.
When that cloud formed around me and became bindings that wrapped me like a boa constrictor, I felt a momentary surge of adrenaline, then my thoughts became cool and calculated. The effects of [Blood Physique] were both physical and mental, and thus, partly responsible for keeping my instincts from controlling me, but knowledge from my older selves was feeding my calm as well.
As he took hold of Durandal’s crossbar, I heard my name called out in alarm from below, but I barely noticed it. I had more pressing matters.
Frankly, by deciding to trap me, with the obvious plan to use my body and blood core to repair his wounds, Zagolig the archdemon had lost all advantages he should have over me. He should have been trying to overwhelm my defenses with sheer power from a distance, which would have been much harder for me to deal with. Instead, he was up close, grinning his assumed advantage into my face as he tried to turn Durandal back into a cursed blade. With that mistake, he put me in charge.
Using [Blood Manipulation], I sent out a tendril of condensed blood from my hand holding Durandal’s grip, wrapping it around his wrist.
I strengthened it, then tightened it, and the archdemon was trapped.
I had done this while I poured [Purification] out into Durandal and now I sent it through him into the demon. I watched with a smile as his eyes grew wide again. I poured a second deluge of [Purification] out of my trapped wings into the cable of Demonic mana wrapping them tight to my body.
He had seen how I was glowing, with my wings practically incandescent white, but he probably thought it was Light mana. This being seemed to have memories of my kind, but front-line Elder troops usually weren’t lucky enough to have a priest or healer among their Servants. They had normally used Light mana to defend against Demonic mana and miasma.
Light worked because Demonic mana is partially composed of Darkness, but it didn’t have the instant effect that the [Purification] I was now using could have. I have no doubt he thought his archdemon strength would overwhelm my Light.
I felt my bindings weakening as he bellowed in pain and his one remaining physical hand withered into dust. He tried to swing that mana sword down upon my head, but I now entangled his mana arm with additional tendrils of blood. It was unfortunate I couldn’t send [Purification] through the blood tendrils, or I would have delivered another dose through them.
I spread my wings to break free of the weakened bonds at the same moment he managed to escape my [Blood Manipulation]. We sprang away from each other.
You okay, Old Man?
A somewhat shaken Durandal answered, Yes, My Lady. That was a frightening turn. I do not wish to do it again.
The battle against the archfiend had driven him farther away from us, and had somehow evolved into Ryuu and Dilorè fighting him. My cousin was facing him in the air and Ryuu was repeatedly firing attacks from the ground.
Arken and Graham had retreated to cover the entrance tunnel to guard those who had retreated into it, due to a group of larvae appearing. It felt odd to me that such low-level soldiers could have any effect until I noticed they were led by a more advanced skeletal demon, probably an elder lich.
That was a serious threat. Elder liches are stronger than the ordinary lich I killed in Cara Ita. They’re A-ranked, just like asuras. But however wounded he was, I was still facing the worst threat in the area, and I was on my own against it.
Allia and Talene were battling the elder lich, and I decided they were more than a match for a class A demon and a few small fry. I could focus solely on Zagolig.
I did a quick inventory of my mana resources, then circulated all the elements I was running short on. I had lost Durandal’s Water coat, so I restored that, and rebuilt the [Purification] coat with a higher dose so that the demon couldn’t overwhelm it again.
“Unforgivable,” the archdemon grated at me as he recovered. “I will enjoy bleeding you dry, filthy strega!”
I looked at the stump of his hand with a smile, and answered, “You’re running out of limbs, though. Shall I chop off another?”
With that, I surged forward on a heavy burst of Wind that I let loose directly from my core.
He parried with the Demonic mana blade. The [Purification] put a dent in it, but it held. I sprayed him with another stream of [Purification] through the Starfire Jade Writing Brush as I rolled away, then came around, preparing for another run.
Out of the blue, a magic arrow of Water came shooting from the ground at him. I knew the source, since I had felt it in my mana pathways. Chiara had decided to join. It had little effect, except that it disturbed the archdemon’s counterattack. Before he could resume the spell he had been attempting, I struck him with a stream of Fire. The [Purification] had not done enough damage when delivered from a distance.
Additional arrows flew up at him as I moved to give Chiara a clearer shot. Her harassment was giving me enough time to make a bigger attack. I again pointed Durandal at him and intoned, “[Holy Smite!]”
The circle of mana formed around the blade and the Earth mana surged forth. He again attempted to defeat it, but he had forgotten his fist wasn’t there anymore. The stump he threw at it failed to have the same effect, perhaps because the bracer flew off his arm at that moment.
Struck out of the way by the oncoming mana fist, the bracer spun away, then the fist crumpled his arm and struck his already wounded chest. My attack sent him barreling away as he desperately fought to regain flight control.
At that moment I heard Ryuu yell, “[Spirit Shot!]” and a truly impressive wave of Aether burst forth from him. Somewhere along the way, he had significantly improved it, and I suspected Allia’s influence.
The archfiend was clearly damaged and Dilorè was in close combat with him now. But Ryuu’s attack hadn’t been aimed at him. He had delivered it against my opponent.
