Of Angels and Demons: A New Generation

Cracking the Tablet

Moxi walks up beside me and taps the white stone. "This is a very hard to break rock, I've been attempting to for almost an hour." Moxi says as I laugh. "Well at this rate we're never getting out of here." I say jokingly as Moxi sighs and punches the stone again. A soft cracking sound rattles the room as Moxi looks at his broken hand. "So, my idea, let's take turns hitting it. It gives the other person enough time to heal before hitting it again." I say as Moxi laughs. "If we don't get stronger, we won't be able to break it. My idea, lets spar in this room until we get strong enough to break the tablet. Remember, demons and angels are said to grow stronger through continuous fighting." Moxi says as I nod. "That makes sense. So, we'll just spar like we used too?" I ask as he nods. We both take off our shirts and put our fists together. Hit right fist to my left, and my right to his left. "Now." We say at the same time as we both jump back. We stare at each other, anxiously waiting for the other to move. As I blink, I see him run towards me. I dash to his left, then jump toward him. Not knowing how much stronger I've become from simply unlocking the demon powers, I accidentally jump over him. He quickly grabs my ankle in mid-air and pulls me towards him. As I look down, while still in the air, I see his foot coming towards my face. I quickly grab his ankle with both my hands and twist it backwards. I hear him gasp in pain as I kick him in the face and fall to the floor. As I roll to me feet, I see his ankle rotate back around and heal. "Demons and angels sure do heal quickly. No wonder they are so much more dangerous than a human, even for a weak one." I say as Moxi stands up and sighs. He quickly runs toward me once more as I smile and throw a punch towards him. He slides under and past and punch and wraps his arms around me, under my left arm and over my right shoulder, then sweeps my legs and slams me to the ground. As I hit the ground and blink, I see him punching towards my face. I tilt my head to the side as he punches the ground and breaks his hand. As he once more cringes slightly in pain, I slide my legs up and wrap them around his head. I quickly do a hand stand and slam his head into the ground. I then lean back and sit on him and out my fingers to his throat. I see he looks a little dazed and stunned from my attack. "That should be match." I say as I stand up and offer my hand. Moxi quickly grabs my wrist as I grab his and help him up. "We're definitely stronger than we were when we first got to this mansion." Moxi says with a slight sigh. "But we are still very weak compared to some people, and I feel it'll be that way for a long time." Moxi says as I laugh. "I'll disagree with that, I think we'll surpass quite a few people." I say with a smile. "But first, before we can go fighting gods and demons, we need to beat this rock." I mumble as Moxi laughs. "Sad to say I think we would have an easier time with most demons and angels than this rock." Moxi says as I walk over to the rock and inspect it. I feel the smoothness of the tall and thin stone tablet. "Part of me thinks we won't be able to break this." I say as Moxi walks over to me and touches the stone. The stone has an odd feeling to it, almost a vibration or hum about it. I quickly punch it with my right hand while still touching it with my left. As my fist hits the stone and breaks, Moxi and I look at each other. "It's channeling energy to stop impacts, so if we can hit it in multiple areas at once, we could spread its energy thin, right? It felt like a normal rock whenever you punched it." Moxi states as I quickly punch it with both hands. My right-hand hits it a split second earlier than my left, but my right-hand breaks yet my left does not. The pain still shoots through my hand, but knowing it'll be fine in a few seconds, I ignore the pain. "It's almost like it makes an exact counter to the force I output when I hit it. Almost like I was punching my own fist." I say as Moxi closes his eyes and starts thinking. "So, all we need to do is thin out the energy in it so we can overpower it. So, we just need to keep hitting it from opposite sides as fast and hard as we can? Seems a little brutish to me, but whatever works I guess." Moxi says as he gets on the other side of the stone. "Just start hitting it and do not let up." Moxi says as I nod and ready my fists. "Now." Moxi and I say in unison as we both start punching the tablet as hard and as fast as we can. My left-hand breaks on the first hit, but my right hand doesn't. Not being able to fight through the pain complete, I hit it with my left elbow and right fist. After several seconds of hitting it my right-hand breaks, but my left hand is healed enough to switch to my left-hand and right elbow. Moxi and I grunt in pain as we continue this pattern for almost a full minute before a small chip of the tablet cracks and falls out. As it cracks and chips, Moxi and I stop. We both breath heavily as the door opens. As we look over, we see one of Sheeva's maids walk in. "This tablet is now useless, I was asked to dispose of it if you succeeded in breaking it." The maid says as she puts her hand against the tablet and closes her eyes. She swiftly punches a hole through the tablet then opens up her palm. The tablet crushes down and forms a solid, perfectly spherical white orb in her hand. "Wait, are you stronger than Sheeva?" I ask as she looks at me. "By no means or lengths can I even compare to Sheeva. Why would she waste time destroying a level 1 tablet? She can already destroy a level 10 tablet, which is the strongest the DAHC has been able to construct." The maid says as Moxi speaks up. "How much harder is a level 10 than a level 1?" Moxi asks as the maid walks towards the door. "Each new level is around 20 times harder than the previous. So basic math places level 10 at around five hundred billion times stronger than what you just managed to crack. But that is my mistress's absolute limit, she collapses afterwards." The maid says as she walks out. "Sheeva is terrifying." Moxi and I say.