Sirzechs and Raylix remained stationary in mid-air as most of the troops that they'd brought with them flew towards the ruined Valefor city. The others, about five percent of the soldiers that they'd brought with them in all (with Sabemka and Tomosei counted amongst their number), remained with them: watching silently as the majority of soldiers descended on the city and engaged in battle with the Royals reinforcements alongside Serafall's troops.
Raylix cast his eyes above the city, where Serafall and Grayfia could be seen facing down against one another. From where he was in relation to the two of them, a normal human would barely be able to see anything other than two specks darting around, as well as small specks of lights flickering as the two strongest female Devils alive cast their attacks at one another. He saw Serafall thrusting her staff forward and sealing Grayfia inside what looked like a shell of ice, and Grayfia busting out of it a couple of seconds later before returning fire via a strong beam of dark energy that Serafall dodged, before pointing her staff at Grayfia and conjuring several dozen birds out of ice, all of whom either flew at or around her, in an attempt to distract her away from her main opponent.
"Hey, Raylix!" Sirzechs called, lightly flicking Raylix on the head. Jolted out of his distracted state, Raylix looked over at his crimson-haired older brother, who had cast his eyes over to the north-west, away from the city where the fighting seemed to be going on at.
"What's up?" Raylix replied, raising himself slightly higher so he was on a level with him.
"There's a base." Sirzechs answered, pointing in the direction he was looking. "That direction. Or at least, I'm quite sure there's a base. There's an exceptionally powerful presence coming from that direction, and I know for a fact that there's a town a few minutes' flight in that direction. If I'm right, then a high-up commander among the Royals- maybe one of their leaders- may have set up a base within said town."
"We going to check it out?" Raylix asked, adjusting his grip on Gaeneron, casting one last glance up at Serafall and Grayfia before looking back at Sirzechs, who had a very set look on his face. There wasn't exactly a need for words between the two brothers, but for the benefit of the troops...
"We are." Sirzechs replied, clearing his throat and casting a small spell to amplify his voice. "Onward, everyone!" he called to all the remaining troops around himself and Raylix. "For Hell!"
"FOR HELL!" All the Devil soldiers around Sirzechs and Raylix yelled out, in unison, as Sirzechs began flying in the direction that he'd previously been pointing in. Raylix was the first to follow, with Sabemka and Tomosei following close to him, and all the other Devil soldiers that had remained with Zeoticus and Venelana's two children (about 500 in all) bringing up the rear.
Sans Sabemka and Tomosei (who had INSISTED on coming with him as soon as they'd heard about the mission that they were now on), all the soldiers that currently tailed Raylix and Sirzechs as they made their way closer and closer to where the powerful demonic presence was coming from were subordinates of the crimson-haired older Gremory child in front of Raylix, rather than Raylix himself. There weren't many soldiers left alive from the brigade that Raylix had split up for the three battles that he'd tried to have fought at once two weeks ago, and the troops that Sirzechs had commanded, some since he- like Raylix- was made to start contributing to the war effort at sixteen years old, were far more experienced than any that he'd led. So of course, Raylix thought, they'd be the best choices to bring along for such an important mission, especially one that involved helping a fellow Anti-Royal win an important battle.
There was silence as Sirzechs, Raylix, Sabemka, Tomosei and Sirzechs' troops flew over the Underworld countryside. The sounds of battle from back at the destroyed Valefor capital quickly faded as they left that area, yet in turn, the demonic presence that they were flying towards grew stronger and stronger. After several minutes of quick flight, the sight of a semi-wrecked town appeared in the sight of everyone flying towards it.
So too, unfortunately, did many Royals soldiers. Some were on the ground standing outside the town, others were in the air floating above it, but all noticed the group of Anti-Royals bearing down on them.
"Alright, guys, incoming!" Sirzechs shouted, calling the Power of Destruction to his hands and tossing a ball of it in the direction of a group of Royals soldiers that were preparing to fire at him. The destructive ball split apart mid-flight, with the smaller balls that it now took the form of rushing into and striking the Royals who had fired at him, blowing their bodies apart and killing them all instantly. Half a second later, Sirzechs raised a barrier to block all the bolts of demonic energy that had been fired off at him by the Royals soldiers before he'd killed them, easily doing so before forming another ball of his mother's power, and sending it at a Royals soldier who'd made the mistake of coming too close to him and Raylix.
Raylix swung Gaeneron, meeting the sword of a Royals soldier who'd swung at him. It didn't even take two seconds for the young Devil to easily overpower his enemy and force them to disengage from the clash, nor did it even take one for Raylix to swing at the unguarded Royals soldier's neck, beheading him, flicking any blood that had landed on Gaeneron off of Gaeneron, and carrying on as if nothing happened, flying into the town alongside Sabemka, Tomosei and Sirzechs.
"So, where do you think this base is?" Sabemka asked, as they all descended towards the ground.
"I'm going to hazard a guess at the biggest building in this shitheap of what used to be a town." Tomosei replied, pointing her staff at the building in question. "As well as the only building that even looks remotely inhabitable."
"Yeah, good call, Tomo." Raylix replied, touching town alongside Sirzechs, and walking alongside him towards the large inhabitable-looking building, with Sabemka and Tomosei touching down a couple of seconds later. They jogged forward, catching up with Raylix as he and Sirzechs came within ten steps of entering the building, before the large double-doors of said building were suddenly blown off of them, and sent in the direction of the four Devils coming up towards it.
Sirzechs raised a hand to cast another barrier, but Raylix was quicker to react, flying forward and cutting the flying doors in half with Gaeneron, where they then dropped harmlessly to the ground, upon which he then landed. The dust-cloud that had been kicked up by the doors being blown off their hinges in such a violent fashion slowly cleared, revealing two male Devils standing in the doorway, looking out upon Raylix, Sabemka, Tomosei and Sirzechs.
One of the Devils was a thin, scrawny-looking young man with short dark-brown hair and matching eyes, dressed in extremely expensive-looking clothing that looked... wholly impractical for any kind of battle. He was also glaring down at Sirzechs with such intensity that Raylix was... mildly shocked by it. The other of the two Devils was a handsome-looking young man who looked to be about the same age as Sirzechs, with silver hair in a single back-length braid. He had blue eyes, wore a silver robe with detailed accessories, and also looked over at Sirzechs, but with an expression that more conveyed disdain than outright anger.
"YOU!" The scrawny-looking guy yelled, taking a step forward towards Sirzechs and pointing a dramatic finger towards him. "What the hell do you think you're doing here?!"
Sirzechs blinked a couple of times, as Raylix looked over at his older brother.
"You know this guy, Zechs?"
"'Know' is stretching it a little, Ray." Sirzechs replied, looking over at the man who had yelled at him with a confused expression on his face. Raylix looked between Sirzechs and the brunette who'd just yelled at him a couple of times before he caught Sirzechs' eye again, at which Sirzechs flashed Raylix a quick wink before looking back at the scrawny guy.
"Sorry, but who are you again?" he asked. "I'm wracking my brains here, but... I don't think we've met."
