The righteous shall move onward and forward; those with pure hearts shall become stronger and stronger.
———————————————————————
Mammon approached us slowly, still gripping onto Alex's neck.

Mammon: "You have probably been told this so many times, but what you could gain from joining my Master is infinitely more valuable than anything your God can give you!!"

Shadow came up behind me and whispered into my ear. However since he had his mask on, Mammon couldn't tell he was talking.

Shadow: "I can probably fight him off for a bit, but it won't be for long. You guys need to either figure out a way to beat him or get a way out of here. The car was destroyed in the destruction of the mansion, so we don't have many options"

A stupid idea suddenly popped into my head.

Draco: "Wait, I may have an idea"

I took a step forward, my legs feeling like they were about to fall off.

Draco: "Fine, I'll go with you"

Mammon: "Excellent!!"

Alex: "Draco!! What are you—"

Mammon tightened his grip.

Draco: "Let him go!! I said I'll come with you!!"

Mammon: "And what makes you think I'll just trust you?"

I held up my sword and tossed it to him, which he caught easily.

Draco: "There's my weapon, I'm defenseless now"

Mammon seemed to consider this.

Mammon: "Very well"

He tossed Alex towards us. Shadow just barely managed to catch him.

Asuka: "What are you doing?!"

Draco: "Guys, we can't win this. The more we fight, the more likely we are to die"

Asuka: "Still..."

Draco: "I'll be okay, trust me"

I limped over to Mammon, his grinning face even more disturbing up close.

Mammon: "Greed eventually corrupts all, however I'm grateful for your cooperation. Perhaps we could fight again in the future, all to make me stronger of course"

I concentrated as hard as I could to use the Aether around me. I condensed all that I could gather into my eyes. I began inspecting all over Mammon's body, looking for any weak point.

That's when I saw it. My Aether infused eyes let me see straight into his body, allowing me to see everything from his skin to his blood vessels. Right in his lower spine, I saw a crack at the base of his lower back. One slice or piercing of a sword would shatter it and hopefully kill him. Or at least give us an opening to send him back to hell.

Mammon: "Now, let's go see my Master, shall we~?"

I smirked.

Draco: "Before we go, I want to ask you something"

Mammon: "What is it?"

Draco: "Why do you fight for Satan? I've never actually read the Bible, but I know that in Revelations, all Demons are defeated and sent into the fiery pit. Why are you still fighting if that's the future?"

Mammon's grin disappeared, which was actually even more terrifying.

Mammon: "That Bible is filled with nothing but lies. You know nothing about how the world truly works. You may see God and his Angels as the good guys, but you've been brought up to believe that. Do you think that all Demons want is destruction? Of course not. I mean, it definitely has its exciting perks, but that isn't the main reason"

Draco: "Then what is?"

Mammon knelt down and got to eye level with me.

Mammon: "Spending an eternity in Hell all because we had premarital sex, we cheated on a math test in high school, we used curses left and right, that's the kind of things people get sent to Hell for. Do you think those people deserve to be eternally tortured?"

Draco: "Of course not"

Mammon: "Well, that's what happens anyways. Your God sends people to be tortured for the rest of time because they did something as insignificant as premarital sex or wanting lots of money so they can live a comfortable life. Meanwhile he has sent thousands of his warriors to slaughter us, the people he himself has already damned. If we ever die, we just get sent back to hell. Lucifer saw the flaws in how God was doing things and decided to try and change that. He wanted paradise for all, since in the end, we are all just flesh and bones"

My body was actually frozen. I knew this guy and all the other Sins were evil, slaughtering millions just to escape from Hell. But then I realized what he was saying is true.

Draco: "No, not everyone there belongs, but you Sins sure as Hell do"

Mammon: "Agree or not, there's not much you can do about it anymore. Maybe if you had a year or two to perfect your abilities, you may have stood a chance. But as you are now, you will never even come close to beating Satan"

Draco: "Probably, but I'm dying either way. I know Satan wants me dead since I hold the key to beating him. Even if I switch sides, he'll kill me before I reach that point. So I may as well die trying"

Mammon's grin returned.

Mammon: "I know what you're doing. You've discovered my weak spot, haven't you~? All Sins have one of course, but knowing it won't help you. You don't have your weapon and everyone else isn't in range"

Draco: "Who said I would strike your lower back, where your spine is"

I said the weak spot location with emphasis.

