Seeing Koku, who had been basically beaten moments ago, holding a smile while magic poured out of his body, made the demon get very upset. "Why is it that you, who had no magic, now have so much of it? And why is it that the image behind you seems blurry and shaken?" Thinking about this, the demon looked for an opening. Since he either just unlocked, obtained magic, or maybe even got it back after a while of healing, surely he couldn't use it efficiently, right?
Well, the demon was about to find out. So, it took no chances and rushed towards Koku with the highest amounts of intent to kill, dominating in its very eyes. The mission was simple: attack first while he's not used to his powers, and then make the swift kill; though that wasn't actually the case since the moment the demon rushed Koku and had gotten within four feet of distance from him, Koku was able to experience an outburst of magic.
This magic outburst created an explosion which covered a massive area and towered over the clouds, creating this tremendously heated environment causing the very clouds, which had been pierced through, to create massive amounts of precipitation (rain). The demon, who had experienced that from point-blank range, was left in a charcoal-like color. But then a cough rang from the body and the charcoal-like skin broke into little bits which fell off its healing skin.
"My body would've been incinerated if I hadn't been reinforced with black magic. My heat resistance wasn't even able to stop it enough…" The thing is, when the demon felt that, the heat had overwhelmed his nerves and body which made it extremely painful to experience, and the fact that divinity had been involved, which burned at the soul.
All this while Koku felt nothing since the explosion came out of him; this and the fact a magic barrier had been casted onto him from a third party (the world's will). Seeing this massive explosion, Koku was surprised to see something of this level be something he could do just from not being able to control the magic he was granted by the will of the world itself.
"Despite the power from this…I can feel my body being placed under pressure again…I have to get this power under control," Koku muttered, not noticing that the strain his body had experienced had been gone and the thing he was feeling was the lingering feeling of the strain. As for the damage, that too had been healed already.
"You aren't alone in this…" a vague soothing voice with a slight whisper conveyed through his mind. "You worry about fighting; I'll deal with the healing," the voice murmured in Koku's mind as he then nodded and readied himself to fight the demon.
The demon healed itself up… however, this time it did not rush him. Instead, it stood still looking at Koku with a creepy smile that twisted its facial reactions all around. "I'll show you my true form then… you had better feel honored, since not many mortals get to see a demon's true body nowadays," he pointed out as its body began to grow out of control, twist, and come under the influence of some more dense power which had the dense foul color of blood red visible all around himself.
Seeing the transformation begin, Koku ran full speed towards the body and envisioned fire coming out of the sword he held in his hands as the voice in his head, which belonged to the world's will, whispered into his ear, "Envision the magic through all of your body." Koku, who had imagined fire bursting out of his sword, could very well see that his sword sparked for a moment and then it blew up in flames.
"Now… fuse it with more energy and heat…" Koku wasn't using any of his experiences in magic control since he didn't have any but was being helped by the will of the world in doing so. Just as he was about to slash and go off on the demon's transforming body, the white sword that Celestia had given Koku went from orange flames to blue flames, but then after that, the flames erupted into blue flame with white sparks near the edges of the flames point.
Not knowing the sword had merged with the light stored within the sword, the sword now carried divine power, although small amounts. Then a second later sensing the combination of magic and divinity, the demon seemed shaken as it screamed out feeling the heat burn through its skin before the sword had even come in contact with the body. However, that very second the sword Koku held in his hands slashed through the demon's body, and following that strike was many more which he made sure hit very vital spots, however… for some reason, the body of the demon which had not yet finished its transformation, wasn't healing for some reason.
"Those flames are constantly attacking this body, preventing it from healing." That and the interference of divinity targeting the body and black magic within the newfound body of the demon. "I can't heal…and this burns…" the demon cried out, feeling the sensation of burning.
Hearing these cries, Koku continued his barrage of attacks which he then attempted to fuel the flames eating at the demon's body by manipulating the energy that made up the flames on the demon.
