The open road was like a long serpent shooting down into the darkness, only faintly illuminated in the distance by occasional streetlights.
Three figures stood, one on a concrete street beside a red car, another two standing across from each other in the middle of the road.
Julius pushed off his feet, his body low like a speedboat as he paced along the road, blade extended behind him like a bird's wing.
"My turn." The thought passed like a cold breath.
His poised stature beelined straight along the road, his single-edged red blade cutting through the night behind him.
FACHING!
The crystal red blade clashed against a massive black slab, held defensively by the entity, like an ant charging into a pillar.
Yet Julius was undettered; in the face of this overwhelming might, he swung his blade continuously, thundering as though battering a wall with a ram.
Intent on not giving the entity even the slightest chance to recover, he relentlessly attacked the dark creature's guard.
The creature had been sent flying earlier, rocketed with sudden force when it attacked Amaterasu's artefact, Yata no Kagami.
Julius pinpointed that it must've taken some damage.
It also seemed to be weak to light, from how earlier it was grazed by one of Julius' shin talismans during his fight with Amaterasu.
Julius was thus willing to stake his life on this moment now, betting his life on that accumulated damage, impossibly pushing the creature back one step after another with each strike of his blade.
Even if Julius was unsure of the creature's physical status, regardless of their stupendous might, for Julius, the only way forward was forward.
"The strongest of roofs will erode under enough rain; the strongest of wills will fall before a single thought. The price you pay is not my expense to lose!" Julius steeled his resolve with each unresolved swing; a single flick of his wrist could resolve any mortal's life, but in the battles of incomparable strength, his life was like a leaf in the wind, though Julius had the remarkable ability of spinning through the wind as though he could control where he flew.
"Your life is the same as mine up until the moment you fall to me." Julius's mind flowed open as the jaws of focus snapped shut over the battle.
"Therefore, in a world of win or loss, your life is my right. If a war is a canvas, then this battle is my playground." Every affirmation spurred him onward in a trail of blazing momentum that put every human on the planet to shame.
This demon's blade found the dark creature's own with increasing speed, barely noticeable, though striking with increasing relentlessness nonetheless.
The creature had an intelligence relative to an animal, instinctively raising its weakened arms to stave off the demon's attacks with the massive black sword in its hands.
Its feet carried it further away as the flurry of attacks continued against its massive black blade.
It instinctively understood its life was in danger, but without the necessary intelligence, it could only raise its massive black blade to halt the monster's attacks.
FACHINGFACHINGFACHING!
The demon's ruby red blade continued to patter against the flat of the massive black weapon.
Normally as insignificant as dust, the demon's strikes were now pressuring the dark creature like a thousand needles closing in on an elephant.
The creature was beginning to lose itself under the confusing sense of impending defeat.
Then at the moment of collapse-
"AARRGHHH." It wailed a thousand cries, spinning away and dragging the blade around with it, turning back around to deliver the blade back at the demon threatening its life.
A few thousand deaths flew toward Julius Sparrow.
The moment of life and death seemed to slow to a dazzling blur.
There was so much force, so much power, so much might threatening to end everything right then and there.
Julius Sparrow, a boy with the body of a mortal, stood with the grace of a perched raven.
His eyes, like two ancient ores, narrowed with the settling grace of the hand of god.
His sharp beak, a translucent crystal red, perched up in anticipation.
His wings began to lift, the grace in his wired body transmuting into his sudden movement.
The blade swept through clean air as Julius breathed life with all the focus in the world that there was none left to give.
His blade struck forward after he swept past the black death, a glint of crystal splitting the air before the dark creature reacted reflexively.
It immediately dropped into a pool of shadows at its feet, only to spring back up from the ground so fast that when it emerged, it shot into the air behind Julius.
The Black Death came crashing down all over again, slashing down in one gigantic arc right above a dark-haired boy.
The edge of the blade was nearing the cream surface of the back of the boy's uniform, before his torso suddenly twisted behind himself to face the creature, dragging his crystal red blade in the same arc toward the creature.
Two lines glinted in the night.
Diagonal and perpendicular.
Black and red.
"ARRRGH." The creature shrieked as its limb came loose, splitting off the shoulder as smooth as pulled pork, falling to the floor as the figure landed.
Its missing arm became an inconvenience, a declaration, and a mystery all within one clean slice.
Its body wasn't like a shade; it didn't warp like black flames just as Amaterasu's did a moment earlier.
It shared a disastrous incompatibility with light, just like a shade, and yet its body had tangible form.
What was this creature?
A million answers could've suspended themselves within any other person.
Though the thought only graced Julius Sparrow's mind before warping into a million alternative combat strategies, with only a split second passing in real time.
Julius's red blade extended out like the tips of a feathered wing, his stance low and wide, with only one hand masterfully handling the grip of his blade.
A blackened hand slumped like wet meat against the road; its hand were like wiry and dark pitch-black bones.
It dyed the floor between the two in a mild pool of black blood.
The creature looked down, its massive head like a black thumb cap, though with the tip of a pyramid.
It stared at the space where its arm previously was, then the blackened arm on the floor, before finally looking up at the teenage boy that impossibly held the stance of a master.
Julius intuitively sensed an incoming attack, and after sorting through a plethora of attack choices, finally took another low step forward.
"A R R R G G H H H" The creature cracked with a distorted wail before sweeping forward toward the boy.
Each with a blade in hand, one like a black tide, the other like a red needle, closing in on each other in a grand display.
Julius slipped forward fast, turning his body with masterful momentum as his blade soared toward an opening at the black creature's neck.
His other hand reached inside his blazer pocket, while the edge of his blade reached through the air toward victory.
S L I P
The creature slipped under the red wing, the demon's red feather cutting empty air.
Below the blade, the creature's black body was half submerged, its legs seemingly sunken into a black puddle of shadows.
Meanwhile, the creature's blade continued to swerve up, with the momentum of a roulette wheel tilting up at an angle.
The edge of the black blade rushed toward the boy's face.
Yet Julius's expression was as calm as the night sky, his eyes focusing over the creature's head where his blade still carved through the air.
His gaze landed on something suspended in the air.
In the air, a white-trimmed card flew forward, with a golden gridded pattern in the centre, straight in front of the path of Julius's blade.
Julius murmured indifferently.
"Shin."
end of chapter 40