[“He probably absorbed your lightning halberd upon impact,”] I said before I jumped out of the mud tunnel, standing side-by-side with my two “mute” allies in Grimnir and Vifi. As they didn’t have access to [Telepathy], they couldn’t speak with me in this silence field. [“Tatsuya-kun, Nish—”]
[“We got it, Sensei!”] Nishio replied, interrupting me. [“Protect Fleindia, keep ourselves safe. Don’t get in your way. Don’t worry, we chose to be in this raid because we know how not to be burdens.”]
[“As I said, we didn’t come here without any reinforcements!”] Tatsuya growled. [“How did you think we got Rajah and Varya to come with us?”]
[“Then we better start working then! Grimnir, with me. My shadow pack is away from me, so I need support. Vifi, you know what to do, so play off us,”] I ordered, relaying information between our two groups. [“I can see his heat signature. He’s done recovering, and now—Projectile incoming!”]
A red projectile flared up from within the dust cover before piercing through it towards us, only for Grimnir to step in front of us. Grabbing a gate-sized tower shield he was carrying on his back, Grimnir slammed the slab of metal onto the ground, sending quakes through the ground I could physically feel. The shield then lit up, projecting a barrier around us as the enemy’s ruby blast crashed against it, sending flames and lightning sparks all around us.
My skills then made me snap my head to my left, where I saw the demonkin dash over. His flame boosters from before were gone, replaced by electricity sparking from his feet, spitting out tiny lightning bolts as if he was a tesla coil. His flame arm had also changed into something similar to Vifi’s prosthetic arm, probably a side effect of him absorbing her attack.
Before I could react, Vifi dashed forward and dispelled her red lightning spear to punch him, letting their fists collide. Vifi sneered as she pushed him back with her strength alone, causing the sin heir to grimace, darting his eyes at her contemplative smirk as his arm started growing in size.
She’s letting him absorb more of her mana? I realized, panicking a bit. I thought the tip to fighting envy demonkin was to only rely on physical attacks?
Yet, only a moment later, Vifi pulled him forward and began bending it, almost as if she had full control over it. She could still control her lightning even if it had been absorbed?! Upon realizing the same thing, the sin heir dispelled his lightning arm and used [Gale Steps] to dodge backward, only for me to intercept him, nearly slamming him with my tail.
Red mana mists with static sizzling around it began exuding from his arm. As if he was using magic, the static build up burst like a ripped balloon, shooting out a stream of voltaic lightning I had thought only Vifi could use. My body, being too huge, couldn’t avoid this point-blank cast as my lightning and his clashed, prickling my already energized fur. Like a million tiny needles stinging my skin.
I pushed against the ground, jumping out of the lightning’s trajectory and thanking my [Shadow Armament] and stygian lightning from protecting me from any damage. As I recovered from my landing, Vifi, Grimnir, and even Tatsuya quickly came to support me, pushing the demonkin further and further away from Fleindia.
[“Not too far away! The further away we keep him from the other demonkin, the better!”] I ordered, trusting Tasianna and the others were all right and could handle themselves while we dealt with the ringleader. Even if a part of me was worried since I couldn’t access the party menu, there was no time to be anxious right now. [“Vifi, save your mana on this. We’ll need it for the Wrathbringer.”]
This is good enough of a time. With some dragorade, I should have two uses before arcane corruption gets to me. Just can’t lose a dispute now. Territory!
Mana Release activated. Aura used as control unit: [True Wolven Bloodlust]. Territory [Yomi] has been established
My shadow quivered before it began overflowing from the ground like a liquid, covering the fractured earth with my Territory. I channeled my lightning through it whilst controlling the shadow’s movement to turn it into a spear, ready to pierce the sin heir’s chest.
In response, he jumped into the sky with [Air Walk], using Vifi’s electricity to launch himself away before conjuring a red magic circle. Laying his hand on it, blue mana mist oozed out of his pores and surrounded the spell circle, draining red particles out of it like a vacuum.
