As the green swirling ball of flames disappeared into her body, Janet admitted that she’d been had. Throughout the fight, she’d been led around by the nose like a minotaur on a bull ring. Her little victories had felt oh so good, and she’d chased after the demon’s pained shrieks and annoyed grunts, wholly playing into Iralith’s plan the entire time.
As the ghostly flames scoured away at her insides, she lambasted herself for not having taken the biggest factor in that fight to mind – the demon’s cunning. She’d fought as though the imp were a brainless hunk of flying flesh, unwilling to acknowledge her glaring lack of viable strategy to defeat such a foe.
Iralith had teased and baited, allowing Janet to overcommit with her every move. It had then let her gain little victories like a chipped claw or a torn arm, while in reality its overall plan was to take measured risks and calculated moves. All for the express purpose of getting copious amounts of Hellfire into her body.
When the fight was over, Janet swore to have Darius and Sylthis drill her on anti-personnel tactics. Her primary foes were going to be cults, uppity adventurers out to collect themselves some sort of bounty… and the damned religions.
She needed to know how to destroy thinking beings without ending up with flames shooting out of her nostrils.
Well, she had been had… but she too had an ace up her sleeve. [Construct Field - Shadow] was a heedless beast that delivered indiscriminate destruction and devastation. It would scour the land, air, vegetation, ground… nowhere was safe.
The Skill would carry on until its mana ran out, and this time Janet had ensured that it would be using the very rich reserves of shadow mana present within the still-dark jungle. She could have chuckled if not for the pain. That [Construct Field] would be lashing at everything for hours.
If the demon thought the battle was over…
While the burning was indeed maddeningly excruciating, Janet noted that the drowsiness had gradually subsided. She was not sure whether it was the core-deep pain that kept her awake, or her own innate resistance against Status Effects. Either way, she was glad that her battle against turning into a smoldering pile of ashes was not as steep as had appeared at first.
And yet, the flames kept burning, and with their anti-regenerative effect, she was fast running out of time.
A quick look into her body revealed that the situation could not have been worse. Her flesh was being spared, but that was little comfort. The ethereal flames were targeting her mana channels… and her core.
She’d soon lose all capability to retaliate if she let the situation persist unchanged. She needed a plan, and fast.
Trying to influence the flames was a lost cause. Unlike the poison that she had easily burnt away, fire was harder to burn, for obvious reasons.
Her second option was to purify the flames and turn them into mana that she could freely use, or failing that easily expel. The problem was that Hellfire was a specialized flame that was quite literally extraplanar. The Mysteries that made it tick were too alien to unravel in the few short minutes that she had before she was overwhelmed.
As she scoured her memory for any knowledge that she could utilize, Janet fell upon the realization that she had neglected research into anything outside her Sphere. She knew too many ethnic languages to count, more runic combinations than she knew what to do with, and even more obscure magic theory, all specific to her Sphere’s mana craft.
Yet, here was something that could save her life…
Self-recrimination would not lead anywhere. If her studies were of no help, perhaps her experiences in the jungle?
‘There!’ a memory came to mind, clear as the moment it had happened. The day Janet had created [Shadow Bolt] once more replayed in her mind.
She once again had foreign mana running rampant inside her internal system that threatened to destroy her from the inside out. Once more, the mana was on a path to obliterating her mana system, and most importantly the only method left to her to cleanse herself of it was to eject it manually and violently from her system.
She remembered the process she’d employed like it was yesterday. Her first self-created Skill was important enough to recall with alacrity, after all. First, Janet had drawn towards her palm a dollop of ambient shadow mana, then she had let the mana from her body be drawn towards that spot. The rest was just to point and shoot.
Janet tried replicating the process, switching shadow for fire.
Again, Hellfire was not regular old primal flames. Ambient motes of fire were indeed drawn towards her palm, but the mana that they drew from her system was plain vermillion fire, not ghostly, mana-scouring, Mystery-stealing demonic flame.
Out of options and hanging onto hope by a thread, Janet let the flame dissipate. She wracked her mind for a solution. None was forthcoming.
Then, it hit her. The wound in her belly had been flaming!
If Janet remembered correctly, the demon had ignited its fluids to create the ghostly flame. Clearly, it was not the normal Fire Magic created from an expenditure of mana. Iralith’s flame also ignited the entirety of whatever it touched, such as covering entire trees. The way the flames had gathered was also suspect.
Things had been on fire, but nothing had actually been burning. Those same trees were still standing. A little bit more wilted, but standing.
All that to say, the flame was just a phenomenon manifested by the qualities of the demon's anatomy. It had no substance of itself, no qualities other than those inherent to the demon. In other words, the flame was utterly conceptual.
Oh, how Janet wanted to dance a jig of joy at discovering that fact! All her years of studying magic theory had come through. Now that she knew what she was dealing with, she hatched up a plan.
When dealing with conceptual magic, the first order of business was to bind it to one's mana. To use a mana crystal, one had to mix in a bit of their own mana into its reserves to get at its Mysteries. An enchanted weapon worked similarly. To make full use of one, binding it to one’s core was absolutely crucial.
