After crashing into the tree and getting up, Koku scanned the area as the dust still clouded the surroundings; that and the demon was gone… or at least not in his sight. "I've got to get out of here, or at least somewhere safe. If I remember correctly… Celestia mentioned this area being deep in a massive area owned by Paladonia. It doesn't help that this place's location is pretty hidden and covered by a massive stretch of woods, so a map is out of the question. For now, I'll focus on surviving this." After finishing his thought up, he recalled the moment the demon had mentioned "Survive three nights" in the past.
After thinking about this for a moment, Koku heard something off in the distance. A snapping branch. Upon hearing this, Koku lost footing, falling down on his behind due to the ground's instability, and due to this, Koku was able to see right before his eyes, the sharp sword-like arm of the demon fly right where his head had been before losing footing.
"He's trying to kill me," Koku thought as he hurried back onto his feet now knowing what the demon meant. It's not that it was going to kill him in three days, or that he'd kill him on that day; the rules of this game are simply survive for three days as it tries to kill you.
As he got up, he could see the light reflecting off the demon's sharp arm-like sword as it stood in front of him with a demonic smile, seemingly growing another pair of eyes above its current eyes. "Prey needs to be in fear before death," it muttered as Koku held his sword up, ready to defend as best he could.
"I'll have to tear you apart now kiddo~ or should I say Koku," hearing his own name from this demon's mouth made Koku feel watched from all directions for some reason. "Keep my name out of your mouth you filth," Koku responded to the demon as he closed his eyes, feeling something weird wrap itself around his body.
Whatever it was felt warm and not yet complete. With his eyes closed and the demon in front of him, it rushed at Koku aiming for his head, but then suddenly Koku opened his eyes in a fast motion, positioning his sword slightly to the side as the demon's sword arm came into the littlest of contact.
Doing this made the demon's arm once again redirect itself into the ground. But due to the ground being shattered, the soul and ground were off balance, and with less friction on the ground, the demon fell face forward. While this happened, Koku changed the position of his sword, making sure it was above the demon's head; and with a swift motion, he swung the blade down, cutting its head and body in half.
"Oh?" seeing something for a moment, Koku was able to see why the demon wasn't actually dying and had a clue as to why he needed to survive three days. "A body made of black magic. The present soul of a demon, and its healing factor after being summoned. Someone summoned you with a catalyst and a body." Koku stared straight at the demon as its body reattached itself together.
"You have a set amount of time you can be present in the world with this weakened body which serves as your catalyst. Your healing here is due to black magic-contracted evil spirits. All I have to do now is hold out until daylight…" for a moment, the demon could see the illusionary figure of this boy smile creepily. This struck fear into the demon for a moment as it then faded, letting the shock disperse while Koku jumped back, ready for its next attack.
"You… I can't wait to meet you in my actual body kid. Remember the name of my grandfather, Astaroth. I swear on his name that I will climb above all other demons and kill the thing behind you." when hearing this, Koku jumped back as it rushed him again but was blocked again by Koku's use of the Iron maiden sword style.
For some reason as the demon fought with Koku, it couldn't get the idea of how Koku was able to fight like this and not get tired. Then it struck him… something was slowly giving him power, something not evil like the thing which lays dormant within Koku, but more natural instead.
"It doesn't matter. Your body will give out soon," the demon thought to himself as he'd continue attacking Koku for the remainder of the night, which was really only half an hour before the sunrise. When that had happened, the demon cursed Koku's name but then smiled as he reverted back to its original look.
"You survived one night. Congrats… tonight I'll tear you apart and try even harder to end you, Koku." hearing this while the sun's rays created a divider between the demon and Koku made Koku feel accomplished. With no powers, and no help from others, he was able to hold out this long; all that was left was to rest for as long as he could, so right there on that exact spot, Koku dropped to the ground looking up at the sun's rays.
(Flashback) on Koku's third year in the academy, he was learning about monsters and happened to read up on demons and the rankings of many of them. However, the book itself was boring which caused him to drop the book, though he still read something important. "For younger demons, the sun is lethal and serves a similar role to the sun with vampires, and younger demons are demons below the age of 500. So until they reach ages outside of 500 flat out. They do not develop immunities to the sun and the very small fragments of divinity emitting off of it.
(Flashback ends). Koku opens his eyes after a good rest and sees that the sun was more or less beginning its setting stage. "Not long until I have to fight again…", Koku muttered as he then looked at his fist feeling his body currently surging with energy. "It's strange, it's like a good force is trying to whisper something to me without words…", Koku thought as the warm feeling, unbeknownst to him, healed his body up completely over the time he was resting.
Not having much time, Koku sighed and began to move elsewhere. He couldn't be caught fighting in terrain like this where the ground was shattered and unstable. If he wanted to survive the night this time around, he'd have to prepare for the demon beforehand so that's just what he went off to do.
"If I draw these ruin circles they'll most likely absorb the sunlight while it's still there." Thinking about this, Koku thought about how these circles looked similar to the markings on the sword Celestia had given him.
