Moments later, he found out why, as a huge mass of old, and broken stone was falling in his direction...
'That bastard…' that was the only thought Ray had the time to form, before he activated his ability, and the wings on the back flapped merely once, bringing him several meters to the side.
Taking a short moment from the fight, he looked back at his wings that for the very first time seemed… ashamed?
Putting his attention back into the fight, Ray quickly saw how the pillar completely separated the two halves of the cathedral's hall.
Of course, he was on the side with the fallen creature…
The knight had only been partially hit, and was already slowly brushing the impact off. Fallen creatures, sure as hell, were a huge step above awakened. But then, he quickly noticed that the creature had taken a bigger hit, than he had initially thought.
'His right arm…'
Scanning for options, Ray saw; there were also two more people on this side of the wall, with him; Nephis and Saint.
Both swordswomen had been relentless, until now, in their assault on the knight's sword. As long as the knight was trying to kill them with it, of course.
Already understanding where this current situation was leading them, Ray merely sighed once, before jumping back into the fight. For now, they were just the three of them. Either, they would hold on, till the others managed to get over the pillar, or would manage to give Saint an opening.
'Time to play the 'fly'…' he thought, as he slowly closed in on them. With how things were right now, his Puppet wouldn't be able to play the living shield anymore.
By this point, both of his companions were already engaged in the fight again.
Though, trying to survive the attacks of the creature, would've fitted a better description.
Coming from a blind spot behind the Stone Saint, Ray had his halberd at the ready, and even without a clear line-of-sight, started his attack by simply thrusting his weapon forward, directly towards the Stone being's back.
While it looked for a single second, as if she innately felt the approaching danger, a moment later, said danger had already disappeared, before it found its real target, hitting the fallen creature with enough force to give the other two a moment of much needed respite.
Nephis had been keeping her aspect active, ever since they first started the fight, and therefore also became the fallen's main target. Nevertheless, the flame never extinguished, and she fought on.
Right now, though, Ray did not wait for anyone to catch their breaths, before continuing forward. His attack had only been his weapon that was pushed through Saint, now, he, himself run straight through her, as if she wasn't something tangible.
His target remained the knight. While he had no real reason to be here, originally, holding his end of a bargain was something deeply etched into his being, by now.
Therefore, even if he didn't like it, and had made a ruckus about it, he would've accompanied them anyway.
Bridging the few meters between the other two, and the still staggered knight in less than a second, he continued adding pressure.
It didn't matter if it was thrusting, hammering, or slashing, at the fallen devil, all attacks seemed to be simply too weak, even the empowerment of the crown was unable to bridge that gap.
Right now, though, that wasn't needed. The only task he wanted to accomplish; stall the bastard, until they were ready again. And for that task, even without a shield, was he the very best among them.
Every time the creature swung at him, Ray would either evade by a hair's length, barely parry it, or simply glide through the attack, while already starting a counter attack. Truly, if his ability ever managed to thoroughly mature, there would be little to ever stop him.
That was a thought, which appeared for merely a second, before he needed to dodge another viscous sword slash, aimed directly at his neck. That bastard truly was not playing around.
After barely dodging that strike, his ears caught footsteps, 'Guess they are finally here…'
Making place for the other combatants who were about to join the fight, once more, Ray decided to simply jump through the creature, since it was the fastest solution.
A second later, he came out on the other side, shuddering slightly. 'Darkness is as disgusting as ever…'
On the journey back, they had fought against many creatures, and one of them even had the attribute of darkness, as well.
While that particular one, did not bring any great benefits, in the form of memories, or something like that, it had shown Ray that jumping through darkness wasn't that comfortable.
But that wasn't important now.
As he turned his head, towards the others, he noticed another person was there too, Sunny had joined the fight as well. And right now, all three, Nephis, Sunny, and Saint were attacking simultaneously.
Taking the moment, Ray tried calling out to his own echo, 'Get over here!'
It felt weird that his normally relatively reliable echo was still nowhere to be seen.
Only then, did he consider something, while looking towards the fallen pillar.
'Please don't tell me…'
Ray was quickly brought out of his thoughts, by the loud sound of stone shattering, and when he looked back towards the fight, the sight before him was astonishing.
Saint's visor had been damaged, severely so. The damage also allowed a look on the being behind the armor, for the first time now, though.
And when his eyes caught sight of them, something deep within him stirred alive.
He tried shaking off the feeling, but was simply unable to. Deep within him, there was a conflict of emotions that threatened to overwhelm his mind. A fight between longing… and loathing.
