God of Nothing

Aleph hesitated. For the first time since they started fighting, the demon king seemed vulnerable. But at the same time, she seemed more unreachable than ever. Her eyes seemed to carry in them something inhuman. Her screams sent an ever expanding circle of light outwards, enveloping everybody in the vicinity. Vicious looking thorns broke out of the ground behind her, which began to tower over them all like a many headed serpent. Its presence signaled a new climax in this sudden fight against the enemy leader.

But none of those was the reason he stayed put. Those eyes, he thought once more. I know those eyes.

How could he forget? They were the last things he saw before the end. The last things he saw before he died, and then later reborn as god. Those onyx colored eyes that always reflected the best of him, were now looking at him with pure hate.

A wicked purple light twinkled from the demon king's other hand, catching his attention. It was a telltale sign that Deceit's mana heart was being used. Aleph pulled himself back to the present, with more than a little reluctance.

Erebos, you bastard. He swore, clenching his gauntlets. She's dead, Aleph. Don't let the enemy fool you. She's not here.

He charged the demon king with renewed vigor, his gaze matching hate for hate. His emotions ran wild and fed into his force gauntlets, which thrummed in power.

"You dare!" He shouted, not even bothering with a weapon. He crossed the distance in an instant. He cocked back his fist and attacked, allowing his own frustrations to power the blow.

"YOU DARE!!"

Clang!

He struck something solid, but it was not what he imagined. Without him noticing, a figure had shown up to block his path. A corpulent creature was suddenly in their midst, blocking him with a collection of random metal objects.

"Hee hee hee! Hello there, my pretty!" Agony jeered. "I forgive you for last time, so let's play again!"

After that, even more random metal objects came at Aleph from every direction. Swords, clubs, and even the occasional kitchenware lashed at him at random intervals. Agony's limbs were as random as his choice of weaponry, which made his attacks even trickier to guard from.

"Huuuh!?"

Unfortunately for him, Aleph had no patience to deal with him right now. The herald of agony stared dumbly at his own weapons. Each time he tried to attack, an unseen force redirects him. It didn't matter if he stabbed, clawed or clubbed him, Agony's attacks were failing to gain purchase. Even worse, his momentum left him a bit unbalanced.  A transparent blue shell flickered around Aleph.

"I have no time for you, herald!"

He punched Agony in his massive belly, pushing through with his gauntlet to knock the herald back. The weapon ejected from his arm, dragging the beast even further back. There was a time when this creature easily bested him in pure strength, but after a year of constant battles, Aleph's physical strength had skyrocketed. Taking into account the boost in strength mana provides, the power he can output is close to his time on earth.

"Cheat! You still cheat!" The herald roared, but the gauntlet kept him in place. He tried pushing past it, only for a second one to smack him in the face. He was swallowed up by the earth again as Aleph took the chance to draw out his blade to strike at the demon king.

"Hyaat!"

But it was too late. The demon king had already recovered. She intercepted his blows as masterfully as ever, and even got a few hits in herself. Aleph was beaten back, the speed and power his rage afforded falling in the face of technique. Aleph took a knee, staring madly at the domineering figure who seemed to have regained her composure.

"Godling." She growled, as the red light surrounding her brought in even more demons from beyond. "Come to the spire."

"No!" Aleph held out his hand as if to grab her, but alas, the demon king was gone. He stood tall once again, taking his frustrations out on the harbingers that took her place. He felt a tug from somewhere but elected to ignore it, succumbing to the bloodlust.

Aleph massacred them all, until all that was left on the courtyard was him and a mountain of corpses.

"Haah, haah, haah…" Exhaustion caught up to him now, and along with it, his sense of reason. He scanned the area searching for allies, or barring that, another demon to kill.

He found the former grouped up in a circle, surrounding something he could not see. He jogged on over to see what they were doing. His heart sank when he did.

On the ground were his disciples, each in dire condition. He lept towards Brandon first as he was being worked on by Iona.

"Let me." He insisted, getting right to work. 

The boy was bleeding from multiple spots, as if a giant dog had been gnawing at him. His natural recovery was hard at work, but the nature of the wounds prevented them from closing completely. Iona resorted to burning them shut, as even their poultices and potions were ineffective.

Aleph sat down beside Brandon and started feeling around his own arm. Finally, he nicked his own arm with a shining blue blade. Blood gushed out.

He heard gasps from around him as he did so, but he tuned them out. Tendrils of mana emerged from where the blood spilled, pooling upwards in an ethereal bowl he shaped with magic.

"How can I help?" Iona was the first one who recovered, and was offering her assistance. Aleph gladly took it.

"My lady, feel around his arm for a suitably sized vein. We need to replenish the blood that he lost."

"Huh? Oh, uhhh, okay." Iona did just that, though he could see her apprehension.. Aleph didn't know how much knowledge people here have about blood types and such, but he decided to warn them against it anyway.

"You should be very careful in doing this," he said. "Mixing blood without the proper knowledge could prove more dangerous than the alternative..."

Together, the two were successful in giving Brandon a transfusion. Color started to return to his cheeks as soon as his other wounds were cauterized. 

"What about the others?" Aleph asked while he kept an eye on how much he was giving. Iona shook her head.

