.
The entire time, I had been on guard against the class SS demon, whom I had badly injured, coming after me. As I exited the entrance tunnel, I saw why he hadn’t.
As I intended, my sudden attack on the archdemon had completely changed the tactical situation. I overflew Melione as she helped Bruna toward the entrance tunnel. The rest were spread in a semicircle around the tunnel entrance, ready to retreat, but it wasn’t a defensive formation. Instead, the archfiend was currently battling solo against a combined barrage from Arken, Ceria, Talene and Dilorè, with the others prepared to cover them.
The archdemon, on the other hand, was currently on the ground, well back from the fight, huddled over something. I decided to leapfrog the battle in front of me, by staying near the arc of the ceiling, in order to reach him, so I flew upward rather than joining the battle line.
“Vanguards, go!” I heard Allia yell after the ranged attack from the mages, then she dashed out from the far left while Ryuu ran from the center and Graham from the right. With the archfiend standing in mid-air, six paces above the ground, it was a strange order, until I saw all three kick the ground and spring a ridiculous height in the air, on an arcing course intersecting with the enemy. On the way, the three almost simultaneously screamed out their skills, an act that is completely unnecessary, since they aren’t casting spells, but typical behavior for muscle-headed vanguards.
“[Heaven’s Blade!]” “[War Howl!]” “[Spirit Shot!]”
Their leaps weren’t timed to arrive simultaneously. That would have been impossible to coordinate with three swinging weapons. Allia struck first, with a downward strike of her blade from overhead, followed by Graham’s roundhouse ax blow. Allia surely must have been using some form of body reinforcement, because the archfiend struck her as she connected with his shield, sending her eight paces backward through the air, yet she landed on her feet. Graham arrived as she departed, connecting with the shield as the archfiend also landed a blow on him, but his [War Cry] is a defensive skill that almost completely nullified the archfiend’s strike.
Yes that meant that his ax swing was without enhancement other than the Earth mana coat he puts on it, similar to my technique, but an oversized warrior who was reputedly part giant was swinging that ax. It actually shattered the archfiend’s defense, just in time for Ryuu to arrive.
[Spirit Shot] is a ranged attack, but he delivered it point blank. It struck the archfiend in the face and drove him backward several paces.
I didn’t see what kind of damage Ryuu’s blow had done, because I had already passed overhead by that point.
As I flew, I was going through an odd evolution in my mind, a continuation of the mental gymnastics I had been doing in the cave after assimilating the asura’s core. My body was still being racked with pain, courtesy [Purification], but my mind condensed that pain into a back corner, isolating my consciousness from it. I had executed a spiritual technique out of habit… a habit from Fan Li’s life.
Focusing on her techniques brought another to mind. I asked, Old Man, how many more Holy attacks do you have in you?
You’ve learned [Hidden Voice], My Lady? he responded. Congratulations!
Whether I was using the technique that he thought didn’t matter. He could hear me and I could hear him.
Never mind that, I told him as I came to a halt, above the archdemon. How many?
I could see what he was doing now. He appeared to be eating from the open torso of a fiendess. Sickeningly, I could see that she was still alive, although her limbs appeared to be shattered, and she was staring at him in horror as he ate her. One of her compatriots sprawled nearby, also gutted and already dead.
Three times. A couple more, if you can lend me the correct mana for them, so that I need not draw it myself.
Can I call them out in secret like this?
I’m sorry, My Lady. The shields I can do myself, so you can call them with [Hidden Voice]. The attacks must be triggered with your spoken words.
I was momentarily annoyed at my grandmother, until I remembered that the attacks, like the shields, were actually designed by the three main gods. If I wanted to complain about having to yell out attacks like a chuuni, I would have to direct my concerns to them.
My habit of always filling my core with all seven elements plus Healing had kicked in with the sudden multiple hundredfold increase in my blood core, so I was charged up to a level I had never reached before. I confirmed first that my body was safely enhanced with [Blood Physique], then dumped a heavy load of Earth from my core into Durandal as I pointed him down at the archdemon.
“[Holy Smite!]”
The circle formed, but as the Earth mana fist descended on him, he turned from his feeding and threw a fist upward to meet it. The strike still blew him into the ground, but his action had somehow dampened the effect. With a grin, he sprang into the air, a ghostly wing of Demonic mana forming to replace his missing wing.
He was still in possession of only one arm, and his one hand was empty, but that arm wore a bracer that lit up in my fairy sight as a magic tool dense with Demonic mana. I had the distinct impression he was preparing to attack me with it, so I poured more Earth into Durandal and told him, [Fortress of Gaia].
As he concentrated on converting the mana into that, I dumped Fire into the Starfire Jade Writing Brush and pointed the handle at the archdemon. Just barely remembering in time to switch back to my voice, I chanted, “[Fireball!]”
