Lenoly Side
Rewera is holding her own against Kanundra, despite the fact that the latter's body seems to be made of lava. The maid leader's fists connect with her body without taking any damage, but it's obvious that Kanundra isn't affected by the punches either. The fire woman's attacks are much slower and she doesn't look like she's used to fighting, so Rewera can easily avoid them. If this is how the two of them keep fighting, it's going to be a stalemate.
However, it may be broken by Master Thorvadis' interference sooner or later. While he may still appear to be on the back foot because of being overwhelmed by four maids at the same time, he's slowly learning their attack patterns. Hiding himself and the other old man behind a barrier which seems to bend space and redirect anything fired at him, he's most likely waiting for an opportunity to break through with a spell that could incapacitate all four of his opponents at the same time.
And I'm only standing by, watching. I know that no matter what I try, I'm nowhere near the level of any of these battles. Not only would I get in the way, but I'd most likely lose my life in the crossfire. Unfortunately, they're covering the only two ways I can go in this corridor, so all I can do is wait until the battle on either side is over. Of course, I'm rooting for the maid leader and her followers, because Master Thorvadis is here to kill the demon queen.
The sound of an explosion shakes the castle and I can clearly hear rocks breaking and falling. That means there are others fighting somewhere else in the castle.
"Aaah?!" A maid screams in surprise and I spin my head around just in time to see the staff she was holding get drawn into and crushed by a black sphere barely larger than a human's head that manifested right beside her. Apparently the principal used the moment of inattention caused by the disturbance to cast this spell through his barrier. She quickly tries to gain distance from the sphere, but its pull is too strong; her feet slide across the ground and then she is airborne, before her body is folded with a crunching sound that chills me to the bones. Then she disappears completely, along with the sphere itself.
"How dare you!" Lunging forward with her claws extended, the gargoyle maid whose name is Szaga - as far as I can remember - passes through the magic barrier fearlessly. However, the spell slows her down so much that it gives Master Thorvadis time to cast a spell on her before she can reach him. She's flung backwards and into the wall, and I hear the sound of bones breaking. Apparently it was one of her wings, as she stands back up immediately and looks back at her dangling appendage, before directing her hate-filled eyes at the principal again.
On the other side, Rewera's fight with Kanundra is going nowhere. I feel like both sides haven't shown their full strength yet, but it's clear that Kanundra has the upper hand so far. She's not hurt at all despite taking so many hits, but Rewera is dodging all the time, suggesting that the former's attacks are dangerous enough for her to take such precautions. Her maid uniform is singed in several places, but there aren't any visible wounds on her body, yet.
"I don't have time to play with you. Oy, Alverost!" Kanundra suddenly speaks and turns to the old man beside Master Thorvadis.
"I know I know." Responding in a very laid back manner despite the circumstances, Alverost puts a hand on the principal's shoulder. In the next moment, their forms warp out of shape and then they disappear into thin air. It was transportation magic, the highest discipline of space magic that only few are capable of among demonkind, and fewer still among the humans.
"You are not getting away." Rewera lunges forward before Kanundra even shows any hints of trying to leave, and delivers a devastating cross to the latter's chin. She was too preoccupied with the two old men to prepare herself for the impact, and for the first time, she wavers. The flames on her head seem to flicker out for a moment, before they burst out vigorously again.
"That didn't hurt... at all!" Catching herself from falling onto her knees, Kanundra roars and her intensely burning eyes look up to the maid leader in fiery wrath. "I said that I don't have time to play with the likes of you!"
The glow of her body begins to grow more and more intense, soon reaching the level of her eyes, and her flame hair turns bluish white. The heat emanating from her body becomes unbearable even though she's actually quite far from me. Apparently Rewera realizes Kanundra's intentions and immediately takes her distance from her, but it seems too late. In the next moment, her glow reaches critical levels and my vision is filled with whiteness.
Asoko Side
I expand my body to its utmost in an instant, reaching towards Kamii with my entire mass, and take her inside me a split second before Zylos grabs her with his freezing touch. Blocking him from entering me as well, his palm contacts the surface of my body instead. I can feel the part he touches instantly hardening, but there's no pain; of course not, all the tissue there died from being flash-frozen.
Immediately detaching that part, I pull myself back together into the point farthest away from him and take Kamii out again to see if she's alright. Apparently she's shaken from the suddenness of my actions, but I was able to completely block his effects on the inside of my body. Still, I lost a pretty large chunk of me there, leaving behind a deformed wall where Kamii stood only moments ago.
