It was only seconds before the distant source of the sound came into both Miyaura and Leiliana's sights. Witnessing Aisellia riding a two-wheeled vehicle on a path directly for the red demon. In the final seconds, Aisellia threw her weight to one side causing the bike to turn sideways on its path, leaping off at the last second leading the bike to slide and crash into the demon's legs while she continued to move in the same direction from the momentum left from the bike. The vehicle's collected speed and weight swept the creature's legs, forcibly removing its feet from the earth, leaving the demon horizontal in the air. The demon's eyes opened wide as its consciousness returned, only able to witness Aisellia in mid-air in front of its face. The human woman held her knees tucked close to her stomach as she already aimed down the barrel of her Angelo weapon. The Iron sights pointed at the demon's face at point-blank range. tears streaming down her face, with her expression displaying her utter fear.
"F-fuck off bastard!"
Aisellia screamed before she pulled back on the trigger, unleashing a large beam of light from the barrel of her gun. The beam engulfed the demon's upper body, the light itself quickly traveling far enough to reach the goblin mass in the distance, eradicating a massive quantity of them, finishing in an explosion of light. The aftermath leaves a wide empty path of scorched earth through evil forces. Just as the beam was fired, the recoil force easily pushed Aisellia backward through the air at a fast pace, only able to tightly shut her eyes feeling the air aggressively push against her back but in her mind, she could not let go of the trigger no matter what. Leiliana could only stare in the distance shocked by what she had seen. Her eyes locked in one direction, unable to even react to Aisellia herself who zoomed through the air passing her by. Aisellia's flight soon came to a sudden halt, falling into Miyaura's chest, being embraced by the demon girl's arms wrapping around her. Aisellia felt herself being caught within a greatly cushioned embrace, her eyes slowly opened as she smiled, being familiar with the sensation of what cushioned against her back. She allowed her feet to touch the ground once again, giggling before looking back over her shoulder.
"Great catch Miyaura! I had a feeling you would catch me. Or else I don't think I would have been bold enough to try that."
She said, seeing a smiling Miyaura behind her.
"Hee-hee! How'd you know it was me?"
"I knew just from the feeling, Only your boobs could make such a cushion to cover my entire back and break my fall. You hug me from behind quite often enough for me to know."
Aisellia responded, giggling.
"Plus..."
Aisellia now looking into Miyaura's eyes could see the joy she held ever more evident by her matching great smile.
"Only you and him are lewd enough to use catching me as an excuse to grope me."
Miyaura only giggled knowing her hands were noticed, groping Aisellia's breasts. Miyaura's hands kneaded and squeezed on Aisellia's breasts immediately once she had caught her friend safely from the air. Aisellia attempted not to laugh even further, her face blushing as she could feel Miyaura rest her chin atop a shoulder, seeing her eyes staring happily down at her breasts as her friend's hands continued to play.
"Heh, this girl."
She said before she looked forward, seeing Leiliana making her way towards them. Leiliana's face revealed her confusion as she got closer. Although once closer even her cheeks had blushed red, seeing Aisellia casually standing looking, waiting for her to arrive seeming unbothered by the lewd girl fondling her chest from behind. Aisellia could see the confusion in Leiliana once she stood in front of them. The captain's eyes struggled to look away, being even more confused seeing Aisellia watching her nonchalantly while being groped, her head tilting curiously not knowing just what unsettled the captain.
"Are you okay Leiliana? Your face is all red. Well, you two have been fighting the entire time, it makes sense you might be feeling unwell."
"I-I feel fine, just a little exhausted. I knew you two were close, I just didn't think...er"
"Hm? Oh!"
Aisellia said surprised, looking and watching Miyaura's hands play with her chest.
"Oh, no-no. We're not a couple. This one here and a certain someone just really likes my booba, they're pretty obsessed I'd say. Hm? Guess I'm really getting used to it all."
"So you both aren't into women? Even being able to do such things out in the open?"
"Correct!"
"Speak for yourself Aisellia, I like both! Hee-hee!"
Miyaura announced happily, holding her large smile while her hands worked their way. Although it was only a matter of time, Aisellia's body flinched and stiffened, her mouth opening slightly allowing a faint moan to escape her lips. Leiliana stood in shock at what she heard and saw.
'......'
"Mm! You are right though...Down girl, that's enough."
On command Miyaura released Aisellia from her grasp, moving herself to Aisellia's side who in turn began looking around them.
"Hey...guys."
"So you've noticed too..."
Leiliana responded to Aisellia. Both began looking around themselves.
"They haven't moved closer to us at all."
Aisellia revealed leading Miyaura to quickly begin looking at their surroundings. There they stood in a large circular clearing and around them the massive enemy forces stood motionless but the girls could easily see they had all been watching from a great distance. Taking a step closer to the girls, Leiliana staggered her way beside them.
"Be careful, there's a stronger demon somewhere nearby. When demons aren't acting chaotically on impulses it usually means something stronger is in command. We should have prepared sooner but if it's something that can command this many demons...we may have been doomed from the start."
Leiliana explained, gritting her teeth together in frustration.
