YUKINA AYLING

I didn’t have a plan for taking on the demon, but I knew we had to fight. I was confident because I wasn’t fighting the demon alone; Evren fought alongside me. We just had to win somehow.

The demon, a middle-aged man, conjured ice spells against us. I expected to see him wield other elements like Vixra did, but he didn’t. I wished I had time to explain details of my battle with Vixra to Evren, at least giving her a head-start so she would know what to expect since she’d never faced a demon, but there wasn’t any time for that.

“Just follow my lead. You can do that, right?” I asked her, and she nodded without any objections.

The sequence of events that followed was a nonstop and relentless onslaught; fire burned, melting ice sizzled, the sound of my sword hitting solid surfaces clanked from time to time, lightning zipped around and ice shattered. Walls of ice did the most in fending off our attacks, while a barrage of ice spikes was constantly shot at us. Evren’s fire was supposed to be a good counter against the demon’s ice attacks, but he proved formidable. Our situation didn’t get any better as his falx made it even more difficult for us.

Taking out a falx wasn’t supposed to pose so much of a problem, but we couldn’t focus on it; the demon didn’t give us the chance to do so, and even if we stubbornly concentrated on the falx, trying to kill it, we would be left vulnerable to attacks from the demon.

As our battle continued, I turned around after slashing through an ice wall, and surprisingly, I saw Svan.

“H-How is this possible?” I asked myself.

I was still in denial and felt my sight was playing pranks on me.

“It has to be Svan,” I concluded after he smiled at me.

I felt light; it was as though a load I’d been carrying on my back suddenly dropped. The words “Svan is alive” echoed in my head, and I was almost brought to tears. I wanted to call him, but I was too surprised to speak. Svan gave off a different vibe as he stood in between two falxes, confident about taking them head-on.

In that brief time-lapse, I had already forgotten that I was in the middle of a fight and was not-so-gently reminded when an iced spike stabbed me. I winced in pain as the spike did more than just sting. The injury wasn’t fatal, so I knew I would be fine. Evren noticed that I was injured and took the offensive position to buy me time to heal. Even though I was injured, it felt as though I was filled with new energy to fight because I saw Svan.

With the falx gone, it became easier for us to solely focus on the demon. I already triggered phantom steal, and though it felt like we were pressing harder on him, we didn’t land any significant strike on him. He attacked and defended simultaneously, so we couldn’t get within striking distance because there was always something to avoid or slash. If we kept o going like that, we would eventually get to the point of fatigue.

I had an idea as I yelled,

“Follow me closely behind.”

“Why?” Evren asked.

“I will take the hit from most of his spells. Strike when I say so.”

There was no response, but I knew she would do as I said. Though I cut through a considerable amount of the demon’s spells, some of them landed on me. They were painful, and some even threatened to knock me off, but I was determined to move forward. The distance between the demon and us shortened as I dashed towards him. He shot a conjured spear made entirely of ice in my direction. The spear approached frighteningly, and even though I strengthened my body to take the hit, it was going to throw me off course. I couldn’t afford to get knocked off because we were almost in striking distance and the spear hitting me meant we’d have to start over again.

Evren seemed to perfectly understand the situation as she shot bolts of lightning from behind me, which collided with the ice spear, shattering it. Thanks to Evren, I got within arm’s reach of the demon, swinging my swords in his direction. He blocked, by erecting a wall of ice in front of him, but I cut through it. I tried to slash at his neck, but my swords were met with ice conjured instantaneously. I got his full attention as I screamed.

“Evren, now!”

Evren shot lightning bolts at him as ice shards from the collision between their spells scattered all over.

“Oh,” I remarked.

It turned out that demons didn’t have to be fully conscious of where an attack spell came from, almost like their defensive abilities had a mind of their own. It didn't matter at that point because I succeeded in bringing Evren close to him. If Evren wasn’t anything, she was relentless. Evren continued her insistent bombardment of lightning spells, and even when he conjured large shields, she burned them away.

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The demon couldn’t conjure an attack spell to put some distance between us anymore. He had to focus on defending against our onslaught. I stabbed toward his chest, and as expected, a thick ice slab appeared from nowhere to stop my blades. I couldn’t tell if I was lucky or if Evren was just sublimely precise as a streak of lightning broke the slab just as I was about to punch a hole through it with my sword. I didn’t meet any resistance as I drove my sword through his chest. The demon fell to his knees.

“We did it,” Evren gasped as she searched my face for a reaction.

“No. He isn’t dead, not yet,” I replied, dissatisfied.

I knew I missed his nexus, and though I was lucky to have even stabbed him, I was mad at myself. The fight would have been over if I had been a bit more precise.

Since we started fighting against the demon, I didn’t see any black flames on him, so I knew it was far from over.

