177 - Pandemonium (Patreon)

A giant pentagram of blood-soaked crystals and floating soul shards of the Forever Mourning hung over reddened, scorched atmosphere that constantly shifted between complete darkness and a scarlet sky. 

Wailing surrounded them, along with the noises of the ancient ones called forth.

Vacius–first son of Prince Tholius who was the second son of the Demon King–stood in place, observing the tapestry they had woven in the abyss, while his generals gave orders, made adjustments, and sent forth their armies through the unknown to test what remained of their abilities once they moved through the abyss.

They used the lowest of them first, to ensure that they didn't suffer unwarranted loss as they adjusted their system by ear.

Some were reluctant to go. They knew that they could get lost in the abyss, lose their powers or their souls, and be trapped in endless nothingness. But this experiment needed subjects, willing or unwilling.

A lot of sacrifices had been made for this, and they had to succeed.

There was no way back.

The images of the segmented worlds played, and the commanders discussed amongst themselves what they would do next and who to send in.

They learned from everything they saw, and all the sacrifices were a small price to pay for the power they were promised. 

“Sir,” Vacius' lieutenant said as he walked up to him. "We have lost a garrison.”

“Hmm.” He said. That was to be expected. Despite all their efforts to enhance their attack and weaken their opponents' defense, he had still known they were going up against four Archmages, including the most terrifying of them all, who was currently attempting to hunt him through the abyss.

Unfortunately for the human, as good as he was, he was nowhere near as good as the Master of the Abyss, the one who aided their campaign.

They had been prepared to lose demons, even those with a hundred lifespans. They were prepared for several losses.

But it didn’t matter. Because after that, they would be free.

The best was yet to come. 

They simply needed to see all the strengths and weaknesses of the ones they faced. 

The Archmage with the braid had unmatched strength and could break the unbreakable, excelling at crafted seals that spun battles in her favor. There was a component of luck in her abilities, although it was mathematical and the maths could be overcome.

The bald man was fast and could control other bodies, and seemed to be micro-predicting each move.  He had a great balance of physical and casting prowess, but his spells were not far-reaching. 

The other Archmage was good at barriers and defensive shields but not the best at combat. They had not yet found a weakness for the one with the long, white hair, but he was the problem of the Master for now.

Their strongest forces were focused on the Archmages, while the others were simply used as testing grounds.

The Master had created this amazing system for them that would change the tides of the war in their favor, enabling the demons to conquer the humans, and perhaps a few other weaker races. 

Then they would take their true place in the Universe, and perhaps the elves would no longer look down on them. 

Most importantly, they would have a place to go and expand. 

His father, the second son of the Great Dying Demon King, knew that, which was why he was not afraid to take the risk that he had taken. The Demon King himself had been too cautious of humans, simply because of the ones who guarded them.

The ancient beings that had not been seen or heard from in millennia, who might even be dying as they spoke, seeing as how humans were constantly complaining about their reducing essences.

Those old things were not a threat to them. What was a threat were the humans that remained, especially the white-haired one that had caused such havoc in their realm; they whispered of him in horror, and just the mention of his blood-thirsty slaying made some of the younger demons shiver.

Ironically, he was the one that convinced the other Lords under the King that they needed to fight back. It showed the danger the humans posed, especially if they were allowed to get stronger. They might not have resilient souls, but their casting abilities could go beyond what demons could do. 

So they needed to end them before it reached that point.

With their newfound powers, if they managed to kill the most powerful archmage on this night, it would weaken the humans. And it had the added benefit of getting revenge for poor, little Leviathan, son of Lord Mordius, who had backed the third Prince in his campaign, but had lost woefully in this protracted war, and had disappeared. 

All Leviathan’s brothers were dead. His father, the cowards, was either dead or in hiding. Leviathan was the last left, and it was so lovely to see one so arrogant lowered to begging the very family he had so strongly opposed. Leviathan now had to accept his place in their society and know that no matter what position his father had claimed, what he was would never change. 

Filthy hybrid. 

Vacius smiled to himself, until he noticed that his lieutenant still lingered at his shoulder. “What?”

