Act 1 - Unexpected Meeting
"Mm... how do I do that again?"
"What's up Ren?"
Another morning had came to the Crescent Mountains. It was quite early with the sun barely rising up from the horizon. Ren, Karis, and Kurumi were all wide awake as they prepare for their oncoming expedition.
The two girls were both packing the necessary supplies such as food, water, and some blankets in case their expedition should last for several days. As the two were busy with their task, Ren seemed to be having difficulty with something, despite not actually not doing anything at first glance. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor with his eyes close, and his arms folded in front of his chest.
Karis curiously came over to check what he was doing.
"Hey, Ren. What's wrong?" she asked.
"I'm trying to do that thing again where I could teleport at a place without using my portals. I used it back when I returned from the western archipelago, although I don't exactly remember how I did it since I was still out of my mind back then," Ren explained, recalling the events that he was talking about.
"Oh right! I remember! You suddenly appeared out of thin air!" Kurumi said, supporting Ren's claim.
"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do so that we don't have to spend much time travelling over to the previously occupied territory of the demons."
"Maybe it works like your portal in which you have to go to that place first before you can teleport freely," Karis suggested.
"No, I'm actually trying to teleport just to the Nexus as a test run but I'm not getting anything. I'm going to try for some more, in the meantime Karis, can you go grab your brother's remains from the room," Ren replied.
"Got it."
Following her husband's request, Karis left the area and began walking to the stairway. She headed upstairs, and went straight to their room.
Set aside on one of the far corners of the room was the fallen demon lord's blade, wrapped in a long cloth to fasten the ashes of its owner onto it. As requested by her brother, Damian, this blade was to be embedded into the soil of the demon realm where their parents were buried. It shall soon meet its end along with the impending doom of the demon world.
Karis went to pick up the blade, handling it with utmost care as respect to her late brother. She carried the blade in front of her, and slowly walked back towards the staircase.
"We're going now, onii-sama," she whispered to the blade.
Upon returning downstairs, she noticed that Kurumi was somehow on her own now. Ren was nowhere to be seen from his previous position.
"Where's Ren?" Karis asked.
"I don't know, I just turned around for a second, and when I looked at him he was gone," Kurumi answered.
"Did he succeed?"
"Probably."
Just as the two were conversing, out of nowhere, Ren had reappeared in his previous position, now standing up.
"I did it!" he screamed with a big smile on his face.
"That's great! How did you pull it off?" Karis asked as she was descending the stairs.
"Well, I was doing it wrong this whole time. I got used to imagining a scenery because of how I did the portals, but this teleportation spell works on world coordinates. Basically, I need to imagine a map in my head, determine where I am, and my destination, then poof! I can teleport!" Ren explained enthusiastically. It was as if a child was explaining his favorite character's ultimate move to his friends.
"Hehe, wow, I didn't know you had this side of you," Karis giggled as she entertained Ren's overexcited explanation.
"Me too, this is a first!" Kurumi added.
"Ah! Ahem! Sorry, I got a bit too excited there," Ren blushed in embarrassment as he tried to return to his more serious persona.
"No, no, it's ok. You don't have to hold yourself back when you're excited, I don't dislike it," Karis teased.
"That's right, you can be childish sometimes you know? No one's stopping you," Kurumi said, joining in the teasing.
"A-Anyway! Finish your preparations now! Karis, I need you to point out exactly where the demon fortress is on the map," Ren said as he tried to ignore his wives' teasing, but his cheeks only went redder in response.
He then brought out a world map for Karis to use as reference on pointing out their first destination in this journey.
"Well? Where should we be going first?" Ren asked.
"Let's see... hmm..."
Karis stared intently on the map. This map had more details than the one at the Nexus so Karis was able to familiarize herself well with the nearby terrains that she remembered of going through on her escape from the fortress.
"This northern section is the general area that my brother had taken over," Karis said, pointing on a certain territory north of Ironblade.
"Then on this western side is a dense woods area, connecting to the sea. Surely, the ships that they used to get to the archipelago were stationed here, and they can't exactly stay far away from it else it will be undefended. Which means, the castle should be around this exact area," Karis deducted as she drew a circle with her finger to point out the approximate area of the demons' base of operation.
"Dense woods, near sea, hmm, got it," Ren replied.
"Wait are you going there by yourself?" Kurumi asked.
"Yeah, I'll scour the area by myself. No point on bringing you along for a pointless walk. I'll come fetch you when I'm near the castle."
"Let me help you. If we somehow stumbled upon a familiar area to me, we can get to the castle faster," Karis offered.
"No, you stay here, I'll find the castle on my own, okay?" Ren gently admonished Karis as he firmly grasp her shoulders.
"Why?"
"Remember, what those goddess said to us. We're, or rather, I'm constantly being watched by those above. I could get attacked anytime by those that are hostile to me, and I don't want you getting involved there, so please, stay here, and wait patiently for me. Okay?" Ren said with a pleading face.