“We need to finish him off now,” I said as I tried to drive my second sword through his nexus. Simultaneously, Evren tried to send a lightning bolt in his direction, but we were late as black flames engulfed him immediately. A large glacier erupted from the ground following an explosion that shot me away from him.

“Just what I thought.”

The situation went from favorable to worse for us. Evren had to impose a Feel realm because it was about the right time, but she didn’t, and I understood why she didn’t, or rather, why she was hesitating to do it. It was evident that the demon’s Feel stage was higher than hers. Talking about the Feel realm, the demon imposed his and froze the entire area where we fought. The air was thin, and breathing was difficult. The cold bit my skin and I couldn’t stop myself from shivering.

Panels of ice around us, their edges were sharp and glossy. I heard Evren’s voice,

“Is he really trying to skewer us in an icy grave?”

“Looks like it,” I replied.

The panels were too many to count, and they were arranged in a way that made it look like a tower of ice stretched so high up that I couldn’t see its peak.

“Stay close to me,” Evren said to me.

I didn't need to ask questions because I knew she had a good reason for saying what she said. Golden-colored motes floated around the area we stood, and just as the ice panels began to crash, a fire dome covered us. There were nonstop sizzling sounds produced from melting ice, but the dome held firm, and the fire burnt fiercely. Though I wasn't feeling any heat inside the dome, its outer part burned fiercely and had to be extremely hot because the ice panels melted instantly as they came in contact with the fiery dome.

Evren was a lifesaver. It was incredible that she managed to stop panels of such numbers and size from crashing on us, but I could tell that it took a toll on her. Just when I thought the worst was over, the demon conjured another towering rise of similar panels.

“I don’t think I will be able to hold this one off,” Evren said in a tired tone.

I tried to think of a remedy to our current situation, but nothing came up. At that point, we needed help. I was angry because I was about to get beaten by a demon for the second time, even when I had Evren fighting alongside me. I never knew anger could make someone cry, and that person was me. I was mad at myself to the point where tears started to drop from my eyes. I clenched my fist,

“I thought I was strong,” I muttered.

Evren was looking at me, but she didn’t say anything. Her expression wasn’t sympathetic but gave the impression that she understood my feelings. The second wave of panels came crashing. Evren groaned as she did all she could to stop them from falling on us. A panel broke through and crashed right in front of us. Another did the same, and another as the dome started to wane. I strengthened my body with my stillbring, preparing for the worst. Evren was breathing heavily, unaware of the ice panel about to fall on her. I dived at her just in time to prevent what could have been a fatality. We both fell to the ground as I used my body as a shield to protect her from the rest of the panels that came crashing on us.

* * *

I couldn’t tell if I was surprised when I opened my eyes to find myself in the castle manor. I saw the same woman I’d always seen in my dreams, but she was no longer pregnant this time.

“Why do I always see her? Who is she, and why is she in the Choryth manor?”

These questions clamored in my head, but unfortunately, there was no one to provide answers to them. Speaking of dreams,

“Did I fall asleep?” I asked myself.

The last thing I remembered was shielding Evren from a barrage of ice panels. Maybe I passed out from the impact. I had a strong feeling that I wasn't dead because I always woke up whenever I found myself in this dream where I saw this familiar-faced woman. The woman was talking to Lord Edger and was carrying a baby, her baby. I tried to walk close to them to hear what they spoke about, but an ice spike flew past me and struck the wall beside me.

“I am not supposed to be here,” I muttered.

The ice spike was an indication that the battle against the demon still needed to be concluded. I tried to grab the spike, and surprisingly I did. If it was part of the dream, there was no way I would be able to touch it. My life was at stake. I stabbed my thigh with the spike to generate enough pain to jolt me into consciousness, and it worked. I opened my eyes to shards of ice scattered around me. I felt fine, except for the stab wound I gave myself.

“If we passed out, why didn’t he finish us off?”

Evren was lying unconscious, I tapped her hands a few times, but she was unresponsive.

Someone’s shadow fell upon me. I was scared to look up because I thought it was the end; the demon had come to kill us. I still had some fight in me, but I knew I would still lose. I tried not to think about anything because I didn’t want my last moments to be filled with regret, so I shut my eyes and held Evren’s hands tightly.

The next sound my ears picked up was a thud; it sounded like someone fell beside me, which forced me to open my eyes. What I saw left me speechless. The demon who I thought had come to kill us lay dead on the floor. What was more shocking was what I saw afterward; the woman I had always seen in my dreams was standing right before me. Her sword was blood-stained; it was apparent that she had killed the demon. When we passed out, the demon couldn't finish us off because she fought him off. The woman was smiling,

“Hello there,” she said to me.

My mouth was open in awe,

“W-Who….are you?” I stammered.