Angel Monarch

The devil stood in front of him, its body covered by flames hot enough to melt most metals. Bea had to retreat, her armor and body couldn't take the heat. Sarah and Will tried to pour more water on it, but it was useless. Clockwork shot bullets, but they melted before even reaching its skin...

Hellfire was on his own.

Looking the demon up and down he took a deep breath to clear his mind of any doubt.

He opened his eyes and ran at the devil. Without the armor it was even faster and more agile, very unexpected for a being of its size.

With the halberd he slashed horizontally trying to catch it, but it evaded with ease. It moved back, then before Hellfire even finished his movement it attacked. A flaming fist half the size of Hellfire's body hit him in the chest.

He flew through the air for about 10 meters before hitting the ground and rolling another couple. The armor held and defended him, it still hurt like hell, but it gave him an edge against the monster.

'I really hate this guy.' Trying to calm his mind again, he rose from the ground and reacted in time to deflect the devil's fists. He even managed to hurt its wrist with the blade of the halberd, but it didn't even seem to feel it.

After evading another fist, he crouched down a bit and using his wings rose to the air trying to hit the devil in the face. It defended with its hand, then with a backhanded slapped, it hit Hellfire out of the sky.

The armor around his body was starting to heat up, but it could still hold a couple of minutes.

"You little... Don't... Don't lose yourself..." He tried his hardest to not abandon his sense of self, but the devil was started to really annoy him.

With renewed energy he attacked again, then again, then again... It never worked and always ended the same way... With him on the ground.

The armor was basically glowing it was so hot, but the inside was still bearable. Of course at this point he didn't even care, it took a while, but he finally lost it. Hellfire dismissed his halberd, stood up and screamed.

"I AM GOING TO RAPE YOUR FUCKING CORPSE!"

All he saw was red as he ran at the devil. He dodged one fist, then the other, he jumped up and delivered a punch to its face. The monster was much heavier than him so he only took two steps back before recovering.

The fight descended into a frenzied brawl between the two demonic figures. Hellfire hit him everywhere he could, losing his mind meant losing his will of preservation. Hit after hit he delivered without the care of his own wellbeing.

He didn't even notice when his skin started to boil and blister. The skin on his hands was already melting from all the punches, but the pain disappeared entirely behind the wall of red haze, that controlled his mind.

There was only the need to kill, to destroy, to completely eviscerate his enemy.

Dodging another barrage of fists and kicking the demon in its chest, it finally shown weakness. Hellfire laughed out loud as the devil fell on one knee.

"Who knew devils are this weak! You are a disappointment to our race!"

Unlike the devil he didn't let it stand, instead he moved closer and punched it in the head over and over again.

"A... FUCKING... EMBERRASSMENT..." After each punch or kick he screamed a new insult at it.

When the devil looked very awful and its blazing body started to lose its heat, Hellfire grabbed the monster's head with both hands. Its head was huge nearly the size of his own body, but it didn't make a difference.

"Send my regards to hell!"

He pushed with all his strength and began screaming from the strain and the slowly returning pain. It took a couple of seconds to show any kind of change. At first it was only a small cracking sound, then a lot louder. The devil's head exploded with the sound of a watermelon being crushed.

The pain was already returning in earnest. He backed away and screamed, dismissing the armor his skin boiled, on his leg and fists there wasn't even any skin only some melting muscle and bone. Luckily at those places the nerve endings already melted away, but the rest of his body felt like he was on fire.

The flames on the devil's body fully disappeared and Hellfire ran to touch it. The pain was already clouding his mind and soon he would pass out, but if he managed to evolve his whole body would regenerate.

Slowly and very painfully he approached the very hot corpse. When he was close to it he fell on his knees, a silent scream escaped his mouth, then her reached out his ruined hand. The skin teared at his shoulder and blood ran down all his parts.

He finally touched the corpse and he felt it. There was a question there, it felt like life itself was asking him –– 'Are you sure?'. Not expecting this, he didn't know what to do, but soon he figured it out.

In his mind he concentrated only one word and feeling. The word was 'yes' and the feeling acceptance, just as he thought the question disappeared.

He felt his body lose feeling the pain was gone, but it felt weird. His body was changing not at all like people said it would. The changes felt more permanent.

'Is this because the race change is nearly complete?'

There was only tranquil feeling in his body. A calmness he never felt before... Sadly, it didn't last long.

The pain was starting to return, but it was a lot stronger. The burning pain originated from his soul and burned all over his body. In his heart, mind, skin, bone, everywhere. His whole being was burning from the inside out. The pain was so strong he couldn't even scream or move.

His perceptions fully disappeared. He forgot who he was, where he was, what he was. There was only one thing in his body and mind... Pain.

'Please... Enough... I can't... Take it... Anymore...'

In his mind he begged for the pain to stop, but it didn't seem to want to listen.

It took a long while for it to fully stop. Even after that it took way longer for his mind to stabilize itself, luckily he couldn't remember the pain. That memory could potentially break him.

Slowly reality returned, his eyes focused and saw the darkness shrouding the world... It was night.

'Wasn't it close to midday when we fought?'

He soon understood what happened. While he suffered from pain time passed by, he just didn't notice it. Hellfire was currently lying on the ground with a blanket pulled over his body.

Quickly he made sure all the injuries were healed. Then sighed in relief and looked at his left where a black haired woman was sleeping while clinging to him, a small smile appeared on his lips and he couldn't hold himself back. He placed a small kiss on the top of her head, which was enough to wake her.

Without opening her eyes she dissolved into shadow and appeared on top of him with a very angry and tired expression. Hellfire of course saw past that, in her eyes there was only relief and worry. Without making a sound she mouthed.

"Are you okay?" He just nodded and sat up to kiss her.

She lay back on the ground next to him and slowly both of them drifted back to sleep.

He was very curious about his new powers and strength, but he was also really tired. Getting tortured by a burning soul wasn't exactly a very good sleeping experience.

The first of their hunts was over, it was a close success. It didn't really feel the group with hope, if the first one was so hard... How hard will the last ones be.

They quickly realized there was no point thinking about it right now. They take today as a new experience and use this knowledge for the next fights, every victory or defeat teaches you something.

Today they learned their need for better planning and more preparation. Without Hellfire's fire resistant armor, they wouldn't have been able to kill the Blazing Devil. They need better items, which meant that between the main hunts there is a need to kill as many monsters as possible.

Since Hellfire just became an Ascended his soul can absorb more essence, than before. That meant with him killing monsters he not only would get more powerful, but there is a chance for acquiring useful items.

These were the things Sera thought while she was on watch duty. Bea healed her mostly, but there was a nasty scar running across her whole body. She couldn't wait for her evolution.

At least twenty percent of her body was covered in scars, but after evolution they would actually disappear, which is just perfect for her. Even though Bea always tries to make her feel better about it. She always says scars are sexy, but its easy for her. Because of her strong regen she has no scars or bruises ever.

'Lucky bastard.' She thought with a small smile on her face.