Those poor adventurer’s who were now frozen in death, their faces an expression of the terror they felt before their souls were devoured, suddenly began to come to life. Initially it was an awkward movement, like puppets on a string, but their movements soon became fluid not any different from when they were still alive.
Aleks watched in satisfaction, “Do not worry, your bodies shall serve me even in death. I will get the value that I paid! Come my puppets, we have an angel to subdue. Lenia, Nelay, be careful. She is in a greatly weakened state, but she is still extremely dangerous. We are not trying to kill her, just tire her out so focus on defense as much as possible and let the puppets do most of the work. I will ensure she stays out of the sky, the rest of you wear her down on the ground!”
Aleks rose higher into the sky on top of the ‘Soul Tendrils’ which were much like a monstrous demonic octopus of the deep seas. He focused his attention on the fallen angel and sent his ‘Soul Tendrils’ swiping viciously at her. Noticing the danger, she immediately attempted to block with her great black wings and was pummeled down into the ground due to the strength behind the strike.
Nelay, Lenia, and the adventurers who were now puppets, sprung into action. The group coordinated with each other well, and while Lenia focused on defense with her heavy shield, Nelay attempted to strike at random angles while quickly retreating. The six puppets used their best abilities and spells in order to buff the entire party and strike at the fallen angel. Magical spells were flung at her while the combat focused adventurers got in close to engage her. Lenia had released all of her aura abilities which increased the PHY DEF and PHY ATK of the group by a large margin. This only helped to improve their overall combat ability and the angel was struggling to swat them away much like flies. The group swarmed around her and kept her busily on the defense, but their attacks were doing very little actual damage to her.
The angel attempted to fly off the ground several times, but Aleks was watching over her carefully and continued to swat at her with his ‘Soul Tendrils’ while continuously bombarding her with attacks. It looked as if they had the battle completely under control, but the angel who was struggling to hold back the many attacks suddenly stepped backwards and flashed in retreat. In one single movement, she had increased the distance between her attackers by several dozen feet while using her wings to speed along her retreat. She wasn’t flying, but she hovered near the ground and her powerful wings blasted blades of winds towards her opponents which put them on the defensive.
While rapidly fleeing backwards, the fallen angel mumbled something under her breath and the glow of magic shimmered around her. She was clearly a magic caster, but her physical strength was nothing to scoff at. Angels were divine beings and were superior to all other races. Their physical strength and magic capabilities were both extremely high. With a wave of the angel’s hand, dense balls of fire like meteorites, came crashing down upon her attackers. Aleks could block most of them, but there were too many and some fell on the group blowing them backwards. All except Lenia were knocked off their feet and sent tumbling.
Lenia’s MAG RES was exceptionally high, and with her shield to block the fall of the small meteorites, she came out of it mostly unscathed. There were scorch marks on her shield and her armor and soot littered her entire body, but her VIT was still strong. The puppets had suffered some damage, but due to the fact they were no longer alive, they immediately got back up to continue the attack. Nelay had disappeared from view having suffered slightly in the attack, but she had already used her ability “Shadow Fade’ before even landing on the ground.
The battle increased its tempo and the group were putting pressure on the fallen angel who was having difficulty controlling her own pain from the curse she was inflicted with. Of course, without Aleks’s presence, she would have already easily crushed the group whose most powerful members were peak Master class. Even with Aleks, if she had been at the level of strength she had when Aleks first met her in his original lifetime, they would have all already been slaughtered with a single word of power. She had truly fallen too far and it didn’t help that she was in a constant state of pain. Aleks also didn’t know how much control she even had over her own consciousness. This very well could not be her they were fighting, but instead instincts which were not under her conscious control. That was most likely due to the curse that she was inflicted with.
Aleks had a good idea of where that curse came from. He too had been inflicted with a curse which carried through reincarnation, so he was familiar with the curses of that god-like being. This being was a Devil who had fallen from power and was exiled to the first level of Hell. Moloch, is a powerful, hideous and sinister Devil who was once a Devil Sovereign of the fifth level of Hell. Due to the machinations of Asmodeus, Moloch was eventually ousted from his position by an extremely powerful Pit Fiend named Diabolos. Ever since then, Moloch has been plotting endlessly to seek revenge on Asmodeus and regain his former position of power. This was what most likely led to Moloch being enticed to work with Tihr. In the end, Moloch received nothing from this deal, but also didn’t bother to care to remove the curses he had inflicted. Most likely the devil wasn’t even aware that his curses were still in effect.
Of course, this was all Aleks’s speculation and it was possible there was a more fiendish plot afoot. These thoughts had crossed Aleks’s mind, but until he knew more he could only move based on his assumptions. Eventually, he would need to enter the first level of Hell known as Tartarus to seek his revenge on Moloch anyway. At that time, perhaps more would be revealed. The more power Aleks gained, the more questions he had that needed to be answered. Things were turning out to not be so simple as he once thought. Some of the memories which returned to him were unclear.
“Keep up the pressure! She is definitely weakening, but don’t take any chances. Let the puppets close in first and coordinate with their attacks!” Aleks shouted to Nelay and Lenia who were struggling against the might of the fallen angel.
Even without a weapon, the fallen angel was easily pushing back the group. Her fists were like a hammer crashing against Lenia’s shield as Lenia struggled just to stay on her feet. Nelay’s attacks, which were swift and at random angles, were easily shrugged off and the puppets were constantly being blown away by her magic and physical prowess. The angel’s magic was especially strong and the group was constantly hit by a barrage of fireballs and icicle attacks. There were also a variety of status affliction spells which had weakened the party despite their own buffs which they had previously applied. Only Aleks’s presence kept them from falling apart entirely, but his abilities required significant use of SP which was depleting at a rapid rate. Nonetheless, they kept the pressure on her without slowing down their attacks.
“Master, this angel is too powerful, I can’t even attack and can only focus on defending.” Huffed Lenia who was beginning to grow weary from taking on her opponent’s blows.
“My attacks are ineffective as well. I am expending my vitality too rapidly. If I continue to attack, I won’t be able to last another round.”
Nelay had quietly appeared next to where Aleks was safely fighting from a distance. She was no longer able to keep up her attacks and had retreated.
“It’s fine, the both of you have done enough. Retreat to the back for now, it is time to make use of these puppets and then I will subdue her myself!”
Aleks gestured forward and the puppets dashed towards the angel fighting using their full strength without concern for their own well beings. They were no longer alive so it didn’t matter if they gave up their lives now while fighting. Aleks required them to put their all in one last attack which would be their final sacrifice.
“Now!” Ordered aleks, causing the puppets to launch all of their most powerful attacks, spells and abilities on the fallen angel.
It seemed to have very little effect if one only considered damage done, but because of her strange state she didn’t hold back any of her strength and used powerful spells to deal with the group of puppets. The ground beneath the puppets suddenly boiled up with flames spewing everywhere. The area around them had magically become volcanic ash and lava which would have easily wiped out numerous Advanced class beings and even Master class beings would find themselves in danger. This was a very high level spell which required a lot of Magic Power and the puppets were immediately turned into molten pools of flesh and blood.
There was nothing which remained of these former adventurers of some renown.
