SB: Chapter 256 – Interlude 34 (Patreon)

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The Demon Malphas

“May you die a cursed death!” I roared at the monster as another spherical orb of ice formed where I had been standing.

It had been two days since the battle again, and two months since this entire area had been cursed. When I had first detected the large burst of Mana, I had only thought to check out this area. The settlement of the Fox Clan had been wiped out by other demons and there was no one living in the area.

A shame, since I was the strongest demon on the continent and enjoyed killing anything I came across. That was until recent events.

It had taken time to gather the necessary monsters out of the dungeon and put them to work. Whatever was here was buried. I would find such a large source of Mana and make use of it, whatever it was.

I suspected it might be a fallen Seraphim. The other demons might not recognize the taste of Mana in the air, but I did. There was nothing better to consume. I had managed to get a single drop of blood from the Great War. It was the greatest experience and joy of my long life.

If a Seraphim had an accident or dropped something, I refused to let any other demon have such a prize. With my mind made up the excavation had begun. It was slow going with how frozen the ground was, but I had patience and the Mana being released wasn’t decreasing. There was no rush and whatever it was, was well hidden.

But then the ambient Mana had spiked from several locations all at once. At first I had thought it was some kind of organized attack by other demons. But the Mana quickly dispersed in the area and there were more spikes all around me.

I had moved to the nearest source while keeping an eye on the excavation. There was a runic stone plate with a Mana core being used to power it. It didn’t trigger my Danger Sense, it was just cold. I had seen such runes before, Eldarin Runes. But the adventurer I had caught in the dungeon had told me everything I needed to know. The Eldarin Empire was no more and they weren’t coming back here.

Most likely another adventurer trying to confuse me. I rushed back to the excavation, but everything was undisturbed. While I wasn’t familiar with the runic script, they were just making the air colder around them and they were far enough away that they wouldn’t impact me directly.

It might get colder, but I had Cold Absorption at level 89. As for the monsters under my command they were all cold and ice based and could handle the dark season. It had taken a while to find enough monsters of sufficient strength, but it had been an investment. The only thing I could think of at the time was that it was a distraction for a greater ploy.

I could feel the runic plates activating in the distance and then hiding away as their Mana spread out. Snow began to fall, but I hadn’t been concerned. Then the snowfall increased, with snow coming down clumped together. The pit that had been dug with great effort was quickly filling with snow, the monsters under my command were struggling, and the temperature kept decreasing.

My skill began to feel pressured for the first time in a long time. My Cold Absorption wouldn’t break but I could feel the pressure against my skill. Even when I expected an attack, nothing came.

I had left the excavation with my monsters trapped in the snow. I managed to find two runic plates that hadn’t been completely buried, but there were countless others. I searched around the area and there was no sign of anyone or anything. It was beyond frustrating.

The only explanation on where the person who had set up the runic plates could be hiding was underground. I began clearing the snow myself and freeing monsters. Once the snow stopped, we began to make progress back down.

Just as we were about to reach the ground, it snowed again, forcing us to clear the snow again. What had been a small earth and stone pit had become a massive pit in the snow just to reach the physical ground.

That was when my Danger Sense began to steadily rise. While I was the strongest demon on this continent as far as I knew, there were monsters stronger than me. Normally they didn’t stir and they were too big to go back into the dungeon. They tended to camp the exit passages, trying to suck up what Mana they could as rabid beasts.

The nearest one was Cyrovex The Endless Cold. I had left the pit and looked up at the clear dark sky full of stars and had let out a sigh. While it wasn’t intelligent the way a demon or a thinking being was, it was an incredibly rare named monster. The name coming from the skills the few beings that had survived it were able to recount, with the name coming from its strongest skill, a Tier 6 skill Cyrovex. The title was just a description of what that skill did. The System seemed to recognize such things as well, making that the name of the monster.

The monster’s appearance was that of a large floating ice prism that was three times my height, with countless shaped chunks of ice surrounding it, acting as a shield and an attack. Whoever set up this trap was truly insidious. By releasing enough Mana into the atmosphere, they had attracted a beast to force me to retreat or fight.

