Lineage

By the time the girls and I got to the site of the battle, it was already in full swing. Elena was doing her best to keep up magical barriers against the oncoming demon horde, the small army being a mix of the usual Demon Knights, smaller, skinnier skeleton warriors clad in spiked, black armour that were surrounded by hellish energy, with the occasional Hellhound dotted around the group and a small number of what looked like Demonic Chanters, probably there to buff the rest of the group with, surprise surprise, demonic chants. So essentially, they’d gotten the rape train running down the tracks and it would be difficult to stop.

Not to mention the two at the back of the horde dressed in armour. There was of course Lilly the succubus, but the second was someone I didn’t recognise, but knew was dangerous. He was clad in thin, black-plate armour, with a wide-blade sword that looked to be made of obsidian, the go-to choice for demonic ceremonial blades, though not insanely useful when Kairosteel is an on-hand option. Meaning it wasn’t for this dude. He wore a helmet in the shape of a dragon, the same scale pattern carved over his entire armour set, with his lower jaw visible, revealing the dark blue skin of a high-birth demon. This was a hint to how strong he was gonna be, and from what I knew about higher-born demons… we were in trouble.

“Can you sense him?” Svea asked from behind me, her teeth gritted in an angry manner.

“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I never learned to sense energy.”

“Be thankful you cannot,” she snarled. “His power is that of something beyond any mortal being. Not to mention the scent of his blade. He’s spilled the blood of dragons with that infernal weapon. For that he must pay.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, drawing my silver sword from my sheath and cracking my neck. “Well let’s just focus on getting to him first.”

“It shall be no problem at all,” Svea growled, launching herself up into the air before crashing down into the centre of the demonic force, a colossal energy wave vaporising a large number of them before they even noticed her.

“Way to thin out the numbers, girl,” I said in an impressed manner.

“And a way to get herself killed,” Jiang snarled, taking off at high speed towards the demons, baring her sharp claws as she began to slice and slash through the skeleton warriors before brutally tackling one of the Hellhounds to the floor.

“Could… use some help… please!” Elena shouted from her position. Larra and I darted towards her, the catgirl firing several arrows into the skulls of the demons, the creatures stumbling back but being otherwise unharmed by the attack, save for the arrows lodged in their heads.

“Oh fuck,” Larra said in a worried tone. “How are we supposed to kill these things?”

“I…” I said, slicing through several arm bones to cut away weapons and shields, only to have some kind of magic force repair the damage. “I have no idea. Elena?”

“Yeah?”

“You happen to know any spells that could vaporise them?”

“I’m a shield mage, Richter!” she growled, pushing back several angry, chattering skeletons.

“It was worth a shot!” I said, slicing through more of the skeletons, if only to prolong us being overwhelmed. I turned my head to the sight of the dragon and the tiger using their own magic to take care of the skeletons, with a large number of ash piles dotted around them as evidence of their greater success.

“We need to get to the others!” I shouted over the clanging metal. “Can you form a shield around us to breach through the skeletons?”

“I… I don’t know, I’m kind of at my limit here,” Elena whimpered, cracks appearing in the large yellow shield she’d cast in front of us. I took a deep breath, looking around for options, frantically searching the surrounding area before I spotted an escape route.

“Alright, drop the shield and follow me!” I called over to her. “We can flank these things and get back to the others without getting overwhelmed!”

“Are you sure?” Elena asked in a worried tone.

“Positive,” I nodded, grabbing hold of her arm and pulling her with me. “Let’s go!”

The three of us retraced our steps, heading back into a building, slamming the door behind us and going up a set of stairs. We then charged through the bedroom and out onto the balcony that was a few foot of air away from another building without any demons on it.

“We’re gonna need to jump!” I said, bursting forward and leaping over the edge, landing on the rooftop before turning around for the others. Larra cleared the balcony with a quiet grunt and a front flip, whereas Elena cleared it with an ungraceful climbing manoeuvre before landing hard on her feet.

“Ow,” she said, gingerly stepping forward before following after us. “Where to now?”

“Across the rooftops and down to the street level just up ahead,” I explained as we sprinted along. “Once we get down there we can group up with-”

My explanation cut off as a loud warping sound came from in front of us, a black vortex opening up before the same demon I’d spotted earlier leaped through it, landing gracefully before standing up straight with a smile on his face, raising the point of his sword directly at me.

“Hiya, Cousin Richter,” he said with a smirk. “Going somewhere?”

