With his fangs sunk into Tara's neck, Afro drained her blood rapidly. He sucked the liquid out with force, at a frenetic pace. Tara tried to resist in the first few seconds, but her muscles failed her. Afro pressed her against him in a violent embrace; her hands and legs went limp, unresponsive. When Afro finally released her, he wiped the trail of blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Bring me some pants," he ordered, without looking back. "I want to learn about the hierarchies."
Tara fell to the floor, her body shaking. She was terrified. But beyond the fear, she felt something she had never experienced before; no man, demon, or lord had ever been so close to her or possessed her in that way.
Outside, the storm was brewing. The dark sky was a sign that the Blue Festival was coming. It was still morning at the temple. Afro decided to stay for a practical reason: he realized he knew almost nothing about the demon race. While Kael and Takamura were far away, under the shadows of the ruins, watching the troops train, Afro occupied the library.
He was shirtless, wearing only the pants Tara had brought him. Tara took old books from the shelves, organizing knowledge for him.
"These are the thirteen layers of our force," she explained, pointing to the records.
The Pyramid of the Abyss:
Primaries Predators Elites Counts Lower Lords Lords Higher Lords/ Superior Lords Overlords Dukes Ancients Calamities Princes Abyss
Beyond the layers of power, Tara explained that there were specializations: knights, swordsmen, sorcerers, generals, and more. There were also legendary types, such as the Flowers of the Sun, demons with human faces, a rarity that most believed to be just a myth.
Tara stopped talking and let out a low moan, because Afro had approached from behind and sunk his teeth into her neck again. The old book she was holding slipped from her hands and hit the floor with a thud.
Steam began to rise from Afro's skin as her blood entered his system. His body was processing the vitality at a frightening speed. "So I... I'll end up..." Tara tried to speak, but her voice was lost in weakness.
Suddenly, Afro stopped. He raised his head, his nostrils flared. He smelled something new, something metallic and dense. Ignoring Tara, who was leaning on the bookshelf to keep from falling, he left the library and followed the scent through the stone corridors.
He entered a room at the back of the temple and came across several shiny spheres: Dao Cores. Afro picked one up, sniffed the surface, and licked the cold material.
"Dao Cores," said Tara, appearing at the door, dragging her feet. "We extract these from dead Daoists. You have to dig your claw into their navel and focus your essence to pull out the core."
Afro listened with surprise. He had never done that, nor did he know it was possible. Tara watched him with growing suspicion. This being seemed to have become a demon yesterday; he dominated Lordes, but ignored the most basic laws of survival of his species. "How has he lived this long?" she thought.
Tara picked up one of the spheres and explained the method. The demon must break the core directly against the chest. It was a technological inversion: humans used Oni masks to mimic demonic power, but demons used cores to steal the vital energy of humans.
"Like their masks, we have limits," Tara said. "I can only use three cores a day. Takamura and Kael can handle five."
Afro held the sphere, feeling the Dao's vibration. He had never used one before. Just as he was about to smash it against his sternum, a violent explosion shook the temple's foundations. Glass and stones flew.
Outside, the attack was surgical. They were destroying the roofs and walls that created shade, letting the sun in to incinerate the lesser demons hiding in the crevices. The smell of smoke and whiskey flooded Afro's senses.
"Shit," they said in unison, leaving the room.
But there was no way out. An invisible blast of pressure swept through the hallway ahead of them, splitting the ceiling and floor in half. The path to the lower levels was blocked by debris and direct sunlight. Afro did not retreat. He walked into the open courtyard, the bone mask beginning to seal his face as the black tattoos on his body rose to his neck and began to glow.
Lá fora, sobre uma águia gigante feita de fumo denso, uma figura observava o pátio. O rasto The creature's smoke pointed directly to where Takamura and Kael were hiding, cornered.
"You came," said Afro. "Did you bring my sword or my book? I forgot them in the fight."
The Captain, mounted on the eagle, drew his flask of whiskey, Pluto's Breath. He took a long swig, his eyes widening at the shock of the drink and the sight before him. "A Sunflower, huh?"
"So they say," replied Afro.
"Even so, I still have to hang your head in the square," growled the Captain, jumping off the eagle and landing heavily in the courtyard. "I am a vengeful man."
The two began to circle each other in the stone courtyard, like two stars about to collide.
"This time no one will interrupt us. You will die."
The Captain's right eye changed color, his pupils dilating to capture Afro's movements. Afro unleashed a barrage of static lightning bolts that crackled in the dry air. In a simultaneous movement, the two lunged at each other. The collision was a thunderous crash that sent dry leaves and dust flying from the ground.
The collision was violent. They moved between the air and the ground, crashing into the stone walls at a speed that transformed their figures into beams of light and shadow.
The Captain concentrated an ethereal, spinning sphere in the palm of his hand, striking Afro's abdomen. The impact sent him sliding several meters backward, his feet gouging the ground. Afro felt the pressure. "He's on a level far above me. Not to mention that he knows my frequency."
Afro advanced again, and the Captain, using his axe, began to strike the air vertically, creating bursts of solid smoke that split the ground as they advanced. Afro dodged to the left, then to the right, repeating the movement with precision. When the last gust was about to hit him, he crossed his arms; the black tattoos moved quickly to his forearms like a rigid shield. The impact dispersed the smoke, but when Afro looked ahead, the Captain had disappeared.
