RD 7 Ch 51 END (Patreon)

I stood up from where I had been crouched over the Demon King as he simply disappeared, dusting away into nothing as the system reclaimed what little strength I hadn't claimed from him. Though, I was true to my word from when I had fought him. I didn't keep all of the strength for myself; instead I fed much of it to those who had come to fight with me.

"It's done?" Ozzy asked, leaning against his weapon and watching on with an odd amusement as I returned from my soul.

"Not the whole thing, but this fragment is no more. After this one and the Amazon, he's going to be cautious. I'm not sure what his reaction will be," I said, staring down at the body, a strange sense of loss almost filling me as another piece of the Demon King fell. I didn’t know how many fragments he had at this strength, but I knew it was far more than two.

"Don't worry about it," Ozzy slapped me on the shoulder. "Revenge is always a little bittersweet."

"Yes, well… thank you, Ozzy," I said, looking up from what we'd done.

"No, thank you. I feel like I didn't do enough to earn my keep." Ozzy nodded towards the wrecked city and all of his people milling about. Once the demon king had swallowed the rest of the demons in the area it seemed they had lost out on much of the action.

"Identifying the problem and supporting us in getting rid of it is more than others have done."  I turned back to him.

"Man, I knew I was above average intelligence, but they're that stupid?" Ozzy asked, aghast.

I chuckled and shook my head. "Unbelievable, isn't it. Though many fall for honeyed words and honestly demons are good at it."

"Demons are good for no one," Ozzy said quickly.

"Yes, well, convincing other people that they need to act now and stop sitting by the sidelines can be hard. Especially when they are being manipulated by demons themselves.” I answered. Throughout history most people didn’t worry about the blaze until they personally felt the heat from the fire.

Ozzy nodded in understanding. "What will you do next?" he asked, and I looked back at all the Mul Branova and my ladies who had followed me into this battle.

"I think even demon hunters need a rest from time to time." I answered. I’d promised Simone a reward and she wanted a beach party.

"But you just had your break," Ozzy said, and I turned to him, surprised that he knew about it.

"Oh, please. I was catching up on everything I missed, and Bran Day stuck out like a sore thumb. Honestly, I'm disappointed I wasn't invited, but I suppose I can forgive you, given that I couldn't have even accepted in the first place.” He smiled.

“How about a portal between our two headquarters?" I offered him. "It would make coordination in a time of need that much quicker. That and I can invite you to the next Bran Day without too much fuss."

Ozzy paused and nodded in agreement. "Yes. And perhaps next time I'm trapped in a coffin, someone can come and get me fast enough to make a difference." He grinned, then laughed, as if it was a grand joke.

He seemed to be at least taking his imprisonment and release well enough if he could make jokes like that about it.

"Let's hope it never comes to that." I held my fist out, and Ozzy bumped it before I returned my gaze to the women around me. "Let's return and prepare for whatever counter the Demon King comes up with to slow us while he reamassess strength. I would be absolutely flabbergasted if, after both these events, he didn't come roaring out of whatever hole he's been hiding inside."

Simone watched me carefully and mouthed ‘beach day’.

I gave her a quick nod and she smiled before twirling and walking

"Of course, Lord Bran.” Many of the Mul Branova bowed to me then stood, fixing their robes and falling into line behind Simone. They moved together as if it were a long-practiced motion, and I legitimately wondered whether Simone had trained them to move in unison. Or maybe somewhere deep within the ritualistic worship she encouraged, this was somehow a natural human reaction.

***

Camden sat among the Heavenly Fist Sect in a pavilion high up in the Himalayas, clouds drifting below him, partially concealing his sect and the world, while he concentrated.

While he sat still, he suddenly felt the thread connecting him to one of his many clones snap like an overstretched rubber band. His jaw clenched, and the muscles at his temple pulsed.

He hissed again, his eyes opening. The calm, handsome man lost his composure for a second as his eyes flashed a bright, burning red, like two lit coals sat in his skull instead of eyes. His features warped for just a moment, becoming grotesquely demonic, before they clenched and all expression vanished as he returned to his far more handsome, human face.

“Completely gone,” he snarled. “Not even a trace left of this one, the same as the Amazon.”

His mind wandered briefly to who could have done it, and the unfortunate result was that he didn't think anyone in this world was capable of such an act. And that meant that he was currently underestimating someone, or there was someone present who shouldn't be on the board. Either way, the end result of what he needed to do was the same.

Camden stood from his cross-legged seat and pulled on the various threads that connected him to his clones scattered across the world. As he pulled, the smallest ones caved, collapsing wherever they were, only to be drawn across the world at his call. Some traveled physically; others were pulled from whatever mortal shell they'd been inhabiting. But what they had been doing wasn't important enough to not draw from their strength. He kept some of his more important ones in place, those that had vital roles and had been performing admirably. Four of them to be exact.