"What?! How?!"
Aisellia quickly questioned her shocked expression paired with Miyaura's own as their gaze quickly shifted to Leiliana.
"Now's the best time if we had any. Are you two familiar with Soul Links?"
"Yes, when a human's soul becomes cursed and linked to a demon. Practically becoming both cattle and slave but for the servant, your lifespan and health become dependent on the demon's will to give them the sustenance to maintain their life. In most cases, humans give themselves to demons to save their own life or the life of a loved one...or for the false hope of power fed to them by demons."
Finishing her sentence, Aisellia thought about the priest Vaughn from her capital who offered his body to a demon in exchange for power.
"Correct Aisellia. More powerful demons however can force servitude on weaker demons, forming their own Soul Link even if it requires shattering their minds to make it happen. If my suspicions are right...we may be dealing with a demon powerful enough to command all these goblins. Only a Goblin Shaman would be able to control other goblins with ease but this number and variety of their species...is unheard of."
Quickly Leiliana and Miyaura simultaneously turned their gaze in the direction the headquarters of the cult was located. The direction the forces had marched to this battlefield in pursuit of.
"Aisellia you can't sense energy but Miyaura, I know you have to feel that."
"Yeah, it's fucking huge..."
(I get it now, I'm able to sense the presence and direction of Sin while you're capable of a more precise sense, even able to gauge its power...whatever it's coming from...)
Leiliana thought to herself. Miyaura's eyes narrowed as she kept her sight locked in the distance. Suddenly she took a step backward with the look of fear on her face, causing the others to look at her.
"Oh no... it's not coming from just one, it's like a group of demons are marching this way! It's too much for me to feel each one, maybe it's because I'm still new to feeling things out, but there has to be around one hundred easy. Each one just as strong as the red demon..."
In the far distance...
Thousands of demons marched towards the battle, many looking similar in color variation to the giant red demon that marched at point, over one thousand demons followed behind. Creatures of varying appearances with some having monstrous animalistic features and physiology while the majority simply held the appearance of abomination to the sense of sight. Behind them all was the goblin shaman, staff in hand, his eyes rolled back for a second before returning to their normal position.
"His form is unstable. Master needs more blood, more fear, and more sin to stabilize into this realm to move outside the ritual site. Hmph, being able to see through other goblin eyes, it's easy to see most of those humans are dead now. But no matter."
The shaman tapped the base of his staff on the ground several times creating a deafening silence over the demon forces, instantly ceasing their march. Sinful black energy stepped from the soil beneath the bodies, draining energy from the corpses of the battlefield ahead of them. Reaping the darkness from the fallen bodies of both humans and goblins. The collective energy was directed into the body of a rather large demon in front whose bulging veins pressed intensely against its skin, as its body began convulsing. Soon its muscle mass began steadily increasing and stretching its skin's limits before erupting in a bloody explosion, no longer having limits to stretch to its skin shredding off the demon's body itself. With a tap of the shaman's staff into the blood, the liquid began moving, creating a circle formation similar to the one he had used prior inside the castle ruins.
A great pillar of pitch-black ooze erupted from the circle, shooting high into the sky. Quickly catching the attention of the girls who all stood mouths agape at the sight. The towering black pillar fell back down to the earth and from the black mass, a figure slowly formed while shifting its shape into a massive monstrous dark form greatly towering overall and standing higher than its previous pillar form. The girls could only look in horror at the massive black figure they could see in the distance. Leiliana looked at the figure and soon turned to face the girls.
"Aisellia...Miyaura. I'll clear a way for you back towards the city...there's no reason you two should die here."
"What?!"
Miyaura cried out, shifting her gaze over to Leiliana simultaneously with Aisellia.
"We can't leave you! You even look like you've barely had the energy to stand! It would be like leaving you to die!"
"What else can you do Aisellia?! To survive you must be realistic!"
Leiliana loudly questioned, screaming with enough passion to silence the noblewoman with Leiliana's strict and commanding tone. Miyaura's attention seemed to be elsewhere in the moment, looking around as if she were hearing something.
(Who said that? Huh someone's in my head.....Really? Okay I'm listening.)
Miyaura thought. Her eyes quickly looked down towards the ground while they continued in their conversation.
"I may be spent but I can still fight even if it's a small amount and that should buy you enough time. If Miyaura carries you I'm sure you'll be able to escape the Goblins."
"There has to be something we can do! If that thing gets past you..."
"....Not just Orion, its destruction could likely wipe out the entire Deseria region of the country. If you two escape, the guild may receive word soon enough to send messengers across the country for a united front. Each country may isolate from each other to a degree but they would have to swallow their pride for the survival of humanity."
Both girls could only stand in silence with their heads hung low understanding the truth of Leiliana's words alongside the threat they faced.
"Look girls, I chose this path for myself as a huntress. This is why I fight...so I can't give up now...or ever."
"But..." Aisellia began.
"But...what are you going to do?"
"I...I don't know but I have to think of something."
"I may not know much right now. But you would have to fight through those goblins to even get to the big one. You won't likely have the strength to fight something like that."
