The Deceiver's Path - Chapter 102 - Demonic Fury (Patreon)

The screams from the mages behind Jason made him quickly glance over his shoulder, his lips curling up into a snarl as he watched a demoness with pale skin tear through their ranks. His family had spent good gold to recruit these spellcasters, and for what?

They died like aspirants to a single demoness.

Turning back to face Piper, he tightened his grip on his sword. Some terrible and ancient force was preventing him from using his spells and skills. This was far beyond the usual magical artifacts used to disable casters; this felt like an oppressive cloud bearing down on him with immense weight.

At least his ancient armor had protected him from the other infernal caster’s spell. While most of his men were fleeing, clawing at their eyes, or battling an illusion, the magic cast at him had been thwarted by his armor’s wards.

Cursing, he ducked as an adventurer sailed over his head and slammed face-first into the wall. Behind him, the summoned warrior had surged to her feet and thrown off the adventurers piling onto her. She was far more powerful than most summons he’d encountered, yet apparently, she was nothing more than an illusion given form.

A terrible thought occurred to him. Was anything he was fighting real? Was he even facing the real Piper? For all he knew, she could be cloaked nearby, chuckling to herself as she watched the battle unfold.

His thoughts were interrupted as one of his men called for help. Turning, he watched an adventurer try to scramble away from the female warrior, but she stalked after him with her heavy war hammer held high. When she reached his side, she brought down her two-handed weapon like a blow from the heavens.

 The hammer struck the back of the man’s head, smashing it against the floor and squashing it like an overripe melon. The warrior then spun around and bashed the scout in his chest. The impact caved in his rib cage.

Ignoring the growing calls for help, he turned back to face Piper. All the adventurers were expendable. He’d ensured none of the guards loyal to his house had been used in this battle; they weren’t as easily replaceable. Adventurers were.

As he glared at Piper, he was momentarily taken aback as her eyes flashed with malevolent red magic; her face twisting into a cruel mask. This wasn’t the girl he’d fought only a moment earlier.

Lifting his sword, he frowned as the weight suddenly felt off. His muscles strained as he raised the blade. At first, he thought it was simply exhaustion. But as he felt the weakness spreading, he suspected the demon had cast another foul spell; one his armor couldn’t protect against. He must end this quickly before he grew too weak to continue.

With his weapon held high, he threw himself back into the battle. Somehow, the girl easily dodged his first swing. She immediately launched a counterattack, her fingers scraping across his breastplate.

How did she get so much faster?

At the start of the fight, he knew his own physical attributes dwarfed those of his opponent. He was far faster and stronger. Now they almost felt on par with each other. How was that possible? What foul spell had she cast on him?

Planting his feet, he decided to change his tactics. He would allow the girl to come to him. A single powerful swing should end this battle. He would put everything he had into decapitating her. Not even an infernal caster could survive losing their head.

He watched as she strolled forward, her eyes burning with hellish light.

“I’m going to kill you,” she said in a disturbingly girlish voice. A giggle followed as claws erupted from her fingertips. “I’m going to tear your heart out and devour it.”

Jason shook his head, trying to ignore the diabolical vision in front of him. He knew this was little more than a cheap trick. An illusion to fool those less intelligent than himself.

As she stepped forward, he let out a war cry and brought his sword down. The blade whistled through the air. This would end the fight. This would hack the bitch in half.

Piper’s hand flashed, and she deflected the sword with her nails. Then her fist shot forward and hammered his stomach. Her face tilted to the side as her lips curled up into a rictus grin.

“You bitch,” he grunted, lurching back. The padding beneath his armor had barely absorbed any of the blow. He’d sparred with monks who had strength above 200, and they felt weaker than this girl. How could she be so strong with a caster class?

Raising his sword once more, he felt the blade waver in his grip. His arms felt so weak that he could barely hold it up. The edges of his vision frayed as he tottered slightly.

“What’s wrong?” Piper asked, placing a claw against her lip and pouting. “Are you losing to an aspirant?”

“I’ll have your head before this is over,” he shot back. But the venom had left his words, leaving only a terrible exhaustion in its wake. He doubted he could stay on his feet much longer.

Piper walked forward slowly, her eyes blazing with the fury of the abyss. When he swung again, she easily sidestepped the attack.

