Demon Slayer

Now, they were heading north, to the white fields, the place where Marcus knew many battles would be fought in the future. There were few villages here, and there was no sign of the demons having stopped anywhere, however, they left a trail of muddy snow, and overturned earth behind them, where they had trampled the grass, even worse than stampeding cattle, who often had trouble damaging frozen soil this much.
Thus, they continued their chase, and they did so swiftly, as the flatter and more even terrain, despite the hills, made it much easier for them to march.

“So, I’ve been wondering a lot of things, and since we are all being honest now, you know, with Izzy letting go of her secrets, and you telling me about your visions, I thought, I have some more questions that it was perhaps time you started answering.”
Marcus said to Naea, when they were alone. They had just stopped to take a breather, and Naea had gone to a nearby river behind some bushes.
“Are any of these questions perhaps about Malishaien Bathing customs? Ill have you know that men who peep in on women in any situation are beheaded in Malishai.”
Marcus smiled, but ignored her comment.
“For starters, I wanted to know why?” he started, “Why did you come to me? And what did your visions tell you about me?”
“Marc, my love,” she sighed, “I did not think this was important. I assure you that my visions were as vague and unhelpful as most of yours were. In the beginning, they only showed me you, where you were, etcetera, so I came to find you, after that, they just showed me how to help you, any danger that was coming, I thought that was obvious.”
Marcus nodded, it was obvious when she said it like that, but still, it made no sense.
“My visions showed me things that were going to happen, yours showed you what was going to happen to me?” he thought out loud. “Why?”
“They showed you what you needed to know in order to go on, to play your part in preparing the world for the chosen ones arrival.” Naea explained, “Mine showed me my part, which is helping you do yours.”
“Did it show you to tell me absolutely nothing about your visions? Why did you never tell me anything?”
“Oh, Marc,” she smiled, “You didn’t need to know all that, and it really wouldn’t have helped if I did. In the beginning I didn’t know you had visions either, I figured it out after about a year.”
“It would have been helpful to know, so we could exchange information, got to the bottom of it all.”
She just shook her head, “Trust me, Marc, it was better this way.”
Stubborn woman, he thought, “If you say so.”
“I do say so, do you trust my judgment?”
Marcus nodded, and she smiled at him, and kissed his forehead.
“Do you have anymore questions, or are you get to let me bathe now?”
“Actually, I do have some more questions,” He said, thinking. “How old are you?” This wasn’t the first time he had asked this question, and just like last time, she rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you said you were present when Zenithrix was defeated, you said you were present during the revelation of the prophesy, those events were all centuries ago, how is that even possible? You don’t look a day over forty.”
This time, she did smile at him, although it visibly did not come easy to her.
“I am eight hundred and ten years old, eight hundred and eleven next year.” She said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “And thanks for the attempted compliment, but I look no more than thirty five, silly boy.” She said, and Marcus didn’t know whether to be shocked, or to turn red out of embarrassment.
“I was thirty five when I was granted the rank of elder and stopped aging, I was in my sixties and seventies during the collapse.”
“What does it mean to be an elder? How do you stop aging?”
“Elders are those in Malishaien society, all women of course, who are considered the strongest, or wisest, I was academic prodigy, even if my magic wasn’t all that impressive, which is why I was raised to elder at such a young age, most are much older.” Marcus nodded, frowning.
“I have never heard you about your magic, or about you spirit, do mages even work the same in Malishai?”
“They do, I have cloud spirit, a somewhat rare arcane type, ironic, I know, it is a fusion talent too, very useful for turning into clouds, and a bunch of other things like making lightning, and ruining peoples fine coats.”
“That sounds very useful, but then why have I never seen you do any of those things, you magic doesn’t see cloudy to me at all.”
“As I said, I was never exactly a magical prodigy, and I prefer knives, however, if you need a good light show one day, let me know, I’ll conjure some lightning for you.”
“That still doesn’t explain how you became eight hundred years old, or what the magic is that I have seen you do.”
Naea sighed again, looking somewhat annoyed.
“If I tell you the secret, will you let me bathe?” she asked sarcastically.
“Well, that depends on the answer you give.” Marcus said, to which she once again rolled her eyes, this time in a most exhausted looking way.
