Ouzu was the last head of the Gurahorn Clan of demons. After their castration and crippling for the crime of discovering secrets never meant to be known to them, it had been clear no new members, including heirs of Ouzu, could ever be made again. For the clan head himself it had been even worse, however, because he had been forced to sacrifice even his triple body-multiplying ability to ensure the survival of his people.

Knowing there was only one of him and only a thousand of his clan, losing any members was unthinkable. And yet in the present of the battle at Dreadblade Fortress the enemies of his master Deathaxe – nothing more than a gathering of pathetic human teachers and their students – had managed to kill quite a few Gurahorns already.

The secret to their successful killing campaign had been discovered – three in their ranks capable of strengthening their comrades enough to overpower even demons and darkans – Ouzu ordering some of his best men to go after those three and eliminate them for good. He himself led many more of his troops against another target – one that if given time could become even more troublesome. They had gone after the so-called Hopeful Eight, their closest friends and the man and woman leading the Sunbird School Force – the very group most likely planning to personally kill Deathaxe and save the boy meant to become his main weapon – Goran Blackscale.

Gurahorn’s leader had set his sights (meant in the literal sense because he and the rest of the Gurahorns had sharpened their other senses to a level where they could actually see color images of their surroundings without actually possessing sight) on one member of that group right from the start – Goran’s older brother Seiren who would fight tooth, nail and beyond more than anyone else to free the boy from Deathaxe’s control. From the interactions Ouzu had had with the younger Blackscale brother during his tortures, fusing with the Hornslayer axe and training with Deathaxe to learn to control his new powers afterwards, he guessed the older brother would be even stronger and more troublesome.

Thus, a prolonged fight with him would be disadvantageous and a single attack strong enough to incinerate his very soul had to be used from the start to put a preemptive end to the Goran Rescue Mission. The demon’s arm clad in horns of intense hellish flames, which he could wield better than any other member of his clan, was aimed at Seiren’s back for that purpose, considering the young Blackscale was presently dealing with another Gurahorn, the chances of him detecting the coming attack in any way being miniscule. And so Ouzu’s mission could be completed without any hindrances.

Until a bolt of lightning landed on the ground between the demon and his target, tearing through the flaming horns around his hand. The armor on that hand that was of the same dark purple color as the pieces covering a part of his chest, right shoulder, knees, feet and other hand was melted away by the bolt, the same happening to the beige bandages covering the rest of his arm and entire body. And eventually it reached all the way to Ouzu’s already burned skin under the bandages to scorch even further.

Moments later a human hand came out of the bolt, grabbing hold of the Gurahorn leader’s damaged limb with a monstrously tight grip to make sure he could make no further attempts to take the golden-haired teenager’s life. With the disappearance of the bolt, the owner of that hand was revealed – a young man with spiky brown hair and green eyes burning with terrifying determination who addressed Seiren in the present despite his gaze being fixed on Ouzu’s face. Or rather the dark purple helmet with an orange illuminated ellipsis in the area where the eyes were supposed to be worn to cover Ouzu’s burned head with the exception of his three blood red horns instead of the standard two for his clan and his ears with pairs of blood red spike earrings.

(Hikaru) ‘Better watch your back, Blackscale. Or you’ll never make it to Goran.’

(Ouzu) ‘None of you are going to make it inside Dreadblade, much less so to Goran.’

(Hikaru) ‘Oh, a demon that talks. You must be one of the smarter ones.’ – Hikaru looked at Seiren for a moment before returning his attention to the Gurahorn leader – ‘If you can talk and understand what we’re saying, I’m sure you’ll understand this: Seiren will get to Goran, NO MATTER WHAT.’

Ouzu recognized by the spiky-haired teenager’s annoying persistence rather than by any other trait he was Hikaru Summerbolt – member of a family normally more annoying than the Blackscales, but one he had no time to spare for now. So the demon engulfed his whole body in hellish flames and formed multi-eyed multi-horned centipedes out of them meant to distract the young Summerbolt long enough for Seiren to be dealt with. After that, Ouzu would give Hikaru all the attention he thought a piece of trash like him deserved.

(Ouzu) ‘Not while I’m here he’s not.’

Another lightning bolt hit and blinded the bandaged demon then, with its disappearance Ouzu realizing his flaming centipedes had been destroyed and he and Hikaru had appeared elsewhere – on top of one of the piles of rock spikes made around Dreadblade Fortress some distance away from where they had been before. The Gurahorn leader’s surprise at this turn of events must have been beyond obvious even with the helmet on, because his opponent grinned triumphantly at him right after as he stood fully upright at the very top of the spike pile.