The large, horned demon struggled with what to say next, likely understanding that a wrong word might end with his head off his shoulders or maybe even a final death.

“I’m just concerned that we might not have thought things through," he said. "We still have the war with your father’s brothers to consider."

Vacius was in a good mood, so he didn't kill him. They couldn't waste manpower.

“One of the princes has lost all his allies, with Fabius and Mordius gone. And the other is just as cowardly as the Demon King." The first son was just another copy of his father, and would have kept the status quo, letting the humans get stronger. He did not understand that demonkind needed to expand. They would not survive if they did not expand.

There was no other option. 

The humans were the easiest to overcome. Killing their protectors would weaken them, and the demons could overwhelm the rest and convert them to demonkins. Leviathan knew how to control them that way. This was just the beginning. 

Yet, something still clearly bothered his lieutenant.

"The girl," he said. "The one who defeated the wailer. What do we do about her?"

"Are you concerned?”

“No. Simply wondering if we should shift her into a higher threat class.”

“Yes, she was...unexpected, but the wailer was also not at full strength.”

"It wouldn't have mattered,” Leviathan said, stepping up. “Your grace, I believe she is the one I told you about, the one I fought.”“The human who killed you?” Vacius couldn’t help but mock. 

Leviathan’s jaw tightened and he pointedly avoided looking at the prince. 

“She is not to be underestimated,” he said finally.

"Yes, I know." She truly was interesting. She had found a way to reach one of their more powerful ancients in the abyss, and instill such pain that the Wailer had retreated. The demons and his lieutenants had been shocked watching it happen, in disbelief.

She truly did not look like much, the tiny human. He had thought her young, although he’d always been terrible at telling human ages. But her battle had piqued his interest. The Wailer was back in their realm, licking its wounds, and it would be sent back, but it refused to face her again.

“I'll go to her now,” Leviathan said, a feverish heat in his tone and eyes. "I've waited months for my revenge. Let me have it."

“No. It’s not time for you yet,” he said.

"Why not?"

"Because this is an experiment, and we need more information. Every battle teaches you more about your opponents and how to defeat them. Don't you want to push her to her limits and see what she is truly made of?"

Leviathan gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing, although he said nothing.

"Don’t worry," Vacius assured him. "You will get the last dance, after all."

***

Arielle flew back to the main building as Tamsy Lous.

There was no one in the ballroom or the main reception area.

She climbed up five flights of stairs, searching for any sign of life, but nothing. She did see damage, particularly wreckage of walls and destroyed furniture. But no Lyra or Maus.

They had both gone with the group headed to Edward's wing, but Arielle wasn't quite sure how to get there.

She wondered if there was a map in the house or if she could somehow move through the abyss and find them, but she had no control over the abyss, and she would lose access to her magic once inside it. She could create a tiny pocket dimension, but that might lead nowhere, since she didn't have the exact coordinates for where the demon was and there were so many layers to the abyss. 

She doubled back, returning to the ground floor, about to head to the right to the other staircase.

The back of her neck prickled as the air split behind her. 

Arielle raised her shield in time to block a fireball, but it broke through anyway.  

She still managed to grab the spell and broke it before it scorched her, closing her eyes as the embers flew in her face and singed her hair.

She did the same with the other two that came from nowhere, her speed spell keeping her ahead of them. She had arranged Calor just as Professor Graham did on his body, and though she didn't quite have 'Primal Instinct' like he did, it had boosted her speed, and her senses, and lowered her reaction time.

Another, even bigger ball built up from a tower of spells was launched at her, big enough to burn the entire room in one go.

Arielle still broke it before it could finish forming .

A creature was standing behind it: a large, ugly thing with red skin and gleaming eyes.

“Ah,” he said. "Perhaps you will actually be a challenge for me."

It could speak?

In that case, she had a question for it.

“Where are the rest of the guests?” she asked. “Particularly a blonde girl in an auburn dress, and a brown-haired boy, with slicked-back hair about this tall..." She hung her hand in the air, "and brown eyes?"

The creature's eyes glowed red. "You dare question me?"

Arielle blinked at him. "I suppose."