“Would you believe me if I told you I have three types of magic, my spirit, and two others?”
“I might, if you explained what they are.”
“The first, I got from a certain imprisoned horsemen, the other from an inter-dimensional god of the void.” She said, with a raised eyebrow. “Does that satisfy your kingly curiosity?”
“I don’t know about satisfied, but its certainly a start.”
“Not satisfied, huh?” she said, eyeing him with a half smile, one he perceived as… Mischievous? “I guess I will have to find another way to put an end to your never ending questions,” she continued, taking off her robe.
“Now listen here, witch. I’m a married man I’ll have you know.”
“I asked your wife and she doesn’t mind, now come here and shut up.”

They did not sleep that night, they had no time to, and the trail steadily grew fresher, until the could see the first glimpse of them on the horizon.
Throughout the rest of their march, his and Naea’s frolicking behind the bushes weighed on Marcus’ mind, no matter how pleasurable it had been at the time, no matter if Izzy knew about them, he still felt weird about it. He was Married now. He would have to talk about it with his wife, just to make sure.
Now, he had other things to think about though, because as the demons became more visible on the horizon, it became clear that they were held up somehow, and this hold up could only mean one thing, a fight.
He now had a lot of troops, and they caught the demons by surprise. These creatures did not seem to be the observant types, and they were too busy with the fight they were already fighting to notice them.
However, his troops were tired from marching all night, and the moment they made contact, chaos erupted. Marcus’ blades flew through the air, cutting down entire ranks of demons, but these creatures were big, and strong, and most of his troops were having trouble.
He quickly realized that they might win the fight this way, since there were only a few hundred demons here, but they were not going to win the war fighting like this.
Red and black masses crushed in on them, the demons were now surrounded, but they fought harder than ever. Normal armies might surrender when outnumbered and outmatched like this, but not demons, they would fight until the last.
His forces, despite fatigue, were doing well. Arthur had ordered the formation of defensive lines, and ranged attackers behind them, who would do most of the actual killing, to prevent massive losses.
These defensive lines focused on placing shields, and hindering their enemies from progressing, trapping them, keeping them occupied.
Marcus joined them, he used their barriers to gather his strength, and take a breather, between attacks, and Merheeth hummed in peasure, as his blades found their targets.
He had a ranged ability, he could throw his blades effectively, but against these demons, it didn’t seem to work as well as he had hoped.
Their skins were thick, and their bodies were dense, and his blades took their time cutting them, and even five five blades, there was a lot of down time between throwing his blades, and them returning to him, time in which he was defenseless, which made Merheeth angry.
“Find a better way boy,” he wheezed, “I can’t have you dying on my in your first fight against these freaks!”
So, upon the encouragement of his spirit, he switched to close quarters, his blade long and broad, punching through the demons bodies like a knife through butter. This was working much better, he killed more slowly, perhaps, but he felt safer, and he could contribute to the defensive line, protecting the casters behind him.
He did so with Bob ever watching his flank, striking demons to his sides, and covering him in each one of his retreats.
As he swung his blade, and his clothes were stained with black blood, he noticed the demon lines buckling, the pulled back, even though they had been stable before, and his attacks had not gotten any stronger, why were they breaking now?
It did not take him long to figure it out. They weren’t breaking, they were just focusing on another part of the front, and as the demons started to smell weakness, a weakness in their lines, in the circle surrounding them, they surged towards the gap, punching through.
This gap was located in the white fields part of the encirclement, Marcus pulled back, gesturing Bob to cover him, and he did. He rushed towards to command tent, which was somewhere behind him, and there he left Bob, fighting in his place.
When he got to the tent, which wasn’t as much of a tent, as in their rush, they had not had time to do such things, but more of a desk with battle plans and scrolls covering it, he found Arthur. He ignored Borgh, Izzy, and the twins, who were also here, and continued to where his brother was sitting. Where Naea was, he could only guess. Claith was probably in the midst of the battle somewhere, to ‘Study’ the demons.
“What is happening?” He yelled over the noise of battle. His brother was just in the process of reading some notes scribbled hastily on scrolls, Borgh peeking in over his shoulder, and he looked up to him, concerned.
“The white fields,” he started, “They have completely broken, the demons are escaping the circle, and rushing towards the white fields command center!”
