A Vengeful Path (Resumed)

Ch. 12 Demons Rising

"Who's that?" Asta asked, his voice quiet. "A high-ranking demon. A few levels below Lucifero but still way up there," Liebe answered, his voice shaky and his expression pained. "But how is he here?" Liebe asked himself. "How is another demon here? The Tree of Qliphoth hasn't opened-" Liebe started, then stopped. Even though Liebe was really pale already, he somehow got even paler. "What?" What is it?!" Asta exclaimed, standing up. "No. No, they need arcane mages with Dark and World Tree attributes," Liebe said to himself. He went even paler. "What?!" Asta shouted. Everyone looked away from the screen and up to Asta and Liebe. "What is it?" Noelle called up to them. Liebe dove toward the group, and they all gasped. "What are you-" Potrof started, reaching for his grimoire, but Liebe went past the guardians and went to Finral. "Boy! Send me to the Clover Kingdom!" he shouted. "W-w-what?" he stuttered, scared outof his mind that a demon was yelling at him. "Send me to the Golden Dawn!" he shouted again. 'Wait. What's at the Golden Dawn?" Klaus asked, becoming a bit suspicious. "What do you need from our base?" Yuno asked, putting his hand on his grimoire. "I don't have time for your suspicions. Finral! Now!" he shouted even louder. "O-okay! Okay!" he exclaimed, grabbing his grimoire. But Yuno pushed Finral's grimoire back into it's clothe. "First, tell us what you need,"Yuno said aggressively. "Bah! You're all fools!" he shouted. Yuno looked a little shocked, but then his expression turned to a glare. "You're the fool if you think we're gonna trust you just like that, devil," Yuno growled. "You idiot! Do you want everyone to die?!" he screamed. He drew the swords and everyone panicked for a moment, but he turned to Asta. "Let's go. We need to go back," he said. "Where do I go?" Asta asked, just going with the flow. "Where are you guys even going?" Gaja asked them, but Liebe ignored him. "Fly!" he exclaimed. Asta drew his katana and went into his black form, dashing towards the door and eventually taking off. "Clover Kingdom!" Liebe shouted, but Asta could barely hear him since they were going so fast. "Golden Dawn!" he thought he heard him shout. But whatever he said next was whipped away by the wind. But Asta knew that he was telling him to go to the Golden Dawn base. He didn't focus on whatever his brother said next and he focused on flying as fast as he could to keep up with Liebe. In the Heart Kingdom, everyone was still a bit shocked on their sudden leave. "What was that all about?" Klaus asked, bewildered. "Never mind them. We have to deal with Undine's clones going haywire," the queen announced, and everyone's attention returned to the screen. "We will split into the groups that you trained with, and you will head to the locations I assign you. The clones are okay to kill since they aren't actually life-forms. Once you clear your area, go to the next. Saving lives is the most important mission. Remember that," the queen said. "Yes, your majesty!" Everyone said in unison. "Perhaps it was for the best that the demons left before this mission," Potrof said. "I can't say that they would prioritize lives over killing," he continued. "I agree," Floga said. "We could've misjudged them before, but demons have killer instincts. They wouldn't bother saving the citizens." The queen just turned around and looked at them. "Don't talk about them when they aren't here to defend themselves," she scolded. "Our apologies, your majesty," they all said, bowing. "Break into your groups and prepare to move out. I will stay in the palace with Undine and use my kingdom magic to deal with things from afar," she announced, and everyone bowed before breaking into their groups and moved to their assigned positions. "Nero, Noelle. You two will be going with Leopold and Floga since you trained with me and Undine but we will be staying here," she said. "Got it," they both called back. Battles raged across the kingdom as the knights and the guardians exterminated all of Undine's clones. Luck, Klaus and Gaja had the least trouble since their affinities were effective against water. They powered through clone after clone, clearing each area with ease and making sure that everyone was safe. Everyone else did the same, but not as fast as they did. "Is everyone here okay?" Gaja asked the chief of the village that they just cleared. "The homes are severely damaged, but no one was hurt except for a few bruises and scratches," the chief responded. "Okay, that's good." Gaja turned to Luck and Klaus. "We'll be wrapping up here and returning to the palace shortly," he said to them. "Got it," they both said. "Aw. I wish Asta and Liebe saved us instead," Gaja heard someone say. It sounded like a child's voice, but he turned around and saw them in the corner of his eye. It was a little boy and girl, and their mom was talking to someone else. "Excuse me, children," Gaja said, walking up to them. "Oh! It's Spirit