling. Igor jumped to the side by the time the devil released the blast, but it was not enough.

  “?!”

  He did not see the moment the blast vanished from the stray’s palm. Only that it was there and suddenly not in the next moment. All he heard were several loud thunks behind him before the pain finally registered.

  “NNNGHHHAAAA!!!”

  The moment his foot stepped on the ground, he lost all strength and collapsed to his knees. An extremely burning sensation came from the left side of his body. The smell of burning flesh entered his nose. An entire section of skin stretching from his ribs had been burnt by the corrosive energy of the blast. His skin was so red it was as if he’d stood next to a blowtorch.

  He screamed through gritted teeth and hammered his fist several times on the ground. He forced himself to keep his eyes open and endure. The adrenaline spike just barely made the pain bearable and the threat of death forced him to his feet.

  Jonathan was in similar pain, if not more. His left arm was made ineffective because of holy energy and now his right hand was pierced through the palm. A gory hole wide enough to fit two fingers had been charred by the demonic blast he used. The pain was so excruciating it made him woozy.

  But wariness made him reinforce his body with demonic energy and the physical relief and numbness came quickly. He quickly stood, ready to finish the job, when he saw Igor disappear between the trees.

  “Scum! Dare do this to me!?!”

  Demonic energy flowed into his legs and strengthened his muscles and tendons. His knees lowered and his heels rose.

  “I’ll tear open your stomach!!!”

  He gave chase and he moved with such force and acceleration that he blew the leaf litter apart. He sped through the forest with the sole intent of killing the very boy who blinded him.

  Igor did not turn around. He leaped over shrubs and ducked beneath low-hanging branches. He stampeded through the dense foliage while enduring the burning pain on his side. A tingling needle-like feeling in the back of his neck told him all he needed to know—the man was close!

  He placed weight on his left foot and dashed to the side. He landed and spun on the ball of his right foot with his spear poised and ready to strike.

  Jonathan had missed Igor. His flying kick hit the tree instead, causing the bark to crack audibly. Pieces of the trunk blew off, revealing smooth yellow wood that had sunken in. He was still midair with his back towards Igor. His left foot was nowhere near the ground.

  Igor took the chance immediately and there was no fanfare. He gritted his teeth through the pain and mustered all the force he could to strike at the back of the neck. The spear shot upward on a diagonal path. Igor’s firm grip guided its path towards the base of the devil’s skull. It grazed through the collars of his jacket and parted his curtain of hair. The moment the stray’s foot just barely touched the ground, Igor’s spear struck true…

  *Thunk!*

  ...but it felt like striking concrete. He barely managed to pierce through the skin when the man stumbled forward.

  Jonathan’s boots dragged on the ground as he staggered forward. The blow meant to sever his cervical vertebrae barely split his skin. There was a small sense of numbness across his limbs, but demonic energy quickly revitalised him.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  He heard the pitter-patter of feet crunching the leaf litter behind him. It was humiliating. The thought that a mere child did this to him made him grit his teeth in anger. His supernatural body made him shrug off the temporary paralysis very quickly and he performed a back kick.

  Igor had just run up, ready to leap onto the monster’s back and strike again, when the thick sole of a boot accurately struck his torso. His body contorted around it like a sack of rice. His arms and feet flailed forwards all while his breath left his body.

  His body shot back twice as quickly as it came. He was knocked several metres back until he painfully slammed against a tree. His back hit first followed by the back of his skull. His world turned dark and his spear fell to the forest floor. His body slid down the rough bark. Splinters lodged themselves into his skin and scratched it open. He lay in an awkward posture like a wounded soldier. His arms were limply tossed around him. A good second or three passed, a dreadfully long time to be incapacitated.

  Jonathan stood up straight and hissed when the throbbing on his left shoulder became a searing pain. The holy energy he’d been working to suppress gained its second wind because he diverted his demonic energy elsewhere, and it was all because of that boy!

  He turned around and tried to walk, but he suddenly stumbled and fell to his knees. He groaned through the pain. His gaze landed on Igor. His eye was filled with so much vitriol he swore he would make the boy experience torture far worse than crucifixion.

  The distance between them was just a bit over ten metres, similar to the length of a bus. Igor lay against a tree, completely unresponsive. It wasn’t until a few moments more that he began coughing violently.

  His body shook and spasmed in place. Igor barely realised what was happening before he retched and vomited all over himself. It was a brown-yellowish substance mixed with concerning amounts of blood. He coughed out more spittle before leaning his head against the tree. His vision was very blurry and extreme pain in his head made him nauseous and woozy.

  He didn’t see the stray approaching him with heavy steps. He didn’t notice when it knelt down next to him. He barely felt the deep breaths it took when it sniffed him nor the words it said. In his eyes, only a shadowy figure was in front of him.

  His vision narrowed as the throes of darkness pulled him in, but the acidic taste in his throat kept him on the cusp. His mouth hung open when he tried to breathe. His gums and teeth were coated in vomit and fresh streaks of blood. Each jostle of his body felt like spikes against his chest.

  Igor subtly felt his right arm being lifted. The shift in weight made his body lean to the left until a bloodied hand grabbed his shoulder. The hand twitched and he scarcely heard what seemed like a hiss. He attempted to open his eyes once more, but they were heavy. Everything was foggy and confusing.

  Saliva coated his arm and its stench reeked of rot. He barely pulled his arm back when the grip on it grew strong and rows of sharp teeth pierced into his skin.

  *Crunch!*

  “?!”

  Adrenaline spiked. The agony of canines tearing into his flesh brought a dreadful clarity to his mind. His pupils dilated, nearly covering the entire eyeball. His neck snapped like a whip as Igor looked on in horror. The nightmarish scene seared itself into the deepest recesses of his memory.

