FicWad

The beautiful morning seemed to be very peaceful and quiet, as soft rays of the morning sun gently spread over the ice covered ground. Big oak trees were all covered in snow. The water of the nearby lake was covered with a thick sheet of ice, making it an ideal place for skiing. No one skied so early in the morning, so generally the place was deserted during this part of the day. But today it wasn't as desolate as usual.

"Come on, Lizzie! We are not supposed to be out so early, if anyone catches us before we can return, we'll be so busted," a young girl was saying to another little girl a few years younger than herself. Both girls were skiing on the snow, constantly reminding each other about their mother's orders on not skiing alone so early in the morning, but in the end forgot everything and went on having fun.
"Uhhh!!! Annie!" the younger sister screamed, as she lost her balance and fell on the ice.
"What happened?" Annie enquired as she ran towards Lizzie.
"My leg, I think I can't walk..."
"Damn! Ok, you be right here, I'll call mom. Will be back in a sec." Then she ran off.
Lizzie waited for almost half an hour. Why isn't Annie retuning? Limping, she went up the small hill to see whether anyone was coming.

Vittoria had an eerie feeling as she neared the village of Rosengon. She felt unrest in the air as she silently strode towards her destination. There was something wrong. Her senses had never betrayed her before, and she didn't think this was going to be an exception. She could tell that demons were around, and they were not the usual ones she generally had to face.
Most of all, she could sense a tremendous power echoing from the place, a power so strong that reminded her of someone she knew once. She said to herself, "This place definitely is not so ordinary as I thought."
Vittoria's suspicion became confirmed when she crossed the hill and finally had a clear view of the village. The sight sent a cold shiver through her body. The situation was worse than she thought. The whole village was getting rampaged by demons. They were everywhere. Gigantic demons some of which were alien to even an experienced devil hunter like her. Only the other day, there wasn't a single demon in the area. Their numbers seemed so unbelievable to her. Most of the devils were charging at the front entrance, so she could see people fleeing through the back entrance to the nearby woods.
Suddenly Vittoria caught the sight of a young girl who was running towards the front entrance. What the hell? She quickly run after her and held her by the arm. The girl almost jumped when Vittoria caught her hand, then struggled to break free.
Vittoria calmly asked the girl, "What's the matter, little angel? Why are you running like that?"
"Let me go!!" she screamed.
"Of course I will. But first you have to tell me why you are trying to go back. It's dangerous out there. And you're limping."
"Because my mom's trapped there! And many others too!"
"Oh, then not everyone made their escape, did they?"
"Are you joking? Only a handful of people managed to run away, almost everyone is still trapped inside their houses!"
"Is that so? Hmm....wait here sweetie, I'll go see what I can do."
Lizzie stared at her in disbelief. Then she stuffed her face in Vittoria's robes and started crying.
"Don't worry, dear. Now let me go, will you?"
"Oh, those monsters.... they are so horrible...with red eyes, rotten flesh and sharp horns (Vittoria couldn't help but force a grin)....specially that big one with the armor...he was so scary....he was even killing his own kind..."
"Ok, ok, now let me go so I can take them all out,"
Lizzie let go of her. Vittoria pulled out her long dual katanas as she steadily made her way towards the demons. This is going to be an interesting day, she thought.

As Vittoria approached the town entrance almost half dozen demons charged at her. She recognized them as Fazils, one of the easiest devils on her killing list. She stopped and let the demons come close. Then just when one of them started rising its spear she reacted instantly, and in the blink of an eye cut it down into six pieces. Before the dead demon's body parts fell on the ground, she had already turned and chopped of the heads of two more idiots who were trying to get her from behind. She disposed the rest of demons by blasting them away with a powerful elemental spell.
"Too easy, where did the ones go who could actually last more than five seconds?"
She seemed to get her wish very quickly as four Hell Vanguards appeared before her, along with a couple of Gil'harimas. Some Prides were slowly advancing from a distance as well.

"I'll be damned... Gil'harimas? Where did these come from?" She dropped the playful tone immediately. Gil'harimas are were created specially to serve the dark prince of hell but they were so uncontrollable and unpredictable that these rebel devils were chained in the deepest part of the underworld where they would be consumed by their inescapable thirst of blood .Their presence here meant someone had brought these creatures from the depths of hell, which was very bad news. She didn't have much time to dwell in her thoughts as a Hell Vanguard charged at her. She quickly dodged its attack and threw one of her swords in the air. Her timing was perfect, the Hell Vanguard was pierced just the moment it teleported out of the portal. In the mean time, she cut up the legs of a Gil'harima with a swift slash of her remaining sword. She was puzzled when the Gil'harima still tried to hit her with its enflamed spear. The hit couldn't harm her but it made a part of her robe to catch fire. She hurriedly retreated a few steps and took it off. Then she retrieved her airborne sword and charged at the Gilharimas, slicing the heads of both demons into bits. The Hell Vanguards were still making those weird sounds and making near misses as Vittoria turned the Prides into dust. After that, she stood still, surrounded by the lasting Hell Vanguards. All of them raised their long spears and got ready to strike as Vittoria stood coolly facing the opposite direction. But just when they were about to hit her, they found that Vittoria had turned around to face them, and had calmly cut them into pieces with an ultra fast lacerate of her twin swords. "Cowards," she said with disgust, "always attacking from behind."
She proceeded through the entrance, and entered the village. She stopped after only a few footsteps. The scene before her astounded her.
There were corpses all over. The streets were covered with blood. But it wasn't of the humans; instead, the remains were of demons. Vittoria was puzzled. She wondered who could be powerful enough to slaughter a legion of devils like that. When she walked the roads she saw more blood stains and dust piles. Her senses grew stronger as she approached the condemned building at the north end of the village. She braced herself as she entered through the gates. It was alarmingly quiet. "I have a bad feeling about this," Vittoria said to herself.

