Demon in the Snow by Heather Fledderus (best novels in english .txt) 📕

The demon straightened from his crouch, lifting his head to the skies like all other demons, summoning his power with a mighty yell.

And in spite of herself, Hannah felt fear. Not for them, but for Nathan. “Don't let him come,” she whispered, “Don't let him hear it.” It was a prayer sent to the heavens, where no one was. But it was a prayer nonetheless. A prayer for Nathan's safety. Because, despite the rules, Hannah worried about him, about the trouble his abilities would cause him. Him, not them.

Humans who could see demons were killed for the simple fact that  they would only get in the way of demon-slayers doing their jobs. And deep down, she knew that that was true for Nathan just as any other human. He was strong, and it seemed like he could hear as well as a low F-class sensory demon.

But he would only get in the way.

The demon swung a massive fist at them, it's mouth split in a gruesome grin. Hannah swallowed.

Don't let Nathan come.

Nathan shivered at the sound. The roar had rumbled through the city shortly after the others had left. Nathan had left his shake where it was and walked out, alert, trying to hear the yell again, see where it was coming from.

“Who am I kidding?” he muttered as he walked in the direction of the roar. “They're trained for this stuff. I'd probably just get in the way.”

he shuddered as the voice whispered again. It wasn't a whisper, more like a yell, but it was so faint, that it might as well have been. For the past half hour, he had felt like he was hearing Hannah scream for help. It was probably just his imagination, though. Hannah said that those G-whatevers were easy to take down.

He turned the corner of the street. Halfway home.

vvvvvvvvvv

Hannah swung her sword back as she tried to stop her back-sliding. Dry heaves convulsed within her. Her eyes couldn't move as she watched the demon move towards her, taking its time. It was slow, but it was strong.

She could see Chad's body draped over a low wall, not moving except for his fingers. Sora was fifteen feet away, blood flowing from a head wound, lying unnaturally still. She knew that it wasn't an illusion. The snow swirled around her again, making it difficult to see.

“Master of the binding sky, all flesh dwellers create,” she intoned, building up power in her sword, “The piercing eye of the hawk, the turning of a leaf. When all wars cease, the righteous remain.

“Flee from the wrath of a spinning blade.

“Indefinite Art 32: Red Gale Wind!”

Power shot out from her sword, taking the form of a cyclone. Hannah watched hopefully as the snow began to clear away, the cyclone moving towards it's target.

The demon's thick arms swung up to protect it's face- and the cyclone disappeared. Hannah watched, stunned, as the energy of the spell was sucked into one of the three holes along the demon's arm that she had noticed before. No G negative was supposed to be able to absorb Casted energy.

The Yukicharo at her side beeped. Hannah watched apprehensively as the new results scrolled in.

“Reclassification. Snow-type demon. Special ability: masks energy, absorb energy. Proceed with caution. Class C positive.”

Hannah's eyes trailed slowly to the demon, methodically coming closer to her, it's mouth opened slightly. She knew what was going to happen next. A black ball of energy began to form in its mouth, growing bigger as it gave it more energy.

The demon aimed for her. Hannah watched as the ball shrank, gaining density and greater range. Why wouldn't her feet move?

Hannah swallowed, feeling the fear that was paralyzing her body. Except for her mouth.

“Help!”

vvvvvvvvvv

Nathan's head jerked up at the sound of Hannah's voice. Before he knew what he was doing, he was running, faster than he had ever run before, in the direction of her voice. It was just up ahead, he could feel it. Snow flakes started to fall around him. Snow in May? He shivered from the cold, his t-shirt thinner than the thread-bare rug in his apartment.

He turned the corner, coming onto a scene that was in utter chaos. Nathan took it all in in a sweeping glance: Chad was lying on a low-wall, limp like a rag-doll. Sora was unconscious, but alive, his chest was still moving. Hannah was standing paralyzed as a black ball of energy whirled towards her through the snow.

He lunged for her, snatching her up in his arms before he jumped away. In the same instant, the energy hit them, but instead of being ripped to pieces by it, Nathan sent it spinning back towards the demon. Nate landed on the top of a building in a crouch, Hannah held close. He blinked, surprised at what had just happened, glancing down the fifteen stories to see the demon slowly getting up from where it had been thrown by the blast.