"I can't deny that. It's reasonable to say I might have exhausted everything I have left just to break through those lines."
Miyaura stood silently while the two of them conversed. Her eyes stared at the ground, her hands soon clenching into a fist. After the others were finished she tightly shut her eyes, steeling her heart in the decision she had been silently weighing in her mind.
"Leila...can you break through those goblins and make a path through for me to the big guy?"
"Huh? Leila? Me?"
"Yes, you, the one with the pretty emerald eyes, pretty black hair, and a body endowed with the assets and figure deadlier than your spear was!"
"Again...Me?" (A nickname...I've never...had people to give me one before. It feels....strangely comforting.)
Leiliana said seeming rather stubborn in not acknowledging the praise given to her yet it was still enough to cause her to blush, shyly looking away while trying to avoid the praise and nickname that embarrassed her from the fact she sort of liked the shortened version of her name.
"If you can do it I might be able to give us a chance against that big thing!"
Miyaura's claims surprised both of them. Aisellia seeing the determination in Miyaura made her smile, choosing to fully support her friend if she had an idea.
"What can we do? You're really confident when you have an idea, sometimes they have a good basis to work with."
Aisellia said, looking over to Leiliana as she took a step closer to Miyaura's side.
"What's your idea Miyaura?"
"I can't explain it all so you'll just have to trust me!"
(Just what the hell am I doing? These girls are...not your normal girls that is for sure. Hm. Living life...I thought I was just an unusual girl in this world. Something is still better than no plan. Miyaura has displayed power and skill rarely seen. She's surprised me with her tenacity and if she's still willing to fight...she plans to push her limits giving everything she has left. Aisellia is a brilliant girl whose intellect is far above the average person from what Shingen praised. She may not have combat ability but her planning got them through the ambush. Not to mention she's still standing after unleashing her Angelo...)
Leiliana thought to herself while looking back at the demon remains Aisellia had slain.
(They must not even know the true power within Angelo, they are more than just weapons capable of harming demons. Unleashing its inner power drains a substantial amount of life force from even an expert hunter and only allows humans with a heart filled with light to draw on its true power. This devastating power is what makes only us captains capable of wielding them for even a short time. It takes decades to perfect on average but recruits are trained from their first day of the academy to build up and properly utilize this energy. Yet the volume Aisellia released was remarkable for someone like her. If she were an average girl it would have drained the entirety of her life. The guild master tends to say Angelo chooses their wielders.)
Leiliana looked intently into the intense and determined eyes held by the girls looking at her.
"Hm...Without my spear, it will be difficult but If you need a path I should be able to clear one."
"Hm? Spear?"
Aisellia questioned before lifting the skirt of her dress, not revealing just her upper thigh but a rectangular holster strapped to her upper thigh. Opening it she retrieved a thin cylinder from the holster and held it out to Leiliana.
"What's this?"
Leiliana asked as she too grasped the item being handed to her. Once her fingers wrapped around the cylinder it suddenly expanded from both ends, quickly displaying its full Silver pole on this Naginata spear. On one end a gold pommel sat on the circular base of the weapon, on the other side, its large blade endowed with gold melding the blade to the pole.
"THIS IS-?! How?! How did you get your hands on-"
"I'll have to explain later, right now we need to think about what we're dealing with now. Miyaura, what was your idea? I'll come up with a plan, Three girls...One is useless, and the other two are exhausted...we'll need the best shot we can get!"
A great distance away...
There the Shaman stood wearing a sinister smile as the pillar began shaping into the massive creature of darkness towering overall. Six red eyes gleamed through its dark figure where what would be its face, the eyes scanning the area around itself, seeing the demons upfront and immediately after, the goblin horde a distance away circling what appeared to it as three mortals.
"Yes! Yes! Now you will slaughter the feeble humans, I will reign strong as sovereign of the new realm of humans under demon dominion! The most powerful demons can't enter this world yet here I, after decades of preying on these disgusting human creatures, finally found a way to bridge worlds. With it, I've made this demon more powerful than it could have been in its prime!"
Hearing the Goblin Shaman's words, the creature glared menacingly for a few seconds. Feeling the deathly glare weigh on its body the shaman fearfully took several steps away. The hand of the massive being quickly reached down towards the shaman.
"What?! What are you doing?!"
Those were the only words the Shaman was able to speak, its head being gripped between the dark entity's index finger and thumb, lifting the shaman until he was face to face with the superior demon. Just one of its eyes easily dwarfed the shaman in size by comparison. After an extended silence, the being spoke.
"What...do you know...of my true power...inferior creature?"
Applying pressure, the entity squeezed more on the shaman's head, its veins began to push against its skin, its body stiffening and twitching uncontrollably as its agonizing screams filled the air around them until its body was easily crushed betwixt its superior fingers The demon looked forward, using the shaman's abilities to connect and see through the eyes of all goblins under its control causing each goblin to adopt its six-eyed physical trait. The demon forcibly hijacks the shaman's mind and its great power, forcing its way into the minds that make up the goblin horde and dominating all under its control.