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Late On a December Night
Chapter 13: Castle in the Sky

Chapter 13: Castle in the Sky

"Why did you pause? Keep going!" Alex exclaimed at the far-off look in the man's eyes. He shook himself off and continued the story.

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I was at the front gates, planning to face what seemed to be an army of demons head-on, with my blade in hand and chickens at my feet. One would wonder if this was a bad idea. Yes, it was, to tell the truth, but I decided to continue regardless. I've felt invincible, with the powers I had able to predict and counter anything thrown at me, and I knew eventually something would stop me and put me in my place. History taught me that, and I could only hope that I managed to live through it.

I shook off my indecision and plunged my blade into the door, cutting through it in the hopes it looked more menacing than opening the door and walking in as a normal person would. I finished cutting a large hole in the door and kicked the piece in, walking through surrounded on all sides by chickens wildly bending Time in random sequences. There was a small contingent of lesser demons, though they seemed to kill each other often enough. The greater demon, or demons, didn't seem to have the same control over the beasts as the last monstrosity I fought.

I used my eternal moment, knowing that ultimate abilities are used for the beginning of a fight, not the end, unless there were drawbacks you couldn't fight through, such as when I claimed an area as a sovereign space.

As the beasts were slowed I ran up to them, blade flashing as I pumped Time into it, testing to see if I could change how much of Sonsuz Kiyamet's imprint on this reality I could get, and with my stronger connection to the pyramid, I enhanced the size of the blade to the point where I swung and several bestial heads flew along with sprays of thick blood. I mowed through, changing the imprint of my blade when necessary. I realized how powerful this adaptive size truly was. I finished off the monsters in the room and advanced beyond the large main courtyard. I didn't have enough of my eternal moment to truly look at the space, but I did enjoy how much space it gave me to fight in, something that made murdering the large and slow demons rather easy. The smaller ones took more precision, but it wasn't a problem.

I advanced straight forward, running at top speed. The next room was all flyers. I realized then how strange it was that there were demons up here that couldn't fly. At the end of that train of thought my eternal moment ran out. Perfect. I jumped up, landing on the back of a leathery flying monstrosity with a beak. I pull the ambient magic in the area into a rope and used it to steer the beast. I would steer into other creatures and let the demon I rode have its fill, while my chickens spread chaos.

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Eventually, I killed off the demons in that room, and moved forward once again, resummoning my chickens as they had been massacred. In the next room, I found a throne room with only one demon in it, a greater demon as I had learned to recognize them on sight.

A human, standing at just under six feet and clearly feminine. Her shape was hidden behind a swarm of insects crawling in the form of a skin-tight dress. Other than the bugs that would periodically crawl in and out of any hole in her body, even squeezing out of the eye sockets around the visual organs, she was quite beautiful. She had long blonde hair that hung loosely at the small of her back. She seemed to be. . . Well, playing with someone.

"Oh, sorry honey, I need a moment." the greater demon said to the person in the cage as spiders, bees, and locusts crawled over her skin, a moment from taking her life. "I don't need another toy, I have a perfectly good one right here. You can leave, if you can survive," she said, her voice is thousands of hums in a way that makes words, and it was oddly seductive. I was ashamed to admit that I was mildly aroused for a moment.

"I propose a challenge. A fight to the death." I said. I then realized I had no good way to fight a swarm, but I was too deep already. "If you kill me, then on my person you will find a place to get more people. More toys so you don't have to be careful with them." stupid stupid stupid.

"Ooh, that is intriguing. I also wouldn't mind playing with you, just for a bit. Don't worry honey, I'll be back to you soon." she said to the person she was torturing. As she turned her head I spun the magic in the area into the pattern of the Time curse. I felt it set in and start drawing on the ambient magic to fuel the power long-term. "I accept, man in red."

I activated my eternal moment and shot forward. She was fast but caught off guard by the use of such a powerful ability. She dodged my first strike and tried to motion insects to attack me, but nothing happened. I took off two fingers as she frowned and tried again, this time pumping more magic into the bugs. They crawled forward, still easy to get around, but getting harder as she spread the bees all over the area. I didn't try too hard to kill her, I simply prepared the room. She seemed to notice that I was doing something, but without any knowledge of what it was, she could do nothing to counter it.

I converted the area for Time, and both she and her prisoner, panicked before their low magic density froze them. I cut down the demon and dropped my eternal moment so I could help the captured woman. Then every bug in the room detonated in my future vision. I pulled my eternal moment back into place and ran, pushing the insects from the woman as fast as I could, knowing that reality was going to reassert itself soon. I picked her up, and ran from the room, collapsing immediately as I left the sovereign space.

In my last moments, I felt the room behind me detonate, and I slipped into unconsciousness, a panicked woman trapped under me.