The Third Party - Chapter 48

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)

Everyone who looked at the ordeal right now felt all kinds of emotions, some had felt that they are losing hope -monsters- as they see their leaders getting thrashed, some felt stupid looking at the human clad in armor -mixture of friends and foe-, and annoyed -the demon vanguard-

The battle felt like at a standstill, the force of the magic power from earlier halting everyone, to stare and wonder at the dreadful pressure Ken exuded. Without wasting any second Ken lunged forward with incredible force, his figure a blur as his scythe collided with the demon’s blade.

With a swing from the bottom to the top with his scythe, Ken flung the demon upwards to a tree, destroying its top part, Ken smirked but it was covered by his black helmet, he jumped again to slash at the demon but the demon intercepted him mid-air.

A force blasted out from the collision of their blades pushing them backwards. The demon who, for a brief moment had wondered how this creature was able to become strong, when minutes ago he was weak than him, now it felt like they’re of the same strength.

‘Frozen World’ was to be blamed, it not only froze everything over, it also disorients the victim to think that after being released from the frozen state makes them think that their stasis state was only brief.

Besides that the demon vanguard still thinks that no one can equal against him, so he set aside the threat of this creature before him, and must execute it (Ken) on the spot.

“You, get out of my sight before I send you to oblivion.” The demon said pointing his sword at Ken.

“Is that really something you should be saying to someone who plunged you to the ground?” remarked Ken, leaned to the side with his arm resting on his hip for a brief moment and lunged forward aiming his scythe downwards.

The demon blocked the strike but it made the ground beneath him crack, as he sunk down, up to his knees. Ken back-flipped did a twist -as if he performed a dance move- which looked to be mesmerizing despite the armor,

But then he again lunged forward to stab the demon with the butt of his scythe on the chest sending the demon flying backwards five meters away, destroying even ground the demon was plunged in.

‘What the! What was that?!’ thought the demon as he recalled that he got stunned for a brief moment.

“Light Moon Magic: Cut of the Crescent Moon.” Ken swing his blade vertically and horizontally creating two silver arcs with black outlines colliding with the demon, but it did not stop there, for a magic circle the color of silver appeared below the demon’s frame.

It conjured mini arcs that bombarded the twelve foot frame of the demon, some directly struck under the demon, other arcs that did not hit the demon or those that were conjured at the edges turned around to seek and hit the demon.

His scream filled the air as if he was being tortured right from hell, as the spell went on to bombard him some more without giving him a chance to escape everyone started to wonder how this was possible, the demon slaves feared as to what would happen to their vanguard seeing as he’s unable to do anything on the situation.

But the one suffering the brunt of the spell couldn’t do anything as different types of emotions bombarded him, left and right, he felt himself succumbing to his internal turmoil at the assault of these measly silver arcs,

But it was his fault for not dodging at the last moment thinking that this silver magic could not harm him. While he was still screaming, suddenly, dark red energies flew into his form, those monsters that the wolves and lions were fighting suddenly turned to dust as their life force in the form of a dark red misty black orb was pulled into the screaming demon vanguard.

Almost half of the army even those at the back were killed on sight as their life force flew to the demon vanguard, three battalions are left and they were those that were stationed at the back.

The demon slaves weren’t spared as well, as ten of them died on the spot leaving only those essential for keeping the demon gate active, the dark energies created a semi sphere like dome of about a 10 meter radius.

Ken withdrew the magic circle to assess the situation.

‘Interesting, what could he be doing, the method is similar to those of using sacrifices to boost ones strength if the situation deems necessary so.’ Ken thought. ‘Not only that, monsters are still pouring out of the demon gate, and I cannot go and take care of it now, I’ll have to leave it to my friends for the meantime.’

“You shall pay for your insolence!” said the demon vanguard and emerged from the densely packed area of dark energies by bursting the sphere it had created. His body had more scaly like armor, with horns protruding at his shoulders, and even more prominent claws.

“Oh I’m sure you’re the one who will be paying anything around here.” rebutted Ken, making the demon even more annoyed, but before he could attack, Ken was onto him as he blinked at the demon’s side, and struck.

Everyone stared in shock as they all had felt the increased power of the demon through all those sacrifice, but what left everyone even more shocked and in disbelief was Ken did not stop there, he struck another four times with the last one sending the demon flying on the opposite again with his face as the last part of his body being struck.

