Reflected in front of the windows of my house was my brother; he was trying his best to fend off the intruder, but alone he couldn't deal with all of them.
The mouths that had appeared all over his body would open themselves to swallow the many bullets shot at him; this would temporarily strengthen him, making him faster and stronger for a short duration of time. Whenever he felt overwhelmed, he would shoot those bullets back from those same mouths.
But eventually, one of those demons got too close and hit him with the butt of the hunting rifle on the side of his head; had my brother turned around a second too late, that would've been a blow to his chin.
The next shadow tried to slice his neck with a small curved knife, and as he blocked him, he was shot on the back of his leg and on his back. He managed to stop the bullet to the leg but not the one aimed at his back.
By then there were around thirty of those shadows constantly circling around him; they were endless, and no matter how badly he injured them, they always regenerated as if nothing ever happened to their bodies.
I summoned my flames to try and attack them, but just as I managed to create the ball of flames, another of those figures had landed near me; this time this one was on the roof.
I immediately stopped using the ability to peer onto the window and returned back to my body to create a shield just in time before he could fire the first round of his bullet.
From the small crater he emerged from an extremely tall pillar of smoke, his body trembling, his movement sluggish, reeling like a drunkard as he tried to walk forward.
Lies, I saw how your kind can move; this is just a facade to give me false hope.
He then fell to the ground, as if the strings that were puppeteering him were suddenly cut.
I took a step back and was taken aback when the enemy made his move; it split in two, and one copy emerged from his back. It flew straight towards me holding a knife in its right hand, and it bounced off the flaming wall as he swung it at me.
That's way too fast for me to be able to deal with.
I tried to summon a new weapon before his next attack, but I was too late. The demon had thrown a fist using its left hand to the flaming wall, making his arm explode on impact.
As I finished summoning the artifact called Recoil, a blade was able to slit my throat. I activated it immediately, reversing the damage and making the demon responsible for that attack fall to the ground.
I was panting. I didn't know where to go. I was severely outmatched and didn't even know where to look. My brother was in no position to help me and our bodyguards; they too were most likely incredibly busy fending off these demons.
Then I heard another gunshot, and before I could even turn around, I felt their distorted laugh as another one of those demons had climbed the building and attacked me from behind.
W-what is this? How are they so overwhelmingly powerful?
I knew the basics; if I started to panic now, the demons would've been empowered by my fear. I had no way of fighting back, so I simply closed my eyes and resigned myself to my fate.
I'm sorry, Father… If only I had been a little stronger, this wouldn't have happened.
"Target retrieved!" A loud voice said,
"Perfect, keep an eye on the eldest; make sure to give him support while not getting within the range of his abilities in case he loses control of himself. Try to hold your position if you can; support is headed your way." A second voice relayed.
When I opened back my eyes, I found myself staring at the group of bodyguards, heavily equipped with all sorts of weapons. They were all equipped with the same gear:
A pair of strange earrings: one deep blue, shaped like a star, and the other black and shaped like a teardrop. All of them had a strange part of their face melted, with a couple of small eyes grown on it; it even had a small spike.
Even their weapons were made out of demonic equipment, although they looked like regular firearms, so they didn't need to actually reload their weapons. A small sidearm was strapped to their chest, one of their eyes had turned completely pink, and on their back they had a large dark shield.
Are these… I think I recognize some of them, never expecting to see them handling so many artifacts at once, especially artifacts of that level. Are they all orange? I think they are.
I could smell many more, but they were probably not shown in plain sight, an incredibly smart move, probably at the suggestion of my father.
The group then slowly began climbing out a window that let us out towards the garden. The bodyguards were shooting anything that moved and were easily able to clear a path thanks to their bullets being able to split seemingly at will, never allowing those demons a chance to get closer or dodge their attacks.
Then, all of those demons disappeared, as if they never existed in the first place. Instead, a giant meteor had appeared in the skies.
The female bodyguard temporarily released me, and I immediately rushed towards my brother.
He was beaten and battered, barely even able to stand on his legs, covered in cuts and bullet injuries.
So many things were happening all at once I could barely adapt to it, and so could the guards, but I had faith; since the aunt lived nearby, she would surely take care of such a threat.
"Are you okay? How are you feeling? Can you walk?" I asked my brother as I tried to help him properly get up by allowing him to rest on my shoulders.
"Get out; just get to a safe point, Leo. Things are only going to get worse from here." He said.
"How do you know?" I asked him as I desperately began dragging him towards the guards.
The guards were standing idly, staring at the massive meteor about to crash towards the city. It was large enough to be roughly the same size as the main floating island, and the shock caused by the impact was surely going to be strong enough to wipe away the rest.
And just as I predicted, I saw a flash of red coming out from the aunt's house, and within an instant the meteor was obliterated, completely erased from existence.
The illusion then began to distort once more, and everyone faded away. I could still feel the weight of my brother behind me, so the illusion didn't erase them; it just made them invisible.
"Dammit!"
I kept dragging his body until I finally met a wall, and by then I stopped. I didn't know where I was walking, so it was pointless to keep wasting my energy. I sat down next to my brother and watched as we saw the floating heavenly city be destroyed in multiple different ways over the course of one hour.
The last illusion we saw was of the city being plunged into an active volcano; it didn't last long, but it wasn't a pleasant experience all the same. Even the floating guardians were having trouble trying to keep the city safe.
I'm sure every other family is experiencing this same kind of hell; I wonder how many have managed to survive till the very end.
Eventually the illusion was shattered and everything returned to normal, except for the injuries we sustained; those remained real.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was my father rushing towards me and my brother, ordering Michael and Elvis to grab us. I never saw him worried to that extent, which made me feel glad for some reason.
Sorry, Father, if only I had paid more attention to your lesson, maybe I wouldn't have ended up in this situation. I could barely even use my powers to their full potential. Giving me your most expensive abilities was just a waste after all.
Out of the six orange-grade abilities, I could manifest only one, and even whilst using such a powerful ability, I was outclassed by a demon that wasn't even going all out on me.