The man was young, but very tall and thin. He wore a tight black compression shirt attached to a metal cuff around his throat, leaving his shoulders bare. A black mask covered his face, wrapping around to the back of his head where a long, black tube dropped and attached to his back, underneath long, translucent wings that hung like a cape. Black heeled boots were pulled up to his knees, covering skin tight leggings. He reclined on the railing of the balcony, looking down upon the group of people gathered.
"Mm… we're missing some people…" he jumped down, waving his hand. The shadows closed in again, swirling in front of the group before receding almost as quickly as they'd been summoned. Three figures appeared: Altair, who was cradling Asmodeus, and a strange young man wrapped in bandages. "Perhaps if I made all you disappear…"
He walked up to the group, leaning in close to the bandaged man. The bandages he was wrapped in shot out, quick as a flash, threatening to constrict around the man. Jumping back, miasma shot out from around him, pushing the bandages away. He tutted, chuckling softly.
"Antsy, are we? I haven't even introduced myself."
He pulled the darkness back in, bowing elegantly. "Call me David. And you all are…?"
The group remained silent, until the man in bandages began laughing loudly and uncontrollably. David looked taken aback.
"David?" he choked out. "Come on, you gotta be kidding me. You're parading around here all edgy and in black, and your name is David?"
David blinked, tilting his head, his intimidating demeanor faded. "Er… yes. That is the name I was given."
"Sorry. I don't mean to ridicule your name. Call me Gordon."
"Very well then, Gordon…" David tested the name out, before nodding to himself. "Thank you. And all of you?" He looked out at the rest of the group, still too stunned to understand the situation.
"Ah… uh…" Frankie spoke up first. "My name is Frankie, I'm Dr. Alde's assistant. This is Delphina, and this is Syzygy…"
David nodded at him, sweeping his gaze over to the next cluster of people.
"Savant." He spoke curtly, refusing to entertain the strange young man who had abducted them all. He tilted his head towards Armel. "That's Armel."
The rest of them introduced themselves as well, going from Ignis to Ginger to Kintsugi, and then Altair and the sleeping Asmodeus.
David applauded them. "Thank you, thank you everyone. Now, I shall kill you all!"
"W-wait! You can't kill us," Savant stammered. "See, I'm… ah, the royal inventor. And Kintsugi is one of the guards! And the demon sleeping over there is the kingdom's best doctor, and Dr. Alde is the Frontier's best engineer. If you kill us all, you'll definitely get the queen herself knocking on your door."
"Really?" David tilted his head, eyes widening eagerly. "Splendid! I will make it quick, then, so I can get the queen here sooner!"
Savant pressed his mouth into a thin line, avoiding the eyes staring him down.
"I'll make this fair, though. No taking away your vision or anything, just a simple duel." A dark tendril swirled around David's arm, before thinning and straightening out. A handle curved around David's hand, forming an elegant black sword.
"Now, now, don't all be shy at once. Come on, I can fight you all," David beckoned everyone forth, clearly waiting for someone to begin.
Kintsugi surged forth first, using his nails to rip into the skin at his side. Golden blood flowed from his wound, swirling around him before forming and hardening into a blade, a bit wider and with a larger, rounder handle than David's. He did the same to his other side until he wielded two blades in his hands, striking with precision and power. David blocked, eye narrowing as he was pushed back. He ducked, darting between Kintsugi's legs and catching them with his ankle. Planting his hand on the floor, David twisted his body, sweeping Kintsugi's legs out from underneath him.
Stumbling, Kintsugi caught himself before he fell, turning to glare at David. A ball of fire shot past, David narrowly moving his head to dodge it. He turned to look at the caster–Ignis–his eyes pressing into crescents from excitement.
"You can use fire!" David skirted around the crowd, dodging fireballs and other attacks, slicing through ones that got too close. "You can fire four at once, too? How remarkable!"
David closed the distance between him and Ignis, causing the magician to stumble backwards. The girl beside him removed her gloves, running towards him with outstretched hands. He blocked her grab by substituting his arm for his sword, watching in awe as it changed into a brittle, brown material and crumbling to the floor. He used a heeled foot to kick her back, sending her tumbling to the ground, as he bent down to study what had become of his sword.
"Cookies…?" he blinked. "Ah, gingerbread! How amusing! You turn anything you touch into gingerbread?"
He shook his head, walking away from her. "Can't have that happen to me."
A streak of lightning narrowly missed David's ear, causing him to flinch and turn around to face Frankie, Dr. Alde, and Delphina. He dodged an onslaught of boiling water, and sidestepped Delphina's attack with a sword of her own. He backed up towards Gordon, whose bandages whipped out to quickly finish what they'd started.
Kintsugi and Armel both charged at him, a blur of powerful muscles, rippling abs, and gold. David's eyes grew wild with excitement as he dodged each attack, before creating a long spear made from miasma, spinning it with a flourish.
He parried Kintsugi's blades and dodged Armel's punches, reeling briefly from the speed and power from the air brushing past his cheek. David's eyes widened as he studied the size of Armel's arms.
"You're strong!" David exclaimed. His spear curved, hooking one of Armel's arms and dragging it closer. Armel snapped his arm away before David could run a curious finger along his vein, causing David to look disappointed. Not allowing him a second to breathe, a giant, golden ring opened up, distorting the air around it. A lean body followed by white feathered wings appeared from within the ring, sandaled feet first.