The machine gun stream of fireballs issuing from the Brush caused him to veer off from his rush at me, winding up level with me in the air.
Despite the highly grotesque effect of having somewhat bestial faces pointing to the left and right instead of ears, his center face was weirdly handsome. He grew a smirk that ruined that, especially since there was still blood on his lips from snacking on the fiendess. Blood covered his chest as well.
“You’ve landed quite a wound on this Lord Zagolig!” he declared as Demonic mana poured out from the cut where his right shoulder was missing. A ghostly shoulder and arm formed out of it, with the hand gripping a blade of mana. “I had to consume my last two fiends in this place just to get enough mana and blood to close the wound.”
“Some ‘lord’,” I answered with a hmph. “Killing and eating your loyal servants like a mindless beast.”
“I’ll devour you as well, my pretty strega,” he promised, growing a grin. “You’ll be quite the treat. I should be able to completely regrow the flesh using you! Luck has smiled on me, to send me one last living one! I thought we’d wiped all of you out, long ago!”
“Luck smiling on a pathetic failure like you?” I asked with the corners of my mouth lifting. “What a feeble joke. After ten thousand years, you’ve yet to find your way out of the Mortal Realm. Your foolish plans to defy heaven have gone nowhere, and your unlucky life has deteriorated into a stalemate!”
Behind me and below me, the battle against the archfiend was proceeding. My companions had him surrounded now.
The archdemon’s smirk soured slightly, but he eyed Durandal and it grew again. “Who’s the fool, strega? You’re carrying a weapon we long since learned how to defeat! I wonder if it can take over a strega? It has destroyed the minds of many mortals.”
With alarm, Durandal said, He recognizes me, My Lady! Sheath me and use magic instead!
I humphed again. “Do you seriously think a Servant of Heaven can be defeated by an attack designed for mortals? Try it if you like!”
His arm and sword had coalesced into something that looked almost material. He licked his lips and smiled broadly.
“I’ll have it sieze your mind, and then, while you’re paralyzed, I’ll destroy your body, oh Servant of Heaven. I’ll show you and your fake gods the power of the mortals they tried to oppress!”
Ultimately, demons see themselves as the superior form of mortal, unable to comprehend what it is that they lost in their transformation.
I tipped my head. “So far, you have shown me only the squeaks of a boastful mouse. When can I expect more?”
His face clouded, and then he began chanting. I couldn’t follow any of it, because the three voices were using different chants. It was clearly a high-level spell though, so I quickly poured Aether into Durandal and held him horizontally.
“[Holy Strike!]”
The circle formed and the giant arrow fired, but simultaneously the archdemon’s spell completed. As my bolt struck home, a cloud of Demonic mana appeared around me and condensed into a coil of dense cable, that shrank and wrapped me around my arms and wings, with the tag end wrapping around my mouth to prevent spellcasting.
Normally, my power of flight emanates from my wing strokes. The skill coordinates with the physical aerodynamics rather than acting on its own. This situation should be resulting in me falling to the ground, but the bindings around me held me in the air.
Durandal’s Holy attack had done severe damage to the archdemon. He had a hole in his chest that I could see through, dead center in the sternum. I could even see bare bones, where it had stripped meat from his spine. I figured it had to have done heart damage, assuming he had a heart in the usual place like Trisiagga did. He wasn’t down, though. With a dire expression, he flew toward me while pouring a new charge of Demonic mana into his bracer.
“I could make you pay for that in so many ways,” he grated. “But thanks to your foolish attack, I don’t have the patience to spend the time on you anymore.”
His three voices began chanting again, and again, it was impossible to follow the words of the spell, since they each had their own lines. Probably, he was simultaneously chanting the different tiers of a multi-tiered spell.
Durandal was frantic. My Lady! Let go of my grip immediately! He’s coming for me!
I hope so, I assured him patiently. That will make things easier.
I pulled some of the [Purification] in my pathways back into my core, acting on my newly expanded knowledge on the subject. My spiritual body, now grown larger, could accept a ball of the active spell, rotating it within while drawing more Healing to build it larger and larger.
Meanwhile, I replaced the portion I had drawn up with new Healing, folding it into the existing spell and building it back up to maximum. Now I had a heavier load, building up within my spirit, out of view.
As he reached me and took hold of Durandal’s crossbar, he leered into my face, close enough I could feel his breath, and declared, “[Curse Blade.]”
Let… go… My Lady… Durandal begged again as the onslaught began.
“I’ll let him take you over first, then consume you while you’re stricken,” the archdemon declared.
For that to work, I retorted, using my newfound silent voice, you first have to take him over.
[Purification] poured out of my spiritual body.
