The demonic imp, Rytus, glared at the princess before him. She was unbelievable. To think that she could escape from her chains, it was absurd. He did not know how she would even be capable of doing as such. Two black shackles would have been enough to seal a demon’s power, or any magical being. But he opted to put four, each for her hands and legs.

That should have been more than enough to seal a greater being’s magic.

And not only that, she was supposed to be asleep. The sleeping dust he used was of the most potent, a handful amount would be enough to knock a behemoth out cold. Even the dread lords, among the highest ranks in the demon race, would not be immune to its effects. And the princess was cast with sleeping dust two times.

Furthermore, concerned about her waking up sooner, when it was sunset, Rytus sprinkled a small amount of dust on her while she slept. Only a small amount because he was concerned about overdosing her, he didn’t know what effect it would take. It might kill her for all he knew. She, in the end, had a human body. A human body was fragile and had short limitations.

The ship’s captain offered him food for dinner. Rytus wanted to rest and enjoy a bit of delicious food. Thus, considering that she had four magic sealing shackles attached to her, and had just been sprinkled with sleeping dust, Rytus thought that it was fine to leave the princess for the time being. But to think that choice of his came back to bite him.

It was his mistake, a big mistake. Perhaps he became too complacent.

The princess was just beyond normal reason.

I must restrain her.

That was what he must do. The princess should be weak, and yet she seemed not. However, she should be in constant pain. She wouldn’t hold out for long. But, why was he doubting it? The princess was not normal. There was something different about her. Something eerie. There was more to her than met the eye.

Be that as it may, he must still get her back in control.

As Rytus took a step forward, small flames were produced on the wooden floor. He flapped his wings, and it sent out a powerful gust of wind that even made the humans to halt for a moment. To witness what horror he had become.

“Careful, demon,” the princess said. “You might destroy the ship.”

“If it means stopping you from escaping, so be it.”

With no more words, the princess rushed towards Rytus. As she got closer, he swung his claws at her. He didn’t want to fatally wound her, thus he didn’t set his claws ablaze. And his movements were faster than before. But he couldn’t help but be surprised to see the princess evade his attacks.

From the princess’s foot, a more powerful ice compared to before rose to engulf Rytus. While he was restrained for a moment, the princess struck him to the neck with her magic coated blade. However, her eyes widened upon making contact. Her blade didn’t pierce through Rytus’s red skin, except for a tiny nick. But that, of course, instantly healed.

The princess quickly made a gap between them.

Rytus chuckled. “Your daggers are worthless now, Princess. Surrender.”

Without listening, the princess held out her hand, and a couple bolts of fire shot out, hitting Rytus. However, he was unscathed.

“Flames? Seriously? I can walk through hellfire.”

She glanced at the ship as though she was thinking. As she did that, Rytus charged at her and he swung down his claws. The princess conjured small barriers to block his attacks before quickly fleeing. But Rytus kept on attacking.

And then the princess managed to strike him to the stomach with her bare hands. And that one punch blew him up and away from the ship. However, that strike was essentially ineffective, and he flapped his wings as he healed.

The princess used her wind to make herself fly into the air and cast multiple lightning strikes towards Rytus. He dodged a couple but failed on the rest. The sheer strength of her magic hurt him.

She had me move away from the ship.

It would seem she was preventing the ship from being destroyed or damaged. Well, it didn't matter to the demon. That could only mean he could be less restrained in using his abilities. But perhaps the same applied to the princess as well.

He charged at her, and she abruptly turned with a burst of wind to push herself away. He kept on swinging down at her, but even in the air, he still could not land a hit on her. It was incredibly infuriating. The princess thrust her hand forward, and a burst of wind blew him away from her.

Rytus’s claws were engulfed in infernal flames. As he was moved in the air, he swung both his hands, sending several slashes of fire towards the princess. They grew wider the farther they got. The princess shielded herself with her barriers, and then several bolts of plain magic spawned beside her. She waved her hand, and they shot out at incredible speed.