Guardian Gaja!" the little boy exclaimed. "Do you know where Asta and Liebe are?" he asked. "You know them?" Gaja responded, surprised. "Yeah!" who he assumed was his sister piped up. "They come to our village every day and play with us and help us do chores and carry heavy stuff and do a bunch of fun stuff with us!" she exclaimed. "Aren't you scared of them...?" he asked hesitantly. The children tilted their heads at him. "Why would we be?" the brother asked. "Because of his scary face?" Gaja hesitated. "Because he's..." he started, but the mother interrupted as she walked up to her children . "A demon?" she finished his sentence for him. "Well, yeah..." he trailed off. "They are demons, yes, but they have proven that they aren't dangerous to us through their actions. I may not know as much about demons, guardian, and I will never be as good as you are in magic, but we treated them with kindness, and they returned that with more kindness. And they get along really well with our children, so they are welcome here any time," the mother said. The words of the Magic Knight Leopold kept on replaying in his head. If you treat my rival with kindness, he'll return that with more kindness. "Have they visited other villages?" Gaja asked the woman. "I think they did. My relatives in the other villages always mention them helping them out, so I think they have. I'm not too sure." The woman took her kids and they waved goodbye to Gaja and walked towards a broken house. "No way that's true... right?" Gaja whispered to himself. Luck and Klaus were clearing up rubble when he returned to them. "We are almost ready to return to the palace," Klaus informed him. "Okay, got it," he said absent-mindely. They cleared some rubble as Gaja went around the village asking others if Asta and Liebe had recently visited it. The answers surprised him greatly. They sounded like they enjoyed it when they visited, and they asked when was the next time they were gonna come by. His jaw was on the floor by the time he returned again to Klaus and Luck. "All the villagers are accounted for, and we've cleared away a lot of rubble they wouldn't have been able to move on their own. They should be fine now in terms of heavy-lifting," Klaus reported. "We should get back to the palace," he said "Yeah..." Gaja half-answered, still bewildered by what he learned today. They were flying on Klaus' steel carriage thing, and they landed in the courtyard. As they got off, Klaus erased his carriage and they started walking towards the palace when they heard voices behind them. When they turned around, it was the other 4 guardians with the knights assigned to them. "How'd it go?" Gaja asked Floga. "It went alright," he responded. His mind seeemed to be somewhere else, so he asked Smurik. Same thing. All the guardians seemed to have something big on their minds, so he just shrugged it off and was planning to ask them about it at dinner. When they walked in, they were greeted by the queen and Undine. "Great work everyone!" she exclaimed as she smiled and waved at them. "To celebrate, let's have a feast tonight!" she said. Everyone cheered, and that seemed to lift Asta off of Gaja's mind. That is, until at the dining table the magic knights asked about him. "Are Asta and Liebe not back yet?" Mimosa asked. "No. They haven't returned since they left this morning," Loropechika said to her, nodding thoughtfully. "I think they were going to the Clover Kingdom, so it would take them quite a while to go there and return. "I heard the funniest things from the villagers that were under attack today," Potrof suddenly said as he was picking at his food. "They said that Asta and Liebe would go around and visit the villages, playing with the children and doing chores and stuff like that," he said. "You too?" Sarado spoke up. "The villagers I saved said the same thing," she said. "Even the ones that were with me," Floga said. "They said they would visit during the day and play with the children." Smurik looked a bit pale. "What about you, Smurik?" Gaja asked. "I heard the same from the villages I was at..." he mumbled. "Really?" Yuno asked the guardians. They all nodded, still keeping their eyes glued to their plates. Just then, Queen Loropechika looked up. "What is it, your majesty? Gaja asked, suddenly alert. He stood up and drew his grimoire, and the guardians and magic knights did the same. "Something just entered the border, and it was going, really, really, really, really, reeeeally fast," she responded, emphasizing on the "really." "What was it?" Klaus asked the queen. Loropechika opened her multiple screens and they all scanned each one. "...anything yet?!" they heard a voice shout. They all jumped. "Nothing!!" they heard a voice shout back. "Asta?"Nero said, suddenly looking through the screens even faster. "There!" Leopold exclaimed, pointing at a screen towards the top right corner. They saw two blurs of black and red, like Loropechika said, going really, really, really, really