A Devil's Training Regiment(Mark's A-rank Exam)

Eyes fluttered open as Mark slowly regained consciousness after mysteriously passing out earlier that day. The note on his body fell to the ground as he stood up, strangely stiff all around. Noticing the note, he picked it up, his eyes quickly reading the text of the note. "Oh. How wonderful." He said sarcastically as he finished reading the note. "This is nice. You know, a threat to my life, waking up in an unfamiliar place; it's just what I've always wanted." He said dryly. A voice chimed in in his head, I like this place. It's nice here. The voice said, it was Tasuruha, the demon that inhabited Mark's body. "Shut up, Tasuruha." Mark said, "It's dark and annoying here and I wanna go home." He heard Tasuruha scoff in his head. "Fine, fine. I'll do as Cirven has requested. But I will do it as quickly as possible so I can just go home." He put his hands forward, readying himself for any potential combat. He snapped his fingers and three bronze gears appeared in front of him, drifting off in random directions.

Okay. He thought to himself, Messoribus Coccino. Where the hell do I find you? For better or for worse, Mark didn't actually have to find the group of demons, they seemed to find him. A group of at least twelve mysterious cloaked figures startled Mark as it appeared in his peripheral vision. The group seemed to be chanting in a language Mark didn't understand very well at all. "Dammit." He cursed under his breath, "Tasuruha, got anything to keep us from getting killed?" He asked, biting his lip. You bet, kid. He said, and Mark felt a shudder down his spine as Tasuruha worked his magic, From what I remember, this is how the Coccino look. Just pull up your hood and you'll fit right in. Just let me do the talking. Mark nodded, looking down at himself. Tasuruha had given him a larger body structure, darker skin, and slight claws. He was sure his face had changed quite a bit as well, but he didn't have a mirror on him. He pulled up his hood and set his gears slipping under the folds of the fabric. He shuddered and stood perfectly skill, waiting for the demons to reach him. Though he wasn't quite sure how he was going to handle these demons after he joined their little band. Twelve on one and a half (Tasuruha couldn't really count as a person, in Mark's opinion) didn't really seem quite fair to him.

The chants grew closer, and Mark grew exponentially more nervous. It didn't take long, not even a minute of waiting, and the demons were there. A chill ran down Mark's spine as his mouth opened against his own will, and a jumble of syllables he didn't understand tumbled out of his mouth. A demon at the front of the "pack" replied with more random syllables. What the hell are we saying?! Mark asked Tasuruha in his head, and the demon just made a weird shushing-grunting hybrid sound in response. Since not complying would probably lead to his death, Mark just went along with it, allowing foreign syllables to escape from his lips unopposed. After a firm grunt from one of the Coccini, Mark turned around against his own will and began to walk with them, towards the Corrupt Tower. He wasn't sure why, but Mark had a very bad feeling about this..., and sure enough, his thoughts proved to be true after a short while. Upon arrival at the Corrupt Tower, Mark knew that something was up, blood was slathered across the tower in elaborate patterns, some sort of very disturbing, very death-y ceremony. And sure enough, from the middle of the mass of demons, a body was produced. A 100% very extremely dead body. Mark shuddered, but held his ground, he'd have to stay here if he valued his life.

658|4,000

What had he gotten himself into? No, wrong question. What had CIRVEN gotten himself into? He was in the midst of a cult of demons that were carrying out a dead body, pretending like he was one of them not to get himself killed, oh what a wonderful life. Mark thought to Tasuruha, Do we attack? I really don't want them to summon some sort of uber-mega demon of death and destruction... Tasuruha let out a grunt of affirmation, and Mark bit his lip. There was at least a 90% chance this was going to fail miserably, but what the hell, why not try. "Stop!" Mark yelled, his mouth twisting and making a sound he was not familiar with, but presumably meant stop in whatever language these demons spoke. All eyes immediately fell upon Mark, and out of nowhere each demon suddenly had a sword of coagulated blood and was not afraid to use it to beat the hell out of Mark. He sighed, holding his hands in front of him. "Gentleman, it's time for you to frickin' die, He swung his arm around, twisting three hundred and sixty degrees. From Mark's hand protruded a barrage of white metal spikes, each one made of pure Demonsteel. The Demons hissed as the spikes skewered them, and Mark cursed, forcing his own body into the air through using his ferrokinesis. He floated to the top of the tower, hoping to be out of the reach of the demons.