The demon let out a loud, irritating laugh, and it charged at her.

Arielle didn’t have to hold back. The calculations were still running in the background, but in her mind, it was already a foregone conclusion that she would get a [Hidden Ability] Marker. There was likely no way for her to get out of this mess without extending herself a little. 

Arielle held up her finger, her killer butterflies bursting out of the tip.

The beast barrelled right through them, as though it didn't care that they were gnawing at its skin, chewing through flesh.

Her large void projectile also pierced through its skin, but it healed quickly, even with the one she put through its head. It grinned, and her heart raced with apprehension. 

Was it completely invulnerable? Could she beat it?

Then he leapt in the air.

Arielle used [Mass Anchor-Repel] to dodge his blow at the last second, even as his large foot formed a crater in the ground. Her mind was slow to accept the horror that she could have been crushed that easily, but she also didn’t take time to dwell on it. 

She dodged his subsequent fire attacks, using [Creature Control] to boost her speed and reaction time even more.

Speaking of which...

She pointed and targeted it with Creature Control, but it only worked for a second before he broke through it. Made sense, as the spell worked best with smaller, simpler animals. 

Or maybe it wasn’t just physical attacks? Maybe the beast was also fairly impervious to mental attacks.

But she had to find a way to kill it. If it was the anchor that was keeping her from seeing Lyra and the others, then killing it would reveal them.

Killing all of them would be the solution to her problems, actually. She couldn't hold back anymore.

"[Living Lightning]."

This was Vittoria's master-tier spell, and it caused a powerful charge to burst out of her finger and hit him in the chest.

He screamed at the lightning that wracked his body, the powerful voltage feeding off his own life source. Brilliant jagged ribbons networked around his entire body, and the more he fought it, the more it multiplied and the harder it hurt.

But it wasn't killing him. He continued to fight back and send lightning-coated fireballs at Arielle with his mouth.

She had to do more. She had to trap him. 

"[Living Vines]" she said.

Vines burst through the marble floors and wrapped around his arms, legs, and neck.

Arielle used Mass-Anchor Repel to cause the unbreakable vines to contract, attempting to pull the limbs and head off his body.  

The beast's howl was loud and grievous enough to set her heart racing. Arielle paused for a second to give it another chance.

"Where are they?” she asked. "Reveal them now."

It snarled at her and struggled to extract itself from the hold.

"I will kill you." It choked out.

"You will try," she responded. “But I think I will kill you first.”

She did not relish it. She did not want to kill the beast but it was necessary. 

However, she did have another problem. 

Even trapped, the demon was incredibly sturdy, and was resisting being pulled apart. The vines weren’t strong enough even with the lightning. The pulling seemed to cause the demon tremendous pain, but it continued to heal. 

An anti-vitality spell might help, but it might also dim the effectiveness of the lightning.

How to kill him?

Could she choke it? Did it breathe?

The next time the shrieked fire grew out of its mouth, rather than deflecting it, Ari snatched the spell from his hold and kept it in place. The creature's eyeballs bugged out of its head as its throat burned. 

She shifted some of the fire to its nose too, to block out any air that might be escaping from there.

An agonized gurgling sound followed its collapse to its knees. 

It still wasn't dying, simply making a mess.

Could she create an abyss big enough to get rid of it? Would that help?

She only had experience with smaller pocket dimensions, and she didn't know if getting rid of it that way would count as killing it.

She redirected some of the fire to its eyes too, and even the choking ceased.

Maybe she could try a few things and see what, if anything, could pierce its skin.

Before she could, something unexpected happened.

The creature exploded.

Arielle blinked as the flesh burst all over, slapping with wet sounds on the ground, and the walls, the whisper of life leaving the atmosphere. A black, scorched mark remained where the creature had just been. 

What happened? Did the fire cause it to implode? Or did it do that to itself? Vittoria had told her once that demons could self-destruct but Ari didn’t expect it to.

Interesting.

She looked at it with distaste, her stomach churning. The sight and the scent made her a little sick, but it also reminded her of her father slaughtering a hog. He’d always told her the same thing, when she would feel ill at the sight. 