The group of us came to an almost screeching halt, holding my sword out in front of me and taking a defensive stance, shooting him a questioning glare as I remained completely silent.

“Do… do you know who I am?” he asked in an arrogant, full-of-himself manner. “Surely you must?”

I remained silent further still.

“I see, Dear Celestia must have refrained from telling you about your extended family,” he said with a shrug. “I can’t really blame her, after all. Most pairings between demon and Earth-Walkers don’t tend to have a happy ending, especially after what happened to her regarding her baby girl.”

I gritted my teeth angrily, but still refused to speak.

“Y’know, our grandfather speaks very highly of you,” he said, twirling his sword in his grip as he spoke. “I believe he thinks you’re quite the prodigy, a combination of Alicorn and Archdemon blood, spiced up with the limitless potential of Incubi draining powers. Quite the genetic marvel, wouldn’t you say?”

I stared at him cautiously.

“That’s why it’s even more of a shock to see that you’ve turned out so pathetic,” he chuckled, checking the sharp claws of his armour in a grooming fashion.

I stared at him hatefully.

“I mean, talk about a disappointment, right?” he laughed. “All of the hype and speculation around you, our grandfather watching for many years to see the heights of power you’d hit… and you turned out so unbelievably unimposing that you couldn’t even hit six feet tall, Richter. You’re pathetic. A mistake. A waste of the training dear Luna provided you for all of these years and a waste of dear mommy’s egg. If she’d been where she was supposed to be this entire time, she would’ve created a worthy heir for our family. But… after Grandfather gets ahold of her, and Celestia, again… there’ll be plenty of time for that.”

“Who are you?” I snarled.

“Oh? He speaks?” he asked in a cocky tone. “I must admit, dear cousin, you’ve got quite the deep voice when you’re not shrieking plans to your whores behind you. Oh, and they can leave us in peace if they want. They can go help your other sluts if they want to.”

“You’re letting them go?” I asked.

“Of course I am,” he nodded. “I’ve no beef with them, they’re not important to me or my plans. No… you’re the one I’m interested in.” With that last statement, he began to circle me in a threatening manner. I copied the movement myself, raising my blade to my chest and preparing myself for a fight.

“Girls, get out of here,” I said to the others. “I’ll handle this one.”

“Are you sure?” Elena asked, only to be patted on the shoulder by Larra before nodding nervously. “Be careful.”

“Trust me, my love,” the demon chuckled. “He won’t be. He’s on a scale so far below my strength that it’s not worth registering to me. No, this’ll be no problem at all.”

I gritted my teeth, stepping forward with a vicious lunge only to have him turn to the side to avoid the strike before swatting my blade aside. I retreated back to my defensive position once again, eyeing him up and waiting for him to make the next move.

“You know, with Grandfather so obsessed with watching you grow and age, he neglected his other spawn quite severely,” the demon snarled angrily. “Too busy asking about little Ricky to even bother learning the names of his grandchildren, nephews, and nieces. He’s only ever cared about your family, even the one he managed to drag through with him before Celestia locked him away.”

“... What other one?” I asked in confusion. “Who are you talking about?”

“They never even told you… after everything Celestia did to… my my,” he giggled, lashing forwards with a strike that I managed to backstep quite easily. “They never even told you. How pitiful it must be for you for your family to never even mention where your mother even came from. Though to be honest, if I was in Celestia’s position and the things Grandfather had done to her were done to me.... Heh, I don’t think I’d be able to even think about it without breaking down. Still, the Solar Alicorn was always a tough old whore, I’ll give her that. Just like that pink slut of a daughter. Such a resilient girl, honestly. Still the abuse did wonders for her power level.”

“Shut up about my mother,” I snapped angrily, stepping forward with a swing, both of our blades clashing briefly before we lashed out with fists, punching each other in the mouth as we swapped sides, turning around and clashing blades again in a manner similar to the way I and Rinvae had done before, though there was no honour in this encounter.

“Your mo-” he said before catching himself, shaking his head with a laugh. “You think that… oh, honestly, dear boy. What have they lied to you about?”

Lied? What the fuck did he mean by that? Was he trying to say that Cadance wasn’t actually my mom? But… who else would be? There were no other Alicorn in existence besides my family, right? Unless he was insinuating that it was of the others that had given birth to me? No, no… that couldn’t be right, could it? I didn’t bear a resemblance to any of them besides Luna, and that was only because of my hair colour, and even then, I got my two-tone hair from my dad while Luna only has a single shade of dark blue.