Mammon: "What are you—"

From behind Mammon, Yuki appeared and swung her daggers for Mammon's lower spine. With a single swipe of his arm, Mammon sent Yuki flying back into a tree, crashing down onto the ground.

Draco: "Yuki!!"

For the first time since the attack on the House of God, my Dragon Bane activated on its own. Power surged through my veins.

I swung my fist as hard as I could, slamming it directly into Mammon's stomach. He coughed up black blood and fell to his knees.

Mammon: "W-What—"

My eyes began to turn black, just like the fight with Belphegor.

Draco: "I don't care about what Satan thinks is right or wrong, the second you Demons killed Chris was the day you made an enemy worse than God!!!"

I punched him so hard in the face that he was sent flying back, destroying multiple trees that eventually stopped him.

I looked back at the others, however they were looking at me in horror. I ignored them and sprinted for Mammon. While I ran, I saw my sword protruding out from a tree, which I quickly grabbed as I ran. Just as Mammon was starting to stand, I swung my sword straight across his chest, making him bleed more black blood.

Mammon: "There's a special place in Hell waiting for you!!!"

He slashed down at me with his large claws, however I managed to block them with my sword.

Draco: "Funny, I was about to say the same thing!!!"

I pushed back against Mammon and swung again. This time, he grabbed my wrist and stopped it.

Mammon: "You humans, so full of yourselves, now I see why Master hates you!!!"

He threw me high up into the air, jumping up after me just to grab me by my head. He then slammed my body against the ground. Falling from that height should've killed me, however my dark aura kept me going, just barely.

I felt multiple bones had either cracked or were broken entirely. I couldn't move at all, however I could still breathe and see around me, which was better than nothing.

Mammon towered over me.

Mammon: "I must say, you're indeed powerful, but you're still a complete novice. I've been fighting and training for eons, you have simply been alive for a blink of an eye to me. The day a human kills me is the day Hell freezes over"

I coughed up blood.

Draco: "B-Better get a warm blanket then"

On cue, Shadow appeared out of my shadow and leaped at Mammon, slicing his eyes open with his arm blades.

While Mammon was screeching over his eyes, Shadow picked me up and brought me back to the others. The second they saw me, I swear Nozomi was about to cry.

Nozomi: "DRACO!!!"

She ran over to me, along with Asuka and Annis. Nozomi and Annis began to chant healing spells while Asuka used her alchemy to mend my bones. Thankfully, they did my nerves last or else I would've been in way more pain than I already was.

Shadow: "We don't have much time, he'll heal fast"

Annis: "If we had the House of God, we would be fine. Even Arana would've been able to take care of this one"

Draco: "Well if she's so strong, why doesn't she fight Satan?"

Annis: "Because that's your job, now get up before I hit you"

I grinned.

Draco: "Not very Angel-like"

Nozomi: "Stop provoking her"

I managed to get to my feet, however I was already weak from using my Dragon Bane twice in a row.

Asuka: "What should we do?"

Yuki: "We can't run and we can't fight it with strength alone"

Sadly, we didn't have much time to think. A massive tree flew straight towards us, however Alex fired of a blast of flames, burning the tree before it could reach us. From the ashes, Mammon slammed his arm into both Alex and Yuki, targeting them as the biggest threat. Nozomi fired off shards of light from her staff, however they bounced right off of him.

Mammon: "I grow tired of this"

He swung his arm so hard that it sent a gust of wind so strong it blew Nozomi off of her feet and into a wall.

Draco: "Nozomi!!"

Mammon leaped towards me, leaving me no means of escape.

Suddenly, Shadow appeared behind Mammon and drove his arm blades into his shoulders, making Mammon stumble and wail in pain. He reached back and grabbed Shadow's leg, tossing him against a tree so hard that his body split in half. I knew he couldn't die, but that seemed impossible to live through.

Finally, Asuka attempted to slice Mammon' head off, however he grabbed the scythe and snapped it in two like it was a stick. He then backhanded Asuka, sending her to the ground.

Draco: "Asuka!!!"

Mammon: "You had a good run, Himeko, I will admit that. Belphegor will be laughed at for the rest of time for being beat by you. He obviously was too lazy to put enough effort in"

He grabbed me by my neck, lifting me into the air.

Mammon: "You would've made a fine Demon, a pity"

I looked just passed Mammon to see Asuka struggling to get up. She was eyeing her pendant, the one I only now realized held a picture of her family in it. She clenched it to her chest and whispered something, a tear running down her face. She glared up at Mammon.

