Moonlight Demon

A Few Hours Ago

Keiko

As Keiko watched Kaori and Ash walk away, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Focus on the task at hand. You have a duty. You are a fighter. She told herself, ignoring the slow churning feeling inside of her. She'd have to ignore this inconvenience as much as she could. 

To Keiko's surprise, the fighting hadn't yet begun at the gates the same way that it had at other parts of the city.

Soldiers were already set up to defend the city, as the forces of Onyx were far more prepared than they had been when the demons launched their first surprise attack. As the demons had broken through the western gates, the army had set up barricades in the form of spiked obstacles to keep the demons from advancing too quickly on their next attack. Still, as Keiko looked around, she wondered how much they'd all be able to do without the help of the two Saviors who were heading for the southern portal. 

Keiko decided to wait by sitting on a nearby wooden crate, watching soldiers drag giant crossbow mechanisms across the street, with commanders issuing orders to the grunts around them every couple of seconds. 

Someone appeared though who Keiko hadn't expected to see. Someone who made Keiko's eyes widen and created a smile on her face. She got up and jogged over to the woman in the white and pink robe, who was walking towards her. 

"Yumi!" Keiko called out to the woman in the fox mask. Yumi slowly took the mask off, revealing a kind smile. All she was carrying, aside from her brilliant aura, was her naginata on her back. 

"Keiko, greetings," Yumi bowed. "I had not thought I'd see you here, but I suppose I should have expected it." 

"I could say the same," Keiko chuckled. "Um, were you sent here or something?" 

"No, I came of my own accord," Yumi shook her head. "Eliza let me know that as I was not a soldier or Savior, I had no obligation to defend the city but... Well, after hearing many of the residents of the palace giving each other hushed panicked whispers about how the city would be destroyed soon if the demons weren't stopped, I could not handle it anymore. So, I came down here to see if I could speak to these creatures." 

"Uh, seriously? I don't think they're that interested in talking." 

"Well I am, and I hope my naginata will express how I feel about them adequately," Yumi shrugged. "Actually, Keiko, I do not see your friends," Yumi said as she looked around, checking for them. "Are they not going to fight?" 

"They are, just not here." 

"Ah, right. Multiple sites of battle. I understand. I am glad you are here to join me for this one though," Yumi smiled warmly. "I look forward to fighting side-by-side with someone so skilled, who also happens to share my name." 

"I do too," Keiko nodded, looking away, a little flustered. 

Having Yumi here helped relieve Keiko's nerves a bit. Obviously, to an extent, Keiko believed in her own skills quite a bit, but she still liked the idea of having an anchor like Yumi nearby. Now that her presence was felt in the streets, Keiko felt like the coming fight might be marginally more manageable. 

But before that feeling could continue for too long, Keiko heard some soldiers getting riled up nearby. She turned towards the gates and saw from where she was standing that the demons were approaching. 

"Mages! Archers!" A commander gestured at them and Keiko saw small groups of soldiers prepare themselves. "On my mark!" 

What?  Keiko asked herself.  Why don't they just fire immediately? 

The commander waited, watching the demons approaching from ahead. Above, Lust demons were flying towards the city as well. Keiko unsheathed her sword and Yumi walked up a bit, her naginata ready by her side. 

The demons got closer and Keiko started to worry that the army would miss their chance to inflict some early damage before the fighting began. However, as they neared the spiked obstacles, that was when the commander waved his hand forward. 

"Now!" 

And with that order, giant crossbow bolts and spheres of flame and ice began to be shot out in the demons' direction, as they began to move through the obstacles. That was when Keiko saw the logic in their actions. One of the demons was breaking through the spikes with ease, but when a giant ball of ice fell on top of its head, doing that became much harder. The case was the same for each of the other demons. One was obliterated by a crossbow bolt to the chest as it tried to leap over a wooden barricade, another saw its head burnt to a crisp as it attempted to do the same.  However, these things weren't enough. 