This guy plays dirty, everyone thought. His friends who had already understood what Ken’s actions meant can’t help but sigh in distress, Glen and Wilbert whom were asked to help out Ken, felt out of place as the two watched as Ken had personally dealt with the matter.

But this was only the initial phase, for as Ken had explained they had to get as much information as they can on the enemy before calling out an all in.

The demon who had enough of the beating back-flipped to gather his bearings and dashed forward thrusting his sword towards Ken, Ken received the attack with his scythe to defend himself.

Ken got pushed from the collision relatively away from his initial position and into some trees, but he flipped his body mid-air facing the trees and used his scythe as a hook on the trees to propel him back.

Upon flying back the demon met him halfway and the two clashed in mid-air propelling one another the opposite direction, again. The two landed on the ground and dashed simultaneously at one another to engage in a sword fight, or weapon fight, or a scythe versus sword fight, oh you get the point.

The demon who thought that he would have the advantage at someone who is using a long weapon against his averagely short one was greatly disappointed as Ken had not only followed on his sword art but also with his speed.

The demon could not fathom how an individual is able to keep up with his speed by just twirling the scythe, what’s even more audacious is the fact that he hasn’t land a single hit on this creature clad in dark armor, coupled with the fact that he had sustained some.

Whether it be through sudden downward strike, dragging motion, or graze of the blade, making the demon even more frustrated with himself, while in truth Ken had casted mind domination on the demon, although it may not have any effect the stacking debuff of his passive was downright stupid,

Hence this seemingly one-sided fight. Out of frustration the demon resorted to outright unleashing all of his power turning his already scary aura into that of despair, his figure now exude a very clear black red aura rising from his body,

His blade had lengthened about a fourth of the blade’s original length, he unleashed a darkness wave striking everyone in an eighty meter radius sending them flying everywhere, Ken did not fare any better, but still isn’t fazed.

Ken rose from lying on the back position, observed his surroundings, found that everyone was inflicted by the corroding effect of the dark red energy as traces of it could be seen on their bodies, even the monsters weren’t spared.

“Healing Magic: Cure.” ‘Manual Input: target corrosive properties of allies’ a pale wave of green and white color burst forth from Ken’s position and affected everyone erasing all trace of the corrosive dark red energy on everyone’s body -but he did not cure the ones on the monsters-.

He was able to create this new healing spell due to observing the effects of the corrosive effect of the dark red energies those demons are able to use, and this was all possible due to concept, the ‘concept of observation’

The demon stared in disbelief -again- at the seemingly endless spells this creature is able to use. Not only that, curing their corrosive properties was close to impossible, unless you’ve grown a certain affinity or immunity to it.

“You! How are you able to cure my power?!” said the demon.

“That’s a secret.” replied in a mocking tone with matching forefinger on his mouth, or in this case in front of his helmet, where his mouth should be.

“*ROAR!!!*” the demon dashed forward in blind rage not caring anymore of his purpose, as long as he could kill this arrogant creature before him, he’d be more than satisfied to do so.

Ken smirked as he took off his helmet, the demon caught on to the sight for a brief moment before it turned into a somewhat sweet smile, but he was too caught up in his rage to notice that something was wrong, that smile definitely indicated that something was wrong,

And when he noticed the glint on Ken’s eyes while smiling sweetly, he, for what felt like thousands of years, felt a shiver run down his spine.

“Dark Moon Magic: Labyrinth of the Dark Moon.” casted Ken, two black magic circles with silver edges the radius of 20 meters appeared above and below the demon catching him in mid-air.

The spell summoned dark bindings that caught the demon on both circles then a dark like tentacle substances slithered through the bindings but did not assault or bind themselves on the demon,

Instead the tentacles summoned nightmares on the demons mind, sending him in through more turmoil than before, disorienting him, what felt like forever to the demon only happened in mere seconds, the bindings disappeared just as fast as they appeared.

The demon who felt that his head is splitting into two, was now in complete blind-rage as he summoned wave after wave of dark energies through every downward strike of his blade in front of him.

‘Shit, I think I made things worse.” Ken thought, lucky for him there wasn’t much allies on his side, but soon noticed that there where those scattered at the edges near the trajectory of the waves.

He blinked near them and teleported them away to safety, about 40 of them. On the last one he had teleported away, the demon suddenly appeared in front of him, sword ready to strike, Ken dodged by the length of his hair to the side.