It wasn’t pleasant, but it was necessary. 

Thanks to the creature’s death, the full damage of the room came into view, the chandeliers crashed, along with bloodstains on the wall, and broken paintings. There had been a grievous battle here. Arielle hoped no one had been seriously injured, but she was distracted by the sounds coming from above.

She flew up the stairs, but then saw a trio of skeletal creatures in her way, with ghouls hanging them.

The ghouls screamed an ear-piercing wail, and Arielle slapped her hands over her ears as the sound pierced through her eardrums anyway. The pain seemed to spike sharply into her brain, and knew she should do something to stop it, but the sound made it hard to think, much less act. 

And then she was suddenly breathless. 

Ghouls had surrounded her head, engulfing it in their transparent bodies, drawing air from her lungs.

At the same time, something chomped on her shoulder.

"Ah!” Fear and pain jolted her back into awareness, and she shot out a wide-scale repel, which caused the skeletons to fly away, although the ghouls remained.

They were transparent, and her spell seemed to pass right through them. When she tried to tear them off her, all she could feel was her own face.

She had enough presence of mind to keep the skeletal creatures restrained, but the ghouls made the air even heavier, making it harder to breathe.

Arielle began to feel lightheaded. 

Was this it? Was this how she died?

No.

It would be a wasted, painful death and she couldn’t go out like this. 

Lyra and Maus needed her.

Just think, Arielle. 

Think about a ghouls weakness. What do you know about ghouls?

Words appeared in her mind as her vision got woozy.

Ghouls. Rituals. Demons. Fire.

That was it.Fire. 

She didn't have time to double-think what she was about to do.

She erected a shield of void directly over her face, then blasted fire at it.

She heard a screech as she was freed and collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. Her face was sticky with sweat. Her body trembled with the aftershock of her near-death experience, even as life rushed back into her veins. 

Everything came back into focus. 

The piercing sound was gone, and her eyes watered from relief.

That was horrible.

She looked up at the skeletal creatures and burned them too, right before she healed herself as best as she could, utilizing a vitality charm for energy and focus.

She brushed aside her feelings for what just happened, shoving it to the back of her mind, so that she could deal with it later. She took a second to collect herself, and think of her next steps. 

From now on, she would also keep her anti-magnet spell on to prevent anything else from grabbing her before she could see it. And she would pay better attention to her surroundings so that she didn’t accidentally get killed by ghouls and their skeletal friends. 

She shivered again, but forced herself back to her feet. 

As the last of the demons died, the real environment came into view. She saw about a dozen people passed out on the floor, and about six others pressed against the wall, with some kind of transparent shield in front of them.

The shield fell, and the people collapsed to the ground, some of them grievously wounded.

One of the wounded people Arielle recognized as the healer. After the shield fell, he shuffled over to one of the unconscious people, pressing his hand on their chest, a glow emanating from him.

From the way his head hung, Ari knew the truth.

Arielle's heart ran cold, and rage filled her.

What a waste.

She wanted to help them, but she couldn't stop. She had to find Lyra and Maus, the urgency building as time passed. .

"Which group were you a part of?" Arielle asked one pale man, who was shivering against the wall. He didn't answer, his eyes trained on the bodies on the floor.

She didn't want to ruin the healer's focus as he hurried to revive as many as he could. So she asked another woman whose ball gown was stained with blood and whose eyes were vacant.

"Were you with Archmage Lenore?" she tried again.

The woman met her gaze briefly, and shook her head slowly.

"Do you know where Archmage Lenore's group went?"

“ They went there,” the healer remarked and pointed one hand to the right of the hallway. 

"Thank you," Arielle said, and she flew in that direction.

The hallway eventually led to a junction, which was a maze of ten interconnecting lanes. Ari faltered, then took the left most  one, and continued running, hoping to find more people she could help and seek directions from.

But suddenly, her body froze.

Cold sweat traced down her spine, her breath moving faster through her lips. 

She was stuck, like someone had taken control of her limbs and fused them in place.

Her eyes widened, and before she could wonder what was going on, out of nowhere, something hit her in the stomach.

"Oof!"