The Lust demons above were much harder to hit, and so a few of them descended onto the mage squadron by Keiko and lifted a couple of them into the air, carrying them away before letting them fall. 

Keiko gritted her teeth. 

I don't have a bow with me, I can't help too much, but maybe...  She waited, hunching over a bit as one Lust demon was going to carry someone just a few meters away. As it got closer, Keiko took a deep breath.  Not yet, not yet.  The poor guy started freaking out so hard he dropped his crossbow and began running, but of course, he wasn't about to outrun a flying demon. 

When the demon was close enough to him, Keiko ran forwards, only to find that Yumi was already on it. The masked woman flipped up, leaping over Keiko's head, and then with a spin in mid-air, her naginata found the Lust demon's neck. The demon was decapitated and its body landed harmlessly on the panicked soldier. 

Yumi landed on her feet and turned towards Keiko. 

"I'm afraid I disgraced myself at the shrine, against that... monstrosity. Maybe now I can make up for that," she said with a smirk before running straight towards the demons ahead. 

And Keiko followed her lead, with both of them activating their Spirit Eyes as the fighting started properly.

Most of the demons were slowed dramatically by the combination of projectiles and obstacles placed to obstruct them, but a few managed to make it through to the waiting soldiers. These demons were all piled up on by the army, taken down by several men and women at a time. Keiko ran up to one demon and, as some soldiers kept their spears pressed into its gut and chest, Keiko stabbed it in the head. 

An EXP message appeared above her, but another demon nearly bit Keiko's arm before she could check it. She spun in place and slashed the demon's chest, then stabbed its gut. The demon kept going though. Keiko, shocked, pulled her sword out only for the demon to catch a crossbow bolt to the head from another soldier, and die in front of her. 

These things are stubborn, Keiko thought.  I can't afford to be careless. 

Still, the battle appeared to be going far better than Keiko had expected. In fact, one could almost say it was going well for them, as unbelievable as that was. Mostly, this was thanks to the mages. Their spells meant that even if the demons were not outright killed by their attacks, they would at least be halted momentarily.

However, this did not last for long. 

Because, as the fighting continued, the flood of demons stopped coming in and Keiko saw one, lone demon walking towards the battle. Keiko's sword slashed through one enemy, killing it before she noticed it and stopped. She narrowed her eyes. The demon was taller than two grown men put together, towering over everything in its vicinity. It had a heavy-looking, muscular frame that reminded Keiko of Ren. The demon had long, flowing white hair like Ash's, and all it wore were two chains on its wrists that were dragging along the ground. 

All it carried was one giant black sword that looked less like a weapon and more like a slab of raw iron, meant to kill dragons or other such creatures. With both its hands wrapped around its hilt, the demon approached. 

Immediately, Keiko could tell this one was different. There was something about its aura, the sense of power that it gave off, that made Keiko wary. Without Ash, of course, she had no way of knowing its level, but she still decided to be extra cautious of this thing. 

And, as one unfortunate soldier walked up to it, Keiko saw her concerns validated. 

"For Onyx!" One young soldier screamed as he ran up to the demon with a spear ready to stab it. The demon watched him approach with blank, expressionless eyes, and when the soldier was near enough, Keiko saw it do something she thought impossible for a creature of its size. 

The demon flipped up into the air, just like Yumi had done earlier, and came down slamming its greatsword onto the soldier below. A burst of red exploded into the air, and to put it simply, the soldier was not there anymore, a web of cracks forming at the stone where he'd been. 

Keiko's jaw dropped and, nonchalantly, the demon took up its earlier stance, keeping the sword by its side as it began walking up to the rest of the army. 

Yumi noticed the creature as well and narrowed her eyes at it. 

"That monster," she said next to Keiko, "it gives me the same feeling the Lust demon from before gave me." 

Keiko gulped. 

What do we even do? She asked herself as she watched this thing get closer.