Rade's Demon Elimination Service

Chapter 15: Rade Within the Shadow Fantasm

Before New York was able to get to his older brother though, Lyu was able to predict where he should go first using the Sky Teller.

"That's where I can see Kalleid and Rade," Lyu said calmly, opening his golden eyes that quickly turned into their normal brown shade.

New York's eyes widened and he scrambled to get to Lyu closer when the latter suddenly flopped down, exhausted and weary from the day's nonstop work of the Sky Teller. His lips were in a sickly pale rose color and when Lyu coughed, there were some blood that splattered on his arm that he covered his mouth with. It was quite alarming, an indication that he had overused the Sky Teller already and was on the verge of losing control over that ability of his.

"Rest first, Lyu," New York said anxiously, he laid the other boy down, and because they have been wearing their school since earlier, Lyu's clothes have been crumpled and wrinkled. New York gently wiped away the blood on the corner of the other boy's lips.

But before New York could let go of Lyu's arms that he was supporting, Lyu suddenly gripped the collar of New York's own uniform. His grip was a far cry from his usual strength, it doesn't even compare to New York's grip but there was a particular glint that it made New York stopped for a second, listening intently on what Lyu has to say.

"What is it, Lyu?" New York asked while he tried to pry his hands away from his collar that has gone askew already. "Is there something you want?"

Lyu was spluttering, a trace of his blood's scent spread all over the room and some even flowed out of his lips. Because of that, New York grew even more worried since he didn't really have any idea how far could Lyu exert the power of the Sky Teller. He knew that Lyu only need to absorb human emotions, but what he didn't know was how long could Lyu survive without them when he was in this kind of situation.

"N-new... N-ew York," Lyu muttered serenely, his eyes shone a bright gold, the last stretch of the power of the Sky Teller. "I... can see Ka-Kalleid running to her, d-don't. Call Nee-san, and tell her where to find... Rade. Don't... don't go to t-the Fantasm by... by just himself."

At first, New York nodded his answer, taking the younger boy to his room where he put a blanket over him. Lyu's chest didn't move while he slept. As a demon, certain things doesn't affect them and there were also particular things that might.

He kept pursing his lips, his plump cheeks showing his cute dimples. Even as half a demon, bullets of sweat rolled down his temple and forehead, soaking the curled tips of his hair and the sheet of his pillow. His lips were still in a deathly pale complexion that New York became even more restless.

On New York's hand was his phone, just ringing endlessly until he ended the call. He couldn't reach anyone. Not London. Not even Miss Megumi, he thought grimly, was not reachable. He looked down on the sleeping little demon, not on his humanoid form any longer.

As a demon, Lyu's form was a very fluffy and handsome white little cat with striking golden eyes and nine smooth and soft tails.

In Lyu's current situation, he was still lying on his bed which only consisted of a futon and a thick duvet on the tatami mat of his bedroom. Eyes still closed tightly, there was that sheen on his coat soaking the bed wet. His nine tails were curled tightly around him, making up the majority of his body and even enveloping him in his soft and smooth fur.

"He's agitated," New York whispered to himself, he knelt down and patted Lyu's beautiful coat. It was so soft that New York was tempted to just lie beside Lyu and hug the little demon's comfortable body instead of leaving. That seemed easier, but New York gritted his teeth. There were man problems to face and many things to solve. "Lyu, I'm sorry but I might have to leave you here. But—" New York looked out of Lyu's bedroom window "—Megumi's boundary around the shop will hold against any other demons. I'll be back with Rade, Kalleid, and the others and Megumi."

New York ran his hand over Lyu's coat all over again, trying to comfort the little demon without really succeeding.

He pursed his lips and stood up from where knelt down to comfort Lyu.

"He must've been affected with the Fantasm's presence," New York surmised and, with another look at the sleeping form of Lyu, New York quickly went to the room's shoji.

He slid the shoji shut behind him and sighed deeply. The night has just fallen, young and fresh, but without the sun's light, the darkness that the night brought upon coming has become the number one disadvantage of the hunters.

New York summoned the Aztle from his neck and ran to where Kalleid and Rade were both located per Lyu's Sky Teller's prediction. When New York figured out the shortest route, he immediately went down the Attic and ran all the way to the less populated area where the forest that the Fantasm was heading, urged all alone by Rade herself with Kalleid most likely being a collateral.