Trying to take his gaze off of her face, in hope it would be the solution, Ray found it impossible to do so.
His gaze was completely glued to her. When she fought. When she defended. As well as, when she eventually brought her round shield down on the fallen devil's sword, and managed to shatter it.
In those moments, Ray lost any concept for time, and merely looked at her, from his position a few meters away.
And he was glad he did, because what followed after she shattered the sword was a real spectacle.
For a moment, it seemed as if the fallen devil was bested, and was slowly dying, only for the armor to come apart, revealing the true form of the devil.
A somewhat humanoid mass of darkness and steel.
That being then proceeded to lift Saint, when she was lifted of the ground, and held steadily in the air, proceed to try and strangle her.
Saint was having none of it, though. Her eyes showed nothing, besides disdain, as she looked down at him, before she lifted her hands, let go of her shield, and suddenly tore of the vambraces of the devil, which caused her to fall back on the ground.
When she landed on the ground, quite nimbly so, she immediately dodged any sudden attack of the devil, before getting even closer to it. The moment she was right before the apparition of darkness, her hand tore forward, went straight through the rusted breastplate, and pulled out the devil's heart…
No, it should've been his soul core…
Mere moments later, the darkness seemed to lose its intensity, before it all dissipated into a cloud of fog, and the few remaining, rusted pieces of steel, finally, fell to the ground.
The fallen devil was dead.
They had really managed to kill it.
Then, even before they could fully catch their breaths, Saint suddenly devoured the soul core?… soul?… whatever she had torn from the devil's chest, and then… simply disappeared.
Sunny and Nephis were giving each other confused glances, while ray seemed to finally be able to move his body again.
Since everything here was finished, he shrugged his shoulders once, and went over to the pile of old stones, still piled up, and sighed, before eventually starting to slowly remove piece by piece, after seemingly looking for the right spot.
While his actions might've seemed to be quite weird, with what they had just witnessed, especially considering his state, during all of it, there was someone else he could ask questions to, later that is.
For now, he needed to retrieve his echo… since, sadly, it could not be simply dismissed just anywhere. This particular one, needed to be right next to him, and for some reason kneel before him, before it could be dismissed.
Finding this particular method out, for the first time, had been quite a drag.
When the noise of the fight had dimmed, and the unnatural darkness disappeared from the ruined halls, Kai's head peaked over the pillar, scanning the situation, before he breathed a sigh of relief, at the sight of all of them alive.
After that, everyone proceeded to rest for a moment, with Kai and Effie helping Ray out, until they finally had the red-haired young man out of the pile. As always, while it was giving off steam, the remainder of its body was entirely unharmed.
With that done, Ray dismissed it, and finally could rest too.
Technically, the fight had been over quickly, and most of them had not even be able to do much, if anything at all, but the tension and pressure they felt from the nightmare creature, had still taxed them more, than they thought.
A couple of minutes later, they all went up to, where the quarters of Sunny were, to talk business for a moment. Well, said business was basically just, if Sunny was onboard with confronting Gunlaug.
The original plan, had been to return the next morning, but after Sunny said something about needing another day, to take care of something, they delayed their return date for a day.
With that cleared up, the group of six proceeded to leave the entire cathedral behind, though, when they walked through the hall, where they had just fought, Ray felt a short pull towards something below the cathedral, before two words seemed to flow into his ears.
"forgotten one…"
After hearing these words, his mind felt immense pain for a moment, before that pain disappeared seconds later again.
Whatever it was that was hidden down there, it wasn't something Ray wanted to find out. Not, if just by being up here, he was already feeling such pain, and that by merely hearing two words, which did not even truly make sense.
Though, for a moment, he thought about a connection to his aspect, but as the pain resurfaced, his thoughts were stopped abruptly.
The cohort continued towards the house close by, where some of them had already spent a few days, before the adventure.
Once settled in, Ray took his still summoned halberd, and began walking towards the exit again, pulling attention to him.
"Are you going to take care of that 'something', now?"
It was Neph that asked, with her typical indifferent voice.
Without even turning around, Ray gave a short wave, before leaving a few more words, before eventually disappearing into the ruins, "Yeah. There is something I need to take care of, before we return too. It shouldn't take too long, though. I'll be back, in the morning, at the latest."
Since he had not made any signs of wanting company, or help, no one made a move to follow him. Ray was the one, who could practically survive anything the dark city could throw at him, thanks to his aspect.
Also, any weird actions of his were already somewhat common, with them merely slightly increasing, over the duration of their way back.