David blocked the kick with his spear, shoving his weight forward to push back against the angel. "Portals? What do you even need wings for, then?"
Altair's powerful wings unfolded, catching himself midair before he went tumbling. Eyes and body shifting lightning quick, David's sights were set on the sleeping demon Altair had carefully propped up against the wall.
"I want to see how strong your friend is!" He continued dodging magic attacks and blocking swings from weapons as he moved inhumanly fast. The insane glint in his eyes shone brighter and brighter, and the miasma he had been holding back seemed to flow strongly around him.
He's getting stronger, but he can't hold the miasma back anymore… everyone thought. There is no way we can beat him.
Before David could reach Asmodeus, the demon stirred, stretching and yawning and cracking his neck. His eyes blinked open, widening as he noticed the dark figure rapidly approaching. Leaping to his feet, Asmodeus managed to dodge David's first swing of his spear.
Asmodeus pulled out an injection needle, hurling it at David. He dodged easily, only to be bombarded by three more. The demon scraped into his own arm, letting his dark, red blood flow. A ring of blood formed around the both of them, droplets rising up to form more needles that shot up and towards him at lightning speed.
David's excitement turned to fear as he struggled to dodge Asmodeus' onslaught, using his weapon to block and dodge. Bloody needles embedded into his shoulder, causing his grip to falter. More into his knee; he staggered and buckled, needles he was unable to dodge lodging into his other knee as well.
The demon walked forward, raising his hand. A trail of his own blood connected him to David, as he spoke softly. Gently. Beckoning with his hand. "Why are you fighting us and the miasma?"
Ripping needles out of his shoulder and knees, David spat his own blood onto the floor. It was black–no trace of red–swimming with miasma.
"If I kill you all, I'll be one step closer to killing her."
Asmodeus cocked an eyebrow. "Who?"
"Your queen, remember?"
He blinked, reaching up to scratch the back of his head in confusion. "I must've missed that while I was asleep."
Asmodeus continued moving closer, David stumbling backwards like a caged animal. The demon held out his hand to David. "Well, I'm not affiliated with Queen Regina. In fact, I'd probably say I'm rather miffed at her right now. She closed down all of the trade routes and I can't get any medicine for my patients until they're back up."
The others had begun to circle in as well, voicing their own concerns and problems about the queen. David's eyes widened, until he narrowed them again, gritting his teeth in pain and shouting, "St-stay away! I can't hold it back anymore!"
Miasma rose from his body like smoke from a fire. He grabbed his sides as though he were in pain, sobbing, "She took everything from me. I need to take everything from her! This accursed magic… it tells me… to…!"
An unholy scream released from his lungs, miasma shooting out in all directions. Everyone rushed back except for Asmodeus, who stood his ground. Sighing, Asmodeus snapped his fingers, a blue flame flickering on. It ignited the blood on his hand that trailed down to the floor, snaking its way across and closing the distance between him and David.
David, who was covered in his blood. The very blood that ignited, covering him in a blue flame. The young man's screams were filled with agony, causing a brief pang of guilt to seize Asmodeus' heart. Closing his eyes, he produced another injection needle, wrapping a gentle arm around David's shoulders and injecting him in the thigh.
The young man's voice broke and faltered, before he grew limp in Asmodeus' arm, the miasma withdrawing itself back into the body of the young man who now drifted to sleep. Asmodeus slipped another arm under his knees, lifting him up carefully, the miasma burning at his skin until it fully nestled back into David.
Asmodeus walked back to the others, David looking like nothing but a wayward kid in his arms and not the massive threat they had all just fought.
"His mind is being taken by the miasma…" Asmodeus murmured, leaning in close to Altair. "I must go and treat him."
"But you can't. At least, not at the hospital," Altair responded. "What if he can't control the miasma again? You'll be endangering your patients and the staff."
"I suppose that's true. Without a proper way to deal with the miasma, it'll be hard to take care of him without a big risk to everyone else."
As they conversed, a snake wrapped itself around Gordon's neck, whispering, "Gordon. You must find a way to take in that man."
"Huh?" Gordon nearly shouted. He lowered his voice into a hiss. "What are you talking about, Hesterno?"
"We want to examine him." Hesterno nodded. "We know the miasma better than any of you all here."
"Indeed…" Hodie added. "We have witnessed gods and mortals alike overtaken by it. We can rewind time on his body to prevent it from leaking out. We just need to be close to him at all times."
Gordon sighed, feet already moving towards Asmodeus and Altair. "I don't know how to take care of a person."
"We can tell, from how you treat yourself," Cras sneered. "But we'll help you. We'll take care of the hard part. You just need to satisfy him."
Asmodeus looked up, noticing the bandaged man approaching. His grip tightened on David, turning his body slightly to shield him. Gordon raised his hands in surrender, his eyes staring through Asmodeus with sincerity.
"I won't hurt him. In fact, I can take care of him."
─── ♡ ♢ ☀︎ ✩ ☽ ♧ ♤ ───
"...that's what happened, Your Majesty." A short girl with cropped, black hair bowed her head at the figure shrouded by crimson drapes.
A rich voice with a deep timbre snuck out from behind velvet and silk. "Interesting… thank you, Bai Guo."
"Of course."
"Let the people know that trade routes are open again. After all, I want to see…" the woman stood, figure silhouetted through the curtains. "...that kid again."