Epilogue

Epilogue

It was now night-time, the once mighty and revered Wonderland Circus bandit troupe had been reduced to a sorry state, tired, battered, and humiliated they did little more then slowly trudge up a path to the top of a hill barely outside Labirinth Canyon. Only King seemed to know where they were going and he led them with focus and disdain!

“I want to go home!” Whined the Wallmaker.

“We don’t have a home anymore!” Yelled King “That half-breed cat kicked us out and with her two minions and those humans were not strong enough to take it back! Not without help at least, that is why, I explain yet again, we are going to Straight Arrow. He is a well known half hater we shouldn’t have any trouble convincing him to help us.”

“I heard he was recently injured!” said a demon bandit with tentacles.

“He’s a Representative of the Argus Military; heads of businesses don’t get better medical treatment he is probably fine and dandy by now.”

“Still” another demon interjected “It's quite an embarrassment to admit to being beaten by humans and half-breeds.”

“Well there’s nothing we can do about, the Argus Military has the best intelligence network in the Omniverse, they probably know everything about what just happened anyway, and the General of Media Ars Goetia is always looking for a good story so we can’t possible hide this. The least we can do is get back at them.” As King moved forward he noticed one of the bandits was standing in place staring up into the sky.

“Hey Chan, er Gobbling er whatever your name is what are you doing lazing about!”

Chan Chu shifted his gaze towards King almost scornfully before gazing back up at the sky “Tengus” he said this caused confused whispers to circulate amongst the group “There are Tengus in the sky!” everyone looked up to find he was right. A large group of three foot, three eyed, three legged black birds were hovering around the area.

“What about it!” King inquired.

“Tengus always appear where corpses are going to show up!”

“It’s true during the battle against the wall they swooped down and carried off all the corpses of our fallen soldiers!” said a demon with a head like a horse.

“That’s probably why there still following us!” said a demon with a head like a boar.

“By the abyss who cares about a few birds, let’s just go!” at his command the entire troupe continued up the hill towards Straight Arrows place, he noticed Chan Chu still staring at the birds “You coming, or what?” Chan Chu took his gaze off the skies for a moment only to sneer.

“Fine be that way, a paranoid, superstitious bird with clipped wings has no place in my new bandit troupe anyways!” He marched away to join up with the rest of the demon bandits. As he reached the top his confidence waned, the air seemed thick with tension as he continued to move the others awkwardly moving out of the way to let him pass. Soon he noticed that Straight Arrows base was on fire.

The culprit appeared to be a demon standing in front of the burning building, standing still as a sentry gazing into the inferno. His build was tall straight and strong like a sword, for clothing he wore a black cat suit along with a black high collar cape as well as a black wide brimmed hat. Thanks to the flames updraft the cape fluttered in an almost dramatic fashion.

King moved forward gripping his Kanabo tightly, he marched till he was right next to the demon in black “High Phantom of the bloody opera where is Straight Arrow!”

“Who?”

“The giant flying lizard! Now answer my question!” He held his Kanabo in threatening gesture. The demon in black completely unafraid simply pointed towards the building in flames.

“So you killed him! Why?”

“He was an arrogant, corrupt, racist failure of a Representative!”

“So you think you’re some kind of hero of justice?”

“No he just irritated me! Kind of like you are now!” the tone in which the demon in black spoke then had so much hidden malice that King jumped back shaking and sweating.

His gaze shifted to the other bandits all of them were watching eager to see what would happen next.

“I refuse to let this random punk show me up in front of my subordinates!” King thought “hey turn around and face me!”

The demon in black did just that, even though the majority of his face could not be seen in the shadow of his hat it was clear from the look of his glowing red eyes that he was livid.

“Do you know who we are? We are the Kings Army, the new rising stars of the bandit world! I’m going to teach you to show your betters such disrespect!”

“Take your best shot!” the demon in black uttered.

“ALL RIGHT have it your way!” King charged his aura to its maximum causing his Kanabo to be covered in a blazing red aura “Jokes on you!” he spoke through teeth clenched in concentration “I’m a weapons demon once fully charged my Kanabo can uproot a house with its power!”

“Then by all means take as much time as you want to charge up. I’ll neither dodge, block or attack.” Said the demon in black, still in a bad mood but now sounding more bored then angry.

“This jerk is underestimating me! No he can’t be that stupid he must be trying to psyche me out or something! My attacks need ample time in order to be effective, no matter whatever his reason is as long as he gives me an opportunity I cannot waste it!”

