With Noctelagia freed from the attacks coming from the sea, everyone at the shoreline waited anxiously as the water split in half in front of Olivia.
Three large creatures emerged from the depths of the sea, where darkness was ever-present.
One was similar to an orca, but more disturbing looking, as a single eye above its mouth moved erratically. The creature had uneven teeth across its face, that looked disconcerting with a single glance. It seemed to be smiling.
The second one was a narwhal. A marine creature with a spear-like feature on top of its head. While normally docile, this corrupted was all but that, aiming its horn at Olivia without hesitation.
In the middle, the last and grossest one was a whale. A sperm whale, to be more precise. The largest and most impressive sea dweller in the world. The only problem was, it had been corrupted. With its three eyes locked on her, Olivia felt the intensity of its hatred.
The orca was the smallest of the three, approximately three meters long. Next was the narwhal, with its four meters. Lastly, the sperm whale, looking around ten meters.
From their movements, it seemed that the whale was staying behind while the other two swam around it.
Olivia observed quietly, until the two broke off from the whale.
Opening its large mouth, the corrupted whale aimed it at Olivia, before making a strange sound from deep within its body.
An ultrasound scream echoed in the air, forcing Olivia to wince. Back on land, the sound forced the maids to cover their ears.
While unaffected to some extent, Olivia noticed two shadows rapidly approaching her from both sides in a pincer attack.
She dropped her knees slightly, to dodge whatever was coming at her.
With the ultrasound still continuing, her mind felt slightly sluggish, causing her mind to work slower than usual.
As the orca approached Olivia from her right, its fin and the top of his body ripped through the water surface.
Suddenly, it plunged, and looked ready to jump at her. Ready to dodge, Olivia jumped backward.
But, that was precisely what the creature wanted. It burst out of the water at an angle, sweeping its wide tail toward her.
With a surprised expression, she placed her arms in front of her to defend against the powerful strike. With a loud thud, she was thrown away at high speed.
'My reaction time has been slowed...'
With a frown, she glanced over her shoulder, knowing what was waiting for her.
The narwhal jumped out of the water, its horn ready to impale her frail body. Olivia closed her eyes, letting herself be pierced by the spear-like appendage.
Marie, alongside the other maids, gasped in horror as her body slid on the horn of the narwhal.
Still, a feeling of uneasiness forced them to reevaluate the situation.
Olivia wasn't stupid. She knew exactly what she was throwing herself into, and had more than one way to deal with her enemies.
At that point, the three Corrupted Lords appeared to cackle at her death while baring their teeth. The whale stopped emitting its high-frequency ultrasound, and glared at the corpse dangling on the narwhal.
*Fssssssh*
The body of the demon released dark smoke, before evaporating into the air.
"As I thought."
The three corrupted turned their gaze toward the voice. The expression of disbelief on their faces was not one of mindless beasts, but one of intelligent creatures.
"I believe your thoughts are 'How?', am I wrong?"
Coming from the place where the seahorses cannons were, Olivia walked nonchalantly.
Both the narwhal and the orca sunk into the water with a frustrated look in their eyes.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
While they were confused as to why she hadn't died, Olivia was pretty satisfied with herself. What she did was a simple trick similar to the magic used to hide her demon form.
Dark magic was used to mirror her perfectly, focusing attention on it rather than the real Olivia.
That mirroring image of her was able to convey basic thoughts to her, which helped her understand the dangers of her enemy while carefully monitoring their abilities.
But, it was a one time only use. Not only was it too taxing on magic, it was also useless after being used once.
It raised the awareness of the enemy, making it impossible to use during the fight. Still, this ability was perfect for learning about the opponent, and avoiding preemptive strikes at the start.
As expected to Marie, Olivia wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to fight three Corrupted Lords without a plan.
While closing on the whale one step at a time, Olivia smiled. She had learned exactly what she wanted.
The three corrupted were acting as a team. One was inflicting lethargy to the victim, another used feints to confuse their prey, and the last was the finishing touch, killing it.
It was enough for her to break down their strategy, and rapidly dispatch each one of them.
"First."
Glaring at the whale with a devilish smile, Olivia continued in her steps. A form of paralysis took over the whale as it tried to create another ultrasound blast.
