I Was Called A Demon

The kitsune swung her sword and unleashed a simple Spiritual Wave to deter the outer disciples from approaching too close. Her soul, empowered by her cultivation technique, produced the very ghostflames that had given their name to the temple, and when she unleashed her Spiritual Wave, those flames were allowed to rampage around the battlefield.

Although it was a mere second realm skill, her power permitted it to endanger all four of her opponents with ease, and if they wanted to attack, they would need to overcome energy that is supported by a planar anchor.

‘However, if I don’t go for the kill, all of these morons will be able to endure… Tch,’ Xue Yaling raised her free hand and closed it into a fist, quietly using Compress Spirit to amplify her flames.

Then, she watched the four until finding one that seemed weakest – the very woman that had shouted at her earlier, someone too insignificant to bother with outside of combat. Here, however, every combatant removed would mean a far easier time for her and the other two, so she didn’t hesitate to use her compressed power to release the very skill that she had once offered Bianca and learned that the little demon was unfortunately limited in her apparent learning capacities.

A spike reminiscent of her very soul, composed of teal flames, shot out from the palm of her hand and flew for that woman’s leg, but she could tell a moment before it happened that she would not succeed.

One of the other disciples, another man of no particular note, hastened to the woman’s side and just barely managed to block the Soul Spike with the edge of the top blade of his guandao, dispersing the soul energy. It was a close call – an extremely close call – and it happened to unfortunately go in that woman’s favour.

“Damn Blazing Skies… they handed out artefacts to little cubs like you?” Xue Yaling grimaced, “Low-grade, but still…”

“We are the representatives of the sect, so isn’t it obvious that we would have been equipped?”

‘Don’t talk about things you don’t understand, child. Outer disciples are nigh worthless, and even Xi Village gets a middle disciple when one of the sects visit. They didn’t take this especially seriously, and seeing as only six ended up here… eight, maybe nine in total? Yeah, if Bianca wasn’t some random girl with a lucky inheritance or gift, she would have had to be in the fourth or fifth realm to ever fool a third realm disciple..’ she had to halt that line of thought, ‘Don’t appreciate all these ignorant folk showing up, but perhaps it’s for the best…’

The more her opponent knew, the less of an advantage she had, so if she happened to unleash something that they didn’t know of, their overconfidence could lead to their sweet and very much deserved downfall.

Her compressed soul energy had loosened somewhat thanks to her use of the Soul Spike, so she used Compress Spirit once more to push her energy to the brink, then let out some spare power to produce another Spiritual Wave to ward off another attempt by the outer disciples to attack her. Looking out for another weak point, she inevitably found her attention drawn to that same woman, who seemed to have the most flaws and weaknesses out of everyone in the group, even the two she wasn’t fighting.

It made the fact that she was apparently significant enough to be protected all the more surprising. If not for that, she would have assumed that this woman had joined the others against their will, tagging along just to fill the ranks and ready to be discarded at a moment’s notice. Such behaviour wasn’t entirely unexpected from the so-called righteous sects, after all.

“What is with that look, you kitsune demon? Is seeing your superiors this intimidating?” that woman asked, looking to the others, “Come on everyone, attack!”

As needless as the call was, it did seem to bring slightly greater coordination to the group. They managed to attack roughly at the same time, one of them taking her side, two going for her back, and the last one, the annoying woman of strange importance, headed for their front.

She resisted the urge to spit out some words of wisdom and instead let her sword loose, putting it into a small clump of ghostflame that easily blocked the stabs and slashes from the foes behind her. It had a similar physical strength to her own, so it gave her a moment to stretch out both hands and focus upon the irritating woman.

‘Destabilise Spirit.’

Her powerful soul energy rushed out and enveloped the woman, sinking into her depths until it reached her soul, a weak flame that befitted her apparent nature. With the power of her soul, she forced the flame to sputter and weaken, dulling the light for the briefest of moments.

