Tread Lightly

I mentally thrash at the Bloody Palm in rage and desperation. Hura is approaching me rapidly despite the efforts of those behind him to slow him down. His wind, water, and clouds are too powerful to break through for any of Johnny, Vernon, or Bonfire. Only every few seconds does a bullet make it past and force the demon to dodge out of the way. As the demon approaches me, just after a sidestep from a shot, electricity curls around his right arm once more.

It seems as though the Demon Of Storms has chosen his way of killing me. Lightning. Luckily for me, that is not very effective because of the Bloody Palms and my own ability to restart my heart when it goes limp.

His sharp blades of wind or even suffocation from his clouds would likely be better, but I won't tell him that. Instead, I give up on the Bloody Palm's help as the artifact disobeys me and breaks our connection. It lasted about twenty minutes, and I'd say that it was pretty worth it.

But now is the time to put up the wall, even with the demon's boots slamming on the muddy sand toward me. I leverage my Daydream and place it back against my elbow, reconstructing the barrier between man and artifact. Then, as Hura motions for another lightning bolt, I summon the Ether within to create my Chainlink Boots.

His lightning has such concussive force that it's likely the boots won't keep me still, but its ability to attract his attention should help.

So as Hura rears back his arm with lightning crackling around it and an entire storm behind him that guards him, I sprint at him full speed. Every step I place concludes with a chain ending with a pointed spear stabbing into the ground. Ether passively flows from the boots, making my feet more stable in the mud beneath me.

Just as Hura throws his arm forward and releases the lightning from his hand, I get close to him. Really close. Close enough that if I had Intervention, I would have fired it. But I don't. Instead, I plant my feet hard into the ground, put my hands over my head, and take the bolt of lightning straight on.

Blue sparks leave the demon's hands and coalesce into a spear of the same crackling color of lightning. The instant that it touches me, I press the will of my Ironheart on my most vital organ. I demand it to stay beating and keep me moving.

The force of the bolt doesn't send me flying this time as it hits me, though. I'm able to stand my ground with the help of Chainlink Boots and only slide back through the mud several feet. But still, I stand.

Electricity courses through me as the even closer proximity to the literal thunderstorm renders me completely deaf. Ears ringing, blood dripping from my eyes, ears, and nose, and my body trembling, I meet him in the eyes.

The demon sneers with hate as he sees my provocation. He now takes the next step to kill me by amping up his voltage. He dashes toward me with electricity crackling on both of his arms as I struggle to recover from the bolt of lightning. The Bloody Palm is helping, but not as much as before. I can feel anger, hate, and something else within it rise as small amounts of healing warmth leave it and enter me.

I'm on my own.

No. I'm not. Johnny, Vernon, and Bonfire are here on the other side of the demon. Virgil is also here. Somewhere. The man is merely waiting for his moment. The moment to slay a demon. We need to give it to him.

I grit my teeth and raise my head at the demon as I, too, move. Slow steps at first, but they rapidly grow in speed. And by the time we meet over the mud caused by his freezing rain, my actions leave thunder in my wake.

I instinctively duck the second I get close to him, and it's a good call. An arc of lighting comes from a swipe of his arm, one that seems to have the power to decapitate me. But instead of taking that damage, I slide underneath and punch out at him.

Only when my fist meets his suit do I notice that the brass knuckles are still on my hands. Only they've been melted to my flesh and turned the same charcoal color. Glee runs through me as I feel the impact of my metallic knuckle on the demon's side. Not just that, but I get a sensation from the knuckles that signal a type of mark. I don't know how else to describe it, but the place where I struck him is left with a slight golden sparkle in my eyes.

Sadly, a wave of air reduces the weight behind my blow, but that does not mean it is without effect. The demon takes a short step back with a sharp exhale from my swing as he swipes at me with his other hand cracking with the intense lightning.

I follow the curve of his arm, a diagonal swing that seeks to cut me in half. I can feel the sharpness of the lightning as he charges it. I'm confident these are different from the bolts. But I have nowhere to dodge and nothing to block the attack. The only thing I can do is get closer to him.

I take a page from Edmund's book. After all, I'm fighting bare hands as he did right now. The old man defended himself by getting closer to his enemies. Something I only understand why now. Because when you're up close, they can't shoot you. When you're really close, they can't slash at you. When your face to face, they can't cut you with lightning. Hand beats just about anything when you're in their face.

