The Deceiver's Path - Chapter 108 - In the Shadow of the Dawn Citadel (Patreon)

Imilce’s heart hammered against her ribs as if it were trying to escape as she hurried through the gates of the fortress. The moment she’d reached the street beyond, the bronze doors slammed shut with an air of finality, locking her and the other novice sisters outside. Her breath came in shallow gasps as she turned her gaze to the monster in the skin of a young girl approaching.

She’d been sure after everything that she’d done to serve Elissa that the woman would keep her safe during the final battle. But instead, the inquisitor had sent her to lead the novices in their final attack. She knew from watching the brief battle against the aspirants that they stood almost no chance against the demoness.

Still, no matter what, she would do her duty to the Undying Emperor.

Imilce reached another sister holding a horn. Tapping the woman on the shoulder, she watched as the young woman’s face paled. This was the last resort against the demoness. The horn would signal for every sister to charge forward and give their life for the empire.

The sister lifted the curled horn to her lips with trembling hands, and a loud, harsh buzzing sound emerged. She continued to blow, calling the sisters to battle.

Trying to control her shallow breathing, Imilce drew the short sword from her belt and prepared to call upon her magic. Hopefully, she’d spot a window to smite the infernal caster with her earth magic.

Not that she believed Piper was simply a caster now. The way she moved, like a graceful predator, suggested she’d gained a melee-focused class. There were few threats greater than a spellsword, able to match any blade or magic they faced.

As she marched forward, dozens of other sisters spilled out of nearby buildings to attack. They carried a mixture of weapons best suited to their classes. But regardless of how different their fighting styles were, they would work together to bring down the monster.

Her stomach dropped as the first sister rushed ahead of the others. She held a hide shield from the southern kingdoms in one hand and a long spear in the other. She stabbed the weapon forward, only for Piper to almost casually bat it aside.

Before the sister could regain her balance, Piper’s claws flashed, tearing out the woman’s throat. The demoness then spun around, a wave of darkness washing out towards the tightly packed ranks of nuns. Nearly twenty sisters tried to scramble out of the way, but they simply disappeared behind the swell of darkness.

When they reappeared, their skin had blackened, their too-white eyes bulging from their sockets as the magic corroded their bodies. She could only watch in horror as one by one they collapsed into dust.

With a single spell, Piper had slain over a quarter of the novice sisters facing her. Letting out a cry, Imilce threw herself into battle. If she were to die here, then she would give a good account of herself.

“Should I fall, take me into your embrace,” she prayed under her breath as she rushed forward. “Make me an instrument of your will.”

She cast [Earthen Hand] and an enormous fist erupted from the ground. Rising far above the demoness, it slammed down as if it were a meteor from the heavens. Broken cobblestones, dirt, and rocks were sent flying through the air by the powerful impact. But somehow, Piper danced away from the attack.

More magic lashed out from the nuns, yet none struck home. Piper responded with bolts of pure darkness, blasting the sisters apart one by one.

The woman beside Imilce exploded, showering her with blood. For a second, she stood there stunned, covered in pieces of what had been her friend moments earlier.

She held her hands out to the side, her heartbeat thundering in her ears. The entire world narrowed until she could only see colors and movement in front of her. It took every ounce of willpower she possessed to stand her ground.

A group of nuns charging forward snapped her out of her fugue. They stabbed, slashed, and hacked at the young woman with their weapons. Though they moved with the precision drilled into them through thousands of hours of training, they couldn’t compare to Piper’s fighting skills.

One by one, the attacking nuns fell to the creature’s claws and what Imilce assumed was as invisible tail. She rushed forward, desperate to add her blade to the battle. Perhaps if enough of them attacked at once, they could overwhelm the demoness.

Imilce skidded to a stop as the battle lines shifted, and she found herself standing directly in front of the demoness. Without hesitating, she launched a series of practiced strikes. Somehow, Piper dodged each one easily.

Nearly a dozen nuns were fighting the demoness, and they couldn’t land a single blow. This was impossible.

A boom from behind her made her spin around. She watched as a building next to the square’s entrance crumbled into a heap of masonry and timber. The collapsing structure buried the street in a thick layer of debris. From the dust emerged a monstrous shape; the demonic turtle had made its entrance to the battle.

From the wall, the ballista responded. Their thick ropes twanged as they sent bolts hammering into the demon. But the creature simply ignored the shots that barely seemed to pierce its hide. It rampaged around the square, knocking buildings down seemingly at random.

She frowned as she wondered why it left some untouched. Then a terrible realization dawned on her; it was burying the demonic wards. Turning back to Piper, who was moving with the grace of an acrobat, she felt her stomach lurch.

This wasn’t the real Piper. They were fighting an illusion. The real Piper hadn’t even entered the battle yet.

Imilce raced away from the escalating clash against the demoness and toward the nearest destroyed house. She reached the remains of the window and jumped over the sill. Once she was inside, she tore away the fallen bricks until she found the body of a sister buried underneath. The woman’s throat had been cleanly sliced.

The gloamcrow hadn’t failed; the sister had been slain before she could activate it.

Grabbing the stuffed crow, she rushed back to the scene of the battle. In the brief time she’d been away, another six sisters had fallen to the demon’s claws. She lifted the crow and a wave of darkness rushed outward.

Her mouth dropped open as what must have been dozens of illusions evaporated. The sisters, seemingly disintegrated by the demonic spells, shimmered back into existence. A hellish chain constricted around them; their eyes wide with terror.

Strangely, the gloamcrow had no effect on the chains. Why, she couldn’t say. But the thought of a magic that could resist one of the most powerful artifacts they possessed chilled her to the bone.