Without any mana, the circle dematerialized into nothingness as the blue cloud turned red and re-entered the sin heir’s body before he materialized his arm of fire again. He began channeling a new spell, prompting Grimnir to aim his blasthammer at him.
The daunting-looking warhammer’s parts began to rock around as it turned into its gun form. With a recoil strong enough to force Grimnir, secure in his giant suit of armor, to stagger, manablasts burst from the muzzle, exploding in the air like bombs and forcing the sin heir to form a pair of flame wings to try and fly away. A stream of ice magic and steam blew from the hammer’s engines, cooling it down faster than ever before, allowing Grimnir to immediately begin shooting once again.
However, no matter how much Grimnir had improved on its design, the weapon eventually had to take a break to prevent overheating, leaving Grimnir unable to attack for a moment. The sin heir took this chance to begin his next spell chant, fully focused on us … which left him fully distracted and vulnerable as an arrow ripped a chunk of flesh from his cheeks.
It was Misaki! From the side, the demurred archer readied another arrow on her yumi—a Japanese bow similar to a longbow in size—while standing right next to Fleindia. She aimed and, with the accuracy of an expert, a second arrow was loosened, piercing the sky and nearly hitting the sin heir in his chest if he hadn’t evaded it.
As he had only seen Grimnir, Vifi, and me as a threat, his overconfidence left him wide-open for Misaki’s shot. Even without her unique skill, her ability with the bow was undoubtedly lethal, especially with the new rune bow Grimnir made for her.
After she shot a third arrow and narrowly missed, the sin heir readied another attack, only for Vifi to shoot her crossbow bolts at him, further inconveniencing him and stalling just enough time for me to finish casting six spells. I cast [Umbral Skip] to appear right above him before using two [Dark Tendrils] from my [Shadow Armament], grabbing on his limbs and holding him onto my body. The remaining three spells were [Dark Magic Lv. 9]’s [Enfeebling Winds].
A health-sucking spell that dealt little, but continuous, damage over time that wasn’t a direct attack and allowed me to slowly chunk the demonkin while healing myself. It was almost the same concept as his mana mist.
In any case, with him trapped, I called out for two companions from below, summoning Varya and Rajah as they cast [Dark Tendrils], catching my legs and pulling me down with them. The sin heir was dragged down with me as he attempted to absorb my magic and hurt me with his fire spells, but I took all of it with stride since, as long as I could keep my shadow armor intact, a lethal attack couldn’t be dealt.
Slamming the sin heir onto the ground, as he was unable to escape me, I channeled electricity in my front limbs and landed a [Voltage Impact] right onto him, forcing him to change his elemental alignment to dark. While a demonkin of envy’s mana absorption was pretty strong, Klea did advise us that they could only absorb one element at a time and the accumulated resistance would reset upon a change. Me forcing him out of fire meant he wasn’t weak to water anymore, but holy.
Letting him go to prevent him from absorbing any more of my mana, I then had my liquid shadow grab him, tangling him up to keep him vulnerable for Nishio and Asaka to cast [Sacred Smite]. Too many people were ganging up on him, and with Vifi around to assure the level disparity wasn’t too overpowering, it meant he would slowly lose this battle if he didn’t do something drastic.
… Like now.
Hostile Territory detected! [The Roots of Jealousy] has been activated! Territory Dispute engaged
Mana mist exploded from his body, creating a massive smokescreen that obstructed our sight while deflecting the incoming holy spells. My liquid shadow was pushed back as the hostile Territory took control of the area around him.
The mist then hardened into multiple tendrils that ingrained themselves into the ground like roots. Noticing them trying to expand the Territory’s area of influence, I directed [Yomi] to surround the areas in shadows before erecting a wall around us, creating an arena.