The scrawny young Devil let out a scream of anger, and upon spreading eight Devil wings, charged at Sirzechs. Sirzechs jumped backwards to dodge the screaming Devil's initial charge, and spread his own twelve Devil wings as he took to the skies, with his new opponent swinging his hand around in a wide arc, conjuring up a dozen magic-circles all at once before throwing them towards and around Sirzechs. After taking to the skies, he activated all the magic-circles, which sent out beams of demonic energy that Sirzechs had to either weave around in mid-air or conjure barriers to block entirely.
"Don't say you don't remember me Sirzechs, you Underworld-betraying bastard!" the scrawny Devil shouted, throwing a punch at Sirzechs from close-range "I'm a grandson of Beelzebub, damn it! You HAVE to remember me!"
"Okay, now that you mention it, that DOES ring a bell." Sirzechs replied, screwing his face up in a mock-attempt to remember as he raised a hand to block the scrawny Beelzebub descendant's punch. "Alright, don't tell me, don't tell me..." he muttered to himself as he threw a punch back at the Beelzebub descendant that had so foolishly challenged him.
However, as he dodged Sirzechs' punch, the Beelzebub descendant in question let out another yell of frustration and anger, opening his hand towards Sirzechs and unleashing countless flies, bees, wasps and other flying insects towards the crimson-haired Gremory descendant. Sirzechs was forced to back up and, again, unleash his Power of Destruction upon the new opponents that the Beelzebub descendant had either summoned or conjured. He guessed the latter, but either way, all the insects that flew at him were destroyed the same instant that they came into contact with his mother's power.
"You embarrassed me!" The scrawny Beelzebub descendant shouted. "In front of my family, and all the other Pillar families! In 1485! Does that ring any more bells, you disrespectful traitor?!"
"Aww, you ruined it." Sirzechs replied, ignoring the last three words that the Beelzebub descendant spoke. "But... oh, I think I remember that gathering! It was when I saw her for the first time..."
If the Beelzebub descendant in front of Sirzechs wasn't already about to blow a fuse at what his twelve-winged opponent had said, he sure as hell was about to now. The scrawny Devil in front of Sirzechs looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his head as he violently shook from the rage and embarrassment that had been boiling inside him for over half a century. He'd already suffered enough as a result of it over the years, but seeing the reason of that rage and embarrassment floating in front of him, seeming to care more about the fact that he'd met the Lucifuge girl (who was, admittedly, extremely attractive) than the fact that he'd committed such an egregious crime against HIM... it was too much.
Letting out another scream of rage, the Beelzebub descendant charged at Sirzechs again, conjuring up two spears of pure demonic energy and thrusting them both towards his chest. Sirzechs, having seen the attack coming from a mile away, casually flapped his wings to take him to the side, and unleashed his Power of Destruction upon the Beelzebub descendant from close-range. The red and black energy struck the descendant's left arm, rather than his chest- where Sirzechs was aiming- and blew it clean off of his body.
It took a couple of seconds for the Beelzebub descendant to fully register that one of his arms was gone, but once the realisation (and subsequent pain) fully set in, he let out another scream (it was a wonder that he hadn't wrecked his throat from all that shouting and screaming, Sirzechs thought), practically hyperventilating as blood practically poured from where his left arm used to be.
"It'd be better if you gave up now, you know." Sirzechs remarked, an uncharacteristically serious look on his face as he up another ball of his Power of Destruction, as a warning to the scrawny Beelzebub descendant. "Pride's great and all, yeah, but it won't do you any good if you're dead."
"NEVER!" The Beelzebub descendant screamed, lurching around erratically in mid-air as he attempted to adjust to the sudden loss of weight on his left side and re-balance himself in the air again. He wasn't doing all too great a job at it, Sirzechs would've sniggered had this not been an active war zone. "I won't... give up... against a traitor!"
After finally re-balancing himself in mid-air so he was floating in a somewhat stable state (the blood that continued to pour out of where his left side used to be notwithstanding), the Beelzebub descendant reached into his robes with his free hand, and pulled out what looked like a sealed bottle of some sort, that contained a dark-green liquid.
Sirzechs let out a small bolt of his Power of Destruction from one finger, aimed directly at the bottle in the Beelzebub descendant's hand, hoping to stop whatever he was likely about to do to himself in an attempt (likely a futile one) to beat and kill him. However, as the bolt of Venelana's power flew towards him, the Beelzebub descendant threw the bottle that he'd been holding up into the air, and ascended towards the bottle. The bolt of the Power of Destruction, meant for the bottle, ended up striking his right knee, removing it from existence and causing the rest of his right leg to drop down to the ground. Unlike when his left arm was removed, the Beelzebub descendant did not scream in pain... though the look on his face gave off the impression to Sirzechs that he was very much holding in the temptation to scream.
The scrawny Devil caught the bottle of liquid that he'd held in his right hand, held it up to his mouth and tore away the stopper on top of it with his teeth, spitting said stopper away a second later. The expression on his face was practically manic as he looked down at Sirzechs, still looking like he was forcing down the temptation to scream. Clearly, the pain of having both his left arm and the lower half of his right leg blown off still affected him greatly.
"For... for Hell!" the Beelzebub descendant shouted, before putting the bottle to his lips and downing all the dark liquid inside in one go.
The effects of swallowing whatever liquid had been inside that bottle was immediate... and disgusting to watch. The Beelzebub descendant's skin began to bubble like it was a liquid being boiled. The scrawny Devil descended to the ground, dispelling his Devil wings and dropping the now-empty bottle, dropping to his single knee and clutching at his stomach, groaning in pain. Sirzechs descended as well, but didn't fully descend to the ground, instead opting to float slightly above where the Beelzebub descendant was knelt and watch what seemed to be going on in front of him.
His eyes widened as the next stage (it seemed) of the transformation, as the Beelzebub descendant's pale skin began to slowly turn an unpleasant violet colour. The Beelzebub descendant stopped clutching at his stomach, and suddenly began clutching at his eyes, letting out yet more pained screams. After a few seconds of him clawing and clutching at his own eyes, the Beelzebub descendant lowered his hands (evidently the pain around his eyes had ceased), allowing Sirzechs to see what had become of them: his formerly-regular-looking brown eyes had become orange insect-like compound eyes... very creepy.
The Beelzebub descendant then dropped down again, screaming out again as his right arm, the remaining top half of his right leg, and ALL of his left leg suddenly fell off of him, all at the same time. The now-armless, now-legless Devil twitched around, rolling around in shock and agony at the transformation he was going through. He could only let out pained whimpers as, seemingly to replace his arms and legs, six legs quickly burst from his body to prop him up, similar to that of a fly's legs. However, unlike a fly's legs, the Beelzebub descendant's new legs had differing feet to go with them: two of them (the front two) were the most regular-looking, like that of a fly. The middle two were like that of paws that you'd see on a Wulf, and the back two feet were like a horse's hooves.