So it was that King continued to power up his weapon his aura burning brightly, veins pumping and throbbing throughout his body. The rest of the bandits watched in awe and curiosity wondering what would happen next.

The demon in black just stood scowling.

When King was done his Kanabo was glowing red as if it had just come out of a forge.

“Wow I’ve never seen King charge up so much Aura!”

“That jerk in the cape doesn’t stand a chance!”

“HERE I COME!” King shouted as he charged forward he then jumped into the air and prepared a downward strike right onto the cape wearing demons head “I’LL TEACH YOU TO DISRECPECT YOUR BETTERS!”

SMAAAAAAASH

The impact and explosive power of the aura cracked the ground and created an incredible shockwave, once done King jumped back grinning victoriously, his grin quickly turned to look of confusion, then surprise, then shock then utter horror when he fully realised that his opponent was completely un-harmed.

“No way that didn’t work, how, well no matter...” he charged up some more aura placing his Kanabo in front of him protectively “Then this time you’re going...”

SLICE

“I’ve grown tired of your existence!” said the demon in black.

Kings head landed at his feet a final look of horror engraved upon it.

“What just happened?” ask one of the horrified bandits.

“How did he do that?”

“Just what is his power?”

“It doesn’t matter; he won’t get a chance to use it!” Wallmaker used all his aura in a desperate attack which consisted of him slamming his hands onto the ground causing multiple wall to strike out of the ground. They came out at an angel thus creating a dome of sorts, unsatisfied with one dome Wallmaker continued putting more domes on top of one another, he stopped when he lost count.

After he was done he stood panting heavily, having worked up an intense sweat from “OK everyone position yourselves, once you’re ready I’ll lower my walls and you use that moment to KILL HIM!”

The rest of the bandits followed Wallmakers instructions and prepared themselves for a massacre!

BOOOOOOOOOM

A huge burst of black aura exploded utterly destroying the domes and knocking the bandits on their backsides. And as they watched the pillar of aura they realised that the demon inside did not appear to be straining himself at all.

“BLACK AURA!” gasped Wallmaker. “A type of aura that only one in ten thousand demons have, said to be the strongest aura of off all, the aura closest to the Doom itself! JUST WHO ARE YOU!”

Not bothering to answer the question the demon in black jumped forward.

A few minutes later...

Chan Chu sat on a tree sticking out off the cliff giving off an air of depression. Perched next to him were some Tengu’s, most of the Tengu’s disappeared, likely to feed off new corpses.

Now that the screaming stopped the night seemed almost unnaturally silent.

Chan Chu slowly almost tiredly looked up to see the demon in black standing on the edge above him, the wind blowing his cape.

“So they are all dead huh!”

The demon in black nodded in response.

“So does that mean you’re going to kill me too?” Chan asked.

The demon in black mulled over it for a bit before making his decision “No I won’t kill you?”

In a melancholy fashion Chan asked “You kill an entire bandit troupe then spare its remaining member, why?”

“Don’t assume it’s an act of compassion, I’m not sparing you out of mercy or any codes of honor. I don’t wish for you to reform your ways, suffer in misery or tell what has transpired. Let me put it this way; I can tell that you are scum BUT I can also tell that you want to die. When scum like you want something I make sure you don’t get it!”

“I see before you go could you answer me another question, why did you kill them?”

The demon in black looked at Chan in confusion/annoyance “Why do you want to know?”

“Curious!” was all Chan said.

“They angered me! So I killed them, from what I hear there are many people in the Null lands who would anger me so I will kill them! Unless like you they wish for death!” the demon in black then jumped high into the air landing perfectly on top of a cliff in the distance. So much power was in that jump that its recoil cracked the ground he was just standing on, plus Chan could hear the sound of the ground cracking from the impact on the other side.

The Tengu’s flew off the perch and started the follow the demon in black.

“I wonder could he be... I distinctly heard one of the demons shout how he had black Aura? I know of only a few demons with black Aura, the first is the Emperor of Argus himself, the second is Supreme General Scorpion and the third...”

As Chan thought his thoughts the demon in black ran along the cliffs top creating a large cloud of dust as he ran, the farther he ran the more Tengu’s that started to follow him.

“...  Spoken of in rumors. A renegade demon, travelling all across Argus killing bandits, Representatives and anyone else that crosses him. Considered by many to be the most dangerous criminal in Argus  the demon in black... Rancor!”

Rancor ran forward red eyes gazing towards the distance looking for his next opponent.