The Broken Halo

A third Daemon.

Simon stared at its four wings, then at the path continuing beneath them.

The ash beyond held more footprints.

This was not the last.

His companion knelt beside him, its branched horns nearly touching the ground. They had barely survived becoming the previous Daemon, and something already considered it unworthy of standing.

Then the pressure arrived.

Simon’s elbows struck the ash.

He tried to draw breath and felt his ribs refusing to expand. The force pressed through the weaker bloodline and reached everything connected to it.

His body in Velmora shook.

The Superior Demon Lord’s skull vibrated beneath Jorra’s heart. Red light filled the bone, holding the Bloodline Gate and the road beyond it open.

A skull taken from anything below a Demon Lord would have shattered by now, collapsing the road with Simon still upon it.

Even the Superior Demon Lord’s bone had begun to creak.

Lilith steadied it with her palm.

On the path, bare feet approached.

”So this is what remains.”

Simon raised his eyes.

The four-winged Daemon stood over his companion. Its white gaze moved across the branched horns with open disgust.

”A One-Horned Demon, dressed in better blood.”

It could speak.

Before Simon could answer, its foot struck his companion’s chest.

BANG!

The manifestation flew backward. Simon felt the impact inside his own ribs and collapsed beside it.

The Daemon folded its wings.

No flames descended. No technique formed.

It simply walked after them.

Simon pushed himself upright and met the next punch with both arms.

CRACK!

His guard folded against his face.

The Daemon caught his companion’s wrist, twisted it, and drove an elbow into its throat.

Simon spat blood into the ash.

His companion struggled beside him. Its arm hung uselessly, but it still planted a knee beneath itself.

”Again,” Simon rasped.

They attacked together.

The Daemon knocked Simon aside and caught the manifestation by a horn. It slammed its face into the ground, then kicked Simon before he could reach it.

They rose again.

And again.

Each blow reached the flesh sitting inside the array. UnholyRegeneration repaired what it could while Lilith held the passage against the violence moving through it.

Simon stopped counting the times he fell.

He began watching the hand reaching for his companion.

The Daemon always caught its horns. It preferred dragging the lesser creature close before breaking it.

It had not needed to take them seriously.

That was the only opening he could find.

Simon caught his companion’s gaze.

The understanding passed between them without words.

They rushed forward.

The Daemon seized one branched horn and pulled.

Simon did not rescue it.

He grabbed the other horn and wrenched it sideways.

CRACK!

The horn broke in his hand.

Pain tore through his skull in Velmora. Blood ran down his face.

Even the Daemon paused.

Simon threw himself into its next punch.

He turned enough to spare the centre of his chest. The fist punched through his shoulder instead.

His vision darkened.

He sagged against the embedded arm, trapping it beneath his weight. His companion seized the Daemon’s free wrist.

”Got you.”

The Daemon tore its free hand loose and struck Simon in the face.

His jaw shattered.

But he had already driven the broken horn into its open mouth.

He pushed with the last strength in his uninjured arm. His companion caught his hand and pushed with him.

The horn’s three sharp tines punched through the roof of the Daemon’s mouth.

Its white eyes widened.

Simon leaned into it with a sound that was almost a laugh.

The horn broke farther.

So did the skull surrounding it.

Black fractures raced through the four-winged figure.

The ancestral imprint burst apart around the arm still buried in Simon’s shoulder.

He fell through the fragments, dragging his companion with him.

In Velmora, Simon’s back arched without his legs leaving the circle.

Four wings forced their way out beneath his shoulder blades.

The upper pair unfolded in black vanes edged with crimson fire. Silver membranes stretched across the lower pair, shedding blood as their supporting bones lengthened.

His skin darkened toward blue-black. The branched horns collapsed into new curves, sweeping forward into a double arch.

His Infernal Heart had not advanced, but the aura leaving his body had changed nonetheless.

It reached beyond the array. A wounded beast among the ruins pressed its muzzle into the dirt, unable to endure the presence that had replaced Simon’s familiar demonic aura.

Blood along the outer rings flattened against the earth.

Then the ruins trembled.

The black channel swelled with everything the new form rejected.

Tarvak’s bindings stretched.

Four malformed growths erupted from his back. They resembled wings only until they unfolded, exposing fingers where the supporting bones should have been.

The faces across his stomach sank inward. Their open mouths continued screaming beneath unbroken skin.

Lilith redirected the black flow before it could crush his heart.