An idea also blooms inside and quickly takes place inside my body. A quick blast of Ether from my right foot that I take from my loosened chains of Strugglers Gasp and throw straight into the muscles of my calf gives me a burst of speed to outspeed his swinging arm. The Ether that I inhaled previously is exceptionally plentiful and foreign. It is also hard to use, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

I get in real close as I feel an overall weakening of my body, the chains tightening slightly as the Ether from them left to directly increase my speed. Pain wracks my right calf as a muscle spasm and cramp start, but I ignore it as I take my left arm and catch his swinging arm.

Again, I sacrifice some Ether from Strugglers Gasp, slowly weakening myself to, for a very brief moment, increase my strength. But this time, I force the foreign Ether into my left arm, the part I control at least. This burst gives me just enough power to catch the demon's swing.

My hand meets his forearm as I push it straight up into the air. The charged lighting is released from his arm straight into the air, creating a true lightning strike that reaches into the clouds above. Splinters of pain run down my arm to my spine from the rushed use of Ether.

My focus stays on him, however. My eyes never leave him, even at this distance which barely even exists. We're so close that it feels more like a hug than a battle, but I press on my advantage of close quarters.

I take another swing with the brass knuckles melted to my flesh as I try to strike at the same place with the sparkle. I don't know the anatomy of a demon at all, but I'm betting he's got organs inside, just like humans. If I beat it enough, surely something will burst.

And as I hit the same spot again, even with the pressurized air that protects him, I feel something crunch within slightly. This crunch is from the sparkling mark that detonates after my follow-up strike.

The Demon Of Storms grunts upon the impact of my fist, and he stares down at me, filled with primordial anger. I try to sidestep around him after landing my blow, but he grabs onto my shoulder with a hand of his. Then, the demon, full of just as much hate as I am, utters a single word before my world is devoured by blue.

"Die."

Electricity ten times stronger than the bolts previously runs through me from the hand he has on my shoulder. I spasm, spark, and even smoke as the lightning courses its way through my body. Quickly, the target of Hura's lightning is found.

My heart.

Series of non-stop electricity strikes at my cardiac muscle, seeking to stop it once and for all. I hold myself together with Ironheart. Just barely can I keep the heart beating and unmelted under the sublimating temperatures of lighting. The skill is based on my will, and its primary purpose was to keep my heart beating. So I have quite an advantage at protecting that organ in particular because of that bias.

But I am completely paralyzed because of the lightning he keeps sending through my body. I can only stay the exact way I was when he put his arm on me. The demon's face slowly gets closer to mine, eventually covering my entire vision. The flawless face of the inhuman demon stares deep into my eyes as electricity sparks off my body. A moment passes where he simply looks into me. Almost as if he's enjoying my death by his Ether so much that he can't pay attention to anything else.

I hold on a bit longer, though. After many seconds of being beset by his discharge of current, I slowly start to lose my grip. There is only so much Ironheart can do, after all. Even if it's on my heart, the purpose for which it was named. My will can't beat the strength of a lightning bolt. No one can. The heartbeats slow to a crawl, and the organ begins to char and burn as the demon watches my slow death by electrocution.

My eyes can't even move around to look for help as the muscles within them have also been paralyzed. Not that I could, even if they weren't. Hura is so close to me that he is the only thing in my field of view. His slow and deliberate breaths fall over me as my own lack of breathing torments me.

The Strugglers Gasp is also nearing its limit. At most, only another half a minute before I have to let it out. Desperation quickly builds within me as there is nothing I can do but ask the Bloody Palm for help. The artifact that usually is trying to take me over is unnaturally silent. As if something is building within it. Waiting.

But even if it is waiting for a chance to take me over, it needs a body to possess in the first place.

So as a leap of faith with nowhere else to go, I drop the Daydream defending me from its possession attempts. I know I will likely regret this, but I have no other choice. My hearing hasn't yet returned, so I have no idea what the other three are doing. If they are even going to be able to save me.

How Johnny thought I could distract this demon long enough for them to kill him is beyond me. Maybe if the Bloody Palm and I were still connected intimately, there'd be a chance. But without that, no way. This demon is kicking my ass like I'm a child.

So, I'll grasp onto falling straws. If only working together, we can survive; I'll try to make it happen, even if it's not as smooth.

Just a moment after I release the Daydream blocking the Bloody Palm from the rest of my body, a ravenous sound comes inside and outside me. A mouth emerges on my left hand that growls at the demon.

Hura's eyes shift over to my hand in confusion as the Bloody Palm wages a brutal war inside of me, both against Hura and against me. Dark energy, totally unlike my rainbow Ether or Hura's blue lightning, tears a warpath through my body and ends in my brain. The artifact clears out the lightning from me, momentarily replacing it with dark Ether, allowing me to move again.

