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~ I'm planning to increase the number of advanced chapters to +50 this weekend!
~ I've edited some of the previous chapters to remove anything you might consider "cringe" or "unnecessary." I'll continue reviewing them from time to time!
~ Very soon, we'll return to releasing two chapters daily, including bonus privileges for Power Stone contributions
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They suddenly parted ranks. Their formations broke willingly, and from the gaps marched entirely new threats.
Four in all, their forms were more bulky, more armored than their compatriots and in their arms they cradled heavy, cumbersome contraptions. Tapers of flame flickered in and out of existence at their nozzled ends. If that was not enough to deduce what they were, the canisters strapped to their backs was evidence enough.
Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn in the fires of absolution! Be purged in cleansing flame!
The tapers of flame flared bright blue.
"Don't let the fires touch you!" he heard Irina shout above the din.
It was unneeded advice, but they still took it to heart. Kiba and Issei leapt away, and Koneko hauled Asia behind a pillar. He followed, but without the natural speed of a devil to aid him, he was a step slower, and that made him the closest to the ensuing firestorm. Four streams of hissing fire ignited out of tubular barrels, lighting paths of destruction wherever they spewed. Like hot glue they coated the ground, sticking to the floor and then onto everything else as their wielders continued to douse their surroundings with scorching heat. And then the stink hit him, the chemical-rich scent that was too thick, too strong to come from anything natural. His mind connected the dots and recognized it for what it was.
Holy fire. Man-made, and all the more deadly to devils.
Irina's warning did not seem so unneeded now.
We are the bringers of the end! Wrath made form! Upon our blades you shall die!
He gritted his teeth to stop another bout of nausea. It was not entirely successful, but it let him focus. He noticed that the flames the Templars had sent their way did not quite manage to reach the place where Kiba and Issei had landed, nor were they sufficient in burning through the cover that Asia and Koneko sheltered behind. It begged the question why. Fire, no matter how hot, could not match the speed of a devil. He had seen proof of that in the Rating Game, when the enemy pieces danced around the plumes of flame he conjured with relative ease. Yet these Templars, seasoned exorcists, did not know of this simple fact? It took him a second of reexamining the situation to realize what was occurring, a second of revaluating the battlefield before the truth became clear to see. And when it did, the revelation hit like a ton of bricks.
"They're trying to separate us!" Issei realized the problem as soon as he did.
It was true. The flames that he had thought fell woefully short of their targets had never been aimed at them in the first place. They blazed furiously on the ground, their true intent there, creating a maze of unpassable obstruction that already covered half the antechamber, and threatened to cut them off from one other. Already he could see the Templars breaking into groups, navigating through the paths of fire with trained ease, their plated forms immune to the heat that surrounded them.
"We have to stay together!" Issei yelled out again, "Or else they'll surround us!"
That much was clear. They all made to follow the boy's suggestion, including him, converging on a position away from the flames. All except one.
"Yuuto?"
His brows furrowed as he followed the direction of Issei's voice.
The sword-user had not moved. He stood, at the edge of the fire, his gaze riveted to a distant figure. Valper, a merciless smile on his worn face as he turned to look at them one last time before vanishing through the immense doors.
"Damn it," the first time, it was whispered, "Damn it," then steadily growing in volume until it became a full-fledged roar, "Damn it!"
The devil tensed, then sprung forward, darting through the walls of flame, charging past the Templars that sought to stop him, ducking beneath the swings of their halberds, before finally halting in front of the doorway. The boy hesitated. The demon sword in each of his hands trembled, not from chanted words but from emotion.
He stepped through.
The looks of shock on their faces would have been vaguely amusing had he not felt the same way.
After Kiba left them, the fighting grew all the more desperate.
The unexpected loss of the sword-user not only deprived them of a formidable fighter, but dampened their spirits as well. He could see it in their eyes. Could sense it in every move they made. The sudden feeling of helplessness that was just one step away from defeat.
Betrayal was not a word to describe it, but it came very close.
They were giving ground now. At a rapid pace. Koneko kept on dragging Asia away, trying to protect her the best she could. Lines of worry ran across the normally unflappable girl's brow. Issei switched constantly from attack and defend, and suffered all the more for it. Against experienced exorcists working in tandem, the devil found himself constantly outmatched. Were it not for Asia's Twilight Healing, the boy would have long ago succumbed to his wounds. The only thing that kept it from becoming a rout was his flames. Belial's fire blasted from his hands in a continuous stream, buffeting the advancing Templars with waves of heat, preventing them from bringing their full numbers to bear. It was a testament to how sturdy their protection was against the demonic that the Archdemon's flame only singed their plate and did nothing to the flesh beneath.
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