As the smoke cleared from her movement, I turn to look over at the figure. She started to straighten herself up, brushing off her shoulder, before turning her head towards me.

She didn’t speak a word, she didn’t make a sound. She didn’t do anything. But, instead, she prepared to dash towards me. I prepared my gauntlets the moment I saw her charging, and blocked her impact. I had seen her attacking Martha, so I knew where she would strike. I threw her to the side, jumping back myself. I had her right in front of me.

She almost acted like a machine, moving slowly as she recovered from the throw. She tried to keep her view on me, as she brought her hand over to her neck. As she moved her hand away from it, a sword appeared in her hand, shining a bright blue and purple. Now instead of dashing and punching, she ran towards me, swinging her sword at me at different angles, making it hard to block them. 

At one of those swings, I stopped the sword with my left hand, hitting her in the head with my right. I expected her to be blown back, but she took the punch straight on, not even flinching, to which she responded by slicing across the chest. That left a nasty wound, but I jumped back to avoid further damage. At this point, all bets were off. I had to go full power if I wanted to deal any significant damage. Of course, Power Lust was out of the question, but I still had Fire Witch. Once I could feel the warmth from activating it, I rushed into the figure, and hit her with a barrage. But, while it was making her flinch, it very clearly wasn’t enough, as she quickly counter attacked, sending me flying back. 

How was she this strong? Was that mask really giving her that much of a power boost? Maybe if I could take it off, she would go back down to Iago’s regular strength. At least I knew I could deal with Iago.

As I landed, I turned to look at her, and saw her making her sword disappear, replacing it with an axe, glowing in the same colors as her sword, before running in my direction. I didn’t have much time to think, she was getting real close, real fast. I quickly charged a dark nova with my right gauntlet, combining it with the gauntlet’s water element, launching it at her. It almost looked like it would hit her, but instead, she swung her axe at the nova, which ended up being absorbed into it.

I was starting to run out of options. She was relentless. I couldn’t stop any of her movements for long, and none of my attacks could do anything to her. At that point, I had to do it. I started to let that demon take control of me, until I heard Martha screaming.

She came in fast, wielding her spear, with that same red aura I was going to use, while donning her armor. She clashed into the figure, and her strike actually managed to do some damage.

-Leave her to me!- Martha screamed, with the double voice she mentioned to me before coming through

-Are you su- I couldn’t even finish my sentence

-Did I fucking stutter?!- She was very much pissed off, so I just kept my mouth shut and watched

As the figure stood up, Martha raised up her spear, aiming it at her

-I don’t want to do this Lumina! Can we talk?- She sounded mad, but it was still as if she thought she could talk things out with this figure, but the figure didn’t listen. She just dashed towards Martha, swinging her axe at her. Martha dodged out of the way, but still hesitated to attack back. 

-Please stop. I don’t want to fight!- Martha was starting to sound desperate, as she used her fire pillars to defend herself from the figure’s attacks. 

At some point, the figure seemed to almost shift their pose, and prepared a big swing with their axe. Martha put her flames in front of her to defend herself, but, as the figure swung the axe, it started to glow with a brighter blue than before. Once it was swinging, a water-like aura surrounded the blade of the axe, making it cut through the pillars, reaching Martha behind them. Once the axe impacted with the armor, it made a really loud noise, and made both Martha and the figure fly back. Martha landed a bit roughly, while the figure fell to the ground, but got back up quickly.

-Martha! Just fight! You will not survive if you keep going like this!- I shouted this at her, as she tried to recover her balance

-Suggest that again and I’ll kill you!- She screamed this back at me, before summoning her fire pillars again. At the same time, the figure called off her axe, and instead, called in a spear. It took me until now to see it, but, both Martha’s spear and the figure’s spear looked the same, with the tip having a blue inside and a pink sharp blade -Lumina, please, you have to remember!- Martha tried to reach out, but the figure didn’t have any of it, rushing once again into Martha, spear in front. 

The figure’s spear went right through the fire pillars, and hit Martha right in the chest. It didn’t pierce her armor, but it didn’t crash like last time. It made a solid impact. Martha shook when the spear hit her, going down to her knees.

At that point, I couldn’t let this continue. I reactivated Fire Witch, and even if I didn’t want to do it, I called in Power Lust. 

-Oh boy, you’re letting me go out to play?! Oh this is going to be fun!- The demonic voice said as I let him take over.

-Just remember, I can take control back whenever I want- I responded from inside, as the demon rushed into the figure, kicking it out of the way. It was a cheap shot, but it worked, and sent her flying back away from Martha and me.

-I… told you not to fight- Martha said this, while gasping for air.

-Yeah, the kid’s not here lady. I’m in control- The voice responded, as it prepared two novas in each of its hands, rushing towards the figure. The figure still seemed to be recovering from the kick when the demon rushed into it, barraging into it with a flurry of punches, charged by the novas. The figure was finally starting to flinch, although not by much, but it was keeping it in check. As the figure began to stand, the demon aimed both of the novas at her head, shooting a constant beam, pushing the figure back, but not launching her.

