Lux Locus: Fractured Family
Over Blood and Greed

The gigantic demon laughed wholeheartedly and looked at the two emotionless pillars with envy.

"I would love to empty you of your blood. Pillar blood is one of Blumarak's most delightful and refined drinks. Your bones and marrow will provide him with an equally delicious meal, so please." It tapped the other end of its staff in its left hand. "Do not move that I may collect my 'groceries'."

The two dodged a quick, downwards strike by the demon that hit the pavement instead, creating a hole and throwing some additional debris to the side. The afol on the right pulled out crackling maces which she used to block a backhand and counter with a strike to break steel. The thunderous shock of the mane 'blessed' by the Administrator's runes came as a painful blow to the demon.

It stumbled away and held its hand up like a wounded animal with a broken paw. "Blah! The cursed weapons used by the humans of the Silent Eye." It bared its sharp, uneven teeth made from red, crystallized blood. "It will make this fight all the more interesting when I kill you two!"

The female afol anda watched as the crowd of observers stumbled over themselves to try and escape the battle with the demon, and so she only had one solution.

"Civilians in danger. Their deaths can lead to a strengthened demon of marrow. Evacuation is--"

The demon lifted a giant hand to interrupt her. "There's no need for that. Blumarak did not instruct me to kill the non-aggressive humans...yet." It tapped the palm of its hand with its barbed weapon. "He does so despise unnecessary bloodshed, which is a shame really." It repositioned its giant feet. "Still, wasting food is one of his 'pet peeves', as you humans call them."

The second afol took out a two-handed warhammer with a head reminiscent of a flanged mace and aimed at the demon's legs, but a quick drop of its staff blocked the strike, creating a resounding, deformed screech of metal. The creature kicked it staff's base, pushing the pillar's weapon upwards and throwing them off-balance. The staff was thrown to the left hand, allowing a powerful, quick slam from the left into the super soldier's right shoulder and mana barrier. The shield and armor were forced under their limit by the strike, throwing them across the road and into the house next to that in which the ritual was being done.

The demon laughed heartily. "Good. GOOD! I was coagulating where I was. This is a good way to get rid of the scabs."

It looked down and noticed some blood had escaped the pillar's body. Delightfully, it put a finger in it and licked the liquid as though it were savoring a fine wine. Had the demon fully known what the Afol Anda were, it would have not done that, for its mouth started to burn, and its body smoked. It fell to its knees and coughed harshly.

"Even your blood?!" it gasped. "What kind of creatures curse even their blood?!" It looked up at the now two pillars and glared at them. "Next thing you're going to say is that your bones were cursed as well!"

The two super humans looked down at the demon with apathetic expressions, neither denying nor confirming the sarcasm.

"So that's why Gragantu told me to delay them long enough." The demon spat out the 'cursed' blood. "I've got enough strength permitted to me to delay them long enough. That follower best hurry, or we will fail."

Legs tensed and muscles strained, a mass of marrow and strength stood in front of the two super soldiers. It was now prepared for proper fighting and wouldn't apply to using the same, playful fighting it was doing earlier. The serious fight didn't find its time to work, as the city trembled violently as a bright light shot into the sky far above the skyscrapers. A huge mouth, displaying a toothy smile, appeared for a moment in the air before disappearing.

The clouds started contorting and twisting from energy unleashed into them. A faint, sickly yellow light was trying to pass through them, but the planet almost seemed to be doing its best to keep that from happening.

The three fighters stared at the occurrence in the distance for a while, as there seemed to be a long bout of silence, then the sounds of gunshots and screaming resonated between the buildings, reaching the three's ears. A roar come from the marrow demon. It was angry. Enraged.

"Mumbass managed to open a gateway! I won't let him get this planet!" It pointed to the afol anda. "And there's no way I'll let you humans stop me!"

While fists and weaponry impacted against each other, discus of the regimentaries flew overhead towards the scene of illumination, along with much larger, much wider ships, easily three times the size of a discus. These ships prioritized width for length, their hulls having a shape similar to a round losange cut in half vertically.

Its back, tall enough to accommodate two humans in height, was protected by four piloted turrets holding quadruple-linked cannons. The top was also protected by the same kind of turret, but not the underside. The engines roared an orange flame along the length of the back, keeping the vessel forward.

Several different antennae of varying sizes and lengths ran along the smooth hull. What appeared to just be part of the hull on the sides were actually long, right triangles with a small base and a length that ran along the entirety of the craft. They would move up and down when the pilot needed to adjust the craft while afterburners on their sides took care of the rest of the adjustment in maneuvering.