When Koku took a closer look at the sword, he could see the patterns slightly light up and go off, light up again and dim down again. When Koku moved away a little bit the lights went off completely. As if he stopped doing something which was a requirement for the light to appear.
"Do I have to be in this low-grade ruin circle for whatever this is to happen?" Koku sighed and stepped into the circle once again and to his confirmation, the sword's markings lit up a vague yellow or gold. After this, Koku decided to leave the sword in the circle for a while as he went to make more of these circles hidden in the ground scattered around the area he was now in, which had rougher terrain, such as harder ground like stone, chernozem, and very clearly away from trees for a bit of distance.
After creating about 5 of them, night was near so Koku walked back to the area where he had set down the sword and found the sword no longer lighting up or dimming down. "I'll figure out what that does later, but whatever it was, surely it reinforced the sword?" Koku asked himself not too sure of it.
Deciding to sit down and wait for the demon to show up, Koku closed his eyes hearing the wind brush against him and the environment, creating a swoosh sound everywhere. "The wind's picked up… or now that I've sat down in wait, I'm noticing the wind." Koku muttered as he looked up at the sky.
With dusk (Sunset) nearing its end, Koku could see something not so good. "A thunderstorm…" seeing the dark grey clouds with the blue flashes of lightning, Koku wondered how the old lady whom he talked to a few days was doing; prior to this day, Koku had fought for his life and seemingly no one noticed the commotion, nor the mass destruction in the area; this was strange to him in more than one way.
However, seeing as he had no time to investigate around this time, Koku knew that if he were to check, he'd have to do it when the sun was present, if not he'd maybe cause lots of problems for the people… if they were even alive.
With the gusts of winds growing stronger, 4 minutes later, Koku could feel his hair brush against the wind's breeze, and feeling something strange in the air, Koku let out a sigh as the sun had finally retreated completely. With his eyes closed now, and his face no longer facing the direction of the sky, Koku faced forward ready for what was about to happen as the feeling of the wind and the absence of the sun's warm rays made his skin tingle with a cold sensation.
3 seconds after this feeling, the slightest change in the wind vibrated throughout Koku's consciousness, alerting him. "So you noticed me, eh?" the familiar freaky individual wearing the glasses mentioned with a hint of amusement in his voice as it was close to 30 feet behind Koku.
Koku remained quiet for a moment, thus letting his out his final sigh. By doing this, Koku could feel the peace and tranquility moving throughout his body. As if a calm gentle wave had passed by with healing properties. In Koku's mind, he was envisioning himself looking down at a small lake with bright aqua blue illuminating water, all within a dark cave, as he could see it, his skin was pretty dark due to the darkness of the cave, however, the feeling of this lake was that of tranquility.
However… this was in his mind, how he could think of the feeling. "I feel… like something bad is on its way. Not today, maybe tomorrow, or the day after, or-", the demon finished what he was going to say, "In the coming future. I'm aware of what you feel. But for me it's more like a catastrophe-like event will happen soon. Well, at least that's what it looks like since a few years ago when the demon king began preparing for… ahh, I nearly spilled the plans. It's not like it matters anyway. You'll die here, so get ready since I plan to end it all today." the demon stated, changing the tone of his voice into that of a serious one.
"He doesn't plan on playing around. He's going to go serious off the bat." Koku's thoughts alerted him as he sensed the change in the wind for some reason. Almost as if he had synchronized with the wind itself. With one skillful move, Koku unsheathed his sword cutting through the air in an upwards motion, catching the sharp sword-like arm of the demon causing him to throw a kick to Koku's back.
Right before the kick landed, Koku moved forward and to the left side swiftly also guiding his sword in the direction of the leg of the demon which he then cut off like paper. "That didn't happen before…", Koku thought to himself as he observed the demon's reactions which looked of pain. "So you added a little bit of divinity into the blade…" the demon muttered looking at Koku with a smile.
At a single glance, the sword simply looked like it was for decoration, however, that now seemed completely different and not the case. One of the reasons Celestia had given Koku this sword was that this sword was able to handle magic, divinity, and absorption of energy at a low level. "Sun steel with a divine ruin of the lowest grade forged onto it. No wonder I could use a simple light-absorbing circle to store energy onto this. Since the sun has super small hints of divine energy. The light absorbed into this also happens to be slightly divine." Thinking about this, Koku thought of an idea, "I can beat you today. Or at least last the entire night." Feeling confident, Koku jumped back since the divinity didn't stop the demon's healing, but more like slowed it down.
Wanting to draw this fight out, Koku began thinking of many ways he could do this and utilize the light traps he had set around the environment. Thinking of something, the demon laughed aloud as it looked down at Koku, "If you think this is my real power, then surely you're mistaken." Hearing this, Koku thought of it as a bluff which made him think it was even more when the demon rushed him with no change of speed or power. Although that strength and speed weren't lacking and could catch Koku's death if he so much as messed up for a moment...