Royal Princess of Blood

The Cursed Children crashed down on the ground directly at the coming imps. The Cursed Children were cursed by the divine, and thus could not use any power directly from them. Therefore, they held no power that could truly damage these demons, and so the best they could do was slow them down.

The good side was that the Cursed Children had absolutely way better mental endurance than any of the demons, given that they were basically immortal and used to suffering. They could take any amount of damage they had to, as they wouldn’t be able to die — which was extremely unfortunate for the Cursed Children.

In short, they could go on a rampage as much as they liked, and they would face no severe consequences. There was the part that they could get captured, but the pair believed they could escape just fine when needed. Besides, the demons were much more focused on the princess than anything else. In a way, these Cursed Children were as desperate as these demons, for they too needed the princess.

One side needed the princess to ascend to godhood, while the other absolutely would not want it. Both were exiles from the divine. But at least one was closer to it than the other. Heneis had become more eager of this, for their destination was ever closer. He cannot fail this. Only when the princess ascended could they have the chance of becoming free from the curse of torment. To be cleansed of their sins.

Heneis tore the legs off an imp before biting its neck and sucking in the blood. He must garner as much strength as he can. Once one imp was temporarily neutralized, he immediately proceeded to the imps rushing into the woods and struck his claws into one of them and tore him apart like a savage beast.

“W-What the hell are you doing?! Get away!” An imp cast his flames and set Heneis on fire when he began attacking him. However, to his shock, Heneis seemed unbothered as his skin was seared and torn apart, burning throughout the exposed muscles. After grabbing the imp, Heneis bit into his neck. “R-Regeneration?!”

The imp drew out his claws and plunged them into Heneis’s belly, but the latter was more aggressive. He drove his claws into the demon’s leg and clenched it before pushing his hand down, cleaving through the bloody flesh that exposed bones.

The demon screamed in agony as Heneis savagely tore open his chest. Unlike the Cursed Children, despite being able to completely regenerate, demons were not used to pain and true suffering. This often disorients or stuns them for a moment. Heneis severed the demon’s leg before pushing his grotesque claws into his face, then casting him aside. He immediately proceeded to another one.

I can only delay one for a few seconds.

In a way, this seemed pointless, especially that there were just two of them here. Heneis glanced towards Galik, who was tearing a couple of demons. Despite ‌their efforts, though, with the amount of demons present, groups of them gradually went past them, which was inevitable. Heneis resisted the urge to sigh. He should focus on the task given to him. Even a second of delay was helpful.

I can only do what I can. But how can the princess escape with so many demons?

If they were going through the mountains, perhaps there could be hidden spots where they could hide. But first, they had to lose the demons’ eyes somehow. At this rate, the princess would have no choice but to use her powers. Which was a cause for great concern. And her dying was absolutely not an option. If she dies, then they’d end up a lump of flesh for all ‌eternity.

***

The humans worked together to attack and distract the giant red demon. A couple rushed into the front, others to the side, some to the back, the rest as backup. When given the chance, Miyako and Satomi would come in a flash to land a strike. However, despite them outnumbering the giant, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

The giant suddenly grabbed a soldier, and the soldier was unable to escape its grasp. Before anyone could move in to save the soldier, the demon clenched its hand, crushing the soldier like a fruit. At that point, the humans became even more wary, even though they already were. One mistake, one slip-up, would be an advantage for the giant demon. And it could kill them too easily.

As the battle progressed, at one point the demon punched a soldier directly. The soldier was blown away and ended up fatally wounded, his body partly crushed and heavily bleeding. Another soldier was crushed beneath its feet, leaving a splattered mass of flesh on the ground. Multiple lives were sacrificed just in an attempt to defeat this giant demon. And Miyako felt distressed upon this blatant evidence of its strength. There were so many coming after Estelia and her people, how could they even hope to escape them? But then again, she knew they were strong, she just couldn’t help but worry.

She just has to feel relieved that these giant demons were not used to infiltrate her island. Otherwise, it would have made things harder.

Eventually, Satomi saw a wide window of attack, and she sprinted towards the monster and leaped. As she went past, she swung both swords and slashed the back of the monster’s neck. The demon writhed in rage and blindly swung its arms all around. But because of that, it let down its guard completely, and Miyako took the chance. She moved in from behind and thrust her blade into the demon’s lower back. She gave it a twist just before the demon swung its fist towards her. She withdrew the blade and dodged as she moved into the demon’s back and jumped, pushing her blade into the back of its chest.

At the same time, Satomi moved in and stabbed her blade into the demon’s neck. Then, she swung her other blade, slitting the demon’s throat. At that, they landed fatal hits. The two backed away as the monster bled and began fumbling forward. Eventually, with a last whimper, the giant red demon fell to the ground, and it moved no longer.

