Just as Nola was struck a forceful blow that skewed her heads sidewards momentarily, a blade, made of pure flames, came roaring at it right that very instant.
I didn’t even have the time to react as a frightful gash was ripped right across her head, nearly revealing the white underneath in the process. A gush of blood spewed forth from her head, and along with it came her left eye…
‘Oh shoot, Nola has no resistance to that black flame, if that giant fish were to attack her now…’ Yet just as I was fretting over whether or not the fish would take this opportunity to finish off Nola, it unexpectedly dove into the lava lake.
‘Wait, what is that fish even doing? Isn’t this the perfect time to deal a final blow?’
However, no matter how confused I was by its inexplicable action, now wasn’t the time for all that consideration –because the battle hadn’t ended yet!
Now that she was in such a bloodied state, Nola probably wasn’t going to be a problem for the time being. Thus the Demonic Fire Sprite turned his sights back on my Shadow Demon and tossed out a dozen or so Fireballs which rose into the air like fireworks before veering straight towards a singular target: the Shadow Demon.
Faced with a barrage of flame attacks, the Shadow Demon continued its previous tactic of dodging and as it did so, the distance between it and the sprite unknowingly became bigger. By now, there was a whole twenty meters separating the two of them. Barring any circumstances, such a wide gap would favor the sprite more since I had no way to employ long range attacks via that Shadow Demon. In other words, the Shadow Demon had no way of defeating the sprite unless that gap was closed.
An equally troubling fact was the degree of Nola’s injuries. Her left eye was gone and who knew if her brain had suffered any damage in the process. In fact, her condition was so bad right now, I had no way of telling if she was even conscious anymore as she slowly sank into the lava lake.
‘She’s not dead right…the lifeforce of a Demon Fire Salamander…it can’t be that weak right…well, all we can do now is believe in her safety and break past this difficult situation ourselves!’
Without our trusty comrade Nola, I knew we had no choice but to give our 120% right now.
As I stood there at the side of lake, I ordered my Shadow Demon to perform another dive at the sprite, even if the sprite threw out that fire breath at us. This time I had no intention of evading his attacks anymore, not unless he created some kind of tsunami…
‘Wait…’
Faced with the oncoming Shadow Demon, the Demonic Fire Sprite wasted no time in starting a chanting motion.
*WHOOSH*
Suddenly, it seemed as if the lava lake itself rose to cover the skies and was rushing right at the Shadow Demon!
‘What the heck is that?! Did he really create a tsunami…’
I hurriedly had the Shadow Demon take to the skies to avoid the oncoming wave, barely managing to avoid the attack with the thinnest of margins. Yet in spite of that, the Shadow Demon’s fate was already determined as while all that was happening, none of us had noticed that something hiding beneath the wave…
Just as I thought that the Shadow Demon had reached a safe height, the wave suddenly exploded and a black silhouette came rushing from underneath. Like a world renowned surfer, it seemed to ride the lava wave itself as it took the sky like a rocket!
‘Not good…’
By the time I was able to get a good look at that silhouette, I knew that I’ve been had…that speeding rocket was none other than the fish that had given up on attacking Nola!
By making using of the wave, it launched itself right beneath the Shadow Demon and, with razor sharp teeth glittering in the air, chomped down on the Shadow Demon before it even had the chance to dodge…just like that, the Shadow Demon was ripped to shred…
Then, there was nothing…the moment the Shadow Demon was wrapped around by its teeth, there was no way it could ever survive/
“*cough*…*splutter*”
As a clone of mine, it was only to be expected that some of that damage would end up reflecting back onto me when it died. In that very instant the Shadow Demon died, my heart felt like it had stopped.
Fortunately, I wasn’t some old human, and the body of a Fallen Angel was a lot sturdier than I had initially expected, especially given that I was of Lucifer’s direct lineage. Not only that, I had three Original Sins on me so the backlash merely brought me a moment of discomfort and nothing more.
With the last obstacle gone, the fish immediately turned around to dive back into the lava lake, right at the very spot where I saw Nola sink into the lake.
“Watch out Nola!”
Regardless of whether or not she could even hear me, my first instinct was to try and warn her. Yet that was all I could manage before a blackish red silhouette suddenly appeared before me.
In just the blink of an eye, the sprite circled around to my back and restrained me with a forceful grip.
*sizzle*
Having been hugged like that from the back, I was instantly struck with a burning sensation from where he touched me. Thankfully, it wasn’t to the extent where I instantly blacked out. Furthermore, while the sprite’s flame had the characteristic of being corrosive and scalding, being born of two elements and all, the former had no effect on me whatsoever. I was a Fallen Angel after, the Darkness was like an old friend to me…
Because the sprite was currently stuck fast to me, I had no way to attack him with the golems since those mindless constructs would most likely hurt me in the process of trying to strike at the sprite.
“MAMA!”
Mo Na was the first to realize that the Demonic Fire Sprite had me caught in a hug. My little baby immediately scrambled to try and help me escape but with how tightly bound we were, she really had no way of attacking that wouldn’t hurt me.
“Curses. You big baddie, let go of Mo Na’s Mama!”
“BARK BARK~~” Cinderel bravely barked at the sprite as well.
“Sssshhhhh…”
Seeing the distraught Mo Na so anxious to attack but yet unable to do so, the sprite made a bizarre sound that I assumed was his way of laughing. It was the kind of laughter you wouldn’t expect from a normal person, the kind of gloating laugh that you would only see from a villain.
“Don’t worry, Sweetie. Papa’s alright!”
Even though I said that, the armor on my back had already turned black from the sprite’s scorching flames and was about to turn to cinders. Yet it was in such situations that I was at my calmest; panicking was only going to hasten my demise after all.
It was also at that moment that Ferti’nier’s voice made her timely appearance. As frivolous as her tone was, she actually gave me a pretty decent suggestion.
“Little Brother, you do know you can use your Nether Flames right?”
‘Nether Flames?’
I paused for a second.
‘That’s right, I still have my Nether Flames. Even though it seems silly to throw fire at a Demonic Fire Sprite, it’s not like his black flames are actually Nether Flames. Strictly speaking, they are just an amalgamation of the Darkness and Fire Element…’
