- Lucifer -
Lucifer had trained to be able to cast magic regardless of pain, but even he couldn't ignore the excruciating pulses coming from his chest. Fenral's punctures combined with the melted flesh were a constant source of agony. Trying to use anything more complicated than basic attacks would be risky until he got healed.
The approaching heavy footsteps of the enemy forces annoyed Lucifer more than scaring him.
'Can't give me one fucking second?'
Lucifer kept explosive orbs ready, not trusting his usual speed in this situation. He planned on baiting the body. Garuuk's death wouldn't be obvious until they were close, which would give him the perfect chance.
"Master Garuuk?" One of the demons walked over to the body and stumbled back after seeing that the former leader's head had been splattered.
Lucifer took this chance and released the orbs into the crowd. The surprise had worked and made finishing the panicking enemies easier. Taking care of the lower-ranked enemies would still be easy despite the injuries, but if any of the sub-commanders or a healed Fenral found him in his current state he could be in trouble.
Another set of footsteps was coming, these ones being far lighter caused Lucifer to make a sigh of relief.
"Any injur-" Hyou stopped, trying not to show their clear shock with Lucifer's body.
Hyou rubbed his thin black hair back. His brown eyes widened in disbelief at Lucifer's durability. Lucifer's build was similarly slim, but Hyou couldn't imagine taking even a fraction of the damage in front of him. All the previous conversations with Kahvis about the "Devil" joining suddenly made a lot more sense.
"What? Is he de-" Emile stopped himself after seeing the state Lucifer was in.
Emile traced his hand across his broad chest, touching the spots that mirrored Lucifer's most heavily damaged areas. Emile was a large built man with a crew cut who had pride in his endurance, but he couldn't help being awestruck by what was in front of him.
"Please heal me before more enemies arrive." Lucifer smiled, asking as nicely as he could fake. "And before you ask, I will be fine without medicine, so please hurry."
Hyou walked over and started to heal the damage, focusing on the worst spots first. The other resistance members looked away as Lucifer's melted, puncture-filled chest was healed. After the holes were closed and Lucifer's chest was mostly healed he stopped Hyou.
"I appreciate it, but you shouldn't burn out just healing me."
Before Hyou could say anything Lucifer flew off.
"That's the Devil for you." Emile nervously joked.
"Leader said we shouldn't call him that." Hyou looked down at the enemies Lucifer had killed.
Lucifer wanted to find Fenral soon before the leader was healed. As he looked around he noticed that most of the rooftops had been cleared by the resistance members. He was impressed, but it didn't stop him from seeing the growing number of human corpses.
Thinking about his past experience of trying to find someone while flying made him shift targets. Fenral was temporarily handled, so maybe helping Kahvis would be more beneficial. He could hear Lysandrea, along with two groups of sub-commanders chasing Kahvis down. Lucifer was going to go down and help when icicles shot up at him from below.
'Are you serious?' Lucifer assumed it was Fenral before even looking.
Fenral, still in his partial form was breathing heavily. The pain of having his face and hands healed was taking its toll on him mentally. He had brought what was left of the water with him, and his own personal team of lycans, expecting Garuuk to be joining him soon.
Lucifer didn't know why Fenral was hesitating until he thought about Garuuk.
'You don't know he's dead do you?' Lucifer looked down at his next target with a malicious stare.
Lucifer bulleted towards Fenral, who had just realized that Garuuk must have died. The lycan transformed into a thin wolf and ordered his team to run. Lucifer's shadow getting closer sent waves of terror throughout his body.
Lucifer was going to save Fenral for after he helped Kahvis, or he was until the lycan was nice enough to show themselves. Lucifer sped himself up with flames to get in front of the pack while slowly covering himself in a sphere of fire. Once he was a good distance ahead he launched downwards into the group, creating a large explosion as he landed.
Fenral had saved some of his team with his water, but half were dead. Lucifer looked over at Fenral and his remaining team members. One went to shoot an explosive orb at Lucifer who deflected it behind him.
"Cute." Lucifer's eyes pierced right through Fenral. The combination of fear and pain made his ability to control the remaining water fail.
"I-I-I just work security. You w-w-would...do what I did if I invaded Hell." Fenral's shaky voice signaled the rest of his team to run. As the wolves turned their backs Lucifer shot explosive orbs into them.
It was just Fenral and Lucifer now. Out in the open, where he knew he shouldn't indulge himself, Lucifer leaned over Fenral and smiled.
"Go. Why should you be responsible for the sins of this place?"
Fenral turned around and went to run, but felt Lucifer's hand grip his tail as he tried. He turned his head, petrified by the image behind him of Lucifer's eyes and the blue flame.
Lucifer blasted the wolf with blue fire, leaving a mostly melted corpse.
'Maybe the next Devil will forgive you.' Lucifer thought, dropping the tail.
- Kahvis -
Kahvis had been fighting Lysandrea and her team of snipers, along with Garuuk's team of demons, purposefully stalling for their allies. Lysandrea's clear frustrations with them made it easy.
Lysandrea was losing her mind at everything that was happening. She and the other two leaders had maintained control over the underground for almost a century, and having it all torn down in a day seemed impossible. She chased Kahvis, not hesitating to shoot more of her lightning arrows whenever she could.