"Lacey overdid it. The third star she launched at the tree prevented us from being teleported, but it completely drained her of mana in the process. Her mana burns aren't as severe as Rayse's, but she shouldn't do that very often or she'll end up just like him.

"As for Rayse, I'm less certain. We saw him collapse right next to Lacey, arms stretched out as if reaching for something."

Aleph thought about the previous battle, remembering how Rayse kept disrupting the demon king's magic. His aptitude in the magic of Earth was astounding. Aleph could manipulate magic right from the air with some concentration, but to control someone else's spells mid-cast was far beyond what he previously thought was possible.

If he had to think of why that is, he simply never considered it.

"He should be fine. It's a side effect of using magic."

"Magic!? But that's–"

"Calm down, Iona. This is a different style of magic, one that works beyond the body. His vessel should be intact."

"And what style is that?" She asked, her voice laced in skepticism. She got one word in response.

"Mine."

"Oh."

They sat in silence after that. Every so often he would notice Iona looking from him to the floating mana bowl he created to store his blood in, and then shaking her head. It went on like that until he was satisfied that his student has had enough blood. He released the mana thread connecting them both and was trying to maneuver Brandon's limp arm to seal up the vein when he heard somebody speak.

"These three are something else, Aleph. Have you really been only teaching them for a year?" Carrack noted from beside them. It's yet another sign that these children were gaining ground as heroes in their own right.

And Aleph agreed. The talent they possessed was beyond comprehension. Three novice mages barely of age, in the first year of their training, managed to deal some damage to the demon king.

"We are fortunate that they have taken to magic this well. God knows where we would be without them."

__________________________________

Rayse woke up in the familiar rhythm of the road. He kept his eyes closed, hoping the gentle clopping of the carriage horses would pull him back to sleep. Memories of the previous battle began to leak between the lulls, though, finally pulling him fully into wakefulness.

So with a despondent sigh, he finally opened his eyes to see his fellow disciples sleeping beside him. He took up most of the space in the middle, with Lacey and Brandon. Both were sound asleep, and from the look of the night sky outside, so were most people. They were still being pulled along, though, so there must have been somebody that was awake.

He snuck out through the front of the carriage, and what welcomed him

"Are you sufficiently rested?" Aleph asked gently.

"Uhhh, yeah. What happened?"

And so Aleph gave him a quick rundown of events in the capital. After the demon king retreated, the army, led by a furious Vaynard, began to rally the entire city, raising a call for anyone to come join them in battle.

The conspiracy to hide the king's survival was met with outrage, but Gunglain was able to spin the story into one of deception. They told everyone that they only pretended that King Mios was dead so they could protect him from further harm. The news of the kidnapping further strengthened their hold over the people. So when Vaynard announced that he woukd be enlisting people for his father's rescue, they all but agreed. The populace were still fully behind Vaynard's status that they were all too eager to join him. There were some overeager sorts too, though, the ones who's families had fallen victim to the demon king's attack.

And so it came to be that the entire capital was practically recruited into war. The only ones left in the city would be the infirm, children and their caretakers. Curiously, there was a rather large contingent of nobles that were clamoring for surrender. They and their troops elected to stay behind in protest.

"I warned Vaynard not to leave the capital to those people, but he said he could always take it back with his father when they returned."

"Hmmm, yeah, Lost told me there would be people like that." Rayse thoughtfully said, before shutting up completely. He realized that he still hadn't told Aleph about his relationship with the demon king. For his part, Aleph didn't really grill him on the subject, instead handing him a spear.

"Jodi's workshop provided enough material to complete the materials in time. I cannot believe you would go into battle with an incomplete weapon."

Rayse was glad for the change in subject and jumped right into it. "Yeah! I found your notes and figured out how to use it, so as soon as they finished the prototype I spent the rest of the day practicing with Unbroken."

He caressed the weapon in his hands, now no longer just a spear head with no shaft. The completed Unbroken was an intricate piece. Just like his dragonscale shield, it was made up of small pieces of metal, interlocked like a puzzle that made up the spear. Unlike the shield, though, each tiny piece of metal

"I need to have a look at the spearhead when we get home. It may be Unbroken, but their craftsmanship was merely adequate, not perfect. I and Jodi will provide the finishing touches so that the weapon lives up to its moniker."

Rayse nodded, handing the spear back to his master, who then prompted to stash it away. They rode in silence for a bit after that, so it came to Rayse to breach the subject.

"So we're going home first?"

"Yes. Andrew and the Kyrios folk graciously accepted my invitation to our settlement. I had James find them places in the various inns around town while they settle in.

"Once there, we shall make our final preparations before joining Vaynard at the fortress, where we will challenge the demon king and his cohorts and erase them from the planet."

It was Rayse's turn to prefer the silence this time. It wasn't that he was afraid to be admonished by his master. The bigger thing was that, even after almost killing them all, he felt that Lost was still holding back from just wiping them all out. He knew it was a delusion, but he can't help but feel that way. Thinking about it in that sense, him talking about her now felt like a betrayal. 

Aleph was being respectful, but he too knew the importance of the information Rayse had, so this time, he was more insistent.

"For that to happen though, you need to be forthcoming." 

Their carriage slowed to a halt as Aleph turned to look him in the eye. He had an unreadable expression on his face as he confronted him and made his demand.

"Tell me about this woman you call Lost."