The Riches of Power

They descend

POV Kaitlyn

Only a few minutes ago I had been balancing and swinging methodically, watching the tree line and glancing at my red haired boy, who waited only a little distance away. But now, I think as I slice through four creatures of different size, I'm slaughtering more demons than I thought could exist at a time. I knew it was my scythe doing the most of the calculations because I could barely make out the locations of the demons at times. I would swipe left, right, back and forth, spinning the blade in the direction of the enemies. The blood pooled around me, and sprinkled the air. Human blood was stereotyped to smell and taste metallic, but the smell of the black and sometimes green and purple blood that almost seemed to smell like rotten meat, rancid and gag worthy.

Thats when I catch a glimpse of him through the gaps of snarling demons and sprayed blood. He was cutting through one demon after another, but he was being surrounded, some were sneaking around and flanking him. He only barely missed deadly blows before dealing out his own. My heart started pounding loudly in my ears. I hadn't realized I was attempting to slice a path to him, but the ocean of demons seemed to thicken rather than thin, every set of demons that fell were replaced with almost double. I was growling in irritation and panic, it seemed as I watched from too far away that he was being suffocated by more and more slimly, scaly, scary monsters. I grit my teeth as I violently wade my blade through the demons bodies, at what I desperately hope was a faster speed than what I had been producing.

It wasn't much longer till I started to see the more demons, of the flying kind. I'm sure they were beginning to notice that the creatures that approached on foot met my blade too swiftly for their taste. There were gargoyles, that eerily resembled the statues found on old castles and manors. They even crumbled like stone when I swiped through them. There were a few more variations of winged monsters, some resembled the clawed bat humanoid that Victoria became at the cafe, and then there were smaller demons that cackled as they flew in hordes. They flew and swooped together almost like seagulls but had bodies almost like furry human toddlers, but their faces were things of nightmares contorted into menacing, otherworldly expressions. This is when I finally started acquiring my first wounds of the day. Every time I swung my scythe up above me in attempts to catch any unfortunate soul lacker, my torso was barraged with a swarm of the smaller demons, Leaving my armor and exposed skin ravaged with claw and and tiny bite marks. I tried not to think about the light throbbing I was now feeling, the adrenaline subduing my pain signals. I kept catching smaller and smaller breaks in the demons to catch half an eye full of him, sword still swinging relentlessly.

Everything in me was screaming and thrashing towards him. There was an empty pit forming in my stomach and dread started to fry my mind . I wasn't sure if my hands were trembling with how fast they kept moving. I kept looking around and I couldn't see him anymore, there were too many of them. Too many of them. Too many of them. I can't see him! I can't see his sword! I was ticking time bomb, I felt like I was going to explode with whatever energy it was that was surging inside of me.

I closed my eyes, and I forced my weapon to will to my desire, my choices. I could feel the energy in the scythe seem to become like static. The metal almost vibrating in my hand with uncertainty and the need to protect. I raised it up in those few seconds, and time seemed to slow down. I could make out the limbs and halved bodies of demons as they were falling into the pool of their brethren's ichor and remains. I could see the dozens of claws and bared teeth reaching out to me from all directions, and feel the razor blades of the teeth of the tiny flying creatures penetrate my soft skin, maybe even my muscle now, and tearing apart my leather armor. I could feel the fur of some of these tiny demons as they passed me by, and watched as the demons that remained on the ground raised their weapons, their axes, their swords, whips. Eyes of all colors and luminosities stared at me from above, and to the sides of me with hunger, determination, anger.


The energy in this long curved blade was now being yielded to my desire seemingly unwillingly, as if it didn't trust my judgment and calculations. Perhaps it shouldn't have, because what I had intended to simply be a sign of anger and a release of frustration had only luckily taken a better affect. With the blade raised I slammed it against the surface beneath me, and I think I heard the ground crack, but a wave of energy was formed. The blood that had started to slosh underfoot had created a large circle of force around me, and I watched as the surrounding demons either fell on their backs or were pushed back a foot because of the force. I breathed heavily, the demons around me silent for only a moment as I heaved in a few heavy breathes.

But they had started at me again, phased for only a few sweet seconds. I was not particularly in the mood for another onslaught. As they neared and I was beginning to panic again, my sword starting to buzz with energy again as I held it still. I started spinning in a circle in place Letting my scythe circle with me taking any incoming victims. Every creature who met my blade only found that their tails, feet, and paws were severed from the rest of their body. There were horrific screams of horror and rage beginning to crawl at my feet. I looked down to meet the eyes of a boar like woman whose skin was a thick and leathery red. Her nose was one of a pig's snout, and she had yellowed tusks, the right one was chipped. Her beady black eyes seethed through me, until my blade swept across her again, severing her torso from her lower half. then again as I spun in my deadly spiral cutting her torso into another half and finally her head. Pieces of her grew smaller and smaller as I spun the chunks of her flesh along with the meaty slop of other demons that endlessly barraged their bodies to my blade.

