"Hmm…"
Cider looked around seeing all the malformed and ugly demons that surrounded him. Some looked animalistic in nature as other looked as though they've been beaten with a hammer
He was being dangled around by a much bigger demon that was holding him upside down by his legs. A gesture that he didn't appreciate too much.
The demon crackled, seeing himself as victorious. "Is that all you have? Little demon?"
"Hmm… This is boring. You're no fun at all mister."
"No fun?" The demon brought his large head close to cider who was growing impatient. "Oh, I'm plenty of fun, in fact when I bring you to Dragerd, We'll play lots of fun games."
"Hmm… I don't feel like going with you. I have to find my friend Megumi. Have you seen her?"
The demon burst into laughter. "You don't have a choice in the matter. And whoever that girl is, I'm sure we'll find her too."
"So you don't know where she is?" CIder asked.
"No. So let's get you to-"
Suddenly the hand of the large demons was sliced. Within the same second, Cider released his leg from the detached hand, and in an instant sliced off the neck of the large demon using his outstretched bladed leg!
"Huh?"
Before the demon could realize it became a large pile of ash that Cider landed on. Cider took a moment to stretch and crack his neck as the demons around him became weary.
"I guess I have to keep looking…At least it won't be too boring."
Demons attacked from above, claws posed and ready.
This didn't escape Cder as he whipped his balded arm slicing at the attacking demons.
Even more rushed to attack with renewed vigor. They were all me head on with a flurry of attack and countersas as Cider playfully made nonsensical moves.
He sliced and cut and whipped himself around like a tornado creating a torrent of attacks and ripping through demons.
Seeing that even more demons were charging, he fearlessly confronted them head on, slamming his overstretched arm into the crowd and whipping his arm back to combine his two arms into a bigger blade. He struck them down like thunder cratoring the floor as he killed several more demons.
"Get the kid!" a demon croaked.
Glancing back he saw that even more demons came his way. Unbothered hehe swung his outstretched arm around, decapitating a few of them. The last surviving ones attacked and swung at him only to be dodged and blocked.
Reforming his blade arms into hands, he grabbed one of the other upcoming demons, tossing him into the wall and sliced the other two.
Just as he didn't, he was grabbed from behind by a group of demons.
"Kill the little bastard!"
A much uglier demon came up to Cider holding a misshapen sword, swinging it at him. Unexpectedly, Cider caught it with his feet, shocking the demon. "Huh!?"
Not long after Cider reformed his feet into blades and cut the demon down. He then head butted a demon holding him from behind, piercing them with his hair.
"Argh!!" The demon releases Cider involuntarily, allowing hin=m to slaughter the other few demons holding him.
"The little bastard's hair is like a porcupine!" The next moment Cider separated his head from his body.
"You guys are bullies…" Cider said.
The demons charge back into or attack, leaving Cider to dodge them. Another attacked from behind but he simply jumped on his head. He began picking his nose nonchalantly. "Sorry But i gotta look for my friend now."
"You little- Argh!"
Cider flicked a booger at the demon.
"Bye."
Demon tried attacking but found Cider fleeing from them, running on the maze wall.
"Don't let him escape!"
Cider seeing the floor was clear jumped back down, running from the horde. Looking back at them he became more amused.
"First one to catch me gets a special prize!" He yelled out.
His taunts seemed to have invigorated the horde as they seemed to move much faster after hearing him.
"Oh." This surprised cider so he picked up the pace.
Cider turned down several different maze paths trying to lose the chasing demons on his tail, but it seemed to be in vain. He glanced back with a pout. "Why are they still chasing me!? Grr…"
Suddenly cider heard a ruckus coming from up ahead. He watched as demons from a side path were launched in the air. His interest piqued. As he approached the path, Dino suddenly appeared! Kicking a demon through the chest with his crystalized leg.
"Get outta my way!!"
As the demon faded into mist after its defeat, Dino and Cider both locked eyes for a moment.
"The demon kid?" Dino thought.
"The dumb head?" Cider thought.
As if called by some unknown force, a large horde of demons that were chasing Dino emerged from the pathway, just behind him. Cider got a good look of the demons chasing Dino, as Dino saw the demons chasing Cider.
Dion's face contorted into that of disgust "Ah crap." he muttered.
"YOU DAMN BRAT!!" Dions voice echoed throughout the entire maze.
Dion was running from the demons that were chasing him and Cider.
"What are we going to do?" Cider questioned.
"You can start by stopping clinging to me, you little turd!"
As it turned out, Cider clung to Dino's back like a sloth to its mother. "But it's more fun this way." Cider interjected.
"Shut it! You're lucky I don't throw you into that mob of demons!"
Cider climbed up, and jumped ahead of Dino but slowed his pace to run alongside Dino.
"There's more of those little freaks than I thought there'd be. There has to be a demon somewhere in there that is splitting clones of himself or several of them."
"Wait. Other people split themselves up?"
Dino glanced at Cider before having to explain. "Technically no. But there's exceptions for this. As far as I know some people can split if they have different personalities within them. People that are sick in the head from the living world."
"And then there's demons with the sin of Envy. From what I understand of that sin lets people copy certain things. So there's probably a demon with that power copying other demons within their ranks."
Glancing back at Cider, Dino found rubbing the temples of his forehead, trying to process the information. "Hmmmm….. I still don't get it."