Karis stayed silent for a bit, hesitating on whether to force herself on joining, but ultimately decided not to as she could see the sincere concern in Ren's eyes that seemed to be staring deep into her soul.
"Okay... just promise me you'll stay safe," Karis finally answered.
"Yeah, I promise," Ren replied, giving Karis a quick kiss on the lips, then slowly pulled away.
He then went to Kurumi gave her a kiss as well but on the forehead.
"Complete all your preparations and wait for me here, got it?"
"Yeah," Kurumi replied.
Ren then stepped away from the two to begin his teleportation. He stood quietly, focusing his mind on the image of the map. Just as he explained before, he pictured his current location on the imaginary map, and the specific location of his destination. Shortly after, Ren had vanished in an instant in front of the two girls, leaving them a bit surprised from the instantaneous disappearance.
"There he goes," Karis said.
"Hahh, how I envy you who could kiss him without worrying about anything," Kurumi sighed.
"Oh? Getting jealous?"
"Of course. You get a kiss on the lips while mine is just on the forehead. It's unfair."
"Maybe you should try learning how to control your powers."
"Yeah..."
The two girls stared blankly in front of the place where their husband was just recently as they strike a short conversation.
Meanwhile...
Ren's teleportation attempt had ended up becoming successful. He found himself in the exact scenery that Karis had described, dense woods, with the scent of the sea breeze invading his nostrils, coming from the west. However, there was one slight problem.
"Bleeeergh!"
Ren found himself leaning on a tree for support as he violently threw up the breakfast he ate just before departing. He tilted his head downwards to let out the nauseating feeling he was feeling ever since arriving to the place.
"Shit! I must've really been out of this last time if I hadn't felt this!" he exclaimed.
The teleportation was indeed a success as he had reached his destination, but the massive change in the environment must have been too much for him to handle that it greatly disoriented him.
"Okay, note to self, long distance teleportation makes me nauseous," he said to himself.
"Hahahaha! Man, what a wreck you've become!"
"?!?"
Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard from somewhere, but Ren couldn't see anyone around him. He expected this however as there was only one person he knew that possesses such a playful, albeit mocking, tone.
"Oh? And what is my goddess doing here?" Ren called out, clearly referring to Lusha, the goddess of freedom to which his soul was linked to.
"Oh I happen to be passing by around this area, then I noticed you nearby so I went and take a look. However, I was not expecting you to be in such a hilarious state! Pff!" a young girl emerged from behind the tree that Ren was currently leaning on. Sure enough, it was the same cheeky brat that visited him just a few days ago. She was trying so hard to hold in her laughter after witnessing Ren's pathetic state.
"'Just happen to be passing by', huh?"
"Yeah, do you doubt my words"
"I'd be lying if I said I don't."
"Well that's just mean. Anyway, it seems like you just did a long distance teleportation, huh? Those can be a pain to deal with for first timers. The disorientation is just unbearable."
Ren fixed his posture and wiped the leftover spit from his mouth before talking.
"Yeah, tell me about it. I'm not usually someone that gets nauseous, but damn that was too much. I can't imagine how messy it would've been if I brought my wives along with that," he said.
"You'll get used to it. So anyway, what brings you here?" Lusha asked.
"Hmm, this may be faster actually. Hey have you seen any huge castle around this area?" Ren answered Lusha with another question.
"Is it too much to ask for you to address me properly? I'm a god for crying out loud, at least don't be rude when calling me!" the goddess complained as she angrily stomped her foot on the ground.
"Then Lusha?"
"Be creative."
"Lusha-san?"
"I said be creative!"
"Stupid brat."
"I also said don't be rude! Hey you're messing with me aren't you!"
Ren let out a smirk.
"Ohh I see, you're playing games now aren't you? Fine then! I'll play along! Just to let you know, you won't be enjoying it if I get serious!" the angry goddess approached Ren with thundering steps and proceeded to send a jab straight at Ren's gut.
"Then..."
Ren caught the fist with his palm just before it could make contact with his stomach.
"How about Partner?" he suggested with a smile on his face.
"..."
"Well?"
"...Heh, not bad. I like it," Lusha replied as she spread out her fingers, interlocking them with Ren's already spread out hand. The two stood there for a few good seconds, keeping their hands interlocked with each other. They stared at each other's eyes as if reading the other's thoughts, but clearly, some sort of deep trust was beginning to form between them.
"Entertain me, mortal."
"Heh, well, just watch I guess. I'm about to fuck shit up, well I'm being forced to anyway."
The two exchanged smiles as they pulled their hands away.
"Anyway what was it? An old castle right?" Lusha asked.
"Yeah, it's supposedly the demons' base of operation. We have some business with it," Ren replied.
"Hmm, I think I remember seeing something that resembles a castle just that way," Lusha said as she pointed further north from their current position.
"I see. Thanks, I'll go check it out."
"Mind if I tag along? I want to go watch you for a bit."
"I thought you were always watching me?"
"Hey, seeing you in action is more entertaining than looking at you from a projected image."
"Oh well, I'm not stopping you."
"Great!"
