The Lost Lord Ch. 27

The Lost Lord Ch. 27 - A Dramatic Finale

"Hum... Now that we're actually doing this, it is kind of hard to start."

"Yea, when it comes to encounters like these, I never like being in the initiative."

"..."

"..."

"As expected of this place."

"Yea, I've seemed to notice that ever since I came to this place, that conversations among demons of Lust seem to have some sort of innuendo to their sentences."

Two incubi who were mortal enemies both agreed on a seemingly trivial matter. Rainer and Arazra, two potential Lords of Lust shared an odd, yet friendly, conversation. They both clearly disliked each other and their personalities. Yet both of their personalities dictated that they at least be polite in their introductions towards each other. It was as if they were good friends, even if for only seconds. Sadly, those peaceful moments obviously couldn't last.

"Fine, I'll start off. Let's see your martial prowess..." Arazra said bluntly.

Arazra raised his fists and crouched low, sprinting at Rainer with haste. Normal eyes wouldn't be able to perceive this level of speed, which was normal to black and white demons.

Rainer, being much more than the average black demon, easily saw through and blocked Arazra's punch. Rainer retaliated with a punch of his own into Arazra's gut. It hit home, and forced Arazra back several steps.

With invisible smiles, both men engaged in a whirlwind of attacks. Nothing went unused: fists, feet, elbows, knees, and even foreheads were all used in attempts to hurt the other.

Rainer punched under Arazra's arm, rendering it immobile for a few seconds. He proceeded to send a solid straight kick into Arazra's chest. Arazra easily dodge and swept Rainer's legs from under him.

Falling flat on the ground, Rainer saw a hard bundle of knuckles dashing aside the air and aiming for his face.

Rainer prided himself on being quite flexible. And when he needed to, bones be damned, he could bend himself in painful ways if his life depended on it. Rainer, in the split second before Arazra's fist hit him, kicked the back of the demon's head with the tip of his shoe.

Bending his leg in a ninety degree angle hurt fairly badly, but the pain receded soon after as Rainer escaped from Arazra's grasp.

Rainer whipped his arm around like a frantic berserker. He allowed momentum to control the speed of his strikes, bringing about harder hits and swifter strikes. Arazra nimbly dodged the first few, but was forced to block the final whip, denting the flesh into a new bruise.

Arazra brought his hand low and sent a palm into Rainer's ribs, though with not nearly enough power to snap any of the bones. However, the strike was ample enough to disorient

Rainer and force him to acquire a deep breath of air. Arazra narrowed his eyes and sent a hard hitting fist into Rainer's face.

Rainer blocked that fist, mainly out of reflex, and pulled Arazra to him. He slammed his forehead into Arazra's cranium, sending both parties back several meters, clutching their heads in pain.

Rainer didn't waste a second in continuing the fight. He jumped at Arazra, spinning his leg around and hitting Arazra with his heel. Or so he thought.

Arazra stopped the kick with the back of his arm supported by the other. "Honestly... This is amazing." Arazra's words took a turn for the malicious, "However, you're still a lowly pretender to my throne, just die quickly."

The arm that supported Arazra's blocking arm formed a finger pistol and "fired". A small sharp icicle formed thanks to Arazra's magic and entered Rainer's chest. Ice cold pain slashed apart his brain thanks to the wound. The icicle pushed its way between the flesh and somehow managed not to destroy or damage anything vital, even so, it still hurt.

Blood seeped from his wound, but Rainer pulled through with his willpower as he pulled out the icicle with his bare hand. Putting the [Emperor] close to the wound, he whispered a short healing spell, which basically stopped the bleeding, not actually healed the wound. It was a known fact that full healing in battle never worked, considering the sensitivity of the flesh afterwards rendered it susceptible to wounds and excessive pain. Stopping the bleeding was the best option.

(I still can't use magic effectively in combat without the [Emperor] still... I guess if I want to use really powerful magic, I have to go into that mode again.) Rainer told himself through the pain.

"Damn, a miss." Arazra spit on the ground.

"And here I thought we could have a civil fight. Yet you had to go and use some magic. C'mon, shouldn't a lowly pretender be small fry to you? This is going to be easier than I thought..." Rainer fought back verbally as he grasped his wound.

It didn't hurt as much as Rainer expected, his demonic body seemed to reduce the pain when he wished it to. He was confident that he could last some more injuries, though he wished he knew just how many.

