Chương 908

The fluctuation coming our way deep from within the Ravine grows stronger, and I see a familiar dark crescent of energy cutting through the void our way. It is the same exact shot from that Royal Demon's small dagger, the first long-range hit we received from it that sealed our fate as the losers of the first exchange. It was so powerful that I had to sacrifice my entire body and focus every drop of my energy around my cores to survive a direct hit. We have more than enough time to dodge, but there is no need.

I only smile beneath the layers of red and black energy that cover my facial expressions and slowly swing my blade across my body. It looks elegant, as flickering crimson fire trails behind the movement of my arm, as though I'm putting on a performance. The center of my sword collides with the center of this dark slash, and hundreds of thousands of layered vibrations ripple through my arm and automatically burst out from my blade. The entire wave of darkness stops in midair, as though it's hit an immovable force.

As it tries to move forward, it looks like it's bending against space, flexing like tough rubber. Yet, at its stress points, the darkness turns red. Instantly, fire floods through the attack, and it bursts into harmless Celestial Energy residue, dissolving in the air while I follow through with my entire swing. My gaze cuts deep into the void to watch the Royal that threw that attack come rocketing our way while grabbing two soul weapons at once from his arsenal.

Before, when this Demon moved at this speed, I thought he must have been teleporting. I see that he was just moving too fast for a limited mind to comprehend. Now, I can see its every movement in perfect clarity. The sound of jingling chains echoes through the air, as in both hands, this demon holds the handles of a bright white pair of soul weapons. Each one has five celestial energy-saturated chains glowing out from a single point, and each chain holds a spiked ball.

The Demon begins to spin them around its body, creating a simultaneous defensive and offensive domain while it yells out into the void.

"You survived! Humans! Really? A lesser race was the key to opening this temple all along!" Its laugh follows as it swings both of its arms forward, and one of the spiked balls on each set of chains moves forward faster than the others. Eight are left behind, while two move faster than the demon's advance. A stream of constant dark celestial energy flows out from the demon's arms, and black chains elongate the reach of the attacks further than all the others at a fixed distance on their white chains.

They're headed straight at us, making it obvious that we're not going to be able to talk things out. It seems like quite the intelligent Demon compared to everything else in this Ravine, but it still wants to kill us on the spot. Waves of understanding ripple through the blue and red auras in the air, and both of us take steps forward, bursting outward to opposite sides of the Demon. This is the first moment since entering the Ravine that we're leaving each other's sides.

Even the thought of breaking skin contact to stop our energy cycles or possibly being lost in the darkness was worse than death before. Now, I am at peace flying through the air away from her at a distance. Our connection can't be broken by distance any longer, we can feel each other deep within our souls as though we're still together. I step through the air and spin, leaving a spiral of red fire behind me while I curve around the spiked ball headed my way.

Behind it, four more shift their positioning and curve toward me. The bases of all their white chains begin to turn black as this Royal channels energy into them and manipulates their lengths at will. Even the ball behind me curves in the air as tension is placed on its chain, and it's pulled back toward me. None of this phases my elegant strides through the darkness. In fact, it's quite refreshing to use this new power.

I feel like everything is moving in slow motion around me, and at the thought of anything I desire, it will happen. I can bend through space, stepping on air like it is solid. When I turn to swing my blade across my body and release a wave of bright red fire, with a core of dark black corruption at its center, it collides with one of the spiked balls coming my way and slices it clean in two. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I dive forward through the split soul weapon as its chain snaps and kick off another approaching ball with my foot, as though it's nothing but a launch pad and not a deadly weapon meant to take me out. A spike on the ball right behind me juts out over two meters, just about the same as my own height in this base form. I can feel the urge to release a new form brewing deep within my soul, but there is so much power already at my fingertips, it feels like a waste to reveal it to such an unworthy opponent.

My current state is all I need to take out this enemy. The spiked ball beneath my foot shatters into thousands of fragments as I kick off of it and slice through another spiked ball after changing directions. I let the flames and darkness surrounding my body expand and strengthen the aura that is flowing out from me as I fly toward the last two spiked balls on that side of the Demon.

I can feel millions of layers of Royal Vibrations tightening and activating as my presence in reality tethers to my True Cyan Divine Core. Space bends as I burst forward, and don't even bother to swing my blade for these last obstacles. Once within ten meters of my flaming body, the two massive spiked balls crack and lose their momentum forward. I fly in between both of them, carving a perfect circle through them.