“By the goddess.” Marcus mumbled, before shouting, “We have to help them, who knows who is in there!”with that said, he rushed off, Izzy chasing after him, he wasn’t sure how happy he was about that. It would be good to have a healer nearby, but what if she got hurt?
Those worries didn’t last long, as he saw her in battle for the first time. Snow melted around the demons, attaching to their legs, and creeping up their bodies, and then freezing again, after which Izzy easily shattered their now frozen body parts.
She shot streaks of water through the air, as she collected more water, and her attacks grew and grew in scale, until she almost single handedly forged a path towards the other armies command center, tossing dead demons aside as they went, allowing Marcus to focus on those she missed.
They ran straight through the demon army, making it just in time to watch the command tent be surrounded.
“Hurry!” Marcus shouted, as he increased his pace, But Izzy, with her shorter legs, struggled to keep up with him. 
“Go!” she shouted, “I’ll meet you there!” Previously, he might have been worried about leaving her alone, but not anymore, after seeing her in action, he had full faith in her ability to stay alive.
The last ten meters proved to be the hardest, as the demon horde was the most concentrated there, he attempted to punch through, but there were too many of them.
“Jump, boy!” Merheeth croaked.
And he did, he placed the blade under himself, and pushed it away, but because it could go nowhere, it already being on the ground, he pushed himself in the air instead, this was a gamble, as he wasn’t sure where he was going to land, and he could easily hurt himself while landing. In mid air he made his blade return to him, and as it landed in his hand, he used it to slice the roof of the command tent open, allowing him to fall through, on top of one of the demons, who were now entering.
It wasn’t a pleasant landing, but he was fine, he thrust his blade down, seeing the demons eyes turn black as char, with tentacles of darkness coming from them, before they returned to normal.
Those tentacles would appear only for those who went to the lowest regions of hell, which is where all demons came from, and where they would return if slain.
“Good!” Merheeth hummed, as Marcus cleared the inside of the tent, a task which proved most challenging, as the intruders kept coming.
He could feel power surge through him as he used his blade much like the servants used a broom, to sweep around him in wide arcs leaving dead demons all around him.
As he did so, he scanned the room, where not many people were located, he counted three old men, and one woman wearing white and green, and a decorated head dress, which he recognized as that of a chieftain.
The three men were each casting their own spells, one casting carefully place fire-bolts and was obviously a fire elemental, one having a conjured war hammer which turned demons into green husks of skin and bone on impact, although it took a while for this transformation to be completed, likely a venom elemental manifestor, but Marcus wasn’t sure about that one, and the last one was aided by a flying kitten, and had undoubtedly a beast familiar.
The Most interesting however, was the chieftess herself, who was conjuring throwing knives, and chucking them at the demons surrounding them. Whenever a demon attempted to remove one of the little blades, they proved to be lodged in the wound to such a degree that the demon either gave up, or accidentally tore a large piece of flesh off themselves along with the knife.
Marcus had no idea what kind of spirit that could be, and he had no time to think about it, because the demons kept coming faster than they could be killed.
He swung and swept across the tent, but the demons kept coming, seemingly, for every demon they killed, two more showed up.
In the beginning they had at least been decent enough to use the tent flap to enter, but now, they were creating their own doors by ripping holes into the tent.
The three older men surrounded their chieftess, but even they were having trouble, and the fire elemental was grabbed, unable to keep them away for much longer, the war hammer mage killed the demon who held his comrade, but not before the man had already been torn in half.
The kitten mage was also injured, having been swiped across the chest by one demons claws.
He kept going, but the demons were closing in more and more.
Marcus attempted to join them, filling the hole left by the death of their fire mage, but he was separated from them, and was barely able to keep the demons off himself.
At that moment, when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, the largest demon he had ever seen walked into the tent, ripping the whole font side open, and hitting its head on the ceiling.
Marcus estimated that it must be over four meters tall, and even the other demons seemed startled by it, which gave him just enough of an opening to chop the lot of them in half.
Now it was him against a true monster. It wasn’t just huge, when Marcus hacked into it, his blade barely got past the skin, and the demon shrugged it off, knocking him over.
“Yuck” Merheeth groaned, “Gross!”
“Just chop his limbs off spirit, you’re the sword here.” He muttered.
