Tides Of Protomis CVII-

Crocell

It hadn't been long since the group had entered the demon realm, and they had already found themselves faced with an opponent who looked formidable. The demon who called himself the warrior god, though he may have had no small amount of pride, was clearly an opponent Arctaius had to be wary of.

“The moment he makes a move… I need to be ready to defend. I don’t know the extent of his abilities, but if he’s stronger than the ones we fought earlier, this could end up being a problem.”

The battle resumed as Crocell dropped his left leg, pushing his foot back and right foot forward, launching himself toward Arctaius, with the end of the blade facing the youth. But his target quickly acted, sidestepping the attempted jab and maneuvering behind him. Before Crocell could react, Arctaius’ vice grip grasped the back of the oni’s head. The youth applied force, making his opponent’s head slam into the ground, a crater created directly underneath as this took place. But the demon jumped up, removing Arctaius’ palm, as he got to his feet. This much was followed by yet another swing of the blade. Arctaius decided to step back, getting out of the way. But the demon quickly advanced, attempting to gain ground. Mirroring this action, the youth rushed forth, seemingly, going for yet another punch, an attack that Crocell was more than willing to return. But, he did not know the true nature of his opponent’s abilities. A bright flash emanated from Arctaius’ fist as a crack echoed from Crocell’s body, with his flesh began to burn, resulting from the plasma-surrounded fist that landed on his cheek.

“Solis Illisus(Strike)!”

Soon enough, the demon was sent flying, knocked off his feet, and continually kicking up dust as he skipped across the ground as if he were a stone on the water. But arctaius was not finished. Firing off one of his other favorite techniques, repeated pulses of plasma. He continually advanced closer as he did so, ensuring his attacks would do more damage. The battle was no doubt going well. If he kept pushing, then he could very well… Just then, Arctaius stopped his stream of attacks, leaping backward and disengaging as his eyes squinted with suspicion. Much to the surprise of the crowd of allies standing behind him. With Alarick especially, looking on with a sort of annoyance.

“What are you doing? You had him!” Alarick questioned. Jirou, one who’d known him for longer, put his hand on his chin. Apparently, even he was baffled by the action he’d chosen.

“That doesn't sound like something Corde, of all people, would do. Unless…”

Arctaius nodded, apparently guessing what went unsaid.

“My instincts and mind alike were giving me warning signs. Something isn’t right if I was able to do something like that THIS easily… Miyamoto wouldn’t have any reason to lie about the power this demon has.”

“That is indeed suspicious.” Liang noted.

His suspicions would soon be confirmed or denied, it seemed. Crocell finally stopped his backward flight, stomping his feet into the ground with a loud boom, as the ground was sent flying into the sky as chunks, a direct result of this… It seemed as if he’d been figured out, but it mattered not. That simply meant he would have a better fight.

“So… You’ve figured it out.” Levius commented from the sidelines.

Crocell said nothing more as he further compressed his demonic energy into the sword in his hand. The effects of which were shown shortly after, as the blade began to grow in length, with an audible hum. No sooner did he leap forth, with speed leagues ahead of where he was before, much to the surprise of Arctaius, who was not able to avoid nor fend off the next attack, a kick slammed into his side, and another in quick succession, that sent him flying into the air. The oni moved to follow and attempted to carve through Arctaius. This time, however, the youth adjusted for the change in speed. But another curve ball was thrown once more, and to his surprise, the sword-wielding demon’s hands and wrist rotated, significantly more than a human would be able to, and swiped in a different direction. The surprise change allowed him to leave a gash on Arctaius’ arm, but more importantly, throwing him off his game just enough for a follow-up. A left hook left an indent on his cheek, and an uppercut to his stomach sent Arctaius crashing into a massive spherical object in the sky, sending chunks outward, which, strangely enough, only slowly floated outward. Crocell followed in hot pursuit, entering the very same object. It was almost entirely dark, save for the small rays of light the hole emitted. But that was not a problem for Arctaius.

“What is this… I doubt that something like this occurs naturally.”

“Maybe in that realm of yours, it isn’t, but for ours, it’s a different story… With all the terrain that gets knocked out of place when the strong like me go into it, it goes up here…”

As they floated there, Arctaius began analyzing what could have led to the sphere’s formation, perhaps, looking for an advantage.

“I’m feeling a slight pull in that direction. Looks like the debris from our fight is being pulled as well. It must be something involving gravity... But not strong enough to matter... ”

Arctaius quickly resumed the battle between them, rushing the oni and slamming a fist into his cheek. But the latter grasped his arm, holding it in place, as he yanked it upward, exposing Arctaius’ torso. With no hesitation, an attempted swipe of his blade came next. But Arctaius would not let this happen. He managed to overpower Crocell, even if only for an instant, allowing him to draw himself backward, reducing what would have been a deep cut to something less damming. Golden light cloaked Arctaius as he raised his free hand, pointing the palm at the demon.

“Solis Battery!”

No sooner did large rays of solar energy fly out of this hand, which made Crocell release his grip and fly backward, narrowly dodging the red-hot streams and letting them rip apart the surrounding shell. Eventually, a smirk crawled onto the oni’s face as a rapidly growing sense of enjoyment built within him. This resulted in an audible, hearty laugh.