“Alright, asshole,” I snarled, gripping my sword with two hands and preparing to rush him. “You better start explaining things right now before I lose my temper.”

“Oh, please do,” he laughed. “I’d love to see what happens when the child gets a little cranky.”

I launched myself at him with a vicious snarl, throwing swing after slash after stab at the arrogant son of a bitch with everything I had, utilising every technique in the book to try and slip past his guard, but to no avail. Every strike was blocked by an elegant movement from him, such little pressure being put on my opponent that he was still able to maintain a fencing stance and guard with dignity, while I was wearing myself out rapidly trying to get some kind of a hit on him.

It was after my sword started to become heavy in my hands that I realized, all too late, I’d made a mistake. I’d opened the fight way too forcefully and had worn myself down too fast. He noticed this as well, waiting patiently for me to make some kind of slip up before brutally punishing me for it. As soon as my sword slipped a little bit past his ear on another wasted stab attack, he hit back. He brought his hand out from behind his back, balled a fist, and slammed it into my stomach so hard that it ruptured something. This was obvious by the mix of spit and blood I coughed out upon impact, followed swiftly by the crippling pain of the initial attack and the second blow of being kneed straight in the ribcage, crushing my ribs to dust and sending me flying off the rooftop and several feet downwards, the impact splitting the back of my head open and breaking both my pelvis and damaging my spine.

I was out. Taken down by this demon in two hits after he’d gotten bored of waiting for me to do something to impress him. He leaped down to the street next to me, kneeling down besides me and patting me on the chest with a grin.

“See?” he asked with a chuckle. “A waste of Mommy’s eggs. I can’t believe I was ignored for the past eighteen years by my grandfather because of a worthless piece of shit like you. It’s more insulting now than ever, actually. If you were really as strong as Grandfather wanted you to be, killing you would’ve felt amazing because I defeated such a mighty warrior, and would’ve proven myself to be the superior grandchild. But this? This angers me beyond belief, as I had my glory taken away from me and wasted on such filth like you.”

He cocked his hand back and punched me in the face, shattering my nose and skull as well as cutting the skin with his gauntlets.

“And the best part is: with you having come into the city without using the door, the curse doesn’t affect you,” he smirked. “Meaning that if you die here, you’re dead for good, Richter. Goodbye, dear cousin. It’s been nice knowing you.”

He cocked his hand back again, readying the finishing blow, only to be blasted in the back by a bolt of lightning. He lowered his hand and turned around in an annoyed manner, looking at the person that had struck him. It had been Svea, obviously, standing amongst the disintegrated remains of the small army and holding the beaten body of Lilly, casting her aside like a ragdoll and snarling angrily at the demon.

“I’ll be right back,” he said to me as he stood up. “This shouldn’t take too long.”

He walked forwards, Svea firing another bolt of lightning at him, only for him to swat it aside with some kind of deflector spell, then rushing at her with his sword extended. Svea was able to easily block the strike of the blade on her near-indestructible scales, but was unable to defend against the vicious knee attack she received to her thigh, the muscle giving out and causing her to drop slightly, this allowing the demon to hook her in her face and sending her staggering back. He didn’t stop with his assault, applying a rapid series of blows to her body and face that caused her to stumble and bleed, skin splitting and bone breaking, as his vicious punches left Svea unable to defend herself, only being spared to torment by an intercept by Jiang, who threw herself into the fray and slammed her thick tiger hands into the demon’s stomach, knocking him up into the air, followed by her gripping his leg and slamming him into the stone floor.

The ground beneath him shattered and cracked upon impact, Jiang following up the assault with a series of rapid and bone-shattering punches, throwing all of her strength into the punches, as she continued to beat him into the stone. She seemed to be gaining the upper hand before the demon caught both of her punches, eyes widening in shock as her entire strength, the inhuman power that could punch holes in solid rocks, has been stopped with an almost effortless level of strength. The demon then booted her in the stomach, sending her flying into the air, only for her to be blasted by a purple beam, boring a hole through her stomach as she came slamming down into the ground.

Larra launched forward, firing arrow after arrow at the demon, only to have them bounce off his armour with nary an impact. He then got to his feet, blocking another punch from Svea with his palm before twisting her thick dragon wrist, forcing her to her knees, before punching her in the face hard enough to create a shockwave from the impact, shattering her nose and sending blood spurting down her beautiful face, finishing Svea off with a spin-kick before moving in on Larra, dashing towards her at inhuman speed before wrenching her bow away from her and slamming a knee into her chest, the same way he’d defeated me, before bringing his elbow down on the back of her hunched-over body, snapping her spinal cord from the shoulder down and causing her to collapse to the floor in a bruised heap. He then turned on Elena, the fox girl trembling with terror as the demon stared at her ominously, raising his hand up and charging an energy attack with a dark look in his eyes.

