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.

    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.

    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.”