Marcus roled backwards. Getting back on his feet, and immediately went for the attack.
The beast was swinging a massive, thick blade, with no tip, that just looked like a giant meat cleaver. With every swing, it threatened to topple the whole tent.
The demon swung down, barely missing Marcus, but chopping a desk in half. He went for another swing, he hit it perfectly in the throat, causing black blood to trickle out.
“It has magical skin.” Merheeth croaked, “Thats why I can’t cut it so well.”
“Never mind that,” Marcus said, not bothering to try to do it in his head now, as he was too busy dodging a side swipe. “Just keep at it, he has to die at some point.”
“I’m pretty sure I remember the witch saying they can survive much more blood-loss than you, so I wouldn’t count on it, boy!” the spirit wheezed.
Marcus ignore him, what did he want him to do, conjure an anti-magic device out of thin air? If such a thing even existed in the first place?
He fainted a stab, causing the demon to dodge to the side, but Marcus quickly spun, and hacked full force into the demons side, exposing a rib. He tried to pull the blade free, but it was stuck in the bone.
He was too close for the cleavers blade, but before he knew what was happening, he got whacked in the head with a steel pommel, and the world went dizzy.
“No!” Merheeth screamed. “Get up fleshbag!”
Marcus rolled sideways, and went into an evasive stance instinctively. He could feel warm blood trickling from his temple, he was lucky that hadn’t cracked his skull open.
The demon increased its speed, sensing he was weak, but Marcus had been trained for this and he kept evading, until his sight had a chance to recuperate.
“Fight back, Boy!” the spirit commanded.
“Relax, spirit.” He muttered under his breath, “I have a plan.”
“A plan? Like what? Floating like a butterfly?”
“As a start,” he replied, waiting for the overhead swing. When it finally came, he was ready, he deflected it, spun his blade, and stabbed upwards, into the demons throat, and black blood splashed onto him.
The demon reeled back, grabbing its neck with its free arm, and swung at him, wildly this time, which was perhaps more dangerous, because he couldn’t predict it.
He looked over to the chieftess and her two remaining men, they were barely able to keep the other demons off of them, he had to finish this.
“Deform” he commanded the blade, “Turn into an axe!” he said to the spirit, in his head.
“What?!” the spirit scoffed, “What do I look like, some brutish woodcutter, I’m not an axe, I’m a sword, boy!” it roared into his ear.
“Then turn into a sword like that demons, but do it fast!” Marcus roared, out load this time, not having the mind to think the command.
“Hmph,” the demon snorted, “Fine then.” And the blade reformed, turning into a relatively short hacking instrument, and Marcus jumped towards the giant demon, who had regained its balance and was now staling back towards him.
It swung at him, he blocked, and redirected, another swipe, and Marcus expertly pushed the enemy blade aside, stepping next to the demon, and he used all the strength in his arms to hack the demons knee.
He could see bone splinter, and the demon fell over, Marcus jumped towards the head as the monster fell on its back, and brought his blade down one more time, splitting the demons skull open right between the eyes, and as blood and brains splattered upwards, Marcus saw a light, and heard a voice, a voice he recognized.

“Welcome once again, Marcus of the Cloud Central, to my domain.” The voice said, at once loud and soft, gentle and harsh.
“Why am I here, I didn’t die, did I?”
“No,” the goddess said, “You did not. You have slain an enemy none have ever survived before, a demon lord, and thus you shall be rewarded.”
“A demon lord?” Marcus had never even known that demon lords existed, Naea certainly hadn’t mentioned them.
“Demon lords are from before the voidlings time, this being you call ‘Naea’, she has never met one.”
“Why do you call her ‘voidling’? What is that?”
“Enough questions, my child, enjoy your gift.” The goddess said, her voice already starting to fade.
He wasn’t sure what to make of this, but she had mentioned drawing power from something called a ‘void-god’
“I pronounce you: Saint Marcus!” The goddess said as if from afar, just before the world returned.

When he looked up, he was surrounded by demons, he felt a rush of visions in mis mind, disorienting him, and Just when he thought he was lost, the tent shook, and a wave of water flushed it away from them, along with all the demons, and there she was, just in time.