Its three eyes shook with terror, as an illusion of a giant monster with sharp eyes clutched its large wings around it. The world darkened, leaving it and the monster alone.
"Got you."
Unfolding her mighty demonic wings beside her, Olivia stretched out her arms on both sides while opening her hands. Her fingernails extended, forming the purest and simplest abomination known to the whale.
Unable to move, the whale froze, as two hands ripped off its eyes without an ounce of compassion.
The high-pitched echo coming from its depth indicated that the pain wasn't faked. Olivia pulled the eyes out and threw them into the sea. There, she noticed the orca below her, coming at high-speed to bite her.
She placed her right hand on the head of the whale, and jumped on its large body. Finally on a hard surface, she felt at peace internally, but didn't show it on her face.
Following a large splashing sound, Olivia turned around and watched as the orca flew over her and the whale. It crashed on the other side after crossing over the two, and disappeared into the depths once again.
"..."
Olivia glanced at her feet, and moved three steps away. Where she stood previously, a long horn pierced the skin and organs of the whale, hoping to hit Olivia.
With a pained cry, the whale became the terrain of their battle, as its large body was perfect to stand on. It was also perfect to avoid being seen.
The orca returned on the offensive, this time, lunging at her directly. It broke away from the water, its jaws wide open.
A single glare. That was all Olivia did before the orca fell back into the water, immobile. Its body floated upside down at the surface of the sea, seemingly dead. The red eye on its head shone a dim light, before entirely switching out.
"This magic truly is useful... and dangerous."
Frowning at the sight of her own power, she was unable to contain her thoughts.
What she did was scan the body of the orca the first time it went above her to find the black core inside its body. Her dark magic was perfect to pinpoint the exact area.
Then, as it came for a second strike, Olivia focused dark magic on that very spot, exploding the core from within its body without lifting a finger.
On the other side, the narwhal came out of the water, doing the same as its dead friend. Except this time, Olivia curved her arms behind her back, and arched her body forward.
The horn traveled through the spaces between her back and her arms, while the narwhal looked in horror as she suddenly exerted pressure on it.
With a somewhat taxing effort, the horn cracked, and shattered in many parts. Olivia then turned around, placed her right hand on top of the flying narwhal, and slammed it with all her strength onto the whale's back.
The impact made the whale sunk a few centimeters underwater, while a powerful shockwave sent a small-scale rogue wave toward the beach.
This slam left the narwhal immobile, with the bones of its head fractured from the impact. While it tried to heal, Olivia pierced the skin of its neck with her claws, and dragged it a further in on the whale's back.
Looking for the core, she quickly scanned its body, before opening its body in half. With a disgusted expression, she plunged her hand inside the beast's stomach, and broke the core in its stomach.
"..."
Removing her hand from the body, she looked at its face to see if it had died, and indeed, the red light in its eyes was no more.
All that was left was the whale. Its eyes had healed, but it was still too terrified to move.
'Have I terrified it that much?'
While she did use a dark magic illusion to appear more threatening, she wasn't expecting it to work this well.
She walked toward its head without glancing at the two bodies laying still around her, and returned her nails into their original shape.
"..."
But, as she came closer, an uneasy feeling too over her.
'There's something strange with this fight...'
Olivia stopped in her tracks, and observed around her. The sea was calm, there were no signs of over creatures around, and the coast was cleared of corrupted.
But, she knew this feeling. Something was amiss.
'Weren't they surprisingly... desperate?'
Turning her head toward the orca and the narwhal, she noticed that their attacks weren't particularly worth their status as Corrupted Lords.
'Wait a second...'
A frightened look appeared on her face, as she hurriedly jumped off from the whale's back.
From the depth, two jaws, even larger than the whale itself, appeared. They split the water in half around the beast, before closing on it.
With a terrified expression, the whale died, consumed by a massive monster.
Olivia flapped her wings, rapidly flying over the water back to land.
A massive wave formed from the creature, threatening to swallow the city whole.
'Looking at this thing... this is the real Corrupted Lord...'
'That's why the others never used magic against me... they weren't Corrupted Lords.'
With a glance over her shoulder, she watched as the whale broke in half between the jaws of the creature, before returning to her friends to think about what to do next.