Fun Fact: I had to rewrite this chapter because the fight scene felt stiff and dry the first time.
****
A pregnant silence ensued, with no sound but faint breaths from all three.
"What do you mean by that?" He asked, trying to seem casual.
Scourge laughed, perhaps too bluntly for Amari's liking.
"Come on, don't try to play that card with me, little boy. Regardless of how many lifetimes you have lived, I assure you I have lived longer. I have seen stranger things, and I have seen stronger than you. Aliens like you are of no interest to me."
If it were any other situation, that might have calmed him down. But this wasn't another situation. He was facing off against a Higher Demon Beast who held both his brother's and his own life at the tip of his palm.
His shoulders dropped, and he sighed in defeat. "What do you want from me?"
"What do I want?" Scourge laughed again. "Do you think this is some sort of negotiation? Or do you have anything else worthwhile I desire?"
Amari paled for a moment. He had too much to lose to act recklessly, and this beast didn't even care for him.
"Well, to tell you the truth, that's a lie. You have something interesting for me. So, surrender your life and let me take your essence. I promise you it's a donation towards a good cause,"
A brief silence ensued but Amari had no intention of making it last longer than it already would, "I'd rather die."
Scourge cackled, "How ironic of you to say that. Then you can just die for me!"
The creature charged forward, slinging the strange yellow spores. Amari just did what any sane person would do.
He ducked down grabbed the sword as quickly as possible, and charged forward to Scourge.
"What do you think you're doing, my naughty snack?"
The beast chuckled and flew back a few dozen metres with one swipe of its wings. Amari groaned and looked at Belat.
The slime closed quickly around him.
He charged a small amount of mana into his legs and appeared next to the startled beast. He mustered all his strength and swung the sword down into the beast's skin. Yellow blood oozed from the tear and didn't look to be healing.
'It works!'
"You're such a pest!" Scourge growled and crouched down, seemingly unaware of the irony. A familiar cylindrical barrel appeared and several yellowish-green cannonballs flew at Amari.
Amari put the cheering aside and recklessly swung the sword at the disgusting balls of death. He injected mana into it and swung forward at the orbs.
The scourge laughed at his efforts.
"Did you think I didn't see that coming?"
The golden sword felt hollow in an instant and the familiar mana-less weight came back to Amari. He fell and stumbled across broken earth pieces.
That was terrible.
All the orbs had increased massively in size and radiated more energy! A familiar one, for that matter.
Several pieces flew closer and, without warning, stuck to him. Amari grimaced and dropped the sword with a loud clang.
"Argh!"
His grimace evolved into screams as the acid-like substance bit through his clothes and seeped into his skin.
With nothing more than several patches of clothing left on his body, Amari's now red skin pulsated and 'breathed' with a disgusting aliveness. Green and red veins shone from beneath his skin, which tore at an alarming rate.
Breathing was painful.
Every breath he took aggravated his injuries.
Screaming was painful.
Every scream cut off a minute from his life.
With nothing more to do, he lay on the floor buck naked and almost stripped down to the bones.
"I would have loved to have every bite of such a wonderful meal, but I guess Demon Essence minced meat will have to do." Scourge chuckled, coming closer with each wingbeat.
Amari managed to take a look at The Scourge. Even that was painful to do.
He was going to die. Belat would die. Lilia and the demons would die. Reida and the kids were dead. Jasmyn and Edward were dead.
Everywhere turned dark. The faces of everyone he'd let down. Every single one of them faced him in this dark room.
Some of them yelled at him. Others just looked disappointed.
'I'm useless, aren't I?' He thought to himself, speeding up the process.
Everywhere I go, someone dies. Even back on Earth. Jasmyn never knew...'
'But it was all my fault.'
'My fault...'
'That we never...
'Got to live...'
'Normally.'
Amari's legs turned limp, and he gradually lost control over the rest of his upper body. He was dying, and he knew it.
His eyes fluttered with his consciousness, and white spots gradually filled his vision. Ironic it was that rather than black spots filling his vision, it was white ones. But maybe that was a sign.
In one last action, he looked up to meet his killer's face and instead met his brother's frenzied face.
Belat's eyes shone with pale red, much like Amari's own. The pup clawed at The Scourge to no avail and howled at Amari's fading existence.
"Try!" Amari's failing ears heard.
"For Mom! For Dad!"
He closed his eyes again to bid farewell to death. It would be a while till their next meeting.
Then he tried.
Forcing out every bit of strength within his body, Amari grabbed nearby pieces of gravel and sand, pulling himself up from the ground.
It was indescribably painful, but he managed it.
He glanced at the dull golden sword by his side and then heaved it out of the ground. He injected a small amount of mana and something clicked.
Its dull blade gave off a bright golden light that radiated holy nature and Amari felt invigorated instantly.
Scourge tilted his buggy head, "Oh? This is interesting. My enhanced Spore Cannon somehow didn't affect you."