He outstretched his hand touching the armored abdomen of the demon and summoned raw mana pushing the assailant away. He flipped to the side to regain his bearings and assessed for a split second then made the decision to circle the enemy.

The demon looked at him, roared in a feral voice, then dashed towards Ken, Ken abruptly stopped to parry the strike against’ him, but it sent him flying backwards, if he had not used death moon form, by now he would be a bloody mess with all the flying and stuff.

Ken flipped in mid-air, threw his scythe at the demon, to which the demon dodged effortlessly and closed in on Ken, he should tremble as he does now have any more means of protecting himself but he just smirked at the demon, infuriating the demon further.

The demon struck sideways hitting Ken square on the abdomen drawing blood, but what seemed to be reality, distorted to reveal that the creature he had slashed down finally was only an illusion, an almost identical illusion.

The demon found out that it wasn’t only an illusion but a copy of the creature, and when he looked around, he found behind him, Ken floating in mid-air about to land on the ground, but Ken shouted…

“Everyone, Now!” Ken shouted.

“Earth Magic: Earthshaker!” shouted Glen as the earth beneath the demon shook as he fell down, but it didn’t harm him, it only created an upside down dome of a 50 meter radius with the demon as the center,

Simultaneously thirteen different magic circles appeared at every direction on the demon, each magic circle compromising of Ken’s friends and the new people.

Allen, Princess Lang, Lila, Saber, Celine, Riyah, Icarus, Flin, Coralia, Trunk, Raze, Cloud, and Rain, had silently positioned themselves on every possible direction the demon vanguard would take, while Glen and Wilbert incapacitated the ten demon slaves with Wilbert’s light magic.

Before all magic from each type of magic circle fired off a beam of condensed elemental energy Ken had blink into the air holding Wilbert by the waist, the magic circles fired simultaneously not giving the demon time to retaliate,

Hitting him head on with various elements ranging from the basic to more complex ones such as time, and psychic in the form of waves.

The demon screamed in anguish as he realized that all those back and forth of spells and attacks was orchestrated by that creature to corner him into this situation, but he doesn’t want to go down without taking anyone from their team.

In a last effort of retaliation, the demon summoned forth a dark red magic circle the radius of twenty meters above him and fired of a dark red beam at Ken and Wilbert. Everyone who did not expect the demon to retaliate in such a fashion,

And fast paced at that, was left in awe-struck, unable to do anything as the beam struck both Ken and Wilbert.

Their magic circles faded, their frames trembling at the sudden assault, the demon cackled lightly, until it gradually turned into a full blown laugh as he continued to fire off every last bit of his energies into the beam upwards,

Finishing in twice the size the beam had fired, his cackles still rang through the still atmosphere, the beam seized but there…

He found…

The creature he hated the most upon his arrival here…

TO BE COVERED IN SOME KIND OF PROTECTIVE LIGHT BUBBLE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Inside was Ken without his Death Moon Form, but his eyes shone a silver light, and his hair had also turned silver fluttering in the air, alongside him was Wilbert, unscathed, slowly opening his eyes.

“You can finish him now Wilbert.” said Ken casually, Wilbert hesitated for a second, unbelieving of him surviving that blast earlier, but nonetheless he conjured a magic circle below them the radius of twenty five meters and chanted…

“Light Magic: Light Judgment!” the magic circle summoned a large light sword below them that immediately pierced the demon vanguard, ending its life then and there, before the demon lost consciousness and succumbed to death, he could not believe that he would be defeated in this world, by those measly creatures.

The sword severed him in two before disintegrating him completely, at that, Wilbert’s magic circle ceased and everyone was at a standstill, even the army at the back along with the demon slaves and the ones still pouring out of the demon gate were stunned in place.

For they could not believe that one of their demon vanguards was defeated by the inhabitants of this world. The beasts rejoiced in a loud voice, cheers of victory rang around the field as everyone all but screamed at the top of their lungs.

But their victory was interrupted when a blast occurred near the demon gate, everyone stared in silence.

“You guys think it’s all over? Hellooo, the demon gate’s still not closed.” remarked Ken followed by the returning of his hair color and eyes. He blinked at the demon slaves and chanted…

“Arcane Magic: Arcane Onslaught!” purple blueish magic circles a total of twenty appeared in front of Ken and on the air, the magic circles each conjured purple blueish explosions that further incapacitated the demon slaves.