Suddenly a strange figure appeared in front of her out of nowhere. Vittoria stepped backwards and quickly got ready for combat, observing the demon.
A devil about 8 ft tall clad head to toe in dark armor, surrounded by a blue cloud was standing in front of her. His appearance was dominating enough to place fear in the bravest of hearts, but fear was a feeling Vittoria hadn't experienced for a very long time. He was holding a long buster sword and something about him made Vittoria feel strange. His stance reminded her of someone, but she thought it was just her mind playing tricks with her.
She didn't waste her time standing there though, and attacked the devil with the elemental spell she used a few minutes before. Amazingly, the demon dodged the spell with remarkable agility for someone so heavily armored, and drew his sword to fight her. Vittoria noticed several more demons coming from behind his figure, and attempted to quickly defeat him in melee combat so she could take down the others. She carefully approached him, always being on her guard, as her senses told her that he was no ordinary devil. Both fighters carefully examined the other, then violently charged at each other at the same time. The devil fiercely striked at Vittoria with inhuman speed, and she barely managed to block the attack with one of her Katanas. She attempted to pierce him with the other one, but he seemed startlingly clever for a demon, as he read her intentions. He dodged her strike and kicked her on her abdomen. The kick sent her flying in the air and she landed almost ten feet away. Lying on the ground, Vittoria looked up at the devil. At last, someone who could actually give me some competition, she thought. He tried to deliver a charged hit from above with his enormous sword, and it would have totally thrashed Vittoria if she hadn't managed to roll out of the way on the last moment. She tried to give a rapid slash to his neck, the only part where she thought it might be possible to break the armor and get rid of this monster. The devil blocked her attack almost without any effort, and as their weapons locked, Vittoria understood that she needed to escape right now or the devil would manage to break through the weapon lock with his greater physical strength. But before she could do anything, he suddenly stepped back and attacked the enclosing demon instead of Vittoria. Confused, Vittoria watched in awe as the armored demon slew his own kind mercilessly. He quickly discarded almost a dozen Gil'harimas without any difficulty, then was advancing towards a throng of Hell Envies and Abysses. His sword skills looked even more deadly and unmatchable, as his sword cut through the enemies like a knife though butter. None of them stood a chance against him. She remembered the little girl's words: that big one with the armor...he was so scary....he was even killing his own kind...

She noticed some more devils coming from inside the temple. Their sight astounded her even more than the time she saw the Gil'harimas. Archliches. Now I've seen everything. These devils were one of the few demons that are more than just soulless puppets. High in position, they were very powerful devils who were once the special advisors of the devil king and the most powerful sorcerers among the demons.
Before Vittoria could do anything, one of the archliches performed a spell that sent a bright red ray of light at the renegade devil. It hit him on the back of his head. He immediately froze, then his body slowly fell on ground. Vittoria gasped, recognizing the deadly spell and witnessing the archliches' terrible power. She was spotted by them as well. They also sent killing hexes at her direction. Prepared for the assault, she evaded the spells and made her way towards them, occasionally hiding and taking cover behind the broken columns lying all over the courtyard of the temple. Before the archliches could realize what happened, Vittoria sprinted across the yard and wedged her swords in the body of the archlich who was leading the group, the one who cast the spell on the renegade devil. The others tried to send killing curses at Vittoria, but she turned and brought the impaled devil in front of her, using him as a shield.
"You think you're the only ones who can do magic, huh? Then take this!"

Vittoria threw the dead enemy away and held her swords crossed across her chest. The next moment, a powerful surge of light emanated from the place where her swords crossed, and the burst of light was so powerful that it sent all the archliches flying. She admired their power; ordinary demons would have met their ends from such a spell, like the ones who were trying to sneak up behind her right that moment. She slightly turned her head to see the masses of dead demons, then proceeded to offhandedly chop off the heads of the remaining archliches.

After she killed the last archlich, she examined the place carefully, using both her eyes and her special senses. The taint of evil wasn't prominent anymore, proving all the devils in the area were dead. But as she was exiting the temple, she was surprised to find that the renegade devil was still alive. Even though he lay motionless on the ground, she could still sense a flicker of life from him. She walked up to him and knelt on the ground. Then, without thinking, she removed the helmet from the devil's head. She didn't know why she did it, but she just felt there was something special about this devil, something that she needed to know. As his face was revealed, Vittoria had to clap her hands on her mouth to shut a scream.
"Oh my god......"