Yes, it’s been a long time. I suppose I owe an explanation to you now-justified it’s-been-so-long-since-a-ToaLW-chapter apocalypsers. Well, with finals, taking the SAT, and my birthday, I had a very busy month last month. So, my bad. =P But rest assured! You shall have your ToaLW fix now, assuming you haven’t skipped past this message already. ToaLW will end soon, and I’ve already begun preparations for the sequel. You won’t know what hit you. And, yes. Short chapter. I got lazy somewhere along the way. >0<

Episode 104 The Demon Filled With Hate

Kunai inches forward, dragging himself over the ragged ground. His fingers clench tighter around the hilt of his sword, as he draws nearer and nearer to the sense of impending madness.

One of the Soul Eaters rises to his feet suddenly, and glances over his shoulder suspiciously. The other two follow his gaze with questioning looks. The one who’d risen, Ezekiel, peers closer into the darkness, drawing his sword. He casts away his Bamboo Hat, allowing it to fall to the ground with a soft thud.

Kunai emerges from behind his hiding place, a smirk upon his face. “How long have you noticed my presence, Soul Eater?”

“From the very beginning,” Ezekiel hisses. “I have been aware that you were following us from the very first moment you picked up our trail.”

“I’d assumed as much,” Kunai retorts, raising his sword and allowing the dim moonlight to bounce off of its finely polished blade. “But speech is futile. I went out of my way to track you only because I wished to defeat the three of you.”

“Oh really?” Ezekiel snorts, feigning surprise. “You are a foolish child to underestimate our strength like that. But very well…”

Ezekiel speeds forward, clasping his Devil’s Sunrise. He swings just as he reaches Kunai, who disappears with a flash. Kunai reappears in between Ezekiel and Azuria, who has rushed onward as well. With a well-timed lob of his arm, Kunai slices through Ezekiel’s shoulder, while preserving enough time to land a direct hit across Azuria’s chest.

The two bounce back, lowering their weapons momentarily. “Tch,” Kunai sneers, as he glances at their wide-open chests. “You’d already be dead now if I’d been just a little faster.”

“Do not get cocky, boy!” Ezekiel growls.

“Allow me to trample his excessive pride!” Azuria shouts, brandishing his double Cursayers. Before he raises his hands, Kunai shreds them off his arms.

Two jets of blood red leap into the air, clouding the black sky. Through the midst of Azuria’s disturbing howls, Noel appears by Kunai’s side, firing two shots at him at point blank range.

Kunai dodges each arrow, spinning like a cyclone and propelling his sword into Noel’s jaw at the butt end of his spin. Ezekiel pounces furiously upon Kunai, but the latter merely steps out of the way, using his arm to force feed Ezekiel’s sword into his companion’s throat.

Noel lets loose a cry like a strangled Lucida, as Ezekiel’s blade pierces through his throat. Before long, one third of the Soul Eaters lays dead on the floor.

Ezekiel turns to glare at Kunai with a look of wrath. “Boy, what are you?!” But Kunai doesn’t respond; he stares back with a pair of eyes glowing with an eerie red color, and lets loose a powerful blast of red light.

“Power Strike.”

The blaze of light plows through a moaning Azuria, splitting him right in half. It continues onward with a furious rampage, until Ezekiel stops it with the blade of his own sword.

Kunai smashes his blade against Ezekiel’s, and sparks fly from the friction created by the two blades of metal. “What is this?” Ezekiel gasps, eyes widening, as he struggles to push back the force of Kunai’s attack.

Kunai still doesn’t answer; he retracts his sword and swings left, swings right, trading blows with Ezekiel, who is barely managing to keep up with Kunai’s speed.

They continue to strike and parry for some time, neither showing any signs of weariness from the constant back and forth battle. Finally, Kunai speeds his way past Ezekiel’s Devil’s Sunrise, pinning him straight to the ground. “Got him!” Kunai breathes, letting fly a bolt of red light in his Power Strike.

Ezekiel counters the attack, his Devil’s Sunrise transforming into a Berzerker almost seamlessly. The bigger sword blocks the head-on strike with blunt force, absorbing much of the attack with little protest.

“You must realize,” Ezekiel begins, “that having eaten multiple souls myself, I must not be taken lightly!” Ezekiel swings his sword forward, as his own Power Strike darts forward spectacularly.

Blood spills into the air, but the wound belongs to Ezekiel, as Kunai plows through the attack without remorse, charging forward and landing a clean blow on Ezekiel’s shoulder. The Soul Eater collapses to the ground, nursing his injury.

Meanwhile, blood continues to pour freely from Kunai’s shoulder as well, as his own wounds burst open explosively. He merely brushes some of the bubbling blood away, allowing it to stain both his hand and his clothes.

“I can see that you truly are a monster,” Ezekiel coughs, spitting blood from between his teeth. “To suffer such a brutal attack unflinchingly…even monsters feel fear from time to time. Have you none?”

“Actually,” Kunai sneers, “I’m feeling pretty good right now. I dunno why, but mastering this mana control thing that Azuma taught me has really helped a ton!”

“Mana control?” Ezekiel hisses, narrowing his eyes at Kunai. ‘I see it now. Impressive; without even realizing it, he has been using the mana in the air as a high-quality cushion around himself. The result is that his blade is sharpened while the blows against him are softened. That is how he has been able to maintain such a high degree of combat without compromising any speed.’

In the instant that Ezekiel finishes gathering his thoughts, Kunai’s blade has already pierced through his chest yet another time. Within one fatal moment, Ezekiel drops to his knees, staring up into the black face of a demon.

‘It will take a stronger blade than mine to crush this monster,’ Ezekiel contemplates, as his vision fades to the murky image of the beast standing before him.

Kunai withdraws his sword from Ezekiel’s breast, shaking it gently and splattering Ezekiel’s own blood upon him. A demonic grin suddenly transfixes itself upon Kunai’s face, softly accented by a ray of moonlight. In that desolate land of eternal darkness, where the thunder rumbles and a monstrous beast looms in the horizon, not a single sign of human life is present.

Only the shadow of one demon remains standing in the moonlight.