Manipulating the energy, he caused the fire's temperature to skyrocket, all this while Koku pointed his sword up to the sky thinking about the other magic circles he had created to contain little bits of light. By thinking about them, he activated them and called forth the light within them.
Five bursts of light appeared in the distance, and they were all on their way to Koku's sword. For a moment, everyone in the world could sense a sudden righteous existence fill the sky, this and the birth of a hero amongst life itself. Those who were powerful enough to see the source indeed peered through their methods in order to see who was responsible.
This meant that the gods in the divine space were all watching as they too felt such a heroic being give light to the world for a single second. "Who is this boy?" many gods asked themselves as many were beginning to gain an interest in him. On the other side, someone who was much opposite to the gods glared into the land of the living and had seen Koku as well.
"That boy… he is the cause of this commotion. That and he's a newfound hero? How could this be when the hero had already been appointed… are there two of them now?" the kind of demon asked out confused. "Whatever the sudden circumstances are. This hero has blood on their hands, and an amazing gaze hidden within those eyes…" After noticing this, everyone who had been watching had noticed something.
"A demon?" Many gods grew somewhat outraged as to how a demon was granted access to the world, and likewise, many high-ranking demons with few noble demons grew jealous and confused all at once, while the highest in the demon ranks simply watched with amusement. "So it seems one of my descendants has caused a stir within the world of the living; however. I cannot accept one of my descendants being toyed with and making a mockery of my name…" Astaroth, the duke of hell, smiled thinking of the many events to unfold in the near future.
As everyone watched, something seemed to distort the space in which they all peered in watching Koku fight. "Demons in the world are either in correlation with humans or a breach of the contracts placed many thousands of years ago. I shall bring my sun up and watch as the demon burns to a pitiful
state," the Egyptian god of the sun, Ra, stated in his domain.
With the authoritative tone of his voice and displeasure for the trash he refers to as demons, he forced the sun to start its rise 4 hours earlier, so there were only 30 minutes left before the sun rises. In doing this, this was considered interference of the gods in matters of the world. However, there was a demon in the world for the moment.
This meant that if not proven innocent somehow, the residents of hell were going to be blamed for these events which meant a breach of the agreements they all signed off on. That could start another war among the different races, as there was already a very tense atmosphere between the demons and gods. "Allow me to also interfere," the duke of hell muttered with a small chuckle as he noticed that Ra had been provoked by something so little.
The demon, in pain and fighting Koku, suddenly grew black flames out of its body. The flames that belonged to Koku were no longer present, and the pain the demon felt was no longer there. All Koku could see after backing away was the bright red gaze of the demon being consumed by the fire of hell.
Feeling the ominous heat emitting from the black hell flames, Koku thought twice about coming near the demon… "Should I…?" Koku was running out of ideas as the demon had blitzed towards Koku both finishing the transformation of its true form and having a massive power increase that was given to him by none other than Astaroth, the duke of hell.
Powerful beings that were humans like Celestia and the Archmages and etc., were also seeing this unfold by their own methods, and it so happens that Celestia's current way of seeing this unfold is by her heroic-grade spirit, Seraphina.
Noticing and seeing this all unfold, Celestia stood up out of her seat as she was nearly done with all the work she had to finish before heading over there as soon as she could, she was ready to confront the demon herself; however… her spirit told her to let Koku fight this battle, that it'll be a good way for him to better the connections between the gods and the humans all while proving their worth. Celestia wasn't a fan of this so she still tried to head over but was stopped by Seraphina, her spirit. "I won't let you go yet. You'll have to come to terms with it soon enough. You can't protect that guy forever." Placing the highest grade barrier around Celestia, the spirit could only wait until she broke out and left to help Koku.
Back with Koku who was fighting the demon, he found himself in a stalemate as his use of magic still wasn't the best and he lacked divinity, however, his sword which absorbed the light which contained bits of divinity could hurt the demon pretty bad, just not kill it since that body wasn't its real body which was in hell. However, the visible form was actually its real form.