Then, she caught her sword and employed a weak movement skill – she did have technical knowledge of an appropriate skill for her archetype, but her realm was not sufficient to support its full usage – to close the gap, directing her blade for the woman’s legs. It would be the simplest way of taking her out of the fight, and with her soul destabilised to a sufficient degree, even the planar energy gathered in the guandao would be useless at stopping her.

And yet, just as she was about to strike, the two she had distracted managed to return and block her strike together, putting their guandaos’ together and managing to absorb the blow.

“Oh for fuck’s…” she unleashed another wave of ghostflame as she tried to restrain herself from wasting a few minutes cursing the idiots that had no idea how to attack in a strategic manner, ‘Had they simply allowed her to be hit, I would have been occupied for a moment, and since she wouldn’t have even died, they could have injured me with no casualties! These idiots! How low must I go to predict them?’

Xue Yaling glanced in the direction of the other two, and found that while Bianca didn’t have the slightest clue of what to do – not surprising, and therefore less aggravating than the incompetence of the outer disciples – Song Ming was actually handling herself quite well.

“Song Ming, take this one!”

She employed her movement skill again and appeared beside the outer disciple that had stayed behind her, surprising them with a quick Spiritual Wave and using it as cover to grab onto their overly elaborate clothes. Her proximity limited the disciple’s ability to swing back at her, and before the woman could come up with an appropriate response, Xue Yaling directed her energy to her arms and threw her over.

“Wha- A-Alright, I can handle it,” Song Ming replied, having to adjust her positioning in order to see both of her current foes at once.

‘You didn’t need to say anything, since I can perceive it. Your physique is glimmering more brightly now. With a proper push…’ the kitsune turned back and focused on the three foes she now had, ‘It shouldn’t be too difficult to incapacitate at least one of them… Hm, if the woman’s safety is deemed to be a priority, for whatever reason, then perhaps she wouldn’t step in to save them in the same manner, and I would have the necessary opportunity to take one of them out… Wonder what those disciples see in her.’

 

Although she tried to sound relatively confident, Song Ming wasn’t sure if she could handle it. The strange sensation that was apparently associated with her nascent physique was growing within her again, but it wasn’t the most consistent in the benefits that it granted her. More importantly, if it was going to activate like before, it might do so too late, or it might distract her in a manner that would offer her opponents the opportunity to take her down.

Nevertheless, it was too late to say anything, and she did have a certain degree of trust in Xue Yaling’s judgement. She may be a kitsune, but at the very least she was a realm above Song Ming, and clearly knew more than she did as well, so unless she was acting maliciously, she was reliable.

In this case, it was hard to imagine malice, seeing as Xue Yaling was the most likely one to be outright killed in this situation. She was in a high realm and not even human – by certain standards, at least – so she would pose the most threat, whereas Bianca was in the first realm and relatively easy to subdue and bring back to their sect.

‘Of course, with the way her opponent is acting, I’m not so sure they want her alive… I’ll try to help you, Bianca!’

She tightened her grip on her blade and allowed more of her power to surge throughout her body, causing some of her blue energy to shine through her skin, forming thin lines akin to veins and arteries that covered her body. In the process, she picked up the same glimmering power that had supported her in felling the Treading Earth, and channelled it all into empowering her body and blade, meeting her attackers directly.

Her perception of time and place blurred quickly as she allowed her instincts to dominate her movements. Since her own experience was limited, trying to think through every step would simply decrease her chances of success.

More importantly, when she allowed her body to do what felt right, the glimmering within her grew brighter, and the more she was pressured by the outer disciples of the Blazing Skies Sect, the quicker it did so. It was hard for her to keep track of time as she fought, but the only thing she could be sure of was that she was standing her group, and the other two were doing the same.

 

Then, it happened. A burst of power shook her body, surging out without her control. The glimmering light turned to a powerful glow that felt like it literally tore out of her flesh, spilling onto the outside world.

It manifested into strange markings on the ground, circles over a metre in diameter that had an inherently righteous glow, complete with incomprehensible symbols that had an even brighter shine.