With a low grunt, the Beelzebub descendant then spread four wings, as opposed to the eight that he had before drinking whatever liquid had been in that bottle (which Sirzechs brought to himself with a quick transportation-circle cast underneath the bottle, which lay forgotten a few feet away from the transforming Beelzebub descendant). What was striking about his wing-spreading was that his four wings all looked different from each other, as opposed to literally every other Devil alive whose wings (however many they possessed) were uniform in their bat-like nature. Only one of the Beelzebub descendant's four wings looked anything like a regular Devil's wings, with another looking like the wings of a fly (which, similarities to other animals upon other parts of his body aside, the Beelzebub descendant was seriously beginning to resemble). One looked like a bird's wing, complete with feathers, and the last looked like the wing of a Dragon.
All four of those wings began to flap rapidly, like that of a fly's wings, and the Beelzebub descendent rose into the air. He jerked around rather erratically, rubbing his two front legs together as he looked up at Sirzechs, who could see himself reflected in his opponent's new compound eyes.
'Okay, that's... absolutely disgusting.' Sirzechs thought to himself, readying his Power of Destruction as the Devil... fly... THING that the Beelzebub descendant had transformed into, came flying at him, mouth agape and black drool oozing out of it. Sirzechs dodged to the side as the fly-thing came past where he'd been floating before, launching his Power of Destruction upon it and scoring a direct hit on its right side. The fly-thing span over and over in mid-air, letting out a screech of pain at a good part of its body being blown apart.
As it twisted around in mid-air, continuing to screech at Sirzechs (and letting out copious amounts of some black substance from its mouth. The same black substance was dropping from where Sirzechs had hit it with his Power of Destruction, leading him to believe that the fly-thing was spitting up its own blood), the older son of Zeoticus and Venelana noticed that the area of its body that he'd hit with his destructive power was... slowly regenerating.
Well, that wouldn't do, Sirzechs thought as he raised his right hand again, summoning another ball of his Power of Destruction. Dodging to the side of the fly-thing as it charged at him again, Sirzechs elected to not throw the ball of Destruction that he'd conjured at the fly-thing, instead pouring more destructive energy into the ball, causing it to grow in size. The fly-thing took a couple of seconds to realise that it had both missed Sirzechs in its lunge, and that Sirzechs hadn't taken another chance to blow away more of its body. By this point, the wound caused by Sirzechs' prior blast of the Power of Destruction had fully regenerated, and the fly-thing turned around to let out a noise that vaguely sounded like a laugh, as it launched itself at Sirzechs again. However, again, it missed as Sirzechs dodged to the side, continuing to charge up the destructive orb in his hand, which was now about a meter wide in diameter and still growing.
Letting out a hiss of what Sirzechs suspected was frustration as it turned around again, the fly-thing took in a deep breath and spat out a huge gob of its black blood at Sirzechs, which he threw up a barrier with his free left hand to block. Rather than dissipating against his barrier, however, the fly-thing's black blood began to corrode the shield as soon as it landed on it, which forced Sirzechs to dispel the shield entirely (allowing the acidic blood that had hit the shield to drop down to the ground, which it began dissolving. Better the ground than him, Sirzechs thought).
The fly-thing then let out another gob of black blood at Sirzechs, who rather than throw up another shield with his free left hand, instead opened up an Amalgamation-hole with his free right hand, which the fly-thing's blood-gob flew into. Using his demonic power to open a second Amalgamation-hole and pooling it with fire magic, Sirzechs fused the two holes together, combining the fly-thing's blood with his fire-magic. He threw the resulting product back at the fly-thing (which went in the form of a fireball), scoring a direct hit on its face and covering it, plus its eyes, eyes with the burning blood. The fly-thing let out an ear-splitting screech of pain and fury from the Sirzechs-created substance that stuck to his face, and span wildly around in mid-air, blindly shooting its acid-like blood in all directions in an attempt to hit and kill something, ANYTHING.
Sirzechs simply backed up, out of the fly-thing's range, and raised his right hand above his head. The orb of the Power of Destruction that he'd been charging up the entire time was now large enough to completely envelop the fly-thing, but it wasn't quite enough to unleash on it... yet. Sirzechs continued to pool more and more of his destructive power into the large orb above his head, which had stopped growing and was now emanating an increasingly-intense crimson glow.
'Nearly ready.' Sirzechs thought to himself. 'Just a bit more...'
He looked up at the giant orb of destruction, now beginning to feel the waves of power it gave off. Thanks to his immense reserves of demonic power, inherited via (as far as he was aware) a mutation of a dominating gene of Venelana's that was passed down to him, he had no problem simultaneously keeping the destructive orb he was currently holding under control, and continuing to charge it up while watching the fly-thing spinning and buzzing around, continuing to spit out more and more of its blood.
A moment later, the fly-thing seemed to have shaken the burning blood that Sirzechs had fired back on it out of its eyes, and had its sights fully set on the crimson-haired young man yet again. Letting out the loudest screech of fury that it had done yet, it charged at Sirzechs at record speed. And at that moment... Sirzechs let fly the gigantic orb of Destruction that he'd been charging up, throwing it upon the charging fly-thing.
If it had the ability, the fly-thing would have surely widened its eyes in shock at Sirzechs' destruction-orb flying towards it. But it hadn't the ability, so it didn't widen its eyes, therefore it flew straight into Sirzechs' orb without making any change in expression, not even slowing down. The instant that the fly-thing's body touched the destruction-orb, it began to disintegrate before Sirzechs' very eyes. It was dead the second that its whole head was enveloped in destruction, but momentum kept its headless corpse going until the entirety of its body was fully enveloped into the orb that Sirzechs had created. And at that point, the fly-thing that the Beelzebub descendant had transformed into was gone in less than a second, leaving nothing behind.
Sirzechs descended to the ground, lightly touching down as he looked upon the lack of remains of the fly-thing that the Beelzebub descendant had turned into. What he'd done to it, the whole charging-up-a-giant-orb-of-Destruction business, was an enhanced form of the Power of Destruction that he'd theorized, with Ajuka's help. To explain it in terms that he himself could understand, it was done by compressing his mother's power, to the point that anything it touched would be overwhelmed by such a concentration of destructive energy, and be eliminated without a trace.
He could shape such compressed Destruction into smaller balls for smaller opponents, of course, but he'd needed to get rid of the fly-thing that the Beelzebub descendant had transformed into, without any chance of it regenerating. That necessitated a ball of compressed Destruction large enough to completely fit him into it. Though being able to eliminate large opponents with smaller balls of his mother's power did sound nice, it would require more work. He was sure that Ajuka would be willing to help him out with that, once the Civil War was over.
He'd need to come up with a name for this technique, too. Vanishing Ruin? Ultimate Extinction?
…
'Nah,' Sirzechs thought. Neither of those potential names had quite good enough of a ring to them.
Shrugging, Sirzechs pulled the bottle that the Beelzebub descendant had chugged from out of his pocket, and examined it. There were still a few drops of the dark liquid that had turned him into that fly-thing at the bottom of it, and a quick sniff of said drops almost immediately made him want to throw up. How in Lucifer's name had that screaming, scrawny Royal prick managed to chug a whole bottle of that stuff without immediately puking up... well, everything?
