My, it feels like it has been ages since I last worked on this fic. Although it feels good to be back, finals drained me so much I could not write a word for days. Now that I will be on vacations, I plan on keeping my usual monthly(ish) update! I hope you continue to enjoy this fic and thanks to all of those who have read it, followed it or faved it! You guys never fail to make my day and inspire me!
See you in June :)
~Kalafinn
Luciela led the way to the source of the magic that had trapped them in the ruins of what looked to be a city. Even if nature had regained its rights over the remaining columns, there were spots of the road they walked on that were perfectly intact, only suffering from the erosion that covered the once white stone with a worn beige, tone. The demoness looked at the symbols that repeated themselves over the road they were walking on. It was as if it were the hall of some mansion instead of a street. The trees that almost aligned perfectly to the end of the destroyed buildings only made the illusion feel real. It was similar to the temples of Resiam and their endless halls that lead to the underground crypts.
Even if they were out in the open, the ruins felt as if they would close in on them at any moment. Luciela turned back, seeing that Ciel was catching up to her and Rena. The elven ranger did not seem disturbed by the weird invasion of nature around the ruins, but the her gaze was only focused on Luciela. It was as if Rena feared that the demon countess would destroy everything around her.
The demoness did feel increasingly trapped in these odd ruins, but not to the point of wanting to break a path for herself just yet. The next step she took was a few inches short and the demon lost her balance over the root of a tree. Although she quickly got up, the demoness was impressed of the reach of the trees' roots. The nearest one was at least two blocks away from them. She dusted her skirt off and continued her path. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Rena was now walking by her side.
"What is it, Rena?" the demoness asked, looking closely at the patterns on the road. It did not remind her of anything she had seen before. Not even in Resiam, the cradle of the Empire of Dark Elves that once ruled over most of Fluone, had the demoness seen such strange patterns.
"It's better if we stayed grouped from now on. Ciel, please get closer. The last thing we want is to get separated."
Lu heard the steps of her servant hurriedly rush towards them until he was at Lu's side. There were no more signs of nature where they were stepping on. Reassured by this, the demoness turned her head towards Rena to ask her where the key was, but she did not have the time to do so when shadows suddenly appeared from the shattered homes to their right.
The group instinctively stepped back, barely evading a rain of small boulders from hitting their heads. Ciel was the first one to shoot the blue bags that signaled the presence of Phorus around them. Most of the spirits hid in time behind the wall again, but Ciel's bullets pierced one right through the head.
Lu poured some of her own mana onto her gauntlets, making them grow in size and weight, trying to rely on Ciel less. Rena side-stepped another boulder, firing two arrows as she stood back up, two steps away from Lu.
"Lu! Heads up!" the elven scout shouted, making Lu turn around in time to crush a boulder aimed to her head into pieces. However, the fragments of stone that flew around her were pulled by some strange force, making them land in oddly specific places, tracing the main circle of the symbol engraved on the ground.
'Oh, for Sult's sake!' Lu mentally cursed as the ground beneath them began to tilt into an underground level. She looked to jump right away, but another wave of boulders forced her to zigzag out of their way. Those rocks were enchanted by some spell that reacted to the ruins if they were destroyed.
For some lowly prankster spirits, they held too much power in the forest. Lu lost sight of Rena and Ciel as she evaded the third round of boulders. These were much smaller than the first two waves but came in faster intervals. They could easily knock her out if they ever landed on her head. Once she was about to pivot out of the tilting ground, something grabbed her by the ankle, locking her in place as the fragment of the road became completely smooth.
The demoness glanced down and saw her feet tangled in tree roots. She heard Ciel's weapon fire and Rena telling her to jump now. There was nothing to grab herself onto and the boulders the Phorus had thrown before had slid down to an unwelcoming pit five feet under her current position. Lu breathed in and cut the roots that tied her to the trap, using the same spinning motion to charge her gauntlets with mana and push herself up in the air.
