Chereads / Defiant Master of Blades / Chapter 4 - Give and Take

Chapter 4 - Give and Take

Suddenly the door of the dark room shatters, sending wood shrapnel flying, some managed to lodge into Isaiah's left eye, blood now flowing down his face freely, his heart was almost about to burst from the high level of stress he was under, "So, you're the puny infant that Pride chose huh?", Isaiah could feel killing intent radiate from every word this Phantom said to him, he could feel its presence close in on him and instinctively cast a low-level Frost spell, "Oh, you've managed to grasp at basic magic? Impressive, listen up insect, I can give you wealth and reknown beyond any mere mortal's wildest fantasies, if only you choose to follow me, Pride will have no choice but to leave your mind", Isaiah was deep in thought, 'I lived my past life in pursuit of wealth and reknown, but look where that got me... Everything is painful... it hurts so much... I don't want to die like this...'

Greed was know standing a step in front of Isaiah and as he bent down to pick up the child in front of him, Freya had put herself in between the two, blood flowed freely down her evening dress, long cuts and deep gashes covered her arms, but she showed no weakness as she stood resolutely to protect her son, "O god of light! Bestow your infinite judge-", but she was cut short, her head merely fell off of her shoulders, covering Isaiah in his beloved mother's blood, "Mama!!", he screamed, her lifeless head had fallen right next to him, an empty expression painted across her normally smiling face... Her eyes had lost that golden glow that he used to be so fascinated with, another wave of crippling emotion made its way through Isaiah's delicate body, "Oh? So this woman is the reason you thought I'd let you go? Beheading simply won't be enough to teach her a lesson", following which, Greed plunges both his hands into Freya's body which had fallen to the floor, and lifts it up like a ragdoll, "Look up lowly human! Watch what happens to those who oppose the power of a demon lord!", and he started pulling Freya's torso apart.

Sickening pops and tears filled the silence that followed, Isaiah could simply watch as the monster tore his mother apart, shocked into silence, he tried once more and cast a weak Fire spell, repeatedly, all that went through his mind in that moment was to kill this entity in front of him...

'KILL.'

'KILL...'

Greed was slowly ripping Freya's corpse apart, and now her spinal collumn was exposed, he felt like he had enough fun and promptly snapped it like a toothpick with his hands, her insides had fallen to the floor, when he started to detect a surprising killing intent from the human insect, whose single unharmed eye looked at him as if it could burn a hole straight through, 'Interesting, so it can make such an entertaining face too? Only you're aeons too early to scare me fool...'

"Do you want power?"

"Power to kill this monster?"

"Power that no mortal can comprehend"

"I can give it to you, just this once"

"You will never cast magic after this"

Pride questioned Isaiah's now seething mind, 'I want to kill this fucker no matter what the cost is!', Pride chuckled, Greed understood that Pride had finally interfered, but he came close to Isaiah, his face an inch away from the child whose defiance was pasted firmly across his face, "I WILL KILL YOU!", a sudden wave of immense power forced Greed to involuntarily stumble a few steps back, almost falling to the floor, "Oh? So you took the power did you?", Greed said, as he saw that Isaiah was now levitating in front of him, his surviving eye glowing in the deepest shade of blood, he recovered himself quickly and walked up to Isaiah, 'He's just a human after all, even with power like that, can his body last?', and he flicks Isaiah into the far wall, hearing the satisfying crack of many small bones, but Isaiah doesn't make the slightest sound, his body begins to change, pulling and moulding his skeletal structure back together, two imposing, pitch black horns adorn his head and two fierce, bat-like wings covered in dark gray feathers sprout from his back, his teeth were all forming into monstrous fangs and his body grew as all its muscles swelled up. "You... killed my mother...", the voice that came from Isaiah's mouth was layered with a deep voice that Greed knew all too well, 'No! This can't be possible! His puny body can channel so much of Pride's power?'

"Since you've had so much fun destroying everything that I had valued in this world, let me repay you in kind... with fucking interest you ingrate!", Isaiah had instantaneously appeared in front of Greed, casually slapping him across the face, sending the black figure flying, 'This can't be possible! Pride you bastard! How did this human survive your power!?', Pride wasn't the one who replied however, "This power? I took it, and I will squash you with it, just like an insect", these prideful defiant words were uttered by Isaiah, in his normal, child-like voice, Greed could not decide if he should laugh it off or retreat, the being that glowered at him now was no longer an insect-like presence, but a physical embodiment of Pride's raw, domineering strength. Seeing that Greed was still almost completely unharmed, Isaiah appeared once more in front of him picking up the now pitifully weak Greed in a choke and smashing him into a wall, this shouldn't have caused him pain, after all he was a Phantom, yet this child had effortlessly slammed him into a wall, forcing him to feel pain...

"How dare you!", he screamed, furiously swinging his blade-like hand, aiming to cut Isaiah in half, but his hand was caught by Isaiah's free one, and with an all too casual twist of his wrist, he ripped Greed's arm off, "AAAARGHH! WHY DOES THIS HURT???", Greed had never seen such a situation before, after all, any human that he and his brothers fought over would crumble due to the immense load that the manifestation of their power put on the fragile human body. This was surprising enough, but the fact that he feels physical pain when his Phantom is being mercilessly assaulted, this power, it shouldn't exist but he is the first to feel its wrath.

Isaiah let the now, panicking Greed slump to the floor, whom tried to use his Phantom's Shadow Dive spell to escape to the depths of hell to merge back with his physical body, Isaiah was faster, however, he reached his hand into the rift that had formed, finding a head with two horns which he dragged up by the hair, revealing the physical form of Greed, who looked like a middle-aged man with black hair and blood red eyes, these eyes now contained bottomless fear, "No! You can't be this powerful!", although Greed knew that he couldn't die forever, the fact that this ant-like existence effortlessly lifted his physical body up like this instilled a deep fear within the his conscious, "Shut the fuck up, this is what you get for killing my mother like that", spat Isaiah, promptly slashing his own hand across Greed's neck, this didn't kill him, but his head was now separated from his body, Isaiah had now placed it facing the rift.

With his own hands, he forced the dimensional rift apart, making it big enough to drag Greed's body out, ignoring the ungodly heat radiated by the black flames of Hell, "First God had forsaken me to live a life of ridicule, now you, a Demon Lord, killed the only person I truly valued in this new world, Pride promised me a fair life, but you showed up and shattered it, rejoice! You brought this upon yourself!", Isaiah sneered, and he dug his own hand into Greed's chest, pulling a beating, black heart out, "AAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGGGHH!!", waves of pain slammed into his mind, he could not accept what he was seeing and feeling, the human child could kill him without exerting strength just by squeezing his heart. Isaiah was not done however, he seemed to understand that the heart is the key to immediately kill Greed but he wanted more, tossing the black heart up he swiftly ripped the the demon lord's body apart like paper, but not a single sound came from him, he was the one now shocked into silence, he hadn't felt pain like this even in his past lifetimes when his body had been severely damaged in the wars amongst him and the other demon lords, or even when they had challenged the Heavens, yet a child could do this much...

Isaiah continued to rip Greed apart, limb by limb, spilling the demon's insides onto the floor, just as his mother's had but moments ago, finally satisfied, Greed's heart fell back into Isaiah's hand, who smashed it into Greed's mouth, destroying it and he watched as the signs of life departed from his eyes...

"I'm proud of you! You actually managed to kill Greed! Alas, this is where I take away all your magic power, you will never be able to cast it in this lifetime, but you won't be completely useless, I did promise a fair life...", came Pride's voice, fading away as Isaiah succumbed to the mental stress that he had undergone...