Though the night was still young, New York never once saw a person loitering as usual. Not even a single car could be heard or seen going to and fro. The streets of the city were all eerily quiet and calm unlike to how it always has been.

Demons weren't furtive any longer and just rampaging through the alleyways and avenues while some hunters were pursuing them to prevent those demons to create any damages.

New York worry deeply for Kalleid.

Being half a demon, Kalleid was actually more afraid of hunters, the more civilized between his two races, trying to eradicate him like how Rade did when they first met. The demons didn't like him, but they also don't really care about him. The same couldn't be said to the hunters who didn't like him and also didn't want him alive because of his demonic ancestry.

New York's lungs burned while he ran and ran through the deserted streets of the city he grew up in. As a hunter who had been training all of his life though, New York did not mind all the fatigue, just that he needed to get where Kalleid was. While everything was in chaos, the very person that everyone was risking their neck for was already in a heated battle with a small body made by the Fantasm.

The boundary that was being held up by Felif has broken off as soon as London and New York left him while the brother tandem together with Megumi, a powerful half demon immortal, also failed to block off and make the Fantasm turn around with the boundary they were all holding up.

"No!" London screamed as the wind went pass them all and the thick clouds that were covering the sky gliding along, ignoring the three of them. "The Fantasm—!"

"Megumi, can't you do anything about the Fantasm?" New York immediately asked Megumi who was also heaving deep breaths though she really didn't have to, beads of sweat covered all of their skin and there was still the anxiety going around.

"It doesn't work that way, New York," Megumi answered amicably, "even if I want to do something, block it off and such, the Fantasm is simply too big. Before I could make a move against it, I'll already be engulfed with its spreading consciousness."

"You're saying that we could only let it go?" London asked incredulously.

"Straight through the city, yes," Megumi replied, the gloom on her tone was evident. "Rade is within the perimeter where it was heading," Megumi informed the other two, "she might belong to the Aldam family, but her talent won't really help her against the Fantasm."

The three of them looked up to the moving consciousness of the Fantasm, feeling rather small and useless against it. When London felt a movement on New York's direction, there was a stern expression on her face and a curt sentence has been uttered.

"Don't you dare," London said.

New York didn't say anything for a few moments, trying to arrange his thoughts and calm his mind. When he did say something though, London winced and almost fainted with aggravation on the spot.

"I told Kalleid that he should stop Rade from going after the Fantasm," he muttered, there was a slight tremor on his voice which New York tried his best to hide but never succeeded anyways. "I was using the Sky Teller's clairvoyance to see where Kalleid is and I think... that whoever kidnapped him wanted him to take the Shadow Fantasm for himself."

"s**t!" London screamed at no one in particular. "So he's in there? He's probably in there?" he demanded to his brother despite knowing the answer on his mind already. "Well, good thing he's an immortal then."

"Kalleid's been told that he shouldn't go after the Fantasm by his father," New York imparted to his older brother. "There must have been a reason, d**k!"

"Whatever injury he's got," London said, sounding as if he was convincing herself, "he'd be okay. He could heal himself faster than anyone alive in this planet."

"The power of the Fantasm has the possibility to nullify his immortality," Megumi interrupted London, crushing any hope and dream of hers. "Or at least that's what his father wanted to imply with his message from the last time, but, in reality, his body is also the perfect vessel for the Fantasm. A body that could adapt to demonic means and could seamlessly blend within the mortals' society."

"A vessel," New York mindlessly repeated. "Like Laurinette Haeven' body."

Urged by Megumi's words, New York Aldeia ran like a madman towards the very center of the Shadow Fantasm, shouting only one name without any inhibitions.

"Kalleid, you dumbass!"

Inside the center of the consciousness of the Fantasm was an illusion created in the same form of anyone's memory inside it. Right now, the Fantasm created a labyrinth of hallways filled with doors leading to nowhere.

What Elora Isolde Aldam did to attract such a powerful demon manifestation was actually to dissolve any of the cores she have gathered during her hunts that she didn't get appraised by Lyu. The thing she dissolved all of those cores with?

It was the blood that came from her holy weapon Aíma.

The mixture of her blood and the sloshing liquefied cores have created a curiosity just like how she anticipated and draw the Fantasm to turn on its original route.

Now that the Fantasm has finally reached Rade, it quickly dissipated all things around to create the things it could read on Rade's distant memory.