"Rail Stinger!"
Lu saw a giant arrow break through the wall the ambush had originated from. Then, an unseen blunt object hit her from behind, knocking her into a daze. She felt the impulse of her enhanced jump fade out. From the green leaves and clear sky, she began to see more yellow and grey; the wind was pushing her skirt upwards. The silhouette of a square hole made her realize she was crashing right in the pit of the trap.
The Demon Countess clenched her gigantic gauntlet into a fist, diving first with it to crush all the rocks, as if she was about to stomp over them. She fell into a dark chamber, feeling the force of her landing shake her bones. There was something dripping from her head and her ears were ringing horribly. The sun above was too bright and she quickly had to look back down, feeling an increasing headache try to hammer her consciousness out.
Lu blinked a couple of times, hoping to get her sight completely back. It would be disgraceful for a demon of her rank to fall so easily to simple traps. She had been fooled once, but she swore on her life that no one would ever fool her twice. Her sight was still too blurry to see exactly where she was, but she remembered carrying a small bag with her. Lu sighed with relief as she felt her bag still hanging on one of her shoulders. She crumbled to her knees and clumsily looked for the three small red flasks she carried with her. Her fingers were shaking way too much, but she managed to pick one flask, pull out the cork with her teeth and drink the bitter red liquid inside.
She frowned at the horrible taste it left in her mouth, but soon she saw the effects of the potion on her. She was seeing clearly again and the ringing had toned down to a minor buzz. She could just barely make out the bang of Ciel's weapon, as if she was underwater. The demoness glanced back up. She could try to jump back out, but there was no guarantee another hail of rocks would knock her out for good.
Lu cleaved a grip onto the tilted rock to climb out, but the moment she had a solid grip on it, the wall turned slowly into sand.
"Ciel! Rena!" Lu hollered as loudly as she could, slowly recovering her hearing.
"Lu! Get out now! We're being surrounded!" Rena replied before a gust of wind howled right above the entrance of the trap.
Luciela glanced around her, seeing only a straight corridor that split into three other halls on each end. A flash of blue light consumed the scenery above for a moment as she felt that Ciel was using her mana to power his own attacks. Though the light let her see the end of the corridor, the silhouette of an elven woman slowly walking towards her pushed Lu to jump once more out of the trap with her gauntlets. Whoever that woman was, she reeked of magic; facing her right now would only result in more injuries at best and a swift death at worst.
Once she was up in the air, she saw the desperate situation they were all in. While the Phorus had apparently been dealt with, an increasing number of golems were gathering around them. Lu dove onto the ground again with her gauntlets first to crush the three golems that stood on her way. The hit crushed the back of the puppets , and it left the jewel that destroyed them in an easy spot for the demoness to slice up in a single motion.
Fighting with Ciel had gotten increasingly easier, a sign that he had grown used to their pact. They barely had to talk with one another to coordinate an attack with their respective weapons. Ciel was at his limit, borrowing power from her as he had already run out of ammunition. More golems charged at them, moving surprisingly fast for their big and clumsy appearance. With a glance at one another, Ciel dashed to where Lu was while she leaped once more above the ground to deal with the golems who were too close for Ciel to deal with his firearms.
Lu charged her gauntlets with demonic energy. The sharp claws began to shine with the heat of demonic fire; each attacked cleaved through the dry mud of her opponents like butter, leaving a trail of demonic flames behind each attack. While it was not ideal to deal with golems in one shot, it stopped them from reshaping themselves. The one place that they needed to be hit was their arm, near the mushroom head that seemed to serve them as an elbow. The demoness closed her grip onto the golem, cracking the surface of its shell. It did not take more for the puppet to swing a punch at her, but while it was unavoidable for a human, Lu could duck it in time. Then, she crushed the mushroom head, and everything around it began to crumble.