As soon as the novas discharged, the demon began to charge a new set, but, in the time it took to charge it, the figure got back on her feet fully, swapped out their spear for a sword once again, and rushed into the demon. But, even at her full speed, the demon didn’t even flinch. He blocked the incoming strike immediately and launched a Nova right in her chest, making a dent in her armor. The first sign of damage anyone of us had seen. The demon was now smiling

-Your cracks are starting to show- A voice came out of my mouth, which was the combination of the demon’s voice and mine, having more of the demon in it, compared to the perfect symbiosis Martha had.

For the first time, the figure made a sound. It scoffed. And as the demon held the figure’s sword, a red aura started to glow on the figure.

The demon quickly jumped back. The figure had been holding back that whole time? The demon quickly looked back at Martha while the figure’s aura continued to glow

-Hey, we’re gonna need your help!- The demon’s voice sounded worried, but he tried to stay as calm as possible

-I… I can’t attack her!- Martha said this in a worried tone, clearly sad

-If you don’t, we’re all going to die! So either get your ass up and fight, or perish and never see your dear precious friend again!- The demon looked back towards the figure and raised the one nova he had charged, throwing it at the figure. The figure just swung its sword, absorbing the thunder and light nova into it.

-Fuck- That was the last thing the demon said, before, just in a flash, the figure rushed into him. He raised his hands up to block, but the figure came in so fast that it didn’t give him the time.

In that split second just before the strike hit, Martha finally jumped in, blocking the strike.

-Lumina was a human- She said this, with only her voice coming through -She shouldn’t have any way to access Power Lust… this is not her- 

-Oh, so you’re finally joining in- The demon responded, with a smile on it’s face, while clenching its fist.-Kickass, let’s bring this bitch down-

-Don’t kill her. I want to interrogate her- Martha said this with a stern voice, looking back at the demon

-Fine, fine, if you say so scary lady- I was surprised by this response, but it didn’t take long for the demon to get their balance back. It quickly ran over to the figure’s side and kicked it in it’s head again. It didn’t push it back like before, but it took its focus away from Martha, who used the opportunity to attack with her spear. This attack did push the figure back. It was astonishing just how much stronger the armor made her. My body was definitely falling behind. But that wasn’t going to stop me or the demon. The demon, as the figure was distracted, started to rush it with the gauntlets again, launching mini novas as he attacked. It wasn’t pushing her back at all, but it did draw her attention. As he did that, Martha broke the attack block, and stabbed the figure with her spear. It shrieked for a moment, but recovered its cool, as it made a sweep with her sword, releasing the light energy. It pushed the demon back, but Martha managed to withstand it, as she reached her hand, taking off the mask that was added to the helmet. 

The figure’s armor went back to how Iago’s armor looked, as its movements became a lot more erratic, almost as if the mask was controlling the power lust. The demon quickly rushed in and punched the figure in the side of the head. The figure got knocked out, as the armor started to go back into the helmet, that blood red aura disappearing from her body.

As it retreated, the figure’s body was revealed. She had brown hair, a very fit figure, and was wearing a varsity jacket, with one of those combinations of shorts and skirts. She very much fit into the tomboy category. But, the thing that terrified me the most, and made Martha gasp, was her skin. All over it, there were red cracks. 

-... it… it is her- Martha said this, with a broken tone, as she called off her armor -H… how did this happen?-

Those red marks, those were the consequences of using Power Lust for too long. But this was different. It was almost like she had been activating it constantly for months, maybe even years. 

As the fight ended, I got control back of my body, not wanting the demon to fuck anything up. I looked towards my hand where my red mark stood. While not as severe, I also had some of those marks on it, barely showing up. The case for this girl… Lumina, as Martha called her, was definitely more severe.

-You said she was human- I said, while kneeling next to them, looking over to Martha

-Yeah, she is… she was only human. That mask- She gripped onto the mask that she took off of Lumina-That was her only source of power-

-Well, either you were wrong- I picked up one of Lumina’s arms, looking it over. It was all covered with the marks. The only part that didn’t have them was the face -Or, Anima really can do some absolutely fucked up stuff-

-What, you’re saying they made her a sylph? How would that even be possible?! Sylphs are natural beings-

-No, definitely not a Sylph- I showed her my hand, the one with the mark on it -But, if what I got from James came from them, they could’ve turned her into a demon’s vessel. That would explain all the marks on her body. It’s not suited for a power as big as this-

-But why… why would she work for them?-

As she asked this, a portal opened up under Lumina, slowly sucking her in. Martha tried to grab onto her hand, but couldn’t keep her up. As she started descending, Lumina opened her eyes. They were a calming shade of purple. Before fully disappearing into the portal, she managed to say two things

-Martha… help me-

END OF CHAPTER 28