00173. The Beast.

00173. The Beast.

Ezekiel watched the demon that currently looked like a piece of charcoal as it slowly started to heal. Ezekiel estimated it would take five minutes or more to heal and after a moment he decided not to wait for it to recover properly before he started to pull out explosive tags from his storage seal. The next moment he disappeared and started to cover the demon with hundreds of explosive tags.

It took almost a minute but once he was done, he placed a time delayed explosive tag on the demon and took off into the tunnel. Within less than a minute he burst out of the temple doors and arrived at the edge of the barrier Tao erected. Once there he touched the barrier with his hand and felt resistance so he forced chakra into his fingertips and tested it.

His hand stuck to the barrier so he released the chakra in his fingers before he applied it to his feet and ran up the barrier. As he ran up the barrier he counted down in his mind until he hit ten. Which is when he turned around and quickly created a magic barrier around himself.

A moment later a low rumble sounded out beneath the temple before it got louder. Within moments the ground surrounding the temple vibrated and cracked apart before it exploded outwards. The temple and the area around it practically vaporized a few moments later as what could only be described as a nuke went off.

The shock wave and debris from the resulting blast slammed into Tao's barrier and Ezekiel's shield for almost half a minute. Afterwards it slowly calmed down but the inside of the barrier was completely filled with dust so thick, Ezekiel couldn't see anything past his shield.

“Was that really necessary?” Tao asked in an annoyed tone.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Ezekiel shrugged as he asked, “If it worked, does it really matter?”

“You destroyed a historic building for no reason.”

Ezekiel crossed his arms over his chest as he said, “I did it to kill a demon.”

“You don't kill demons, you seal them or banish them.”

Ezekiel glanced towards the ground and tried to see through the dust as he said, “Really? I assumed killing them was the best option.”

Tao's ghostly voice took on a teaching tone as she said, “You can't kill most demons when they are on this plane of existence. Besides you still need a proper weapon to attempt it and it's not really guaranteed they will truly die. You need to fight and kill the demon in their home realm to truly kill them.”

“So demon's are basically cockroaches on steroids when they’re on Earth?” Ezekiel asked as the dust started to settle.

There was a long pause before Tao said, “Essentially, yes.”

They both fell into a comfortable silence as the dust in the air slowly settled down. About ten minutes later onnce it was mostly clear, Ezekiel studied the destruction he caused. The explosion had created a massive crater that went a little below where the hidden chamber was. And the crater itself looked weird since it only went to the edge of the barrier itself. So instead of being in a circular shape it was actually a square.

Ezekiel glanced around the crater for a while before he said, “It looks like that worked to me.”

“It didn't.”

“I don't…” Ezekiel's voice trailed off as a bleeding gray clawed hand burst from the ground near the center of the crater.

Ezekiel narrowed his eyes as the demon pulled itself out of the ground and glanced around before it looked up at Ezekiel. Ezekiel with his arms crossed over his chest looked arrogant in the demon's eyes as he stood in the air looking down at it.

The demon was in rough shape but its wounds quickly healed at a visible rate as it stared up at Ezekiel with its murderous gaze. Ezekiel smirked back as he yelled, “It's kinda funny that you called me a worm, when you just crawled out of the ground like one.”

“I'm going to kill you!” The demon screamed out as it disappeared and slammed into Ezekiel’s shield a few moments later.

As it pounded against Ezekiel’s shield it said, “Fight me coward!”

“Alright.” Ezekiel said as he kicked off of Tao's barrier towards the demon with all of his strength he could while also being boosted by chakra.

Just before he reached his own shield, Ezekiel released it and slammed both feet into the demon's chest caving it in. Then they rocketed towards the ground as Ezekiel basically rode the demon like a surfboard. The demon was caught by surprise and had no time to react before they slammed into the earth below them.

Ezekiel wasted no time once they landed and pulled out two kunai before he jammed them into the eye sockets of the demon. The demon roared in fury as it tried to swipe at Ezekiel who quickly jumped out of the demon's reach before he landed right on top of his kunai. The blow forced both kunai to go completely into its eye sockets and stab it's brain directly.

The demon went limp as Ezekiel stepped off its head and stepped back a few feet from the creature. After about a minute the kunai slowly pushed back out of its eye sockets and a little after that the demon moved again. It reached towards the kunai still partially buried in its eyes to remove them.

Ezekiel jumped into the air as it moved and stomped on its hands at the same time it grabbed the weapons. The kunai disappeared back into its eye sockets again as the demon went limp once more.

As Ezekiel stepped off its head Tao said, “I told you, you can't kill it.”

“That doesn’t mean I can't gain some experience fighting with it.” Ezekiel said as he removed two items from his storage seal.

The first item was his tablet which he typed on for a moment before he slung it over his back. The second item was a beautiful straight blade sword made out of adamantium. It was an item created by one of the blacksmiths from Naruto and worked as a chakra blade.

Ezekiel studied the blade as he waited for the demon to heal. It was designed in the shape of traditional Chinese short swords but had a slightly longer hilt then normal. Inscribed onto both sides of the sword blade was a special fuinjutsu script designed by the Uzumaki clan for charging weapons with chakra. Movement caught Ezekiel’s eye and he raised the blade in front of himself as the demon started to move again.

As the demon stood up from the ground and its eyes began to heal. Ezekiel reached behind himself and tapped the screen on his tablet. A few moments later the demon tilted its head in different directions as its eyes still healed, a soft electric guitar started to play. The demon turned in the direction of the music and blindly swiped a claw at Ezekiel, who defended with his sword.