Then, the slow decay into a pile of dirt stopped at the puppet's shoulder. She barely had the time to process what had happened before the golem used its feet to sweep her off the ground. The weak point had moved. The arm she turned to dust grew back in the blink of an eye and the golem's legs morphed into a pile of mud to completely immobilize her in place, with her back against the floor.
"Triple Shot!"
A series of magically enhanced bullets disintegrated the arms of the golem and left a hole right through the golem's face, where the red stone rolled down. Without letting it fall to the ground, Lu swung her right fist, breaking the gem to pieces. The golem turned slowly into dust, allowing her to break free and be back on her feet, only to see the golems attacking Ciel recover from their injuries as fast as the previous one.
Knowing where to hit next, Lu rushed in, swiping the faces of the golems right off, only to find nothing but dirt. She frowned and stepped back. Besides those three, their path was free from there. Rena, on the other side of the street, was not doing so well. Her agile steps and quickness to taut her bow could barely keep up with the relentless blows of her enemies. The two demons glanced at each other, and while Ciel shot a few more mana bullets to slow down the golems nearby, Lu dashed in as fast as she could, readying a strong hit with her flaming gauntlets.
With her right fist clenched, she slid on the street as she pivoted to deliver a swooping punch to all three golems that were after Rena. Everything but their feet got blasted into smaller rocks, unveiling the red stones. One was on the knee, another one on the left hand and another one where their stomach was once. Rena fired a series of arrows a few seconds later, but the stones shone brightly, and the armour covered them again, absorbing the mana arrows the elf had just fired. This time, the arms of the nature colossus formed differently, as if they tried to imitate the claws of Lu's gauntlets.
One leaped into the air as it charged with its right fist directly above them while the others zigzagged around them with their claws ready to cleave the two women's flesh. Rena was panting, but she still could evade the hits from being fatal. Lu followed her movements and the group backed from the abandoned street, getting closer to each other.
"There's only five left. Do you think we can handle it?" Rena asked.
"I know where the stones of those three are. Ciel, what about the other two?" Lu promptly replied, charging her fist again with demonic flames, only to notice that their glow was growing dimmer. Even she was running out of mana. Rena took out a mana flask from her side-pocket and quickly emptied it while Ciel fired his last mana bullets.
The golems stopped as they heard the empty click of Ciel's weapon. Lu was not reckless enough to charge in and instead took out two mana flasks for her and her servant. Just as they gulped their first sip, the sound of wood creaking all around them made them step back even further. A quick gaze to the trees that were so aligned with the end of that part of the town showed them that more than a hall. The trees were rows of knights.
Knights that would use their roots and branches as swords just as feet or hands to crush them to pieces. The road cracked under the endless chains of roots that served as bridges for the golems while destabilizing the group's stance on the solid ground. This fight was no longer winnable as they were only three against at least twenty trees and five golems that had begun to mold their arms to match Ciel's gunblades. They fired bullets of stone and wood, injuring Rena's arm, grazing Lu's cheek, and barely missing Ciel.
The air around Rena began to distort itself and, despite the pain in her arm, she aimed once more at the increasing number of foes in front of them. Instead of an arrow, however, the elf summoned a storm, a pillar of wind that lifted the roots up from the ground, pushing the golems and their bridge back.
"Let's go!" The elf hollered before running back where they had come from. Lu was quick to follow her and so did Ciel. However, the strain on Rena's muscles did not let her step out of the way of a root that twisted her ankle. She fell with a groan of pain, forcing Ciel to slide over the road that was still stable, using the force of Rena's storm to enhance the momentum of his sliding kick. It was enough to make the root hide back underground. He got up and continued running while Lu made her gauntlets big enough to scoop Rena up on them and continue to retreat as they felt the wind of Rena's spell grow quieter, calmer.
The afternoon sun was losing a bit of its heat to a herd of clouds when Ain heard the rushed steps of a sprint echo through the north, right where the other three had gone earlier today. Aisha took her eyes off her book and glanced at the same spot. The first person they saw was Ciel, who slowed to a stop, gasping for air and holding himself with his weapons.