Zagolig was sent hurtling in my direction, as if Ryuu were returning my serve. I dumped as much Wind as I could cram into Durandal and cried out the command as I swung, “[Holy Rend!]”
I didn’t know if I could penetrate that thick armor, but I figured I could do damage to it at least. My target was Zagolig’s neck.
It was a horrible gamble. If he still had enough mana to spare, he might explode like that assura that I had killed. But I was willing to bet he didn’t. He had consumed everything two fiends could offer, just to replace two missing limbs. I had delivered far worse wounds to him after that, and he had to be burning up his internal resources to overcome them.
Anyway, we were going to be far enough away that my allies wouldn’t be caught in an explosion anyway.
The strike caught him at close range. He raised his arm as if he would ward it off, but perhaps he hadn’t yet realized that he had lost his magic focus. The bracer was somewhere on the ground. The overpowered Wind Scythe, much larger than previous ones Durandal had thrown, caught him in the neck where I had aimed.
Again his eyes grew in astonishment, as my Wind mana blade cut partway into his neck, through the armored collar.
Blood poured out of the wound, but I wanted to make sure. I poured in more Wind, quickly pulling the blade back for another swing and again calling, “[Holy Rend!]”
Zagolig’s head and body fell in separate arcs to the ground. The body did burst in a weak explosion, but it was clear that my guess was correct.
The archfiend apparently had enough. He turned and fled for the northern end of the cavern.
Dilorè caught up to me as I flew after him. “Your Highness! Don’t follow him!”
I became immediately exasperated with her. “Let him escape?”
“Do you know what is ahead? Can you guarantee he doesn’t have allies wherever he is headed? Or high level demonic beasts ready to unleash on you? Or traps prepared for you? You have no idea where he’s headed!”
I glared at her, not yet able to admit she was right. She added, “You’ve been using the level of magic you are executing right now for far too long. You have to be getting close to pneuma exhaustion, and I am too, so I can’t back you up!”
With a sigh, I dropped my speed. The archfiend was a speedster, anyway. He had been slowly outrunning me. Dilorè could probably keep up with him, but I was outclassed in this race.
We returned to the former demon camp to find Ceria and Talene moving from one demon corpse to the next, destroying them with Light and Fire. Ceria spotted me and began waving with clear relief in her eyes.
“Lady! Come over and help us please!”
They were having to expend at least five times the mana to decontaminate the remains that I would require with [Purification]. For a moment I wondered why Melione wasn’t doing it, then realized that I could feel her using [Healing] in large quantities. I had become so accustomed to them drawing mana that I usually had to think about it to notice the flow now.
She was surely done with Bruna, so apparently somebody else had been wounded.
I spotted a particularly troublesome item, the archdemon’s bracer, and went to hose it down with [Purification].
It took a while before we finished purifying and cremating. We saved the head of the archdemon, of course. Talene and Dilorè wrapped it up in cloth and put some sort of Light enchantment on the bindings.
We had a lot left to do, of course. We had to deal with a wounded Diurhimath, retrieve Amelia and Brigitte, clean up the demons guarding mortal ‘farms’ around the cavern, and retrieve the mortal prisoners, but for now, the battle was over.
Ryuu had been acting a little strangely after the fight. At first, he had acted like he wanted to say something to me, but he turned away, instead. He had avoided me ever since. I wasn’t sure what was going through his head.
Graham and Bruna were moving the mostly-consumed remains of mortals– the bone heap, I guess I should say– to where Allia and Ryuu were digging a mass grave for them. Dilorè and I were constructing a new hearth, because nobody wanted to cook food where the demons had been cooking people, when I heard Diur’s voice.
“It looks like you managed without me, Commander.”
Turning, I saw a proxy evolve from the usual transparent form into an excellent reproduction of his living self.
That caused me a bit of alarm. “I’m not sure that appearance is a good idea. There are people here whom you attacked previously.”
He pursed his lips, then nodded. “I will avoid growing my wings in front of them.”
I wondered if that would be enough, but accepted it.
“I assume this means you are going to survive,” Dilorè stated.
“I wish to ask your help with that, actually. I need to get to an old friend. I am uncertain I can recover on my own, and she’s probably the only physician who can help me.”
That threw me a bit. “You were petrified for three thousand years. Do you really think this person is still around?”
He chuckled. “Almost certainly. She and her husband are only a couple thousand years younger than me. They make their home in a valley at the southern end of these mountains.”
I knew a couple who fit that description exactly. Incredulous, I asked, “Are you talking about the Fairy Queen?”
He confirmed it with a nod. Well, there couldn’t be more than a few dozen personalities that old in the world. They probably all knew each other.
“We have a lot of work left to do, down here,” Dilorè noted. “But it should be possible. Pasrue is on the way here with Miröen’s flying ship.”
“She’s what?” I asked, surprised.
“Pasrue is helping transport support personnel for an air wing that King Owen is sending here. She should be able to fit in a side trip down to Tëan Tír.”
Considering the civil war starting up in Orestania, it was a surprise he could spare them. Was Parna not having as much success as they’d feared?
To my expression, she tipped her head and answered, “An archdemon has appeared on this side of the Great Wall for the first time in several thousand years. Wouldn’t you expect at least that much?”