In this instance, it was the manor of the Haeven clan that she had lived in for over how many years since they took her in to become their ward.

She just walked around what the Fantasm created from her mind, wondering where the main core of a demon as big as this one. Her guess was in the very center of it, but Rade doesn't really have any idea how to get to the very center of the Fantasm.

Her hands have become sore while walking, Emma was making a deep cut on her palm as it absorb every single drop of blood.

"Everything is the same," Rade muttered, feeling the hair on her arms and legs were all standing up while she looked up at the decorations on the walls of the hallways.

Feeling as if she was back in the manor of the Haeven clan, she couldn't but be a little reminiscent of the things that happened in the past.

Although her life have a larger part on the memories that Rade would rather she forget, there were also those precious little moments that were good and pure.

She remembered herself getting out of one of the endless rooms of the manor, fatigue from training the holy weapon that was passed down on her. There would be a sandwich waiting for Rade on the kitchen, a smile was also a bonus for her.

The experiments she underwent when she was younger destroyed any humanity she has got left, but certain memories reminded Rade that she was also a little kid and she was indeed a human being, clingy when being shooed away and whiny when there were too many things to do.

It wasn't always sunshine and unicorn in her life, Rade thought sentimentally, but it wasn't always dark with only the scent of the blood to accompany her.

There were also good and she came to avenge the lost of those good things in her life.

Not needing to alert the little girl, the Fantasm felt her presence and when it realized that Rade was strong enough to grip at her mind, the Fantasm let loose hundreds of lesser demons. Fighting those demons marked the start of Rade's grand battle against the Fantasm.

A scream erupted from her and she charged ahead with Emma on her hand, being gripped as tight as Rade could endure.

Rade moved with Emma as if the weapon was just an extension of her hand. The demon cores clattered down to the ground as she continuously hacked at the demons being sent by the Fantasm. When some demons splattered any toxic acid towards her, Rade would only just wiped it away with her cardigan and get a moved on, unbothered by any injury being inflicted to her own body while her scimitar was the one taking care of any substances being hurled at them.

"Is this all you can do?" she uttered, her head slightly bent down that her dark hair has fallen in front of her face. "I'm disappointed," she said with a s***h of Emma to another bout of demons attacking her.

In that perpetual bloodbath Kalleid found Rade wielding the cursed scimitar.

He had been awake for a while now, wandering around without knowing where he was. The discomfort he felt was now gone with him waking up though he was certain that he had been gagged and drugged.

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, huffing and puffing his mouth and nose trying to put air to his burning lungs. He thought it would be hard to enter the consciousness of the Fantasm yet he was inside the thick demonic energy that was emitted by it— at the center of the Fantasm.

He knew that he was inside the great demon manifestation when he felt his insides tingled and a strong pull on his mind telling him to just fall into a slumber. Kalleid was not naive, he knew for he was one of them. The wind was ferociously blowing all around, making the trees sway and the leaves dance. Up above, the clouds were thick and darkened. And ahead of Kalleid was a thick fog where he could almost see nothing ahead of him.

Blindly, he braved the steps inside the fog until it cleared up.

The green and blue tint of the atmosphere became even more prominent and defined when he entered the thick fog that was the manifestation of the Fantasm's consciousness. Instead of seeing more of the woods where it was supposed to be headed, Kalleid's back was suddenly warmed by a mysterious door that just appeared out of nowhere.

By reflex, his hand reached to touch the door behind him to make sure that it was real. To his surprise, it was very solid and seemed as if it was real, not just any illusions. When he tried to open it though, the knob wouldn't budge under the pressure he exerted.

There weren't any trees and the distant buildings Kalleid was accustomed to in the city.

"It was like being in another world," he whispered to himself, it was then that he heard strange noises.

The familiar sound of a blade slashing through flesh. Just recovered from his sprinr earlier, Kalleid ran again. It wasn't that he had a death wish like what New York told him yesterday, but he does not have much choice anyway but to follow the sound so he could get out of this place.

He wasn't even sure if the end of the blade was directed at Rade or not.

True to his instinct, Kalleid saw the source of the noise that sounded like ripping of flesh. It was a bonus when the young man also saw Rade, and she was the one holding the blade against possibly hundreds of different demons.

In the midst of the bloodbath, he found her.