(Hikaru) ‘That makes it pretty simple, then. I just have to keep you away from Blackscale.’

Ouzu had last faced members of the Summerbolt family over twenty years ago – during the campaign to eradicate Deathaxe’s Xulean Rebirth organization – in the present being reminded that no matter what was more important than them, Summerbolts would always cause enough trouble to force their enemies to focus only on them. And he hated that about them even more now than he did before, making up his mind to annihilate the boy in front of him without delay.

(Ouzu) ‘You think you can do that, brat?’

(Hikaru) ‘I wouldn’t have brought you here with me if I didn’t.’

Hikaru launched himself at Ouzu after saying that, cladding his body in a lightning cloak denser than anything the demon had ever seen – one that almost felt like a static elemental deva’s armor – along the way while using high-speed teleportation to sneak behind him. It appeared the boy had no intention of fighting a prolonged battle, either.

The Gurahorns’ leader had already realized he could not match the young Summerbolt in terms of speed, so he dismissed that idea right from the start, instead relying on the sheer power his hellish flame deva had to decimate his opponent. A fire pillar even denser than Hikaru’s lightning cloak erupted around Ouzu just before the young man’s fist could reach him, the bandaged demon turning around to look at him now and smiling under his helmet.

Seiren’s rival was looking down at his hand, the cloak around it having been disintegrated and the hand itself having been burned pretty bad. It was now Hikaru’s turn to grit his teeth in annoyance, though Ouzu had been expecting to see at least a little bit of pain mixed with the boy’s other feelings.

(Ouzu) ‘Haven’t gone up against hellish flames before, eh, kid? When you stopped my attack meant for Seiren earlier, you caught me by surprise and that was the only reason you were able to cut through my flames and grip my hand for as long as you did.

Let me assure you, it won’t happen again. Not even with a cloak as dense as yours.’

(Hikaru) ‘That look … you’re the only Gurahorn that looks different. Is that because you’re their leader or just because you’re horribly disfigured?’

(Ouzu) ‘You’re wondering if my different appearance means I’m somehow special and can do more damage than the rest of my people, aren’t you?

I am indeed the head of the Gurahorns and no other member of my clan has a fire deva as strong as mine.

But there are other things they can do that I can’t, so even if you get rid of me, you still won’t have come any closer to victory.’ – relying on the fact his words had already seeped into Hikaru’s mind enough to have a proper discouraging effect, Ouzu unleashed his next attack – ‘Not that it matters because you won’t ever beat me.’

Hundreds of massive multi-eyed multi-horned centipedes of hellish flames were formed in a fiery whirlwind around the young Summerbolt, swarming on the boy to eat through the rest of his cloak and quickly reduce his flesh and bones to ash, the bandaged demon preparing a second attack just in case. And he had been right to do so because not long after the centipedes’ attack began, all of them were impaled, cut or completely torn apart by several volleys of lightning spears, halberds, naginatas and the like.

The weapons made of electricity moved on to the insects’ creator, many hellish flame pillars being manifested from the masses of rock spikes beneath them to destroy all the mad genius’s creations, but being countered by all those weapons exploding in big lightning orbs. Thus, the flaming pillars were dispelled, a few intact naginatas piercing through the risen smoke to successfully stab Ouzu’s torso and limbs in several places.

Which was irrelevant, of course, because that wasn’t even the real him, but a clone left in his place, the original having turned into a fully fire-made form and snuck within the rock spike pile. Waiting for a few moments to ensure Hikaru would be fooled by his false triumph, the Gurahorns’ leader then created a pillar of his deva to engulf the entirety of the pile and blast it into nothingness along with the young Summerbolt on top of it. And to ensure he would not survive, a centipede as big as the pillar was wrapped around it to tear through anything able to get away from the flames that had shot up toward the sky.

Eventually both attacks were dispelled, Ouzu coming out of the rubble left in their wake to search for his enemy’s body. That search was quickly interrupted by Hikaru appearing next to the bandaged demon and crushing a fist in his helmet so fast, no time for putting countermeasures in effect was given.

The clan head found himself being thrown a long distance through the air as blood sprayed between his teeth and his helmet cracked, all that paling in comparison to the fact electricity had been channeled through the area of the ground where he was going to fall and multiple lightning spears and naginatas were erected there. Instinctively putting up a thick hellish flame cloak was all that saved the Gurahorn leader from being impaled to death, melting away the weapons and softening his crashing amid the remains of the rock spike pile.

