Crown

Zorelin Lentor-Zorelin Village

The man used the blood on his scythe to etch some kind of ritual circle onto the ground. It looked like something that should have taken some time but he moved so quickly, like he had done it a million times before. In a matter of seconds, it was complete. He crouched as if preparing to attack so everyone braced for it. It took them by surprise when the man took his scythe and rammed it into his own stomach. He seemed to relish in the pain. Sin looked to his side to see that Avarice was now on his knees, bleeding with a gaping wound in his stomach.

Sora and Sin rushed to his aid, trying their best to stop the bleeding. The man laughed.
"Don't take it personally. It's just that our Lord doesn't take kindly to heretics trespassing on his territory."

Nikiro took his eyes off of Avarice and looked at the man. "We'll never be able to beat him if he's immortal!"

The man repositioned his scythe at his heart, ready to impale himself once more. It began to glow blue and he tightened his grip on it. Tekina tried to use her telekinesis to pull it from his hands but his vice-like grip was far too strong. Nevertheless, it did manage to stall for time as he had to pull harder on his scythe. Tekina looked over at Nikiro to tell him to attack while the man was distracted but before he could move, a familiar portal opened up next to the man's head. It was small and nothing came out from it right away. The man turned towards the portal and stared at it in confusion.

"What the—"

Before he could complete the sentence a fist abruptly burst forth from the portal and planted itself right onto the man's face, sending him flying. The portal expanded and from it emerged a fuming Illya.

A wave of relief rushed over everyone when the spotted her. She calmly walked up to them and bent down, placing her hand on Avarice's wound. shi began to flutter around it and as it healed they disappeared. He heaved a sigh of relief as the pain disappeared along with the wound.

"What are you doing here? Is the baby okay?" Sora asked worriedly.

"Seimei is looking after her. She's been stabilized. I sensed something was wrong with Avarice...like a super dark magic kinda something. So I decided to pop by and see what it was. Looks like you ran into a rather undesirable fellow." She said, watching the man slowly pushed himself up.

Tekina was unable to mask her concerns as well. "Illya you had a baby not too long ago, and you were wounded very badly, are you sure you should be out and about like this?"

"It has been three days since then. I'm fine."

Sora and Tekina were unable to refute her. They knew she had a very fast healing rate and they knew she would be too stubborn to leave if they told her too, so they conceded.

"You know him?" Asked Nikiro.

"Yeah. I ran into him very briefly years ago. It wasn't here though. We were trying to kill the same Ifrit when we ran into each other."

"The hell is an Ifrit?" Sin asked.

"Giant centaur looking guys with a lion's head. That skull on the man's head is an Ifrit skull...of the Ifrit that I wanted to kill back then no doubt."

The man stumbled to his feet, eyes wide with hysteric rage. "Well well well, how kind of you to drop in Princess Crybaby." The man said, wiping some blood from his mouth.

"Wanna explain why you tried to slaughter my son?"

"They're trespassing and didn't want to listen when I told 'em to get out."

"You've lived this long and you still haven't learned the art of patience," Illya said, shaking her head.

The man straightened himself up and opened his arms. "Whatever. It doesn't matter now. I'm in the mood to kill something. So how about I do you the honour of letting you join my ritual!"

"Thanks but I think I'll have to pass. We didn't come here to play with your God. We're looking for someone."

"Not my problem."

The man launched himself at Illya. She effectively blocked his attack and sent a kick to his side that once again sent him flying. He bounced back right away this time. A tail swung down from behind Illya. It was long and the black scales shone whenever the sun hit it. She wrapped her tail around his waist when he got close enough and slammed him to the ground. He stabbed into her tail before she could let go. To prevent him from consuming the blood, she wrapped her tail around his body, covering his mouth. Her tail constricted around him, like a snake trying to kill its prey. What he hadn't anticipated was that he would open his mouth and take a bite of her tail. She yelped and used her tail to fling him across the beach.

A large chunk of her tail was missing. The man got up with that very chunk still in his mouth. Her tail regenerated but now he had consumed her blood. He created his ritual circle again and prepared to impale himself but as he swung the scythe down, Illya had summoned and thrown her lance at him. Just as he impaled his heart, the lance took off his head. The two of them stood motionless. His headless body was just as dead as hers which had a gaping hole where her heart should be. Within seconds, however, the both of them began to regenerate, his head finding its way back onto its body and her heart being healed in an instant. They were almost equal in their viciousness, stamina and regenerative power. So much so that as the others looked on, it was like they were witnessing a battle between two gods.

Illya inhaled sharply as her heart began to pump again. "We're not getting anywhere with this Hideki. Neither of us is going to win here and you know it."

Nikiro suddenly remembered why the man was so familiar to him. The name, the rituals, it was like a light went off in his head.

"I don't give a damn! I JUST WANT TO KILL!"

Hideki's sanity was long gone. As he charged at Illya once more, she was surprised when a blue barrier materialized in front of her. Nikiro ran up to her.

"WAIT!! It's me! Nikiro! I'm Kashino's boyfriend!"

The man halted his attack just as he shattered Nikiro's barrier.

"...Nikiro?" He mumbled. The way he tilted his head ever so slowly, truly was demonic.

"Yes. It's me," replied Nikiro.

The markings on Hideki's body began to vanish and his skin returned to normal. He lowered his scythe.

"Looks like you lucked out Princess Crybaby. If Nikiro wasn't my son's boyfriend I would have killed all of you." He turned around and began to walk into the village, gesturing for the rest of them to follow.

Illya sighed and patted Nikiro's back. "Yeah looks like it."

Nikiro smiled and they very cautiously followed him into the village. He turned around and extended his arms again as he walked backwards.

"Welcome to Zorelin Village."