With a poof, Lusha had disappeared in front of Ren and reappeared behind him, riding his shoulders. She then grabbed hold of his hair with her left hand and used her other hand to point forwards.
"Charge!" she screamed.
"Hey!"
"Charge I said!"
"Hahh, well whatever. Watch your head," Ren sighed in defeat as he began sprinting northwards, carrying the goddess on his shoulders.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Act 2 - Abandoned Fortress
"I still don't see anything here."
"Well, these trees are quite high, maybe it's not that large after all."
Ren was sitting atop one of the towering trees as he surveyed the surroundings in search of the demons' castle. Lusha was still sitting on his shoulders, enjoying the ride but was not the least bit helpful on the search.
"Hey, are you sure it's this direction?" Ren asked looking quite confused as to why he still haven't found it despite searching for almost an hour.
"I said 'I think.' I didn't say I was sure," Lusha retorted.
"Huh?! But you said it with such confidence!"
"I am always confident!"
"I'll hit you."
"Would you hit such a cute, defenseless young girl like me. you monster!"
"Ah whatever! Just help me search for that damn castle. Use whatever darn power you have."
After finding no signs of his target, Ren jumped down from the tree and proceeded to walk to the direction he was going earlier. He could no longer smell the sea breeze from earlier and so he was beginning to have doubts on whether he was going to the right direction or not.
"Hey, I'll be back for a bit," Lusha suddenly said as she started to float away from Ren's back.
"Yeah, sure," Ren replied without even paying attention to her. He continued advancing through the woods, turning his head left and right. Just then, he felt a strong gust of wind rushed in front of him. The dust cloud made him cover his eyes. Upon clearing his vision, he saw that Lusha was nowhere to be found.
"Hmm..."
Ren wasted no time and proceeded onwards towards the same direction. Just then his senses alerted him of something approaching.
"GWARGH!" a wolf-like Savage had jumped out of the nearby bush, leaping towards Ren for a surprise attack, however, Ren already saw the attack coming and was able to dodge to the side. With a swift motion, he wielded one of his yoyos and easily dealt with the Savage with an explosive strike. The demon's gut matter scattered around with the force of the explosion.
"A demon? Did they left some of their forces behind?" Ren whispered to himself.
However just as Ren thought it was over, he could feel the presence of more demons nearby, some were a few distance away, but there were others within his immediate proximity.
"Was that too loud?" Ren said, bringing out the second yoyo from his pocket.
Suddenly, he could hear growls approaching him from different directions. He could not see his attackers yet, but he had a good grasp of where they were.
"Three, four, five more approaching from far away... and they're mostly coming from that direction which means..."
A demonic hound leaped from Ren's left side but with a quick swipe of his yoyo, Ren blasted the guts off of the Savage, adding more to the red mess of his surroundings.
"I'm guessing these are stray demons that randomly made it to their portal. I must be getting close," Ren analyzed.
"GRAAAA!"
"Over there!"
"ARGGGG!"
Another attacker blasted to smithereens. Ren proceeded to run towards the direction where the demons were coming from, slightly altering his course westward. As he was running, multiple Savage demons appeared in front of him, but he was able to quickly mow them down without much effort.
"Oh, there you are!" Lusha suddenly appeared just beside Ren, flying in an unorthodox manner. She was also phasing through solid tree trunks that were getting in her way as she flew beside Ren.
"Where have you been?" Ren asked
"Just scouted ahead, I found the castle you're looking for but it seems there was no need to report."
"Yeah, these demons just gave it away."
"Dodge."
"Don't have to!"
Countless needles came flying towards Ren as he continued to run forwards. He quickly brought out his umbrella from his mobile storage and blocked the incoming projectile with its metallic canopy. Countless clangs were heard as the needles made contact with his shield. He then took a look at his attackers using his umbrella's transparency feature, spotting a bunch of hedgehog-like creatures dashing towards him from the front.
The hedgehogs then curled up in a ball as they were close enough to strike Ren with their body. They leapt up into the air and came crashing down towards Ren's umbrella, slightly slowing him down as he continued to charge onwards.
"Need help?" Lusha offered.
"No thanks I'm good. I wanted to test something out after all," Ren replied.
After he felt the weight of a few more hedgehogs crash onto him, he began to tilt his weapon upwards, pointing it into the sky. He then pressed the trigger on the umbrella handle. Just then, a beam of light blasted through the outer canopy of the umbrella, expanding like the beams of a flashlight. However, the beams that came out of the umbrella vaporized the hedgehogs stuck on it, leaving nothing behind, not even skeletal remains. The beam managed to fan out a fair bit, burning some leaves that were unfortunate enough to block its path.
"Whew that was some firepower," Lusha praised Ren's attack.
"Yeah but it may be a bit too much. I need to tone it down a bit."
Ren then returned the umbrella back into his mobile storage now that it was no longer needed. Running around with it was just unnecessary burden after all.
"Hey, why don't you use those extraordinary powers you used back then? I want to see it in action."
"I need some time to cast it, but well, I guess I'll try if I get a big target my way."