My heat vision told me the demonkin was gathering energy, but the truth was revealed when the mana mist was swept away by a pair of black wings. Flames spewed from his body as if he was a furnace, haughty laughing in pure silence as none of us could hear it.
[“A Territory? Against an envy demonkin? Vifi’Yok, I thought you would at least advise your new troupe about how to handle someone like me. Every usage of mana will increase the arcane corruption inflicted to the loser of a dispute, so what would happen if I absorb the mana she’s spreading around this area? I can keep this Territory on for—”]
Vifi, Grimnir, Tatsuya, and I suddenly noticed something in the sky before our bodies jerked up and quickly ran away. My students, Rhea, and Fleindia did the same, distancing themselves from Rein’Yond as much as possible. Noticing this, the confident demonkin frowned in confusion, tilting his head in confusion, as his skills weren’t activating.
When he finally turned his head around to see what was going on, a split second had passed before a black flash shot right past him, gouging out his other arm and a section of his chest before the “projectile” crashed into the ground, shattering it into bits. As the rocks burst up like a fountain of water, I had [Yomi] fill up the gap, creating a solid foundation to prevent all of us from falling into the large gaping hole while helping the “projectile” jump back.
As the smoke settled, Rein’Yond shouted in silence, clutching his injured body before turning around. [“Y-you! How did—”]
[“Relying on your subordinates to finish me off? And you have no party bracelets? An appraisal skill below my [Identity Blocker Lv. 8]? I’ve learned so much from you without needing to appraise you.”] It was Midirn’s thoughts! He flapped his wings, revealing himself in the middle of the dust cloud with the wounds covering his body.
A wide hole had penetrated his helmet while a section of his chest was scorched. Many of the black scales on his plate armor were ripped apart, leaving behind many scars and dents that suggested heavy damage. There was some dried blood around his gauntlets while his halberd was dripping with the red liquid.
He bashed his chest. [“Think stealing some of my mana will kill me that easily? Think throwing my halberd would make me weak? Real warriors will claw and bite their way to victory, even against armed forces! Also, helps that this armor is pretty good.”]
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Grimnir bashed his chest with pride.
[“Krk! You—”]
[“But I get it, you’re angry ‘cause this one move, but this is how dragoons fight. I may be the future grand general of the Loatryxian armies, but I am still the [Black Bomber]! Like the black dreaded blood I was born with, I shall sunder apart my enemies as I crash into the ground, ripping apart my enemies before they can react … Also, fool you three times? No shame on us, shame on you!”]
[“What!”] The sin heir snapped his head up into the sky, recognizing another dragoon diving right at him. Replacing his newly lost arm with fire, he used them to blast himself out of the way, avoiding the silver flash before it crashed into the ground, only to rebound on my Territory.
Yorshka! Our second dragoon came just in time!
Supporting her, I had my shadow springshot her into the air as she used [Dragoon Jump]. The sin heir tried to fly away once again, but Varya and Rajah jumped out, snatching him with [Dark Tendrils] while I used [Yomi] to protect them from the “roots” trying to chase the vircagucas away.
The sin heir leaned back, narrowly dodging the spear thrust, and used the momentum to approach the mother and son duo, only for Grimnir to charge in front and protect them with his massive shield. The vircaguca pair kept pulling him down, leaving him open to Tatsuya and Vifi jumping onto Grimnir and using him as a platform to get to the sin heir.
As we were told, the sin heir’s physical capabilities weren’t spectacular and this was especially clear when Vifi charged in, wielding her rapier like a needle storm. The former Warbringer’s speed and strike force was formidable and an absolute nightmare for even speedsters like Hestia and Fargryneill to handle. This person couldn’t avoid about 80 percent of the attacks.
Already hurt by Midirn’s surprise attack, the sin heir was already bleeding, slowing him down enough for Tatsuya to contribute somewhat to the fight, but this forced Vifi to actually help him by leading Rein’Yond around like a horse chasing after a carrot on a stick. Thankfully, she had the skills and endurance to do so. She had, after all, just joined the fight.
