Corvinus felt anxiety start to well up again, so again he took a drink from his cup, only to realize that it was empty. So he took a drink from the wine bottle instead.
"They are so incompetent that it forces even a brilliant mind like me to such lows." He complained out loud. There was little he could actually do after all, as his plans were already in motion and the best help had already been persuaded to his cause.
Honestly this could have all gone by without much pain if the princess had agreed to his original proposal. But no, she just had to go pick up the human's trash!
'The greedy bitch. Mouthing me off and then going for the human's summons. I offered to share the glory and this is how you repay me, so don't blame me for making sure that the one to actually bring this before the Demon king is me.'
Even if the rumors and reports had been exaggerated, it was still a loss in the long history of victory of the human saints, and with so much credit being given to the spirit, there was just no way the royal family would not want to commission at least a full squadron of his best soldier summons.
His True speech was ready, the samples could march at a moment's order, travel preparations were done long ago, and now all he needed to get going was to hear that the spirit was dead.
He'd reach the closest nexus and immediately schedule an audience, which considering the facts that he was the son of a marquis and frequented the palace already, was certainly going to be faster than the princess's return.
"It would have been better if she died, but this way I get to…" There was a knock on the door. Normally he would have ordered such an inopportune intruder to go punish themselves away from him, but that was the ritm he had agreed upon with his contact. "Enter."
As the smiling succubus with light skin came in, he could see in her face that she had good new. The mission succeeded. He wanted to celebrate, and why not take the whore in front of him to begin wi*BOOOOM*
Even as his mind went blank, he realized he was airborne. He'd been flung out the window of his room by what seemed to be an explosion engulfing his entire mansion, as even it's foundations shattered due to the shockwave that seemed to have come from his underground base.
Pieces of masonry and glass flung themselves past him, only a few hitting his body even as his slowing perception took in the broken bodies of those closer to the mansion. Some were mere splatter of bloody mist being moved by the wind at this point, but the spy that'd been in the room with him was unfortunately amongst the more complete, and he was able to see her mushed cadaver being further scrambled by fire and providence, but by bit as she took hits that would have likely hit him.
Then he saw them.
In the sky, thousands upon thousands of figures wagged war with indescribable forces in the sky of his ancestral home.
They were divided on two sides. The black robbed mages covered their bodies with cowls shrouding their features, but they were clearly demons of the empire, while the gray armored monsters stood tall as a fiend, jumping on air and flying on wings far too small for their bulk, relentlessly shooting their bodies against a storm of force spells and somehow surviving long enough to throw away their guises as humanoids, each morphing into nightmares of both holy and unholy sacrament that cared not for their wellbeing, but only for how to kill more of their adversaries.
When five taller armors of greater detail came for him, he thought he was about to die as they approached faster than he fell and his panicking and injured mind could not conjure more than a simple mana shield in time to prevent his demise.
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It was then, however, that he realized his body was filling with warm vitality as one of the armored humanoid beasts going itself on the path of a translucent spell.
Having broken through with what seemed to be a small platoon of elites, the imperials flew in his direction while pelting down the beasts even as the lines in the sky closed again. Then something broke his shield, slicing his left arm near half even as it knit back together while he was shocked by the injury.
The last thing he saw of the outside was a bombardment of even more translucent spells coming his way as one of the beasts stretched itself into a sphere and crashed into him. For whatever reason, they seemed to want to protect him from his countrymen.
……………..
"Is the array ready yet!?" He shouted in english, blood dripping down his nose, eyes and ears as he concentrated in juggling between maintaining the integrity of the dreamcatcher mandala, fighting off the fucks trying to kill the prisoner from a distance and keeping them from realising he was doing more than just reinforcing the idiot's mind to stop it from collapsing as they fought in this precarious terrain that were the man's projected memories.
"SAVREN NAKUST!" Responded Kirian in a language he didn't know.
"Fuck you too! It's not my fault I have to hold on without cutting them off like this!" Wrath flared within him as he started pulling from another emotion and essence combination. He only had a few more minutes like this and then he'd have to go with Sloth, Time and Possibility, and then he wasn't sure he could even fight off the bastards attacking in one fell swoop without directly destroying part of the target's mind.
He was surprisingly good at mental warfare, but this was already the third linked cabal he was fighting in the last couple of hours and he'd long since used his free points for that extra staying power. He was tired, and no matter how much he wanted those imperial benefits, his existence was more important then some patsy's meager information. Even his contract agreed with that!
"Done! Get rid of them!"
He didn't bother answering, calling forth a speck of Order essence inside of the patient and fusing his spread out constructs into one. Their image darkened and deceptively grew. He won. Crushing down with the hands of a colossal space elemental, he showed them how their very chance of escape diminished, and even as it maddened them to receive so much information at once without any tool to help, he saw that one of them would be able to escape.
Smiling at the woman, he flared the ritual he'd been holding this whole time, ripping off a chunk of her mind as all the Bane essence he had injected upon her with his every attack flew away, leaving a gaping wound that would force her mind to collapse without extensive treatment, but more importantly, would guarantee that she held no memory of their fight, just like the other guy he'd been unable to kill.
Even as the wailing ghost of a mind flew away into the Void between minds, he crushed her companions into a point in time, leaving behind nothing but significance into the fabric as the remains of their Minds breached the firmament of the realm their Bodies stood at.
As far as both he and the system cared, that was as good as being deader than dead, and he received his first notification mentioning a True kill. Soon enough another achievement came his way, but right now he only had the strength to give a thumbs up to his fellow agent, mental acuity dropping as his emotional force was no longer buoyed by the significance of a Last Fight.
The last couple of days had been absolutely awesome, if draining, and it was perfectly fine if he didn't wake up again. Most likely though, Kirian would have to carry his battered Self to a real healer and he'd go into a coma. Smiling, Aki collapsed while sitting down in a lotus position, his ward laying his head on his bloodied lap.
………………
[Congratulations, you have completed the quest: The envious, not so noble bird.
Completion rate: 100%
Grade: Extreme
Reward: +5M XP, +15K Black crowns, +favorability +3 random reward, +trait piece, +Significance.
Congratulations, by irrevocably separating important soul components of your foes, you have achieved your first True kill and the related achievement, as well as 1 out (?) requirements for another achievement. +10 free point. +Significance. +Additional experience for normal kills when partial soul damage is inflicted.
Note: Opposite to the non-lethal take down option, a True kill will reward more experience than normally ending a life, as well as part of the liberated essence and significance.
Congratulations, through practice and accumulated significance, you have discovered a new trait. Due to your trait Faery narrative, it has developed a new function.
True bane: Whenever your production of bane essence passes a certain threshold, it is naturally integrated into your actions. Increased bane essence generation.]