fast. "Keep searching!" they heard Liebe shout back. "What are they looking for?" Leopold asked curiously. "If we can't find him, protect the villagers!" Liebe said. They were all shocked to hear Liebe say this, but their attention returned to what he said first. "Who are they looking for?" Yuno asked again. As Loropechika was about to open her magic so Asta and Liebe could see them, they were shot out of the sky. "Asta!" Noelle exclaimed. "What was tha-" Klaus started, but was cut off by someone cackling through the screen. "Oh, Liebe. I wish we had killed you in the underworld," they heard the other person say. That is, until Loropechika adjusted her magic, and what they saw was not a person. It had two horns growing on its forehead. Hell-red wings that were jagged on the edges. A thick tail with a whip-thin end. Flames and smoke rising from its body. And it had an orange cross on its forehead. "Oh, hello, Liebe. It's been a while," it said. Liebe growled at whatever that thing was. "You. How are you here?" Liebe menacingly asked, but Liebe was scared of what he thought the answer to that was. "Is Liebe... scared?" Noelle asked slowly. "What?" the guardians said. "I'm not sure if I'm seeing things... but Liebe looks really, really scared of something," Noelle said again. Everyone's attention went to Liebe's face in the screen, and as they looked closer, they could see it. He was shaking, it could just be the lighting but he looked paler than normal, his usual scary face was replaced with a scared expression. "Oh my gosh he is!" Mimosa exclaimed. "Who would've thought that he could be scared of something..."Gaja muttered. "Wait," Leopold suddenly said, and everyone had their eyes on him. "If someone as scary and powerful as Liebe is scared of something... isn't that something pretty bad?!" he nearly shouted. It all clicked in everyone's head. "Oh no..." Noelle whispered, returning her eyes to the screen as the thing started talking again. "Ah. That's what it is," it's gravely voice said. "Unfortunately, I cannot confirm your worst nightmares. I did not come here through the Tree of Qliphoth," it said. At that moment, Liebe's face was relieved, and the menacing glare returned. "So it's this "Tree of Qliphoth thing that he's so afraid of," Klaus noted. "We'll find out more on that later. But right now, what should we do?" Yuno interrupted him. They heard more of that ominous laughter from the screen again. "Looks like you found your younger brother. Good for you!" its gravely voice said. "Now I can kill him in front of you, just like Lucifero did with your mom." Everyone was silent. "Their... mom...?" Leopold said slowly. "Is that why they want to kill the Dark Triad?" Yuno said, looking at his hands. "That's what their revenge is," Noelle whispered. "What?" Mimosa asked. "A few months ago, when Asta first came back, I heard him whisper something about revenge..." she trailed off. "But this... this is too harsh," she whispered again. "And after I kill your brother, I'll kill all those little guardians of this kingdom, then the villagers, then the magic knights, and everyone that you ever considered family. I couldn't kill you physically, but I'll still kill you other ways," the demon laughed hysterically. "I'll make you suffer until you wish you died in the underworld," he mocked Liebe. And through the screen, the guardians and the knights could see a single tear running down Liebe's face. "Like hell you will," he snarled. "What was that? I couldn't hear you!" the demon mocked again. If I die, the explosion that will be set off will blow this whole kingdom to bits. You can't win here!" the demon shouted again and began howling with laughter. Red and black lightning started sparking off of Asta and Liebe. Asta grabbed his katana and went into his Black Guardian. Liebe duel-wielded the Demon-Dweller and Demon-Destroyer. "We'll cut you down before you can blink," they both snarled. Noelle was about to say something, but Gaja interrupted her. "If you're about to say we should-go help him, then you're out of your mind," he said bluntly. "Wha-what are you talking about?" she asked, bewildered. "A demon that could get the jump on those two is way out of our league. Asta and Liebe have proven that they surpass us in strength, speed, and wits. We would prove to be useless and get in their way if we jump in now," Smurik said, understanding what Gaja was tacking on. "All we can do is pray and hope that they also surpass that demon out there, or this kingdom is doomed," Floga said. "We should try protecting the villagers at least," Klaus said. "Yes. We should do that!" Finral said. "That would be useful of us. Yes." Gaja looked at Loropechika for permission. "Of course. The lives of the people is our priority here. Leave that demon to Asta and Liebe. "Finral. Please teleport everyone to-" the queen started, but was cut off by the ground shaking. They all diverted their attention to the screens, and saw that the battle had begun.