Sirzechs immediately cast a quick sealing spell over the bottle's opening and slipped it back into his pocket. This was definitely something that Ajuka would be interested in looking at, as well.
----- ----- -----
At around the time that Sirzechs and the Beelzebub descendant flew away from the base that he and Raylix had arrived at, Raylix adjusted his grip on Gaeneron and slowly shifted into a fighting-stance, locking eyes with the silver-haired Devil who now stood alone against him, Sabemka and Tomosei. As Sirzechs and the Beelzebub descendant faded from sight, the silver-haired Devil let out a sigh, shaking his head.
"Branyx, you idiot!" he muttered. "You've condemned yourself to death, rather than give yourself a chance against that traitor! And I'd have a chance to kill him for taking what's rightfully mine!"
The silver-haired Devil was forced to throw up a shield as Raylix made the first move of their fight, dashing forward and swinging Gaeneron at him. Raylix's sword clashed with the barrier just before it could make contact with the other Devil's neck, with said other Devil forcing a pulse of demonic energy through the barrier that forced Raylix to jump backwards.
"Rightfully yours?" Raylix asked. "Let me guess: the Underworld as a whole? Because you were part of a family of Lucifer's chief servants, you deserve to take over now that he and his family are gone?"
"Hardly!" his silver-haired opponent replied, throwing his hand out in a wide arc and triggering explosive spells underneath the feet of Raylix and his two friends, forcing them all to evade. Sabemka rolled backwards, jumping back up in a prepared stance; Tomosei jumped backwards, spreading her wings to get further air before landing beside Sabemka, staff out; and Raylix jumped straight up, floating in the air on his eight wings as he readied a ball of the Power of Destruction in his free right hand, and kept his grip on Gaeneron firm in his left.
"Don't get me wrong, I fully support the goals of the Royals." the silver-haired Devil explained, spreading his own Devil wings- all eight of them- and ascending into the air. "But... Raylix, was it?"
Raylix didn't answer.
"My problem with your older, better brother is a lot more... personal, than that." the silver-haired Devil continued, summoning an enormous fireball in one hand and throwing it at Raylix, who cancelled his Power of Destruction and threw up a shield to block the fireball. However, the fireball split into multiple, smaller fireballs before it could hit the barrier, where they then were guided around the barrier that Raylix had thrown up.
Raylix then flew downwards, underneath the barrier that he'd thrown up (which faded from existence a second later), allowing the fireballs to hit each other and dissipate from existence. He then flew at the silver-haired Devil, re-summoning a ball of the Power of Destruction and firing it at him from close-range. His opponent threw up a barrier himself, blocking Raylix's thrown attack. It didn't go unnoticed that, as he blocked Raylix's attack, the silver-haired Devil's whole body seemed to glow a bright silver for a second or two, before the glow faded.
"Oh, yeah?" Raylix asked, twirling Gaeneron around in his hand. "And what would that be?"
"...My sister." the silver-haired Devil replied, raising his hand towards Raylix. "That red, goody-two shoes, traitorous FREAK has eyes for MY sister Grayfia, when she's clearly out of his league!"
Raylix raised an eyebrow, while Sabemka and Tomosei (who had both risen into the air on their wings behind their leader and friend) looked at each other, each sharing rather surprised faces. Those surprised faces instantly morphed into those of shock and worry as the silver-haired Devil summoned a ball of the POWER OF DESTRUCTION, and fired it straight at Raylix. However, Raylix had already seen the attack coming, and a quick flick of Gaeneron was able to bat the destructive ball away from him, out of harm's way.
"He should just stay with all the filthy Pillars and their descendants," the silver-haired Devil muttered to himself. "And leave Grayfia to Euclid... yeah, that's best for everyone!"
Seeing that he was distracted by his own inner ramblings, Raylix dashed through the air towards Euclid. He crashed his fist against his face, sending him spiralling over and over in mid-air until he crashed into the base that he'd come out of with Branyx a couple of minutes ago. Shaken from his earlier ramblings about his older sister, Euclid spat up blood and fired back at Raylix, this time sending spears of ice-magic in his direction, which were sliced apart by Gaeneron as Raylix closed the distance.
'Is that the Lucifuge ability?' Raylix thought, grabbing Euclid, floating backwards a few meters while holding him by the neck, spinning around a couple of times to build up momentum and throwing him downwards into the ground. 'Or a technique of his own?' He followed Euclid- who had gotten to his feet- down to the ground, but Sabemka got to him first, punching the already-dazed-looking Euclid in the face to daze him a bit more, before following up with a kick to the stomach to send him staggering backwards. Tomosei followed up on Sabemka's following-up with a bolt of magical energy, aimed squarely at Euclid's face. Euclid was able to dodge the bolt of energy, which would have hit Raylix had he not ducked down in anticipation of the energy-bolt missing, but the young Lucifuge wasn't able to dodge Raylix delivering a sweep-kick to him from behind, which knocked him down to the ground again.
Before Euclid was able to tell what had happened, Raylix, Sabemka and Tomosei were all on him. Raylix had levelled Ganeron at his throat, Tomosei had levelled her magical staff (which was glowing with energy) about a foot away from his face. At both sword and staffpoint, even Euclid wasn't stupid enough to try anything, practically allowing Sabemka to grab him by his silver robe, pull him up a little and punch him in the face again, knocking him clean out.
"Alright, take him back to HQ." Raylix ordered of his friends. "I'll investigate the base, here. Come back once you're done, okay?"
"Got it!" Sabemka replied, pulling the unconscious Euclid up and hoisting him over his shoulder as Tomosei cast a transportation-circle. "See you soon, Raylix!"
Raylix nodded as the transportation-circle activated, and his two friends disappeared along with Euclid, leaving him alone in the ruined town. Taking a couple of seconds to stretch, he turned around to look back at the base that Branyx and Euclid had come out of minutes before, which now had a dent in one of its walls: where he'd thrown Euclid into. Adjusting his grip on Gaeneron, he walked into the base, now fully on-guard for any hostile forces that might come his way.
He elected to travel through the base to its top, rather than venture to its depths, given how much easier it would be for Raylix to escape if things went south. With this in mind, he continued moving forward, checking around every corner in case a Royals soldier was stood guard and could see him. He came to some stairs, leading further up the base, and heard the sound of movement coming from the top of them.
"Hey, did Lords Branyx and Euclid ever come back?" he heard one male voice. "You seen them?"
"Not since they went out to take care of those Gremory kids." another, deeper, male voice replied. "Don't worry about it, they'll be back soon. Then Lord Damaidosu can move on and finish taking the city!"
The pair of Royals soldiers shared a laugh, which was suddenly replaced by surprised shouts and the sound of loud, hurried footsteps down the stairs, as the sound of a blast of magic hitting a nearby wall could be heard. Raylix didn't know what had caused that, and frankly, he didn't care: he took the opportunity and dashed for the stairs, making his way up and almost instantly coming into contact with the two Royals soldiers that he'd heard talking.