It was a rather spectacular scene despite the blood and the flesh of the demons. At the very middle was Rade holding on to her holy weapon and hacking through the demon crowd. She was relentless, it was in that state that she looked like a goddess of war. The same determination that draw Kalleid to her was still within her eyes and there was something else.

There was freedom.

There was freedom on how she moved, so gracefully and without any constraints provided by the demons that surrounded her whole sight.

"It's almost like, she was freed from a cage," Kalleid remarked. He quickly grew out of the daze he was out under and ran towards where all the commotion was happening, shouting as he did so. "Rade! Rade! I'm here!" he screamed, burning his lungs further more. "Let's get out of here!"

It was not relief that Kalleid saw at Rade's expression of seeing him here, but actually horror and doom. With one final s***h, Rade embedded the scimitar at one demon's body, which turned into a precious demon core that shone brightly. The scimitar clattered on the ground with the sound of metal banging on to the wooden floor.

Kalleid looked around and realized that demon cores littered the floor. He looked at Rade, seeing no signs of exhaustion but only just the horror of seeing him inside together with her.

"W-what..." Rade whispered. Even without shouting, Kalleid could feel the rising anger within her small frame. "What are you doing here, Kalleid?"

Kalleid visibly swallowed though there was no saliva on his tongue and his whole mouth felt like sandpaper because it was so dry.

"What are you doing here!" Rade finally roared at him.

"Someone kidnapped me," Kalleid answered. "And... and I'm not sure myself what happened but I just woke up and I'm already inside of the Fantasm! But..." Kalleid hesitated then he realized that they won't have much time so he just went for it. "New York told me everything that happened a year ago. About Lauri being the vessel and your friend and Carys, the girl whose death you're blaming yourself. Help me get out of here, no, actually let's get out of here!"

Demons came behind them, their dirty claws reaching towards Rade. She didn't even look at them as she called on to Emma, finishing a dozen demons on one s***h.

"You don't understand," Rade muttered, her head bent down. For a moment, Kalleid thought she would strike him next. "You have to go but I need to do this!"

She never did, of course.

Gritting his teeth out of frustration.

"Then make me understand!" he shouted at Rade in response making her jump out if surprise. "Even if you kill hundreds of people and demon, even if they told you you're cursed, then why are you suffering like this!"

Rade looked up to Kalleid. Shockingky, there was a redness on Rade's dark eyes that made Kalleid drawback a little.

"If you really wanted to kill people," Kalleid said softly, his hand hand reaching out to pat the head of the little girl in front of him. "Then why are you here taking revenge on the Fantasm for killing that person?"

Rade didn't answer him, instead what she was to kill more demons that came at them. Unstoppable with her holy weapon, Rade slowly cut through the demon crowd. Behind her was a dumbfounded Kalleid who was in awe of her strength.

"You came here..." she said slowly, giving emphasis on each of the syllables. "Without having any weapon to defend yourself with?"

"That may sound so dumb," Kalleid agreed, nodding his head, "but I'm not here by choice."

"Then why did you go on about feeling pain and getting hurt back then when it's fine to you!" Rade protested and stomped her foot, her glare was piercing and all Kalleid could do was to give her a lopsided smile. "Don't you dare follow me! Get the hell put of this forsaken place!" Rade screamed at him while attacking the demons with a vigor that put Kalleid rather speechless. "You go back and live your perfect, ordinary life with your friends and your family!"

Kalleid also stomped his foot down, a resolute and unwavering despite Rade's abilities to kick him out without breaking much of a sweat.

"I promised New York that I will stop you and won't allow you to do anything stupid!" Kalleid responded, running on the path that Rade hacked down for herself. "And it will be nice if you can just point me to the exit door but there's none of that here!"

Without any amazing physical capabilities, Kalleid was almost clawed by the demons, but upon realizing that he was one of them, they went on to attack Rade instead which she deflected all with ease.

"You're being stupid now!" Rade screamed back at him. "Get out of here!"

"I won't let you think that you deserve any of this!" Kalleid announced, decided that he would take Rade away from here with him too. "If you don't think you deserve to live, then live for those you killed. Don't let their lives be in vain. It's cheesy, but that's the only atonement you can do for them! If they're not innocent at all then loge better than them!"

There was sudden loosening on Rade's shoulders and if it was Kalleid's imagination, but it seemed as if her sboulders were shaking. Not giving any warning, Rade turned to Kalleid and got hold of his hand.

Together, they ran away from the onslaught of the demons.