Unfortunately, no cigar. A flurry of bloody blades were all sent into the air, towards a rather vulnerable Mark. He cursed profusely, holding his hand against the ceiling and it exploded into a million pieces of metal shrapnel. He promptly flew off, and the blades followed him, homing missiles that were certainly more deadly than any measly missile. Mark quickly twisted around, put his hand forwards, and yelled, "Clockwork's Apostle Steel Shield!" A magic circle glowed in front of him, from which threads of white metal erupted, quickly weaving itself into a floating circular wall of pure white metal, which the blades hit. They splattered onto the wall, and for a second Mark thought he was done with the blades, but no, of course the had to reform, behind the wall, flying towards Mark. A string of profuse cursing escaped from Mark again as he began to fly again. He was getting tired. Ferrokinesis was exhausted. Mark sighed, and stopped using ferrokinesis, sending his body plummeting towards the ground. Before he hit the ground, however, a skeletal structure exploding from out of his back, quickly filling out with metal, forming a wingspan twice Mark's size. Just before he hit the ground, Mark caught the air, and began to fly once again. Thankfully, his shift in directions had midled the swords, which had now fallen a couple of meters behind. Mark cursed once again, he was really annoyed at everyone right now. Cirven, Tasuruha, the demons, himself, but mostly Cirven. He let out a string of profuse curses as he flew in no particular direction away from the homing blood swords.

1,174|4,000

Enough was most definitely enough. Freezing in midair, Mark whipped his body around 180 degrees, swinging his arm so that daggers escaped from holes that had formed in his synthetic skin. The daggers clashed with the blades of blood, though to no avail, they simply passed through, sending a ripple through each of the blades. "Fan- fucking tastic." Mark cursed, the gears on his wings clicking as they readjusted the wingspan, sending Mark flying high up into the air. Nope. Didn't work. The swords simply adjusted their courses, each one flying almost directly upwards at Mark. "Okay. Time for plan B."
He muttered to himself, his wings clicking as he adjusted his own course, back towards the tower. He was either going to kill these demons, or he was going to die trying. No more running away. Thankfully, Mark was still easily able to outpace the swords, which lagged behind considerably in their effort of following him. It didn't take very long for Mark to each the tower again--apparently he hadn't been flying away for very long. Note to self: He thought, Time slows down when death is imminent.' The thought of Damned be common decency. Vaguely flickered through his mind as the skin of his left hand ripped away, leaving in its place a club just about four times the size of Mark himself. He screamed rather loudly as he smashed the club into the side of the tower, sending bit of stone flying all over the place, and also leaving a half-built tower and a large pile of rubble where there once was an entire tower. Mark looked behind him just in time to see the swords dissipate into regular old pools of blood. Had he... Killed these demons? He shook his head as the metal club reformed itself into an arm made of threads of white metal. No, that wasn't possible. These things hadn't died yet, and he doubted they'd die this easily.

He was quickly proven to be correct when an explosion of blood caused what was left of the tower to explode in a rather gruesome manner. Wonderful. Mark and Tasuruha both thought bitterly, in unison. The scattered blood slowly reconstructed into a vaguely humanoid mass of blood, apparently bent on murdered anything in front of it. Which, rather tragically, happened to be Mark. "I'm so done." He muttered, his body glowing a fierce white color. He put his left hand in front of himself and muttered something under his breath, causing a white rapier to appear in his hand. "This ends now." He seethed, his wings clicking as they deconstructed, eventually becoming a pair of glorified rectangular metal rods protruding from his back. These rods bent down in a form where they were still there in case they were needed, but did not intrude into Mark's combat efficiency. Of course, all this happened while Mark fell gracefully to his feet, bearing a slight yet amusing resemblance to a cat. He was going to kill this thing if it was the last thing it did, because it was pissing him off. And then he'd probably kill Cirven, because Cirven had pissed him off too. Seriously, who left someone to (probably) die like this?! It was infuriating, but that was a problem for later, now, he had to focus on the giant bloody (heh, puns) demon, bent on killing him since he had already killed(?) it once.

It was now or never. This new form of the demon, while most definitely stronger than its previous iterations, would likely be easier for Mark to take out, given that it could not match him in speed. He had to use that to his advantage. Jumping into the air and artificially propelling himself by manipulating his own metallic body, Mark felt himself reach speeds fast enough to blur his image, so when the demon swatted its hand to strike it him, it missed dreadfully. He sighed in relief, the first part of his plan had worked; it was the least important part of his plan, but he was relieved nonetheless. Part A was just to test his own speed compared to that of the demon, and he was faster. That was good. Part B was infinitely more unlikely to succeed. He had to first land a hit on the demon, which probably wouldn't be so difficult, but then he had to hope the chemical reaction of rubidium with liquids would be enough to incapacitate the demon, at least for long enough for him to intiate Part C, which had not yet been established. The rods of his wings clicked as the wingspan unfurled once again. The demon swatted a hand in the air, and Mark dodged with relative ease. He saw a moment of vulnerability, and he took it, his sword liquifying and reforming into a pair of silver daggers. Mark threw a dagger, span around dramatically, and threw the other. With the ability to adjust the course of the daggers, as well as the added benefit of aiming at a hulking monstrosity, there was no way he could miss.