The second one that he'd heard talking (a large man with black hair done in a buzz-cut) barely had time to yell out "RAY-" before Raylix ran him through with Gaeneron, driving the breath out of him. A second later, he finished the large Devil off by blowing his head up with a close-range bolt of the Power of Destruction, with the outpouring of blood and guts drenching both him and the other soldier, who didn't even have time to yell out before Raylix flicked Gaeneron to the side, horizontally bisecting him.
Shaking some of the blood that he'd gotten on himself from the first soldier out of his eyes, Raylix prepared to keep going, but froze slightly as he heard quick movement from below, as well as the sound of voices.
"What was that?! You heard that shout, right?"
"Of course I heard it! You think I'm deaf, or something?!"
"If yesterday was any marker, who knows?! You might actually be deaf!"
"Shut the hell up, both of you! Come on!"
Raylix had to force down a snigger as the sound of hurried steps became louder and louder. He carefully moved down a couple of steps, doing his best to not slip on all the blood that had landed on the ground as he looked out of the nearest doorway, preparing another bolt of the Power of Destruction for any Royals Devil that would come for him. He let fly the INSTANT that he noticed any kind of movement on the other side of the door, scoring a direct hit on the Devil that had come into his field of vision and destroying the top half of his head.
The standing corpse of the Royals Devil that Raylix had just killed dropped to the floor like a sack of heavy stones, and Raylix heard two shouts of surprise and anger come from the right of the door's opening. He prepared another bolt of the Power of Destruction for whoever would be next to come through the door, and let fly as soon as he saw movement again. However, the Devil that had provoked him into firing ducked as he did came in, allowing the destructive bolt to fly harmlessly past him. Straightening up again, he smirked and fired a powerful bolt of demonic energy at Raylix's position, but ended up hitting his own dead comrade as Raylix bodily picked up the upper half of the Royals soldier that he'd cut in half earlier, and flung it in between himself and the bolt of energy, using it as an impromptu shield that he immediately dropped after the energy-bolt hit the dead half-Devil, instantly blowing it up.
Raylix then spread his wings and flew upstairs, narrowly dodging another bolt of energy that the Royals Devil fired at him and- rather than going through the door at the top of the stairs, crashed through the wall right next to it and landed in a roll on the ground, groaning slightly. He had many strengths, but flying in tight spaces was, unfortunately, not one of them.
Picking himself up, Raylix span around and fired another bolt of his Power of Destruction through the hole in the wall that he'd just made, rather than wait for a target to show up for him to fire at. His destructive bolt blew out a hole in the wall past the one he aimed through, but hit no Royals, least of all the one who'd forced him to retreat up the stairs, who now came up with a dark-looking grin on his face. Summoning a sword made out of demonic energy, the Royals Devil in question dashed at Raylix with surprising speed, and Raylix held up Gaeneron out of reflex to clash with him for a couple of seconds.
Quickly realising that his new opponent held the advantage in physical strength, Raylix disengaged from the clash and jumped backwards, bouncing off the wall behind him and retreating down a hallway, firing off bolts of destructive energy out of his free hand as he went. The Royals Devil dodged all the energy-bolts that he could, and blocked those that he couldn't with quickly-made barriers, and pursued Raylix quickly enough to catch up to him and force another couple of clashes.
Raylix was on the defensive now, bouncing off of the walls and ceiling to launch attacks at his current opponent from different angles, as opposed to just from right in front of him, in hopes that one of them would catch him and make an opening for him to deliver a more decisive blow. He landed on the ground again, fractions of a second before realising that his opponent was aiming a strike right at where he had landed, forcing him to raise his sword and clash with him again.
"You're quick, for a little traitor to the Underworld, you know." his opponent remarked, easily pushing back and holding the advantage in the clash. "I'm sure we could use a fighter like-"
Raylix didn't even allow his Royals opponent to finish his one (it was probably a bullshit one, anyway), and replied by letting out a concentrated blast of the Power of Destruction from his free right hand, from point-blank range. There was no way that he'd be able to dodge an attack like that from such short range... and he didn't. Not fully, at least. He attempted to lean to the side and dodge Raylix's magical attack, but it still caught him on the chin, blowing away the entirety of his lower jaw and rendering speech impossible for him.
The Royals Devil, more out of numb shock than anything, raised a hand to where his chin had used to be, and he barely had half a second to comprehend the fact that he had no way of speaking anymore, before Raylix thrust forward with Gaeneron, impaling him. A quick flick upwards of his sword was enough to end the sword-wielding Royals Devil for good, and another bolt of the Power of Destruction was all it took to snipe the third Royals Devil (who had just come running up the stairs, and through the hole in the wall that Raylix had made when he crashed through earlier), with him falling dead as well.
As soon as the last Royals Devil fell, Raylix turned around and ran through the corridor, skidding around corners and dashing up any stairs he could find. There was no way that anyone else in the base didn't hear the fight he'd just had, and he'd rather not remain where he was and end up a sitting duck for any Royals Devils who might happen upon him.
Raylix rounded another corner, and as he saw a group of four Royals Devils- who all turned around as they heard him coming- he threw up a barrier in anticipation for any shots of demonic energy that would come his way. Of course, shots DID come his way, which were all blocked by the barrier he'd thrown up as Raylix came closer and closer to the quartet. Once he was close enough to the group, he cancelled the shield he'd put up and swung Gaeneron at the legs of the nearest Devil to him, cleanly cutting through both legs and following up with a kick that sent the now-legless Devil skidding and rolling away.
Raylix leant backwards to dodge a punch from the next-nearest Royal, and returned in kind with a punch of his own followed up by impaling him with Gaeneron, before swinging the sword around and using the second Royals Devil's body as a bludgeon against the third Royals Devil, knocking him down. The fourth Royals Devil out of the group fired a shot of demonic energy at Raylix from point-blank range, and actually managed to hit him with said shot full-on in the face. Raylix staggered, and was forced to dodge a couple of punches from the fourth Royals Devil before catching one of them and kicking him in the crotch, opening him up to an easy decapitation.
By this point, the third Royals Devil was up on his feet again. He made a dash for Raylix, but slipped on the blood that had poured on the ground as a result of the fourth's decapitation, opening him up to a simple stab in the chest, ending his life as well. The second Royals Devil had propped himself up a nearby wall, clutching at his wound and wearing an expression that plainly begged Raylix to spare his life. And Raylix... didn't.
Stepping over the legless, unmoving body of the first Royals Devil once he made his way over to it (Raylix suspected that he'd simply bled out), he continued his quick journey up the tower, killing every Royals Devil that crossed his path until he reached the second-from-the-top floor. Kicking down the first door he saw, he rushed into what looked like a large living room-type space: a far bigger one than what he'd experienced back at his own house.