Using earth and wind magic to stop the arrows was simple enough, but it didn't remove the powerful explosion. Making sure the arrows didn't go off near their soldiers was the most difficult part for Kahvis.
Lysandrea shot the last of her arrows and then threw her bow. She channeled electricity through her entire body. Once her spell finished she sprinted after Kahvis. It didn't take long for her to be on the unknown. She jumped over them and shot down a rain of electric bolts.
Kahvis could hear the footsteps. The moment they heard the steps jump they covered themselves in a stone box. They placed one hand on the stone box, increasing its durability by feeding it more stone while it absorbed the electric attacks. The other hand was readying for whatever came next.
Lysandrea knew she had given the unknown too much time and decided to stop her rapid-fire assault for something more substantial. She used one hand to cover the ground in electricity while using the other to channel electric orbs.
Kahvis noticed the attacks stopped and decided to launch themselves back up with a stone pillar, bringing the box with them. Lysandrea's attack ripped the area below while her orbs connected with the stone barrier. Kahvis was surrounded by a net of electricity that closed in on them. They shot the stone through the net, hoping it would cancel the spell, but it wasn't enough. They focused both hands on grabbing and canceling the rest of the electric net before it fully closed in.
While this was going on another explosion could be heard from the side.
- Lucifer -
Lucifer flew back to assist Kahvis. The final target was Lysandrea, and the two teams she had with her. Watching the battle unfold between the two made Lucifer want to rush in, but he decided to trust Kahvis's abilities once more and went after the two teams of elves and demons that had been assisting Lysandrea.
He flew low and started channeling an explosive orb that grew and then shrunk. The process repeated several times before eventually, he shot the spell at the building he assumed the teams were standing on.
Lysandrea heard the explosion, sure that it was Lucifer. She used both hands and channeled electricity, firing an extra powerful bolt at Kahvis, who was still attempting to stop the enclosing net. The bolt punched a hole clean through the unknown's body.
She smiled as she watched the unknown's body fall to the ground, lifeless. She turned her attention to the building that was hit by the explosion. As she went to assist her team she felt the heat of an explosive orb break against her side.
Kahvis stood up, the hole still in their stomach.
Lucifer had just finished dealing with the support teams. He had more deep cuts and burns on his body but was still able to keep fighting. He slowly walked over and saw Kahvis and Lysandrea staring each other down. He noticed the large hole in Kahvis's stomach.
'Even I wouldn't live that.' Lucifer questioned what he saw.
He hid for a moment, looking for an opening. He was just weak enough that he could see himself falling to Lysandrea if he made a mistake. Kahvis wasn't entirely sure if Lucifer was nearby or not, but decided to trust their instincts.
"I thought you wanted to kill me?" Kahvis said, healing the large hole in their stomach.
Only one of Lysandrea's arm was damaged, she could easily still fight, however, the image of Kahvis standing back up had left her confused and hesitant.
'That attack killed you. I've seen enough beings die to know what someone looks like when their life force fades away.'
She turned and fired a bolt at Kahvis who deflected it. She was angry, confused, and growingly afraid. She increased the flow of electricity through her body, granting her even further strength and speed. She had no more worries about saving her mana for Lucifer. Either she won against this monster, or she died, whatever comes after didn't matter to her.
In a blinding flash of speed, she dashed towards Kahvis. A large blue flame shot down towards the two. Kahvis used wind magic to protect themself while Lysandrea tried moving away. Both took significant damage from the flames, with Kahvis's hand's being burned and Lysandrea's face and legs being partially melted.
Lucifer flew down and burned what remained of Lysandrea's legs, causing her to scream. He charred her arms next before she could even think to attack him.
"Sorry about that." He looked at Kahvis's hands. "Figured you were resourceful enough to avoid taking fatal damage." His eyes glanced at Kahvis's stomach. "One last monster to remove." He raised his hand at Lysandrea.
"Wait!" Kahvis shouted, almost sounding angry.
Lucifer was so surprised to hear what sounded like an emotion that he actually stopped.
"Why? We don't need her alive," Lucifer asked.
"Let me do it," Kahvis asked. They walked over to the barely living body of the elf.
"You took them from me. All this time we traveled together, and you took them from me." Kahvis's figure loomed over Lysandrea.
"Who?" Lucifer asked before Lysandrea could.
"One of the three." Kahvis responded, proceeding to put a bolt through Lysandrea's head."You need healing, come here." They waved over.
"Do you still have mana left?" Lucifer was genuinely curious.
"Enough, yes." Kahvis started healing the multitude of injuries Lucifer had accrued. After the healing was finished the two decided to finish their sweep of the pleasure district.
In the middle of finishing off the rest of the enemies, Lucifer could feel his echo receiving a call. He took it out and answered.
"Is everything okay on your end?" Lucifer had turned into an alley to avoid the explosions going on around him.
Death explained the above-ground situation to Lucifer.
"We'll be done here soon. Just-" An enemy turned the corner looking at Lucifer. He was ready to respond to them when a stone spike shot into their head.
"Be more careful," Kahvis said.
Lucifer rolled his eyes. "Just stay put." He said, ending the call.
"I could have killed them without your help," Lucifer told Kahvis.
"Don't come this far and then risk dying to something easily avoidable," Kahvis responded.
'Says the one who literally died.' Lucifer thought, still wondering how Kahvis stood back up.