And he didn't miss. Though apparently, this mass of blood had a brain, since it laughed as the daggers didn't affect it, simply passing through its body. "Wait for it..." Mark said, grinning and putting up a number three with his fingers, slowly lowering one finger after another, until all that was left was his fist. "Aaaaand... Now!" He said with a giggle, a flash of light consumed the demon's body, glowing like the sun for a brief second, blood evaporating quickly as the demon's body shrunk. In just a couple of seconds, the demon's size shrank from arround one hundred foot down to, from Mark's estimate, seventy-five or so feet.

That was productive... Tasuruha thought to him as the light faded and the demon roared, shaking the earth itself. "Not productive enough..." Mark muttered, "I'm not up for doing THAT three more times." The demon didn't seem very stunned from its decrease in size, so Mark's efforts were basically futile, making the demon smaller would only make it faster. "'Tasuruha... I'm gonna let you take over." Mark said, and Tasuruha grunted in response. Mark let his own body go limp, and without his efforts to correctly manipulate the wings, he began to fall towards the ground. When he was almost to the ground, a surge of white energy shot him back into the air as the metal wings crumbled to dust. "Now..." Tasuruha began, his voice significantly different than Mark's despite the fact that they utilized the same vocal cords. His appearance was also significantly different, bleached hair in place of Mark's dirty blonde, and scarlet eyes in the place of Mark's emerald green."Let's get down to business..." He growled, a silvery white aura enveloping him. "You. Will die. Now. We can do this the easy way, or the difficult way. Which will you choose, my dear?" The blood demon, lacking the capability to speak, just roared. Tasuruha nodded, "The difficult way it is." The silvery aura surged a blinding white color and Tasuruha put his hand is the air slowly, white energy accumulating in a ball. "Soon, your time on this earth will come to an end, darling." He flicked his wrist, the orb only increased in size as it hit the demon, which attempted to leap out of the way, to no avail. It let out an agonizing scream, fumbling as the then-massive orb tore through its body. Tasuruha's sheer power was enough to shrink the demon down to twice the size of about a normal human, though not quite. It was still just about fourteen feet tall, give or take. Tasuruha whistled a tune as he floated down to the ground, cocking his head at the demon, which was even more strange at a smaller scale. It lacked any real facial features, and its arms were slender and far too long for a normal human being. It was strange that the creature could growl, given the notable lack of any facial features, though Tasuruha was not about to question that right now, he had to focus on the beast lunging at him, its long slender arms twisting into blades of blood. Tasuruha just stepped to the side, and with a flash of blinding white light he was behind the demon, chuckling slowly.

2,543|4,000

"My poor little darling Mark overestimated you. You're much weaker than you seemed. A measly D-Class demon... It's likely your race was accidentally created by an infant Devil attempting to shape their powers. Pathetic." The demon growled even louder than it had when it was the size of a ten story building. "Pathetic. Endearing, but pathetic..." He laughed even louder. Now that the demon was so small, it shouldn't be difficult to take it out. "Let's get this over with, yeah?" He said, dashing forward in a flash of blinding white light. His hand, which was covered in a coating of white light, was able to grab the demon with ease, burning the blood that made up its body. He held it up in the air by the neck and tossed it at the rubble. Unfortunately, there was apparently some residual blood lying the the tower rubble, and the demon somehow soaked it all up, growing a foot or two in size and roaring loudly. "My my, you just don't give up, do you?" Tasuruha said with a disapproving sigh, "I didn't want to have to hurt you anymore darling, but if that is what it will take." A surge of white light ran across the ground, crawling up the demon's blood skin like some kind of curse or blessing. The demon began to howl in pain, writhing around and trying to claw the markings off, but of course, they did not. The only way that the markings would disappear would be by Tasuruha's explicit command, and that would not be coming anytime soon. The demon began to shrink in size once again as the curse began to burn away at its skin. This had been infuriatingly easy, he had been hoping for a challenge, and a challenge he did not receive. The demon's wails of agony were soothing to Tasuruha, they reminded him of home before he had been banished... He shook his head, he'd sworn he would not dwell on that. He called to Mark's consciousness, which was resting in the back of their collective mind, and allowed for Mark to regain control.

---

Mark shuddered as he was put back into control of his own body, looking around for the demon, but it was... Gone. "Thanks, Tasuruha..." Mark said, dusting himself off, and Tasuruha grunted in the back of their mind. He instinctively began to retract the wings that had been there when he lost consciousness, but they weren't there anymore. He could only assume that Tasuruha had burnt them off in some bravado stunt. The fight had apparently taken a lot out of him, Mark never really saw Tasuruha's consciousness resting, this had been pretty sucky, and extremely draining; Mark was exhausted, and so was Tasuruha, apparently. And now, to find Cirven...