There was a large fireplace that took up a good portion of the wall-space on one side of the room, to the right of where Raylix had come in. Directly opposite that, there was a large magically-projected screen that seemed to show off the battle that was going on back at the ruined Valefor city, the battle that Raylix had come from before arriving at the base. A glance at it told him that the Royals soldiers that had been there were being chased away from the city by Anti-Royals soldiers, with Sirzechs leading the charge against them. Grayfia, the woman who Serafall had been fighting earlier, was nowhere to be seen.
Directly across from Raylix was a large table, behind which a sole Devil sat, watching the magical screen with a bored expression on his face. Said sole Devil was a male who, by human standards, looked to be in their late-thirties/early-forties. He had long black hair that was slicked back and done up in a ponytail that went down to his back, and downturned violet eyes. He wore extremely expensive-looking noble attire, mainly coloured blue and black, and was leant back in a chair that looked more like a throne than anything else.
He didn't even look away from the screen after Raylix kicked in the door, power flared up and ready for a fight, until a good few seconds after said door-kicking had occurred.
"So, you're the one who was making such noise downstairs." he spoke, in a smooth, oily tone. "Damaidosu, son of the Great Satan Asmodeus, is surprised that you made it past all his men. You must be quite a strong Devil, to get all the way to Damaidosu."
'I already don't like this guy.' Raylix thought, taking a breath as he took a step into the room, adjusting his grip on Gaeneron as he did so. Damaidosu raised an eyebrow at the sword, which glinted in the light of the fire, and turned slightly towards Raylix, an expression of VERY mild interest on his face.
"Damaidosu sees that you possess Gaeneron." he remarked. "You must be a descendent of the Pillar Gremory." A very slight sneer formed on his face as he looked down his nose at Raylix. "Don't take another step forward, servant. Kneel, and Damaidosu may allow you live."
Raylix took another step forward, getting into a battle-stance as he did so. A second later, the fire to his right roared up, and seemed to come to life. It took the shape of a large man, about twice Raylix's own size, and jumped out of the fireplace, landing between Raylix and Damaidosu. Getting up from his throne-like chair, Damaidosu walked calmly away from Raylix and the fire-man of his creation, out of the room through a door behind where he'd been sitting. Raylix attempted to give chase, easily making it past the fire-man and cutting through the table and chair rather than going over or around them, but the door burst into flames just as he was about to put his hand on the handle, making him recoil by reflex. Turning around, he saw the fire-man had a hand out, pointed towards the door. Evidently, he had done that to stop Raylix from leaving.
'Alright, fine.' Raylix thought, sheathing Gaeneron and fully turning to face the fire-man that Damaidosu had conjured. 'Let's mosey, asshole.'
The fire-man threw a punch from his position twenty feet away from Raylix, sending a large fireball out of his hand towards him. Raylix rolled out of the way and thrust his own hand forward, firing a shot of his Power of Destruction towards it. The fire-man made no attempt to dodge Raylix's destructive shot, which flew... straight through him, without even destroying anything. There was a loud BANG as Raylix's shot flew into the wall directly behind the fire-man, blowing a hole into the base and allowing Raylix a sight of outside.
Not that Raylix would have even looked outside, as the fire-man took another couple of steps towards him, quickly closing the distance between them.
'Alright, that's that theory nipped in the bud.' Raylix (who had initially suspected that the fire-man was comprised of a body that was covered in fire. As awful as the implications of something like that would be, he REALLY didn't put it past any of the Royals' leadership to try something like that) thought, ducking down and dashing between the fire-man's legs as it took another slow step towards him.
Turning back around to face the fire-man, who turned around to face him in turn, Raylix wiped the rapidly-forming sweat off of his face and gritted his teeth.
'Water puts out fire...' he thought to himself. 'Destruction's out, time for Plan B. Or Plan W...? Eh, whatever.'
The fire-man began walking towards Raylix, who spread his wings and floated backwards several feet, holding up one hand and summoning a decently large magic-circle in it. A second later, a wave of water gushed out of the circle and landed mainly on the fire-man's right leg. It had the exact effect that Raylix was hoping for, putting out every lick of fire that the water made contact with. The fire-man instantly lurched to the right and dropped to the ground, igniting the dry parts of the Wulf-fur carpet that it fell onto, and causing just about as much new fire to flare up as Raylix had put out with his water.
Almost instantly, the fire that the fire-man had started began to rise away from the carpet, and swirl around the area that Raylix had obliterated with the water, regenerating its right leg. When the leg was fully regenerated, the fire-man got back to its feet, with more fire flaring up from where it put its hands on the ground, to push it back to its feet. Not even a couple of seconds later, the newly-flared up fire rose up and into the fire-man, causing it to swell in size from around ten feet in size to twelve feet, at least.
"Well... alright, then." Raylix remarked. "Thanks for showing me how to beat you." He jumped up and flipped over in mid-air, bouncing off the ceiling and away from the next fireball that the fire-man sent his way with another thrown punch. Spreading his eight wings again, he glided over the fire-man and cast another large magic-circle, dumping a huge amount of water onto the fire-man from above.
Raylix landed on the ground and whirled around, throwing up a barrier for himself to keep himself dry as the water he'd conjured up seconds later splashed up and around everywhere in the room, before coming to settle on the ground as water often did. The fire-man, however... was completely gone. Evidently Raylix's water-dump had done the job.
Taking a breath to recompose himself after the short fight he'd just been in, Raylix destroyed the door that Damaidosu had gone through (which was no longer on fire, thankfully) with a bolt of the Power of Destruction, Raylix dashed forward, immediately going up the stairs that were right in front of him after going out the door. At the top of the stairs stood another door, which Raylix kicked open as he rushed onto the roof, seeing Damaidosu standing there, his back to him.
"Was that fiery guy the best you could do?" Raylix asked, re-summoning Gaeneron and shifting himself into a battle-stance. "Because Raylix doesn't think so!" he added, a slightly mocking edge to his voice. Damaidosu looked around, a similarly bored expression on his face to when Raylix had first met him downstairs, as he looked Raylix up and down.
"No, it wasn't." he replied. "But Damaidosu thanks you for asking."
He didn't move as Raylix rushed towards him, ready to carve him up with Gaeneron. Raylix reached him within seconds and swung, but just as his sword was about to make contact with Damaidosu's neck, it clashed with an invisible, yet powerful, barrier. The young Gremory barely had a second to process this before Damaidosu lazily flicked his hand, outputting a powerful pulse of demonic energy from whatever barrier he'd conjured up, sending Raylix backwards off his feet. Gaeneron slipped from his hand as Raylix crashed into the cold, hard roof of Damaidosu's base.
Raylix grimaced from the temporary pain as he picked himself back up, and summoned Gaeneron back to his hand a moment later. Gathering up a good amount of his demonic energy, he fired a powerful bolt of the Power of Destruction at the barrier that stood between him and Damaidosu. The destructive bolt struck the barrier, leaving little more than a scuff-mark on it. Raylix followed up the miniscule (if any) amount of damage that his previous attack had done by rushing towards Damaidosu again, closing the range between the two combatants and swinging at the barrier again.
