[Continuum] Tree Top City

[Alphakoka]

Are was interrupted by a sudden chill from the presence of a demon. Not that he need it to know about it as the demon made its presence easily detected by its entrance. He turned around as he heard Mulberry shouted and confirmed the demonic entity. Grotesque face, check. Oversized muscles, check. Optional pair of horns, check. The demon growled before started to charge towards him and the Sentinel. Are saw as the demon's stunted hind legs clawed on the wooden surface as its huge upper-body trashed the corridor to fit itself in.

Not willing to get so up close with the demon, Are made some more distance between it and him by going backwards and towards the stair, following Mulberry. He bent his legs a little before leaping to the second floor, narrowly missing the ceiling and leaving a gust of wind behind him. He then turned to face the demon as it made another loud growl as its prey went out of reach and doubled its effort to reach them. It wouldn't be long until it reach them where they are.

Are glanced at Mulberry as he drew his sword with one hand, "I guess it's not too late to say that whatever happened here has to be because of the book?" After all, the timing was far too much of a coincidence to be a random attack.

[Valeric]

She barely had enough time to ascend several rungs of the stairway before the demon crashed past her. The wooden walls shredded like paper when it brushed against them, leaving a wide swath of destruction as it moved through the enclosed space. Mulberry took the opportunity to lash out with her morphed tail as the demon came into range. The curved blade managed to slash into its ribs below the left arm, applying the venomous substance into the wound. However, it was impossible to tell how effective her poison would be on the demonic creature. She could only hope that its humanoid exterior reflected an equally humanoid interior.

She continued to run up the stairs to the second floor, noting that Are had already overtook her with a single acrobatic leap. The demon at the stairs turned to release a thundering roar, before proceeding to claw its way up.

"I guess it's not too late to say that whatever happened here has to be because of the book?" Are said while drawing his sword. Mulberry had to agree at this point.

"We'll need to deal with the demon first!" Mulberry had a feeling she was forgetting something, but could not recall what it was. Her right arm was already changing shape, flowing like liquid into the form of a battle-axe. The demon wasn't going to fall to tiny cuts and lacerations; she needed something heavy to split its head.

She stood ready at the staircase for the approaching demon, planning out her actions in advance. Jump over its swing, then chop down with the axe. Timing was crucial in such a choice, and she waited anxiously as the beast rampaged towards her. Mulberry was so focused upon her foe that she failed to react when the ceiling collapsed behind her, and another demon dropped onto the second floor with a loud thud. It wasted no time to lash out at her with a clenched fist.

Mulberry was lifted off her feet and sailed through the air, crashing several feet away. Intense pain radiated from her left arm and shoulders, but they still responded when she tried to move. Are was now in trouble; he was caught near the two demons without an easy escape route.

[Alphakoka]

"We'll need to deal with the demon first!" Mulberry replied to him. Are looked at the sentinel and saw her right arm changing shape into that of a battle axe. He whistled a little before facing the demon again. He put up his sword and prepared himself against the demon. However, Mulberry acted first before the demon reached them. It might have worked too if not for another demon crashing down behind her and sent her flying. He looked at the two demons alternately while the two demons snarled at him, seemingly content that they got him cornered.

"Hah, let's see about that," Are replied. He raised his sword up with an arm while his other arm held back in a punching stance while his feet bent in preparation to move. He made his move by first sending a wind blow towards the closest demon from his free arm, aiming to stagger it with the condensed air. He then followed the blow with a charge towards the first demon, before creating a wind gust to stop him as the demon retaliated with a punch that created a hole on the floor from its sheer force. As he stopped, he charged his sword with electricity and slashed at the arm. Regardless, after the slash was made he jumped inbetween the two demons, planning to use their oversized arms to hit each other instead of the smaller intended targets like him.

[Valeric]

Are, moving quick like an elf, managed to dance around the demons like they were fools. He baited a swing from the demon, and slashed his outstretched arm with his sword, but the demon was barely fazed his slash on its weaponized arms, even if it drew blood. With Are still within reach, the second demon swung its mighty arm again, this time starting low such that its outstretched fingers raked against the floorboards to raise a hail of wooden shrapnel towards him as well.

The first demon was now out of the stairway, advancing on Are to pin him against its demonic brethren. It would have launched a deadly pincer attack against the man if Mulberry had not scrambled back to her feet, and sprinted towards it with her morphed axe held high over her head. She swung it down with all her might into the demon's cranium, but the attack was caught by its right horn instead. Mulberry managed to snap it in half and cleave into its shoulder, but missed the chance to fell it in one strike. The demon roared angrily in pain and turned around, arm outstretched to grab her.

Using her embedded axe as a grip, she raised her body off the floor to dodge the attack, if just barely.

[Alphakoka]

The second demon's reaction was something Are had expected but not something he was prepared to avoid with his current power. Despite his attempt to avoid and block the shrapnel, a good number managed to graze him, leaving several cuts on him with few being deep cuts and hurt a lot. Are forced himself to turn when he felt the first demon was moving towards him. Luckily for him, Mulberry distracted the demon from whatever it was planning to do. The first demon turned its attention to Mulberry and tried to grab the sentinel only to topple her over her axe. This time, Are took the advantage and jumped on the demon's face while stabbing it on one of its eyes and using his whole weight to try to topple the demon over. The surprise from having something embedded on its eye and a weight did just that and the demon started to fall backward towards the floor and Mulberry if the pink humanoid didn't move fast enough.