Above her, a crimson flash in the sky split the smoke.

RUMBLE

Thunder followed.

More red lightning branched across the clouds, illuminating the entire ruined city.

Lilith looked up.

Her expression became solemn.

”So it has truly begun.”

On the Path of Origin, Simon raised his head.

His companion stood beside him in the form they had defeated. Four wings spread behind it. Its empty white eyes looked down the path instead of toward the ground.

It reached for Simon first.

He accepted the hand and stood.

Neither smiled. Instead, they walked.

The next figure waited where the track widened, and its form and appearance was more unique and regal than the previous bloodlines.

Six wings hung motionless behind it.

The upper pair were dark-gold vanes, rigid and narrow. The middle pair carried black membranes stretched between ivory bones. The lowest pair trailed almost to the ash, silver on the outside and crimson beneath.

Eight horns rose around its head.

They grew from the temples and the back of the skull, curving into an open crown whose tallest points leaned over its brow. Fine ridges linked their bases like carved ivory.

Its skin was dark bronze. Black lines divided its throat and chest into patterns resembling ceremonial armour.

Six eyes rested in three pairs down its face, and all were closed.

Simon stopped, and a second layer... The eyes opened.

The first thing Simon saw was that the eyes were all crimson colored before his face struck the ground and before he knew that he was falling.

Beside him, his companion’s wings flattened into the ash.

Simon could not move his fingers.

Even the Byakko bloodline he currently possessed had never made him feel this helpless.

’This bloodline is stronger than my current Sky Tiger bloodline.’

He could not know what a fully awakened Byakko might withstand. But the blood he possessed now recoiled from the comparison.

”Interesting.”

The voice reached him without rising above a murmur.

”A Sky Tiger bloodline. And a One-Horned Demon that has managed to become an Ithravel Daemon.”

Its gaze rested on the four wings crushed beside Simon.

”You have walked farther than your birth entitled you to.”

Simon pressed his palms against the ground.

The Daemon watched.

Then two of its eyes shifted toward the red threads extending behind them.

Its expression changed.

”A Daemon heart. Lesser hearts holding the lineage open. And something alive receiving what you cast away...”

It leaned forward slightly.

”No. That rite should have been lost.”

For the first time, its curiosity carried surprise.

”You are too young. Born a demon, with neither the years nor the inheritance to discover this yourself. Yet you survived enough of it to reach me.”

Its six eyes returned to Simon.

”Who opened the road to the Bloodline Origin Path?”

Simon’s elbows straightened a little.

His companion moved too, pushing against the ground with the same stubborn refusal that had brought them here.

”Who is maintaining it for you?”

Simon dragged one knee beneath himself and did not answer.

His entire body shook.

The manifestation beside him raised its head.

The Daemon’s six eyes narrowed, then its hand swept sideways.

Simon’s left arm fell into the ash.

His companion lost the same arm.

For an instant, Simon stared at the severed hand.

Then the pain caught up.

In Velmora, he coughed blood over his bare chest. His actual arm remained attached, but the muscle split beneath the Chaos Wraps, and the joint sagged as though something had tried to pull it loose from within.

Lilith pressed a finger against the inscription above his heart.

”Stay conscious.”

Simon heard her dimly.

The Daemon curled its fingers.

He was dragged across the ash and lifted into its waiting grasp.

The hand closed around his throat.

Its six crimson eyes examined him without haste.

”Answer my questions.”

Simon gripped its wrist with his remaining hand.

”Fuck... off.”

The Daemon looked at the fingers trying to move its own.

Then its free hand entered Simon’s stomach.

PUCHI!

Its nails pierced first. The palm followed.

Simon folded around the arm.

Beside them, his bloodline manifestation doubled over as the same wound opened beneath its ribs.

In Velmora, blood spilled across the centre circle. UnholyRegeneration struggled against an injury that remained open as long as the hand stayed inside his manifested body.

The Daemon lifted Simon closer.

”A One-Horned Demon and a common demonic cat. That was your beginning.”

Its gaze passed over Simon’s eyes.

”The Byakko bloodline you obtained was due to a mere fortune you found later. Do not dress luck as something you were born deserving.”

Simon tried to speak, but blood came out instead.

”A mere Infernal Heart. A few stolen steps into your ancestry. And you have already forgotten your place.”

Its fingers shifted inside him.

”You will answer me.”

The six eyes remained perfectly calm.

”Or I will tear out the part of your soul that knows the answer to my questions.”