“And the funny thing is,” he said in a low growl. “I was going to let you all live.”

The energy beam reached its full charge and was a mere second away from being fired before something moving almost too fast to comprehend sent the demon flying well over thirty feet into the nearby wall with enough force to shatter it. He went flying with a loud yell, the creature or object landing softly on their feet and speaking to Elena with a familiar voice.

“If you’ve got any spells or supplies that’ll help your friends,” the person said. “Now's be a good time to use them. They haven’t got much time left.”

Elena nodded, still shaken to the core, as she took out the bag of candies she carried with her and began making the rounds, giving each of us one to save us from death, before finishing her run with me. By this time, the demon had dug himself out of the hole in the wall, his eyes wide with fury and malice, blood running from his bust lip, as his gaze set on the one that had attacked him.

“Luna,” he spat with hatred in his voice.

“Vermon,” the Lunar Alicorn said in a disgusted tone, crossing her arms and staring at him coldly. “I’m quite surprised you managed to get yourself out of the pit I threw you in the last time we met.

“I’ve gotten stronger since then, whore,” he snarled. “The last time we fought I was nothing but a child, still bragging about his father’s position. But now, as I’ve realised my true strength, I’m more than powerful enough to take care of a little slut like you.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a man, Vermon,” Luna snarled, taking up a defensive stance. “What you are is a delusional fool if you think you can take me.”

Vermon roared with rage, throwing himself at Luna with a barrage of super-powered punches and kicks, throwing what seemed to be all of his strength into the brutal assault, only for Luna to dodge each and every attack as if it were nothing. Once Vermon’s barrage ended, Luna threw two simple jabs, left and right, both of them knocking teeth and blood out of Vermon’s mouth and causing him to wail in agony.

Vermon, the demon who had single-handedly managed to take down an ancient, super-powerful dragoness and a trained Jinko warrior in less than a minute, was now struggling to stay on his feet after two simple hits from a woman who didn’t even seem to be trying. Vermon spat a mass of blood and grit from his mouth, once again throwing a vicious assault at Luna, this time using more speed than power to try and land some kind of hit, had every blow blocked or deflected by Luna’s arms and hands, each attack that was able to shatter a dragon’s bones not even leaving a mark on Luna’s flesh.

She caught Vermon’s leg with one hand, swinging him around and launching him into another wall before following the attack up with a powerful blast of magic. Vermon slammed into the wall hard, but managed to fire a small energy blast to collide with Luna’s causing them to collide and explode into a cloud of smoke, only to realise that Luna had anticipated that move, using the smoke cloud as cover to get closer without being seen, dashing forward and slamming her fist into Vermon’s stomach, causing him to vomit over a pint of blood out onto the floor, following the attack up by viciously slamming her elbow into Vermon’s neck, knocking him downwards. He was then caught by another knee strike from Luna, this time to the face, shattering his skull and splitting it open, blood and chunks of bone raining down over Luna’s armoured knee, before Vermon began to fall once more, this time being sent flying to the side by a roundhouse kick from Luna.

The battered demon landed hard on the stone ground, blood, bone, and brain fluid leaking onto the cold floor. With one, last-ditch effort to fight, the near-destroyed demon picked himself back up onto his feet, watching as Luna walked towards him, her guard down as she no longer perceived him as anything resembling a threat. Vermon gritted his teeth and threw one final punch, only to have Luna use a technique I’d only heard about in rumours but had never actually seen in combat known as afterimage, a technique in which the user moves so fast that the human eye still perceives them to be in their previous position. Vermon’s punch went straight through the afterimage of Luna, only to have the actual Luna ram her hand so hard into Vermon’s back that she punched through his body and tightened her grip around his spine.

“You… you… cunt,” he spat, pain and fury being his last two emotions. Luna arrogantly blew a kiss at him as she blasted his insides out with a powerful energy beam, completely vaporising his internal organs. Luna stepped back from the rapidly-dying demon, ignoring him completely as she walked over to me. She dusted her hands off as she crouched down next to my now-healed body, smiling gently as she did so.

“You’ve done well so far, Richter,” she said, placing a gentle hand on my chest as she spoke. “But as of now: you’re done here.”