The demon pulled back, pain and anger warring across his face, and while it was nice to play with my food, the world was ending around me, and the moment the fourth seals broke, then my time here would be cut short.
I looked at Vrakth, wondering how much of him I would be able to take out before his mind broke, and the Moon Fox he had imprisoned in his blood could run free.
The demon must have seen something in my eyes because he turned and began to flee towards the swarm, but I was on him before he finished retreating, closing the distance in one Stormstep, and I hit him in the spine with a fist of Tribunal lightning.
Vrakth folded backward through the air, six eyes snapping wide, but he recovered fast, since I had just crushed a part of his bones, and the durability of a demon at his tier was terrifying.
His right hand came up already burning with Flame Essence; he released a crackling beam the width of my chest, and I did not dodge it. I let it hit the lightning cloaking my shoulder and burn there, as I felt my Fire Resonance chewing through the residual heat that came through my shield, while I drove my other fist into his lowest horn.
I measured my strength so the horn cracked at its base, but it did not fall off. I did this as a statement to the demon that I knew his body so well that I knew how to hurt him in such a surgical manner; in fact, I knew his body better than anyone else, not even if he had a demonic lover.
Two of his six eyes flickered as they slowly died out, and his strength dropped by a fraction that I felt in the shudder of his body.
"Cattle," he snarled, black tongue tasting the ichor already running down his jaw. "You dance well, but our mother takes her throne on the firmament of the heavens, and you shall suffer her chains for all eternity. You and all your kind."
"You have a nasty mouth," I frowned, and broke the second horn with another punch that fractured the demon’s skull.
Perhaps it was my channels, or the vast amount of spells and abilities I had inside my body, but the strength and durability of my body had overtaken an ancient demon like Vrakth, who should be an elite among his kind.
Behind Vrakth, dozens of three-horned Narghul Sorcerers poured beams of flames and corruption into his body, causing his already impressive frame to swell, and with a roar, his left hand held a back-green orb of Corruption that left cracks in space... and I caught it in a cage of the Loom, and held it spinning between us.
All of my resonances, including space, were rilling through my threads, holding the orb of corruption within, and I let him watch me hold all that power effortlessly for a few seconds before I threw it back, but not directly at him, but behind him... I did not want to erase the demon now.
The green orb of corruption exploded in the distance tearing through dozends of three horned Narghul Sorcerers, releasing a fog that seemed to be extremely acidic as it ate thhrough their bodies, and yet the offshoot of that explosion reached Vrakth and knocked him to the side, and I could see that even as a demon, he was not immune to Corruption, as he screamed and convulsed inside the green fog that reached him.
At this moment, I looked around us, and I was a bit shocked that most of the three-horned demons were going higher in the sky, following the rising tentacle, and apart from two of those translucent creatures that were observing the battle, the rest seemed to be focused on other things.
Interesting... I looked back at Vrakth, cocking my head to the side as I watched him convulse and cry out in misery, but I knew the tenacity of this demon, so I knew that this was not enough to push him to his limits, and even now, he was looking for a way to twist this situation to his advantage.
Sigh... I learned so many good lessons from this demon.
I moved towards him as he convulsed, already inside his guard, Lightning Edict compressed to a blade, and before he could respond, I cut deep into his sternum, digging into the oldest layer of him, his beating heart, where the cold knot of the Moon Fox was chained.
For a moment, there was silence, and Vrakth roared in fury as he realized what I was reaching for. I felt his whole ancient will clamp down on this link, and his Abyssal Shield flared to throw me off, red light blazing.
Irritated a bit at his resilience, I threw another punch and cracked his third horn.
∞
The Abyssal Shield of the demon guttered, and nearly all of his eyes went dim, and I saw that same mad rage that I recognized from his core erupt like a volcano, "ENOUGH..."
A massive shockwave blasted from his body; this was the same force that had thrown my old self hundreds of meters the last time we fought. Now, I planted my feet in the air, and my strength alongside Force Resonance at ninety practically gave me immunity, and his rage broke around me like water on a stone.
I did not move back an inch, and as I saw the fury in his eyes change to something as close to despair as a demon could feel, I knew that I had nearly won.
Then he took the only path that was left for him, and he chose madness. He fought with everything at once, disregarding the cost to his body and soul, while he burned as brightly as a star that was about to go out.
The demon was fast and brutal, and despite my present strength, since I chose to fight up close with him, he was able to open me in three places: a claw through my side, flame across my back, and corruption eating at my hip before I burned my flesh to stop it.
I took all of this damage without flinching; I had suffered much worse, and even in his madness, Vrakth had tricks I had not seen, and these injuries were a small price to pay for learning them.
I knew that my time with him was coming to a close, and I was anticipating the fourth seal breaking any moment from now, so I got my hand back into the wound in his chest, and I found the knot binding the Moon Fox to his soul. Vrakth was now too weak to hide this ancient contract from me.
Staring him in the eyes with my right hand buried into his chest until it reached my elbow, I broke the Will in that knot and began to merge it to myself.
Vrakth gasped in pain, black demonic blood pouring from him like a river, and a broken growl came from his soul,
"What is mine..." he said.
"...was never yours," I replied, as I pulled the screaming Moon Fox out of his soul, shredding the demon to pieces.
[ Stored Essence: 185,770 → 198,041 ]