As I spun round and round my blade picked up more and more speed, pulsing energy into my feet. Slowly the blade began to rise around. Slowly it moved off the ground, my arms lifting it sluggishly to higher and higher heights. I gave a crazed scream as one of the flying sucubusses leather tails slashed across my face. its winged companions leaving me in stinging pain. The blade kept rising, still killing dozens every second. Eventually I was spinning so fast that the world around me was a blur, but I know the blade was still moving, now on its own accord. It wound itself higher and higher slowly, now spinning a little over my head. I had begun to realize that I was no longer feeling the constant gnawing of tiny flying teeth.

I had created a funnel of air, pushing enemies away from me and or rocketing them up. I heard a crack of energy as my scythe fell to the ground limply, I still held tightly to the handle still. A small tornado had been formed from my high speed spinning, and it had jumped up from the air and was now ravaging parts of the field, cutting clear paths through demons as it sucked them in and threw them back out dazed and sometimes dead. I found I had a clear path to Eric, his red hair still flopping around. He had caught a quick break. Many of the demons had taken a moment to stare at the funnel that was still roaming around aggressively. Eric took his opportunities and rammed his sword into as many distracted demons as he could. I was beside him in only a few moments and our movements synced together. He would occasionally jump off of my blade to have a better angle to decapitate two or three demons. I had, a few times, surprised the demons in front of him, by swinging off the blade of my scythe over his head and slicing across the space ahead. But right now we were back to back, rotating in place. I could feel the sweat drip from his hair or off his back onto mine, I'm sure whatever blood I was coated in now stained his gear too. As we continued to cut down one creature after the next, their flow and strength infinitely pouring from the pitch shadows of the forest, I saw them.

It was more like I heard them, the clink of their metal tendrils and their sharpening themselves as they made their way into the field. It was then when I heard the painfully familiar sound that I looked up as I split a triapse down the middle, its gushing blood spraying the night sky as I scanned the raving scene around me. I saw hints of glinting metal, I couldn't believe that there were such paths made for them in this mess. I was shocked when I caught a full glimpse of Vidon turning his fighting minions into bloody bits as he moved. They weren't afraid of killing their own. They were mowing them down as they navigated the battlefield. I bit my lower lip causing me to cough and gag at the little taste of demon blood. I was thankful for the whatever magic lay in my weapon. I would have already passed out or have died, which would really just be the same thing.

As I looked up, letting my scythe move at its own will, I turned my attention to the twins. They had finally met up in about the same spot and had unfurled themselves. As they sat on a few of their metal tendrils, allowing them to sit above most of the demons and get a view of the chaos. Vidon was simply watching with twitchy, anxious, anticipation for his brothers command. Vinidon was scanning the field with a purpose, he was searching for something specific. When his eyes had finally landed on me and our gaze locked, he let his pale thin lips curl into a sinister smile. I was too far away to make it out, but I knew it revealed its rotting teeth.

It wasnt long before he was racing towards me killing anything in its way. My mind was racing, with my heart. Why? What was the purpose of him obtaining me? My mind flashes at the painful memories of being chained to the cieling by my wrists, and his many blades slowly and deliberately piercing and scarring my soft flesh. I remember losing so much blood I would pass out  "I really am quite fond of you. Your so small, so fragile." He had said to me. My mind starting frantically creating scenarios of the possibilities he has been fantasizing. How he would torture me. The look on his face as he would cut into my skin, through my muscles and down to the bone. I watched as he continued barreling toward me. How long would I even live, in those scenarios? "I really am quite fond of you." these words started spinning in my head. " Your so small," Would he want to keep me alive. Or would he enjoy keeping me at the brink of death for many years. "So fragile."  I let out a yelp as his tendrils reached for me now. He wasted no time in his getting here, and was wasting no time in attempting to retrieve me. My scythe slashed at the metal bits in front of me, turning it into blunt scrap metal that melded into the mush of demons blood. I heard him snarl over the roaring of the stampede of demons.

But we were all halted, and forced into a few petrified moments. Everyone was, the demons, the angels, my friends and I. Our attention was drawn up to the sky by the sound of roaring thunder. What sounded almost like a loud fog horn was heard from the center of a swirling in the clouds. The wind had begun to pick up, making some trees bend and crack under the pressure, I struggled to keep on my feet. As the sky grew in its stormy tension their was a loud crack and a burst of light made its way form the swirl of clouds. A howl of wind was heard before we were met with a sonic wave caused by the opening of the gates of heaven. Everyone was off of their feet. Young trees were practically blown out of the forest, and  a wave of blood was created by the blast. From the crack of golden light in the sky came beautiful ancient creatures. Majestically they soared over the battle field, their wings glowing a rich gold before it faded and they descended down to the ground, landing so hard that they left small craters in their wake. They would fall down into a kneeling position, their head down against the hilt of their swords that were dug into the ground, before rising to their feet, you could see their eyes burning with fiery determination from any distance.