After the binding, the second step was either to overpower and smother the Concept, or expunge it together with the mana it was fused to Janet opted to go for the second option.
First though, she needed to isolate her mana system from the outside so Iralith could no longer affect its flames. That was easily accomplished by stuffing her orifices – wound included – with shadow. That way, unless the demon possessed Shadow Affinity and could wrest away her control of those plugs, the flame inside her was completely severed from its master.
Next, Janet allowed her Fire Affinity mana to intermix with the Hellfire. She’d been reticent to do so at first since that would have led to the ‘refinement’ of her Mysteries into nourishment for the demon… but now she allowed it to take place freely.
Holy flaming petals of Gaia! Pain unlike any other assailed Janet’s senses. Before the Hellfire had only managed to infiltrate her mana channels. Now her organs, muscles, cells – all things that contained the faintest hint of Fire Affinity within – were set alight.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Janet allowed herself a moment of reprieve by howling into the film of shadow fused to her lips and nostrils. She also shed a few tears, but those too caught fire and disappeared with a sizzle.
Having thoroughly bound Hellfire to her fire mana, Janet bit her tongue to distract herself from her pain. Once more, she repeated the bolt-forming process. A mote of ambient fire was drawn to her palm.
Janet closed her eyes and with an excruciating stuttering circulation of her core, she pumped the Hellfire-fire mix of mana into that tiny mote. A swirling ball of green and red was born. Janet angled it away from herself and shot it into the air.
Ding!
You have learnt [Firebolt] (Uncommon)
You have earned 3 SP
Janet was now only 2 points away from being able to purchase [Shadow Authority], but her flaming insides took highest priority.
“What did you do?” a horrified voice, panting with exertion, screamed into her ears.
For a moment, Janet let her eye scan the outside world. [Construct Field - Shadow] was just getting revved up. There were at most 100 constructs, but soon they’d multiply into thousands, then there was no stopping it beyond that point.
‘Is the demon appalled that I bound its Hellfire, or is it worried the constructs will pound it to paste?’
It was not concern of hers, either way. She was burning, and she could almost feel her constituent Mysteries get scoured away by the errant flames.
Firing away three more [Firebolts], A crazy idea occurred to Janet. What if she learned [Shadow Authority] and used it to control [Construct Field - Shadow] to use against the pesky demon? She’d be exhausted and almost out of mana by the time her body was rid of the Hellfire. [Shadow Authority] was her surest shot at victory.
All she had to do was empower [Firebolt] into [Empowered Firebolt], and luckily her desperation earlier had netted her the shadow version of that Skill.
The next [Firebolt] saw a simple combination of runes get added into it. Just like it did to the [Shadow Bolt], the bolt of flame became unruly and unstable, ready to explode, and eager to rend and shred with abandon.
Ding!
You have learnt [Empowered Firebolt] (Rare)
You have earned 4 SP.
Janet continued firing off [Firebolts] as with an evil grin on her angelic face, she clicked the prompt to purchase [Shadow Authority] (1/10)
Suddenly, information from every single umbral substance in a 100-meter radius around her was poured into her mind. Her next [Firebolt] almost imploded in her face, but the shadows delivered a picture of that into her mind too. She quickly willed herself to dodge, and unbidden, a slick construct of manifested night took hold of her jacket’s hood and pulled her into the ground.
All that, from clicking the prompt to purchase the Skill and finding herself facing the sky, had taken place inside a fraction of a blink
Janet, overwhelmed by all the new sights, sounds and sensations she suddenly had access to, found herself taking a double take, then a third, uncomprehending glance at what Iralith was doing.
The demon had its maw wide open, nightmare-inducing rows of teeth on display. The flame Janet had just shot out, in all its destructive, rending gloriousness, was torn apart midair and gulped down like an oyster.
Another look revealed that the demon’s arm was almost healed all the way, and with the gulp of the combo of Hellfire and Janet’s mana, more flesh regrew at a speed very reminiscent of her own regeneration.
“Now you’ve done it,” she growled as she completely ignored the burning inside her body.
She would burn, and she would be turned into a pile of ash within the next few minutes. But before that came to pass, the demon would fall.
“What? I just took back what was mine,” the demon smirked, revealing only its outermost row of shark-like teeth. It still was a hideous sight.
[Shadow Authority] gave Janet control over the [Construct Field]. With a considerable exertion of Will, she kicked the Skill into overdrive. Every single shadow in Janet’s range received a command to absorb as much ambient shadow mana as possible, and to send it into the writhing monster of rending tentacles and violently spasming limbs of shadow.
100 tentacles became 700, then 9,000, then Janet ordered them to lengthen and bring down the flying red blob.
For the first time, the uppity demon’s panic looked real. Its flight path weaved, dodged, and made unbelievably circuitous turns between contorting tentacles intent on pulverizing it and the dead trees that they emerged from. Yet, Janet noticed, the demon did not retreat even a single millimeter outside the Dead Zone.