A half-moon crescent is carved into the sides of each spiked ball as I pass them, and their structural integrity breaks once my strongest portion of aura leaves them behind. Both shatter to white dust and their chains lose all their tension. – On the other side of the Demon, Maria slices through the first spiked ball just the same as I did. A single precise swing of her blade creates a thin sparkling blue line through the center of the soul weapon coming her way.

The color quickly spreads to the entire ball and even begins traveling down the long chain. By the time she's close enough to make contact, the entire spiked ball shatters to sparkling mist. The Demon has to sever its connection to this chain before the ice travels through its arm. Maria doesn't slow down one bit.

Her manifested angelic wings flap once slowly, and she bursts forward through the open air, her eyes glowing royal blue, and a cold domain of ice tethered to millions of royal vibrations and a never-ending energy source pouring out from her whole body. It fills the air. All four of the other spiked balls that try closing in on her from every direction freeze in place as she flies through them.

It looks like she's stopped time for a moment, but it's clear the chains and soul weapons have just been turned to ice once she passes them all by. They shatter to dust without her having to even move her sword or make any direct moves. The Demon's eyes widen as it releases all ten chains and turns its head back and forth to see us closing in on it from both sides. However, these aren't eyes filled with fear; instead, they're surprise and joy.

It focuses on the pillar of stone behind us where the temple once stood, then yells out loud while grabbing more soul weapons from above its head.

"So you two are the ones all these carvings are about... Odd, because I don't sense that Dragon with you. I would guess you claimed some kind of inheritance, but that can't be the case, your vibrations haven't been altered at all, only solidified..." It begins to throw glowing white, purple, black, and cyan-colored knives all through the air.

Some of them morph into two-sided blades, others into circular spinning saws, and some begin leaking massive amounts of celestial energy until they explode with immense force like one-time-use soul-powered bombs. The Demon lets out a laugh as we slice through these distractions and put up shields to bounce the energy from the bombs away. Its black aura that fills the air for many kilometers all around contracts back in toward itself.

Instead of acting as a natural but useless intimidation aura, the dark black mist consolidates to create many shadowy arms. Some of them continue to throw weapons our way, while others charge up larger glowing objects behind the Demon's back. There is a massive black spear that charges up a demonic energy ball, and a bow that pulls back six arrows at once. It holds the very club that defeated us last time in one hand, and the axe that chopped off my arm in the other.

All kinds of blades and strange artifacts begin to hum and buzz while it gains the high ground and waits for us to fly up toward it.

"Come on! Tell me what you saw in there, can't a Demon trapped in this torture pit satiate his curiosity a little! Did Lucian set you up to this? No—maybe it was the new 5th Family Head. Has it been long enough for them to finally cultivate a new Royal? If they're experimenting with humans, they must have found a new heir..." From two of its sharp shadowy arms, a pure cyan blade comes down toward me, and six bright white arrows are released from a massive bow down toward Maria.

This blade isn't swung or thrown; instead, it looks as though it's extending from its grasp, growing over five kilometers in distance to close the gap instantly. It's faster than the spiked balls by at least ten times, and I don't sense any celestial energy in it. The weapon is made from pure divine threads strengthened by royal Vibrations. It's an extremely strange weapon. Without fully understanding what it can do, my first instinct is to dodge.

However, it follows me with this cyan blade like a laser pointer, easily moving it to follow me as though it's weightless. I swing across my body to block it and feel resistance unlike the weak warning shots it threw before. An explosion of cyan threads and red flames shakes the air. I have to counter, so I release a crescent of flames through the center of the cyan blade.

It cuts straight down its center and flies through the air toward the demon, obliterating the cyan sword and slicing off the shadowy arm holding it. I was aiming to curve this attack into the Demon's real body, but it shifted its position in space the moment I made my counter. It wasn't a last moment decision... I have a feeling it could have even saved its shadow arm if it wanted.

The feeling of cyan residue tingling on my blade and right arm afterward, until I let my corruption devour it, confirms if that cyan blade actually hit me, it would have caused some damage. I watch Maria create a frozen domain around her to deal with the white arrows, and they don't act the same as the spiked balls that instantly froze. Instead, they only slow down and only begin freezing completely once they're less than 20 meters from her. She slashes through each one with her blade while flying in closer.

The Demon's excited and curious smile does not change, so I decide to play its game and yell back to see if I can get any valuable information out of this Demon. We may be on the same side here afterall...

"You're wrong. Lucian Morvale didn't create us in some kind of experiment... But you are right about one thing. There was a 5th family head chosen. Do you want to hear what he was like?"