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Despite the demon’s offer, the duchess remained standing with the group, a spark of interest as to what business a demon would have with the man who took frivolous actions towards her.
His grin then grew as he politely bowed towards Thomas and introduced himself.
“Thomas Smith, I am Astaroth, Duke of Doors. I have already been acquainted with the fallen fae you refer to as your daughter, Senna Smith.”
“Oh?” Thomas grinned mischievously as a subtle white aura began to surround his body, even his irises taking on the otherworldly white glow. “And what does an injured Demon of the Court require with me.”
The demon’s smile dropped immediately into a look of hostility the moment Thomas stated his injury.
“It was but a small oversight of mine.”
“A small oversight of trying to possess my daughter?”
“Oh, I just miscalculated the strength of her soul. I must say, I have never seen anything like it. Is this your doing?”
“You can say that.”
Senna abruptly turned hostile and bore her teeth at the demon, whose own hostility towards the duo was constantly growing. Both of them begun to empower their bodies, Senna was like an arrow in a drawn bow, ready to tear the demon apart at a moment’s notice.
The crowd was still passing by them and entering the main hall to participate in the auction, so their conversation was anything but secret. All those here today held a large degree of strength, or equivalent financial backing, and were used to such situations. Thus, nobody bothered to interfere or stop.
Should they come to blows however, the venue and security would intervene. There were several Golden Core cultivators and 5th Circle Mages, deterring anyone from trying to rob the auction or cause trouble.
“And what do you intend to do about it?”
Thomas summoned his obsidian soul spear and rested it over his shoulder.
“How interesting.” Duchess Montageau appeared behind him and touched the spear with her fingertips, running her nail down the oversized spearhead.
“Duchess, you need to ask before you fondle my spear~”
The vampiress snorted before losing interest and deciding to head into the main auction hall with the other three vampires accompanying her.
“Shall we take this outside?”
Astaroth had some wariness in his eyes at the spear, obviously detecting a strong danger from it, but he still gestured with his hands to Thomas and Senna.
“After you.”
Heading into the main venue, Gϋnther looked towards and cautiously asked, “Duchess, don’t be offended. The person is always like that.”
“Why would I be offended?”
“That… Eh, you’re not?”
“Of course not. I had thought he was just an ordinary but highly skilled human, but that weapon was something else altogether.”
“Really?”
“Of course. If those demons are intending to do something to him, they may find themselves in a difficult spot. That spear can be considered the bane of creatures such as demons.”
“I see, I know it is strong, but I didn’t realize it was such a thing. Duchess, your nails…”
“Is there something wrong with them?”
Duchess Montageau shot a warning glance at Gϋnther and pretended like she didn’t hear what he just said. Only the front half of her nails had any nail polish on them, not because she chose it for appearance, but they had been forced to regenerate and none of the new nail had nail polish on them.
Inside a hidden pocket was also a shattered ring that previously adorned her finger.
“Also, duchess, forgive my rudeness, but there is something you were mistaken about.”
“What?”
“That man is not human. It is best not to consider him as such.”
“Let me guess, this is about the contract you tricked me into signing?”
Thomas lackadaisically asked while resting on his spear. By his side, Senna was glaring at Astaroth and the more than a dozen demons who followed them outside.
The group stood in a poorly looked after alley at the rear of the auction house used for bringing in deliveries and disposing of rubbish. Old yellow lights buzzed overhead, emitting a soft light that was only bright enough to see where they were walking.
Demonic energy radiated from the demons, twisting the surroundings until it felt like the alley was infinite in length with no exit. The lights grew even dimmer and cackles of laughter seemed to emanate from the distance.
“You can’t blame me for that. You signed it with your own hand.” Astaroth withdrew the contract from the inner pocket of his suit jacket before unrolling it.
“Let me guess, you’ve harmed Mr. Baker and then hidden him so I can’t fulfil the contract?”
“Oh, so close, but not quite. I haven’t hidden him, nor do I intend to. You are more than welcome to go to him and fulfil the condition to end the contract.”
“So where is he?”
“His soul is in hell.”
“…”
Thomas laughed aloud at that one. The demon truly didn’t hide Mr. Baker, but he was still in a location Thomas couldn’t access.
“So what is the penalty clause of your contract in terms of a breach? An indenture of slavery, lifespan, my soul? You have a lot of confidence.”
