Arc leaped backward just as the demon's body swelled to almost 20 times its size. The skin, now almost translucent, revealed the shapes of bones and organs shifting underneath. Its spine arched backward, vertebrae pushing against its back as if trying to escape its body.
The air around them grew thick. Almost like honey, yet sickening, cloying, mixed with the stench of mold and black blood.
Everyone stepped back as the two other demons followed suit, also expanding. They stared at the three giant layered balls of flesh and bone.
The demons emitted a rumbling growl. They kept on wailing, crying, and the shrieks only grew worse.
"What's it doing?!" Crescent shouted from a few meters away. Yet no one knew.
Quill, who had been observing, kept glancing at the three of them. The throbbing felt almost identical. Every pulse beat at the same time. It was similar to the seconds of a clock, uncanny, almost like...
"A bomb?" Quill muttered. As he looked up at the demons and the cries intensified, his suspicion solidified.
"Pierrot!" he shouted. "I think it's going to explode!"
"WHAT?!" The reaction came from Crescent.
"Bryan! Make sure nobody is on this floor!" Quill's shout echoed through the store. Bryan, from afar, gave a thumbs up and continued his efforts.
"How do we contain it?" Arc moved closer to Quill.
"We can't," Quill replied. "We have to try to seal it first." He began preparing to seal the demon.
Pierrot, having heard this, also prepared to seal. Right hand on the solar plexus, left hand balled into a fist, eyes closing. After a few moments, the two of them glowed brighter than before.
"Let's go, Quill!" Pierrot shouted. They shared a nod and dashed toward the first two demons, protecting their lowered right hands.
Quill reached the worker demon and held his palms forward to touch its skin. Just as they almost reached their targets, a gigantic hand from behind grabbed their whole bodies, trapping them in a massive grip.
They struggled against the iron clasps of the demons, crushing them both as they fought to break free.
"PIERROT! QUILL!" Arc and Crescent shouted in unison, rushing forward in an attempt to help, but another hand swept through, and the two jumped, narrowly avoiding the grab.
"Crescent," Arc called. "We need to do something."
Pierrot and Quill continued to try and break free, while Arc thought of something. He took one of the broken metal rods on the floor and waved it to what seemed like the remains of its face from behind.
"What are you doing?" Crescent, who was confused, followed to take the rod, yet impaled the demon that grabbed Pierrot by the side.
The wailing stopped for the worker demon and released Quill, who then gasped for air. The massive hand took the rod out of Arc and immediately swung it at him.
"I just gave it back!" Arc shouted. "I thought he would be happy about it!"
"WHAT?!" Crescent impaled another rod, and another shriek set off. "It's its weapon!"
Quill, who recovered shortly, immediately pushed his hand to the swelling skin and sealed the worker demon.
A bright light emanated from Quill's hand as he sealed it. The worker demon began to shrink with an eerie shriek, contorting, deflating. Its screams grew fainter until it finally collapsed into a lifeless heap on the floor.
"One down!" Quill shouted, his voice hoarse.
Pierrot, now free from the demon's grip, wasted no time. He rushed to the second demon, placing his hand on its skin while it cried in agony from the multiple rods on the side of its body.
The demon convulsed, writhing under the bright light from Pierrot's sealing hands. With a final deafening screech, the teenager demon deflated, collapsing into a puddle of skin.
"That's two!" Pierrot called out. "Last one!"
When Pierrot turned to the third one, it had already been sealed by Quill with the help of Arc and Crescent's stabbing of rods.
He released a deep breath and walked slowly to them, as the last demon deflated into piles of skin.
Crescent was panting, "We did it..."
"It's not the time to celebrate," Quill said, standing up from a crouch.
Pierrot reached them, and they all turned. "There are three more possessions, two from Gibbous below, and another one from Roy above."
"We need to help Gibbous," said Arc, yet his form slowly flickered off.
"You're tired," Quill said.
"I'll be fine," he replied, releasing a deep breath.
"Then we'll help Gibbous. You can go to Roy, Pierrot."
Pierrot nodded and staggered toward the escalator.
The three began to move in the other direction, heading downstairs.
"Won't this be unequal with the power distribution?" Crescent asked.
"That's true, Gibbous should have more assistance," Arc added.
Quill paused the jog for a moment and turned to them. "Pierrot had already been fighting the three demons for more than an hour."
The two remained silent, and they all continued to run down the escalator, finding Gibbous right by the bottom of it, out of breath.
"GIBBOUS!" Quill shouted as they bolted down. "What happened?!"
Gibbous looked up, grimacing in pain. "The demon, it manifested." She spat out the blood in her mouth. "One of its hands is a blade."
"What about the other demon?" Arc asked.
"Sealed." Gibbous stood properly, taking off her jacket, revealing her tight black tank top had been ripped on the abdomen. "Let me have it at him." Gibbous gathered her long black hair in a low ponytail.
She crouched and turned back to her white form when Crescent stopped her by the arm.
"You're wounded, get that checked first."
Gibbous grinned. "Tis but a scratch!" She ripped the sleeves of her jacket and wrapped it around her palms, then bolted out of the group.
"Don't worry. She's tougher than you think," Quill said, turning to them. Then his gaze followed Gibbous to where she was headed and saw the demon by the glass rails, holding a civilian by the neck, dangling the person right on the edge.
"There shouldn't be any civilians left on this floor." Quill's eyebrows furrowed as he went after Gibbous to the right, and the two quickly followed.