“What is-”

An overwhelming light was joined by the sounds of explosions, the earth shaking as those runes detonated, their power being released upwards in a great beam and surge of might. It stopped the fight for everyone involved, though only for a moment. Xue Yaling knew to press her advantage, her three foes knew not to sit still and let themselves be carved into pieces, Bianca wasn’t even looking in Song Ming’s direction while her foe ignored the temporary blindness and continued attacking.

It was only Song Ming and the two that remained at a standstill even after that. The outer disciples struggled to remain out of the runes that showed up moments after the first ones exploded, and since each rune that manifested did so near Song Ming, it was a massive risk to go in for an attack before they stopped appearing.

On the other hand, Song Ming was utterly overwhelmed by the power flooding out of her body. She tried to control it, but such efforts soon faded as her vision and mind alike were flooded with the same light, seeming to permeate throughout every part of her, pouring out from every pore and igniting every drop of energy within her. Rather than her unleashing the power of some physique, it was the physique that used her body to fuel itself, burning brighter and brighter with each moment.

‘This… is this what happened to…’ she struggled to finish the thought as everything blended together into the same bluish-white, righteous light.

 

‘Shit. On one hand, that looks like the Crusader’s Runes. An incredible physique, said to be linked to the Conqueror’s Eye, and one that can greatly empower anyone that uses it wisely… On the other, she isn’t in control,’ although Xue Yaling had turned away and continued fighting, she had not stopped paying attention, nor did she disregard a single factor about the eruption of power, ‘It seems like her body cannot handle the state of the physique, leading to the awakening attempting to burn her out in a single go…’

She focused her energy within her hand, grabbed the end of a guandao being swung by the annoying orange-haired woman, and employed Spiritual Wave to force her back, then unleashed a series of Soul Spikes in a row, all aiming for different parts of her. They weren’t composed of energy that was as compressed as she might usually prefer, but it was enough to force the woman completely on the defensive, and also distract the other two.

‘I don’t especially want someone with a physique that rare to die here, nor would it be conducive to getting Bianca to remain with me… And since I need to investigate her situation, I shouldn’t let her get captured, either…’

It was a frustrating fact, but she couldn’t allow herself to be distracted for too long. As soon as she determined the rough area affected by Song Ming’s energy, she hastened towards it, forcing the three outer disciples to follow, then at the last moment she employed her movement skill again, dashing past the orange-haired disciple and employing another weak Spiritual Wave that was imbued with more physical force than before.

Ideally, she’d have pushed them all into an exploding rune and forced them to be weakened, if not outright incapacitated – they probably wouldn’t be killed, as it would require them to be utterly incompetent – but they managed to stop themselves just a step away from the latest explosion.

‘Alright, they can’t retreat as easily now, and they can’t move aside as easily either, so-’

“Aaah!” Song Ming suddenly cried out, and Xue Yaling couldn’t help but grimace.

Her spiritual perception spotted that the situation just got even worse. Before, Song Ming’s body had been able to handle the energy expenditure, but now it was beginning to tax her body, going beyond her current limits. Perhaps in a higher realm, she might be able to unleash this power with ease, but at the second realm, using a relatively basic technique, she would do nothing more but burn herself up.

This was naturally an issue in many regards, and so she had to figure out what to do. More importantly, she needed to figure out what to do about Bianca hearing this as well, and having a far less calm reaction.

“Song Ming!” she called out, almost forgetting about her foe’s presence as she tried to rush towards her… girlfriend? Xue Yaling was still a little hazy in this regard.

Whatever their relationship was, Bianca rushed straight for her, and her opponent did the only obvious thing and got in the way, doing her best to impede each and every movement with more precision than she managed to display during any portion of the preceding fight. The priorities of the outer sect disciples truly astounded her.

“Don’t you dare! You’re not getting a single step closer!” the disciple proclaimed proudly.

‘Now that I think about it… I suppose it isn’t unreasonable. If she thinks that Bianca might have some ability to assist or save Song Ming during the usage of the Crusader’s Runes, then stopping her would be most reasonable. Besides, even if Song Ming dies, it’s going to be their word against nobody else. They might just claim that I or Bianca killed her,’ Xue Yaling reasoned as she focused on keeping her three opponents from moving over to Bianca’s side of the battlefield.