"Well yeah, you fucking bug head! And even though I don't have a lot of mana left in me, I will make sure to make it count and end your fucking life while I'm at it!" Amari snarled back.
He pushed forward, his sword closely behind him, and appeared in front of the Scourge almost instantly. A golden line cut through the air, landing on the spot where the bug creature was.
Wow, that's a sharp tool!" Scourge said from behind, far away from Amari.
The young demon swerved back and shot forward with a barrage of slashes at the Demon Beast.
Each one was dodged with the calculated proficiency of a trained fighter or the speed of a strange beast.
"I told you to chill. If you kill me, you won't know where your brother is."
Amari stopped instantly. After looking around the Demon Beast, he felt his heart drop.
"Where's my brother? Where did you hide him?"
"Nope, guess again!" Scourge smiled, making Amari grimace.
"You bastard!" The teen yelled and shot forward again.
"Well, there you have it."
'Take care of Belat, Raion'shalang.'
Those unsaid words became even clearer to his ears. He'd failed. And quite miserably too.
Scourge dodged one of his strikes and charged at him, flapping his wings rapidly.
Several gusts of blade-like wind condensed out of the wing flaps and rushed towards Amari.
The demon teen cursed inwardly and barely dodged the wind blades. He closed in on Scourge, though.
Then, without warning, he launched a barrage of attacks on the opponent.
Those hit.
Amari's lips widened, and his face cracked when he smiled.
But not without a price.
His smile wore away quickly when he checked his MP. If it was low earlier, now he would barely have enough power to cast another spell. He jumped back.
Unfortunately for him, the beast noticed his reaction.
Less than a second later, he was bombarded with multiple Spore Cannons.
Amari took a gamble.
'Shadow Tendrils!'
Several dark extensions emerged from within the shadows and grabbed onto the slimy cannon balls, then tossed them away into the distance with ease.
The spell disappeared immediately, and Amari grimaced.
'I'm down to one mana point. What am I going to do now?'
He acted like that wasn't the case and still jumped forward, his blade clashing against Scourge's surprisingly sturdy wings.
A second later, he tore through the beast's wings.
"I have won. Now, spit my brother out!"
"Hehe..."
"Hehehe!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Do you really think you've won against a Higher Demon Beast like that? No little boy, it's far from over. We always keep one little trick up our sleeves."
As he yelled, pale yellow lights emanated from his body, causing Amari's heart to skip a beat.
"Is it like Reida and Felaud's spell?"
Unfortunately for him.
"Forbidden Spell- Spore Fairy Kingdom!"
Just like that, everything descended into chaos.
The air around him burst into bright yellow spores that grew larger each second they spent floating in the air. Several smaller things like rocks, trees and cars also exploded into the strange yellow spores.
Amari sighed. It was pleasant while it lasted.
"I'm not dying sitting down, though!"
With hardly any hope remaining in his heart, he jumped into the rapidly engulfing mist and swung the large golden sword at Scourge again.
The spores still completely surrounded everything and potentially everything in a mile's radius. His attack was useless.
Or so he thought.
A bright, radiant light pierced a hole in the engulfed sky and a loud explosion followed.
Boom!
The demon's body fell back several metres and lay there, unconcious.
…
"Hmm, I didn't expect that to happen," A voice said soon after. It stared at the unconscious youth then at the still alive Scourge.
"Y-you again!" Scourge yelled.
Yes. Amari's attack hadn't managed to harm him in the slightest. It was something else.
"Yes, me again. I'm quite interested in this little demon boy so I'll need to make sure you die."
The Spore Goblin Fairy snarled, "It was your fault, you bastard!"
Zed looked at the demon beast amusedly. His robes flapped in the wind, swirling around him in a menacing manner.
"Yes yes, but I need to be getting back to the surface now, so I'll have to be saying good bye now."
A small orb flew out of his finger and landed on the creature's body. No sounds came out from the beast afterward, causing Zed to turn around, expressionless.
The boy was about to awake.
…
...
…
Amari woke from his unconsciousness shortly after, if only for a brief second.
With nothing but rubble in sight, he inched forward, to Scourge's body.
[MP: 0/400]
After five minutes, he'd reached Scourge's body, but both his hands and legs turned limp.
'B…ela-'
He could not think straight and so he fainted.
Zed stared at this and murmured. "What an interesting boy. Let me reward him a little more."
[Ding!]
[Mission Accomplished:
[Reward: (Skill: Shadow Sword), Shadow Grimoire, 200 SP]
[Calculating Additional Rewards]
[Additional rewards calculated]
[Additional Rewards:]
[Dream Element Unlocked]
[Nightmare Sub-Element Unlocked]
[Night Element Unlocked]
[Basic Dream Manipulation Unlocked.]
[Basic Nightmare Manipulation Unlocked]
[Basic Night Manipulation Unlocked]
[Basic Sword Technique Unlocked.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
[Rewards Not Authorized]
[Breach detected in the system]
[Warning!]