  Blood-covered teeth like broken glass, glowing eyes with a demented grin—he was…he was being eaten! The monster had a firm bite into his flesh and it tore its head away, ripping and shredding a large chunk of muscles and tissues into its mouth.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”

  The flesh on his forearm was ripped clean from the bone like fabric tearing apart. The agony was torturous. Blood spilled from torn arteries and pieces of flesh hung limply with blood dripping. The shock to his heart was extreme. His entire body froze before he finally lashed out wildly.

  Tears of torture spilled down his cheeks. He tried moving to escape, but a firm hand pushed him by the chest and pinned him against the tree. He saw the monster’s mouth move with a sadistic grin, but he couldn’t hear the words. The beast lowered himself and to Igor’s horror, he opened his mouth to eat his arm again.

  Blood pumped through his body and adrenaline fueled a last desperate struggle. He punched and slapped the stray’s head with his remaining left arm. His legs flailed and he attempted to knee him in the ribs. He twisted and turned, but the firm hand on his chest pinned him to the tree like a hydraulic press.

  *CRUNCH!*

  Igor’s spine-chilling shriek tore through the forest , piercing through the canopy. The monster had sunk his teeth into his bone and effortlessly crushed its way into the jelly-like marrow. Igor attacked him with everything he had, trying to get him to let go. He struck the beast’s temple, but it felt like punching against solid steel. His knuckles cracked and bled. His will to survive meant he never stopped once.

  Jonathan felt no threat and savoured the delicacy. It was bad luck that he’d ended up like this, but this child was just what he needed to recover. His injuries slowly recovered alongside his demonic energy. His physical reinforcement meant the child’s strikes were nothing more than play to him. As payback, he would gouge out the boy’s eye and transplant it to himself before killing him. That would be his penance.

  He had a firm bite deep into the boy’s bone. His tongue licked and sucked out the delicious fatty marrow. Bone fragments snapped under the force of his powerful jaws. Out of the corner of his eye, it brought him immense satisfaction to hear the boy’s gargled screams. His eyes were so bloodshot it seemed they’d burst.

  [A snot-nosed brat indeed.]

  Perhaps he’d take both the boy’s eyes. Having a spare was always a good thing. He slowly pulled his head back, flesh and bone trapped between his teeth.

  Igor froze in shock when the beast began pulling. The pain and agony were so torturous his body fell into shock for a moment. His breaths seized and his body spasmed. His heart contracted so violently it hurt deep in his chest.

  His struggles weakened rapidly. His body fell limply when the beast ripped off chunks of his arm again. One of the bones was ripped from his joints. As his vision narrowed, he saw it sticking out of the beast’s mouth like a toothpick.

  [NOOOOOOOOO!]

  He could no longer breathe. The pain was fading, and so was any feeling throughout his body. He felt weightless and so…so…tired.

  [SON!!!! MY SON!!!!]

  Who was…calling him?

  [IGOR!!!!!!]

  Was that…mother?

  [FIGHT!!!!!]

  Fight…what? What was he fighting?

  [PLEASE FIGHT!!!!!!!!]

  Small streaks of golden light entered his vision like little stars. Something was pulling him down. Sensations slowly returned, and the sound of his heart boomed violently in his chest.

  [PLEASE!!! FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!]

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  [IGOR!!!!]

  “!!!”

  His eyes shot open. A vibrant strength coursed through his body like electricity. The memories surged in and a violent desire to survive welled up. The sound of crunching bones echoed violently, but there was no pain. The beast feasted on his arm and Igor finally resisted.

  He screamed and began slamming his palm against the beast’s skull. The strikes dazed it. Each palm was like a hammer closing the curtains on its consciousness. Igor’s demented desire to survive was so strong he kept striking and striking until one final scream sealed it all.

  “NGYAAAAAAH!!!!”

  A small blast of energy flooded his palm in a blazing yellow flare. It exploded the beast’s skull in one powerful concussive blast. Fragments of brains and bones scattered everywhere, leaving a mangled stump of a neck.

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  *Tsii*…*Tsii*

  Blood gushed in spurts through the exposed arteries. It landed on his hair, his face, and torso. Some of it entered his eyes, yet they remained hollow without blinking.

  The headless corpse collapsed under its own weight and fell on his lap. Blood spilled out of the neck and dyed his pants red. Bile and undigested pieces of flesh soaked his legs completely. Igor was still as a statue. His eyes stared unblinking at the endless forest.

  Seconds…minutes trickly by as a quiet breeze set in as the forest breathed once more. A dying leaf swayed past his vision and landed on the corpse. The edges stained from fading yellow to deep red. A fly landed on the leather collar. It rubbed its legs and suckled on the blood-soaked fabric.

  More minutes stretched in silence until his eyes finally trembled. He slowly raised his left arm and looked at it in silence. The skin on his knuckles had torn open, revealing the broken bone beneath from punching the beast’s head. He was alive. He was…alive.

  The realisation made his chest heave in shock. He saw the state of his right arm. He couldn’t feel anything from it, nor could he move it, but it was there. The beast was dead and he was alive. He could breathe. He could see. He could hear. This was reality. He had won.

  “...”

  The realisation elicited choked sobs from him. His arm fell limply to his side and his head fell back against the tree. He could see the sun through the canopy, and he would live to see it again. Tears streamed down his cheeks. There was no joy. Only fear. The terror and fright he had suppressed all this time returned tenfold.

  “Waaaaaaah!!!”

  He wailed to the skies in sorrow. The harshest hurdle had been surpassed, yet there was no one to comfort him. He cried, for it was the only thing he could do. His victory, a joyous occasion for most, was something he never wished to experience again, for only he knew what he had to go through to achieve it.

  Chapter 4

  END