Her counterattack struck in half a dozen places seemingly at once. Something punched through his armor, sending hot blood cascading down his stomach. Another strike dropped him to his knees.

He looked up at Piper, his lips curled up. “What are you?”

“Your doom,” she whispered. “This entire world’s doom.”

“The Undying Emperor will stop you.”

“No one will stop me,” Piper replied, her voice becoming hollow and inhuman. She lashed out with her claws, raking them across his face.

He suppressed a cry of pain as he lifted a hand to his shredded cheek. The wound stung at his touch, and blood dripped down in a steady patter onto his breastplate. Rage clouded his vision as he threw himself forward. No girl would defeat him.

Jason swung his sword wildly, the last of his strength draining away. As Piper almost casually dodged his attack, he sagged to his knees, his strength abandoning him. Turning his head, he noted most of the adventurers he’d hired had either fled the room or lay dying.

At least they’d taken the other summons with them. The demoness lay slumped against the wall, a wicked grin on her face as her unseeing eyes stared up at the ceiling. And the knight in golden armor had disappeared, leaving six corpses scattered around in her wake.

With numb fingers, he released his sword’s hilt. The blade clanged against the floor, uncomfortably loud in the deathly silent room.

Defiantly, he stared up at Piper. “Kill me quickly,” he growled. “I deserve a warrior’s death.”

“Oh, I won’t kill you fast.” She giggled again. “I told you that I’m going to eat your heart. And you’re going to be alive while I do it.”

His eyes widened as her fist sped forward. The punch sent him toppling onto his back. He struggled in vain as she pinned him down, her claws ripping through the straps of his armor. Despite his efforts to remain stoic in the face of death, he started to scream as she ripped off the breastplate and her claws dug through the padding. He didn’t even have the strength to lift his arms to fend her off.

Mercifully, when her sharp claws tore into his chest, the pain made his eyes roll up into his head.

A moment later, he glimpsed a winged figure in resplendent golden armor hovering above him. A feeling of peace washed over him as he was taken into the emperor’s embrace.

*****

Piper froze as she lifted a still-beating heart to her lips. The raspy voice in her mind urging her to devour it faded away, leaving an empty void in its wake. Looking down, her stomach did a flip-flop as she saw what she’d done when in the throes of [Demonic Fury].

She sat straddling Jason’s stomach, his rib cage splayed open beneath her. The man looked liked he’d been savaged by a wild beast. Blood covered her arms up to her elbows, and bits of flesh were stuck to her clothing.

Grimacing in disgust, she hurled the heart to the side before lurching to her feet. She tried to shake the blood off her hands, but it stubbornly clung to her skin. She carefully avoided looking down at her handiwork as she walked unsteadily over to check on Eleni. She felt sick at what she’d done.

As she moved with an unsteady gait, her gaze swept across the rest of the room. Aside from a few adventurers moaning on the floor, nothing stirred. Somehow, they’d won the battle.

Thankfully, by the time she arrived at Eleni’s side, the woman was already rousing. Since Eleni was a wayfarer with a rare class, she had more attributes than the aspirants she was used to grouping with. That meant she was much tougher.

“Are you alright?” Piper asked, gently touching her shoulder. “We need to get out of here.” There was no way the rest of the manor hadn’t heard the battle. At any moment, they would be facing the full fury of the household.

Plus, at least half of the adventurers had fled. They surely must have raised the alarm. Assuming any of them could talk in the throes of her [Umbral Terror] spell.

“I’m… fine.” Eleni raised a hand to press on her temple and closed one eye. “Maybe not totally fine.”

“Let me help you up.” Piper reached down and hefted the woman to her feet. They staggered a pace together before she turned to look at the cells. Leaning Eleni against the wall, she hurried over to the closest locked door.

She had a feeling that the people in here weren’t criminals; most likely they were nothing more than enemies of Ares. She grabbed the closest door and tugged its wooden handle. The door creaked but refused to budge.

The noise had attracted the attention of the other captives, and they hurried over to the windows to frantically wave at her.

“Free me!” a man shouted. “I have a family!”

The call was taken up by the others as Piper struggled against the door. But no matter how much she strained, she couldn’t force it open. While she was strong for an aspirant, the cells had clearly been reinforced to deal with adventurers. And some of them had incredible strength.