 

“You’re not getting over there!” the woman stopped Bianca’s progress yet again, “How many times must I stop you?”

“Why? Why won’t you let me help her?”

“A demon like you, helping anyone? Give me a break!” she slashed with her guandao and forced Bianca back, “If you really wanted to help her, you’d lay down and die and give us time to figure out what’s wrong with her!”

‘Why… All of these people keep going on about demons, demons, demons…’ Bianca gritted her teeth as she responded to another strike with a slash of her own, managing to block the guandao effectively, to her own surprise more so than her foe’s, ‘I’m just trying to help her, to do something, and she’s in the way! And then, I’m somehow the demon! Get out of the way!’

She forced herself to go on the offensive, to push on, to seek any opening to get away, and she found the energy on her weapon growing stronger with each step she made. Of course, that didn’t matter much when she lacked the strength to cut through the metal outright, so all she ended up doing was applying more and more force, trying to push on and on, to get past, to overcome this damn woman that wouldn’t let her do… something, anything to help Song Ming.

Bianca poured all of her strength in her every hit, going on and on and on and on, but she was unable to make more progress than a step or two. Worse yet, she could tell from the occasional anguished scream that Song Ming was not getting any better, and it made her all the more furious.

“Let me through!” Bianca demanded, slamming her blade against her foe’s weapon so often that even the outer disciple couldn’t find time to respond.

With it, she was just barely able to push her back, but even that wasn’t enough. None of it was enough. To make it worse, she was just looking straight at Song Ming’s suffering expression, her whole body glowing in a manner that couldn’t possibly be healthy. It looked as if she was on the brink of outright exploding with every moment, and yet every moment later somehow made it look even worse than before. It made her heart strain within her chest, beating hard with every moment, feeling as if it might burst the same moment that Song Ming…

‘No! I… I can’t let that happen! I won’t!’ she proclaimed to herself, forcing the Demonic Tyrant to direct even more energy to her weapon and arms, though she barely understood the full nature of its actions. All she knew was that, at one sudden moment, she was able to push the outer disciple to the side, and rush forward.

“Don’t you dare!” the disciple dashed forward and stabbed at Bianca, though she clearly misjudged her speed.

Her guandao ended up in front of Bianca’s path, blocking her again, and just as Bianca wished to grab it and push it out of the way, the disciple slashed with it again, managing to hit her belly just before Bianca dodged aside.

Again, a rush of panic flooded her mind, though the pain was still far, far less severe than it really should have been. Perhaps it was just adrenaline holding back the pain this time, but even if she managed to endure this blow as well, it didn’t dull the frustration even a single bit. She glared at the outer disciple, feeling as if she might crush the knife with how hard she was gripping it.

“B-BiancAAH!” Song Ming’s voice was flooded with pain, and what made it even worse was that she was clearly attempting to call out to Bianca, just as she was already feeling guilty over the fact that she couldn’t do anything to help.

She struggled to imagine a worse scenario, though she didn’t exactly put in the most thought.

“Song Ming!” she shouted back, and when the outer disciple attempted to stop her for the millionth time, she was forced to focus back on her, “Fuck off! LET ME THROUGH!”

Her retaliatory strike managed to push the outer disciple back by a step, but that only seemed to encourage her. The disciple struck back, but more importantly, she stepped in the way again, very deliberately occupying the space between Bianca and Song Ming. She stood close to the exploding runes behind her, just outside of the region within which they appeared and detonated, but that didn’t seem to faze her in the slightest.

‘Why can’t she just get out? Why won’t she move away! Why can’t she just FUCK OFF AND DIE!’

Her vision was suddenly flooded with crackling crimson, and her swing gained a power she had never experienced before. It fell on the main length of the guandao, put there in a hurry by her foe, but it only lasted for a moment.

