Lux Locus: Fractured Family

The head prosecutors stared at Zenith in disbelief. 'What' was all they managed to say.

"Yes. He's my brother, and if my dreams are anything to go by, then that means that Tzinma is here as well."

Morfhal leaned against the table and tried holding back his anger, efforts which came at the cost of a face wrinkled in anger and a voice stressing volume control.

"I heard that you had family, but that they were all killed."

"They were."

"Then how is it that your BROTHERS are out there walking in the streets and waging war for their demented gods? How do they even exist still? They were purged when the planet was offered to Mana Magis!"

Zenith glared at the old man. "For one boasting the second highest rank of all prosecutors, your understanding of the gods is severely lax."

Morfhal pointed aggressively at Zenith. "How DARE you?! Much like the pillars, I sacrificed my present and future so our species could even have a past to speak of."

"But did you sacrifice enough? Do you even have the RIGHT to say you did such a thing?" Zenith tilted his head, staring at the Ierfehand Second with wide, angry eyes. "As far as I'm concerned, you stole that statement from the pillars," he stated with hidden undertones of anger. "Furthermore, we need to find my brother and kill him more than Tzinma."

"Why? They're both filth that follow forbidden gods. They have equal value!"

Eriee shook her head. "Morfhal, put your anger aside and listen to him! He's known these two longer than anyone else." She turned to face the furious cyborg, concern and doubt springing to her mind. "Despite my opposition to Morfhal's behavior, I would still like to know from YOU as to why we should focus all our efforts on just one off the lords of Influence."

"Because...he has a special relationship with Blumarak's largest oni, if not THE largest I've ever seen."

"How large are we talking?" Morfhal inquired.

"The size of a mountain."

A feel of dread and absolute terror fell upon all those currently in the room.

"But to summon something like that..." Eriee trailed off.

"Would require millions upon millions to sacrifice to give the tears enough power to leave the way for him. It would drain it immediately and would require more rituals to open larger ones, but this oni is too much to bare. Yuhis: The Blood Mountain." Zenith leaned against the table, resting his face within his hands. "There's no stopping that monstrosity."

Morfhal clenched his fists. "We know where they're all gathering, and we know that there are minor pockets waltzing through the cities in search of victims or things to plunder."

"They also did not gain access to any contingent of regimentariums here," Zenith added. "This means that they're reliant solely on smuggled weaponry, magic, and oni. The weaponry will obviously be plentiful, and the magic will be in great use."

"But demons are hard to summon," Eriee added. "There's certainly many roaming the streets already, but we must be vigilant for any major demons that come by."

"They're interested in me more than anything here," Zenith stated. "I'm going to face them once again."

"Not without support," CQ said. She calmly walked to the table next to Zenith and stood straight and disciplined. "I was assigned to you, Prosecutor Zenith Canka. It is my duty to remain by your side until I am either dismissed, reassigned, or killed."

Outside, the city streets were in turmoil. While the local authorities had managed to at least partially control the outbreak of cultists, the demons weren't as easy to 'detain'. One such difficult area was a crossroads where a similar gargantuan demon protecting the initial rift worked alongside. However, this one preferred the use of an eight-tongued urumi, a weapon with sharp 'whips' for blades, to slice at every human in its path.

"Ha ha ha! We were told to not attack the humans until the allotted time, but nothing mentioned defending ourselves!" it cried gleefully.

It found itself knocked over by an unexpected rocket to its face, nearly crushing the followers beneath it, but this only served to fuel the demon's desires to shed blood for its parent.

Seeing as the shot came from one of the tall buildings nearby, the demon lashed at the walls, tearing away large chunks of stone and metal. The soldiers below were showered by the debris, getting either crushed or heavily wounded. The culprit of the demon's misfortune stumbled backwards, leaving the creature's smile to reach them directly.

"There you are."

It roared, the percussion bursting the eardrums of everyone around. The demon split its urumi into two and, with rabid, uncoordinated slashes, cut the building and its occupants to pieces. It didn't stop there, going into the streets and slicing up law enforcement and their vehicles alike. Said armored transports were cut into and their armor peeled away before being kicked away by the giant into the buildings both short and tall.

