Sureiyazu

Episode 64: Power Grows, Power Dies

"Stay in the light," Yuri said, and let them go. 

Ryou rolled his eyes and looked at Heishi. "Let's do this?" 

Heishi nodded. "Let's." 

They planted their feet firmly and looked ahead. 

The demon seemed to have barely moved. 

Heishi led, running forward and swinging through the strange substance with all his might. Ryou followed him, raising his long, wide blade and landing a blow that - 

Did barely anything. 

The demon just looked at them. 

"What's going on?" Heishi said, stepping back. "That should have -" 

"We should have slain it," Ryou agreed. "With such a wide opening like that . . ." 

Yuri was behind the demon, beating her way through the shadows, clawing until she flew through its would-be stomach, and she landed on her feet next to them. 

"What's going on?" she asked, frustrated. "Why isn't it moving?" 

The demon's face grinned. 

"I don't know," Ryou said. 

Heishi looked back at the light. "No, wait. The demon isn't just that thing - it's all the darkness, right?" 

"Right, it's daytime outside," Yuri agreed. 

"So we're looking in the wrong place . . ." Ryou guessed. 

Finally a high, lilting voice sounded, though still the demon's "mouth" was wide and still. "So, you think you have it figured out . . ." 

Suddenly, Heishi clutched his throat and fell to his knees, gasping. He couldn't breathe; the world spun around him. The darkness pressed spots into his eyes as he gagged on nothing, his lungs feeling as if they would burst . . . 

Wham! 

Yuri whacked at something behind him, and air filled back into his lungs. 

"Luck, luck, luck," the high-pitched voice sang. 

Yuri batted around still, trying for phantom monsters that she couldn't see. "Yah! Yah!" 

"Show yourself, demon!" Heishi cried, standing, brandishing his sword in front of the thing's face. 

"Luck, luck, luck," it went on. "Luck won't save you . . ." 

Ryou charged forward to attack it again, swinging his sword in a wide arc around himself, slicing through the demon - but its form seemed to be incorporeal, and his sword went through, ineffectively. 

"Hungry . . ." the voice said suddenly. 

Something dark and fleeting flew into the thing then, and it became. Now, it was real, its ghostly quality solidified into a very real, very solid monster. And with its now-rubbery, mud-like quality, it sprouted two bony arms made of the same substance, with claws made of the metal that adorned its mouth. 

The thing took hold of the floor with its claws, tearing an expensive rug, and dragged itself closer to them, mouth open, teeth pointed forward like javelins. 

Ryou laughed shortly. "Mistake, demon! Now I can hit you . . . !" He leapt forward with his sword, cutting through a large portion of the demon, dragging his sword down to sever its arm from its body. 

The dismembered limb fell to the floor with a dull thud, and the demon opened its jaws wider, roaring. 

Howling, the demon managed to crawl closer. It was quickly forcing them to retreat to the farther wall of the bedroom. Heishi was only feet away from a vanity that stood against the wall.