With an explosion rivalling that of the runes produced by Song Ming, the length of metal shattered, energy bursting out with a light that couldn’t supress the crimson arcs no matter how hard it tried. Some of it seemed to go into Bianca’s mouth, as if it was simply some kind of gas, but she paid no attention to it. Instead, she could only see how her knife sliced the disciple’s neck.

It wasn’t what she had meant to do, but the shower of blood that followed made it clear that she hadn’t merely imagined it. The woman looked at her, eyes agape, as she stumbled back.

And then, a righteous light consumed her as a rune beneath her feet detonated. A mixture of a bloody crimson and fiery red was all that remained, scattering everywhere in a mist that seemed to petrify the entire battlefield.

Then, and only then, it reached her. The reality of what she had just done hit her like a truck – a big, heavy one at that. Worse yet, the overwhelming stench of blood mixed with whatever other substances had blended with it left her reeling and on the verge of throwing up, though she managed to hold it back against all odds.

“Li Yong! Y-You… demon! Killer!” a voice reached her from elsewhere on the battlefield, though she lacked the strength to look in that direction, “R-Retreat, everyone! Back!”

Before she knew it, she found herself on her knees, breathing hard with the hopes of getting even a drop of air not polluted by the stench of death. She heard various voices in the background, exclamations and cries of pain – likely from Song Ming, though she couldn’t bear to rise to check on her – until something different broke the noise. A chain of fiery explosions, unlike any that she had heard so far, so powerful that it outright shook the land and forced her to look op.

Bianca saw numerous ghostflames exploding in the forest, shaking trees and setting them alight with ease, though one flew towards Song Ming and past all of the exploding runes before landing on her face.

Then, it suddenly morphed into a strange sheet, as if it was made from flaming paper, with numerous dark symbols upon it. The flaming sheet flashed, then a light rippled throughout the air, as if there was an invisible plane of water somewhere in her middle. This ripple somehow erased the glow of the runes around it, and more importantly, caused the light originating from beneath Song Ming’s skin to fade away, until all that was left was a faint glow at the scar on her arm. It was rather unsettling, though after everything else that happened, it was hard to care.

“Bianca! You’re a fucking idiot! You’re lucky I want to keep the both of you alive!” Xue Yaling appeared in her vision, grabbing Song Ming and throwing her over her shoulder, “Get up and follow me!”

“I… I hadn’t meant to-”

“Shut up! They’ve gone for now, but there is no chance they won’t return once their leader calms down,” the kitsune explained, “By that point, we need to be so far away that they will not even consider chasing after us! Do you understand me?”

“Y-Yes-”

“THEN GET UP!” her eyes almost seemed to glow red as she showed her fangs, “I have no patience for this, and if we don’t get to a safe place soon, your girlfriend may die!”

That was enough. She rose, barely finding her footing on still unsteady legs, and hastened towards the kitsune, who began walking away the moment it became clear that she was being followed. Like that, the flaming forest faded, and after a certain while, she barely recognised what she was doing. Judging by the sudden sensation of falling, her last moments of consciousness weren’t exactly glamorous.

 

“L-Li Shen! Li Shen! I… ah… I have a message from… hah…” Wu Taoshi ran out into a clearing where he saw his fellows standing around, and then froze as he observed ghostflame burning through a large swath of the forest, and then a conspicuous absence of one of their number.

“What could Qi Ping have to say that we… we don’t already know?” Li Shen responded, a quiver in her voice that she tried to swallow and move past quickly, “That Bianca is a heartless killer, a demon that has joined up with a kitsune in the third realm. We were able to hold her back, but then Bianca… She… She slaughtered her! She…”

Her breathing grew faster as she lowered her head, her eyes shut as the others were similarly in low spirits.

‘That… I believe her, of course, but what Qi Ping had found…’ Wu Taoshi opened his mouth, but he struggling to find an appropriate thing to say, ‘This… I don’t understand how this can happen… If I say what Qi Ping found, then-’

“So, what was it?”

“I… uh… It might be best if we meet back up first.”

“…” a look of frustration briefly flashed on Li Shen’s face, but it was quickly subdued by the panic, “Fine…”

 

END OF ARC 2