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Well will you look at that, someone decided to volunteer."
A giant savage had appeared, blocking Ren's path. The giant covered such a huge area that running around it would just be a waste of time, so Ren decided to just quickly make short work of it.
"Catch up if you can, Partner!" Ren said as he suddenly disappeared from beside Lusha. He reappeared near the giant's neck to which he grabbed hold of it with his right hand.
"Distortion!"
As Ren screamed his attacks, space began to distort around the area where he was holding the giant. The sound of glass breaking echoed out as the giant's body shook violently from the attack. It's neck became mutilated with bruises, and seemed to have been deformed by a lot.
The giant's body began to fall as Ren still stood atop it, but as his eyes wandered a bit, he caught a glimpse of a stone structure nearby. He focused his eyes and confirmed what he just saw.
"There's the castle!" he screamed to Lusha who was still below him.
He then jumped off of the giant's body and let it tumble forward. Lusha quickly caught up from behind and kept up with Ren's pace as he ran towards his destination.
"Wow, that was amazing! What kind of attack was that?" Lusha asked.
"It's an attack that distorted the space around my target. It could do stuff such as break their bones, or mess up their insides but would appear unharmed on the outside," Ren answered.
"I see, so it's some kind of internal attack. Did you come up with that?"
"Probably, it was an attack that just came to me during that fight with the puppet. Maybe I wanted to wreck her so much that I was able to come up with brutal techniques such as this."
"The power of Creation. Such a terrifying thing indeed," Lusha remarked.
Ren continued to ran towards the direction of the castle that he spotted earlier. Savage demons still attacked him occasionally but was easily taken care of. However, Ren noticed that the woods was getting less and less dense as he ran onwards. Just up ahead, he could see a clearing, and sure enough, the stone structure that he saw earlier was there.
"Finally."
Ren stopped just before reaching the clearing, hiding behind a tree trunk as he surveyed the area. Countless Savage roamed the field, some were just aimlessly wandering around, while there were some that were fighting against other Savages. Their numbers were, by any means, not plenty, but there were still a lot.
"I'll clean this up before bringing Karis, and Kurumi here," Ren said as he clasped his hands together.
"What are you doing this time?" Lusha asked.
"Well, just wait and see."
After a few moments, Ren then slowly separated his palm. As he did, Lusha saw a dark orb begin to form, enclosed in the area that Ren's palm covered. Gusts of wind began gathering towards the orb. At first, it was a gentle blow, but then more violent breezes began gathering within it, bringing along some leaves, and blades of grass that quickly got shredded as soon as it touched the circle.
"Alright that should be good enough," Ren said as he tossed the mysterious orb at a certain place where most of the Savages were gathered. As the orb was flying, Ren kept his closed fist locked toward it, following its trajectory. Then, as soon as it reached its intended destination, Ren opened his hand. As he did so, the small dark orb expanded in an instant.
All of the nearby Savages got engulfed within the dark orb, letting not even their death screams escape from its grasp. Ren then closed his palm again, as he did so, the giant dark orb reverted back to its small form. A loud crunch echoed out as the orb compressed everything that it swallowed into its small form. Nothing was left from the area that the giant orb covered, no remains of the Savage demons, not even the ground that it covered as it got swallowed up as well.
With most of the Savages now taken care of, Ren went out and cleaned up the remaining ones in the area. He swiftly went around and used his yoyo to quickly dispatch his enemies. It took less than a minute for the clearing to be completely free of the Savage demons.
"And that's done," Ren said as he dusted off his palms.
The area around the castle was now as quiet as it could've ever been. Now it really was just a simple abandoned structure.
"I swear you're really getting more and more interesting the more I watch you! That attack was amazing!" Lusha said, praising Ren as she landed back into her sitting position on his shoulder.
"Well, thanks I guess?" Ren replied.
"Hey, hey, how did you get that idea? That was something new!"
"It's not really an original idea of mine. If you observed it closely, it's quite similar to the birth and death of the universe. We got a big bang, and a big crunch. That's just what it is."
"I see, an attack that is inspired by a cosmic phenomenon. I rate it a perfect ten out of ten!"
Ren simply smiled at Lusha's commentary.
"Okay, now that there's nothing more to stand in the way, it's about time I fetch those two."
"Oh, you're calling your wives?"
"Yeah, we were going to go together after all."
"Huh? Go where?" Lusha asked.
"Where? To the Demon Realm, isn't it obvious?" Ren smirked.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Act 3 - Castle Guardian
"Hi~~ nice to see you again young demon."
"What a surprise! Nice to see you too!"
After cleaning up the courtyard of the abandoned castle, Ren had finally called over his wives using his portals. The two were patiently waiting in the confines of their home for Ren to pick them up. It took quite some time, but the three were finally regrouped. Upon joining up, Karis noticed the goddess that she met just recently riding on top of Ren's shoulder, however, Kurumi was looking at her with an inquisitive gaze.
"Umm... I suppose you two are familiar with her?" Kurumi asked.