“Not bad. I may even say you’re starting to prove me wrong…”

While the two continued their engagement, the members of the invasion force watched from the ground below, looking above at the now cracked and broken sphere, now surrounded by the chunks forcefully ejected. Gilga scratched the back of his head as he whistled at this.

“Well… Wasn’t that something? You younglings are stronger than I thought…” Gilga commented. Alarick glanced at him as he spoke.

“What, were you expecting to see some weaklings struggling against everything here?”

“Well… Not Exactly” The thoughts running through his head were the opposite. He began to think back to his own past and compared it to the scene that was displayed in front of him.

“Man looks like the younger gen really is blowing past us. We were nowhere near that strong when we were their age. Though I’d think you’d know that already, Eh, Lyle.”

Part B

Artor, Ethines, 1974 CE.

In the middle of the Mediterranean was the island nation known as Ethines. Though conquered by the roman empire during its height, strangely enough, however, it did not speak their language. Instead, a strange form of the Gaulish language, brought inward by another invasion from the mainland, led by a proto-human now known as Adgennus, who created an empire there. Currently, it holds the only remaining speakers of this language. This state was made significant over the years, having become an essential link in the Mediterranean’s trade, which allowed the state to continually exist independently. Though, other factors are to be considered, such as their state-of-the-art military technology and a neutral stance in much of the world’s conflicts. The capital itself, Artor, was what was mostly paid attention to. After all, it had the largest population by far.

Whether they worked in the Factories in the city’s industrial districts, were foremen at said factories, or worked at the dock that exported these products, Ajaccio was called home by many people from different states. Among them were four young men who sat in a small room with two beds, a dorm at one of the local schools. The current occupants of this room were, indeed, the future members of the Holy order’s council. While sitting on the floor were Gilga, Lyle D’Chatuvthier, Fransisco Delgado, and Farid Shibani. From the looks of it, they all were just short of reaching 18. Their recent experience was nothing short of strange, but it had become somewhat routine by now. Strange, grotesque creatures seemingly exiting red voids and immediately attacking them. Despite not having proto-human abilities, all of them have strangely been able to summon weapons out of thin air.

This strange occurrence had brought these four boys, who formerly didn't even know of each other's existence, into a sort of group. After all, their teamwork was the only way they survived. Of course, they didn’t know what they were dealing with at all. But even so, there was a dilemma that all of them recognized.

“No matter how you look at it, Nobody’s gonna listen to us…” Lyle commented.

“Yeah, far as they’re concerned, whatever we tell them could just be from some proto-human playing around with life or just some kids looking for attention,” Farid responded. Fransisco sighed at this, acknowledging that they were correct.

“Only way we can really handle this is by taking things into our own hands. We know this isn’t protomis. It’s something else entirely.” By now, the one in the room who hadn’t said anything yet had finally decided to speak.

“Yeah… I don’t think we’re the only ones who encountered those beasts nor gained these powers.

So I say we form up with any we find, We be careful about who we trust- of course, but it would be good to increase our ranks.” As Gilga spoke, Francisco nodded in agreement, but the plan wasn’t perfect as he saw it. There were certain things they needed to fix before they tried to bring anyone else into their little operation.

“I agree, but how do we do it? We don’t even have a name for ourselves, Nor our enemies…. Kind of hard to get members when we don’t even have that in order.”

In response, Gilga laid back on the ground, putting his hands behind his head.

“Well, you’re not wrong…”

Farid said nothing, apparently, not having an idea either. But one among them, who always seemed to have an idea in such cases, did. Lyle sat there with his hand on his chin, looking directly forward, eyes closed. A name for the organization and the enemy they fought, what could he use in this case? He sat in silence for some more moments, unaware of the expecting glances that began to move toward him. Eventually, the man snapped as a bulb went alight in his head.

“Alright, I got it. We’ll call 'em demons!” Francisco raised an eyebrow as he heard this.

“Demons?”

"You can see the similarities, right? They were trying to eat us when they came out, right? It’s simple, and it makes sense.” Farid shrugged.

“Can’t really argue with that, but what do we call ourselves?”

This time, Gilga sat up, offering his own suggestion.

“We’ll keep the simple naming. We should call ourselves slayers. It’s the main thing we do, right?”

“Sounds good to me.” Lyle Agreed

“Fine with me too. ” Farid responded.

“Agreed, Let’s get moving.” Fransisco commented.

…

Four boys sitting in a dorm room simply deciding the names of creatures they didn’t know about and using powers they didn’t understand. And here these ones were, entering the realm they hadn’t even known existed at the time and fighting off demons of untold power. The same could be said for the order as well. The man stopped reminiscing, only letting out one last thought.

“Crazy how much that ragtag group has grown…”

As Gilga looked to the sky again, he took note of the fact that the shell the two warriors formerly battled in had been cut to many pieces, clearly a result of Crocell, who’d not only grown his blade but his own body as well. Thankfully, however, Arctaius had cleared the area, not unharmed, but still in the fight nonetheless.

“His demon energy output… It’s increasing.” This detail was not something Gilga liked… The oni himself had become jet black rather than his standard blue. A yellow gleam came from his eyes, and steam began to come out of his mouth as he breathed.

“Impressive... but I believe it is time to put an end to this.”

On the ground, cheers erupted from the demons following Crocell, with a smirk coming from the demon Levius himself.

“It looks like it's over now. Crocell is getting closer to his full power.”

To Be Continued