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Chapter 30: Moonlit Massacre
Cao Cao recovered from his shock impressively quickly, taking advantage of my own shock to dash forward into an impressively fast thrust. Reacting on the new, strange yet familiar instincts, the sword made of Moonlight twirled in my hand. Successfully slapping away the head of the spear with the flat of the blade, my body moved into a loose stance.
Guided by the sword, but hampered by my body's lack of familiarity with the movements, I slammed the edge of the blade down on to my opponent in a brutal, fast over head chop. Cao Cao blocked with the haft of his spear, being knocked downwards due to my enhanced strength.
He floated up to my level, fake wings glowing brightly, "Well, I suppose this is for the best. Killing you unarmed would leave a bad taste in my mouth."
He projected confidence, but I could tell he was on edge, perturbed by the force that my prayer had called to this world. To be fair to him, so was I. How was Ranni here? Why had she appeared? Was this some of the convoluted time bullshit the Souls series was so fond of?
In the end, it didn't really matter. I needed to dispatch of the idiot before me, only then could I figure it out. To that end, guided by the memories fed to me by the sword, I raised it slightly, the light of the moon above catching it's edge. Slowly, I poured my Demonic Power into the blade, attempting to activate it's dormant power.
The sensation was unlike anything I had felt before. I could feel a seemingly infinite well of unfamiliar energy, both present and not, matching my donation of power into the sword and feeding the growing energy contained within. The blade lit up in a brilliant hue, the subtle blue glow clashing with the gold projected by my opponent, dropping the temperature around me.
Mist swirled, the air itself condensing from the cold emanating from the blade. Despite the temperature near me rapidly dropping below freezing, ice glinting from the glow swirling in the mist, I felt comfortable, warm even. Cao Cao obviously didn't share in that privilege. Despite the area around him being free of the supernatural mist, his breath was still fogging, his body shivering imperceptibly from the cold.
The lake froze, the ice spreading eerily across the surface despite being far below me. It appeared that to the chill caused by the Moonlight sword, physics was a mere suggestion. The sword, obviously had many more abilities than I half-remembered from the game, but the only one I could recall was the ability to shoot off beams of moonlight. Assuming a stance, guided by the phantom sensations, I slashed the air in front of me, reality rending apart as a rippling blue crescents of energy shot forwards.
Cao Cao dodged the first two, but the last slammed into him, a hasty block erecting a golden shield before him. The two glows contested each other, the glow of the Moon eclipsing the holy implement briefly before the power I put into the attack waned, leaving the ragged golden dome visible. The strongest of the Longinus successfully beat back the otherworldly energy, but not perfectly.
The reality defying nature of the attack showed, a thin sheet of ice cracking off of his body as he shook himself, hissing out a breath of pain.
"I don't have time for this." I growled, creating a thin platform of air behind me which I used to kick against, accelerating into his guard in an instant.
He blocked, skill showing through, but his eyes widened as he beheld frost slowly spreading on the golden spear from the edge of the Moonlight Great-sword. The relic of God, supposedly inviolable, was being overwhelmed by the strange energy that my Demonic Power was being converted into.
"What have you unleashed…" Was his horrified whisper, seeing the impossible happen before his eyes.
I didn't reply, slashing and thrusting away at him, frost spreading at every impact. The Spear burned it off, but he had to make sure to block with a different part of the weapon every time to allow it time to do so. Something I made much more difficult by weaving in strikes towards his hands in between flurries, my clumsiness starting to dissipate as my body got more comfortable with the movements being fed to it.
The thing I learned in the Labyrinth, that Devils were first and foremost creatures of War, came into play here for sure. My already better physical abilities were allowing me to cover for the awkwardness in my movements at the start of the fight, but now that was fading due to experience I was starting to overwhelm him. His strength was still rising along with the intensifying glow of the spear, but I rushed to end this before he could reach parity with me.
The opening came as I twisted the blade across the haft of the spear, sliding it up the shaft and clipping one of his hands. The lightness of the sword compared to it's size allowed me to preform this strike, taking my opponent completely off guard. He hissed, pulling his hand back in reaction, the limb instantly being covered in frostbite as it left the weapon.
He twirled his spear in a sweep with his other arm, warding me off but leaving himself wide open, allowing me to swipe my hand up diagonally as I flipped backward to dodge. The overpowered Gale Cutter rending deeply into his body savaging the shoulder of the arm holding the spear, causing him to reel from the blow. Repeating my earlier trick, I kicked off an air platform and accelerated into him, sword punching through his chest to the hilt.
Gasping, he stilled, wings of light fading as ice spread from the point of his impalement. His arms slackened, his damaged limb dropping the spear to the lake below. In a matter of seconds, his body resembled a macabre ice sculpture. I was barely paying attention to that however.