Arazra frowned and glowered, cold eyes focusing on Rainer's wound. "Impertinence... Magic is a completely normal occurrence in any fight. If we went on, I would show you how out of place that arrogant tone is towards the rightful Lord of Lust. However, I wish to get through this rather quickly. Enjoyment is not a part of my plan here."

Arazra raised his fingers from both hands, which seemed to glow an icy blue, next to each other. A large and potently sharp icicle formed and shot forth from his hands. As it was a very simple attack, Arazra used it in order to see how the pretender would react and defend.

Rainer stepped to the side, watching the path of the icicle as it flew past his eyes by only centimeters. He turned his gaze back towards Arazra, only to see a storm of more icicles racing towards him. (Shit, if I use the [Emperor] again, he'll surely know I've got some of Zazie's cards and how to counter them.)

Before he came, Rainer thoroughly thought about how the battle would go. It was a given only he could fight Arazra, considering the level of power the two black demons contained.

And the one thing that was common to all fights in the magic world is that they are unpredictable messes. It was nearly impossible to consider a meticulously thought out plan. So Rainer thought out loose strategies with Lauren. Rainer wasn't dumb, nor was Lauren, so both could easily decompile their knowledge pertaining to this fight. One of the results from this brainstorming session was that if Rainer used Zazie's cards too often, Arazra would take notice and counter them, somehow. Another results was that Rainer should only fight against Arazra using the same style of combat as Arazra, whether that be by fists, swords, magic, or even simple mental power.

'He's using a [Dominion] spell... Use me, I am of the same type as that spell.' A voice entered Rainer's mind, and his thoughts immediately focused on Asmodeus. Rainer called out the Grimoire, using a simple spell that required no special concentration from him, to his arms.

"I was wondering where that was, my father's... Grimoire." Arazra said with strange hesitance.

Rainer ignored Arazra's words and spoke to the presence residing in the Grimoire. 'Oi! Did you just speak to me now?'

Time seemed to halt as the presence in the book spoke to Rainer. 'Ah, so you're fighting my son now... Excuse me, but I have no wish to converse with you now.' The presence that Rainer felt in the Grimoire seemed to vanish from his mind.

'Use me.'

There it was again. It was definitely not Asmodeus. No, this new voice seemed a lot colder and icier... (Wait, that's it, I remember now. Yea, I'll use you all right!)

Determination poured into Rainer's eyes and mouth as he begun to chant with the [Emperor] in hand:

"Dominion: Ice

Ice, give me your burning cold.

Let me use your piercing points.

Grant me your frozen might.

Give me frost, give me dominion over ice by thy [Emperor]'s grace."

Rainer grabbed one of the icicles out of thin air and pulled it in two directions as if made of gum. Like he expected, the ice expanded into a thin shield of frozen water. As thin as it was, the shield was enough to stop each of the incoming icicles. Driven by instinct and the flow of battle, Rainer punched multiple spots in the shield. Each section he hit, sent a solid chunk of ice in the form of Rainer's fist, hurtling towards Arazra.

"I guess if I'm going to cast magic, I've got to do it in style." Rainer told himself, commenting on the fist shaped chunks of ice.

'Good, this time you actually had need of me.'

Because it was unexpected, Arazra was caught off guard initially and one of the ice chunks hit him square in the shoulder. Though a simple step of to the side, while grimacing, allowed the black demon to escape the paths of the other ice chunks.

Arazra couldn't help but be annoyed and spoke as he clutched his hurt shoulder, "Hrm, the bone is probably fractured. So you also know a [Dominion] spell? And of ice like I, that is... Hardly impressive."

"Is it supposed to be impressive? All I did was cast a simple spell. I don't see what you're fussing about. You hurt me with one, I did the same back, we're even." Rainer shrugged and ruffled his hair through his armor's hood.

"Boy, do you know why I don't wear armor and you do?"

"Odd question. No I don't, enlighten me my good chap."

"It is because I am a being above every single soul in this land, the Lord of Lust. None dares to attack me for fear of punishment, which I will dole out very harshly. You wear armor because you are afraid of being hurt, from being hurt by the weaklings that populated every war." Arazra spoke as if each of his words made perfect sense.