"If you find a bigger or stronger demon, Kill him first. Then a lot of the other demons will go puff."
"Oohhhh…"
Seeing that there was a dead end, an idea suddenly crept into Dino's mind. He cracked a smirk. "Hey Cider. Since we're cornered, do you wanna play a game?"
CIder quickly looked at Dino with wide eyes. "A game! What game?"
Dino screeched himself to a stop with Cider following along.
"It's a game I like to call 'Kill the strongest demon'!" Dino posed his arms, manifesting a crystal. He then plunged it straight into the ground and the entire terrain turned into a world of crystal spikes.
A few of the demons got caught and killed, while the horde continued its rampage further. "The winner makes the loser their slave for a day. So how about it?"
Cider, with excitement, jumped ahead of Dino with a wide smile. "You're on!"
Cider whipped his two bladed arms down and slashed down a wave of demons. He quickly picked his arms up, whipping and outstretching his arms to an absurd length.
Not falling too far behind, dino shot crystals after crystals. He then crystalized his arms, punching through several demons. He whipped his legs around kicking other demons and forced the head of another to the ground.
WIthout mercy, he conjured spikes of crystals from the ground, killing several more demons around him. He proceeded to enter a crystal in a flash like a fragment of light. He zipped around through crystal after crystal, killing demons with his trusty combat knife.
Dino then reappeared atop a large crystal of his own making. Cider flew past him slashing and dicing through enemies calling out for the strong demon to come out. .
Dino, watching the chaos, closed his eyes allowing CIder to let loose on the poor demons. He focused himself, feeling out for a stronger aura within the demon's ranks.
"The demon will probably have a cluster of other cores within. If I find that...."
Dion narrowed his eyes, sensing several powerful presences.
Dino immediately went to work. He skips atop the head of several demons before running on the wall. He stopped with his feet still clinging to the wall.
The demos army leapt straight at Dion, posed and ready to kill.
Placing his hands to the wall beneath his feet, he pressed his power in, making the area around him explode with spikes of crystals. The demons around him were pierced as he eyed himself on a single demon..
"There you are!"
An ugly looking demon looked up at Dino, horrified that he was found.
Dino leapt down, forming a crystal arm blade, posed and ready to strike. Just as Dion was about to strike the demons down, Cided swooped in, stealing his kill!
Hundreds of demons vanished, dissolving away like mist.
"Hah! Got one!" Cider touted.
He leapt back into the hoarder, skilling several more demons in his way.
Dion simply blurted a chuckle "Game on."
Dino followed behind, aiming to tactfully dispatch of the strongest demons that hid among the illusionary ranks. They dodged, blocked, and pushed through way deep into the overwhelming hordes. One after another the demons that hid themselves fell to the hands of both Cider and Dino as they competed to kill them
Little by little the arm of demons were whittled down as these demons were killed. Eventually their little game came to a tie breaker with the last demon fleeing for his life.
"I got him!" Cider blurted.
"Oh no you don't!" Dino retorted.
They both zipped past the remaining demons dispatched of the last strong demon at the same time, ending their little charade with a tie.
The remaining army vanished, leaving several oddly malformed, beast-like demons remaining. They all cowered and crawled up the wall to escape the two.
Dino could only scoff at this.
"Shouldn't we chase them?" Cider questioned
"Nah. Let 'em go, they're too weak to be dangerous." Dino cracked his neck and rolled his arm around. "Damn I thought we were screwed there for a moment."
Cider flumped himself on the ground giving an exhausted groan. "I thought I was gonna win that for sure!"
Dino glanced sharply at Cider. "It's a good thing this kid's gullible. Without him, I'm not sure I actually would've gotten some of those demons…"
"We should probably look for Megumi," Suddenly said. "She's probably in some kind of trouble right about now."
Cider easily agreed, hopping back to his feet.
Unknown to either of them, they were being watched by a short chubby looking demon with bangs covering where its eyes should've been. The demon cackled to himself.
********
Back with K he was now searching around for an exit through the light filled pathways he turned back round finding a dead end only to stop after turning back a corner he came from.
"The paths changed again… I see… So that's your game"
"Hahahahaha…. Figured me out, huh?" Dragerd echoed.
"A demon of your caliber is rare to come by… I'm assuming you're under the command of the Sin of rage."
"Bzzz… Wrong… Although… I'm sure Rage would like to have this woman too… Her potential to become a demon is far too tempting for me to ignore."
"Megumi!?" K immediately thought.
"Spilling your plan out already?"
"It doesn't matter now. By the time they find out it'll be too late. I already have my subordinate bring her to me as we speak."
K immediately went on alert. He jerked his head around as if to make outside contact but nothing happened.
"Trying to make outside contact? Hahahaha… Sorry to say but I made sure that you're no longer part of the maze. As of now, You're well on your way to Arc This is the last time we'll speak like this. Goodbye."
Just then, K felt a connection was severed. He clenched his boney fist. Rage boiling within him. "This demon thought everything through didn't he!?"
"Keep calm. I have to find my way out of this maze and fast!"
Outside of the maze a large stone structure was being propelled forward into the dunes as the large stone maze stood tall, far in the distance.
Dragerd Now stood in the center of the maze, reveling in his victory against the only thing that stood in his way. "Now my little demons Fest to your heart's content."