Heaven Be Kind

2: Demon Slayers

{ Mortal Realm }

In the three hundredth year of the imperial calendar of the second generation, the Jade Emperor Jade threw the biggest wedding celebration for his favourite princess.

Yan Ke.

It was the biggest wedding celebration the mortal realm had ever seen or recorded. All ministers, prominent figures and decision makers of the world were invited. Gold carriages filled the Capital city and there were interesting sights of monkeys and gold-feathered peacocks trained to dance on the streets to entertain the commoners that welcomed them.

Masters from reputable immortal sects were invited along with their best disciples to do numerous sword plays and magical demonstrations before the bride arrived on her Jade wedding palanquin.

But humans weren’t the only guests that showed up that night.

The fireworks and shouts of joy and noise from the celebration attracted all kinds of demons with their hunters right behind their tail.

The low-level demons that were born from the energy of the earth were targeted by the low-ranked demon slayers of the Capital city.

After the appearance of the Devil God many years ago, a lot of demons came out of their hiding and hunted the mortal world to feed on the pure and impure energies of mortals. Demons born of the earth to the ones that fall from the skies to haunt, the Jade Emperor along with other powerful ministers and sect leaders for many years formed the Legion.

A towering cylindrical shaped building with red roofs and sealed barriers with many layers housed the elite groups of demon slayers trained solely to hunt down and kill all demons.

Good or Evil.

They were known as earth’s strongest martial heroes and warlocks.

‘’Ah, mom, look! It’s a demon trying to escape on the roof!’’ A child pointed amidst the street celebration and joy, trying to grab his mother’s attention as she waved with the others at a departing carriage.

The young child watched as a wounded female demon ran non-stop along the roofs of the Capital City. The child gasped when he saw a group of elite martial heroes with sharp swords and divine arrows pursue the demon with murderous intent. They were fast but the demon was faster.

She ran on her bare feet, gasping and scared for her life. Soon she was cornered by the slayers on the rooftop, the demon stared in all directions and panicked when she saw no room for her escape.

The girl tilted her head a bit to the side in confusion.

It was strange.

Those people that cornered the demon didn’t look like the usual demon slayers that beat his dad up every time he was late to pay his tax.

They were more slender in appearance and good-looking. They were dressed in fitted dark robes with golden emblems and capes. Half of their faces were covered with a swirling red magic mask and they looked more dangerous and the demon surrounded by them had the same expression on the child’s face.

Fear.

Those weren’t the usual low-ranked demon slayers everyone was used to.

Slassshhh.

A disc-shaped weapon moving faster than any known speed ever recorded beheaded the demon in a clean strike.

The child observing below blinked as a dot of the demon’s blood stained a part of his right cheek. His mouth parted as the head of the demon soared high enough in the dark sky—her purple blood spluttered out mid-air like spilled paint on a canvas before falling at the feet of the slayers in defeat.

The weapon returned to where it came from and a gloved hand caught it two buildings away from where the slayers and the headless demon were. The child blinked and everyone turned in the direction of the hero that took down an immortal demon effortlessly.

The wind blew in surreal waves against a figure clothed completely in darkness. Underneath her partly masked figure, a pair of dark eyes stared calmly and chills went down everyone’s spine at her arrival.

Her eyes flickered toward the demon that had survived even after being beheaded by her bloodthirsty artifact. The demon was a mutant, an immortal, therefore hard to kill just like that.

The hero rose slowly to stand on her feet. Every slayer stared and acknowledged her with respect.

If they had known that demons from Fate Heaven would dare mix with the crowd and become guests as well, she would have strengthened the magical barrier made to protect the capital city tonight.

But like stubborn rats, demons still found their way to infiltrate even the strongest barriers ever made to feed on humans.

‘’Demon.’’ she called calmly.

Arkch—arkch… the demon's head choked on her blood, her slit shaped eyes staring at the heavens as her body moved to reconnect with her head.

The hero crossed the space between her and her group with her lightless skill and landed softly beside the struggling demon.

The hero moved close enough to kneel beside the beheaded demon, a few members of her hunting group grew restless.

When the hero moved a finger close enough to touch the face of the demon…

‘’Senior, be careful.’’

‘’She is an immortal demon. Her body might be poisonous as well.’’

The hero eyed the hunter briefly before proceeding to touch the face of the demon.

Ruan Yu feared nothing. She closed her eyes briefly to release a bit of her internal energy into the head of the demon. A spiritual mark appeared on her forehead, taking the shape of a crescent-shaped moon trapped inside a pentagram.

It was a special-grade tracking talisman of the demon slayers.

Vibrations of energy and magic flowed outward from her body and into the head of the demon. The demon’s eyes rolled to the back of her head as her pain and suffering reached new heights.

Several tense moments of silence passed between them. The junior imperial demon slayer watched their senior silently as the demon suffered under her touch.

Yu opened her eyes.

‘’She is not the one.’’

Their hearts dropped and a few demon slayers panicked and turned to each other restlessly.

Yu stared at the demon now giving her a crazed stare and unhinged smile, blood dripping out of her mouth.

‘’But… but the barrier couldn’t have been broken by one of those lower demons we killed, could it?! That’s a bronze-tier barrier we set up tonight. Even immortal masters from the Rune sect can’t break it off easily with their cultivation skills.’’

Yu returned the demon’s sinister look with a cold smirk.

‘’How could she—how could she not be the one who tore down the barrier?!’’ one slayer voiced out, matching the nervous and fearful look of the others. No one knew the answer to the mystery until one slayer’s eyes widened and he said with urgency.

‘’Or could we have been deceived and lured into thinking there was only one great immortal demon in our midst by her?!’’

Everyone gulped and the panic floating in their midst reached the heavens.

The demon in a heated staring contest with the hero chuckled darkly because they had no idea.

‘’Impossible!’’ one intelligent slayer raised bravely even though he trembled. ‘’Our demon revealing compass would have told us if there were two great demons hiding amongst us in the capital.’’

Everyone remembered and nodded.

‘’The demon revealing compass only reacted strongly once we spotted her and we poured our magic into it to scan both the tunnels, underground cities and places of the entire capital.’’

Yu blinked and turned away in thought.

‘’We searched everywhere and every corner and followed our gut feeling to even check worms and beasts. She was the only great demon with us.’’

Yu thought about it deeply and smiled before her eyes returned to the demon.

‘’Unless,’’ she began slowly, putting everyone and the demon in suspense.

‘’The demon that let you all in was powerful enough to disguise itself as an ordinary demon.’’

‘’Isn’t it?’’