Rainer scrunched up his face and formed a confused expression. "I've seen presidents debate better than you. What the hell does that even mean? I wear armor because pain is a bitch. And I'm guessing you don't wear armor because of some delusional fantasy that you're better than everyone else. I'm going to prove to you that some "pretender" is a far better person than you and can kick your ass!" Rainer pointed his finger straight at Arazra's furious expression.

"Little wretch... Fine, I'll prove to you the real difference between you and I. Try to stop me from killing your little concubines." Arazra began to backtrack to Nerissa while watching his foe carefully.

Lauren, who was beside Nerissa, was blown away by a gust of wind from another one of Arazra's dominions. The black demon held up his arm, where the [World] lay in his hand, and wrapped Lauren in a new batch of stone tendrils.

Lauren was too restricted to make any use of her manticore blades, though she sawed one of the blades back and forth along one of the tendrils while Arazra walked backwards to her.

"Why don't you try to stop me from killing this witch? If you want to abandon her, go ahead, I'll at least make her death painless." Arazra said emotionlessly as he formed a sharp sword made of steel bone thanks to his third dominion. "Slow, but painless, that is how she'll go."

It was fairly obvious Arazra was egging him on, and it was working.

Rainer tossed some threatening words of his own at Arazra, "I don't care how you do it... But if you harm any single person here, I will kill you with everything I've got."

"Ohoh, so you have a backbone? Interesting, I wonder what you could even do that could possibly hope to kill me. Right now, I've three domains using [Dominion] spells. You can do only one, how pitiful. Annnnnnd a cut!" Arazra sliced the bone sword across Lauren's arm, leaving visible marks rippling with blood.

Lauren winced and screamed in her mind, she didn't want to give Rainer too much worry. Before, Rainer had turned into a vicious beast that simply slaughtered. If he turned back into that now, who knows how much damage he could do?

Rainer's eyes twitched, but he kept calm. He jumped and thrust a lance of ice that he formed, into Arazra.

However, Arazra simply raised his hand like a conductor and a spout of magma flowed from the ground, melting the ice before it could reach him. He then reinforced his own fist by steeling his bones and covering his hand in a sheet of flexible, though solid, ice and struck Rainer.

A solid hit on the side of his head forced Rainer to face plant on the ground very painfully.

"It was since the beginning that I knew you couldn't win. You're going against the Lord of Lust after all. It is only natural that those who go against me are forced to the ground." Arazra twisted his head, but continued to stare down at Rainer. "Now, watch me as I kill this witch."

"Do-don't you dare..." Rainer swallowed the bile in his throat as he spoke.

"In my caution, I once thought that your witch here would be a dangerous obstacle. And while I can certainly see that is far above the generic lot, it seems my concerns were for naught. What better way that to erase this annoyance than by doing it in front of the pretender?" Arazra kicked Rainer in the chest, sending him flying several meters away and stopping once he hit the opening's walls. "Well, I will at least give you the option between a slow or quick execution. Mind you, both can or might not be painful."

Those who could, watched with grim expressions on their faces as they continued to be restricted by the stone tendrils. Lauren herself glared venomously at Arazra, and if looks could kill, Arazra would be dead a hundred times over.

Rainer slowly pushed himself off the ground and said through hasty panting, "Neither."

"Oh?"

"I'm not done yet. As if I can let some sadistic freak, no offense Teras, like you be a damn lord!" Rainer shook his body all over and flung his arms around as if checking to see what limbs were still attached to his body.

"And what can a pretender like you do to a true lord?"

"You seem pretty proud of your [Dominion] spells there..."

"Yes, right now I am using three. Why, is it possible you can wield more than one dominion?" Arazra's curiosity was perked up and stopped him from carving up Lauren.

"Yea, I'm pretty sure I can." Rainer summoned up his courage and will and pulled out the [Emperor].

"I see, you are using one of Zazie's cards, like I am. Why, I bet she even trusted that you had enough power in you to stop me, how laughable."

Rainer then tried to chant the words for another [Dominion] spell he had memorized from the Grimoire. However, he found that he could not even utter a single word.

Even with the [Emperor] and the Grimoire, Rainer could not begin to weave a second [Dominion] spell to go along with his first.

Zazie, who was bent into a position that she could watch the entire ensemble, wanted to tell Rainer that it wouldn't work. Though her mouth was tightly bound by stone, so she could not.

The [Emperor], if used with the purpose of channeling magic, could only perpetuate a single spell at a time.

(Shit, why won't it work?) Rainer cursed in silence.