"Hoh? You don't remember me? Oh right, Lacama was using your body that time," Lusha replied.
The little goddess hopped down off of her ride and approached the confused girl in front of her. She gave her an inspecting gaze as her sight moves from top to bottom.
"So you're the second wife huh? Nice to meet ya, the name is Lusha, I am a goddess!" Lusha proudly introduced herself as she puffed out her chest in front of Kurumi.
"Ohh, I remember, you were the one of the deities that these two were talking about," Kurumi recalled.
"Wait... a goddess?"
"..."
"Ah!"
In an instant, Kurumi went on all fours as she prostrated in front of Lusha as if worshipping her. Both Karis, and Lusha were taken aback by Kurumi's sudden behavior.
"How disrespectful of me, please forgive me for speaking to you on equal terms O' great goddess of this world!" the prostrating girl said with such passion.
"Hey, what's up with her?" Lusha asked to Ren who was busy mapping out the area.
"Ah don't mind her, she's just extremely religious so meeting a god in person must've been quite a shock to her," he answered.
"Make her stop, it's quite uncomfortable to me being revered like this."
"You heard her," Ren lazily said, refusing to get distracted from his current task.
"Listen, I don't know what your image of a god is, but I am certainly not that type. I won't deliver heavenly judgment on you or something just because you're speaking to me like a human being. Just be yourself, I dislike your type of people," Lusha said as her voice showed slight hints of irritation.
"Come on, stand up now Kurumi-san," Karis said as she helped Kurumi off the ground.
"Are you done over there? Let's head on in," Ren invited.
"So this place really is abandoned," Karis observed as she looked around the area.
"There were some stray Savages when I went through here, I already took care of them though."
"I see, so that's why you took so long."
"Nah, that part was quick, I kinda got lost that's why it took me a while to fetch you."
The four exchanged words as they steadily headed towards the gate of the stone structure. The place was just abandoned for a few days so it hadn't wore down that much yet. The walls still looked sturdy, and the greenery was taking its time to reclaim the place to be a part of mother nature.
The four then stopped in their tracks as they stood in front of a massive, wooden, double gate. The entrance was so big in comparison to the four, which was probably necessary to allow the giant Savages to move in and out of the castle. However, such an obstacle was no trouble for Ren to handle.
"Hup!"
Ren tossed one his yoyo directly at the door. The small, round weapon easily pierced through one of the wooden doors, allowing Ren to grapple it with his string. He then effortlessly pulled his yoyo, dragging the giant door open slowly.
"Ah screw it no one's going to use this anyway," Ren said as he yanked the string, completely removing the door from its frame. He tossed the wooden piece aside, forcing his yoyo out with a small explosion.
"You have no appreciation for aesthetic, Partner," Lusha remarked.
"It's going to get destroyed anyway if we leave it be," Ren retorted as he led the way inside.
"Partner?" the two other girls quietly whispered to themselves.
A few minutes had passed...
Ren, Karis, and Kurumi had went around and inspected the empty halls of the castle. There was nothing left but small furniture left behind behind by the previous inhabitants, and some other junks like broken swords, rusted armors, and the likes.
The candles that lined the hall had also ran out, but Lusha offered a little assistance by providing lighting using a small orb that she summoned. The orb hovered steadily a few distance ahead of them, allowing them to see what's in store.
"So Karis, we've been wandering around for quite a while, where is the portal?" Ren asked.
"Honestly, I don't remember. I don't exactly know the layout of this castle since I wasn't allowed to roam much so I don't have any idea where stuff is," Karis explained.
"Well that's unfortunate, guess we'll just have to check every room. What about upstairs?"
"Oh wait actually..." Karis cut off.
"I think searching upstairs would be futile since there's not much up there but the quarters."
"Really? Then where should we search?"
"Down below. There are lower levels in this castle, at least from what I could remember."
"Really now? Okay then let's head down," Ren said as he brought out his yoyos.
"Wait what are you doing?" Kurumi asked.
"Looking for the stairs that leads down would just be a waste of time, let's go for the short route," Ren answered.
He then smashed his yoyos into the ground, creating an explosion that made a hole on the floor. Sure enough, there was a staircase that led down which was still quite high, which means that the start of the staircase was just nearby.
"Down we go!" Ren said as he jumped down towards the hole.
"For crying out loud, can we do things normally?" Kurumi yelled but Karis was already on her way towards the hole.
Karis followed Ren, hopping down to the conveniently made exit. As she fell, Ren caught her with both hands and gently placed her down.
"Hey, Kurumi, we'll leave you behind if you dawdle too much," Ren called out.
"Ah whatever," Kurumi sighed in defeat as she followed suit. She hopped down the hole and was caught by Ren as well. With all of them gathered, they all proceeded to descend the staircase.
Unlike the halls above, the staircase were fairly lit by candles on the walls which looked quite different than the usual candles. Ren could notice a strange smell that seemed to be coming from the candles as well.
"What are these?" he asked.