A gasp that escaped her was mostly from the shock rather than any actual pain. It wasn’t the hardest she’d ever been punched. In fact, the punch she’d gotten to her eye during her Moat trials had been much harder. 

But when the second blow came, more confidently this time, in the same general area, and that one stung more. 

Plus there was an irritating prickling on her skin, around the area that was struck, as though something was trying to move inside it. 

Was she being possessed? Oh darn, she hoped not. 

She breathed through her nose, acknowledging the alarm but knowing it would do her no good to dwell on it.

She needed to  think fast, focus on problems and solutions.  

Her repelling spell wasn't working. If it was, this thing shouldn’t have been able to touch her. 

It also rendered her motionless.With the third strike, her panic flared again at the thought of being slowly, but surely pummeled to death. Or worse, possessed. 

The tingling feeling was spreading to the other places that had been hit, taking over her body one strike at a time. 

And there was nothing she could seemingly do about it. 

This might have been a mistake. She never should have come here. She was no warrior. She couldn’t win in a fist fight, even if her body wasn’t frozen, and she hated being hurt. And she really didn’t want to be possessed. 

Pain from the next strike made the tears jump into her eyes. 

No. Focus. 

You can do this. 

It was like she could feel Vittoria next to her, giving her that half-annoyed, half-amused look. 

Focus, Arielle. 

She beat back the despair and forced her brain to think of a way out, the image of Lyra and Maus in her head. If she was going through this, how much worse was whatever they were going through?

How to find this thing. 

Maybe the creature was attacking her from the abyss and that was why she couldn’t see it?

But there had to be an access point. A point where both of them occupied the same space, otherwise it made it hard to touch her. 

Her frozen body made it hard to cast spells, but luckily her eyeballs could still move. She’d broken spells with her eyeballs before, particularly during her fight with Anne. Forming spells with them was a little harder, and would take more time  but she could do it.  

At the next strike, it was on her chest. Then another to her rib, followed by a stabbing pain. Apart from the spreading sensation, the strikes were becoming faster, more confident, as though the creature were learning with time

Why was it just beating her? Why wasn't it cutting her? That would hurt even more, and it could stab her once and be done with it.

But maybe it couldn't.

The next strike to her stomach was much harder than the others, and the impact bowled her over. 

That was when she saw it.

Her shadow.

Right before the next strike came, a tiny protrusion came out of it, and it told her what was going on.

It was a shadow creature attacking her. No wonder her repelling spell didn't work, because it wasn't attacking through her physical body. That was also likely why it couldn't cut her, and also why the pain had felt dulled, though it was getting worse with time. 

Now, how to get out of this?

There had to be an opening. Perhaps the access point was on the floor itself, though she would need to break it.

Using only her eyes, she formed a small explosion spell, Faulkey's, within seconds and blasted the ground that held her shadow. It didn't release her from the hold of the creature, but she did see a small opening where the orbs came out of the splinters.

It was a spell made of mostly demonic orbs, which would make it hard to break.

But there was something else she could do. She knew the enemy of shadow, after all. 

With yet another blow to her leg this time, she created a simple light spell and attached it to the end of the demonic orbs, blasting the abyss with light.

The shadow creature gave a piercing scream and retreated, releasing her from its spell. Arielle sagged to the floor, exhaling in relief, closing her eyes at the physical weakness in her body and the pain. 

Nothing was broken, she didn’t think, but everything hurt so badly, the stinging sensation even worse in the aftermath than during the blows…

Almost like the creature’s rapid retreat from its attempt at possible possession left injuries behind.  

There was an adept tier spell Vittoria had taught her, one that could dim pain levels. 

Vittoria had told her that it was a dangerous spell because the payoff was that during the fight, she wouldn't be able to tell when she was hurt fatally, and once the pain signals were turned back on, the pain would feel far worse than otherwise.

But she needed to be able to think.

There were bruises all over her body, and maybe a small crack in her rib.  She could heal those easily with a healing spell, but the inner pain remained.

She formed the pain reduction spells as quickly as she could. Once the pain faded, her brain started working much faster. 