Arazra laughed, "HA! Wow! And to think I actually expected something. It turns out the only good you can do is in a fist fight! Right, I think I'll get back to killing the witch."

Arazra turned around with the bone sword in hand and slashed Lauren without hesitation.

(No! STOP!) But Rainer was wordless in his shock.

Arazra cut three more times on Lauren's limbs and torso until the pain and loss of blood forced her unconscious.

(I said... STOP!) Rainer tossed a nearby rock at Arazra's head, which only managed to shift his head upon impact.

"Ouch. Not really. All right, time for the Daughter of Pride. Now, I know you're the Pariah of Pride's daughter, but I simply cannot let you live for supporting this pretender."

Arazra walked over to Nerissa and before she could cry out, he stabbed the white demoness in her stomach. He twisted the sword and moved it around in the open wound, causing the girl to cry out in intense pain.

"You god damn bastard..." Rainer croaked hoarsely.

"God? You don't hear that name too often down here. Maybe I should kill him after I finish uniting the circles. We will need the human world as a farm for its souls." Arazra didn't even pay attention to what he was doing to Nerissa. He pulled out the sword and slashed it in the air, tossing Nerissa's blood on the ground. "Ah yes, the fallen angel. The circles haven't seen one of your kind fall from grace in quite a while."

"I'm... Going... To... Beat... You... Down..." Rainer fought to say every word, even though his body demanded he rest.

"Again with that nonsense. A pretender like you doesn't even have the right to raise their hand against me. And everyone here did, so I will kill each one of you personally.

Arazra walked to Aureal with seemingly long steps that pounded through everyone's eardrums like a gong. He stepped next to Aureal, whose wings and limbs were tightly bound by stone like everyone else.

-

"Azazel? If we are to interfere, now is the time."

"..."

"Azazel..."

"Look at that."

"Eh?"

"He's becoming something."

"The younger black demon is changing... What do you mean?"

"I've felt power similar to this before, similar to the previous Lord of Lust."

"Even so, he is about to kill Miss Aureal, should we not-"

"No, I'm going to gamble her survival on him. If she dies, then I will resign in disgrace because of my failure."

"Uhm, very well, Azazel."

-

Arazra raised the sword in a ritualistic manner and slashed it down on Aureal. The first strike connected, but when he raised his sword arm again, the black demon felt a tight grip on his wrist.

Arazra could see Rainer, glaring with eyes of malice. "As I said, I'm not going to let you win."

Rainer lifted Arazra into the air with no effort as the demon dangled in the air. In one fell swoop, Rainer easily tossed the older black demon into a wall with strength reminiscent of a titan.

"You wanted to play a game of magic, did you? Three... No, you can use five dominions. Let's see them now." Rainer's words were full of absolute order. To everyone, and Arazra was no exception, Rainer's words seemed to compel them and strike passion in their hearts.

Arazra, though confused, didn't falter and gathered anger into his voice. "You dare harm me? A RULER OF SIN? I am the eldest Son of Lust and the true Lord of Lust, not some WRETCHED PRETENDER LIKE YOU!"

Arazra chanted the spells in order to fully control his five dominions of magma, ice, bone, rubber, and wind. An odd combination, Arazra fully understood that, but he decided to go with the route of offensive and utility capabilities. When he used all five together, he was more than confident that nothing could stand against him.

"Five dominions, no one other can me has reached this height." Arazra declared arrogantly.

While it was true that virtually no one could cast up to five [Dominion] spells as easily as him, that didn't necessarily mean no one actually could, far from it.

Rainer seemed to have a new presence on the field, as if he towered over everyone by right. He could feel warm and explosive energy swerve through his own body, the limitless power of the [Asmodeus] persona.

"Only five... How pitiful. A true Ruler of Sin can outmatch you easily, as I will now demonstrate." Rainer didn't know where his confidence was coming from, but he knew he was correct and his words were law.

Rainer raised both hands and spread his fingers out. On each finger, from left to right, were ten glowing balls of magical substance: Fire, darkness, iron, wind, blood, ice, lightning, magma, sand, and even flesh.

Rainer showed off his true power given to him since his birth, what he was, albeit reluctantly, destined to wield since his beginning. Rainer wielded ten dominions.

Arazra attacked without even contemplating resistance from Rainer. He failed to notice the monster before him and slashed at Rainer with an arc of magic containing properties from all five of his dominions.