If there was one thing demons must do, it was continue to grow. When demons ceased growing, that was when they would inevitably die. And Camden had no desire to die here, or once this world connected to the greater universe and he was stacked up against greater demon contemporaries.

He needed to get this world tamed and under control before then, to have a world to call his own. He must sink his will into this world and harvest the powers that came with world domination. If he failed before too long, he would simply be consumed once he entered the wider universe. It was the fate of demons to climb upward, or to perish.

As he called back his strength from around the world, he opened his arms wide, reveling in the sensation of power flooding his limbs. His mind exploded with knowledge and potential as everything those fragments had been and could do was now a part of him. With a sudden understanding, his eyes burned red hot, and he leaned forward.

"I have allowed the humans to grow bolder while I focused on my growth. Regardless of who managed to snuff out the very souls of two of my clones, it does not change the fact that I must re-educate humanity of my dominance." Camden grinned as he floated upwards, and in a flash disappeared from his gazebo atop the peak of the mountain.

***

The Kailash clan rested in an oasis of paradise. White stone buildings dotted a dozen acres all sparkling like not a spec of dust touched them. Yet it all remained oddly still for its size, save for a few fabric shades rustling in the breeze.

Outside the main estate, servants covered the massive rolling fields, filled with workers who toiled away to ensure the paradise was never reliant on the rest of the world. They could only helplessly look up as a figure stood above them in the sky.

The man was walking on thin air, staring down at them from lofty heights. More than a few began to point up at the figure floating above them, though none of them seemed overly concerned, perhaps because people floating in the sky wasn't an unusual occurrence at the Kailash estate.

However, the fact that he didn't descend, and instead stood and stared down, disconcerted a few.

The wise ones, instead of immediately returning to work, paused and considered whether they should inform the masters they served. They would have been better off doing so, because in the next second the figure waved his hand.

Carnage swept over the fields, whether it be plants, animals or the workers they were shredded sending what little remained shooting into the air. This wave rolled over the hills and those who hadn’t already stopped working dropped their tools and sprinted with every last iota of strength in their bodies.

But it was too fast and consumed everything.

The fields had nothing left in them save for falling brown spray of indeterminate origin. Every human, animal and plant present perished. Like a blight sweeping upon the land, the figure reappeared in multiple spots, and each time, with a simple wave of his hand, wiped out every living being for miles, until his taunt was answered.

"Do you know whose land you're trespassing on?" A man who couldn't have been older than twenty appeared and stepped into the air to meet the Demon King.

The Demon King grinned. "Of course I do. I stand above the Kailash clan with the very purpose of greeting you."

The young man laughed and struck out at the Demon King, only to find the arm he'd swung no longer present on his shoulder. "What?" he stuttered. Those were his last words before another sweeping strike removed his head and sent it sailing through the air as a dozen more figures rose to challenge the Demon King.

He threw his head back with laughter. "Will Shiva not come out to greet me?" he mocked, and those who had appeared gritted their teeth in shame.

"You don't have the qualifications to call our ancestor." They told him.

Camden laughed, and was suddenly standing amongst the Kailash clan group, his hand plunged into one of their chests as he pulled out their still-beating heart and popped it like a grape in front of them all.

"I'm afraid it's you all who lack qualifications," he said, as they stared dumbfounded at the heart in front of them. "I will make you all scream until Shiva hears."

Camden grinned, as several of them scattered quickly.

***

Shiva arrived back at the sprawling palatial estate that his clan called home — only his home no longer looked the way it should. Everything was scorched, burnt, and torn apart.

The crown jewel of the space was a monolithic white building that had been cracked and peeled open.

His face settled into one that would give away absolutely nothing as he floated over the main building. It had been ripped and cracked open, much in the same way an anteater popped open an ant hill, and sitting at the center of the wreckage, encircled by the armor and weapons of his many descendants, sat a calm, handsome man sipping tea.

"Ah, you came." Camden looked up to meet Shiva's eyes.

"You said I had an hour," Shiva growled, looking at the destruction around him.

"Yes, well, they invited me in for snacks, and when I came to tell them I wanted them to eat, they denied me. It was terrible service. Who doesn’t serve a demon souls?" Camden shrugged, not even bothering to guard himself against the world's most powerful man standing not a stone's throw away.

"You truly have no fear of me," Shiva observed. There was something wrong here.

"And why should I fear you?" Camden said, not looking up from his tea. "Humanity's strongest," he said, with a laugh riddled with mockery. "Humans and demons cannot even be compared in the same sentence."