"How much power was he hiding?" Koku asked himself still not sure of what was going on, and the fact both the gods and demons had been challenging each other through Koku's fight with the demon.
Demon-kind and the ones of divinity were holding a wager, was this new hero going to win against a demon? Both sides laid in watch as Koku and the demon clashed, each putting everything they had on the line. One knew he was gaining help from the demons, while Koku hadn't known that the gods had placed a wager on him.
So as these two fought, strike per strike, block per block, Koku and the demon were at an all-out melee. Seeing the chance arise, Koku threw his sword at the demon seemingly trying to hit the demon's face, though the demon ducked under the attack, mocking him in the process. "Did you think I couldn't dodge that, you fool?" the demon asked Koku as he was so caught up in the heat of the moment to the point he failed to realize that the sword had stopped the moment he ducked.
Not noticing this was a big impact since the sword still containing all of that light magic expelled all of the magic placed within it. Of course, this attack caught the demon giving him severe burns. Burns that it could not feel and burns that healed moments later. However, the main focus of this was to blind the demon giving Koku time to launch his next few attacks.
This worked and Koku was able to condense the wind all around the area into single punches that imitated the looks and functions of arrows, bullets, and most other flying projectiles. Upon punching the demon's body, holes opened up everywhere he punched, following this was a nasty sense of pain that the demon could in fact feel for some odd reason.
"It has burn resistance." Koku mentioned to himself trying to think of a way to beat or inflict more pain on the demon. But just as he thought of this, Koku was punched from behind sending him flying into the ground. "Hahaha. Hahahah! Did you honestly think that us demons are simple and have no abilities? That we couldn't clone ourselves? You laid waste to a clone I created the moment grandfather gave me the strength needed to use such skills." the demon smiled as it talked aloud, "I'll teach you more than this with these next few attacks, child."
Seeing this as an opportunity, the demon pointed his hand in the direction of Koku's body, "Reversal…" all the damage and pain both inflicted in the past duration of their fight (3 days if added up), was to be returned to the inflictor. After using this ability, Koku who was standing up suddenly placed his hands over his stomach quickly then ended up coughing up blood.
"Painful, right?" the demon muttered with a hateful grin as it watched Koku's body begin to rip itself apart, then holes suddenly appeared in Koku's body. Koku was currently undergoing an intensely painful experience full of not only physical harm but mental as well. All this while his body was instantly healed up. "You must endure, this'll dissipate soon," the world's will mentioned to the out of thought Koku as she herself made sure he did not die.
The demon then, seeing the reversal come to its end, decided to end things off, "I'd love to play longer…however, the sun is for some reason about to rise. It was fun and interesting, Koku... bye-bye." The demon said full of confidence as it aimed its hand straight at Koku muttering the word "Erase…", when saying this he used an attack that was named, "demon's erase". The attack focused on one thing only. That was to erase the total existence of the one targeted by this attack.
When the demon used this on Koku, he smiled as he then said these words, "This is the part where I normally tell you my name, but I can't do that, and it doesn't matter." The reason the demon could not tell anyone its name was due to the fact that if you were a demon under the ranks of the high demon class, that meant you most likely did not have any sort of protection from your own name as a demon. This meant that if anyone had found out your name, they would have power over you as a whole.
Seconds passed by, and Koku stood up as if no damage had been done to him due to the healing of the world's will, and for some other reason, his existence was still present. "The void, absent, is still truly terrifying, as it will not let its host… or better said perfect host die like this. Or maybe it wouldn't let its perfect vessel be erased?" the world's will (Mother Nature) told herself as she could feel the sun's heat now touch Koku's soul.
"The sun…" Koku muttered as he struggled to stay conscious. The demon, who had just seen this, looked outraged and confused. "What… What just happened? I know I used the attack on him. Is he already at the power of my true body? No, is there something stronger interfering? Why hasn't he been erased? There should be no trace of his existence by now…" the demon looked agitated as it was time for him to go. "Damn it… I'll be back. I can't lose this now. I'll be the laughing stock…" pondered the demon as his very own thoughts caved in on himself. With this, the demon disappeared, signifying the end of this day and Koku's survival.
