The Demonic visage of Cynthia's mother let out a hellish scream of absolute agony as the bones tore through her skin and her knee bent sideways. With her supporting leg brutally and mercilessly cut out from underneath her, the demon collapsed to the ground.

That only forced her leg to bend more, causing more screams to escape from her lips. She quickly raised her hands, stopping herself from hitting the ground face first, only for Alexandra's heavy boots to smash into her face as she took another adrenaline fuelled, full strength double kick.

Teeth flew and the half destroyed porcelain mask that the demon wore, depicting the innocent and beautiful face of a normal mother, shattered into a million pieces leaving only the true face of a woman who did not deserve the name of mother.

Alexandra rose to her feet, grabbing the silky black hair of the demon and yanking it back, forcing her to look up with those rancid goat eyes befitting of something utterly inhuman like her.

"You can feel pain... That's new. The other's didn't feel a thing."

She forced the demons head forward at the same time as she lifted her leg, slamming the demons head into her rising knee as her nose let out a wet crunch. Alexandra lifted her hand, letting go of her hair as she smacked that disgusting face with a heavy punch and let the demon fall backwards.

"That's good though. I want you to feel this. I want you to feel even a fraction of the pain that you caused her in her life."

It was hard to tell when she was kneeling, but the demon had shrunk. She was even shorter than they had started, only 20 metres tall. Which meant that if she was standing straight, then she would have been eye level with Alexandra instead of taller than her for the first time.

That was a good start.

The shrunken demon roared like an animal, lashing out with her talons once again, but Alexandra stepped backwards in anticipation and grabbed her wrist before the demon could pull back her hand.

"In some sense of justice, I could break one bone for every time you hurt her."

She twisted the arm, pressed her foot against the elbow and pushed, forcing it to bend the other way until it couldn't bend anymore, as the Demon let out another hellish scream. In the fort, like a man possessed, Phobus' own arm raised, before snapping inwards and spraying more blood across his assistants in the process.

"But if I did do that, I feel like I would run out of bones and not even get half way. Plus... you're not the real thing, so it would be wasted effort."

Despite her words, Alexandra caught the other hand as it lunged for her, and held it out to the side as she slammed her foot down on the demon's bicep. Snapping the bone like it was a twig when she was trying to sneak through the forest.

She let the limp arm drop, a look of cold disappointment on her face and a chilling, emotionless tone in her voice.

"No matter how much it might be. However... if you feel pain..."

Her eyes drifted to the side, looking over the battlefield and towards the fort in the distance.

"Then maybe you are connected to him in a deeper sense than the others. So if that's the case, I think he deserves to know who beat him."

Looking over the ground, Alexandra plucked a tooth that had been beaten from the demon's mouth, and held it in her hand like a pencil. She pressed her knee against the demon's shoulder, kneeling on it so that the awful mother didn't move as she pressed the tip of the tooth against her chest.

***

The blacked robed attendents winced in pain, despite not feeling any themselves. Many of them showed expressions of absolute fear and distress, while a few others were breaking down into tears, as they watched their invincible Paladin writhe and break like he was possessed by a demon.

His eyes were still black as he laid on the floor, writhing and silently screaming in pain. When his bicep snapped suddenly, they all flinched in horror and the crying ones let out a few louder weeps.

Patches of crimson started to spread across his chest, dyeiing his clothes with a stain that was only growing. A few more of the powerless mortals began to weep, wondering if they would be next to be tortured by the demon.

A nervous attendant stepped forwards, pulling apart the paladins clothes to reveal his well defined and muscularly chiselled chest. It would have been a dreamy sight, if not for the rivers of blood coursing along it, and the word carving itself line by line into his chest.

"C.Y.N.T.H.I.A."

The Paladin writhed and squirmed more, fighting against the unseen evil, before finally he was allowed release when the finishing touches were completed on the carving.

The pain subsided for long enough for him to sever the connection. His eyes lost their black coating and returned to normal as his silent screams turned into audible groans of agony and anger.

"S-sir are you..."

"DON'T TOUCH ME! The weapon! Get the weapon!"

The attendant stepped forwards, reaching out to try and comfort and help his Paladin, only to be shook off by him. Phobus had tried to shoo him away with his arm, but that only resulted in fresh waves of agony.

"B-but sir... We aren't supposed to use the weapon until-"

"Don't you fucking 'But' me you worthl- I am your Paladin! Your protector! I am chosen by God and I am telling you to get the weapon to smite the heretics! So go get the weapon, NOW!"

"Y-yes sir."

The black robed attendants all bowed their heads, staring at the floor and unwilling to lay eyes on their superior. The one that had attempted to lay his filthy hands on Phobus bowed even deeper, his hands trembling as he kept them close to his chest, before he hurried out of the room to follow his orders.

Phobus, left lying on the floor with blood still pouring from his wounds, grit his teeth from the excruciating pain. His eyes had turned red, not from an ability but simply from being completely bloodshot with overwhelming rage.

"Torture me.. you fucking bitch. We'll see how well you and your shitty little girlfriend like this one."

The attendant broke out into a sprint the moment he left the room, darting through the hallways of the fort with heavy, heaving breaths. He ran as fast as he could and didn't even bother to slow down at the corners, simply bouncing off the walls and using the rebound to help him turn.

He quickly came to a staircase and clumsily stumbled up it, his feet slipping off the stone steps in his hurry, until he burst out of a trapdoor onto the roof of the fort.

Atop the roof was a single man, standing at the edge of the roof as he leaned against the ramparts and overlooked the battle. Behind him, a large 3 metre crate sat and took up the majority of the roof space.

The area in front of the box was clear, so that the side of the box that was fitted with hinges could easily swing open and give access to its contents.

The man turned at the commotion, frowning softly at the heaving and wheezing attendant. He placed his hands on his knees to support himself for long enough as he forced himself to get out his message between heaving breaths.

"P-p-paladin Phobus... Says... it's time to use... the weapon."

A smirk danced across the man's face at the news, as a stray arrow flew through the air towards the side of his head, seemingly perfectly timed for when he was distracted. But before it could hit the man, the arrow stopped dead in the air, flipped itself around and launched back into the battlefield.

The man, who had an eye-patch covering one of his eyes, turned to the box and smiled wider.

"Finally. I've wanted to see what this weapon is capable of for a while now. It shall be... glorious."

***

Whilst Alexandra was dealing with Cynthia's mother from hell in a manner that many people wished they could deal with their in-laws, Astra was having her own issues high in the sky.

Sparks danced around her body as the casual clothes she had been wearing were still smouldering, with embers and slight flames still tickling the singed edge of her T-shirt. She had quickly learned that wearing plate armour against a living flamethrower was not a good idea, due to the simple fact that she didn't want it to melt and seal her inside.

A natural response.

it left her options limited, however. She was keeping herself in the air with a combination of her bracers, metal sole boots and a harness she wore underneath her clothes with metal buckles on it.

Unfortunately those too heated up, scalding her skin where they touched, so she had to focus on keeping them cool and keeping herself afloat at the same time. Luckily, even without armour, she wasn't completely defenceless.