I tried to speak, tell her to run away, but I couldn't even breathe.

With a single motion, she used her alchemy to turn the last remaining piece of her family into a sharp dagger. She then ran up behind Mammon. Using the last of my strength, I wrapped my legs around his arms, holding them on me so he couldn't attack her.

Mammon: "What are you—"

Asuka pierced the dagger straight into Mammon's spine, the exact point of weakness.

Asuka: "You may have haunted me in the past, but you're not my Demon anymore!!!"

Mammon's head shot back, staring into the sky as he screeched so loud that it shook the ground. Black blood leaked out of his face and skin, slowly melting away into a puddle of black blood.

I fell to my knees and gasped for air, while Asuka did the same, however she was crying into her hands. I managed to crawl over and wrap my arms around her. She cried into my chest.

Asuka: "T-That was the last thing that connected me to my family... now... it's gone... my family is gone....!!"

I rubbed the back of her head.

Draco: "They're not gone, your family is right here"

Her eyes opened wide as she looked up at me. She managed a smile and hugged me tighter.

From my shadow, Shadow formed, good as new.

Draco: "How are you still alive?"

Shadow: "I can't die, remember?"

Draco: "Remind me to never get you life insurance"

Annis flew down to Nozomi and began to heal her.

Draco: "Thanks for the help!!"

Annis: "Quiet!! Angels cannot fight without permission from the Lord"

Draco: "Great, you're a fantastic Guardian Angel"

Alex and Yuki walked over, surprisingly with very little injuries.

Alex: "Well, we're definitely screwed"

Draco: "How so?"

Yuki: "No shelter, no car, no nothing"

Draco: "We can just borrow your other car, Yuki"

She grinned, a rare occurrence.

Yuki: "I'm sorry, I stole the last one"

I laughed a little.

Draco: "Really? Never would've guessed"

Yuki: "I mean, I could probably just find an RV somewhere around here, but until then, we don't have anywhere to rest"

I tried to stand, however my legs have out.

Alex: "Hey, man, just relax. The battle's over. The rest of us will search for anything we can salvage like food or money, then we'll decide on where we're going"

I tried again to no avail.

Draco: "N-No, I won't just sit here, you guys fought just as hard as I did. I'm not sitting on my ass"

Asuka helped me stand. I wobbled a little, however I managed to keep myself up this time.

Alex: "If you think you can help, I won't stop you. But if you fall again, I'm sitting your ass down"

I nodded.

We began searching through the rubble, looking for anything we could salvage. Despite our best efforts, we only found about $20 and some cans of Chef Boyardee that hadn't been crushed, good enough for about 2 days of food. The money could get us more depending on where we spent it, but even at the dollar store, it would only get us about two or three days of food. Apparently, Annis and Shadow didn't have to eat because one was an Angel and the other was a Demon.

Asuka: "What now?"

Draco: "We should head back home, things probably have died down a bit since they're busy fighting Demons. Maybe we can sneak back to my place or something"

Yuki: "But we don't have any means of travel"

Nozomi: "We could use the money we have to try and get an Uber"

Draco: "Somehow I doubt an Uber would take seven people from New Jersey to Pennsylvania for $20"

Alex: "How far would we have to walk?"

Draco: "It's about three hours by car, you do the math"

Alex: "Crap..."

Asuka: "I... have an idea"

We all turned to her.

Asuka: "I could use my alchemy to make a car, but it'll take a bit, maybe a day to get everything"

Draco: "Y-You can do that?!"

Asuka: "I think, but the gas we'll need to pay for"

Alex: "Then when it's almost ready, I'll go to a gas station and fill up a gas canister"

Asuka: "Anyone else know how to work on a car?"

Draco: "I can probably help a bit"

Yuki: "I'm not getting my hands dirty with all that"

I rolled my eyes.

Draco: "Okay, Princess"

She drew her dagger.

Yuki: "Call me that again, I dare you!!"

Nozomi wrapped her arms around Yuki and pulled her away from us, slowly calming her down.

While everyone else went to go rest for the time being, Asuka and I got to work on the car. We decided to use the debris from the house as material to turn into the car pieces. With a little alchemy, Asuka transformed any debris we gathered into the parts of a car. I'm surprised she knew everything about it.

However once we had all the pieces and actually started assembling it, she started to unzip her hoodie.

