Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 69 – Immolation (Patreon)

Elania’s eyes flashed between the four new Magisters. Green, Blue, Black, and Purple, each man emerged from his own doorway, the ornate workings and statue above their entry points, each having its own style.

[Arch Magus – Human – Level 632]

[Arch Magus – Human – Level 758]

[Arch Magus – Human – Level 677]

[Arch Magus – Human – Level 841]

A predominantly human city, ruled by all humans. Their levels were extremely high, just like Relain’s. Were they all immortal or something?

However they had become so powerful, they must have at least some wisdom, and from what she knew, they all weren’t friends. A careful optimism tried to sneak into her chest. If they could explain what had happened, what Relain had been doing—

“Enough of this! Begone, demon!” Relain said as he stood back on his feet. He somehow had kept his staff. “Needles Endless Casting!”

What was with the god-awful requirement to yell out the names of spells and stuff? Elania swung Eziel toward Relain with a single heavy arc. The massive azure energy wave spread out like a crescent, disrupting the trajectories of the needles as it passed by to fly in every direction except at Elania and Yolani.

Panic filled Relain’s face as he raised a red barrier in front of him. The sword energy dug a deep gouge in the field, sending spiderweb cracks through the magic. It held and the rest of the blast slashed through the inner wall of the chamber, leaving a long, angry gash of molten metal.

Her attention snapped back to the four Magisters standing aloof on the balconies, each one wearing an expression of grim determination. It looked like they had made up their minds on what was going, even if they were as wary of each other as they were of Elania herself.

The green robe man was the first to move. He extended his hand outward, his fingers curling into a complex pattern without a word. Thick tendrils of emerald energy erupted from his robe, twisting and turning as they snaked at her like malevolent serpents.

Elania took a step forward, then a second, building up her momentum to swing another arc of Eziel’s energy at the incoming tendrils. The slash severed several, but others dodged their way past her. She swung to the side, neatly flaying one down the center.

A quick pivot allowed her to overhead chop another. One darted for her but she held up the flat of Eziel’s blade and blocked it, only to charge up her fist and slam it in the side, blowing it up into the air.

Blue was next. He drew a thin metal sword and pointed it high above his head. “Surge!”

The image of him flashed, and her eyes widened as she realized she was looking at an afterimage. A desperate pivot as she swung placed Eziel between her and the man as he appeared behind her, stabbing with his rapier. The contact of their weapons blew him back, but as he was in mid-air, he flashed again.

This time he was above her, and she jumped backwards to avoid the strike. She prepared a counter only to be forced to smash another green vine, which gave time for Blue to strike again. She blocked it, but he blasted away unharmed again.

Her insides were on fire, and she realized she was panting with exertion. Not from the fight, but from the effort to maintain herself. The energy she consumed was eating her from the inside out.

Black raised her two wands, a shadow pooling around her feet. “Void’s Grasp,” the woman’s voice echoed through the chamber ominously.

Elania’s eyes narrowed as a foreboding sense of danger hit her. Suddenly, dark hands erupted from the floor, digging into her golden aura. They were much more dense than Relain’s will tendrils, with their own weight and power, and they began to dissolve as they got closer.

Just not enough.

Elania sliced downwards severing several only to have a dozen more redouble the effort to clamp down on her ankles and feet. A green vine rushed her, and she barely obliterated it with a swing when Blue darted in and stabbed her in the side.

His face turned serious and suddenly she was punctured again; and again. His arm turned into a blur as the thin blade plunged in and out of her repeatedly.

It would have been bad, but her internal organs had stopped working a while ago, anyway. She reached out and grabbed his wrist, filling his face with shock. She raised Eziel ominously.

A green vine tried to wrap itself around the sword to stop the swing, but it disintegrated into ashes.

Elania slammed the blade right into her captive’s neck, fully expecting to remove his head from his shoulders.