Ken thinks that he should not let a single one of them retaliate, for if he lets his guard down, then he’s sure these twisted creatures will do something fishy behind their back.

“Everyone take care of the rest of the monsters!” said Ken, the vigor and energy returned to everyone as they all but slaughtered the remaining disoriented monsters from the back.

Surprisingly, no more monsters poured out of the demon gate making their tasks all the more easier, as they all but showed their prowess.

The mountain lion army tore through a battalion with their manipulation of earth, conjuring several earth spears, impaling werewolves and ogres alike.

While the lava and esper wolves massacred another battalion with a variety of fire spells that burned the monsters alive or to a crisp, and psychic spells that tore them from the inside out or made them fight one another.

The last battalion was wiped out by the effort of Ken’s group assisted by the Lion King, and the two alphas, soon enough the battlefield had slowed to a stop, only the demon gate remains.

The group of Ken along with the leaders gathered near Ken at the demon gate, there were no more monsters to fight and kill, only the destruction left in its wake.

“Although we should wait for the demon gate to close on its own as we were told, I have found a way to close it forcefully.” said Ken.

“What?” -Raze-

“How?” -Rain and Cloud-

Apart from these three everyone as well was shocked of the news, but then again, why would they be shocked if their friend is such a weird one, thought of Ken’s friends.

“I just found out about it recently, and to do that, we have to kill those twisted creatures.” Ken pointed at the unmoving demon slaves. The group understood albeit reluctantly.

“Will you please do the honor Wilbert and wipe them out with your light magic?” said Ken. Wilbert stared at him in reluctance.

“You don’t need to worry about killing them, for they are not human like us, they are still monsters.” explained but not in an oppressing or offending, nor hasty tone.

“Uh, that helps too, but… how did you know light magic could kill them?” asked Wilbert.

“Oh, it’s because I killed one, or maybe many, with my light moon magic.” said Ken. Wilbert nodded in understanding. “You can either cast a spell that can incinerate them or kill them as long as it’s a light spell, like what I instructed you to do on that one creature earlier.”

“Then, here goes. Light Magic: Light Ray.” Wilbert summoned a magic circle and burst forth a light beam, the same beam he used earlier, hitting all ten demon slaves, disintegrating them on the spot.

The demon gates energies turned unstable as the demons that constantly fed it with energy had died made it close earlier, it wasn’t able to drag any corpse back to the demon world but it was able to drag in the residue dark energies from the fallen corpses of monsters.

Soon after, the sky returned to its original color, and the battle had finally ended. Everyone rejoiced finally as the fight was over, so too all their worries dissipated, but they cannot forget the fact that they also had fallen warriors.

They swore in silence that they will honor their death as they had done in the past, for they lost good soldiers, comrades, a friend, the beasts wept upon recognition of this fact and slowly but surely came to look for their companions.

Others found them either cold dead as they wept hard beside their bodies, others rolled, pounced, or rub themselves on one another for surviving this ordeal, Ken watched at the scenery and felt warmth in his heart.

At least he was able to save the majority of everyone, he thought to himself. He turned to his friend, Wilbert, and observed at his empty eyes.

“Do you feel conflicted?” Ken asked. Wilbert looked at him, but bowed his head after.

“Yeah, now that it dawned on me, I had killed them with my own hands.” said Wilbert, looking at his hands, clenched them.

“I know I always say that we can discuss this later, but I’ll give you an initial part of my thought.” Wilbert raised his head, tears threatening to fall down his eyes.

“Those were beasts that seek to harm everyone dear to us, and there is no harm or immoral about protecting ourselves and the people we love by retaliating and taking their lives.” Ken approached him and held Wilbert’s face with both hands.

“So don’t be too hard on yourself about this, but it’s okay to cry thought.” Wilbert chuckled lightly at Ken’s attempt at lightening up the mood and hugged him, Celine joined in on the hug, and soon after everyone was in a group hug, consoling one another and finally celebrating their win.

‘Wow, I guess, hugging became a norm to you guys now.’ -White-

‘Right. But I’m not complaining.’ replied Ken as he watched as his companions talk with one another happily. Finally, it is done, he thought.

‘Ehem, aren’t you forgetting something?’ -White-

‘What?’ -Ken-

‘The other gate.’ -White-

‘Oh (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)’ -Ken-

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