As Tenzou turned around, he saw a figure with pitch black eyes menacingly smiling at him. He was able to quickly deduce that the figure was a demon. The demon swiftly leaped towards him giving him no time to react. Right before the demon could land his punch, Tenzou reacted, blocking his ribcage from getting smashed in.
Because the demon was pure negative energy, yin, he was physically stronger than most humans. But Tenzou wasn't human, not anymore. He's ascended and gained powers strong enough rival demons.
Tenzou flinched as he felt a shock of lightning from the demon's punch, 'He can manipulate lightning?!' The demon grinned savagely when he neared Tenzou for another attack. 'He doesn't stand a chance against me!'
The demon blasted silver lightning right towards Tenzou. This time Tenzou side stepped swiftly, dodging the attack. He was ready to return the favor. He ran full speed towards the demon and threw a punch right towards the demon's left chest.
'That hit hard. There's no way a human has this much strength. Unless…He's asce-,' His thought abruptly came to an end when Tenzou swiftly launched at him, this time with greater speed then before. 'He got faster?!' Tenzou appeared in front of the demon and punched him, sending him right into a building, rendering him unconscious.
Tenzou thought to himself, 'I'm getting the hang of my strength and speed.' His thought got disturbed when he heard a woman scream for help. He quickly located the source of the scream, which was in an alley 100 meters away. Tenzou was fast enough to travel the distance in 2 seconds
The demon forced himself onto the woman. "Don't resist. I'll make you feel good." As the demon slowly undressed the woman, she screamed her lungs out, "Help! Please! Anyone!" She tried her hardest to resist, but her efforts were futile. The demon was exponentially stronger.
Without giving a speech like an anime character, Tenzou charged towards the demon and kicked him with full force right into a brick wall. The demon went right through the wall due to the momentum of the kick.
"Run! Get as far away from here as possible! This fight's gona be ugly!" The woman nodded and ran away.
Tenzou felt a horrifying amount of killing intent from the cloud of dust. A figure with black eyes emerged out of the settling smoke. Yin concentrated on the demon's palm as black lightning channeled around his hand. "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" The demon menacingly screamed with blood flowing out of his mouth.
The demon instantly appeared in front of Tenzou, punching him in the gut. 'He's faster than the last one.' Tenzou thought to himself. The punch sent him flying back a couple of meters, simultaneously shocking him. He speedily recuperated and got ready to attack.
'This guy recovered that quickly?! Even Swe took longer to stand straight. Who is this guy?' The demon questioned in disbelief.
"Who are y-" The last thing the demon saw was a glowing fist heading directly towards his face.
Tenzou's attack was so fast, the demon couldn't finish his sentence. He also consciously added light to his punch to end the fight quickly. Tenzou thought, "Demons are weak to sunlight, huh"
The first demon slowly regained consciousness. He tried standing up, but felt great pain in his chest and face. He removed his clothes to examine the injury on his chest. His eyes widened with disbelief when he saw a giant burn. He was dumbstruck. Sunlight was the only thing that could inflict such damage to a demon. "This guy defeated his demon AND has the power to manipulate sunlight?! I have to inform Yoru about this."
Tenzou saw a figure standing on top of building not far from him. Tenzou couldn't see his eyes because of the oversized hood covering his upper face. "I know your there." Tenzou commented.
"I know." The figure replied.
The figure removed his hood and revealed his eyes. He has around 18 years old. Sloe eyes with luminous blue pupils unraveled from below the dark hood. "I'm Nath." The figure announced. Tenzou was perplexed by Nath's eyes. They were the most beautiful pair of eyes he's ever seen. He felt relieved and lowered his killing intent. "You can call me Tenzou, son." Tenzou calmly replied.
Tenzou continued, "Where is the woman?"
Nath answered, "She's safe."
Tenzou calmly asked, "Where is 'safe'?"
Nath led Tenzou outside of the city into the forest. As they were walking Nath commented, "What's your element, gramps? From your previous fight with Kaguya, it didn't look like your element was wood nor air. I thought humans were only capable of manipulating either one of the two."
Tenzou looked up at the beautiful night sky filled with countless beautiful stars. As he walked past giant trees while admiring the endless night sky, Tenzou smiled and replied, "Sunlight, son. I can manipulate sunlight."
Nath and Tenzou approached a humongous general tree that stood at the opposite side of the island. There was light coming out of the ginormous tree. Tenzou thought to himself, 'Thousands of people could easily fit in the tree.' The word 'home' was inscribed at the threshold of the entrance. There was a wooden door that led towards the inside of the tree.
Tenzou entered the tree, and the interior impressed him. There were hundreds of refugees living together in harmony. The laughs of young children filled the inside of the tree. There were also upper floors with room for more refugees. Tenzou relaxed and asked, "So you created all this?"
Nath replied, "Nah, Lin created this 5 days ago. He's the most powerful wood user among the ascended. "
Tenzou nodded and looked around, "Why are the refugees mostly women and children?"
