Chapter 1079: Chapter 1078: Bascra (5)
Chapter 1079: Chapter 1078: Bascra (5)
The needle whistled through the air almost imperceptibly, and I noticed instantly that the Fiend made no move at all to deflect or avoid it, so without much suspense at all that pinkish needle pierced through the lower back of the blue skinned Fiend and allowed me to crack the catalyst apart completely even as they hissed sharply from the pain.
It was sudden, and practically instant how they went from hissing to stiffening up, almost like they had been struck by lightning; their muscles seized while their 'expression' - at the very least, their facial muscles - slackened, and the most obvious part that let me know that my strategy had yielded incredible results was how the twin orbs of sapphire dimmed considerably within their sockets.
The Fiend was now motionless, and considering the lack of emotion in their eyes, it would seem that my frightening connection to my new magic was proven to be just as potent as I thought it would be since this powerful being we had been in the midst of fighting was no longer moving, not even as Leone's flames zoomed through the air or as Anput summoned a storm of blades and launched them at the Fiend as quickly as she could.
There was no movement even as I unsheathed my Khopesh and leapt up onto the Fiend's turned shoulders, my blade chopping at the wiry muscles that connected the feathery head to the blue skinned torso below and sending a beautiful arc of iridescent blood splattering across the sands below.
Letting out a grunt, the Fiend blinked once before furrowing its brow as it looked at me, those sapphire eyes trying to focus on me as I raised my Khopesh once more, the bluish metal shimmering with its own blood as I chopped back down just like I was trying to cut down a tree, the toothed inner crescent severing the sinews messily as I deepened the cut and revealed the interesting skeleton beneath the flesh; unsurprisingly, it seemed all of these Fiends were thoroughly color coded thanks to whatever domain they resided under, so everything was just... blue.
Blue blood, blue flesh, blue bones... all of it was blue, but it was gradually turning black as giant bolts of superheated flame crashed against the Fiend's chest, the various blades acting as pins that dissipated the heat inside of the Fiend's body to ensure it was thoroughly cooked as it just stood there, unmotivated to even preserve its life as it endured an astronomical amount of pain.
It was a battle for me to keep the Lust Mana under control, ensuring that I sapped away this magically attuned being's ability to do anything at all since at the moment, it wasn't desiring to do anything at all, even as it was being completely and utterly decimated in so many different ways.
This Lust Mana was somehow overriding biological instincts of self preservation, and as I buried the Khopesh into the Fiend's neck and gave the feathered head a push, I couldn't help but curl my lip slightly as I watched it crash to the ground and accept what was happening, only to begin screaming as I leapt away and relinquished control of the spell, unable to maintain it any longer.
The bond between me and the pink mist was a constant tug of war between my mind and it, and I had an instinctual feeling that if I lost that game - if I actually lost it, not this willing retreat - I wouldn't be able to bear the consequences, and besides that nagging I felt in the back of my mind, there was the current lack of feeling in my fingertips and the fuzziness that only continued to grow in my head as the entirety of my brain was softened into a mush. It felt so wrong to watch this Fiend writhing around on the ground like a mortal as it was burnt alive, and yet as the flames began to shift from the vibrant oranges to the blinding yellows and even becoming slightly white, I could understand it completely... especially since there were those metal rods that were beginning to melt and trickle inside of the Fiend's body, spreading the damage even more.
I dropped to my knees as well as I panted, dragging in as much oxygen as I could - even though it was blistering hot and laced with sand - as my vision began to swim, the lightheadedness from the Lust Mana getting the better of me while my Core throbbed painfully beside my heart, demanding an adequate resupply of mana before I did anything else.
That pink mist was still lingering around the dying Fiend, poking and prodding it as it continued to leech from my Core, sustaining itself and refusing to go away as it took and took, the connection between us feeling almost physical as I watched it drift around lazily.
It almost seemed alive with how it was hovering just out of reach of both my hands and my mana at this point, and that theory felt even more supported when Cali appeared beside me and pursed her lips, her pink eyes narrowing as she stared down at me coldly, the Arch Fiend saying nothing even as she reached forwards and grabbed the tether between me and the pink mist.
She almost seemed somewhat disappointed as she pinched her fingers and severed that link completely, freeing me of the parasitic Lust Mana and allowing me to begin recuperating as I filled my lungs with overheated air, though even as part of my mind was made curious of what had made my contracted 'friend' appear and give me aid, more of me was focused on the thing that was giving me a large amount of anxiety and making it hard to feel like I could actually breathe; Jahi was still trapped beneath the sand, and now with the Fiend no longer in control... All of that sand had dropped to the ground and was currently pressing down on the Demoness, and whilst a single grain of sand was of little consequence, dozens of thousands of them were a big deal, if not hundreds of thousands of grains, all piled atop her body and slowly crushing her beneath its weight.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
So even though Cali was right here, staring at me and likely waiting for me to become lucid enough to comprehend whatever it was that she wanted to say to me, I unsteadily rose to my feet and began to stumble over towards the place I had seen Jahi last, ignoring the burning Fiend and instead hastily clawing at the sand as I began to dig into the desert.
Anput joined me not even a moment later, leaving Leone alone to handle the Fiend as she continued to layer spell after spell onto the bird headed Fiend, the Vampire's arcane prowess more than enough to finish this 'fight' that we had gotten ourselves into.
The Jackalkin and I began to use our mana to tear through the sand as quickly as we could, stabbing our hands into it and shoving it to the side as we gradually dug a pit into the desert, where we were met with the radiant golden light of Jahi's mana, the Demoness feeling the lightening of the load above her and working to meet us in the middle as best she could.
As soon as her hand was freed from the desert's deadly embrace, Anput and I began to clear away the sand from the rest of her before we pulled her up and out of the ground, bringing the Demoness back into the world of the living as she hacked out the sand that had become trapped inside her lungs and shook her entire body, trying to remove the grains that had snuck past her barrier and found their way into her clothing.
"Gods be damned..! That was far too close for comfort..!"
Coughing hard, Jahi shook her head and tried to reorient herself as she looked around, doing everything to get back into the fight as quickly as she could, only to pause as she saw the Fiend writhing on the sand and smacking at its blackened body.
"What... happened up here..?"
"Kat happened~! On one hand, I want to be proud that she managed to so easily create a prototype spell that made use of the 'negative lust' people can feel, but on the other she needs to be punished for being so haphazard in deploying something like that..."
Cali appeared beside us and grinned at Jahi, the snake haired Arch Fiend capturing the Demoness' attention as she added "And I would love to be the one giving her that punishment, but sadly I would be overstepping my bounds in doing so... Instead, I think that falls to you~! Oh, and the other thing~! This little upstart was actually rather... tame... but~! And I do like butts~! There is something interesting inside that city, something that most certainly made this idiot be so hasty~! Shall we head on inside~?"