Rytus flapped his wings and dodged them quickly. As they missed, the magical projectiles fell to the ocean water far below. At the same time, the princess extended her daggers with her magical threads. She held the threads and began swinging them in the air, sending wide crimson arcs of light at the demon, lighting up the dark night sky. Her swings were swift and powerful, like a whip fiercely lashing out.

The slashes hit the demon, lashing his skin. But despite that, they were shallow at best, not even enough to be considered as wounds, thanks to his hardened skin. But still despite his rapid regeneration and hard skin, he was still annoyed.

He flapped his wings vigorously and quickly caught up to the princess. With a burst of wind under her feet, she moved away and evaded his claws, and then threw one of her daggers sideways, and its thread wrapped around the demon’s neck. A burst of slashes erupted from the blade, but as expected, they barely wounded him.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

While the thread loosened, the princess retracted her dagger. But Rytus caught up to her, and he slammed both his fists down on her. Her freshly conjured barriers protected her from direct impact, but that still blew her descending to the water.

She regained flight quickly, but the demon, with blazing wings, grabbed her head — or rather, it should have been if she hadn’t conjured another barrier to protect it. Rytus was baffled by how her reflexes were even that fast. However, that wouldn’t save her.

He gripped the barrier around her head tightly and increased the intensity of his hand’s blaze. He descended to the sea, and she crashed into the water. Rytus flew just above the water, while the princess in his hand was grinding on the water surface unprotected. Water splashed all over as her trail was briefly made to the ocean as they moved.

“You bastard!” The princess glared at him with a scowl.

The demon grinned. “That’s it! You’re finally stressed!”

It was so exhilarating to finally see her break from her calm and stoic face. That meant he was doing damage.

Lightning crackled, and then a powerful blast of lightning blew Rytus upwards, causing him to let go of her. At the same time, the princess propelled herself upwards with a blast of wind, causing a wave on the water's surface, and she punched the demon on the chin with an audible boom. She punched and punched him in the face, and blasted him with magic at point blank.

They flew high up all over the air, one attacking, the other evading or defending. The demon had his regeneration to keep him healthy, while the princess had her magical shields to protect her from direct damage. Their speed left powerful wind bursts to scatter, and their battlefield was both the ocean and the sky.

They went above the ship, and it rattled at their passing. The sounds of their attack boomed, echoing in the once peaceful ocean, their magic spells’ flashes lit up the night.

“Not your blades, not even the different kinds of magic you use can kill me, Princess!”

Hearing that, the princess frowned, displeased.

“Indeed.”

The princess cast a condensed ball of magic and hammered it down to the demon. He was sent plummeting close to the ocean surface before he quickly regained his wings. The damage was intense, but nothing his regeneration couldn’t handle. He looked up to see the princess ascending a little further, and Rytus moved to catch up, his flaming wings leaving lines in the air.

But then, the princess raised both her hands, her daggers hanging by the threads. A ball of bright blue and white formed above her, increasing in intensity that it disturbed the very air around her. And then, Rytus noticed a change in her eyes. The pair was different from just now. They were glowing like the starry night.

And the princess lowered her hand, and what followed was a pillar of cold magic flowing downwards. Because of its sheer width and speed, Rytus was caught up in it.

“NO!” He was plunged into the sea, as the ice began to form and spread.

The seawater was freezing so quickly. The princess’s magic froze the water, reaching two hundred meters deep, and from the magic’s epicenter, the ice spread out up to five hundred meters. And it was not soft or anything, the water was frozen solid. All manner of sea creatures that swam within it were not spared. The sheer cold killed them in an instant.

Rytus’s body blazed with infernal flames, and he pushed himself up, back to the surface. It took great effort to break and melt through the ice. He broke through the surface a moment after and once he reached air, he breathed heavily, his wings flapping intensely. He was feeling intensely cold, only gradually being warmed by his own flames. He looked around to see the ship stranded, stuck in the middle of the ice floor.