Miyako panted and looked around, the demons’ numbers had dwindled. It was then that they heard heavy footsteps coming. The humans quickly turned around to see a giant red demon standing with its arms crossed, a grin on its face. This one, however, was a little bigger than the one they had faced.

The giant chuckled. “Amusing. But that is all you are. It took all you had to defeat a mere minion.” It glanced towards the distance before scratching the back of its neck. “You might have been entertaining to play around with, but I have a more pressing matter. However…” It slightly lifted its leg. “Survive this.”

It slammed its foot to the ground. What followed was a wave of dirt and stone, and with it, ‌a tide of infernal fire, increasing in height and length as it approached the humans. Like a frightening tidal surge from the sea during a storm, except this one looked like a mix of fire and lava. To think that such a creature could create such a thing with a casual step, how fearsome indeed.

All the soldiers frantically rushed and gathered around Miyako.

“Get behind us!”

The soldiers set up a perimeter. The old general and Satomi, her teacher, and a couple more, stood in front and swung their swords, sending slashes of light against the burning tide. They were not hoping to completely disrupt the tide, but to weaken it in any way. Their slashes crashed against the tide heading for them, the dirt, rock, lava, scattered apart. The tide parted but reassembled in the tidal momentum. Did they weaken it? It was not apparent.

They withdrew and closed up their formation, then cast shields around Miyako, making layers of them. Satomi stuck close to Miyako and held out a hand to cast her shield, Miyako also cast a shield behind her friend’s barrier. Miyako braced for it.

And the tide crashed against them, and Miyako’s eyes were filled with the orange and red of the flames and lava. She could feel the intense heat surrounding her. The soldiers on the first layer struggled, their arms shaking as they endured the impact. However, in the end, their barriers shattered, and the pair at the first layer was engulfed by the fire. Miyako’s eyes widened as she heard their screams of agony, quickly fading away.

The second layer of barrier next received the tide. Their barriers started to crack.

However, before they could break, the tidal wave of fire had passed. Miyako lowered her hand and looked around. The ground around them had melted and ruined. At any rate, she let out a long sigh of relief, they survived. Looking around, the giant red demon had disappeared — no, there were no more demons coming. She looked towards the woods, the demons had all reached there.

Miyako slowly walked towards one of the corpses of her own men, this one was charred. With a sad expression, she kneeled beside it. They suffered several casualties fighting these demons, and these men were among the highest rankings in the city.

I truly must spread the knowledge of holy magic to my forces. It is our only fighting chance.

Just how many demons were hiding on her island? How many were in the archipelago? She didn’t know. All she knew was to prepare with everything she had to not to fail. That being said, she didn’t have all the time in the world. Before the civil war ends on Hokunoa, she must have an army ready against demons.

She glanced toward the forest.

“Good luck, Estelia. May we meet again.”

***

We kept on running.

It was difficult to get rid of all ‌the demon flyers, so the best thing was to reduce their numbers for now as a start. But taking out demons from a distance was a bit of a problem for me.

“Taneva,” I called. “Can you shoot them now?” I pointed at the sky.

Taneva glanced up at the sky. There must be a reason as to why he first gave me the bow. From what I have noticed, Taneva was mainly a melee type of fighter. So, he must not be all that excellent at shooting foes from far distances. At this range, though, he should do fine. Despite living for a long time, one would still have a level of skill in each thing.

Taneva glanced up at the sky and nodded. He pulled an arrow out of the hole in the air, then he seemed to pour magic into it. The arrow started glowing with golden light, it shone so brightly as if he had poured a good amount. That’s what was different between actual holy magic and my holy blood. Holy magic could become potent.

He loaded the arrow, aimed, and shot. The golden arrow glowed brightly as it streaked through the air, leaving a golden trail. It moved so rapidly that the imp failed to react in time and it struck him through the chest, then a burst of holy light followed. It seemed to sear the demon, and he fell from the sky.

I turned towards Hartwin and Velar. “Ready your holy magic.”

They drew out their swords and slid their fingers on the blades. Golden light on the blade followed their touch, and coated it.

Taneva kept on shooting the flying demons.

And then I heard movements coming close. At that moment, something dashed at me, and Velar moved in and blocked the imp from almost grabbing me. At the same time, I peeked from his side and threw my stringed dagger at the demon, and it stabbed through his skin. I instantly injected my blood.

The demon’s eyes widened in confusion. “W-What…?”

“Keep running!” I shouted. There was no time to stop.

But the first group of demons had caught up to us.