"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.
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