“Fools. Fools to the last.” Lois says as her body fades away.
Miller and Ashton stand over the dying Demon. Her head lies separated from her body as her remains fade into nothingness. After a long, protracted battle, Miller sliced off her head with Ashton delivering the final blow to her head itself, causing the last of her energy to be extinguished. With nothing left, Lois dies, her final sight being the emergence of the Leech Lord Demon and the swarm of Leeches flying.
“It’s too late. Soon we’ll devour all of you, and nothing will be left of you. Demonkind will….”
Zeng Hai fires a gun, blasting apart Lois’s head, leaving no trace of her. “Enough of that. No wonder our ancestors worked hard to eliminate these foul things. They are quite verbose.”
“That was amazing, Miss!” Ashton yells.
Zeng Hai smirks. “It’s nothing. Anyway, we have other issues to deal with now.” She stares ahead at the Demon floating above the ocean. “That grotesque thing has to die.”
“What do they even expect us to do against that?” Tan asks.
Fiona sighs. “Do they just want us to hold it down until someone from the capital can come deal with it?”
“That’d take days!?” Rufus yells out.
“We’d all be dead before then. There must be some way to kill that thing,” Miller says.
Sam lowers their head. “I don’t know. That beam of light couldn’t destroy it, and that’s an incredible weapon.”
Zeng Hai pauses. “Sending Missy out would be dangerous. She’s strong, but I doubt even she could kill that beast. She could hold it down for a time, but that’s it.”
“Missy?” Faye asks.
“Missy is the Miss’s pet. She’s a massively incredible sea beast. We found it when we came here, and the Miss tamed it so easily.”
“Come now, Ashton. Don’t tell them all our secrets.”
“Oops, sorry.”
“It’s of no matter. In this situation, we are supposed to be coming together, anyway.” She laughs. “Besides, it’s not like I can’t crush them sometime later.”
“Milady, please don’t be so rude,” Emily says.
Voron laughs. “She has a point. Lady Hai will be the one to sit upon the throne in the end,, anyway.”
“Confident, aren’t we?” Ivar says.
Tisha rolls her eyes. “Come on, it’s not like Glyn wants the throne for himself, anyway.”
“I know, but… it feels annoying for them to think it’s a foregone conclusion.”
“That’s just Voron. Dude is loud, as he is large. But we have other things to focus on.” Tisha turns as a swarm of leeches flies out towards the group. “The fight’s not over yet.”
Fiona smirks. “Good. I wasn’t satisfied with that fight before! What about you, big guy?” She smacks Zanrit’s back.
He nods. “I’ll keep fighting as long as I need, for everyone’s sake.”
Tan flies up on his shoulder. “Just keep yourself safe, too. But I’ll watch your back if you can’t.”
Faye climbs up on Zanrit’s back. “Come on, don’t start flirting in front of me. I don’t want the last thing I see before I die is you guys getting cute.”
“Huh, I wasn’t trying to flirt!?” Tan yells out.
Zanrit smirks. “She’s just teasing you. Trying to relieve tension, I guess.”
“Oh… I doubt that.”
Faye smirks. “Maybe, maybe not.”
As the group stares ahead at the approaching leeches, Sam catches sight of something flying in from above. Miller nods as Sam points out the object rocketing in at top speeds. He nods and grabs his sword, ready for anything, as everyone else prepares their weapons. As a flaming sphere crashes down before the group, Miller rushes in, swinging his sword, only for it to collide with another blade.
“Is that how you greet someone? That’s rather rude, don’t you think?” Xia Bai says, blocking Miller’s blow with her sword.
“Xia Bai!?”
Miller pulls back his sword and stares down at the Draconoid as she stands with Anluan standing behind her. “It’s been a minute…. I guess.”
“Last time I saw you, we were trying to kill each other.”
“I mean. That’s not too uncommon, is it?”
Anluan sighs. “We don’t have the time for this. We need to focus on the task at hand.”
“Who’s this guy?” Otso asks.
Tisha stares at the two and reaches for her chest. “This feels like…”
“We are two additional Pieces Glyn acquired. Sadly, we’ve been separated from our lord as he’s gone to save the one called Mila.” Anluan explains, then points to Xia Bai. “Although you already have a history with this one.”
She rolls her eyes. “Shut up. They said it already; we have more important things to worry about.”
Miller nods. “We can discuss whatever is going on later. For now, let’s focus on the battle.”
“Good. Rather not start thinking about stuff right now.” She says, turning away from Miller.
Tisha shakes her head. “When Glyn gets back, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”
The leeches draw in close as Rufus fires off a fireball at the horde, with Emily joining in, firing off into the air with her guns. They blast through the first wave of the horde as another group rapidly slips through past their fallen brethren. Charging in towards the beach, Xia Bai unleashes a burst of flames as everyone else prepares to go on the attack.
“No one here is allowed to die. We fight to win and see a new tomorrow!” Zeng Hai yells as spikes of earth shoot out from below, taking out dozens of leeches. “Ashton. By my order, unleash your full power here and now!”
Ashton nods as he rushes ahead, his armor glowing with a radiant light as he pulls back his fist. “Yes, Maim!”
Out over the sea, the Demon known as the Leech Lord floats, kept aloft by the remains of the airship. Staring out into the distance, the ancient being has only one thing on its mind: destruction. A destructive unconscious desire burned into its very being as it stares at everything around it. Deep inside its mass, the Leech, once known as Sebastian, sits within its core, feeding off the excess energy from the Leech Lord, growing larger and fatter from its haul, as he orders his brethren off to destroy anything and everything nearby.
The Leech Lord stares off into the distance towards an uninhabited island off into the distance. Energy gathers between its twin heads as every orifice on its body opens at once. It fires the energy in a concentrated beam, destroying the island and leaving nothing but a hole in the ocean as it floats forward, gathering more energy as steam comes out of its holes.
“
We shall have this world relearn the singular truth of existence. Those beneath must know their place.
” It speaks as energy sparks off its colossal body. “
Humanity must be retaught where it belongs.
”
As it floats ahead, its gaze focuses down on the island where Zang Hei orders the group to fight the oncoming swarm of leeches. “
Humanity must learn its place!
”