The wall cracks and crumbles to reveal Zylos, his sullen eyes fixed on me with the glint he showed before. I think now I know what it means; he has acknowledged his target as someone worth eradicating. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I guess I should be honored that this powerful being thinks that way.
"You are lucky." He suddenly states and looks away, towards the crumbled ceiling to our side. "My presence is needed." With this, he spreads his arms and a frigid wind blows around him, before it lifts him into the air.
"Wait!" I don't really want to keep fighting him, but I can't just let him go and join someone else's battle. And I have to assume that he's not the only one with such powers among the intruders. Zylos ignores me and flies away, but I won't let him go so easily.
"Spirit spears!" I shout and a whole array of them appear above me. Hearing my chant, he turns around in midair and stares at me in what I can only read as a menacing manner. But I've already made up my mind. I launch the spears at him like a shotgun blast, just like how my other half did it against the dragon she fought. I don't know how well he can control his flight, but it should be harder to dodge this way.
But he avoids them all by nimbly flying upwards. The spears disappear in the distance behind him, and he looks at me with an intense gaze even though he remains emotionlessly sullen. The fact that the spears didn't hit the barrier means that it must have been either pierced or taken down by now. I create a spike from my back and extend it behind me without averting my eyes from Zylos. It passes over the battlements and goes through where the barrier would have stopped me before without a problem. That means it has disappeared.
"Do you really wish to die right here?" He asks me rhetorically, but I'm only thinking of wasting his time and keeping him occupied here, so that he can't go to help whoever just called him using telepathy - or at least that's what I gather from his sudden decision of abandoning this battle.
"Try me." I grin at him fearlessly, but in reality I'm quite scared. My spirit spears can hurt him, but if he can fly like that, they won't be able to connect at all.
Wait, huh? When I look at him more closely, it seems like he just regenerated his body. The wounds I inflicted on him have all disappeared without a hint of having ever existed. Especially the chunk I took out of his arm was such a huge visual indicator that I was able to do some damage, but it's gone as if it never happened. That's cheating! It's like a game boss that can only be damaged by a very unreliable spell and then has the ability to regenerate passively!
In other words, if I can't kill him in one shot, he'll just heal straight up again. And considering he's actually not a game boss who only has a set attack pattern and won't learn from cheese tactics you can develop against him, I'll eventually run out of ways to utilize my spirit spears to actually hit him.
"As you wish." He answers my taunt without changing his expression and holds out a hand towards me. Bracing myself against a storm of ice shards like the last time, I try to shield my eyes. However, nothing happens and I look around in confusion. Then I realize that the temperature around me must be falling drastically, judging by the white clouds Kamii and I are creating with every breath. From the corners of my eyes I notice a flag waving in the wind freezing over and ceasing its movements. A moment later, the top of my head loses all its sensation and I react quickly, doing the only thing I can think of under these circumstances.
I swing my arm and wrap a piece of me around Kamii, which expands into a soft cocoon. Then I push her off the battlements, towards the city below.
In the next moment, I can no longer feel my body and I white out.
Runa Side
Lady Crux and Master Laiota told us that Rolan is necessary to defeat the demon queen, so we could not stay in the infirmary and waste any more time. Discovering Mistress Ninlil here and saving her was a lucky coincidence, but our real goal had been to find the demon queen and call the other groups to fight her together. Therefore, we attempted to leave, but were stopped by the maids outside the door, who looked like they wanted to kill us. Master Laiota commenced the battle by using mind magic, a unique type of magic apparently only he possesses.
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He made the spider demon girl fight the other maids, and we made our way through their midst in the ensuing confusion. Those who stood in our way were forced aside by Lady Crux's light barrier, which could not be penetrated by their spells and attacks. Sigurd is covering our retreat with his crossbow, but Lady Crux' barrier travels with us, so there is no real need for it; even Gram does not need to use his shield to protect us. In fact, he is carrying Mistress Ninlil, her petite figure that is even smaller than Kamii's looking like a small child in his arms. She has regained consciousness, but is physically very weak and cannot walk on her own.
The demon maids are following us down the corridor, but I create an ice wall behind us to stall for time and hold them back that way.
"What exactly is Rolan's role in this? The gods are so powerful, they do not seem to need the strength of a human to bring down the demon queen." I ask Lady Crux, since I still cannot understand why we are needed here. My magic is hardly comparable to that wielded by her, Master Laiota and Master Thorvadis, even if my execution is unconventional and different from the norm.
