Rune and Zero stood face to face with a real demon that towered over them with murderous intent.
The two boys looked at each other before lunging at the demon with their machetes. Zero took the left targeting the demon's left shoulder and Rune appeared behind the demon targeting its shoulder as well but just before their machetes connected, the demon varnished and a gust of wind followed.
The boys landed down on their feet and immediately dashed for the demon's arm again. They were fast but the demon was faster and it quickly dodged their attack and countered by sending a fireball at the two boys.
"Shit," exclaimed Zero as he pushed Rune away from the fireball and blocked it with his machete.
"Zero, are you okay?" Rune asked as Zero landed down after blocking the fireball.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay, good."
Rune then faced the demon and lunged at it so fast that it appeared as though many copies of him surrounded the demon confusing him.
Just then Zero knew what to do he began to throw bones at the demon distracting him from Rune's attacks and Zero ran over to the demon's arm and cut into it but as he thought he had cut off the demon's arm he saw that he was in the air.
"It's stuck!" Zero was shocked at how thick the demon's skin was. He or else...
BANG
The demon landed an explosive head bat on Zero's body that made him fly to the wall of the cave bloody with a broken left leg and right arm.
Rune looked at Zero's condition and froze for a while just long enough for the demon to kick him in Zero's direction.
Both Zero and Rune coughed out blood as they were trying to get out of the wall they had been fixed in. But as they were trying to free themselves, they heard a loud voice echo throughout the cave.
"You puny demons here to steal my food. Are you the ones who killed this young boy?"
Neither Rune nor Zero replied and they just stared at the demon shocked that it could talk.
"Well, it doesn't matter since I claimed this prey and honestly I'm disappointed by how weak you are mostly since you have a lot of potential that's why I won't spare a single one of you."
The demon then flexed his arm and completely shattered Zero's sword into pieces. Before pointing two fingers and shouting, "COMBUSTION."
Suddenly a small ball of fire formed at his fingertips that he sent in the boys' direction leading to a large explosion that blew up part of the cave and could be heard by the Drew's citizens leaving everyone wondering whether the boys had met their end.
Silence enveloped the forest as though time had stopped. The cave had been blown to bits and the boys lay motionless on the ground.
The demon clicked its teeth in disappointment and turned away from them facing the head of Jericho.
But as soon as he turned he felt a terrible presence coming from the boys' direction he turned to look but as soon as he did he felt a sharp thrust going through his gut from one end to another.
He looked down to see Zero's bloody face smiling at him with dead eyes. A strange feeling enveloped the demon's senses as he felt a cold and menacing presence coming from this black-haired boy.
He quickly punched the boy and sent him crashing through trees. Just as he thought he was down, Zero lunged back at him and punched him in the face sending him flying to the cave walls that were still standing making them crumble down.
Right now what was a dark and eerie cave was nothing more than rubble.
Zero and the demon looked at each other before the demon pointed two fingers at Zero and used the same attack that he had used earlier just now it was multiplied into multiple bursts that headed straight for Zero's direction.
BOOM
Multiple explosions were set off at once in Zero's direction and Zero who tried to dodge them was ambushed by the demon which kicked his back sending him to the ground.
At this point Zero couldn't move an inch his body had been battered badly and his regeneration was not fast enough to repair his injuries quickly enough.
He lay down on the ground motionless cursing at his body.
"Fuck this body. Move. Move. Your piece of shit."
"It's useless I've destroyed your spinal cord. If you were a normal demon you would have fully regenerated by now but it seems like your unit was locked by someone. Well, too bad for you, pride demon looks like you'll die before you can ever get stronger. Pity..."
"You talk too much." Just then Rune punched the demon in his mouth losing his arm in the process.
"Hey, Zero are you okay? You look like shit. Well, don't worry I'll end this fight.
Zero looked at Rune and saw that the bandage that covered his left arm had been removed exposing his demon markings that were glowing blood red.
"Rune, don't do it." Zero yelled to Rune who looked at the demon sternly.
"I'm sorry brother, but this is goodbye," Rune said as a tear flowed down his cheek.
"No don't do it you fool don't die for my sake. Don't leave me too." Tears began to roll down Zero's eyes as he stared at Rune.
"Hey Zero, when this thing dies take its head and run back to Drew's. Become an angel and travel this world. There is much waiting for you."
Just then Rune turned and faced the demon whose eyes widened when he realised what kind of demon Rune was.
"You... you're an envy demon."
"Took you long enough. Now if in case you're planning to run you better know that my arm is a hold of you."
Just then the demon flew over to Rune as his hand connected back to his body and the demon was caught in Rune's infallible grip.
"Normally I would just blow myself up and bring myself back but I haven't learned that so looks like we'll die together."
Rune let go of the demon and hugged it with a smile.
"Goodbye, Zero."
BOOM
A large explosion happened sending all the trees flying and a large dust cloud covered the sky of the forest. The people of Drew's and the two old angels looked at the forest knowing damn well no way anybody would have survived that explosion.
They were all happy that they had gotten rid of two birds with one stone and they all celebrated and went into their houses sharing a toast. All except for the large officer that was somewhat sad.
"Aren't going to celebrate with the rest of the town's folk?" Borollo asked.
"Do you think those kids are dead?" The large officer asked with a rather depressed look on his face.
"Yes, yes I do," Borollo answered coldly without even facing the large man. The large officer tried to get the old angel to go and check clearly if they were dead and bring their bodies but the old angel refused reminding the large soldier of the bet.
"We made a bet. I'm not supposed to interfere in it. So if you had a problem you should have brought it up earlier maybe you could have saved those kids.
The large soldier looked at Mr Borollo with an expression full of spite and just walked away knowing that there was nothing to be done.
Borollo waited for some time but sundown was too near and the time limit for the bet was elapsing.
"Kentai, take those nine angels to the ship. I'll be there shortly."
Kentai looked at his partner with a worried look."For how long are you going to wait?" Kentai asked.
"Until he comes back."
So Borollo waited till sundown and just as the sun began to fall below the horizon along with Mr. Borollo's patience he spotted a young figure walk up to him from beyond the sunset.
The young man walked up to him with two heads one of a demon and the other of a human. The sight almost brought a tear to the old angel's heart.
"You are an unkillable roach. Looks like you defeated the demon and even brought back the tenth angel's remains. Congratulations you won the bet and got extra credit."
Borollo looked at Zero properly to see that his wounds had been fairly healed faster than any human but he also noticed one major thing.
"Say, what happened to your friend?"
Zero immediately answered, "he's dead," before asking the old angel to take him to the ship where all the other angels were. He agreed and at sundown at the end of the collection day, Zero would leave the kingdom of Farland for the first time to take on a new adventure out in the wide world as an angel.