Belron burned and froze at the same time. The opposite feeling merged to create an all-new sensation of pain. Light and Dark fought within the Fiend's body, as though turning its insides into a stage for two Divine sisters to work out their issues.

Belron felt like it was being ripped from the inside.

It roused its Demonic energy to combat the effects but the spell still vibrated within it so the Demonic energy couldn't grab a hold of it to purge it. Plus, the ~Warding~ spell was repelling the 'evil energy' that was Demonic Energy.

Hell, the Divine energy within both the Dark and Light Elements was wreaking havoc on the Fiend's insides.

Belron re-cast the pentagram from earlier but what came from the reservoir was wispy at best.

That was because there was a limit to Belron's supply.

And that supply had already been depleted from its battle with Aurelius. Aurelius never caused Belron serious injury when they fought because the Fiend rendered his attacks moot with the Reservoir.

Delia and Caius's physical/magical attacks had sapped it even more.

It was why Caius had waited.

To get the best window, he needed to use his erratic concoction at the right time. Too early and they'd leave Belron with enough reserves to call on.

But the reservoir wasn't going to remain empty for long. This only gave them a chance to end this.

Caius stomped his feet against the dark cloud beneath him.

~Hellsong Dash~

Fire blazed boosting his speed.

Belron raised its head as it felt a rageful attack coming and just then, Caius swiped with his claws at the Fiend's jaw, drawing its sizzling blood.

It would have been a worse injury had Belron not floated backward.

But Caius had let the rage of his Feral Nature take over. With his vision tinged with red, he followed after the Fiend to wrap his fingers around its neck, making sure he dug his claws as deep as they could go before tossing Belron at the wall.

Belron never hit the wall though.

Delia struck it with her Warhammer, transferring compressed Storm coated with Divine energy into its already ravaged insides. She hit Belron's back so hard, that there was a crack sound as its spine broke.

The attack sent Belron into the air and for the life of it, the Fiend could not muster a defense.

Aurelius appeared above Belron then.

Divine light charged into his Spear. He had done that many times already but it had gotten shrugged off because of Belron's Reservoir.

Not anymore.

The spear stabbed through the Fiend's chest and searing Light burned it from within.

This time, Aurelius didn't pull out his Spear. He let it remain where it was and clamped his hands together as the Spear became the center of a spell formation.

~Exorcism~

Yet another spell Aurelius had tried many times already while he and Belron fought. This time though, the result was different.

"Aether, Goddess of Divine Light, Matron of Everlasting Splendor…"

Aurelius launched into what sounded like a prayer but was chanted like a spell. And a spell circle appeared on Belron's chest.

It connected with the ~Warding~ spell still inside it and together, they began to break the Fiend apart on a fundamental level.

"N- No—!" Belron yelled and it looked like it struggled. But then its swirling black eyes got darker. More purposeful. More insistent.

"NO! I REFUSE THIS!!!" It said like it had a choice.

Caius stepped closer to the Fiend with another cloud of darkness at his feet, keeping him in the air after he left the other one behind him while charging over here earlier.

Belron's eyes went wide with hate. The look in Caius's vampire red eyes matched that and with a violent slash, he tore his claws through Belron's throat. Reopening the wound the Fiend had mended by burning earlier. Just like the ones on its cheek, the wounds made by Caius's claws were immune to Belron's Reservoir-fueled healing and he needed to burn it to stop the bleeding.

This time, Caius tore so deeply that he was halfway through decapitating the Fiend completely. And while one hand made that claw attack, the other retrieved a device from his Storage Ring.

It looked as if a sixteen-inch canister was fitted to a massive syringe and really that was kinda exactly was it was. Caius plunged the syringe into Belron and dragged the plunger at the end, siphoning the Fiend of its hellish blood.

He was well aware of Aurelius and Delia's eyes on him. The two were barely just coming to terms with what he was and, despite it being the enemy they had all just struggled to defeat, there was probably something unsettling about the Fiend being drained of its blood by a Vampire. Even if said Vampire was doing so with a Syringe rather than his fangs.

But Caius had known there would likely be this kind of moment.

Belron's— or at least any Demon's blood, was why he had done all this. There were a lot of stakes to Aurelius battling a Demon today. And if he hadn't fought or hadn't won, it would set off a set of chain reactions that would lead to the arrival of the Demon Lord ahead of schedule.

The same Demon Lord who killed Caius in the original Canon. The one who, even at the end of his story, and the height of his power, Aurelius had needed to sacrifice someone to beat. Needless to say, such an encounter happening earlier than normal would be catastrophic.

Still, until they actually faced Belron, Caius could have just believed Aurelius would win as he did in the original canon.

No, he didn't come here to help Aurelius win this just out of the goodness of his heart. He came to grab another piece of power for himself.

And as such, he had always been prepared for this awkward moment. It was always going to happen and he wasn't going to let it stop him from harvesting previous Blood Alchemical material.

Demons, just like Vampires and Magical Beasts, draw their power from their Blood. Everything that made Belron what it was, was within its Blood.

And on that note, Caius had to be grateful that it had been Belron and not Tyron.

Tyron's blood would not have had as much promise as this. And if things had followed the original timeline, it would be so long before he ever got the chance to harvest Belron's blood.

'Yay for interfering in the natural course of events, I guess,' Caius thought in a less than lively manner.

He just couldn't shake the thought of how much change he was causing. He was seeking quick power-ups and Belron coming instead of Tyron the weaker Demon was like a promise that his challenges would also scale up in difficulty to match his cheating ways.

Soon, the canister was filled. Caius pulled the syringe out of the Demon and sent the device into his storage ring while he and the others just watched Belron let out hoarse sounds and reach out like it was trying to make one last attack.

It was too late though.

And a few minutes later, the final black piece of its tailcoat evaporated and the Fiend was gone.

~Exorcism~ got rid of it entirely. Casting its essence into an abyss. Never to return.

Caius and Delia returned to the ground then. Aurelius joined them a second later. The Divine Spear he had summoned hit the ground but didn't clatter. It just vanished into nothing.

The halo on Aurelius's head faded as well and he raised his hand to stare at it as it shook. His skin turned pale immediately as every injury he had sustained and how much he had pushed himself battling Belron caught up with him.

He coughed a few times, spat blood on the ground, and fell to his knees.

Caius and Delia couldn't quite voice their concerns for him because Nyx's backing left them as well. Suddenly, they didn't feel so healed of their injuries as a weakness swarmed them.

Together they fell to their knees, keeled over to the side, and hit the ground with *Thud* sounds.

The last thing Caius saw was the Sealing Cube flaking into nothing. He was still shifted so his hearing was incredible, catching sounds from a good few miles away. Sounds of… haste?

Realizing he was shifted and wondering if he had returned to human form was the last bit of debate Caius had in his head as he closed his eyes and fell unconscious.

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End of Volume Two

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