Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 68 – Escalation (Patreon)

Relain’s voice resonated with authority, the deadly intent in his declaration causing the entire room to shudder. The invocation sent a wave of dread through Elania’s body, terror seizing her heart as she anticipated the consequences of the man’s spell.

Willcaster. Literally willing magic into existence? Is that what Eziel had meant?

Time seemed to slow. Yolani screamed. Flakes of her skin turned black and began to float upward into the air, disintegrating into mist.

Forcing a large pulse of [Power] into her legs, Elania bolted straight towards Relain, lunging with Eziel outstretched. “Leave her alone!”

Relain glanced at her with an angry glare. He pivoted to face her and held out his crystal tipped staff, then took a deep breath. “Stronger than the Gods.”

Eziel’s tip struck the crystal with a reverberation that shook the entire chamber hard enough to crack the walls. Elania’s grip weakened on the mana shard chest, but somehow, she kept hold of both it and Eziel while she was blasted backwards toward the entrance. She slammed into the wall.

The stonework fractured and cavitated as she left a crater in it deep enough to threaten toppling the entire wall over, spiderweb cracks racing to the ceiling and across the floor. Two lungfuls of blood exploded out of her mouth as her internal organs and bones re-knitted themselves. She took a heavy tug on her mana shard, draining it for heightened alacrity.

[Due to your excess power, your body is exceeding its limits!]

[Your body is experiencing thermal degradation!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

[Due to your high power, Regeneration is enhanced!]

Elania slammed Eziel’s tip into the floor to help her stand back up, but before she could think, the Paladin shouted and drew everyone’s attention.

“Bishop! You are next!” The man’s size was always a surprise. He stood holding Tessa above his head, the demon squirming as he gripped one of her legs by the thigh and one of her arms near the shoulder.

Elania frowned. Bishop? She looked at Relain; the man looked nothing like the disgusting crazy old man that had summoned her.

A sickening squelch filled the room as he pulled her apart, her body ripping in half at the recently healed seam where she had been chopped in half earlier.

He tossed both body sections straight for Relain, who cursed as he knocked one aside then was hit by Tessa’s legs, knocking him over.

The paladin turned toward Elania, and he pointed at her. “Return the holy sword.”

[No. Don’t return the holy sword.]

Before she could answer, Relain stood again and leveled his staff at the paladin. “Heart stop.”

Elania fully expected the silver armored man to have a heart attack.

Instead, a miniature explosion of light ricocheted off his chest armor. The armored man turned toward Relain. “Your foul magic will not work on me you—”

A purple tentacle erupted from the ceiling and smashed into him physically. Okay, yeah, that brought back memories. The paladin grabbed it and ripped the squirming, shadowy flesh in half. More of them began to appear.

Elania hurried over to Yolani, who had fallen to her knees. The girl was pouring a potion on her arms.

“Lani, we need to—” her words froze as the other girl turned to look at her. Great big bloody patched covered her entire body. Some of them were shaded blue where the healing potion had splashed, but it looked terrible no matter what.

Yolani panted as she tried to answer. “Elania—I don’t know if—”

Elania grabbed her pack and put it in her lap, then shoved Eziel into her arms. Then added the magic shard box. How many things could she carry at once?

The answer was yes as she lifted Yolani into a princess carry. Everything threatened to topple out of their grasp, but that didn’t matter. Mr. Paladin was being a hero and distracting the bad guys.

Elania ran out of the office and toward the steps. Halfway down the stairs there were two guards. She jumped over them—landing feet first on their faces and riding them down the rest of the flight of stairs to the door. Yolani reached out automatically and opened it with one hand, and they entered the long hallway.

The sprint down it, then the second hallway, was hectic as guards began to appear shouting. The entire tower had started to wake up.

In the reception chamber, a guard raised a musket toward her and fired before she realized he was even aware of them. The crack would have been familiar to anyone on Earth who used firearms. That wasn’t her, but it split her ears all the same. Shelves nearby exploded as the projectile narrowly grazed her back, punching a red gouge across her skin and tearing her shirt.

The guard was already reloading, apparently it was a single-shot weapon. She ignored him and bust through the next door into another stairwell. Guards with spears were waiting at the bottom. Rushing through them would place Yolani at risk, so she didn’t.

Charging her feet with [Power] she slammed into the wall just above the doorframe, shattering the wall and punching through into the room behind them, the debris and rubble knocking the guards down.

Shouts erupted from every direction, and she realized she was lost. “Which—”

Yolani pointed to the left. “That way,” her voice croaked.

Elania darted in the direction without hesitation. A few more turns and stairwells, and she realized where they were. Just two more stairwells to the Celestial Engine and then…

A maniacal laugher behind them made her heart skip a beat. Elania instinctively ducked down, narrowly avoiding a slash of razor-sharp claws from Tessa. The move sent her skidding onto her knees, holding onto Yolani, Eziel, and the mana shards tightly to keep them from spilling.

