Chapter 343: Leaving the Domain
"Aren!!" Athena called out the moment she saw his eyes open, and immediately she threw herself on him, her hands wrapping around him tightly.
"Athena," he muttered her name as her head dug into his shoulder. He could not help but smile.
Everyone stood around with smiles on their faces, the kind of smile you had when you finally got relief. They had all thought they would lose Aren, but he had managed to pull through.
"You really went and made us scared," Aiden said.
Aren let out a chuckle. His eyes soon met with Loki.
"What are you doing here?" Aren asked.
"Ensuring that my investment did not get destroyed," Loki said with a grin. "You managed to shock even me. Stopping Shadow at your strength should not be that easy."
"I got lucky," Aren replied.
"Yeah, luck," he repeated. He turned around. "There is not much that I have to do here. What I have come for is done. That being said, now that you have stopped Shadow, you have exposed yourself to one of the greatest potential threats to the universe if left unchecked.
You should really start preparing for what comes next," Loki said and then took a few steps before vanishing.
Aren got on his feet. He looked at his hands. He could tell that a lot had changed about him inside. It was not physical strength per se, but there was a great change from the inside. He felt complete.
He never knew that he was incomplete until all this happened, but now he knew, and he felt fulfilled.
He looked at the ground and saw Ancient Devourer there.
’That’s weird, the weapon used blood, yet it did not continue to consume me after I killed Shadow. That’s not how it normally works.’ He bent down and picked up the sword, and it was dormant again.
He stared at it for a while longer. He was still thinking about what could be the reason that it did not try to attack or consume his own blood.
"So what are we going to do now?" Zero asked. She stepped closer and folded her arms as she spoke.
"About the demons, right?" Aren asked. He looked in a certain direction. "I have a feeling that I have already wasted all the time that we could have used to catch up."
"It’s one battle to the next. There is no rest for us," Aiden said.
"Sadly," Aren replied.
"Aren, what about your family?" Aiden asked. He knew that Aren had a family outside, but Aren had never talked about them.
"Shit," Aren muttered when he realized that he had not gone back to his family in so long, and now that he was an enemy of humans, they would surely have gone after his family.
He gritted his teeth in anger. "They better not have laid a hand on my sister. I’ll rip the skin off their faces," he growled in a low tone.
"I think it’s best we head there for now," Zero said. "Knowing them, they will not hold back from using even your family against you."
"You all want to leave the domain where demons are coming?" Lucy asked, looking at them like they were confused and mad.
"This is more important. It’s Aren’s family after all," Aiden replied. "We’re pretty sure the demon has reached the gate already. There is nothing that we can do to save them, but at least let’s save his family. That way they don’t have anything to use against Aren."
Lucy frowned when she heard the explanation. "The demons take the most important. I can try to see this from your perspective.
Even then, I’m not allowing that demon to do what it wants. Hand me the map. I’ll go after it, and you can go do what you have to."
Lucy stretched out her hand.
"I guess that’s only fair, but it’s too dangerous, Lucy," Aren said.
"I’m an angel. I’m very sure that I can handle myself when it comes to it," she said.
Aren nodded and handed it to her. She took the map, spread her wings, and without a word, she shot into the air.
"Well, she is gone," Aiden said.
"Yeah, we should go too," Aren said and then pulled out the portable gate that they had gotten their hands on. He infused his soul energy, and immediately the gate activated.
The light of the gate shone bright, meaning it was ready.
"I have no idea where this gate will take us, but I have a feeling it will be one of the gates we used to come in the first place," Aren said. He removed his mask and wore it on his face, and then he controlled shadow to cover their faces, ensuring that no one would be able to recognize them.
"This should work to keep your identities hidden as we make it out of there. I’m pretty sure that if we showed our faces, the pressure would be worse."
After saying that, he stepped in first and vanished. The others stepped in one after the other and vanished from the domain.
[...]
At that very moment, the demon that had managed to get away was standing right in front of a massive mountain. It stood there, small and insignificant.
He lifted his hand and channeled his demonic energy into that arm and then pressed it against the mountain.
"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The demon began to roar in pain as the mountain began to pull all his demonic energy. The demon started shrinking down at a very quick pace, but even then, it did not stop. It kept feeding more and more until massive geometric glowing lines formed on the mountain and began spreading.
They covered the entire mountain, and then suddenly a heavy grinding sound came from the mountain. The floor trembled heavily as if an earthquake was happening, and as for the demon that had activated it all, he had turned to dust as all his demonic energy was drained from him.