My eyes instead followed the path that the glowing weapon traced, falling freely until landed in the hands of a figure standing on the now frozen lake. A figure wearing a familiar witches hat, with four arms.
"Mine Consort." Her soft voice spoke out, the ethereal mist swirling as if welcoming her, "It pleaseth me that thou vow has remained kept."
Arthur kept the point of his blade focused on his enemy, the Sagan queen floating gently amongst the trees, green hair fluttering from the wind. Her presence was one that demanded caution, all that he knew of her was from the single Rating Game the Sagan had participated in close to three years ago.
She must have picked up tricks since then, but that paled in comparison to the presence he felt bear down on the lake they just left. His ability to sense magic was fairly undeveloped, but even he could feel the sheer weight of the thing, it's alien, cold nature causing a soul deep chill. That's not even thinking about the voice, proclaiming it had found it's 'Dear Consort'.
Whatever it was, it caused Le Fay to cower behind him, shivering and pale. He manoeuvred himself to shield her from the Sagan Queen, eyes watching every move from the Devil.
"What has your Master unleashed?" He demanded, projecting confidence into his voice.
"I don't know." Came the uncaring response, "But that should be the least of your worries. Tell me, what is a Pendragon doing chasing the daughter of the Western Yokai through a forest?"
"You know who we are?" He demanded, before chastising himself, "Of course you do. Did your homework before your theft, did you?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about." Was the airy response, "Sounds like a problem for you, though."
"Play dumb if you want." He prepared himself to strike, "I'll just force you to talk."
"I have no intention of letting you touch me with Excalibur Ruler." Was the emotionless response, "Though I am curious about it's abilities. Tell me, can it control liquids?"
He remained silent, tensing. His wariness was rewarded as the Sagan Queen's arms glowed, before grotesquely unraveling, splitting apart with sickening tearing sounds. The tendons separating, spinning off of the bone. Veins and capillaries were exposed to the air, all of them weeping red, the sticky liquid falling to the ground and rearing up, moving as if alive.
"What madness is this…?" Was his horrified whisper before the blood, flowing copiously from the self inflicted wounds, rushed forwards, forming sharpened, solid spears.
Reacting quickly, he slashed through the spears, taking control from them, attempting to trace the ability back to the Devil herself. However, the moments his blade touched the tendrils, they detached themselves, leaving him with several sharp spears of blood under his control. He whirled his sword, sending the spears back towards the abomination, who dodged them almost disinterestedly.
He rapidly back-pedaled, realising that the devil was trying to flank him with the tide of blood, aiming at his sister, "Le Fay, help please?"
She shuddered, coming back to herself and turning green as the grisly sight that greeted her. "We can't win… it's impossible! That thing, the... the… monster that the Sagan called here! It's unbeatable, brother!"
"Help me beat the Queen, we can run." He said, knowing better to argue with his sister about matters of magic.
The blood continued to flow, forming a circular barrier, hemming them in and stopping his retreat. Probing, he attempted to slash at the band, but it merely pulled back, dodging the blade and sending out spears of the sharpened liquid for his trouble. Cursing, he broke off the offending attacks and breathed, moved back from the circle, back towards the Queen.
He looked towards the Devil, a curse on his lips. What kind of monsters had the Sagan surrounded himself with? Even the little girl was a pain in the ass! His gaze landed back on CC, who had yet to reform her arms, the circle of blood rising higher and higher. She had bled more than could be possibly be contained by her body, but still the red liquid flowed, faster and faster.
She looked almost bored by the fight, as if bleeding more than 10 grown men was an ordinary day for her. Le Fay gagged, the undulating mass of crimson quite a sickly sight. Still, his sister mustered up enough focus to blast a magical lightning bolt at the queen, a shimmering shield of yellow forming before the Devil.
Le Fey continued, blast of different elements and more esoteric magic flying towards the other woman, who merely blocked with her growing lake or shielded the less physical spells, blood still flowing out like a torrent.
Realising that the woman intended to run them through from every direction with the mass of crimson she was building up, he charged the Devil. If he could just touch her with the sword, or a pool of blood still attached to her body, he could still win this. He was taken by surprise when the ground heaved, the blood that had seeped through the soil moving at the Queen's command and grabbing his legs.
His momentum wrenched against the sudden blockages, forcing a jolt of pain up his body. He swung his sword down quickly, attempting to stab it into the earth to take command of the offending material. He was stopped and screamed in pain however, as his body was skewered in several places by bloody tendrils sneaking in from every direction. He could feel the liquid burning as it spread in his body, still under The Devil's control as she forced his arm up and hand to unclench, dropping Excalibur to the dirt.
Despite all the liquid staining the forest around her, she was spotless, he belatedly realised. There was not a single speck of blood on her.
"Stop!" Le Fay cried, despair in his little sister's voice, "Stop, please! We surrender! We aren't with Cao Cao, we didn't…!"