[“Rajah, Varya. Let me. Drop the tendrils,”] I ordered, noticing the sin heir kept absorbing mana from them, but they declined.
[“You require your mana more!”] Varya argued. [“We cannot compete against these demonkin with our Profiles, but as long as we have mana, we are a threat. Allow us to restrict them for you!”]
Rajah agreed. [“We can retreat! You can’t! Please, we can do this!”]
On one hand, it was true, but, on the other, if the sin heir kept it up those two would be removed from the raid immediately. Fighting with [Arcane Fever] active was suicidal no matter who you were … Which was why I was persuaded. Logically, I was the highest level of the shadow pack members and that meant I had to keep on fighting until Hestia arrived.
Therefore, I allowed them to continue and simply kept using my [Yomi] to prevent the sin heir from using his own Territory to its fullest effect. Fact was, we had zero intel on how his [The Roots of Jealousy] worked as, outside of her fellow Warbringers and the Prince of Wrath, Klea had zero knowledge of the Territories of the other sin heirs and princes of sins.
However, as Belzac kept warning me during my Territory training, a Territory was best countered by another Territory. As long as your Territory could stifle another’s expansion and quarantine it, you have the ability to prevent the hostile Territory from affecting others. I didn’t need to fight, all I had to do was support our actual damage dealers.
… Or not.
I snapped my head around as my [Detection Sensor] perfectly pinpointed three targets slowly approaching us from underneath. Considering nobody warned me about these, I was extremely suspicious. As such, when I asked Nishio about them, it became clear who they were.
Rhea raised her sword as a construct made from light descended from the sky, rebuilding itself into a knight the size of Grimnir’s large manatech suit. With a blade of light, the knight dug it into the ground, forcing three demonkin into emerging from the ground. Three wrathies, obvious to see from their elemental arms, and they were quickly making their way over to Fleindia.
[“Go!”] Midirn said, addressing Tatsuya, before taking over for him with Yorshka. Seeing three experienced fighters pushing the weakened sin heir into the corner, Tatsuya nodded and quickly dashed over to Fleindia’s side, fighting side-by-side with Kyouya and Kohaku.
My three melee-focused students were fully committed to keeping the wrath demonkin at bay while Nishio, Daichi, Asaka, Kazumi, and Rhea supported them next to Fleindia. Rhea was the strongest melee fighter amongst them, but this operation required Fleindia’s safety to be fully secured, and that meant we had to protect her from any sort of attack. Risking it would welcome mistakes … not to mention, watching my students fight from the corner of my eye …
I’ve felt proud for my students before, because I was their teacher. Seeing them succeed was good to me and I would feel happy since I believed I helped them achieve. Yet, it was always clouded by my need for money, but now? It’s … They weren’t overwhelming the demonkin, nor were they decisively winning, but they kept their opponents back and allowed everybody else to focus on their proper task. These children two years ago weren’t even capable of this, but now?
This warmth in my chest, it was the same I would feel for Hestia whenever she succeeded in her concerts. Whenever she would sing with so much power and emotion that your mind just becomes enraptured by her voice … I felt so proud. My students? They’ve adapted into this world, and while this was a bit patronizing since they were far beyond in strength than what a normal Peolyncian was, it calmed my mind. To not have to worry about them; I couldn’t be prouder!
[“Now!”] Midirn shouted when Misaki finally landed an arrow, perfectly hitting the demonkin in his exposed right thigh. The constant attacks from Vifi, Midirn, and Yorshka had not only broken through his armor, leaving it to look like nothing but scrap metal and ruined fabric, but also fully reduced his focus through sheer exhaustion.
Hearing this command, Misaki activated a rune on her yomi, letting it glow pure white. In the next second, the arrow lodged into the sin heir’s thigh burst in white flames, consuming not only the arrow but also his leg. His face behind his broken helmet distorted into a pained grimace, his mouth gaping wide to let out a silent scream. He attempted to grab the arrow, only for the fire to attack him as if it was a living creature.