[Valeric]

While Mulberry was struggling to release herself from the demon, Are jumped it from behind, burying his sword into its eye. The creature gave out a loud shriek, different from its previous deep roar, and began to tumble forward as it lost its balance. Mulberry's axe dislodged from the creature's shoulder as it fell. She landed back on the ground on her two feet, and in the next instant, she pushed off the ground back towards the demon, her right knee extended and morphed to a hardened point. She grabbed the demon's remaining horn as leverage, then smashed her knee into his head.

Knee and cranium met with a sickening crunch. She wasn't sure how much damage she had inflicted, but the demon's arms stopped swinging wildly. It collapsed on the ground limp, with Are still riding on top. Without warning, its entire body burst into red flames that released no heat, and turned into ashes in a matter of seconds. The demon's physical body had took too much damage, and had returned to whatever infernal plane it had come from. With one taken cared of, there was only another demon left.

Just when Mulberry thought they had a moment to regather their bearings, the second demon tore forward with a flurry of swings. Realizing that the wooden splinters it could hurl at them were much more effective than its slow swings, the demon intentionally swiped at the floorboards and walls. Taken aback by the terrifying scene, Mulberry was ready to leap out of range of the deadly shrapnel sprays.

[Alphakoka]

As the demon dispersed in a burst of fire, Are landed on the floor and stumbled a few steps forward as he wasn't expecting the demon to vanish. He glanced back at the demon's ashes with a mixture of relieve and jealousy. Relieve that the demons weren't too troublesome to deal with, and jealousy over the fact that the demon's dismissal was partially something that he was looking for, a way home. He was unable to contemplate further as the second demon roared and moved forward towards him and Mulberry. The demon made its way while swinging its arms against the wooden wall and floor, raining sharp splinters at its opponent. Are immediately leaped towards the kitchen to take cover from the wooden rain. From the corner of his eyes he saw Mulberry doing the same.

[Valeric]

Mulberry leaped out of the range of the blast of wooden splinters, although she didn't evade all of them. Dagger-like pieces of wood dug into her thigh, causing a sharp pain that made her wince. The demon bellowed and charged forward, not giving her any time to recover. She didn't want to face the immense beast up front, and her only option was to run into the bedroom at the end of the corridor.

Her feet crossed into the room just as the demon came within striking range. Just when she thought she had eluded the demon for a second time, its impossibly powerful arm simply swung out at her- ignoring the wooden wall blocking the way like it was a paper screen. She ducked under the attack at the last moment, although more wooden chips scraped against her body. At this point, there was no longer any way to run. She turned on her heel and lunged straight at the demon instead, hoping to catch it while its guard was down. She tackled the demon at its midsection, wrapping her flexible appendages around the demon tightly. At the same time, she begun to morph her entire body, changing it into the hardness of steel. Spikes formed from her arms and began to dig their way into the demon's body. It would be very difficult to pry her off now, even with the demon's immense strength, but she couldn't do much either.

"Are, kill it quick!" Mulberry screamed out at her new ally.

[Alphakoka]

Are has no idea why the demon chose to focus on Mulberry. As the demon went past the kitchen and towards the bedroom, Are made his way back to the corridor. There he saw the demon smashing through the wall and Mulberry tackled it before holding it in place. Both were visibly stuck against each other as the demon roared and attempted to break free. Are was curious on how the sentinel achieved such feat, was her physical strength on par with the demon? It didn't seem like that was the case.

"Are, kill it quick!" The spirit heard Mulberry screamed out and it brought his focus back. Of course, all question can be answered after. Are changed his grip on his sword so that he was holding it in a reverse grip. He started to run towards the demon before yanking one of its horn backwards with all his weight and repeated his action to the first demon by embedding the sword on its head. Next, he released his grip on the horn as he drew his sword from the skull and the demon started to dissipate. He took several steps backwards and watched.

[Valeric]

Are didn't let her down as he sprinted up to the distracted demon and dealt the killing blow with his sword. The blade sliced cleanly through its stumpy head, a feat that surprised Mulberry considering how worn the weapon looked. The demon subsequently burst into a flare of red flames, dematerializing into thin air in a flash. Mulberry landed on the wooden floor heavily, still rigidly locked into her hardened form.

She morphed back into her original form and stood up from the ground. There were a few lacerations in her membrane, but it wasn't too severe. A couple of days later and she would be as good as new. Wounds rarely bothered her.

"Thanks for your help, Are. Those big demons were quite dangerous." she said to Are with a smile on her face. With her suspicions dissolved by his valiant display in battle, Are was now an ally she trusted. She saw the curious faces of the gathering townsfolk through the large gap in the wall, and retreated into the bedroom. She was never welcome in human society, much less found in a murder scene.

"We need to find whoever stole the book. I came to this city because I smelled a source of evil magic." Mulberry started to explain the situation as she rifled through the bedside wardrobe. There were several pieces of clothing and robes that probably belonged to the dead woman downstairs. "I think someone is trying to summon evil into this world. Some kind of demonic entity. We were probably attacked by the culprit's servants."

"That also means the person already knows we're onto something…" she said, half to herself. They wouldn't be stalking a clueless demonologist anymore. She finally grabbed something out of the wardrobe and held it in front of her, inspecting the article of human clothing. In such warm weathers, Mulberry had no idea why humans liked to wrap themselves in layers of cloth and hide. But it was central part of human culture and was also a convenient method of concealing her identity. She pulled the long linen coat over her shoulders, and drew up the hood.

When she turned back to Are, all the spirit would be able to see was her purplish-pink face obscured in the darkness of the hood. It made her look rather suspicious, but anything was better than walking around in her normal form.

"Let's go before more demons appear." Mulberry said before leaving through the attic again, climbing out onto the room.