"They're candles made from salamander wax. Those things burn indefinitely as long as it's in an enclosed space," Karis answered.
"Well that's quite a useful material."
"Yeah, but salamander wax are hard to obtain since those Savages live underneath lava lakes. Not to mention, they're quite a menace. You could get the wax from their natural oil processed by skilled alchemists."
"Hmm... it's literally unlimited fuel, maybe I could use this on something," Ren pondered.
However, as he was thinking, he made a sudden halt in his tracks. The girls that were following behind him stopped as well. They looked at Ren with confused gazes, however Ren seemed to be focusing on something.
"What's wrong?" Kurumi asked.
"Shh.." Ren hushed.
The two stayed quiet, noticing that Ren seemed to have heard something. Ren slowly took a few steps down, concentrating on his hearing.
"There's something down there," Ren said.
"Huh?"
"More stragglers perhaps?" Lusha suggested.
"No, there's only one."
"I don't hear anything."
"Yeah, me too."
The girls were still confused as to what Ren, and Lusha were talking about but they stuck close behind just to be sure.
With light steps, the three descended the stairs some more. As they proceeded, Ren caught sight of what seems like the end of the staircase. He could see a massive room at the foot of the stairs. The three made their way down with a steady pace, and sure enough, they found themselves in the middle of a wide hall. In front of them, they spotted an altar with a strange structure built upon it, however, as Karis saw the structure, her eyes went wide open.
"That's it! That's the portal!" she declared.
"Yeah, it's pretty obvious, however..."
Ren turned his head a fair bit to the left of the portal. There he spotted a heavily armored giant, guarding the path to the altar. Chains dangled off of its wrist as it wielded its giant club, menacingly towering over the four with its massive size. It may probably be the biggest demon that Ren had ever seen.
The giant turned its head to the staircase, and sure enough, it spotted the four intruders that entered its lair. It let out a loud howl as it prepares itself for battle.
"Man, that guy is massive," Ren remarked.
"It's the Gatekeeper!" Karis said.
"Gatekeeper?"
"Yeah, it was one of the Savage giant elites that my brother tamed."
"Hoh? Then why not use this for his invasions, it could've been a huge asset."
"Well, it hates extremely bright places so being out in the sun is not really ideal for them."
"Hey, save the chatting for later! That thing is running towards us!" Kurumi panicked.
Just as Kurumi said, the Gatekeeper was indeed charging towards them with its club tailing behind. The ground shook violently each step that it took, making the floor quite unstable for them to stand on.
"I'll take care of it quickly!" Ren said as he launched both his yoyos towards the running giant, however, the yoyos simply bounced off of its metal shield, barely leaving a dent. Ren felt the vibration of the strike shook his body but it was quite negligible. However, with the attack failing, the giant had nothing to stop it in his tracks.
"Karis! Dodge!" Ren yelled as he grabbed Kurumi by the waist and hopped away from the giant's trajectory. Karis moved away as told.
The giant then swung his massive club towards where the four were earlier. the attack completely dismantled the stairs, turning it into rubble. The giant slowly picked up its club as it realized that its attack missed.
As the giant was beginning to recover, Ren quickly teleported near the giant's neck. He grabbed it similar to what he did earlier to the ambushing demon as he casted his spell.
"Distortion!"
The same space distortion occurred at the spot were Ren was holding, however, since the armor was so thick, Ren's attack failed to reach the main body. He then teleported away from the giant as it began to stand back on its feet. He repositioned beside Kurumi, and Karis who were keeping their distance.
"That is one tough armor," Ren said.
"It makes it slow as hell though," Lusha remarked.
"That said, if I can't penetrate the armor, this is going to take a while."
"Why not use your Apocalypse-Tier spells to deal with it quickly?" Kurumi suggested.
"I can't. The whole place will collapse if I did such a thing," Ren replied.
"Look out Ren, here it comes again!"
As Karis warned, the giant started to charge towards them again, repeating the same attack. Ren's mind started to work heavily to think of ways to deal with their enemy.
"Kurumi, try to get to the altar on your own while I draw it away," Ren ordered.
"Got it!"
"Karis--"
"Let me help you out!"
Before Ren could even say anything, Karis had already volunteered herself to assist with the giant. Ren could feel her resolve in trying to help him and therefore perished any thoughts of sending her to the sideline.
"Alright then, Kurumi, go grab Damian's sword for a bit. Now then, let's take care of this monster quickly and bring you home!"
"Thank you."
The two then began to rush at the giant as they prepare for their counter attack.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Act End - A Strange Occurrence
"Karis! Falling debris above!"
"Got it!"
The battle in the portal room of the abandoned castle had no sign of progression for quite a while now. With the giant's sturdiness, and the mobility of Ren, and Karis, no one was losing, but no one was winning either in this battle. The area was beginning to show signs of collapsing as rubbles from the ceiling began to fall due to the intensity of the Gatekeeper's attacks.
"Shit! At this rate we'll just get buried alive down here," Ren complained as he repositioned himself beside Karis.