All around her, she watched as sisters supposedly slain by spells reappeared, trapped in chains. But not all the bodies disappeared. The ones who had fought in melee against the illusion remained crumpled on the ground. They had truly died.

The illusory Piper grinned before breaking apart into shards of light. They had spent nearly all of their might fighting an illusion.

Turning, she spotted a trio of demons strolling into the square. The buried demonic wards didn’t activate as they walked over the piles of rubble. She knew, looking at them, that her doom had come. Now all she could do was pray to the Undying Emperor for a good death.

******

Piper crept over the rubble covering the demonic wards, holding her breath as she waited for something to happen. But Sarnyxia had been right; if they disrupted the runes, in this case by having the dreadhulk collapse buildings on top of them, the magic wouldn’t work.

She was shocked at how well her plan had gone so far. In her battle with the aspirants, she hadn’t been forced to kill a single one. She’d created illusions of fake aspirants and made them charge headlong at herself. Then she’d used another illusory spell to destroy them in the goriest way she could imagine.

But the long fight had sapped her mana and stamina. She felt mentally exhausted from conjuring and controlling so many illusions. The false battle against the nuns had been particularly exhausting. She had to concentrate completely on making her duplicate dart around the battlefield, avoiding weapons and projectiles.

Only a dozen or so nuns remained standing, and the majority of them were wounded. However, even with their battered bodies, none of them looked close to surrendering.

Sweeping her gaze over the group of sisters ensnared by her [Pit Chain], she felt her heart hardening. After all the death and suffering the red-robed women had caused, she would have preferred to have slain every last one of them.

However, the mayor had strictly prohibited her from doing that. He had plans for the order after she defeated Elissa. And for his plans to work, there would need to be enough surviving members of the order to keep it functional. But he hadn’t said she needed to keep them all alive.

A thunderous roar shook the square as another building collapsed. With all the demonic wards buried, the dreadhulk lumbered back toward them. There was little the nuns could do against such a massive demon. Even the ballista bolts hadn’t been able to penetrate its thick hide.

Shooting a quick glance over at the platform holding her friends, she glimpsed a shadowy figure crouched beside the stakes. A man with his face concealed behind thick wraps saluted her before fading away again. Now was the time to put the second part of the plan into action.

She rapidly cast [Shifting Veil] on each of her friends tied to the stakes. As she did, she noted her mana rapidly depleting. After all the spells she’d used, she had less than a quarter remaining. And the battle was far from over.

Piper straightened up to her full height, which still barely reached most of the nuns' shoulders. “I can’t believe sisters of the Dawnward Host allowed demons to fool you so easily.”

Imilce stepped forward, wielding her short sword as if it were a talisman against evil. “Your lies won’t work here, foul demon.”

“Look for yourself.” She thrust her arm toward the platform. “I captured a group of aspirants weeks ago and replaced them with summoned demons.” As she spoke, she tweaked the illusions to transform Ophelia, Basil, and Lukas into various different demons.

Piper made a point of changing Ophelia into the ugliest one she could imagine. Her friend would absolutely hate it. The demon ended up looking like a shrivelled old hag with grey skin and stringy white hair.

“Impossible!” Imilce cried out in a strangled voice. “We would have detected them.”

“All the aspirants are safely hidden away,” Piper continued. “Including this foolish young girl whose face I stole. When the time comes, I’ll sacrifice them to the infernal realm to summon a pit fiend to destroy the entire city.”

“The emperor will stop you,” Imilce shouted. “All realms will fall before him when he returns.”

Piper opened her mouth to reply when [Ambush Detection] blared a warning in her mind. She twisted to the side as a jet of burning flame shot past her face, the blistering heat making her slam her eyes shut. She continued to spin, nocking an arrow and loosing at a nun who had snuck up behind her. The arrow pierced the woman’s eye before bursting out of the back of her head.

Congratulations! You have slain a human, Level 177.

A significant bonus to experience has been granted for slaying a higher-level creature.

Ding! Your race, Shadeling has reached Level 78.

Ding! Your class, Deceiver has reached Level 78.

Ding! Your class, Shadowflame Temptress has reached Level 27

Piper was shocked at how many of the nuns she’d faced were low level. Where were all the strong ones she’d expected to fight? These young women were barely old enough to have awakened in many cases. And not a single one had been above level 200.

It was sheer madness to send them against demons. Unless the inquisitor had some forlorn they low-level nuns would simply overwhelm her with sheer numbers.

“I’ll give you one chance to surrender,” Piper said with a hard voice. “After that, I’ll kill every person who resists.”

More than thirty sisters remained chained nearby by her spell, which should provide enough witnesses to prove that she and the others had been replaced by demons. The rest of the sisters could die for all she cared; they had burned countless innocents and planned to murder her friends.

“We’ll never surrender—” Imilce’s words cut out as an arrow sprouted from her throat. Two other nuns were struck as the bow’s skill [Abyssal Split-shot] activated. All three women sagged to the ground a moment later.

As the surviving sisters sprang into action, with raised weapons and spells crackling with power, Piper released a murderous volley into their ranks. Within seconds, it was all over, and she had twelve new kill notifications.

Grasping her quiver, she fed mana into it as she created more arrows. Her eyes roved over the walls of the citadel until she finally caught sight of the inquisitor. The woman stood above the gates, the golden embroidery on her robes gleaming in the dawn light. As she watched, Elissa turned to stride away and was replaced by more women wielding bows.

Piper frowned and began to march forward. If the inquisitor wasn’t going to come out to face her, then she was going to go inside and get her. The mayor had claimed the city was doomed if Elissa survived, and she wasn’t about to let that happen.