The back of the craft, while raised high, lowered gradually to a small, round nose where around eight gatling cannons resided. Two cannons, larger than the thirty-seven millimeter weaponry next to them, stayed firmly placed in the hull. This was magitech weaponry, but what they did was still unknown to the demon. who watched.

A four-pilot cockpit protected by a flat pane of glass controlled the airship, which the humans called an Aecs Gecélnes. It was one of their heaviest attackers but lightest bombers. It didn't take long for the discus to start landing in the distance and ships to start getting shot out of the sky. The aecs warships didn't take too kindly to that, and the repeated drilling of their gatling cannons were deafening to even the afol anda despite them being four or five kilometers away.

"We must kill the demon, interrupt the ritual, and get to the release of mumbass," the male said.

"Agreed. A clash of gods is the worst outcome."

The marrow demon snorted out smoke from the hole in its upper jaw. "You are a surely bunch, to think you can get passed me."

The male ducked an overhead swing and went for a jab to the demon's stomach, but it managed to quickly stomp on the weapon and switch up to swing at the female. The second swing missed and the female struck the demon multiple times into its sides. The pain caused it to loosen its grip on the male's weapon, allowing him to pull the warhammer out and swing around, using the full weight of his strength, body, and inertia to impact the demon. It let out a pained bellow and flew backwards, just barely touching the wall of the ritual building.

The fight continued like this for several minutes until one of the aecs warships following its escort of discus broke off in the distance and flew towards the fighters.

"Apologies, afol anda," the pilot announced on speaker phone. "We only now received a call from a citizen about you two fighting a demon...which we shall now dispose of."

The eight, triple-barreled gatling cannons spun up and started shooting the demon of marrow. Even something like it could not stave off the bullets being fired at it with extreme power and devastation, and its body was soon torn to shreds, letting its essence be recovered by the one who created it.

"Oh no!" the nervous woman exclaimed. "They killed it!"

The tribal was too deep into her incantations to pay attention to her colleague and her panic.

"Do you need more help from us?" the pilot asked. "Be aware that the mana released into the air is disrupting communications. We probably won't be able to reach you afterwards." the pilot explained.

They both waved a hand 'goodbye' to the pilot, and with a nod, he left them to return to the assigned pathway.

"The demon is gone," the male stated.

"Now we can dispose of the ritual," the female added.

The nervous woman ran in front of the only entry to the tribal and spread her arms apart. She was clearly in a panic, and tears were flowing down her cheeks, but she refused to back off despite knowing full well what was standing in front of her.

"There's no way I'm letting you through here! If you want to p-pass. Y-y-you'll have to get through me!"

The two afol looked at each other, then the male stepped forward with his arms spread apart in mockery of the human.

"Huh?"

This was the last thing the nervous one uttered before the afol's hand smashed into both sides of her hand to join each other in the middle. The body dropped limply to the floor, leaving the ritual 'chamber' open. Both of the pillars raised their weapons and marched towards the human, but they didn't realize that the window she used to speak with Blumarak was still open and active.

He created a shockwave through the window to pin the two pillars against the wall in a desperate attempt to let the few seconds remaining to succeed.

"Hurry, my follower. They are right behind you. You only have but a few seconds left! They have been cursed by that self-proclaimed messenger, and without full access to my powers in your realm, I will not hold them for long."

The woman started to rush her chanting, holding up several bones in her hands and smashing them together into powder. The two pillars used every bit of their gifts to fight the powers forcing them down. The female passed one of her maces to the male, closest to the cultist, allowing him to throw it and crunch the follower's skull in, interrupting the ritual.

With their task finally accomplished, the female recovered her weapon from the skull and moved out of the building, the male following her.

"The task has been accomplished. We must reach the site of Mumbass' open portal," the female explained.

"Perhaps we were too brash to signal the ship off," the male wondered.

The window did not break after the tribal's head was crushed. He watched the corpse intently and patiently. The female, using the last bit of mana Blumarak had passed to her, defied her body one last time and, with the wee bit of strength she had left, dropped a fist on another small bone and uttered one last word: Blumarak's name.

The window broke open like glass and exploded outwards, destroying the houses and other buildings around it and causing multiple sky-scraper's to be hollowed out.

"YES!" he shouted. "You shall be rewarded dearly for your will and devotion! THE FORCES OF THE GOD OF BLOOD AND BONES WILL HAVE A NEW HOME!" he bellowed.

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