It was no use; Tessa was so fast, Elania had to dump them to block her next strike with a fist.

The other demon’s arm blew away as she smashed it at the wrist, but another slice from her other hand clawed Elania’s stomach deeply. It wasn’t enough to disable her, but a sharp pain filled her middle as blood gushed.

Grabbing the hilt of her [Vorpal Dagger] Elania slashed as she drew it from her belt, causing Tessa to jump back out of range quickly. An explosion above rocked the entire hallway, and Tessa let out another laugh. “Time to die!”

A slice came for her face; Elania raised her dagger, and it dug between two of Tessa’s fingers, splaying her hand open. The demon maid’s body looked ravaged; it wasn’t healing via [Regeneration] instead; it was stitching itself back together like a puppet.

The fight became a whirlwind of violence, each exchange more lethal than the last. A slash slit Tessa’s throat, a stab punctured Elania’s side. [Vorpal Dagger] met hardened nails, sending sprays of sparks as their weapons clashed, but neither gave ground.

Suddenly, Tessa twisted mid-attack and landed a kick into Elania’s stomach. The blow knocked the wind out of her and sent her skidding across the stone floor. She barely had time to roll away from another swipe of claws that carved deep rivets through the stone where she’d just been lying.

Ignoring the pain in her abdomen, Elania sprang back onto her feet. She’d landed near Yolani and Eziel. The other girl held out the sword for her while holding her own battle wand in her free hand. Elania took it and swung, sending a blast of energy through the hall.

Tessa narrowly avoided it, but the blast dug gouges along both walls as it dived down the hallway, sending a spray of debris and stone bricks flying chaotically before it all blew out the side of the tower.

The puncturing of the tower’s outer skin allowed the shrill sound of a distant siren into the chamber. Oh yeah, people knew something was going down.

Elania gritted her teeth, but Yolani drew her attention by tapping her on the back of the shoulder. The other girl had got back on her feet and had the mana shard chest clutched between her arms. Elania nodded to her and they backed away from Tessa slowly, Eziel placed defiantly between them.

The maimed demon continued after them, giggling madly, and flashing her teeth, but the sounds came out in ragged puffs of air from her severed throat. Suddenly Tessa launched forward straight at them, swinging her arms madly.

Yolani stopped, and Elania bumped into her on her next step back. One of her wands flashed out just as Elania prepared to block the charge. Two bolts of white slammed into the charging demoness’ feet, freezing her in place.

Elania swung downward in a heavy arc, Eziel’s tip just barely reaching to nick her forehead. Time stopped for a moment.

[Guilty.]

Elania could feel the sudden reverberation all the way through her bones. Everything in front of them suddenly exploded in a massive, shaped blast, tearing through the floor, ceiling, and walls. Yolani held onto her back for support as everything shook.

When the dust cleared, they could see into the floors above and below. There was no sign of Tessa at all…the thought that she’d been blown into atoms came to mind almost immediately. The blast had been that powerful.

Elania glanced at Yolani, who looked sick. “Are you okay?”

“I’m…let’s hurry,” Yolani stammered.

Elania frowned, but nodded. It was impossible to carry Eziel and the mana shard box at the same time, so Yolani carried the box as they headed down the hallway as fast as Yolani could keep up.

Entering the next room, Elania spotted the ornate door that led to the Engine on the other side. There was shouting, but they ignored it. Yolani reached the door first, but when she tugged on the handle, it wouldn’t open. In a panic, Elania tried, and it worked.

They hurried down the steps to the massive platform overlooking the Celestial Engine that was continuing to chug away. They made it to the bottom before the door they’d used burst open.

Elania stopped and turned to see who it was while Yolani continued to carry the chest toward the Engine. Really, their only plan was to toss the chest into the Engine and hope it worked. After that, she had no idea.

Her heart clenched as Relain walked out to the edge of the steps. He looked down at her, his gaze cold and calculating. “You’ve proven to be quite the nuisance,” he said, his voice dripping with contempt.

Elania gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on Eziel. “Funny,” she retorted, forcing a smirk on her face. “I was just thinking the same about you.”

He snarled, then pointed his staff at Yolani. He didn’t even say a word as the wounded girl clattered to the floor with a thump that echoed across the balcony tiles.

Elania responded by throwing her [Vorpal Dagger] at him, but he batted it away then looked at her with contempt.

“Hold.”

Her whole body locked up again. A vicious smile appeared on his face as he descended. He twirled his finger, and her body spun around on its own to face Yolani, who was now crawling toward the edge, dragging the chest with her.

Relain tsk in annoyance. He raised a hand at Yolani and then squeezed and twisted, without even saying a word. She shrieked and rolled onto her back as he made a dragging motion with his arm.