Eziel was silent, and the man was ripped out of her grip to be sent flying into a distant wall, head still attached. Fuck. She’d forgotten how finicky the sword was. Apparently, Blue wasn’t bad enough to eviscerate.

Purple took a step forward, sneering arrogantly before raising his staff. A crystal began to glow, and then white spell circles with an impossible amount of runes on each one winked into existence. “Royal Decree – Lamentation!”

A purple beam of light blinked into existence, slashing through her. Then another. Each beam traveled instantly, leaving no chance to strike back. Elania raised Eziel in front of her head as a shield, the beams bouncing off his glistening blue sheen.

Numbness began to fill her body as damage accumulated. That was a blessing and a curse. The tremendous pain she’d been blocking out was gone, but it hinted that she was reaching her limits, and while she had likely put Blue out of the fight, the others were untouched.

When Purple’s spell working faded, she was still standing. Her clothes were tattered and ruined, and holes marred her body all over, each filled with a golden glowing light as they slowly knitted themselves shut.

The onslaught continued as she battled the Magisters, keeping their focus and staying between the attacks and Yolani. There was no time to monitor or check on the other girl. Attacks came without pause, and her focus had begun to wane.

An azure aura began to surround her and mix with her golden one as she and Eziel fought together, the coalesced mist of magical and divine energy becoming a physical manifestation that deflected emerald vines, shadowy hands, and purple spears.

She tore the balconies the Magisters stood upon to pieces with ranged slashes, forcing them onto the same level as her. Smoke, dust, and ash blew out from the walls as powerful impacts ravaged the chamber. Blue managed to heal and rejoin the fray, his thin little blade a painful sting. Attacks came from every direction, but Elania stood firm, blasts of magic bouncing and deflecting off of her and Eziel.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she was pushed back to the edge of the balcony overlooking the Engine. She dug her toes into the metal floor and began to hurl her own strikes with an entirely new intensity, forcing her harassers into dodging or blocking themselves. That slowed the incoming attacks, but it drained her even more.

Something had to give.

“Your Attention is Mine!” A voice boomed from behind her.

The other magisters froze, their heads jolting toward the voice as if someone had taken hold of them and turned them to it. That was unfortunate for Blue as Elania completed her swing, smashing Eziel once again into his head and sending him into another wall.

She could feel Relain’s demanding threads attempt to snare her. They were insignificant. Little demands by a worthless man who had no business ordering her attention. But he had afforded her an excellent opportunity. Elania raised Eziel over her head to make a vertical slash toward the remaining but frozen Magisters.

A pained squeal of a young woman to her left froze Elania mid swing. Her head slowly turned toward the sound. Relain had his arm around Yolani’s neck, a dagger tip pressed into her upper arm, blood pouring out of the injury.

“Give yourself up, demon, or the girl dies,” Relain proclaimed loudly enough for the words to echo throughout the chamber. For Elania, they echoed through her entire being.

Lowering Eziel slowly, she took a ragged breath, and realized her vision was blurry. Something had broken minutes earlier inside of her. She’d continued on without thinking about it, for one reason only.

She was dying. Yolani was captured and in the hands of a madman. They’d failed to repair the Celestial Engine or achieve any of their hopes and goals.

A murmur of voices from the Magisters filled the air, but her hearing was filled with a tinnitus that blocked out everything.

[You are dying.]

“I know,” Elania whispered.

[You have enough remaining power to repair the Engine.]

Elania let out another deep breath, colored by dancing yellow light motes. Why should she repair it?

[If you sacrifice yourself, you will control it for a short time. You can save her.]

Elania’s eyes slid to Yolani. Everything else has turned into an imperceptible blur.

Through the melding of their auras, she could tell that the sword’s words were true. What she could also feel was that this had been his plan all along—repairing the Engine would have required a charged outsider to fling themselves into the engine.

The so-called holy judge had been manipulating her from the start.

Anger flared inside of her, and her grip tightened around Eziel’s hilt.

[No. Leave me—]

She turned and jumped for the engine’s glowing center, taking the sword with her.