Nonetheless, this had been too close a call for a fight only thought of as a distraction during the hunt for Ouzu’s main prey. Hikaru had not only managed to evade his opponent’s earlier large-scale attack, sneak up on and actually land a blow on him, but calculate the distance he was going to fly through the air after being punched to know exactly where to channel electric weapons to ensure he would be pierced by them.

And looking over at him, his cloak had changed its appearance from earlier, now being less dense and sticking closer to his body, which gave a bluish tint to his skin and a white one – to his hair and irises. Most likely that version of the cloak allowed for a much higher teleportation speed and that was how Ouzu’s earlier attack had been evaded and how he in turn had been successfully hit by his enemy.

This boy was not your average Summerbolt. He had a cunning to him, already having shown great skill in creating structures, channeling his deva and cladding himself in a cloak from it, even being able to manipulate the last of those three styles beyond the ordinary scope. The intelligence and strategic thinking he had displayed were also unnatural for someone from the Summerbolt family who were mainly known for being very reckless and prone to often experiencing anger issues.

If anything, his style of fighting so far reminded Ouzu of someone else his clan had faced during the final days of the Xulean Rebirth – one Hanaru Devibolt, perhaps the most promising Barilian and human for that matter the bandaged demon had ever met. Only after that realization, which came as he got back on his feet and saw Hikaru closing in on him, did he take a good look at the boy’s face.

Though the uncanny resemblance he had to Hanaru was proof enough in and of itself, Ouzu decided to question his opponent on the matter bothering him in the present all the same.

(Ouzu) ‘Who’s your father, boy?’

As confused as he was, the young Summerbolt answered after another moment passed.

(Hikaru) ‘Hanaru Summerbolt.’

(Ouzu) ‘You mean Devibolt?’

Ouzu’s second question elicited a different response from the mad genius – he became angry. And that made him look even scarier.

(Hikaru) ‘He didn’t go by that last name by the time I was born, so no one from my family uses it when talking about him. What’s it to you who my father was?’

The Gurahorn leader’s helmet broke apart completely then to reveal his face that had a beige bandage around its sewn-shut and sealed eyes like the rest of his clan, the only difference between his face and theirs being it was also horribly burned. And despite the burns and the absence of open eyes, the shock on that face was now harder to hide than ever before.

(Ouzu) ‘But you … your mother’s Saya Summerbolt … so you’re the child of a Summerbolt and a Devibolt?!!’

Hikaru quickly turned from angry to confused again with that query, meanwhile Ouzu barely being able to keep his emotions in check.

(Hikaru) ‘Is that a crime?’

(Ouzu) ‘IT IS THE GREATEST BLASPHEMY, BOY!!!!’ – at that point, the young Summerbolt went from confused to scared because of how mad Ouzu had become – ‘The Devibolt family hails from Raxul, master Deathaxe’s homeland!! They’ve had ties with demons as far back as I can remember!!

And the Summerbolts … they’re at the other end of the spectrum! They have often aided angels or have been used by them to fight against the forces of darkness and chaos!!! How, then?! How were you even born?!?!!’

(Hikaru) ‘I think you’re getting too carried away there, ugly. It’s not like you’re actually connected to either of those families, right? And from what they’ve told me, my dad has never been your average Devibolt, so it would make sense he would come over to the Summerbolts’ side. That enough for you?’

It wasn’t enough. The truth of Hikaru’s heritage changed everything for Ouzu.

To have been born without any deformities and be able to fight using both the Summerbolts’ and Hanaru Devibolt’s tactics while implementing different styles of combat – this boy had the potential of a Balancer in him. The most dangerous thing there was for angels and demons in the realms between their own.

If given enough time and proper training by an inhuman entity, Hikaru could learn to wield the powers of both Order and Chaos and thus counter or rule over any creature using only one of those. This made him the single biggest threat on the battlefield in Ouzu’s eyes and all of a sudden, he didn’t care about Seiren or Goran anymore. Or about the Blackscales, Summerbolts, or any other family as a whole.

It was all about this boy and ending his life with no possibility of resurrection by any means. Complete annihilation of the body and the soul. And to ensure that, Ouzu would have to risk losing his own soul – a risk worth taking, because dispatching Hikaru would remove the biggest threat for Deathaxe’s future plans.

So before the spiky-haired teenager could even charge with his ultrafast lightning teleportation again, the Gurahorn Clan’s leader slammed his foot on the ground, cracking it open across a wide area and making blood-colored lava erupt from those cracks, being mixed with hellish flames into a single destructive wave. The young Summerbolt would have no problem dealing with an attack like that, of course, but he would still be delayed enough by it to give Ouzu the opening he needed.