A figure descended from the sky. The Captain fell on top of him; Afro dodged by a millimeter. The Captain's impact on the ground shook the entire temple and cracked the stones beneath his feet.
Afro jumped back to gain space.
"Hey," said the Captain, straightening his body. "You're holding back. Are you afraid that the temple will collapse and your demon friends will burn in the sun?"
The Captain watched Afro closely. He saw that there was no trace of sentimental concern or empathy in his eyes. "Hmm, I see. You're just trying to save your strength. You've finally realized that I'm the predator here."
The Captain took a step forward, the pressure of his Dao crushing the air around him. "Let me help you die. I have to get back to the village."
Afro's claws shot out, the black tips vibrating with murderous intent as his red eyes reached their maximum brightness. The Captain was not to be outdone. He donned his Oni Mask. The sound was of bones snapping and cartilage being forced; horns broke through his forehead, his black cloak dissolved into thick smoke, and his axe took on a grotesque, living form.
"Don't hold back," the Captain growled through clenched teeth. "Because I won't."
And in the blink of an eye, they collided. The Captain delivered a vertical blow from top to bottom, capable of splitting the mountain. Afro dodged to the side and tried to sink his claws into his opponent's abdomen, but the Captain locked his wrist with his free hand. Without hesitation, Afro activated Soul Dash, releasing a tangible soul that dug its claws where he couldn't reach. The Captain took a step back, feeling his energy drain, and projected a giant hand of smoke.
Afro jumped, dodging like a primate, and projected seven souls simultaneously. Each attacked the Captain from a different angle. In the air, as the smoke hand surrounded him, Afro muttered:
"Ne no Tachi: Third Movement."
The shock was universal. The Captain and the demons watching couldn't believe it: a demon performing Daoist arts. At the last millimeter, Afro spun his body, capturing the flow of energy from the smoke hand and redirecting it against the Captain himself, who was still fighting the souls. The resulting explosion shook the mountain and covered everything in ash.
The Captain stabilized instantly, stopping on the surface of the water as if stepping on solid ground, without sinking a single millimeter. He remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the dark depths, watching Afro's silhouette sink under the pressure of the depths.
Down below, Afro did not fight the water; he used it. At the bottom of the crater, he concentrated all his mass and performed an Equivalence.
The result was not a movement, it was a detonation.
Afro shot up from the bottom with an upward hook so devastating that the entire mass of the lake was torn from its bed. There was no ripple, there was expulsion. The Captain leapt backward in the millisecond that the ground shook, narrowly escaping the column of water that rose skyward like a solid geyser.
Where once there had been a lake, there was now only an empty, dry crater, with Afro at its center, exhaling steam. Seconds later, the water that had been thrown into the clouds began to fall back onto the ruins, turning the battlefield into a heavy, torrential rain that washed away the dust from the destroyed temple.
The Captain landed on the edge of the newly formed crater, watching his panting opponent at the dry bottom of the lake. Afro didn't wait. He dug his foot into the muddy bed and stomped the ground with calculated force, a heel strike that caused the crust of earth to give way and bounce.
The moment the blocks of solid earth levitated in front of him, Afro finished them off with violent kicks in the Captain's direction. He repeated the movement at a frantic pace: stomp, lift, finish. It was his way of projecting artillery without spending a drop of Dao; a mechanical manipulation of the scenery.
The earth projectiles flew like cannonballs. The Captain moved with surgical precision, cutting each block in half with his smoke axe, but Afro used the cover of the debris to close the distance. He advanced behind his own barrage of earth, fast and low, forcing the Captain to retreat as the air filled with dust and rock fragments.
"Three Equivalences!" shouted Afro, concentrating everything he had left into a straight punch.
The Captain crossed his arms in an "X." The impact was the coup de grâce to the temple's structure. When the Three Equivalences punch connected with the Captain's arms in an "X," the shockwave was not limited to the target; it expanded like a demolition blast.
The Captain was thrown with such violence that he tore a hole in the main wall, but the secondary effect was worse: the vacuum and pressure from the blow caused eighty percent of the temple to collapse in a domino effect of stone and dust.
The shadows that protected Takamura and Kael's subordinates disappeared in an instant. The ceiling collapsed, the support columns were pulverized, and the morning sun streamed in unimpeded. The demons who could not hide themselves better began to burn alive among the rubble. Screams of biological agony mingled with the sound of the collapse.
Afro fell to his knees in the center of the crater, surrounded by total ruin. His chest rose and fell violently, his lungs burning. He stared at the hole in the wall where the Captain had disappeared.
"Even if I were satiated, I couldn't defeat him like this," he thought, as sweat and ash blurred his vision.
The Captain emerged from the hole in the rubble, brushing dust from his shoulder. "You are strong. But you are still weak to me."
The Captain's right eye glowed with an unhealthy light. "Resonance: Smoking Room."
The world around Afro dissolved. The temple disappeared, replaced by a suffocating gray void. He was trapped again.
"Shit!" roared Afro, feeling reality slip through his fingers.