"I do not know. The Guide of Tomorrow has prophesized that he will be instrumental in the defeat of the demon queen. I do not want to speculate, as it may create wrong preconceptions regarding what you have to do." The Saint of Luminosity speaks without opening her eyes, turning to Rolan slightly as she explains. "I believe all will be revealed in due time." As mysterious as ever.
"The battle against the demon queen has begun." Master Laiota states as if he knows that for a fact.
At that moment, the sound of an explosion shakes the entire castle, which tilts slightly from the force. It is still being kept airborne through some unknown magic, but it goes to show that this is a precarious construction that could come down at any time if that magic should cease to function.
Rolan's expression is thoughtful and grim, as his words and actions have been subdued since the death of the demon boy. I can understand his confusion, especially considering the fact that he heard about the demon queen's aura being a boon for the demons from somewhere. Yet, as a human, he should not hesitate to choose his own kind over theirs. I know I would not hesitate, because it is a fact that there are plenty of dangerous beings among the demons whom we could never see eye to eye with. Sparing their queen would only continue to empower them, which in turn would cause suffering for innocent humans.
But at the same time, I can't help feeling doubt gnawing at the back of my mind regarding the legitimacy of the gods. Their actions are strange at best and suspicious at worst, with Shelnir's actions looking to be influenced by sadistic tendencies rather than by wanting to keep Rolan safe, when she killed the clearly harmless demon boy. Or maybe there is something that I do not see?
When we round a corridor, a cloaked figure floating a little above the ground enters our sight. This is Mithra, who was the court mage of the demon queen and turned into a collaborator in the alliance to bring her down, utilizing his powerful space magic to transport the masses of troops from the empire into the capital. Apparently Master Thorvadis considers him more powerful than himself, and I am really happy to know that he is on our side.
He is standing in front of a double-winged metal door covered with a detailed relief depicting demons scrambling for a massive ruby let into its center. From the other side of the corridor I see Master Thorvadis approach alongside Lord Alverost. The latter's expression is grim, which is a sign that something bad happened on their end, considering he has always been incredibly laid back in his attitude so far.
"What is the meaning of this, Mithra?" His aged voice is filled with anger as he addresses the floating cloaked man.
"What could be the matter, Lord Alverost?" The muffled voice emerging from the bandaged face is aloof, lacking respect for the god before him.
"Why is the Hall of Ascension completely sealed off from the outside?" Alverost points at the door, which apparently leads to the hall in question.
"My, that must have been cast by a considerably powerful mage, if it can hold a god back. I cannot fathom who could have done that." Even I can hear the sarcasm in his voice, and for a moment, I am completely confused in regards to the situation we have here. What is going on?
"Spare us your lies." From behind us the voice of Lord Zylos resounds through the corridor and I spin around. He has some holes in his clothes, but there is not a hint an injury on him even after fighting Chloe. The fact that he is here must mean that she and Kamii have been killed by him... "Let us inside."
"As you wish. But you may only enter through this gate." Mithra's almost aloof attitude stands in stark contrast to the tension filling the air. Why would he put forth such a condition? Is he on the demon queen's side or is he following his own agenda?
??? Side
Demon Queen Pelomyx, the Cradle of Chaos, is an existence beyond mortal understanding. Her ever-shifting form and unidentifiable face cause nothing short of nausea and terror to all who lay eyes on her. With a voice that grates on the nerves of those who are unfortunate enough to hear it and an aura that spreads dread and corruption, she is horror incarnate. Even a being as powerful as those who claim to be gods is not immune to her presence. And she is aware of that fact.
"If it is not Zenlith. How is that wound I gave you back then?" She taunts the Lord of the Sky, knowing that the other gods are not aware of the fact that he had been using the previous Emperor of Terminus, Lucianus IV, as his avatar and faced her before. At that time, she had been less than two years old and already been powerful enough to almost kill the god said to be the most powerful of them all.
Zenlith's eyebrows twitch at the mention of their previous encounter and a lightning bolt comes down on her. She takes it without even flinching and shakes her head, causing her tentacle hair to swing around behind her. It is clear that she is immune to it, much like how her daughter gained an immunity after taking several in consecution.
"How pitiful. Is this all?" Pelomyx's speaks in a mocking tone, but then she lowers her head for a moment, as her body trembles ever so slightly. She raises her gaze and looks at the three gods before her in succession. "You dare to challenge my wrath with the slaughter of my people and then fight me with those puny powers?!" Her otherworldly roar shakes the very air and defiles the notion of sound with its unnatural tone.