Asuka: "It's so hot out"

I looked over at her.

Draco: "You have a shirt under that, right?"

She grinned.

Asuka: "Are you hoping I don't~?"

Draco: "N-No!"

She winked at me and pulled her hoodie off, revealing a white tank top underneath.

Draco: "Now you really look like a mechanic"

Asuka: "Thanks, I took a tech school while studying at a normal school. I was in the auto mechanic class, so I know a good amount"

I looked over and saw she had made her own tools and everything.

Draco: "I've been curious about something"

Asuka: "What's up?"

Draco: "What are the limits to Alchemy? Like, I've seen Full Metal Alchemist, and yours is kind of similar"

Asuka: "I'll do my best to explain"

She got to work putting some stuff together, I think it was part of the engine.

Asuka: "Alchemy is all about taking one form of matter and turning it into something else. However they have to be somewhat fundamentally similar, like when I turned the leaf from a tree into a piece of paper. Or when I turned all these metal tools from rock, since nearly all metals can be made from rock, they were once rock at one point. Because of that, I can't turn water into gold and stuff like that.

Draco: "Okay, that makes sense"

Asuka: "The normal laws of physics are still there, no creating or destroying matter, only transforming it into something new, condensing or expanding it"

Draco: "What about complex things like a computer?"

Asuka: "I can't make anything too intricate, since that would require a lot more focus and one wrong move could split an atom—"

My eyes widened.

Draco: "S-Split an atom?!"

Asuka: "Yeah— I definitely need to be careful"

I took a few steps back and she bursted out laughing.

Asuka: "Draco, relax, I'm messing with you. Besides, even if I wasn't, taking a few steps back wouldn't do anything"

Draco: "So you can split an atom but you can't make a phone or something?"

Asuka: "I can make the parts to a phone, but I would have to assemble it myself"

Draco: "Cool! I wonder if I could do something like that"

Asuka: "You already have Combat and Elemental as your classes"

Draco: "I guess, but I want that too"

Asuka: "I'm not sure your body could handle it"

Draco: "Arana could"

Asuka: "She's been training for her position since she was super young. She's blessed by the Lord himself"

Draco: "I have the Dragon Bane, so I could probably handle it"

Asuka: "I'll teach you later if you really want, I'm a little busy"

Draco: "Right, sorry"

I started to walk away when I noticed something strange. The sound of the wind or the birds chirping in the trees had suddenly stopped. There was no sound, not even enough wind to move the grass.

Draco: "Uh— Asuka"

She looked up and realized it too.

Asuka: "We should take a break, let's get back to the others"

She sounded a little panicked, which only meant one thing.

I grabbed Asuka's hand and helped her up. We then ran back over to where the others were relaxing, just on top of some rubble that had destroyed the dining room table.

Alex: "What's up?"

Draco: "Do you hear that?"

Alex listened close.

Alex: "No"

Draco: "Exactly, there's no sound"

The others listened for anything, however they couldn't hear a thing besides our voices.

Nozomi: "That's definitely not normal"

Draco: "Think it's a Sin?"

Yuki: "Has to be, nothing else I can think of can do this"

Before any of us could even react, Yuki gasped as her eyes opened wide. I saw a gush of blood from her back as she fell to the ground.

Nozomi: "YUKI!!!!!!!"

From just behind her, for a split second, I saw something horrifying.

I saw a creature enveloped in darkness with long, skinny black limbs and razor sharp claws. The only clothing it wore was a head covering made of some black cloth. From its face, the only thing I could see was it's pale white eyes and extremely sharp teeth. Dark wings protruded from its back and a shadowy mist kept the rest of its body in a veil.

Draco: "GET YUKI!! NOW!!"

Alex and I grabbed Yuki and dragged her along as we ran for cover. Nozomi quickly put up a holy barrier like she used against Mammon. We set Yuki down on her stomach so we could see her back. She likely would've killed us in a normal scenario for taking her top off, but we were in a life or death situation. It was either take care of the wound or she dies.

Nozomi: "I-I can probably heal her, but I can't do it with the barrier up"

From behind me, I heard a voice I could only describe as nightmarish, one you get an adrenaline rush from just by hearing it once.

???: "Draco~ Come out and play~"

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Thank you all so much for waiting patiently, I know I haven't been consistent with my posts, but chances are, that won't change for a bit. Sorry!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless!! See you next time!!