Seeing the end of the fight, Koku let out a sigh of relief along with his eyes closing as he fell to the ground, collapsing. "I feel horrible…" Koku muttered as he was now in his mind, somewhere deep in his mind.
For some reason, he was in his memories. The happy memories of his life. "I can't wait to go back to mom after I get back into the academy and graduate." Koku thought to himself that the memory he could see was the one of his mother smiling at him.
Seeing her in this place that seemed all too real to himself, he called out to her, "Mother. Mother… Mother?" he called out to her with a confused gaze; the memory was about to end there, however, something happened. The memory seemed to change. "You've got to be kidding me…" said another voice in this dream, or not.
When Koku turned around, confused as the voice sounded like his very own, "Huh, who's behind me?" he asked out as the dream-like scape turned completely black. Once turning around, Koku noticed the image of himself staring right back at him. "It's just me… the real you. Though that can really be twisted. For better, you and I are the same people." Hearing this, made the innocent Koku who had just been experiencing a good memory ask this other Koku what he meant as he was confused.
(Koku 1: The real Koku)
(Koku 2: The one who fought the demon)
"What I mean is, that I and you are the same people. At least physically, it's just… for whatever reason, all of the dark memories were taken from you, while… never mind, just look." This Koku who had just confused himself had just placed his hand over the other one's head which was more innocent and began to convey all of the missing pieces to the memories.
The mother's death. The fighting, the killing. Everything he had actually done within his lifetime was shown to him, and even everything that led up to the moment Koku fought Celestia had all been shown to him. "See?" Koku 1 asked Koku 2 after showing the complete memories.
"So… I'm just another copy of you?" Koku 2 asked, seeming all gloomy. "This is so troubling. I'm not good at this kind of stuff, ya know? The touchy-touchy feelings thing? Anyways. No, you aren't a copy of me, it's more like you've become your own person, with your own will and goals; however, you do currently occupy my body… no no it's more like we share my body… I hate the way this sounds. At any rate, I'll have to take my body back from you, ya follow?" Koku 1 informed and asked Koku 2, who actually seemed pretty understanding of all of this.
"God damn it… why couldn't this me be the real hero instead of that idiot Yuusha. All while I still am me~ never mind" Koku 1 shook his head trying to get his thoughts to be silent. "Am I going to die or…?" the second Koku asked the original.
"No, at least you won't die. You'll just be taken with her once you've been cast out of my body." Koku 1, the original, was pointing out Mother Nature (The will of the world), however, what happens after that, I do not know. So approach that as you will.
Having a moment to think, the second Koku, the copy, had taken a deep breath in and accepted the original Koku's intentions. "Alright, I'm ready whenever you are." Hearing this voice full of hope and trust, made the true Koku feel guilty as he summoned Voidpulse, raising it over the head of the other.
"Well… goodbye, I hope the-thing goes well for you," Koku then swung the sword down but stopped it seeing this other Koku flinch. "I changed my mind. I'll probably feel guilty about bringing this sword down on you like this, so I'll just take back the memories that belong to me, and since it's still early, if I absorb your existence, I'll still be the same. Since you still are the continuation of my memories."
This way Koku could gain the memories of everything that happened after he lost connection to his past dark memories. Although Koku did say that both of them by this point were different people. He was only half right and half wrong, since, yes, half of it was true, this other Koku was able to gain goals and feelings that the previous Koku would struggle to gain, if at all possible for him to have anymore. However the second half, which was him being wrong, was the part where he said they were also different people. The truth is, that they were the same, just one the past and the other the present.
Both were continuations of different times, Koku 1 the past, Koku 2 the future that Koku 1 hasn't experienced yet. So as it stood, if Koku 1 absorbed Koku 2, there wouldn't really be anything different apart from the gaining of the memories of this past month. Which meant as a whole, they'd make up Koku 1, still the original.