2197 Face the Darkness (Part 3)

"We have no idea what happens to the guys we squash but one thing is for sure. If we fall in here, we're done for good. There will be no second chance. Lith is my brother and I have lots of amends to make to him. What's your excuse?" Trion asked.

"Had you grown as old as I did, kid, you would have learned that loyalty is just purpose over time." Locrias wasn't new to being outnumbered, but he usually had his equipment with him.

The only silver lining in that unfair battle was that while the souls of the Demons had their full strength, the black invaders were mere echoes of their former selves with barely a mind to them.

One hit was all it took to dispose of them.

"I am loyal to the Kingdom because of my duty and my family. Now I'm also loyal to Lith for the same reasons. I'm not letting my homeland down against Thrud and there's no risk I wouldn't take to see my wife and daughter smile just one more time!"

Valia and Varegrave nodded as they assumed a square formation around the Abomination's black sphere, to cover it from every side. The Demons' glowing figures were made of energy so they would never tire, no matter how many enemies they fought or for how long.

Alas, the same applied to the invading souls and their numbers seemed to increase by the second. Now that Lith had willingly opened the gate that allowed the wandering souls to interact with him, anyone near the scene of the fight could join the onslaught.

There was no call to be answered, no mission to fulfill in exchange for a second life, just an open door leading to a free buffet. To make matters worse, the Golden Griffon was filled with restless souls.

They belonged to the Forgotten, to those who had died inside the lost city without being chosen as students, and many came from the inmates that the "Professors" had trained to death or had died on the battlefield.

The first wave of invaders had been comprised of just a few souls. The second amounted to a little over a dozen. Then they had become dozens, and then hundreds.

The Demons swatted several of them with a single strike but the black souls were so many that they formed a living tide. The only reason the Demons had yet to be destroyed was that the invaders ignored them, focusing on their prize.

The Demons didn't hold enough energy to allow a black soul to turn into an Abomination so whoever killed them would have only lost time. Yet wave after wave, the Demons kept piling up damage.

Their light had grown dim and they had all lost at least one limb to a counterattack.

"Fuck it." Trion couldn't pant out of fatigue but his figure had started to flicker in an out of existence, proving that he was at the end of his line anyway. "I can't believe that even in death I keep being a failure of a brother.

"Lith will die because of me and once again, I can't even say goodbye to my mother."

"Defeat is an integral part of the life of a warrior, kid. We did our best and I have no regrets." Locrias only had his right leg left. "It was an honor serving with you lot."

"Same." Valia nodded, never looking away from the incoming tide. "Just one question. There are only four of us and those bastards beat us to a pulp more times than I can count. Then how come none of those who got past us has put a dent in Lith's life force?"

"The Chaos must work as a barrier, burning all the souls. We must have killed enough of them to take off the b-" The words died in Varegrave's mouth as a fifth blue figure moved toward them from the black sphere.

It was a familiar yet unknown man, dressed in the weirdest clothes the Demons had ever seen. He wore a shirt and pants so tight that they could see every muscle or lack thereof under them, underpants over the pants, and a cape.

On his chest there was something that looked like a big slithering snake, offering no protection and working as a target for the heart. On top of that, he had a single ridiculous lock of curled hair in the middle of his forehead. 

"Nope, it was me." The man shook his head. "You guys are clearly dumb so I've come to explain to you how this works. We are souls. We don't fight with our bodies. I mean, do you really think you still have muscles?"

"We all know we are souls, kid!" Locrias said with a snarl. "That's why I'm fighting with my willpower. Our bodies are made of energy and we can control them just like we do with our spells."

"Wrong again." The man shrugged. "We have no way to use mana. Willpower is as useless as brute strength. We are souls, we have neither minds nor bodies."

"Stop talking in riddles and give us a straight answer!" Valia could see the black tide approaching, but the man barely cared.

"Gods, this is why I don't deal with idiots. I don't speak stupids, but this time I'll make an exception." The man rolled his eyes and snorted in annoyance. "We fight with who we are, not with what we have."

He slowly turned his head around, emitting a beam of red light from his eyes that blasted the frontlines of the incoming black souls to shreds.

"Why do you think I'm dressed like this?" He pointed at his ridiculous clothes. "This is what my favorite childhood hero looked like. As long as I remember about him, how I dreamed about being like him, I am him.

"You guys are far from gone. Do you want to heal? Remember who you are. Do you want your weapons? Just remember how it felt holding them in your hands. Why do you think you have all those dreams while you are in the Void Sigils?"

The Demons focused on their good memories and suddenly their bodies were whole again and their light had returned.

"Why are you doing this?" Trion looked at his old equipment for a second, replacing it with a replica of Saefel's Set. The First King was his childhood hero, yet donning his gear didn't make Trion feel any stronger.

"For your same reason. I'm here to save my grampa." The man shrugged.

"That's bullshit! Lith's daughter has yet to be born, how can he have a nephew and a dead one at that?" Locrias said in outrage. "Stop lying to us. Who are you and what do you really want?"

"He's expecting a daughter?" The man ignored Locrias questions, his smile brimming with joy like the rest of his body did with new energy.

He turned toward the enemies, emitting a burst of blue light that spread in every direction and decimated their numbers.

"How can you be so much stronger than us?" Valia asked while disposing of the few surviving black souls.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Fight with who you are!"