"Well, if worse comes to worst, why not just use your time stop and get everyone away from here?" Lusha, who was still riding Ren's shoulder, suggested.
"Well that would be fine and all, but we're going to have to encounter this giant again when we return. Not to mention, I'm not exactly sure if this bastard wouldn't be hostile to those other demons when the time for migration comes," Ren explained.
"You were thinking that far ahead?" Karis asked, surprise at how much thought Ren put into the situation at hand.
"Of course. I'm not having any unnecessary casualties on my watch."
"... I love you!"
Ren was slightly taken aback by Karis' sudden declaration but quickly came back to his senses as he saw the giant in front of them charging once again. At the last moment, Ren, and Karis stepped aside, allowing the giant to crash to the basement's wall. Once again, rubble rained down from above with Ren and Karis maneuvering their way through it.
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven..." Ren suddenly began counting as soon as the coast was clear.
"What are you doing?"
"Shh. Don't disturb him."
Karis noticed Ren's strange behavior and tried to inquire about it, but Lusha shut her down as she realized that Ren might be on to something.
"...Thirteen. Fourteen...."
As Ren was busy counting, the giant had already recovered from his tackle and was getting ready to charge at the three one more time.
"...Fifteen. Sixteen..."
The giant, seeing that its targets were not moving, began to charge again. However, Ren didn't lift a finger even as the giant was approaching, instead, he merely continued his counting.
"...Twenty. Twenty-one... Now!"
At Ren's command, both he and Karis stepped aside, allowing the giant to charge through them again, crashing into the wall. However since Ren was too close from the point of impact, he failed to move away from the danger zone. The giant's club was able to barely grazed by him, scratching his cheek and leaving a small cut on it. Fresh blood flew out of the open wound.
Thankfully, he was able to move away before any further damage could be done. He and Karis both repositioned themselves once again on the opposite side of the wall.
"Partner. You ok?" Lusha asked.
"Yeah, it's just a scratch. Still twenty-one seconds huh, that's the window," Ren replied.
"I knew it. That's what you were counting about."
"Yeah, I wanted to know how much time I could use to prepare one big attack that may at the very least dent that thing's armor. Karis can you--"
"YOU BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU HURT MY MASTER! I WILL RIP YOU APART!"
Ren's eye widened as he saw beside him an extremely furious Karis. Her face was twisted with an expression that he had never saw her do before, extreme anger. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her lips was curled into a menacing snarl. Ren could hear Karis gnashing her teeth as her sight was fixed onto the giant.
As the giant turned around, Karis unsheathed her double blades and started running headfirst towards it.
"Hey, Karis what are you--!" Ren tried to reach out to her but his voice couldn't reach her at all.
"EAT THIS!" Karis growled as she swung both her blades to the giant's feet in one direction, combining their power. Karis' blades and the giant's metal armor clashed for a bit. Surprisingly, Karis' blades seemed to be winning as it began to slash through the metal armor. Soon enough, she gained enough strength to complete the swing of her blade, delivering a massive slash to the giant's feet, and spilling some of its blood.
The Gatekeeper howled in pain even though Karis' attack was about the size of a papercut in comparison to it. Most likely due to the fact that it hadn't felt pain for quite a long time.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Karis unleashed slashes after slashes at the giant's feet, unrelenting with her attack. She focused on the same spot that she attacked initially, deepening the wound as the giant continued to howl in pain.
"Hey, hey, what is happening to her. It's hard to believe that's the same person I've been seeing with you as I watched your life," Lusha remarked.
"I'm the one who's most surprised here! I have no idea what came up with her! It's just a scratch!" Ren exclaimed.
"Anyway, should you be dawdling around instead of thinking of a way to finish that thing? You're getting more than twenty-one seconds with your wife rampaging like that you know?"
"Oh, right!"
After realizing the opportunity presented to him, Ren began charging up his attack. He brought out his palm, summoning two purple electric orbs that orbited in front of it. The orbs rotated around with his palm area as their pivot point at a constant speed. However, as each second passed, the rotation kept getting faster, and faster. It kept increasing in velocity until the orbs' afterimage created a circle of electricity in front of him.
Ren aimed the rotating electric circle at the giant in front of him who was still being occupied as it received Karis' furious attacks. As he was aiming it, the rotation was still increasing in speed.
After receiving Karis' attack for quite some time now, the giant began to shrug off the following ones as it winds up to swing its club finally. As Karis was violently whacking away at its foot, the giant started to swing its arms to try and squash the bug-sized demon on its feet.
Normally, Karis would have noticed such a huge attack incoming, however she was currently blinded by her sudden rage, and wasn't able to notice it.
"GRAAA!!!" the giant howled as it swung its club downwards.
Karis would've definitely gotten hit if she fails to notice the incoming attack. Until...
"Karis! Move!" Ren screamed. At that instant, without a moment of hesitation, Karis jumped away from the giant's feet. As she hopped away, the giant's club had swung down on her previous position. However, as it did so, a spear of electricity flew by just above her, penetrating the giant's thick armor, even through its body as the attack continued towards the wall behind it.