The sword struck the barrier again, same as Raylix had done last time, but rather than disengage, Raylix persevered, sure that if the barrier could be damaged, it could be broken, and then he'd be able to have a chance against Damaidosu. Or at the very least... survive for long enough that someone would come to his aid. Raylix's eyes were caught by a part of the barrier beginning to become visible, around the area that he had struck with Gaeneron, but he could barely mentally acknowledge that he was MAYBE doing something right in this encounter before a spike of demonic energy flew out from where the barrier had become visible.
Raylix let out a shout of surprise and jumped backwards, the spike actually making its mark of his chest, but barely grazing him rather than impaling him like he was sure Damaidosu had intended. Taking half a second to look down and see that the spike had drawn blood, Raylix took a couple more jumps backwards, readjusting his grip on Gaeneron as he did so.
Now fully turned around to face him, Damaidosu lazily swung his hand around in a wide arc, casting many magic-circles all over the roof that he and Raylix were fighting on. A quick scan over the roof with his eyes told Raylix that Damaidosu had cast a hundred magic-circles in all, each with Asmodeus' family crest: that of a crown with an 'A' in front of it.
However, nothing seemed to be coming from the magic-circles, even though Raylix was literally standing on one of them. However, a whizzing sound from above caught Raylix's attention, and no sooner did he look up than did he see a hundred bolts of demonic energy, all directly above where the magic-circles were all situated.
Raylix broke into a dodge-roll just as the first bolt of energy, the one that was right above the magic-circle that he'd been standing on, flew downwards and hit the magic-circle in question, causing a large explosion of energy that Raylix was sure would have done great damage to him had he not evaded it. The other ninety-nine energy-bolts above Raylix began to drop as well, forcing Raylix to essentially duck, dodge, dive, dip and dodge out of the way of the explosions around him.
In retaliation, Raylix fired a powerful beam of the Power of Destruction at Damaidosu, but it had just about as much effect as the first bolt he'd sent... next to nothing.
Damaidosu didn't initially seem to move a muscle in reaction to Raylix seemingly dodging his most wide-reaching attack so far. He simply raised his hand, forming another large magic-circle within his hand and pointing it at Raylix. The magic-circle glowed, and a large flaming boulder was flung out of the magic-circle directly at Raylix.
Raylix saw the boulder coming, and threw up a barrier to block it. However, when the boulder hit the barrier... it was deflected out of harm's way, sure, but it came at the cost of shattering the barrier entirely, and sending Raylix staggering. He hadn't the time to throw up a barrier to stop the second flaming boulder from flying his way, so he simply dived out of the way as it bounced harmlessly past him, and jumped back to his feet.
Raylix was forced to start moving quickly again as Damaidosu lazily conjured up another magic-circle in front of him, that began glowing an ominous purple colour. Common sense told Raylix to get out of the way, which he did just as an enormously powerful beam of energy was fired out of the magic-circle, directly at where Raylix had been seconds earlier. As he spread his wings and flew above the rooftop, firing another bolt of destructive energy down from above at Damaidosu, Raylix was certain that the demonic power-beam would have vaporized him instantly, had he been hit.
Raylix's destructive bolt missed Damaidosu, whizzed past the edge of the roof, and landed on the ground just outside the main doors to the base, which caught Raylix's attention as he twisted himself around in mid-air to evade the laser, which was still firing. Did the barrier that Damaidosu had conjured only apply to in front of him. Well, it would definitely be easier to approach him from upon the roof rather than from the air behind him, but... it was worth a shot, right?
After performing a barrel-roll in mid-air to dodge the angled laser again, which soon dissipated, Raylix disengaged from Damaidosu entirely and flew towards the edge of the roof, preparing to dive all the day down and around in order to attack from a new angle, but he didn't even get off the roof before crashing into another invisible barrier. He fell for a couple of seconds, dazed, but righted and caught himself in mid-air before dodging another blast of demonic energy from Asmodeus' son.
"Did you really think that Damaidosu didn't guess you'd try attacking him like that?" Damaidosu asked, a derisive smirk forming on his face as Raylix made his way back to the ground, gritting his teeth as he felt the rapidly-forming bruise on his normally-gorgeous face. "Damaidosu laughs at your idiocy, peon."
Raylix gritted his teeth, and wiped some more sweat from his head, shaking some of his hair out of his eyes as he did so. Damaidosu was SERIOUSLY beginning to annoy him with his whole 'referring to himself by his own name' shtick. As he tensed up, preparing to attack again, he felt the roof beneath him beginning to rumble. Instincts told him to GET OFF THE SATAN-DAMN ROOF, which he did milliseconds before another explosion, like the ones that had formed all over the roof earlier in the fight formed directly under where his feet had been.
But this explosion was FAR more powerful than any of the hundred explosions that Damaidosu had formed earlier, and loud enough to make Raylix's ears ring. Unfortunately, paltry milliseconds weren't nearly enough for Raylix to get away from the explosion that Damaidosu had formed under him, and he was sent flying up into the air, knocked temporarily unconscious by the force of the explosion. He didn't come to until he felt himself slamming back onto the cold, hard roof, and groaned in pain as he slowly picked himself up. Raylix shook slightly as he balanced himself on his feet, the beginnings of anger coming in as he glanced at himself, beaten and slightly wounded, in comparison to Damaidosu's immaculate state.
"Is this all that a wielder of Gaeneron can do?" Damaidosu asked, conjuring up a chair for himself and sitting down upon it, looking bored by what he saw in front of him. "Damaidosu is greatly disappointed."
'Time,' Raylix thought. 'To make a hasty retreat.' He cast a transportation-circle underneath it, figuring that if he couldn't beat this ASSHOLE on his own, then he'd leave, escape with his own life rather than throw it away in a battle that he knew he couldn't win. Either that or find someone who COULD win... like Serafall, or even Sirzechs. Shit, maybe even both of them.
When Raylix activated the transportation-circle, however, it didn't light up and take him away from the top of the Royals base. It, to his horror, did nothing at all. He was still standing, tired, hurt and pretty pissed-off, in front of Damaidosu, composed, unhurt and looking even more bored than ever by what he was seeing. Though Raylix did see another smirk pulling at his lips.
"You cannot escape Damaidosu, peon." he spoke, his voice now a full-on sneer as he looked over at Raylix. "But Damaidosu has to admit, he is impressed with the show you've put on for him in the past few minutes. Fall to your knees and BEG for Damaidosu's forgiveness, and he may spare your life. He may even find a place for you in the new Underworld that he and Bidleid will create."
"Oh, SHUT THE HELL UP!" Raylix shouted, a new wave of anger washing over him and giving him the energy needed to stand up straight, and prepare Gaeneron again. "You want Raylix to kneel? Get off your ass and make him!"
Damaidosu merely sneered further at Raylix, but didn't move a muscle beyond that. However, a large magic-circle appeared in front of Damaidosu, that began glowing a familiarly ominous purple. Raylix was prepared this time, and was long by the time Damaidosu's energy-beam was let loose. While in the air, he swung his hand in a wide arc at Damaidosu and sent hundreds of tiny darts of his Power of Destruction at him. A single one of them likely wouldn't be enough to hurt him, let alone kill him, but if Raylix was right, he'd probably be able to blind the son of Asmodeus, at least for a moment... which was a moment's more time for him to figure out how to win this fight.