Cyrovex wasn’t fast, but it was impossible. Anything that came in close froze to death, even Cold Absorption would break in front of a Tier 6 aura environmental skill. But at long range it was impossible to break through the countless ice shields the monster used. My only chance was to gather my Mana for powerful attacks in the hope I managed to break through and damage its core, killing the monster.

Unfortunately, my hopes were crushed easily by Cyrovex. If it had been weaker, it would have been consumed or killed like other such monsters left over from the Great War. Cyrovex wasn’t the strongest beast, but it was the most defensive and impossible to damage. It was a beast, not a monster, since it was no longer chained to the dungeon.

“Flame Beam!”

My Tier 3 spell skill just tickled the beast. Its environmental aura skill, Cyrovex, disrupted other Mana based skills. The monster drew strength from the cold, likely another Tier 6 skill that converted the ambient cold to Mana that was superior to Cold Absorption. The only beasts that could survive on the surface all had such skills.

That was why the Mana consumption of its primary skill, Cyrovex, could be kept up permanently. Unless the sun came out and temperature rose, it was a battle of frustration.

“Spatial Strike!”

My hand struck a massive ice shield that had swung in front of me as I tried to get close to its main body. The ice shattered into fragments, but I was forced to retreat as more ice shields moved in around me.

“Greater Spatial Disjunction!”

I was forced to use my most powerful skill, a Tier 6 skill. Spatial cracks radiated out from where I had struck another ice shield. The snow around us exploded upwards and there were a couple of avalanches on some nearby mountains. Countless ice shields broke, but more formed around the monster and kept blocking me. The main body also took some minor damage. The environmental conditions drained me and I was forced to retreat. I could tell it used a lot of Mana creating the ice shields around its main body.

The battle of attrition had begun. I cursed every time I was forced to use another Greater Spatial Disjunction. The skill was strong, but it did damage to me as well. I hadn’t managed to get a Spatial Resistance skill. While it wasn’t as bad as the damage Cyrovex was taking, I was also being hammered by its environmental aura.

I had some potions I had stockpiled over the years but I refused to use them. They were for if things turned dangerous. For now I could retreat and attack Cyrovex at will with my far faster speed. Even entering and exiting its environmental aura without much of a problem. It wasn’t a fight I would pick, since I would have to spend a year or two to fully recover after it, but I was winning.

My main frustration came from how annoying it was to fight such a monster. That was why I had never tried to kill it before. While tempting to just let Cyrovex be, it would camp out above my excavation and strengthen itself over time by creating more ice shields and building an iceberg around itself.

Once it had time to set up such a defense, killing it would become completely impossible. It would also have the spare Mana to endlessly generate spherical ice prisons. Instead of the occasional one I had to dodge, it would truly become unrelenting. Right now it had to fly, move and create its ice shields, and heal from my attacks. Its movement was a huge cost for its Mana.

But I also couldn’t stop the monster from slowly advancing either. It was a race to see if I could kill it before it reached my excavation pit and completely took over the area.

“Greater Spatial Disjunction!”

The ground and snow shook once more. I tried to direct the attack, but my skill level wasn’t enough and my supporting skills were nowhere near good enough to properly contain and direct such a powerful attack.

“Curse you a thousand times!”

Even during the battle, I was keeping my eye out for interference from the third party that had triggered all of this. So far nothing, which just annoyed me even more.

There was a large burst of Mana, clearly Seraphim and something deeper buried underneath it. Cyrovex froze as well as we both focused on the ground. Then the burst of Mana cut off along with the ambient Mana of whatever had been releasing it.

My rage grew as I quickly began to retreat. Cyrovex was confused as it kept moving towards the excavation site. The rats had tunneled to the source of Mana and gotten it before me while I had been stuck fighting Cyrovex.

They had to come up. I was headed for the tallest peak and I would be scanning all nearby areas for at least the next year. I didn’t think they had the patience to hide that long. I activated my stealth skills. I hadn’t seen the point before, but now with Cyrovex releasing a lot of Mana, I would become the hidden hunter and my opponent the prey.

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