Karis searched around for the source of the attack, and sure enough, there stood Ren, firing a steady stream of electricity towards the giant. A mysterious floating circle was rotating in front of his palm, and the electric spear was emerging from it.
"GRAAA!!!" the giant screamed as it felt the lightning attack pierced through its heart, and cooked its insides at the same time. Its body shook violently as the electricity spread through its huge body, however, the continuous stream prevented it from falling to the ground.
"Fall down!" Ren screamed as he discharged the remaining electric energy that he had stored as he channeled his attack. The lightning stream came to a halt, and as the particles cleared away, the three could see a massive hole at the giant's chest. Smoke sizzled out of the charred innards, and even blood seemed to have evaporated as there was none flowing out.
"Did that work?" Lusha asked.
"It should've, that was straight through the heart!" Ren replied.
A few moments later, the giant's still-standing body began to rock back and forth. Slowly at first, then it began to pick up speed, until finally, its rocking forced its body to lean forwards. The Gatekeeper's remains lifelessly tumbled to the floor, almost covering the entire length of the basement room.
Ren slowly walked towards the giant's head, careful as he was not sure if a fried heart was enough to deal with it. He nudged the head gently with his feet, checking if it would respond, but alas, the giant was completely motionless.
"Well, I guess that takes care of that," Ren said after confirming that the Gatekeeper, was in fact, already dead. Karis, and Kurumi ran along towards Ren, realizing that the coast was clear.
"Good job, Ren!" Kurumi happily cheered.
"Yes, good job," Karis followed. However, her demeanor seemed to have return to normal after that outrage earlier. Ren gave her an inquisitive stare, although the demon seemed to be obviously by the fact that she acted out of character earlier.
"What was with you back there?" Ren asked.
"Hmm?" Karis replied with an innocent look on her face.
"Don't you 'hmm' me, you suddenly went berserk back there."
"That's right, I noticed too. It was the first time I've seen Karis-san angry," Kurumi added.
"But... he hurt you."
"It was just a scratch, that was nothing to get that angry for, heck, you even recklessly charged at it, and surprisingly, your hissy fit worked."
Ren turned towards Karis, with her turning as well. He grabbed hold onto her shoulders as he quietly inched his face closer to hers.
"Hey, is there something wrong? Are you feeling ill? We could postpone this expedition if you're not in the mood," Ren calmly said.
"No, I'm perfectly fine. In fact, I feel healthier than ever somehow. Maybe it's because I'm finally about to see my home again!" Karis cheerfully replied however, Ren still continued giving her a concerned look.
"Really? There's nothing wrong?"
"It's fine I said."
"Hmm..."
Ren was still hesitant. Kurumi then decided to step in as she offered a suggestion.
"Then, how about taking a little sip of my blood just to be safe," she said.
"Fine, if it's going to ease your mind I'll do it," Karis said in defeat.
Karis then went and gently bit onto Kurumi's neck. Only her blood was needed so she decided not to take a chunk out, and simply sipped onto her oozing blood. After having enough, Karis pulled away, and sure enough, not much about her had changed.
"See? Same as ever?"
"Well, if you say you're fine, then okay. However if you feel ill somehow don't hesitate to say it okay? That's an order," Ren said, enforcing his request with his authority that Karis can't disobey.
"Okay then, with the gatekeeper taken care of, let's go," Ren said as he started walking towards the altar where the portal to the demon realm was placed. However, before he could proceed further, Lusha hopped down from his shoulder, landing softly on the floor.
"Hup. Alright then Partner, this is as far as I'd go," she said.
"Oh? Not coming with us, Partner?" Ren asked.
"No. I did say I was just going to watch you for a bit, but I've had my fill so I'm leaving."
"I see. Okay then. You take care now."
"Hehe, I'm a goddess, why are you telling me to take care? But well, I do appreciate the sentiment. Alright then, I'll see you around!" Lusha waved as she hovered in front of the three.
"Goodbye goddess!" Karis waved.
"Thanks for all the help!" Kurumi followed.
And then, with a 'pop' Lusha vanished from the three's sight in an instant. Ren, and Karis had already seen this neat trick of hers before and were unfazed but Kurumi was slightly surprised.
"She didn't even help one bit," Ren remarked after Kurumi's farewell as they continued to walk to the portal.
"Oh she didn't? Well, just for courtesy's sake. Nevermind the details," Kurumi replied.
The three then stopped in their tracks as they reached the front of the giant portal. Kurumi stared in awe as they stood before the giant structure which was even bigger than the giant that was guarding it.
"Well, here we are finally. How are you feeling?" Ren asked to his two wives.
"Kinda nervous. I wonder what it's like?" Kurumi replied.
"My homeland... it's been a while..."
"..."
"Be sure to show us around, Karis," Ren suddenly cut in as Karis was deep in thought. Ren's words snapped Karis back into reality as she noticed the two were staring at her.
"Hehe, sure," she said as she took a step towards the portal.
"Allow me to guide you in the land of my birth!"