An opening during which to burn away all the bandages and partial armor covering his body that would only get in the way at this point. To clad the lower half of his arms and legs in hellish flames burning in much more intense hues of red and much less of purple than normal, until that half of his limbs took an appearance as if drenched in burning blood. To channel his deva through the interior of his arms and legs’ upper half until the fire in them burned so bright, his black bones could be seen clearly through his skin. To wrap multiple multi-horned multi-eyed centipedes of hellish flames around his torso in a thick segmented body armor. To rip open the remaining skin on his back for the upper body half of five fire clones to come out of the muscles under the skin and fuse with them to an extent. And finally, to manifest around him  dozens of giant demonic eyeballs  of his deva – the same eyeballs every Gurahorn used to have – with bright orange pupils, red irises and a dark purple, almost blackish sclera – a couple of horns made of blood lava coming out of each of those.

That was the form Ouzu had taken as he revealed himself to Hikaru from beyond the smoke of his fire-lava wave being destroyed by a miniature storm the mad genius was now riding toward the demon, his advance being partially slowed down upon witnessing his opponent’s new appearance. Yet he was a lot more shocked when thin, very condensed bright orange flame beams were fired out of each demonic eye’s pupil, combined with beams from the same type, but smaller, coming from the centipede body armor and hellish flame roars out of the mouths of the five semi-clones, all of this aimed at the young Summerbolt’s storm.

His attack was completely destroyed, the terrain around including two of the nearby piles of rock spikes being cut up and burned beyond recognition, the same happening to parts of Dreadblade Fortress and the barricades around it. Tons of smoke rose as a result of all this, Ouzu slowly making his way through it to find Hikaru had already jumped back to his feet not too far from him, his lightning cloak having been dispelled and his body having been cut in a few spots, the cuts on the right shoulder, left thigh and side of the stomach being quite deep. Yet despite the blood flowing out of his wounds and his fainter breaths, the spiky-haired teenager still had a confident smirk on his face.

(Hikaru) ‘I guess you’re done playing around.’

(Ouzu) ‘I was only planning to dispose of your corpse first, but now I see I must rid the cosmos of the threat that is your soul as well.

So come, boy. This old man doesn’t have the strength to maintain a five-style hybrid form like this for long and thought he would never have to use it again. Let me erase your existence already.’

(Hikaru) ‘Got you. Five-style hybrid form, eh?’ – just saying it made Hikaru sigh while scratching his head with a now awkward smile – ‘That’s some next-level stuff. I had no idea anyone can even do that, but I guess since you’re a demon, it makes sense.’

The young man then stopped scratching his head, suddenly reforming the cloak around his body, but this time gradually increasing its size until a whole lightning cloud was covering the area surrounding him, electricity being channeled through the ground and through the inside of his body as well. And this continued until he had so much lightning running through him that his skull, all the bones in his ribcage, spine, pelvis, arms and legs could be seen, even through his slightly torn-up uniform.

Then he condensed the amount of lighting in his cloak to a level where his hair burst in enough bolts to turn white, the same happening with his eyes, his smile changing from awkward to confident once again as he waved with his hand. This gesture led to the formation of multiple clones of the young Summerbolt within his cloud-cloak, a lightning sabertooth being manifested for each of the clones to ride, finally the original making one for himself as well and arming everyone with a spear-shaped bolt in one hand so they could use the other to steer their mounts.

(Hikaru) ‘You’re the first higher-level demon I’ve gone up against, though, so I can’t afford to lose. Especially since I’ve got to make sure Deathaxe dies and Seiren gets to Goran to save him.

You leave me no choice but to go all out, too, old man. Let's see if you'll be able to survive that.’

Ouzu didn’t say anything in response, simply launching forward with his horned demon eyes that met their fire beams with the bolt-spears of the sabertooth riders on Hikaru’s side, the demon’s fire clones clashing their incinerating roars with the mad genius’s cloud-cloak. Multiple naginatas were formed out of the electricity channeled through the earth, pillars of hellish flames rising from the same spots to counter them, in the midst of all this chaos and destruction that mixed white, blue, red and purple, the main instigators themselves clashing with a whirlwind of sparks surrounding them.

(Hikaru) ‘You really should be honored, you know? I was saving this form for my fight against your boss!!’

(Ouzu) ‘Don’t worry about Deathaxe right now! You’ll never get to him!! I’ll make sure of that just as I’ll ensure Seiren never reaches his brother!!! On my honor as head of the Gurahorn Clan!!!!’