Her mind immediately jumped to what just happened to her, how trapped she’d felt. Though the physical pain was gone, the mental anguish of everything she’d endured so far remained, making her want to curl up in a ball for a few seconds, or leave this hellish place and look for Erlic again. 

But once again, she could not leave her friends behind. 

She reminded herself firmly, that she might not be much of a fighter, but she was Arielle Blacksoil. A Mossborne. A warrior. She could handle this. 

She took a second to rest and heal herself before she moved on. 

She immediately heard the chaos before she turned the corner.

It was a warzone. 

Most of the walls except the outer ones had been completely destroyed, exposing the large parlor beyond with destroyed furniture and what seemed like countless demons surrounded a single bald man.

A bald man who was holding his own against them. 

Behind, in the adjacent hallway, a few people who were shielded by a transparent ice wall. Arielle couldn’t really see who they were with the pandemonium, but she watched the battle with rapt fascination.

Now this was a warrior in action. 

The man–who had introduced himself as Archmage Benhai–was fast, and he seemed to be able to anticipate the demon's attacks before they cast them. He was facing what looked to be a combination of casters and red-horned demons. Some, he seemed to control their bodies like puppets and use them to fight against each other, or impede their progress.

Others he fought outright, almost simultaneously. 

Any time a demon tried to get behind him, to approach the shield he covered others with, he was there between them, either snapping their necks, or turning their attack back against them with Phasewalker-like fluidity.

It was almost like there were multiple of him, but really there was only one. But he disappeared and appeared like the wind, so much that he was merely a flash, a living massacring human that left black blood spraying in his wake. 

But then a group of people came around the corner hallway, opposite the shielded guests. Arielle could see this group clearly, and they were led by Wulfric with a golden sword in one hand, and his wand in the other.

Some of the demons noticed the added prey, and they charged towards them.

Ari's [Repel] took the group away in time, right as icicles sliced off the necks of most of the ones who had charged. 

More demons popped out of thin air, and Arielle flew forward and got involved in the fray. 

She was going to run out of essences soon.

Vittoria usually supplied her with ample batteries in case she ever got in a fight, but she was better off saving as much as she could and taking control of her opponent's spells instead.

She broke all the demonic spells she could see, stole some, and used her typical Phasewalker method to return as many attacks as she could.

She moved as fast as she could, focusing mostly on the caster demons, doling out backlash that sent them crashing into each other.

Some of the spells unfortunately used purely demonic orbs, which she could not oppose, but her help allowed Archmage Benhai to take care of those ones by himself. 

Arielle had her [Living Vines] burst out of the ground, trapping as many as she could. She moved through space, fighting and killing whatever she could with lightning, and fire, and vines and killer butterflies. Some of the demons came back to life instantly, even with their heads hanging off their bodies. 

That was the annoying part about demons. Their inability to stay dead. 

She wished she knew enough about soul magic to pull out their souls from their bodies, but as it was, she only knew a little bit.

She just had to keep ahead of them and use her spells to help the archmage.

At some point, after she tore down the last of the horde in her direct line of sight, she came face-to-face with a stunned Wulfric. His sword glowed and had black blood on it. He was panting, his eyes wide and fearful.

He stared at her, and she stared back at him.

With Arielle's disguise, they were now about the same height.

She opened her mouth, but suddenly recalled what Vittoria had told her about her voice, and how she should be careful using it.

But she had to ask. 

She modulated it as much as she could before she said, “Do you know where Archmage Lenore's group went?”

Wulfric blinked, shook his head slowly, then stopped himself and nodded.

"Edward's wing," he said, pointing vaguely without taking his eyes off her. "Just keep going down and take the bridge across. Then the stairs up."

"Okay, thank you." It seemed that the hoard here had been reduced enough for the Archmage to handle it alone. He was even looking at her as he fought now, a deep frown on his face.

As she was about to fly away, he called out, "Wait!"

She paused.

“Do we know each other?”

Arielle shook her head and managed to keep her eyes from straying to the ceiling.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. Then, to make sure of it, she added, "I am Tamsy Lous.”

***

AN: Sorry for the late chapter. Have a good weekend!