“Shh, this isn’t funny, Thomas,” Senna hissed beside him.
She had been waiting for this moment, and as soon as the contract had been pulled out, she vanished from the spot she had been standing.
A light ‘oomph’ was heard as all the air was blown out of Astaroth’s lungs and he was sent flying, the contract now inside Senna’s hands. She turned it over read what was written before her expression turned ugly.
She hastily tore the contract to shreds and scattered it on the ground.
During this process, none of the other demons moved to protect Astaroth. Instead, they just all grinned malevolently.
“Hahaha, did you think that was enough to destroy the contract?” Astaroth appeared behind the duo and began laughing in mockery.
With a wave of his hands, the torn shreds appeared to be swept up by the wind before reassembling into the original contract in his hands.
Thomas wasn’t about to let Senna’s efforts go in vain an as such, he decided to end the demon’s existence, cleaving his wounded soul apart with his soul weapon, the Seraph Obsidian Winged Spear.
The speared glowed with an ethereal light as he attacked Astaroth with an unavoidable thrust.
The demon didn’t panic, instead giving an expression as if everything was under his control and going according to plan.
Half way through the attack, Thomas’ spear abruptly disintegrated into motes of light before all strength left his body. The sudden change in force he could apply resulted in him stumbling and falling over.
“Thomas!” Senna cried out and rushed to catch him, glaring at the demons and baring her fangs in warning.
“What did you do?…” Thomas asked in confusion, not understanding what had just happened to him.
“Thomas Smith,” Astaroth dropped his previous grin and adopted a manner of superiority, his expression changing as easily as the wind. “Should you get the chance, you should read the contracts you sign more carefully in the future.”
With a flick of his wrist, the contract that was disguised as a common piece of paper with a company letterhead on it fluttered in front of Thomas, who then read the penalty clause on the back.
- Should Party B breach the terms of the contract, all of Party B’s power shall be transferred to the contract owner.
It was a single, simple line, but what it implied was enormous.
“Ahhhh~~~~ This power!! It feels fucking AMAZING!!!” Astaroth cried out in ecstasy as the gravitas of his presence skyrocketed, thunder in the distance rumbling as if in warning.
“Here is a piece of interesting information about demonic contracts for you. The greater the punishment, or more vague the contract is, the less power it has. I don’t dare demand your soul, or something convoluted. No, you would be able to resist that, wouldn’t you. Just your power though? The strength behind the contract for such a thing is undefiable, even to you.”
“You piece of shit!” Senna shouted furiously and attacked again, the mana in her body flaring up like the midday sun.
All the mages, cultivators, and even ordinary humans that were in the auction hall at this moment felt Senna’s surge of mana. The air seemed to solidify and everyone began to struggle for breath.
The host, who was still welcoming everyone and marketing the upcoming items to increase everyone’s desire for them, was only at the 1st Circle Mage and was so overwhelmed he almost fainted on the spot.
Humans were known for having dull senses compared to practically every nonhuman creature. As vampires, Gϋnther and the other vampires all felt their hearts clench in fear as if a stake was about to go through it.
Duchess Montageau had the keenest senses in the room, although only her brow furrowing in displeasure as she commented to herself, “That girl truly isn’t simple. Even among the past fallen fae I have come across, none can even come close to comparing.”
It was a punch without any poise or technique. Senna simply reinforced her body with a ridiculous amount of mana, far more than she ever had before, and threw her fist with nothing but brutality. The air ignited and space itself screeched in resistance to the force.
Astaroth’s eyes opened wide in surprise, not expecting such a powerful strike all of a sudden. He knew that if this strike was thrown at him beforehand, there would be nothing he could do to prevent it. With so much kinetic energy imbued in it, it would have likely broken through the limits of physical immunity and damaged his soul too.
Now was not before though, he had been imbued with a power that made him feel godly.
“Useless!”
The space between Senna and Astaroth expanded, preventing her from getting close enough to make contact with him.
Senna wasn’t to be dissuaded by such a limitation though. The demi-fallen fae released the punch which scattered the demonic energy keeping them apart and assaulted Astaroth in a torrent.
A dark violet mana shield appeared around the demon, before he teleported and allowed the force behind Senna’s strike to tear apart the old fence and a significant portion of the building behind it.