Shiva moved. One second he was standing in the sky, the next his palm was crashing into Camden's chest, sending the Demon King flying out the side of the building and crashing through the already wrecked remains of the clan.

"It seems you're all talk," Shiva said, standing proudly before the Demon King, his body beginning to glow with golden fire, ancient script rolling down both sides, his face shuddering as if five occupied the same space before settling on a single one fixed in a deep scowl. Shiva could not maintain this forever, but his blood was running hot enough that he would not hold back.

The Demon King had slaughtered his entire clan, this was not a time to test the waters and hide his strength.

"Die!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, and a massive seal slammed down atop Camden, where he had just begun to peel himself from the wreckage.

The Demon King managed to get his feet set and lift his hands to catch the massive seal, his arms braced against it and holding it off, for now.

Shiva was far from done. That the seal was set, might as well have been the beginning of the end. A lotus flower bloomed high in the sky and began twirling as it shed black petals. Each petal fell down upon the seal, stamping it into the ground as if each one were a meteor come to earth.

The Demon King shed his human facade, roaring into the sky as he was pinned under the seal, each petal striking it and sending a golden glow that burned the demon beneath it.

“You shall meet your end.” Shiva said, still floating in the air. “Your kind shall be purged from the world to restore order.”

The Demon King laughed even as his skin peeled and black demonic blood poured forth. “Wrong. Your kind will continue to be harvested. Really, this was a shame. I wasted so much potential by killing your clan, but there must be a response.” His eyes shone as he met Shiva’s.

It didn’t matter, each new petal hammered down onto the seal, with enough force to blow the earth beneath the Demon King away with each strike.

By the time the lotus flower was completely bare of petals, the seal was set in a mile-deep crater. Shiva floated down to see if he had successfully finished the job, lifting the seal and finding a crushed body underneath. Though a quick use of Inspect told him the Demon King was still alive, and he aimed to fix that shortly.

Shiva’s brow stretched and a third eye was born from his forehead, opening to the world to witness destruction.

"Demon, do you have any last words? I've spent my lifetime hunting your kind. That seal, and my power, was specifically meant to kill you and your ilk," Shiva said, a single hand raised in prayer in front of him.

“You didn’t do the Amazon, nor Africa.” The weakened Demon King said.

“Hmm?” Shiva paused himself. “What of those places?”

“You’re strong, but not strong enough for all of that.” The Demon King struggled back to his feet.

“Good, stand and be cut down.” Shiva’s eyes burned with destruction, but it never came to pass.

A hand appeared behind Shiva and blasted him into the side of the crater as another Camden melted out of thin air.

"Tricks," Shiva snarled, glancing down to see the one in the crater still present, only for a third, fourth and fifth to join the growing number of opponents.

"I see you've let your rage blind you. I am the Demon King, but I am an army unto myself," all of them said in unison, even the one crawling out with a ruined body.

Shiva squinted, and suddenly they all attacked at once, from every side. Shiva managed to block two, but a third hit his back hard enough to plow him back into the crater as they all stood in the air, hovering far above him.

A blast landed where he’d just been as Shiva shot back into the sky.

Shiva spun his third eye setting the world aflame as he destroyed a huge swath of land.

"Humanity's greatest hope," Camden mocked as all five circled him. "What I see is a failure who will never amount to much, clinging to long-gone hope. Hope is a drug that allows resistance, and your death will shatter humanity." Camden grinned, and all five of his bodies attacked at once.

Shiva might have been able to take one, but all five together was more than he could handle. His fist was blocked by one as another latched onto his legs.

Stuck a third slammed into his chest while a fourth grabbed his other arm.

Shiva strained and sent out a pulse of power that rung in the air like a struck gong, but the three holding him weathered it fine as the fifth appeared with fingers transformed into claws as they ripped out Shiva’s third eye.

“Die.” He promised as the one who’d struck him in the gut appeared sillouted by the sun and a massive blast came from the sky. It raged like seething purple hatred and boiled Shiva as it rocketed the last of his people to the crater below, blowing it out even further.

Four more such blasts joined the first and by the time they were all done the craters was several times larger than the one Shiva had made.

As the dust cleared, Shiva was still there, barely clinging to a thread of life.

"Why?" he eked out.

One of the Camdens floated down low enough to speak. “At the end of the day, even demons need cattle to feed. However, when the strongest bull attempts to break his fence, it is but a simple measure to remind him, and the entire herd, of their place." Camden stepped on Shiva's head and dug it into the crater even further.

Shiva reached up and grasped the ankle that was pinning him down, refusing to go without a fight, but two more of the Camdens went down and grabbed each of his arms, pulling them to either side. The one in the center laughed maniacally, put his boot on Shiva's throat and leaned forward one more time, finishing Shiva and removing his strength from the world.