I could almost taste the glee in the voice of the Soul Flayer as it saw me on my knees. I gasped in pain before I coughed, spitting out silver blood, but I knew that this was just a small portion of the bleeding inside of me from the destruction of my body.
Still, the smile had not left my face, and the Soul Flayer could see it... and I had no reason to hide the smile because I finally had an answer. Fighting was fun when you could separate your mind from the consequences of dying, and so you would be able to see the things that you had missed.
Fourteen passes. That is how many it took before I saw it.
Every time it came through me, its arm came out ruined. For the fraction of a second it is inside me, it has to become something material to be able to reach into my soul.
It did not care about the fact that it was hurting, because I was being hurt more, and it was able to heal, even though the act of healing meant cannibalizing the body it was wearing.
The way I see it, the Soul Flayer must believe that it was going to win... well, it was not, because its calculations were wrong.
∞
Here is the thing that I noted after the first few times the Soul Flayer tore into me: why does it keep using the arm?
It was able to easily go through walls and my lightning, even my body could not stop it, and yet, why does it need to use that hand to dig into my soul?
After suffering from the pain of being butchered internally, I began to understand the process by which this demon feeds, and from what I could tell, it does this by taking hold.
I recalled my three months in that vat, the spike, and the appalling patience of the demon that had pinned me in place, and slowly drank my soul.
It means that even though the Soul Flayer was able to take a state where it was untouchable, there would be a period, barely a fraction of a second, where it had to materialise its hand.
Which means every single pass, for a fraction of a second, it is holding on to me.
And I know a word about holding on.
I spread out my hand and grinned at the demon, "Do your worst."
∞
I had killed enough powerful demons to know that when you separate them from their lofty perch, they were nothing but rabid animals, and the Soul Flayer had been brought to the limit; whatever intelligence it had was wild and filled with bloodlust, controlling a demon only went so far after all.
It came for me, and although my instincts wanted me to move, I had watched it enough times that if I tried, I would be able to dodge it half the time, but I had already gathered all the information I needed, and there was no more purpose in extending this battle.
Borrowing the eyes of the fox, I was a bit surprised when it gave me a new lens to see the world, and the speed of the demon became slow, as if it was moving through solid space, but this vision hurt my head, and I quickly dismissed it due to the vast amount of information it was also bombarding me with.
Besides, I did not need my vision; I just had to feel it.
It went into my body, and I could feel the obscene intimacy of another being inside my body, and then that slight moment where this feeling became real.
It happened very quickly, but I was already making my move even before the feeling truly materialised. One of the greatest advantages of lightning was its speed, and while I no longer had Anima inside my body, I had my lightning, and that meant I had my threads.
From every channel in my body, lightning rose before they were rapidly transformed into threads.
And so the moment that hand materialised inside me, a thousand threads weaved into the form of two hands closed around it.
As the hands of lightning closed around the arm, it began to send out threads that repeatedly wrapped around it, and every thread of lightning carried my intent... hold on!
The arm tried to dematerialise, but it could not, as long as I had grabbed it. This had created a connection between us, and it would need to sever that connection before it could leave my body.
Sad materialised behind me, but its arm was buried inside my body, and its body was rapidly fluctuating from solid to wisp, as it began to scream in pain.
Who was I kidding? Of course, being inside of me was poison for the demon. Although it was tearing my soul apart, my channels were like razors, and my blood was acid to a demon.
"Where do you think you are going, Sad? Don’t you like being inside me?"
With a force of will, I waited for the moment the body of the demon dematerialised, and I pulled him inside me with my threads, causing the screams of Sad to erupt from inside my body.
"LET GO," Sad shrieked, as it thrashed inside my body. I was no longer coughing blood; every single part of me was bleeding, and I was covered by a glowing silver mist that was slowly rising into the air.
"LET GO... I WILL TEAR OUT EVERYTHING... I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL AND THE THING YOU CARRY... I WILL..."
"You’ve had me helpless for three months," I whispered. "Hell, you’ve had me on my knees." My body was shaking, and my vision was growing dim. I had experienced this enough to know that I was dying. "You had me all this while... and still don’t know the first thing about me."
[ Anima Depth: 89 (Adept) — Crystallization: 97% → 98%]
The demon stopped listening to me, and it went crazy. It was tearing my body inside, causing my chest to expand, as my bones cracked, and my channels were stretched to the limits.
"LET GO... LET GO... YOU CRAZY BASTARD... LET GO."
With the strength born from desperation, the demon exploded out of my chest, nearly splitting me in two. It collapsed in front of me; its entire body was burning while it continuously cried out in pain.
I slowly reached for it with my hand, and it flinched, but it seemed as if it was frozen in place and could not move. The demon could only make tiny whimpering sounds.
[ Anima Depth: 89 (Adept) — Crystallization: 98% → 99%]
My fingers touched its face, and I smiled at the demon. The fight had been short, but I had enjoyed myself after many loops of being suppressed in the darkness, and then the light in my eyes vanished as I died, but my mind was still alive, and from my dead body, a voice echoed, "Death Consort."