"The great demon of marrow is leading us to victory!" one of the followers shouted to her brethren. "Let us follow in his bloodied steps!"

The cultists of Blumarak were dressed in naught but rags and bits of metal strapped to their hides. For a person to seek gods of a forbidden pantheon, it usually took incredible curiosity or stupidity. For lone gods, it was even more tempting as they only needed to respect one deity due to the amount of work, but for those of the 'Influence', as humans called them, the worship went further then simple prayers and offerings. Those who followed Blumarak felt it their duty to dress with as little armor as possible. They assumed that Blumarak blessed their blood and bones, preventing them to be felled in battle so easily.

"Shoot the cultists and let the heavy weapons deal with the monster," a lieutenant shouted from over a flaming wreck.

"But sir, we are! We keep shooting them, and their blood keeps crystallizing after it explodes out of their bodies!"

Lucky were the followers of Blumarak that He was, most ironically to an outsider, one of the most caring of the deities. They were not invincible, and their frail human bodies could only deal with so much.

"They're starting to go down," the same law enforcer shouted.

His blue flak armor with green trims had been so polished that the carnage was reflected on its surface and even let the splendor of magic tarnish its pristine glimmer.

"Blood magus!" one of the enforcers shouted.

The demon stepped aside after hearing that declaration and witnessed a near-naked male wearing a bone mask focusing a ball of undulating red mana above his head. The tattoos on his body glowed in tandem with the spell, and when it unleashed, it created a literal wave of blood shards slamming into the streets and buildings, easily piercing through everything and devastating the ranks of the soldiers.

More armored vehicles came in the distance. They were akin to Hellbenders in appearance, but fitted for troop transport. In this case, its side cannons were replaced by a turret fitted with a forty-millimeter autocannon, and red cauldron in its back replaced by empty space for troop or supply transportation. Four franka heavy machine gun variants were fitted into the sides of the transport area, allowing the passengers to defend the sides of the vehicle.

One of the law enforcers still hiding in one of the buildings spotted them and shouted to his comrades.

"Hellcarriers! On the horizon!"

"What's the point? That monster destroyed the ones we already had!"

Deafening rattles caused the law enforcers to fall to their knees. An aecs heavy gunship had come with the vehicles and was mulching the cultists. Some of the magus tried to shoot the machine down using their spells; but to no avail. The craft only took minimal damage and focused its attention on the oni. Heavily wounded, it jumped away and tried to flee, but an Aecs Gecélnes is not known as the most powerful gunship in the human arsenal for nothing. The magitech cannon on its nose began glowing, and despite the demon trying to off balance the machine with stones to its rotors, still managed to fire.

It grazed the oni of marrow by work of another demon dropping from the sky, followed by many more. They took the appearance of blobby, obese creatures with a very human appearance. Their combined weight added to them working their way to just one side of the craft saw the aerial vehicle veer off to the distance.

Several more people wearing an excessive amount of clothing and jewelry that they stole from the city charged head first into the Blumarak cultists, fighting with the intent to steal what little they had left.

"Ho ho! A demon of the bone god!" a jolly voice rumbled.

A huge demon burst through one of the demons, displaying an impressive stomach and line of fat that was gradually receding to a more muscular stature. It was humanoid in appearance, much like the smaller oni. Excess fat hung off its body like literal rolls of skin, and its wide grin was ruined by the excessive amount of drool it was creating. Three eyes adorned its head, letting it look in every direction it could. In its bald body were multiple rods of metal on which the demon's bounty had been placed to show to everyone around.

"But these are MY followers! And these are MY THINGS!" it shouted angrily. Its tone had shifted completely. "ALL OF THIS IS MINE!"

"Foolish Self-Preserver," the demon of marrow said.

He stomped over to the cultists of Mumbass and stomped on several of then, angering the demon of selfishness. The demon of marrow drank heartily of the torrent of red that flew to its mouth, helping restore its body. It wiped its mouth and smiled smugly at the demon before it, said creature thoroughly furious.

"THAT'S MY BLOOD! RETURN IT NOW!"

"No."

Blumarak's oni spread its arms apart, taunting its rival. The moment was interrupted momentarily by the hellcarriers shooting at them, but even the human couldn't stop the fight between demons of opposing deities.