Nath explained, "Right after the light from the peak of the mountain shined upon us, humans had to physically fight their inner demons. The strength of their inner demons depended on the strength of their negative emotions. These people here, they're good people. Their inner demons were easily defeated, which is also why their yin reserves are small. As for the people that lost against their inner demons, their minds and bodies got completely consumed by hatred and darkness, turning them into demons. In return, they gained immense power as their yin reserves were exponentially larger than humans. Demons can manipulate either fire or lightning. The color or their attacks signify the amount of yin the demons possesses. The colors of lightning ranges from silver, white, black and purple; With silver being the weakest and purple being the strongest. Yoru, the strongest demon, is the only being that's capable of manipulating purple lightning. There're also demons who can manipulate fire, but they're only slightly stronger than demons with white lightning manipulation. Finally, there's us. The people here call people like us 'The ascended', because we managed to defeat our inner demons."
Tenzou looked at Nath with confusion, "What's the difference between us and these people?"
Nath comfortably sat down on a wooden chair, "Relax, gramps. I'm not done yet. Our inner demons were drastically stronger than theirs and defeating them gave us powers strong enough to rival the demons'. Unfortunately, there's only 5 ascended, including you. Among the 5 ascended, two of us doesn't have the power to manipulate elements. Instead, our strength, speed and endurance are greatly enhanced. I can tear limbs apart, bend steel and break bones with my brute strength. Bullets cannot penetrate my body.
Tenzou got curious about the other non-elemental, "Who's the other non-elemental?"
Nath was slightly confused. He thought to himself, 'How does he not know who Swe is? Even the demons are well aware of Swe. Where was this old man when war broke out on Columbus,' he thought as he sat beside Tenzou.
"A man named, Swe. He's the strongest among the ascended, but his intuition and experience is second to none. It's as if he knows what's going to happen, even before it happens. He's also the founder of 'home'," Nath boasted.
He looked Tenzou dead in the eyes and asked, "Gramps, how do you not know any of this? Where were you the past week? Why is your element light, instead of air or wood?" Tenzou felt killing intent oozing out of Nath. He knew Nath was being serious.
Tenzou was impressed with Nath's intuition and awareness. He knew he had to give Nath an answer, but telling him that he's the one responsible for all of this would be comical. Tenzou sighed in defeat, "My grandson and I were climbing the mountain. We were one week in, and the light shined upon us. The shockwave pushed my grandson down the mountain, and it took me one week to climb back down to Columbus, and the rest was history."
Nath believed his lie and commented, "Ahh, I'm sorry for your loss, gramps. Maybe because you were the one closest to the light, sunlight manifested as your element?"
Nath lowered his killing intent as he received a sensible answer.
"I'll tell you what happened in Columbus while you were gone," Nath volunteered.
"Thank you, son."
"As soon as demons were born, war broke out. Demons overpowered humans and the people of Columbus got terrorized. The military wiped out most of the silver and white lightning demons, along with fire manipulating ones. However, they were massacred by Yoru and his six black lightning demons: Indra, Shura, Romo, Sasu, Miko and Kaguya. Bullets couldn't penetrate their bodies because they were immensely stronger than the other demons. Their yin rivals ours. You killed Kaguya, one of the six, without breaking a sweat. I don't think you realize the magnitude of your own powers, gramps. Anyways, the most powerful demon, Yoru, is the only demon that has the power to manipulate purple lightning. His yin reserve is bigger than all of us combined. According to Hin, before the light shined Yoru was a serial killer and the six were prisoners. They got arrested because of the horrible crimes they committed. I met Lin, Phyo and Hin while fighting Miko and Shura. I nearly died while fighting the two demons, but they saved my life. Later, Swe came along and showed us this general tree. Lin, with his wood manipulation, created 'home', a place where humans take refuge from demons," Nath explained thoroughly.
Then suddenly, a bolt of lightning blasted a giant hole in the trunk of the tree.
A demonic voice shrieked, "So this is where you were hiding my slaves."
A tall figure appeared out of the smoke of dust. It was a man in his late twenties. He had purple hair and a sword attached to his back. As the smoke settled, purple lightning concentrated on the man's palm.
Unlike any others, Tenzou felt yin overflowing from the figure, 'This guy's a monster.'
Nath's eyes widened as he screamed, "HIN, EVACUATE THE REFUGEES! SWE, LIN, PHYO, YORU'S TRACKED US"
2 figures with pitch black eyes appeared behind Yoru. They gave out scary amount of killing intent and their yin reserves rivaled Nath's.
"Boss, let me take care of the women. HEHEHE," Romo exclaimed.
"I call dibs on the high-schoolers," Indra announced.
Nath began to shake in anger as he clenched his teeth, "You've got to get pass us."
Yoru disappeared into thin air and reappeared right above Nath. He pounded the top of Nath's head with his foot. Nath blocked at the nick of time but the force of the kick caused the ground to crack. Nath flinched due to the pain, 'Fuck, that hurts.' Without giving him time to recover, Yoru flipped and punched Nath with his lightning fist, blasting him away.
Yoru turned to Tenzou, "So you're the one who killed Kaguya?"
With great speed, he pulled out his sword and attempted to kill Tenzou. Tenzou easily dodged Yoru's attack and returned an attack of his own. Yoru got knocked back a couple of meters due to Tenzou's forceful punch. He decided to be more creative with his element, as he crafted a sword out of light.