The demons attacked Senna with chains that glowed red hot. The struck like snakes and wrapped around her limbs and body, attempting to restrain her.
“GRAHHHHH!!!!” The fae girl let up a guttural roar as she grabbed the chains and ripped them apart with brute force.
She was losing her mind, turning into a beast of pure violence that couldn’t control herself.
Astaroth sent swirls of empowered hellfire at the fae girl, trying to injure her without destroying the vessel. These balls of reddish-black fire curved through the air like sparks off hot iron being struck, and even teleporting before they struck he from every direction.
The concrete melted and turned molten just from being in the vicinity of the hellfire, causing Senna’s feet to sink into the molten floor like a quagmire.
Despite this, she was an unstoppable force of violence. She swatted away the hellfire balls, her clothes singing and small holes forming just from being close to them. If it weren’t for her magic protecting the clothes, they would have spontaneously combusted long ago.
A burning chain wrapped around her arm, but the fae girl pulled with such force the demon’s arms were ripped off. This chain was then used as a whip the destroyed the bodies of two more demons, their corpses lying on the ground as the oily black smog that was the demons poured out, the decimated vessels no longer capable of housing a soul.
“Yes, that’s it! Loose yourself into wrath!”
Astaroth appeared again, holding a powerless Thomas by the back of his neck and using him as a shield.
Sirens rang in alarm in the distance while the lights of a police airship searched the area. The demons’ twisted power was still in effect though, preventing them from being able to find this location. Reality had now become so twisted that it barely even resembled the real world.
Brimstone and fire filled the air and lave began to ooze out of the ground. The warm yellow lights overhead had turned a blood red while a bloody fog drifted through the air like the northern lights. The moon was brighter than ever and the barks of hellhounds felt like they were getting ever closer.
The auction house beside them had the number of windows multiply at some unknown point, each one turning into a portal to a different location.
The world had become surreal and the physics of the universe was breaking down under the corruption of demonic energy.
Senna seemed to have some reasoning left, as the sight of Thomas being captured caused her to halt, even the mana empowering her body reached a momentary standstill.
Astaroth wasn’t about the miss such an opportunity. He flickered through space and kicked Senna down the alley, her body bouncing off the concrete several times before she could stabilize herself and land on her feet like a cat.
Just as she looked up with her eyes that glowed crimson. A barbed hell chain coated in hellfire, stronger and far more sinister than the earlier ones, broke up from the ground and impaled the fae girl through her stomach.
“AARGGHHHH!!!!” Senna cried out less so in pain but instead frustration.
This chain had lifted her off the ground before whipping back down and slamming her into the ground with enough force that the concrete exploded and sent shrapnel flying while the auction house shook dangerously and threatened to collapse.
The majority of those in the auction house were alerted by this, their eyes squinting in consternation. The wealthy elites all had their bodyguards move closer to protect them in the event that things became unsafe while the auction house guards all went into action.
There was still some time before the auction, so a number of the attendees left the venue to watch the battle. One of those was Duchess Montageau, more so out of curiosity than anything.
As everyone quickly appeared around the windows or otherwise on top of the building to watch the battle in the distorted space, the police had finally navigated through the distorted reality and were close to arriving.
The Golden Core realm auction house guards acted first, drawing swords so sharp they stung the eye. They would have simply cut the group down, but with the police watching, they restrained themselves.
“Stop this battle at once!” One of the guards commanded in a powerful tone.
They cut apart the demonic chains flying about the battlefield and sent out giant palm attacks made of golden energy. The ordinary demons hurriedly dodged, but the latter were too powerful for them.
The cultivators moved so fast the eye couldn’t track them, and it was unknown what technique they used, but the lesser demons abruptly fell unconscious. Several bones had been broken, but nobody was viciously injured.
“I could use some help here!”
One of the cultivators panicked as he held onto the arm of Senna, her hand piercing his abdomen and causing blood to flow out.
The area around the demi-fallen fae was covered in blood, mostly of her own. She tore apart chains that pierced her one after another before striking back at anything around her. One of the cultivators had tried to physically suppress her and this was the result.
She had managed to grab his core, the source of his cultivation strength. Once that was destroyed, he would lose all of his cultivation and have to start from the beginning again.