As Raylix quickly dived down to dodge the beam, which was being angled upwards to aim at where he was currently at, he noticed Damaidosu doing something for the first time... moving.
Rather than hit the seemingly omnipresent barrier that he'd formed in front of himself, some of the destructive bullets that Raylix had fired came dangerously close to hitting Damaidosu in the face, forcing him to jump out of his chair, dissipate it with an uncharacteristically quick movement of his hand (almost so quick that Raylix didn't even notice it happening) and jump aside. No sooner had he done all that had he re-summoned his chair and sat back down in it, putting on a face that tried to convey that he was just as bored as before at what was going on... but Raylix was CERTAIN that the truth was quite different.
'His barrier's down!' Raylix thought, preparing Gaeneron as Damaidosu's laser dissipated. 'Now's my chance!' Twisting himself around in mid-air, Raylix flew at Damaidosu faster than a speeding bullet, his sword pointed forward in a thrust that he was certain would sink into the older Devil's throat. However, it was not to be for the young Gremory-descendent as, just as Gaeneron's tip came fractions of a foot away from Damaidosu's flesh, it came into contact with the same invisible barrier that had been plaguing Raylix since the start of the fight.
Raylix could only get out "Oh, you've got to be shitting-!" before a surge of demonic power from Damaidosu sent him flying backwards, and re-acquainting him with the hard surface of his base's roof. However, fortunately, Gaeneron did not slip from his hand this time, and he was back on his feet in an instant, adrenaline and anger at Damaidosu playing a pretty big part in his actions now. In spite of said adrenaline and anger occupying most of his mind (he figured about... eighty to ninety percent was the most accurate estimate), there was still a niggling ten to twenty percent in the back of his mind that had a suspicion of what was going on with Damaidosu and his infuriating barrier.
And given the situation he was in, it wouldn't hurt to test that suspicion, right?
As soon as Raylix felt the beginnings of rumbling beneath his feet, he was in the air, and out of range of the explosion that Damaidosu had thrown up directly beneath where his feet had been a second or two earlier. As soon as the explosion went off, Raylix extended his open hand towards Damaidosu and fired a large, concentrated bolt of the Power of Destruction, directly at him. He had a clean shot and his aim was true: that bolt was GOING to hit Damaidosu right in his Lilith-damn face! Either that, or...
Damaidosu's eyes widened, if only for half a second, at the destructive bolt bound for his head, and stood up from his chair again, hurriedly forming the very same shield out of a magic-circle that most other Devils often did. Raylix's destructive bolt hit the shield that he'd cast between it and himself at around the same time that Raylix dropped down and landed on the roof again, a grin on his face: his suspicions were right.
A scowl formed on Damaidosu's face at the sight of Raylix's grin, and he swung one of his hands in a wide arc, forming twenty-five magic-circles beneath Raylix's feet, rather than his previous one hundred.
'I already know this routine.' Raylix thought, a smirk of his own on his face as he looked up and, as he figured, twenty-five bolts of demonic energy had formed a good way above the magic-circles on the floor. He looked back at Damaidosu-
just in time to be smacked in the... everywhere, by another of his large boulders.
Raylix let out just out every curse he knew as the force of being smacked in the face sent him flying backwards, right as the above bolts of energy came flying down, triggering explosions that he inevitably flew into, causing him to drop the curses in lieu of a scream of pain. He was flung into the ground, and barely had time to look up before another boulder, conjured up by Damaidosu and flung at him, forced him to break into another dodge-roll (in spite of how every part of his body screamed in protest) in order to evade the attack.
As the boulder bounced away, and Raylix's ears stopped ringing from all the explosions (he inwardly thanked his Devil physiology that they hadn't permanently ruptured from everything he'd experienced today), another magic-circle formed in front of Damaidosu... another glowing one.
Raylix waited a couple of seconds, glaring at Damaidosu with an intensity that even he didn't know he had... before launching into an action that was both monumentally brave... and incredibly stupid. As the third powerful beam was let fly, Raylix launched directly at it, dodging out of the way and flying right at Damaidosu, only realising mid-flight that this idea was probably not well-formed, and could potentially result in death.
But oh well. This was his best chance at doing ANYTHING to damage Damaidosu's annoyingly-perfect-looking self, he'd launched into it, and there was no taking it back now. No second chances, this was his only shot.
Damaidosu's eyes widened as he vaguely process Raylix flying at him, Gaeneron out and ready to be swung. He cancelled the beam, but he realised that he was fractions of a second two late to prevent the inevitable.
Raylix let out an ecstatic scream as his sword made contact with Damaidosu's face. However, he was slightly off-target, and rather than pierce his head, which would have instantly ended the fight, he was only able to lightly gash Damaidosu's right cheek. His ecstatic- almost orgasmic- scream was forcefully cut off as Damaidosu sent him away with another wave of demonic power, but Raylix was able to cleanly land on his feet and notice that blood was oozing from the wound that he'd dealt to Damaidosu.
"About time I landed something." Raylix chuckled. His body ached from all the shit that Damaidosu had put him through while on the roof, but he found it pretty hard to care at the moment. Damaidosu didn't seem to move at first: Raylix initially thought that he'd been struck dumb by his face being slashed, before he rose a hand to his face and ran a finger across the gash that Raylix had inflicted on him. Even from where Raylix was standing, he could see the blood on Damaidosu's finger, as well as his expression shifting to one of boredom to one of calm rage.
"You struck me..." he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, as he looked over at Raylix. "YOU struck ME?!" he shouted, fixing Raylix with such an intense glare that the young Devil was sure that, had he been any lesser, his ass wouldn't have been the only thing occupying the inside of his pants.
"I guess that whole 'finding a place for me in the new Underworld that you'll create' thing is off the table, now?" Raylix asked, taking a couple of breaths. Damaidosu's face contorted as his rage became more obvious, and he extended his hand towards Raylix, with a magic-circle appearing out of it and glowing a bright purple. Raylix didn't even move before it was unleashed, and Damaidosu let out a shout of laughter as Raylix was seemingly obliterated...
…
Except he wasn't.
Damaidosu's laughter was quickly stifled when he saw Raylix, still standing, very much not obliterated, his own hand out and having formed a single Amalgamation-hole out of his hand, which seemed to be catching the laser that he was firing at him. He cancelled the laser upon reflex and could only look on in dumb shock as Raylix took a couple of breaths, giving off a shit-eating grin as he held Damaidosu's laser- or rather, the energy that Damaidosu had expended to make up his laser- in the Amalgamation-hole within his hand.
A couple of seconds later, Raylix closed his hand, and the Amalgamation-hole along with it, and took a couple of relieved breaths as his body glowed a bright crimson for a couple of seconds.
"Ahh..." he sighed. "That's what I really needed... thanks for that." he addressed Damaidosu. "It was just what I needed!"