She was really going for its life with her all. For some unknown reason, Iralith did not dare leave the zone of lifelessness, as though beyond it lay certain death.
Janet smirked. To think she had the demon trapped this entire time!
Limbs of shadow gained sharpened tips and straight ends. Spears shot from the edges of the Dead Zone, each a weak and pitiful force that could barely perforate the demon’s skin. Thousands of them all at once, however, promised an excruciating death by a thousand cuts.
Any time Iranith tried to escape towards the edges, spears corralled it toward a central point.
Janet felt her mind quickly growing fatigued. [Shadow Authority] was a major sink of mental stamina. But it was so, so effective. Where spear failed, Janet transformed it into a whip. Where Iralith managed to dodge even that, she tripped up its flight with a makeshift net, which allowed other spears room to harangue and perforate.
Janet had to agree that the demon did its best. But two hands against 1,000 relentless spears was just insurmountable. The writing was clear. This round was hers.
Iralith was now panting with exertion. Its left arm was again a mess of ripped flesh and exposed bone, and all over its diminutive, naked form were countless lacerations dripping green fluid.
The demon realized its only way to hold on to life was to kill Janet as fast as possible. Claws of obsidian shone with green flames as Iralith shot towards a Janet seemingly enfeebled by the flames ravaging through her insides. Its ears were pressed against its head, its single working hand held straight for maximum speed.
Janet did not impede its approach.
A tendril of shadow pulled Janet to the side. Another deflected the demon’s arm upwards, nullifying its penetrative force and rendering the ghostly flames useless. As Iralith turned to take another stab, [Void] found its armpit and sank all the way to the hilt.
“You wanted the flames that bad? You can have them all back.”
Before the imp could reply, a torrent of red and green flowed like a riptide from Janet’s mana pathways and into the demon. Strengthened shadow constructs held him put as the mana-conductive dagger delivered every ounce of Janet’s rampaging mana into the wound.
The demon grinned maniacally as all its wounds disappeared in an instant. Lacerations healed over and its arm regrew fully. Its eyes shone with the light of an easy victory.
More and more mana poured in. First, the Hellfire-fire combination, then just plain old orange fire, then shadow, then ambient shadow from a fast-contracting [Construct Field] poured into the tiny form.
“Checkmate,” Janet spat with all the hate she could muster as Iralith burnt from Janet’s fire, was corroded by her innate shadow, and was ripped apart by the copious amounts of untamed environmental shadow mana.
Eyes bright with victory turned panicked and filled with despair. Iralith then opened its mouth to deliver a point-blank deafening shriek, but Janet was wiser, and all notions of civility were done away with. A solidified construct the shape of a giant fist rammed into the imp’s throat, depriving it both of air and an option with which to retaliate.
“You really thought I was that stupid, huh?” Janet asked. The demon could not reply. Its teeth were gyrating against the gag, but all Janet had to do was replace all shadow-stuff it ripped apart with more mana from the environment. Which in turn pumped even more rampaging mana into the demon’s body.
Within seconds, Iralith’s eyes rolled to the back of its head. Its limbs went limp. All that was holding it up was Janet’s constructs. She kept up her mana infusion for a few more seconds just to be sure.
A crystalline soul, more solid than normal souls yet made of the same material, was released into Janet’s Realm. It began to dissolve away as soon as the bastard died, sublimating into streams of energy that wafted away like vapor in the desert.
Ding!
You have slain…
She’d check out her gains later. Completely ravenous due to all her injuries, she just gulped down the jagged crystal and all the space around it, unwilling to let any sustenance go to waste. It just might have been the most satisfying soul she’d ever consumed.
Devoid of mana and her mind exhausted beyond belief, Janet stored the demon corpse and all its implements into her tattoo, then collapsed into the dead grass, triumphant but utterly drained.
She denied slumber’s incessant call. She was exhausted, injured, and very much beat down, but her goal was to recover a bit from her injuries while regenerating some mana and Stamina, before reconvening with Darius and Sylthis.
===
“That. Was. Fantastic!” the chipper voice of a young girl echoed from behind a scorched tree, smack dab inside the Dead Zone.
“Did you see? She controlled all the shadows. Even mine! And that dagger funneled her mana into the beast… then boom!” she excitedly chatted away. “Did you see?”
Janet’s neck creaked as she sluggishly turned around to behold a mere 150 meters away, a teenage girl with her long red hair held in pigtails. She was jumping around on one spot, her bountiful… excitement bouncing along with her.
Her spirited exultations were directed at a group of five Adventurers standing about the edges of the Dead Zone.
Two adults that she distinctly remembered from their meeting the previous day were glaring emotionlessly at her exhausted form. By their side were three boys, all with their jaws agape and their cheeks flushed. Their eyes were trained on the girl’s… excitement.
“Did you see? She was so awesome!” the girl repeated, still as animated. She then turned towards Janet and shot her a smile that could cure frostbite. “I’m Aurelia, by the way. Aurelia Sidur.”