“You shouldn't have come,” Hannah whispered feebly, her shaking hand still gripping the dead-weight of her sword. He could tell that several nerves in the arm had been damaged, and that she couldn't fight.

He set her down, leaning her up against a vent, before taking another look at the monster. It was huge, standing a story and a half high, with six eyes spinning wildly as it tried to locate them. Its bulbous head was solidly attached to its thick chest, arms that bulged with muscle swung about in the snow. In each arm were three black holes, and another three were in each powerful leg.

It spun around, turning it's back to him, and Nathan couldn't help but gasp as he recognized the mark on the demon's skull: a circle with four diamonds protruding from it, one at each of the main points of a compass.

It was the exact same mark that was tattooed on his back, something he had had since he was a kid. It had always been with him, as far as he knew. But why did the demon have the same mark?

“You have to kill it,” Hannah whispered behind him.

He turned to face her. Her head lolled to one side, but she made it go upright again. With all of her strength, she thrust her sword out to him, “You have to become a demon-slayer.”

He looked into her eyes, knowing that she wasn't making him do this lightly. Once a demon-slayer, always a demon-slayer. That's what she had just explained to him mere hours ago. There would be no opting out after this.

Nate shook his head. The moment he had entered the fight, there was no turning back. Only demon-slayers could see demons, and only demon-slayers could fight demons.

So only demon-slayers could kill demons.

He took the sword from her, the blade glowing blue. He felt the magic flow through him, and something in Nate, deep down, told him that this was wrong. There was something wrong with the sword.

He sensed the demon below spot them, felt it building up another ball of that energy, recovering from it's uncontrolled flight. Slowly, sword gripped tightly with both hands, he turned to face it, his face hardening into a strong face, the kind he used to take on to intimidate opponents in sports. He jumped down to land square in front of it

The demon was unfazed, and charged with an angry roar at its tormentor who had spoiled its fun, the energy dissipating into the snow. Nate charged with a yell of his own, launching himself up into the air to meet the demon head on. He used the demon's mouth as a stepping stone, launching himself to be over the creature, the sword slicing down in a wicked cut. The blade tore right into the thing's skull, piercing all the way up to the handle in an instant, the blade glowing white hot at the contact. Nathan blinked as he realized that he had just struck it in its mark.

Almost in slow motion, although Nate knew that it couldn't be more than a few milliseconds, the sword exploded in a ball of light, splitting the demon's skull in two with a mighty explosion. The same force violently pushed Nate back, the air knocked form his chest as he sailed over the edge of the building and slammed onto the roof. Nate's fingers were frozen to the sword, and  he watched in amazement as the sword swirled with power, power that shot down the length of the blade and into him.

“Welcome,” a voice purred.

Nathan glanced around him, trying to figure out where he was. The sky was black, but still he could see perfectly fine. Grey fog swirled around him, and he could tell that he was lying on a flat surface. Slowly, he sat up.

“I haven't been able to get to you before. What did you do? Hold a Caster's sword?”

Nathan glanced around him, but the voice remained anonymous in the fog.

“You must have done something. You actually used some of your powers for once, weakling.”

“Who are you?”

A chuckle emanated from somewhere, echoing through out the space, “We are many. And we have been waiting so long for  you to come to your senses at last. We are hungry...

“Let us out!”

Nathan flinched at the sudden bite in the being's voice.

It seemed to get itself under control. “We have waited a long time for you to finally free us.”

“Free you? From what?”

“Don't you understand, you Drek-lak? We have waited all this time to be released from you.”

“Me?” Nate looked around him, surprised, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Ain't no such thing as hell,” the being growled, “But this place is as close as it gets. Do you know what it's like, to be ripped off of the hunt and imprisoned in the body of a Drek-lak, knowing that you may never be released, even against your own kind?”

It didn't even wait for him to respond. “Of course you don't!” It thundered. “How could you if you're the Drek-lak that traps us?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I told you it was clueless.” The voice seemed to be addressing something else in the fog.

“Can't be helped,” a new voice spoke. It was soft, gentle, but there was a thin undercurrent in its words, and Nate had a feeling that it could rip his head from his shoulders as easily as breathe. Still it held a noble sort of air in it's