The blade cut into the demon's hand slightly but it wasn’t enough to cut off the limb. The demon itself roared in pain as it pulled its hand back and at the same time swiped at Ezekiel with its other hand. This time Ezekiel focused on the sword and charged it with his chakra to form an outer layer on the blade. It was a light transparent purple color and almost made the sword look like a lightsaber if it wasn’t for the blade's shape.

As the demon's other hand was about to reach the chakra blade the song started in full as the singer let out, ‘Allllllllllllll our times have come.’

The sword sliced completely through the demon's hand with a sizzle sound as the demon let out an agonized scream and the song continued, ‘Hereeee, but now they're gone.’

Ezekiel pressed forward this time with his own attack and sliced through the demons still outstretched arm. The blade easily cut through its elbow joint like a hot knife through butter as the next part of the song played, ‘Seasons don't fear the reaper.’

The demon's eyes completely healed as Ezekiel swung his sword again and sliced though its belly this time. As the demon roared again in agony the song continued, ‘Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain.’

The demon attempted to block with its other hand as it waited for its body to heal when Ezekiel attacked again, but his sword just sliced through its other hand as the music played, ‘We can be like they are.’

The demon’s new wounds inflicted by the sword were healing but at a much slower pace than normal and it eyed Ezekiel’s sword warily as the chorus kicked in, ‘Come on, baby. (don't fear the reaper).’

Ezekiel pressed his advantage as he attacked again. The demon attempted to retreat this time but Ezekiel’s main skill was currently his speed and he disappeared with a body flicker before he appeared again behind the demon. Ezekiel had targeted the demon's overly thin legs and chopped them off at mid thigh. As the demon let out an agonized scream of pain its body collapsed to the ground as the chorus played, ‘Baby, take my hand. (don't fear the reaper).’

Ezekiel walked towards the demon who showed a hint of pain on its anger filled face. All of the wounds inflicted by the sword had yet to really heal and it was almost completely limbless as it stared up at Ezekiel. As the song continued to play Ezekiel smirked and said, “Look at you, looking more like a worm by the minute.”

The demon’s eyes flashed with hatred as it snarled, “Just wait! I’ll get my revenge for this! I’m the Beast! A demon summoned from a place you can't even imagine, you stupid human! You have no idea who you’ve messed with or how powerful I truly am!”

“Really?” Ezekiel asked with a smirk.

He stepped back and gestured with his free hand for the demon to do something as he said, “Go ahead, let's see what you can do… Don’t worry, I’ll wait.”

‘La, la, la, la, la.’

‘Valentine is done.’

‘Here, but now they're gone.’

Ezekiel raised an eyebrow after a few moments and asked, “Performance issues?”

The demon wiggled on the ground and gashed its teeth before it snarled, “Just wait! I’ll skin you alive as you beg for mercy, you worm!”

“Wow, you really look like a worm right now… Projecting much?” Ezekiel asked with a smirk.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll devour your flesh and use your bones as a new throne!”

Ezekiel stepped forward and casually sliced off the rest of the demon's right arm as he asked, “Are you sure about that?”

The demon screamed out as it wiggled on the ground before Ezekiel sliced off its other arm at its shoulder and said, “I was told demon's can't die… But I wonder… Perhaps I can make you beg for death instead?”

Fear started to fill the demon's eyes as Ezekiel moved towards what was left of its legs. He sliced through the freshly healed area where a tiny bit of its leg started to regrow which caused it to scream again as the music continued to play.

Ezekiel spent about half an hour as he slowly and methodically carved up the demon like it was a Christmas ham. Once he was bored he sliced off the demon's head and asked, “Is this good enough or should I reenact the warehouse scene from Reservoir Dogs once it heals completely?”

Tao let out a sigh before she appeared next to Ezekiel and said, “No, I think this is more than enough…”

“Are you sure? I kinda wanna see if I can make it truly beg for death.”

Tao glanced at Ezekiel as she said, “You really need to see a therapist.”

Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “I've talked to Inoichi about it a few times. He thinks it has something to do with a bleed over effect from all the memories I have from everyone in my head.”

Tao frowned slightly as she said, “Shouldn’t you be protected from something like that?”

“The same way my old memories were supposed to be protected from being seen?” Ezekiel asked.

“You have a point…” Tao said as she watched the demon's head slowly start to regrow.

Ezekiel glanced around at all of the pieces he removed from the demon that were withering away and crumbling to dust as he asked, “Is that normal?”

“Yes.”

“That's kinda weird… Is it like a golem or something? Does it have a magic core?”

“Enhance your eyes with magic.” Tao said as she looked at Ezekiel like he was an idiot.

Ezekiel weaved a spell together to enhance his eyes before he looked back at the demon and the parts of it scattered around on the ground. As the unattached parts of it broke down and dissolved, they would return to the main body. It was something you could only see with magically enhanced sight though.

Ezekiel, fascinated by what was happening, took his sword and sliced the demon's body into four parts. The biggest part turned into the new main body for the other parts, which started to dissolve. After a while Ezekiel canceled his spell and glanced at Tao as he asked, “Demons have a soul?”

“In a sense they do, but only when summoned. All demon's need a sacrifice to be summoned to our plane of existence and the sacrificed soul acts as an anchor for them. That's another reason why they are normally banished or sealed.”

Ezekiel nodded in understanding as he asked, “Now what?”

“Now I’ll teach you how to banish a demon back to its realm.”

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