Hestia’s [Sanctified Blaze] spell was embedded into Misaki’s new bow as a rune with the primary function to enchant each arrow shot with the spell’s “hostile” function; meaning, it couldn’t heal but applied all the effects of a normal [Sanctified Blaze] to anyone hit by her arrows. It applied fire and holy damage, attacked hostiles automatically, and would spread like a wildfire to “purge.” With the amount of dark elemental mana the sin heir had absorbed up until this point, I had to wonder just how low his holy resistance had fallen was at this point. Funnily enough, this rune wasn’t even made to counter envy demonkin!
Fortunately, this fact came to help us at this very moment. Fully consumed by the fire scorching his body, Vifi successfully managed to land a powerful thrust, stabbing through the chainmail protecting the demonkin’s throat. Pulling her weapon out, she ripped flesh and blood out and spun his body into Yorshka’s direction, only for him to be smack right in the face with her spear. His helmet finally shattered into bits while the momentum of the swing sent him flying into the air, prompting Midirn to slam his thick, crocodile-like tail onto the demonkin’s stomach.
As the sin heir crashed into the ground, his body stopped moving. The flames and tendrils that came out of his body disappeared just as quickly as he had activated his Territory.
Territory deactivated. Territory Dispute completed in favor of individual [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
My Territory automatically stopped at the same time as the sin heir’s and I was rewarded with this satisfying System notice. I let out a sigh, my mind feeling a bit cloudy due to all the mana I had to use up until now. Rajah and Varya, on the other hand, dropped on the ground, with the former having closed his eyes, breathing heavily before her mother forced herself up to shield him with her body.
Yet, none of us could relax well, as in the next moment the sin heir suddenly jerked back to “life,” growling and flopping on the ground like a fish before his skin began to turn sickly purple. The penalty of a lost Territory dispute assaulted him. He tried to stand up, but the white flames created from Misaki’s arrow were still active, burning him whenever he tried to do anything. He eventually stopped twitching around, but he was fully conscious now.
Meanwhile, I directed my attention to the demonkin fighting my students. Noticing our victory over one of their sin heirs, the wrathies attempted to escape, but were quickly intercepted by Vifi and me. Due to the silence field, I couldn’t exactly hear what they said, but I presumed they were insulting Vifi before they were unceremoniously killed by the two of us.
[“Great work, everybody,”] I praised my students before all of them crumbled to the ground.
I felt a bit anxious when I saw the blood, wounds, and spell marks on Kohaku, Kyouya, and Tatsuya. I noticed multiple marks on their armor and clothing that would have led to lethal wounds if they weren’t wearing Grimnir’s armor. Thankfully, due to Fleindia’s [Noble Prayer], their wounds were slowly healing up. All of our wounds benefited from it.
As Nishio and Kazumi helped them stand up, our group congregated around the sin heir, glaring at the downed man. He was forcing back the pain, but it was clear from his sweating and shivering that it was all a facade.
[“We need to deal with the silence field,”] I said.
However, Midirn only shook his head. [“No need, they can surround our allies as much as they want, but as long as Princess Fargryneill possesses the blood of a true tyrant, none can reach her height!”]
Such an abundance of trust. Dragonewts were fervently loyal to true dragonkin, especially to those they shared an ancestry with, but this blind faith was still a sight to witness. Well, as long as Kushlek’zar and Tasianna were on their side, it should be all right.
[“I would hate to rid the saurians of their revenge, but we must end his life here and now,”] Yorshka brought up, before readying her spear. [“But, then again, we were also Akasht’s comrades. I guess they can forgive us when—”]
Yet, before she could finish her sentence, the earth underneath us suddenly began to rumble and quake. Our instincts immediately told us something was up, so all of us immediately directed our attention at the demonkin.