Ishmael's servant got up and took a closer look at the corner where Ciel had stopped to catch his breath. Aisha was shocked to see Rena suddenly appear high above the sky, as if she had been thrown by someone. Ciel glanced up and leapt at least five meters above ground level to gently catch the elf. He then laid her on the floor and shortly crumbled himself.
A shining blue light caught everyone's attention and even Elsword stood up to see an orb of blue flames travel all the way through the street until it was nothing but a small star on the horizon.
Ainchase walked towards the elf first and saw that her left foot was twisted into an impossible angle. Her breaths were short, probably because she struggled to keep herself from screaming.
"Ain…Lu is still holding them off. Tell Aisha."
The priest squinted at her but nodded. Yet, he chose to head down the path they were all escaping from. His eyes focused on the demon's figure standing in front of the ashen land its attack had created. Judging from the up and down movement of her shoulders, Ainchase thought she was exhausted. She had scars of bullets over her shoulders and back, which were steadily bleeding.
He formed a dagger of creation magic. It was all it would take. The demon had to be gone once and for all, or else it would corrupt and destroy more. His objective turned immediately around; her dress left a trace of smoke as she spun towards him. Her glance was filled with disgust as if she had already seen the concealed dagger in his hand. He closed his grip on it and made it slowly grow into a sword.
She was about to charge another sphere of power, but her head tilted to the side, her blue eyes looked up before closing themselves. Surprisingly, Elsword rushed in first, calling Lu's name as he ventured down the burnt ruins. Ainchase was about to follow him, but Aisha pulled him back with surprising strength. She did not look like much, but she was quite strong.
"Stay right there. No injured men will go in that inferno. I'll teleport both of them back." She harshly said and vanished in the blink of an eye. The priest looked back at Rena and knelt to her side, taking out a health potion from his belongings. Although her twisted ankle was the most visible injury on her at first glance, seeing a bullet injury on her left shoulder and multiple bruises over her arms and legs made him certain that the Golems that attacked him earlier that morning had grown even stronger.
"Can you sit, Miss Elf?" he coldly asked, to which Rena replied by faintly shaking her head.
"Very well. Mind my clumsiness."
The priest first took out the cork of the potion before leaving it on Rena's right hand, which she clenched weakly. He then did his best to lift her back up so she could sit to drink the potion he left with her. Once the elf had finished the content of the flask, Ain thought it would be a good opportunity to make the elf reconsider her opinion about the two demons. Perhaps just a bit of his power would do the trick.
"Say, Miss Rena. That injury on your arm. It was the half-demon's doing, wasn't it?"
She squinted at him, confused under the effect of his power, but she finally shook her head. "No. It was the golems. They imitated Ciel's guns with their arms."
The priest nodded, unwilling to insist with a greater amount of his power. He looked back at where they had settled, Aisha had used her magic to lay down both Ciel and Lu before taking out bandages and other potions to tend to Lu's wounds. Rena, on the other hand, glanced back at the burnt street and her eyes began to tear up.
"Who…who dared?" she quietly asked.
Ain could not help to smirk briefly at the strange turn of events. "It was the Demon, Miss Elf. She unleashed her power over it, burning trees and turning most buildings to ashes."
Rena frowned and got up, hissing some words in elven before walking back to the camp they had settled while they had been separated. Her wounds were no longer bleeding and her ankle, though bruised, was back to its normal position. Elsword helped Aisha by passing her different flasks or cutting measures of bandages, but Rena sat down next to the fire without saying a word. Her green eyes stared at the flames with anger before relaxing into her usual smile when Elsword looked at her.
Ain smiled victoriously.
Now, those demons were one step closer from getting completely eliminated. Convincing Elsword was the easiest part of it. He was certain that after one more push, Rena would be glad to have those foul creatures gone.
