The body of the Great Jackal fell with a loud thud on the ground, and a pool of blood quickly formed below it's lifeless form. Its head rolled to the side of the Arena, and the malevolent light within its eyes dimmed into oblivion.
Raph landed on the ground with ease, the aura dissipating into the air, as his gaze drifted to his handiwork.
"Hmm..nothing better than a dead Jackal..". He said with a sigh, turning away to scan the stands.
He noticed the changes that had occurred, and not to his surprise, everything had played out as he expected.
Despite the large number of Devo babies, their strength was a far cry from strong when singled out.
And the twelve great families had made quick work of them, and that included the dome that blocked the people.
Kira Merlin had brought it down before the carnage escalated.
Another sigh escaped his lips.
Just as things had escalated into carnage, the Great Families had worked together and quickly reversed the situation.
A day would be remembered for certain events, including the joint defense of the Colosseum of the Great Families.
It wasn't often you got to witness this….well, that's if you survived to witness it.
He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, his thoughts racing. "Demonic Humans huh? I wonder where they are hiding". A cold chill exuded from his lips, and a shade of darkness welled within his eyes.
They were a problem in his past life as well, but they never showed themselves until after his first year at the Academy.
His brows furrowed as a past memory played in his mind. "The twelfth". He muttered under his breath.
The twelfth family had a lot to do with the Demonic humans and their excommunication was as a result of their plot.
But their plans had caused so much death in the past..future?. Well…especially in the Academy.
If the twelfth had something to do with this incident, then shouldn't one of them have shown themself by now?
His thoughts were a mess, with too much information leading to a chain effect, causing him to recall other events and incidents that will play out this way.
It seemed like something would still occur, regardless of whether he changed the current past.
He sighed once again, bottling up his thoughts and snapping back to reality.
'Better to focus on the present for now; I'll plan my next move once I start at the Academy'.
He turned away from the Stands towards the body of the Jackal and then towards the hole it emerged from.
He contemplated deeply for a while, his body tensing, as he walked towards the hole.
"It made its way up? But how….was there an underground system?" He wondered. This was something he wasn't aware of, but he could deduce a few points.
The demon could have been summoned, or most likely a ritual…since humans were killed specifically by a cut on their throats.
'These demonic people clearly needed the blood' His gaze was fixed on the hole as he approached it. 'The blood was a means of summoning it, especially now when the plane between the Demonic realm and the Mortal realm is at its strongest'.
Well, most of his deductions were correct, but did that really help him pinpoint the perpetrators? Who knew, but if he decided to narrow down the number of Demonic Humans with the ability to summon from the Demonic Realm, it would lead him to a single conclusion:
"The 7 Greater Sins." He said out loud once he reached the hole.
Quite frankly, the Red Peacemakers were a notorious band that was...difficult but eventually destroyed, but the 7 Greater Sins? Ha! They were people in their own world.
Even in his past life, he was unable to meet them in battle, but two had claimed the lives of Dan Jang Lin on the battlefield, and many more caused their fall towards defeat. But at one point, after the Greater Sin, Luxuria, known as the Greater Sin of Lust, was defeated thanks to the Divine Family, the rest were quickly found and defeated.
"Though we never made it to the Devil King in the end." Raph raised a brow as he peeked into the hole, but as expected, there was nothing. Only a pitch, onyx darkness.
His body shook at the sound of a masculine voice, and a trembling sensation gripped his heart as it began to beat rapidly. His eyes widened, and his pupils constricted, as an aura too sinister and too evil hovered over him. It was a familiar aura, something he had felt many times already.
But something felt different about this one, thicker and stronger, almost royal. To the point that the individual got behind him so easily and so cleanly that he couldn't even feel their presence. For the first time in a while, he felt death hanging over him like a guillotine.
"You said 7 Greater Sins just now, didn't you?" The voice was like a chill whisper, suffused with a fiery will, and a man with red eyes and black pupils claimed ownership of such a majestic voice. He was 6 ft 7 in height and had a masculine, lean, athletic build with bright brown skin. He seemed to have been standing next to Raph, as an aura of strength suffused his very pores.
He had an extra pair of eyes on his forehead and crimson red hair, with his chest bare, but an old cloak and dirty baggy pants covered the rest. He had appeared like the breeze, taking his place next to Raph like he had been there from the very beginning.
The man was currently folding his left hand, while his right hand held his chin, and his malevolent gaze was fixed on Raph.
"Talk, human, how do you know of us?" His voice sent a chill down his spine, and Raph could almost certainly tell that this was someone he couldn't fend off.
"....I...I don't know what you're talking about." He replied, unable to even lift his head. 'This feeling...this feeling of weakness, once again.'
In a world crawling with the unknown, where your next stop could be your last, had just a single rule: the strong survive, and the weak...well, they mostly die.
"Hmm~, I see." The man said, as he turned away from Raph, which actually eased a lot of the pressure Raph felt. The man's expression had been the same since he appeared, devoid of all emotions. He wasn't about to let a human 'kid' get the best of him.
He raised his right hand in the air, stretching out the long, slender, hard claws of his fingers, and in the next fraction of a millisecond, a sword sliced through his hand, causing a gust of wind to blow as blood splashed into the air like a fountain. At the same time, a subtle force pushed Raph away from the man, and the man turned his body in a frenzy as he swung his left fist forward.
His fist collided with a glowing longsword, and a gust of energy created a deep depression across the entire diameter of the Arena.
"Ohh~, How dare you, bastard!" The man's voice trembled with rage, a stark contrast to his previous tone.
His brows arched, and his expression contorted in disgust. His right hand regenerated instantly, and he swung it down in an attempt to blow Michaelo away.
"Hm" With a slight grunt, Michaelo pushed the man backward, a gust of wind blowing behind him due to the force, followed by a pressure that pulled him deeper into the ground.
"How dare you!" The man's voice contorted, his eyes pulsating with rage, as a familiar emotion swept over his expression. What was it, though?
The man bit down hard, pulling his body forward in an outburst of energy, and swung his hands forward with glowing, thick miasma coating his arms. Michaelo's gaze remained unshaken, his stoic expression etched on his face, as he sidestepped and sliced the man's two arms.
Blood oozed out like a fountain, but within the next fraction of a second, he regenerated once again, swinging his elbow toward Michaelo. Michaelo dodged the attack, and as the man's right leg lifted off the ground, aiming at Michaelo, he pulled his sword to his chest and blocked the kick. The collision caused an explosion of energy and a sonic boom.
"Who are you?" Michaelo asked, his tone even and cold, with a calculative glint in his eyes.
"Who are you for me to reply?" The man cried out in protest as he spun laterally in the air and swung the heel of his foot down toward Michaelo. Michaelo skillfully maneuvered himself backward, using his right leg as a pivot in front and his left leg as a pivot behind, charging forward as the man's leg missed him by a long shot.
He raised his sword in the air and sliced it down, cutting off the man's leg. The man grunted in pain, cursing under his breath, when another presence appeared in front of him - a fist flying forward at the same time.
"Did you not hear him? Who are you?" Chun Kang Lin asked as his fist collided with the man's face, causing a gut-wrenching sound to echo, as tooth, blood, and flesh erupted into the air.
The man was blown away due to the force but was stopped by a dome that caused an electrocuting force, stunning him into a world of pain.
He screamed out as Kira Merlin floated in the sky.
"How dare you cause trouble in the presence of the Twelve Great Patriarchs?"