"That's nice for you." Was the dispassionate response from the green haired monster.
The last thing Arthur saw was that sickly sea of red.
"Annoying." The white haired girl clicked her tongue as she moved gracefully away from the extending staff that shot past her into the woods.
"You're pretty annoying yourself." The monkey man retorted as he alighted on a tree, staff collapsing back into his hands.
"Fuck!" Yelled Jeanne as she used a blade imbued with wind to fly forwards from behind Kasane, attacking her blind spot only to be caught in a glowing purple field and slammed down into the ground.
Kasane's knives followed the woman, who franticly defended herself, receiving only superficial cuts before Kasane's attention was once again forced to Bikou, dodging and weaving through his attacks.
"Damn girl." He whistled, staff across his shoulders, hands draped over it, "You would be all kind of dead right now without me."
"I didn't ask for your help." The blonde snarled as she leapt to her feet.
"Oh okay, I'll just leave then." The monkey was forced to leap from his perch as an entire tree collided with the one he was on, Kasane instantly closing range with him and assaulting him from all sides with her flying razor blades.
She was forced to break off the attack to preform another impossible dodge, almost as if being yanked by an invisible string to avoid the glowing golden dagger that was thrown at her.
"Looks like Mrs. Grim and Serious over here has some problems with that plan." He grinned, sweat on his brow from how close that was, several such close calls in quick succession getting to him.
"Just focus monkey, whatever the Sagan did we need to get back and…!"
"Enough." Jeanne's tirade was stopped by an echoing voice, the Knight of Sagan apparently through playing around.
A pale purple glow spread throughout the area, the purple darkening and bringing a sense of danger to it before she was stopped by a new voice calling out, "Which of you are allied to Damocles?"
Everyone paused, eyes turning to the woman who walked calmly into the battlefield, her hood obscuring her face entirely except for the glowing purple eye, that swept the assembled fighters.
"Friend of yours?" Bikou asked, tensing at the new arrival.
"I serve Damocles." Kasane responded matter of factly, keeping an eye on her two foes, "What business do you have with my King?"
"So he is a Lord here as well? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. He has stolen something precious to me, I would have him take responsibility."
"Oho, love drama? Well, that's interesting, but it can wait until after our…" Bikou was stopped by that eye turning towards him, freezing as the sense of wrongness the orb emanated made something inside him shiver.
"Are you his enemies?"
"Well, I wouldn't say tha…"
"Yes." Kasane's blunt reply took the wind out of the Yokai's sails, causing him to deflate slightly.
"Very well." The mystery figure nodded, "I will kill the male, that should allow you to deal with the girl."
"Hey now, let's not be hast…"
He was once again interrupted by the blunt Sagan Knight, "Agreed."
"Don't get cock…" Jeanne's bluster was hampered by Kasane swooping down at her, willing to take the distraction to eliminate at least one enemy.
"Don't forget about me!" Bikou called, aiming his staff only to dodge out of the way.
For someone wearing such heavy travelling robes, the new woman moved incredibly quickly, jumping and flipping through the trees to reach him in astonishing speed. He barely spun out of her grasp, her hand glowing with black and white flames that made his skin crawl to look at. He noticed that a small patch of them was on his tunic, his dodge being a bit to late. He quickly shrugged the garment off while attempting diplomacy.
"Look, you obviously don't know who I am, but it's in your best interests to…"
"It doesn't matter. All things die." Was the ominous response, the woman unclenching her fist from where she failed to grasp him.
The tunic, smoking behind him, exploded. The black and white flames spread unnaturally, before latching onto him and causing excruciating pain. Bikou screamed, quickly realising that these flames were not physical, but were instead eating away at his very life force. For someone versed in the Sage Arts, the existence of such a thing was horrifying.
Quickly deciding that taking out the caster was his best bet, he raised his staff and swung it at the eerie lady, quickly lengthening and shortening it as needed to follow her movements. Only to miss completely.
It reminded him of fighting his Ancestor, the speed and grace with which she moved. She flowed around his attacks, grabbing his arm, twisting it around his body and using his grip on the staff as a fulcrum to trap his other limb. He was already in the process of dropping the grip he had of the weapon to reverse the hold when she clung tight to his back, ignoring the black and white flame.
'Vali, this really was a stupid fucking idea.' Was what he though as a blade coated in the same unnatural black flames pierced his throat.
As his body fell to the forest floor, the woman turned, comfortable in his previous perch as if the thin branch was a perfectly level floor. Kasane floated before her, staring at her with serious red eyes.
"Will you hurt Damocles?" Was what she asked, voice completely level.
"I might slap him. Depending on what he says." Was the answer.
"That's all?"
"That's all."
"Alright." She nodded, accepting the strange woman's word for now, "Afterwards, maybe he can explain to me why he never mentioned you.