[“Kids. On me, on the virgacugas! Fleindia, Rhea! Now!”] I ordered, agitating those I spoke to. They immediately listened to me, all while Grimnir, Vifi, Yorshka, and Midirn readied their weapons and thrust it at the sin heir, only for mud to suddenly explode from the ground, redirecting their attacks while sending the sin heir into the air.
Vifi, unable to use her voltaic lightning due to the mud, was the first to be slung away, following the other three. As I shouted in my head what was going on, my instincts immediately reminded me of the second enemy leader—the Warbringer. In this moment of realization, the area we fought in burst up in a monsoon of mud.
I wrapped the people on me—Tatsuya, Kyouya, Asaka, and Fleindia—with [Dark Tendrils], keeping them close to me as we were swept away in this sea of brown. The pressure made it impossible for me to properly control my body, leaving me disoriented. All I could do was ready my lightning and [Shadow Armament] to protect us from an enemy’s attack.
I didn’t know how long it took, but this experience eventually stopped. A headache as strong as getting a hangover after a full night of drinking kept me glued to the slippery ground. It was paralyzing, and the same applied to my students. We eventually managed to recover after Fleindia healed us with [Cure], tending to our damaged brains.
Unfortunately, my headache didn’t disappear entirely as the moment I opened my eyes, I gasped as I stared at a torrent of mud spraying into the air. I looked up, noticing it was similar to a wall, spraying mud onto everything below it. It was larger than the walls surrounding this city, and the force being shot up was too much for me to push my legs through it.
Furthermore, aside from the four of us, nobody was within eyesight, but I could feel them with [Detection Sensor]. Multiple signals were behind the mud wall that separate various sections in this city, with Asaka mentioning the mud wall went along the route of the mud tunnels her onnikai army used.
[“Did he plan this? Or did he adapt after we purposely left the mud tunnels for our own usage?”] Tatsuya asked.
[“Does it matter?”] Asaka replied. [“No, right? Whether we left it up or not, he could have done this anyways if he wanted. This was unnecessary.”]
[“In other words, he’s taunting us,”] Kyouya correctly surmised, probably. [“‘Look, you should have blocked the tunnels!’ However, during this entire battle, he could have simply dashed along the ground like he did in the first fight. There was no need to choose the mud tunnels specifically, unless, of course, to save time.”]
So, is this wall supposed to—
[“Target incoming!”] I pointed towards the sky, before noticing the person’s lack of arms. It was the envy sin heir!
Wait, what is that in his mouth?
He was holding something small between his teeth before he arched his head back, letting some sort of liquid enter his throat. As he let the vial go, his body began to spasm and convulse uncontrollably as his purple skin turned black, undeniable proof he drank a Demon’s Grace.
Once the twitching stopped, the flesh around his stumps began to multiply, regrowing two sets of arms bigger and more muscular than his original ones. As he landed soundlessly, he straightened his back to show-off the various changes made on his body.
He grew taller than before, enough for us to see eye-to-eye in my fenrir form, with a body structure vastly different, almost similar to that of a Tatsuya’s werewolf form. His enlarged arms and legs displayed might while his hands were sizable enough to crush a man’s skull like an apple. His thin, spiny tail became long enough to use it like a whip. To finish it off, his face was distorted, forming four mandibles using the remains of his jaw.
The only thing that allowed me to recognize that this was Rein’Yond was a puncture hole in his throat and a scar across his face. If the normal black elixir caused humans to turn into hideous eldritch monsters, then the one he just used reminded me too much of the version Davison created. Have the demonkin actually perfected the formula?
His body sprayed his mana mist out like smoke, only for it to turn red and begin to combust, almost too similar to Hestia’s scale-dust. He stretched his fingers.
[“For Prince Thals’Yond! For the Yond family! I will consume Bole’Taria’s enemies! For OUR FUTURE!”] he said before releasing a feral scream through our telepathic link..