Except he wasn't done, not yet. Mark heard someone clap and looked around suspiciously. Someone who had not been there before was now there, someone with ram-like horns made of black stone and wings of the same substance. "Who are you?" He growled, the gears in his arms whirring instinctively. "Relax, my child. Though I must say, I am surprised that you've not yet heard of me... Has he not told you, my sweet child?" The man stepped forwards, and Mark was frozen in fear, "I'm surprised he did not recognize my dear creation." Who was this man? Tasuruha! Mark thought-screamed, but his consciousness was out cold. He was on his own here. Thankfully, he had just taken a nap, so was good on power levels. Blade Grave... Mark thought to himself, and two metal blades appeared in the earth, making their way towards the stranger. As they erupted from the soil, the stranger easily leaped out the way, letting out a hearty laugh. "You are much too weak, kid! There is absolutely no way you will be able to take out someone like me!" Mark cursed under his breath, this man was wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. And yet, something told him the man was right... He... couldn't win. 'Snap out of it!' A voice told him in his head, Tasuruha. 'I am not strong enough to take over right now... But I will guide you, darling." Mark nodded slowly, redirecting the Blade Grave blades so that they were flying towards the man once again. He dodged again, but Mark would hit this man, no matter how long it took him. 'Tellus is not someone you want to fight that the long range, Mark. Get up close and personal if you want to have a chance.' Mark nodded, and called back his blades, quickly creating hilts for them and spinning them around extravagantly.

"Oh, poop. It seems as though my brother is guiding you in your quest not to get killed. How frustrating. This will be a tad bit more difficult than I would have liked. But why won't my brother just come and fight me himself, I wonder. I suppose I will just have to torture you until he must come out." Tellus giggled, the earth around him rising in chunks. "I'm sure you know that I have to kill you, child. It's okay. I promise I won't take long." Tellus smiled, revealing fang-like teeth similar to Tasuruha's. "Shit!" Mark muttered, they were facing a Devil? The last time that had happened, he had ended up unconscious... "My dear child, I can assure you I am not as weak as my sister. We are not even in the same league, that much I can assure you of."

'Do not listen to him.' Tasuruha said calmly, 'Tellus is all bark and no bite.' Though it did not seem that way to Mark as Tellus hurtled chunked of earth at him at startling speeds. He was able to dodge most of them, and those that he couldn't he sliced with his swords... Perhaps Tasuruha was correct, perhaps Tellus was not nearly as deadly as he seemed, at first glance. "We're gonna kill you, you fuckin' mountain goat." Mark growled, slicing through pieces of rock as he dashed towards the Devil at his absolute fastest speed. Ten yards, eight yards, five yards, two yards, and he was in range. He sliced as sword at Tellus as quickly as he could, and he heard a blinding scream from the Devil, that was... good? Right? Mark dashed back to take a look at his handiwork. Tellus was missing a horn. An entire horn. Mark had not paid much attention to his aim, and had apparently cut of one of Tellus' horns. The Devil was enraged beyond belief.

"Child... You. Will. Die. NOW!" A pillar of earth erupted from under Mark's feet and a giant stone was hurtling towards him again. Stabilizing on the pillar, Mark jumped off, slicing the stone in half with a sword and landing on the ground like a cat.

"This ends now, I am getting seriously annoyed, Tellus... You are a lot more infuriating than your sister, you know that? And that's saying quite a bit." His words were a bit fumbled from annoyance slash exhaustion, though Tellus looked even more annoyed than Mark.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Tellus screamed, hurtling boulder after boulder at Mark, he had clearly lost his mind, to some capacity. Mark had clearly gotten on this Devil's nerves, for better or for worse. Probably for worse...

"What a brat..." Mark said, shaking his head, slicing stone after stone with ease. "If you want to be taken seriously, stop it with the shrill screaming,
you sound like a child." Mark was satisfied with himself, the more he angered this Devil, the less of a threat he seemed to become. Tasuruha let out a grunt of satisfaction, 'It seems as though you have found his weakness. And without my help. Good work.' Mark nodded in satisfaction. Now, to finish this thing. Still slicing the boulders, he began to work his way towards Tellus again, though this time he was going to take out more than just the Devil's horn. Presumably, he had killed Mark at least a few times already, so he figured it was about time to get even. The boulders were satisfyingly predictable to dodge, or at least cut to pieces, and with each cut boulder, Tellus seemed to get even more enraged. Seven yards. Four yards. Two yards. And... Range! Mark swung both of his swords simultaneously, and... Dust. Tellus was gone. Mark knew he wasn't dead, but he was gone, at least for now... But Mark would be seeing more of him, that was for sure, but he would be ready. And now to find Cirven.

4,016|4,000