The chest began to skid back to him, but she held onto it. Making a fist, he made a hammering motion, each blow a thud of force against her body.

Elania couldn’t move. She tried to scream for him to stop, that they’d surrender. She had hold of Eziel and her muscles burned with impotency, the signals to contract and drive the massive blade through the Magister’s back ignored.

She needed something, anything, to break his hold on her. More [Power], but her mana shard was empty, and the fighting had dropped her well below maximum.

He slapped Yolani hard from across the room. Her hand shot out and snagged the latch on the chest, opening it and spilling the contents on to the floor.

So many mana shards, so much [Power] in one spot. Elania tried to grit her teeth in frustration, but couldn’t even do that. It was probably more than she’d used her entire life on Eladu. If only she could reach it.

Her heart skipped a beat.

If only she could reach it.

[You have gained the, Soul Siphon – Visible, perk!]

[You have spent all your available perk selections.]

There was no real guide on how to use the perk. She just knew that she needed the power in the mana shards. She reached out like she would pull from the mana shard close to her skin. The distance made the sensation fuzzier, imprecise. But she needed that power.

Elania yanked.

Suddenly, the light in all the shards died at once. Time hitched, the even thrum of the Celestial Engine becoming a distorted mess. A cloud of yellow motes coalesced into existence at once, then shot straight for her. Her [Power] stat rolled upward until it broke.

[Power: 388/423]… [Power: 444/424] … [Power: 556/425] … [Power: 743/426] … [Power: ???/427]

[Your body has reached the limit of its capacity for Power!]

[Find a stronger body or reduce your current Power!]

[Your body has exceeded the limit of its capacity for Power!]

[Your body is experiencing thermal degradation!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

[Due to your high Power, [Regeneration] is enhanced!]

Relain turned slowly, his eyes widening as he took in her glowing form. He pointed at her with an accusing finger. “Perish.”

It was redundant. Something was wrong—she’d taken in too much [Power] and she could feel her insides churning as they writhed, melting, reforming, melting, reforming, over and over in a critical cycle. It was far beyond what she was capable of handling.

She could feel the impact of his word of power; the lines of his will streaking in through the fine mist of golden energy bleeding off of her… like a thousand little tendrils of ill will seeking to change reality to suit their master’s will.

They began to fray and melt as they attempted to reach her.

The sensation of being tied by a thousand—million little threads attached across her entire body caused an itch. She took her first deep breath since being Held and thousands of the lines snapped.

Relain’s face filled with a snarl, and he raised his staff at her. “Perish!”

She didn’t know how willcasting worked, but… when had she really known how anything worked? Knowing how things worked wasn’t a prerequisite in Eladu, just an assistance. A word welled up in her chest, leaving her lips like a whisper, “Sever.”

Willcasting obviously used the caster’s strength of will—and also, to a lesser degree, their actual strength. She was divine. He was not. She was a Godde—

[You have supped on the divine but know this: Hubris was the downfall of the Gods.]

Relain’s hold on her was sliced away; he fell back like a taut cord being sliced while under load.

Elania took a single step forward, and she was beside him, holding up her sword in the air. An impending threat of doom. “Why did he call you Bishop?” her words came out in a voice that she almost didn’t recognize as her own.

Panic filled his face as his eyes slid up to the poised weapon. “My disgui—”

Elania swung, suddenly not caring about the answer. He swung back with his staff. The impact couldn’t be called a clash, because the blow sent him flying through the room in a wild, uncontrolled tumble.

It wasn’t enough. Everything hurt. Everything burned. Her mind was fraying from the churning energy inside of her. The golden motes of light followed her like a cloak, mimicking a visual indication of the air flows.

Elania took a slow step forward, turning to move to Yolani’s side. The other girl was curled up in a fetal position. “Eziel. Heal her.”

[Place me upon her forehead and I shall judge.]

Elania’s grip tightened on his hilt. The [System] message didn’t just appear before her, it flowed into her soul. The sword wasn’t a machine—there was no requirement of morality for it to function—other than its own personal rules.

“Heal. Her.” She left the threat unspoken.

[Very well.]

A flare of light erupted around Yolani, her visible wounds began to shrink, and a dent in her side reformed to look normal. A bone sticking out of her forearm snapped as it worked itself back into place. The girl moaned weakly, and Elania was very glad that she was unconscious for the healing.

A subtle click above the balcony heralded a door opening. Then a second, third, and forth. Elania looked up. Five staircases led down to the balcony over the Celestial Engine, and four figures had emerged from the doorways.

Three men and one woman, who were all wearing a similar robe to Relain’s in different colors.

Words from a man she had once disliked echoed back at her.

‘It’s ruled by five powerful Magisters.’