What the hell? What is this?

The depth, the distance it covered, he couldn’t have imagined she was capable of such a thing. However, it didn't stop him. He found the princess standing on the ice floor. Rytus grinned.

“You think that can hold me?!”

But the princess ignored him, and he noticed that she had her left sleeve pulled back.

What is she doing?

She lifted her dagger on the right hand and made a cut on her left forearm. Blood started coming out. But then, the blood shifted and began crawling all over the blade’s flat. Afterwards, she touched the blade with the other, and some of the blood spread to it. Her own blood shifted and formed into what appeared like veins and coated the blades’ edges.

Manipulating blood?

She held out her hand to heal the cut and gazed up at him with her inhuman eyes. Rytus glared back as she flourished her blades. The princess cast her wind and propelled herself towards him. When she reached him, she swung her blade at him. He dodged her attacks, but then the princess cast a powerful blast of wind at him, sending him plummeting and crashing into the ice floor.

“Agh…” The impact was more powerful than she had used from before.

The princess landed right in front of him and began attacking him with her daggers. He dodged and counterattacked, but the princess evaded. In their exchange of attacks, the princess suddenly got faster, to Rytus’s confusion.

“None of your weapons can hurt me, princess—”

And then, when the princess evaded to the side, she extended her dagger forward, and managed to make a cut to his shoulder. At that, Rytus gasped in shock. His eyes were utterly wide. The cut on his flesh sizzled, and steam began to rise. He panicked and vigorously parried her weapons before quickly moving away from her.

He glanced at the cut, it felt like it burned him. It was healing, however, a little slower than before. With wide eyes, he returned his sight to the princess, who seemed to be surprised as well. She glanced at her daggers for a moment and raised her eyes back towards him.

Rytus thought of how it was possible. She seemed incapable of using holy magic. Then, what could it be?

The blood on her blade?

And the blood she used.

Her blood?!

Her blood was the one that was holy. It was the one that was divine. Rytus placed a trembling hand on the cut on his shoulder. The wound had healed, but he could still feel the burning sensation.

The princess now possessed something he was weak to. Something that would gradually nullify his regeneration capabilities.

The princess charged towards him. Wary, Rytus flapped his wings and propelled himself into the sky. The princess threw her dagger, and it stabbed into his leg.

“Gah!”

He pulled it out of his leg and sent slashes of infernal flames at the princess. She dodged it all, and she threw her dagger sideways, connected to her hand by its thread. He defended himself by holding out his claws to intercept it. Upon contact, the dagger nicked his claws. Seeing that, the flames around his claws burst out, throwing off the dagger.

But another dagger stabbed through his forearm and he was pulled in. Before he got to escape, the princess had already positioned herself behind him, and he swung down her dagger at his back, aiming for the root of his wing. Blood spurted out along with a sizzling white steam.

“Stay away!” he shouted.

Rytus forcefully pulled in his hand, freeing himself from the dagger. But the princess slammed down her boot into his head, kicking him down back to the frozen floor. He crashed again, he quickly looked up at her as the wound on his forehead was healing, but slower than before.

At that moment, the princess conjured a giant pillar of ice above him. It was more than fifty meters tall, and thirty meters thick. It quickly fell down towards him. Rytus ran away to safety, and he stumbled to the floor as he did. The giant ice pillar crashed into the ice floor with a loud rumble, shards of ice flying into the air.

Rytus gritted his teeth as he glared up at her.

The princess calmly landed atop the pillar and looked down at him with her inhuman eyes. One that reflected the appearance of the stars above. As she held her blood coated daggers, she swept her one hand to the side. Magic spells began to appear around her. They consisted of many things, balls of plain magic, spears of ice, bolts of fire, and concentrated lightning. And altogether, they filled the space all around her atop the ice pillar.

At that moment, Rytus felt like he had a glimpse of divinity.

The princess, Estelia, waved her hand forward.