Tenzou whispered, "Now, this is fair."
Yoru quickly recuperated, "Perhaps I should take you seriously."
Indra and Romo swiftly leaped past Tenzou as he was occupied with Yoru. They quickly neared the evacuating refugees as they were enormously faster. As they approached the refugees, a tall wooden wall rose out of the ground stopping them from reaching their destination.
A bald person with thin eyes stood atop the wall majestically. He stood tall at 5'10, wearing a violet t-shirt with a black coat. He looked down on the demons in disgust, "Bastards. Turning into a demon only made yall hornier, huh."
Indra turned to Romo and laughed mockingly, "Lin, your one crazy fuck. You think you can beat both of us?"
Lin turned his head in confusion and replied, "Yall seriously don't remember how I spat on both of you last week?"
The comment agitated the demons. They jumped toward Lin with great speed. The force of their jumps caused the ground to crack. Before they could reach Lin, they were miraculously blasted back towards the floor. As the demons slowly got up while rubbing their heads, they questioned, 'What the fuck was that?'
They looked up to see another person standing aside Lin. The person was fast enough to attack the demons and reach the top of the wall in mere milliseconds. The demons quickly realized that the person was Phyo. He had the ability to manipulate wind, and he mainly used it to enhance his speed.
Phyo turned to Lin, a confused expression on his face, "How the fuck did they get here?"
Lin rolled his eyes and replied, "Nath fucked up."
Phyo scowled at his friend and thought, 'Of course he did.'
The two warriors got into their fighting stance and prepared to attack. The demons did exactly the same. They launched at each other, and clashed midair. As they made contact, the demons shocked the duo with their lightning. It slowed Phyo down as black lightning dealt a noticeable amount of damage, but it had no effect on Lin as his body insulated the shock.
Lin briefly ensured, "You good?"
Phyo nodded and immediately made a move. He flashed right aside Romo and punched him with great velocity. It was as if he teleported. Simultaneously, Lin attacked Indra with wooden bars that extended from the wall he previously created. Luckily, Romo blocked Phyo's punch and prepared for a counter attack.
On the other hand, Indra dodged the wooden bars and charged at Lin. Lin smirked and countered Indra's attack by swiftly ducking and punching him in the gut, rendering him unconscious.
Lin proudly thought, 'Dumbass took the bait.'
Lin purposely avoided close-quarter combat and relied solely on wood manipulation with the idea of baiting his enemies. Phyo's incredible speed overwhelmed the enemy into thinking Lin was slow. In reality, He was nearly as fast as Phyo was.
Immediately after knocking Indra out, Lin quickly rushed towards Romo, kicking the demon. Since Romo was blocking Phyo's swift attacks, he couldn't dodge Lin's forceful kick. The demon recovered and blasted black lightning toward the duo. Lin summoned a wooden wall to block the attack. Then, he countered by extending a wooden plank at high speed towards the demon. Romo dodged Lin's attack by jumping. Unfortunately for him, this gave Phyo the perfect opportunity to attack as Romo was immobile midair. He launched directly at the demon with a velocity faster than a bullet. The force of has punch had enough momentum to shatter steel. The attack cracked Romo's skull, taking his life away.
Phyo was surprised at his own speed, 'Holy shit. I got faster? My yin reserve expanded as well?!'
Lin walked up to Phyo, amazed, "Holy shit, dude."
Phyo simply smirks as he walked towards Indra. Then, he smashed the demon's head repeatedly to make sure he's dead.
Lin walked up to Phyo with concern and said, "Dude, that's enough. He's already dead."
Phyo glanced at Lin and replied. "I'm just making sure."
Meanwhile, Tenzou and Yoru were fighting at great speeds. The island shook as their swords clashed with great force. Yoru was amazed by Tenzou's strength and thought, "No wonder this old man killed Kaguya this easily. He's strong." Yoru was extremely strong, but Tenzou held his ground. His attacks were effective against the demon.
As the fight progressed, Yoru slowly gained the upper hand as his yin reserve was larger than Tenzou's, but it helped Tenzou realize the magnitude of his elemental power.
Even if Tenzou somehow defeats Yoru, the 5 ascended aren't powerful enough to defeat thousands of demons remaining. Not yet, at least.
Tenzou came up with a plan.
He added all of his might into one single swing, expelling Yoru's sword away. Then, he swung his sword again, aiming to slit Yoru's throat. Yoru ducked and dodged the sword. This gave Tenzou a chance to attack. Tenzou kicked Yoru with all his remaining strength, sending him a few hundred meters back.
Tenzou immediately channeled all his yin into the island and drew the wall of light, dividing the island into two. Humans were on one side of the island while the demons were on the other.
Yoru approached the wall. Tenzou did the same. While facing Tenzou, Yoru said with annoyance, "Pussy."
Tenzou simply smiled, "Come at me then. I dare you."
Yoru touched the wall without consideration. As soon as he made contact, his hand burned.
Tenzou smirked and announced, "As long as I'm alive, demons SHALL NOT PASS!"