Shelnir is the first to crumble under the overwhelmingly otherness of the demon queen's existence, as she takes a step back from her. At this point, she has lost her will to fight this unfathomable monster they have so unwisely ignored for so long. The staff in her hand trembles as she attempts to transport herself away from her, to somewhere other than here. However, she realizes that there appears to be a barrier around the hall and her eyes go wide in realization; Mithra, the gatekeeper demon, must have done this. But she would have never imagined that he could be powerful enough to interfere with even her ability to move through space.
Serent realizes his mistake in underestimating the demon queen. He has been unsuccessful in trying to steal her life energy with his unique magic for a while now, with the only two explanations being that she is either not living or her concept of life is beyond his grasp. The former would offer solace in face of the possibility of the latter being true, and all that it implies. After all, Serent is as well versed in everything regarding life as Alverost is, only that his expertise lies in knowing how to end it. In this world, there should not be anything he does not know about living organisms.
"Do you really believe that to be my full power?" Zenlith speaks as he looks down on Pelomyx. "Your disrespect will come to an end here." Lifting a hand towards the demon queen, he increases the weight of the air above her, causing her knees to buckle under the pressure.
However, she catches herself and stands straight again after some adjustments to her mass, in the same way as her daughter did earlier. She raises an arm and extends its explosively, creating a spike aimed at the man floating above. He turns into lightning and dodges it easily, electrocuting his assailant in the process; as before, it shows no effect on her. Looking up, he notices that he was unable to muster as much force as he would normally have, as there appears to be an invisible barrier where the ceiling used to be. It was not there when he first came, so it means it must have been activated right after he cast that lightning bolt on her earlier.
To test that theory, he calls down another lightning strike from the outside, but it disappears right above him, around where the ceiling used to be. In other words, to affect anything within the hall, he can only manipulate the atmosphere inside it. His eyebrows crumple into an annoyed frown as he gathers all the air around the demon queen to crush her with its pressure. The latter notices his attempt, but increases her body's density further and withstands it without a problem.
Ignoring Zenlith's attack, Pelomyx turns her attention to Serent and swings a mass of tentacles at him, forming a massive fist in an attempt to push him back and crush him against the wall.
With a mighty slash, the skeleton swings his giant scythe and cuts the incoming fist in two. The halves travel past him and suddenly reconnect behind him. The two parts close in on him from both sides and swallow him whole. However, before he can be digested inside her, he uses his magic of decay to destroy her biological mass and burst out from her arm again. Even though she may not have the life energy he is so used to feeling in living beings, the fact that her body is still made up of cells means that he can fight her.
Pulling back the tentacles and returning them to their regular size, Pelomyx looks at the arm they form to check if there is any spreading decay left. Apparently she did not anticipate that Serent's power would work on her, but she immediately adjusts her body so that it can cover any surface exposed to his touch in a layer of inorganic matter, which she keeps inside herself at all times for a similar kind of situation. It was originally meant to guard against acids or other substances that can degrade biological matter, but maybe it can be used to block decaying effects.
With a glance at Shelnir, she can tell that the goddess is either not the fighting type or no longer has the will to oppose her otherworldly presence. She herself understands best what her true appearance does to others; when she looked in the mirror for the first time, she very nearly lost her mind from the shock, after all. But now it is a weapon, one that can even cause a god to lose morale.
At that moment, Zenlith uses his control over atmosphere to signal the other gods to come to the Hall of Ascension immediately. While he may not make anything pass through the barrier, the earlier lightning strike showed that he can still invoke his powers outside of it. Making sure that the others, who are locked in their own battles, know that they should wrap up their little skirmishes as quickly as possible, so that they may join them for the main event, the Lord of the Sky floats down to the ground and comes to stand before Pelomyx.
"Know that this is the greatest honor a lowly creature such as you can receive, to stand on the same ground as I." He states while looking down on the smaller demon queen. Her appearance is grotesque and even his overwhelmingly powerful mental capacity is unable to fully process the visual information of her face, as if it is being censored by the world itself rather than by the mind of the beholder. "And understand that it means you will perish here, for I will muster everything I have to destroy you."
A moment of silence follows in which Pelomyx looks up at Zenlith with her featureless face behind which a dreadful and powerful intent is unmistakably present nonetheless. Then it cracks open in what could only be seen as a wide, toothless grin beyond which the abyss itself lurks.
"Just what I was hoping for!" She growls, anger and joy mixing into sinister anticipation.
Then the metal door to the Hall of Ascension opens.