Izzy commanded the water like Marcus had never seen a water mage do before. Her sapphires glowed brightly, and the demons were swept away.
However, just as fast as they were repelled, the next wave up, however, this allowed Marcus to link up with the white fields, and without saying a word, he swept around them, keeping demons away, as Izzy knelt down beside the kitty mage and started healing his wounds.
Outside, the battle raged on, but over the next two hours, Marcus swore he could see lighting flashing, something he would not have noticed before, but stood out clearly to him now. 
The demons numbers where slowly whittled down, and as they dropped in numbers, they died faster, and their own forces suffered fewer and fewer casualties.
At last, Marcus’ fight was over.
The army finished off the remaining demons, but Marcus rested, letting Izzy drench him in her water, warming him, and relaxing him, despite and healing all of the scratches and bruises he had sustained during the battle.

“You saved my life, Marcus of Cloud central.” The woman said, having approached him.
“Saving lives is his purpose and duty, as the king of Cloud,” Izzy said, still healing him.
“I heard you proclaimed yourself king, I even heard you preaching about the prophesy.” The woman said.
“Lady Sylvethia,” he started, nodding at her respectfully, “I trust I no longer have to prove anything to you, now you have seen them for yourself.” Marcus said tiredly.
“No, you do not, I… didn’t want to believe before.” She said, maintaining a regal posture. “But now, the goddess, I heard her voice, she pronounced you saint!” 
She was a grey haired woman, wrinkles marking her as a woman of great age. She wore an heir of authority, which wasn’t surprising, since she had been the chieftess of her tribe for many decades now, having been raised to her position of leadership at the ripe young age of nineteen, which was nearly fifty years ago now.
“So, will you follow me now, that you know the truth?” Marcus asked, ignoring the saint status he had just aquired, as he was still processing it himself. “I might just decide to overlook how you tried to have me killed.”
“Can you blame me, I got word of some young brute attempting to take over the world, and I decided to take appropriate measures to keep my people safe.”
“He isn’t a brute, and he was led by the prophesy, as you no doubt would have also gotten word of!” Izzy snapped at the older women.
“Don’t worry Izzy, it’s alright”, Marcus said, making a pacifying gesture towards his wife. “It matters little now, what I want to know is if you, at last, will take appropriate measures to keep your people safe once again, and join with me.”
Sylvethia inspected him thoughtfully, narrowing her eyes.
“We will see about that, I appreciate you saving my life, Marcus Demon Slayer, but I will have to discuss this with my advisers, those who are still alive, that is.”
“Of course, my lady,” Marcus said, “I suppose we could kill two birds with one stone, and invite your good neighbor Zardon as well, to discuss these matters, perhaps we will come to a mutual understanding in time for the rest of the demons to show up.”
“I hear my good friend Zardon is currently sieging down that old fart Eredan, he agreed with me that you were dangerous, and took matters into his own hands.”
“Who are you calling old?” Izzy muttered, eying the chieftess, who ignored her.
“Well, whatever he is doing, I will have to persuade him to stop, because it just so happened that Eredan is my father in law now, and I would hate if anything happened to him.”
“Yes, I can understand that, well, I’ll send for him, but I doubt he will want to meet here, perhaps we can go to the edge of my lands, at the border with his, where he will feel more comfortable, and I suggest leaving this giant army of yours behind somewhere, lest he get second thoughs, and decide not to show up, he isn’t exactly the most trusting person I know.”
Marcus nodded, “Thank you for your advice, my lady, lets make it quick, I’m afraid we may not have a lot of time.”

“Demon slayer, huh?” Izzy asked, smiling at him, “Got a nice ring to it.”
Marcus chuckled, “It sure sounds better than: King of Cloud Nation.”
She eyed him, “You are king, as well as a saint now, and that title suits you, but you are also the demon slayer, perhaps that old fart will let you forget it, but I’ll make sure everyone starts calling you that now.” She said, laughing.
Marcus smiled at her, his wife, “Perhaps we should call you demon slayer, I saw what you did out there, I might have saver her life, but you save all of ours with those water waves of yours.”
She shrugged, “It was nothing, I can’t be expected to just let the savior of cloud get killed in his first battle against the hordes of hell, can I? Not to mention the man I love?”
“No,” he said, “You cannot,” and he embraced her.