The effect of the Bloody Palm's Ether isn't immediately apparent, so I ignore it to take my single second to retaliate before I'm put under again, either by the artifact or the demon. I'm unsure which is a more significant threat to my life, but I'm more confident in combating the artifact. The Devil, you know, y'know?

Hura is still confused by the hand making noises, and he moves his face away from mine to inspect it. I. don't think he's noticed that his most recent burst of lightning has been devoured. I do what I can while he's distracted.

I push out roughly half of the Ether left in my chains that a.re loosened to strengthen me. I force this Ether not to clear out my body from dark or foreign Ether, but instead, I push it into my right arm. And with a tightly clenched fist of unheard-of strength for me, I swing for the demon's head.

The brass knuckle on my right hand meets the demon's temple with almost divine power. A crack resounds from bones breaking as the demon instantly lets go of me and stumbles to the side. I fall without his grip to stabilize me, but I barely catch myself using my hands and feet, the paralysis still having some effect. As I do so, though, once more pain streams from my arm from the use brutal use of Ether. I don't think I can do one of those again without some serious repercussions.

The storm around the demon stutters for a short moment as a few bullets make it past the winds and almost hit the demon. Only the protective layer of wind stops the lead from entering his skull. Hura turns his head slowly from the position I put it in and looks at me with levels of anger I thought impossible.

Dark clouds literally leave his nostrils as drops of black blood seep from where my brass knuckle hit. I put my hands up to defend myself as the demon renews his storm with furious vigor. He takes short but incredibly quick steps toward me with lighting that swirls a deeper blue than usual around him.

I can't help myself as provoking words leave my mouth. Everything I say will only rile him up more, but it makes me so happy to see him angry. The dripping blood from his temple fills me with encouragement.

"I didn't know demons could bleed. Looks like you're just as weak as us."

At the end of my sentence, a hellish shout leaves Hura's mouth that simply can't be a word from any language. It's just the anger of a demon with his racial pride stabbed. I feel a bit of regret at provoking him further as the tendrils of the Bloody Palm reach into my brain.

The artifact distorts my thoughts and perceptions quickly as it returns to its old way of possession. My vision turns black and white as the edges fizzle out of focus. Murmurs return with strength just as powerful as the first time they appeared. They seek to take me over from within. And the demon aims to kill me from without. The Bloody Palm doesn't seem to care if its actions will get us killed. It's angry at me for what I did to it earlier or what Johnny did.

Hura reaches me with literal thunder in his wake as I try to defend myself, but the only thing I can do is release my Strugglers Gasp. Too long have I held it in, and I am too distracted by the battle for my soul to truly focus. Two wars wage, and I have to choose one. I prefer the outer.

I let the whispers cave in and seep into my mind as an exhalation of pure Ether leaves me. Through my frazzled vision of white and black, I see the wave of Ether hit Hura. The pure Ether distorts his Ether in the air, making it fizzle out.

His literal storm behind him to guard him momentarily fades, letting several bullets from Johnny impact his back. I can't see if they pierce his skin or not, but the demon roars once more as he spins around to recreate his storm. He plays it just in time to defend against a gout of flame and an explosive ball of light.

Once his protection is secured, he turns back to me. To end me. At this point, without the strength from Strugglers Gasp and the side effects of using it, I kneel on the ground, unable to fight. I'm exhausted and near the edge of Ether saturation. Every skill of mine quickly fades, leaving me barren. Alone.

Hura takes slow and confident steps toward me as I see dribbles of blood fall behind him. He was injured. Johnny got a few bullets in. Good. At least that's some progress. The Demon Of Storm reaches me shortly. My attempt to slow him down with my exhalation of air was pointless.

The flawless-looking man with horns bends down to me and puts his face once more in front of mine. His hand wraps around my throat, and I see electricity build on it. He seems to enjoy this attempt on my life even more than his last as a smile reaches ear to ear on his face.

"It would appear you are out of tricks, young Graves. That last one was quite interesting, but here you go. To the end of a lineage!"

Just as the lightning streams from his hand around my throat and into my body, another hand emerges. This one, however, is made of pure darkness and holds a machete coated in a familiar purple kind of Ether.

Virgil arrives at the last moment from the unseeable dark amidst the light, his body Flickering and almost see-through. And with his appearance comes a downward fall of the dark machete onto the back of the demon's neck like an executioner. Air is cut, water is split, and lightning is ignored as steel comes for the storm.