“I’m sorry,” Piper said, hurrying back to Eleni. “I’m really sorry.”

A terrible sense of guilt descended on her as they hobbled down the hallway. She couldn’t help but look back at those she was leaving behind. Their forlorn faces watched through the bars as she left.

If she had more time, she could search the bodies for a key. Or she could subdue the guard outside and see if he knew a way to open the cells. But they needed to escape immediately. After her battle with Jason, she’d been left with almost no mana and no surviving summons. It would take at least half an hour before she was ready for another battle.

Stopping at the door, she burned through the last of her mana reserves to recast [Shifting Veil]. Once more, she used her illusion to make them mirror the servants she’d seen earlier. She paused as she realized they were missing a member of their party.

“Wisp?” she called out. “Where are you?”

The girl popped her head out from behind a desk at the end of the hallway. “Is the fighting done?”

Piper nodded her head wearily.

“Great!” Wisp raced over to the nearest body and sawed through the strap of a coin purse with a tiny dagger. “Time for looting!”

“We don’t have time for this,” Piper whispered harshly. “If we don’t get out of here immediately, the entire household is going to come down on our heads.”

As Piper spoke, Wisp continued collecting coin purses and shoved a jeweled dagger into her pouch.

Piper tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. She had a feeling she should be looting as well. A handful of the items in the room would probably end her money woes for a long time.

After a second, she gave in and hurried over to the closest body with a weapon still grasped in his cold fingers. One side had the flat head of the hammer, while another had a spike that looked like a crow’s beak. It was no meteor hammer, but it still should work with her skill.

At least she hoped.

Piper also grabbed the nearest coin purses, each of them heavy with jingling coins. She stuffed them into her pouch without looking inside. Any further ideas of looting went out the window as a bell began to toll far above them.

“We need to go!” She rushed over to Wisp and dragged the young girl away.

While she’d been looting, Eleni had walked over to Jason’s remains. She regarded his mangled corpse with wide eyes. But then she averted her gaze and stepped around splattered organs before reaching down to take his sword. She slid the blade through her belt.

Piper checked her mana, watching as the numbers slowly ticked up. The moment she had enough, she cast [Shifting Veil] on Wisp. After they were all disguised as servants again, they slipped out of the room.

She expected to face the guard standing outside. But she found the man slumped against the wall with his neck neatly slit. Had she killed him while she was lost in the throes of [Demonic Fury] or had someone else?

An explosion rocked the manor, making dust drift down from the ceiling. Obviously, she wasn’t responsible for his death. The manor was under attack by someone else.

“What are the odds?” she muttered to herself. But as she thought about it, another attack should give them the perfect cover to slip out undetected.

Piper motioned for the others to follow but stopped when Eleni tottered to the side. She hurried over to the woman and slipped her arm around her waist. Together, they made their way up the stairs.

They reached the courtyard to find a battle raging. Slain guards lay scattered around in the grass like a god’s discarded playthings. Dozens of servants had also fallen, looking like little more than bloody lumps of clothing. Someone had even killed the merchant and his oxen near the gates.

Piper caught glimpses of two figures slipping through the shadows. As she watched, the lead female figure dressed all in black, moved like a whirlwind through two guards, neatly carving them up with daggers.

The attacker froze briefly as her eyes locked with Piper's. She wore a veil and a headscarf to conceal her features. For a moment, they continued to stare at each other until Wisp urgently tugged on her sleeve.

“We need to leave!” the young thief exclaimed. Her eyes drifted over to a dropped silver platter next to a slain servant. “Right after I grab that…”

Piper turned back to see that the figures had disappeared. Shaking her head, she increased her pace, not wanting to get caught between the two forces. As they hurried under the broad canopy of the blooming tree, she kept her gaze locked on the side gate.

All they had to do was reach it, and they were home free.

As she reached the doorway, she felt an impossible swell of power from the front gates. Turning, she watched the massive doors swing open to reveal three men standing beyond. An older man, clad in dark plate armor, and with short grey hair radiated power beyond anything she’d felt outside of the Infernal Realm.

The lord of the manor had returned with his sons. And he would want vengeance for what she’d done.