Before anyone could come to his aid, Senna ripped that core out along with a mass of blood and flesh. He looked in despair as it was crushed in her hand before the enormous amount of spiritual qi it contained broke free in a violent explosion, sending his now tattered and barely alive body through the wall and into the nearby building.
“Little fae, it’s over!” Astaroth appeared again, taking advantage of the opportunity to conjure multiple chains and successfully suppress the now weakened rabid girl.
“GRAHGHHGH!!!!” She growled and struggled, but couldn’t break free this time as over a dozen chains pierced through her body and held her suspended in the air.
“How are you still holding on? Despite losing your mind, you didn’t kill the demons that still have a human soul inside. You also didn’t grow any closer to fully falling, how intriguing! There must still be a trace of reasoning under that animalistic side.
“Demon, you have gone too far!” The final Golden Core cultivator attacked the demon duke, several flying swords striking from multiple angles so fast they were streaks of light.
“Hmph.”
Those swords were blocked by a spherical mana shield before flying off and vanishing through several small portals, reemerging and stabbing into the cultivator who was controlling them.
*Cough*
“Magic!?” The cultivator’s body was quickly soaked in blood as he cried out in astonishment.
“Magic originated from us demons, why would we not be able to use it? Foolish cultivator, you have grown up in a greenhouse and are too weak.”
Astaroth’s shadow shot out from his feet and opened its jaws like a carnivorous beast before biting away half of the cultivators body, leaving him to look on with astonishment trying to understand how he died.
*Weeeee~~~*
A police siren broke the air as the authorities finally arrived above the bloody scene.
The giant airship with the police’s logo projected out the side descending over the field while a platoon of fully armed airships followed, their weapons pointed towards the group.
Despite only being a mid Foundation Establishment cultivator, Captain Reeves led the force and jumped from the airship before it landed. He stood atop his flying sword and frowned as he looked towards the collapsed Thomas and captured Senna.
“Halt, you are all under arrest!”
Astaroth didn’t fear the people who came, but he knew they were only the first. The Protectorate would be here next, and he did not wish to fight a battle of attrition with the human government. He had other things he wanted much more, such as Senna’s body for his own. After that, he would see if they still dared challenge him.
He shot another barrage of hellfire balls into the sky, but mana shields automatically activated on the aircraft and blocked those that would have hit, the other merely flying into the night sky and vanishing into the stars like a drop of water in the ocean.
“Tch, how annoying,” The demon commented as he pulled Senna towards him and reached out to grab Thomas with his telekinetic powers.
An unrelenting rain of large caliber bullets fell upon him in retaliation of the fireballs though, forcing him to focus his power on defending himself and give up on grabbing Thomas. He only really needed Senna, so he quickly activated his powers and formed a door out of the cracks in the concrete.
Him, and all his surviving demon subordinates sank into the ground and vanished from sight.
Losing its source, the demonic energy corrupting the ran rampart for a while before beginning to dissipate, causing everything the gradually return to normal.
Captain Reeves landed on the ground in front of a bruised and battered Thomas lying face down on the ground, seemingly unconscious.
“Care to explain what the fuck I just saw?” He asked the ‘corpse’.
Thomas lifted his head and looked up at the serious police captain, helplessly laughing, “Hey, drug- ahem, Captain Reeves, I got duped. It’s not my fault though, you need to go catch that demon and put him in handcuffs. He broke the law.”
Anthony Reeves looked at the corpses and blood scattered about, then at the audience who were watching from a safe location.
“Fucking vultures, just watching this crap like its a sport. Asshole, I don’t care what I have to do, I will keep you in handcuffs this time!”
The police captain hauled grabbed Thomas’ arms and forced them behind his back before attaching a bulky pair of handcuffs that were designed to suppress all forms of power. This generally worked on superpowers, mana, and spiritual qi below a certain limit.
Some of the more uncanny power systems that appeared from time to time were immune to this suppression however, and Thomas just happened to fall under this criteria.
What Captain Reeves attached was a modified edition of this meant precisely for Thomas. It suppressed blood flow and constantly scrambled their mind with illusions, effectively keeping him in a constant daze. No ordinary villain could be placed in these cuffs else they were likely to die.
Thomas had proven to be immortal, so this wasn’t a concern.
Once handcuffed, Captain Reeves hauled Thomas over his shoulder and sent a menacing glare to the amused onlookers before heading back into the main airship.
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