Chapter 35
All she could do was to conserve her mana as much as possible and choose her targets carefully for now. Evileye annihilated another of the larger demons with buckshot while Gagaran made short work of the lesser beasts with her swings. They have been fighting for hours with no clear plan or even idea of how to close the demon gate and kill the mad cardinal, barely holding the line against the never-ending swarm.
The street under her feet was a muddy, gorey mess. The surrounding houses were partly reduced to rubble. Some had caved-in roofs, some were missing parts of the walls, and some were destroyed entirely. The stalemate was but an illusion as each minute there was another life lost somewhere around the frontline and the city was slowly, but surely, being destroyed before their weary eyes. And while the kingdom was losing its fighters one by one, the demons seemingly were in endless supply, every dead replenished with two more.
Her mind was in chaotic turmoil. In her long life, she had met few who could brush off her attacks so easily, yet a solution needed to be found if Re-Estize was to remain on the face of the world.
If she couldn't do it then there were very few entities who could, the most prominent ones being the dragon lords and possibly her old friend Rigrit, who was the previous leader of Blue Roses and a centuries-old hero who had the firepower to pack up her fame.
There also was a small chance that the new players decided to do something about the problem as one of them did in E-Rantel, but that wasn't a given; they were a wild card. As she tried to think of solutions, the rest of the team joined her and Gagaran.
"Any news?" She asked Lakyus who looked rather haggard. Her friend and the leader of the team had rings under her eyes and her brow was covered in sweat, having finally reached her position through the battle and the flames. Her once immaculate battle gear consisting of a red bodysuit and a blue tunic with plate boots and gloves was torn at numerous paces, a sign of just how little attention was paid attention to it considering even the smallest nicks were tended to.
"My uncle will try to eliminate Yvon and hopefully blow up the gate. He should arrive any minute. Another set of adventurers took our previous position so we can regroup and hopefully start pushing back." Lakyus answered while sending the flying blades into the demon hordes that just kept coming, killing another two.
Although she was mainly a priest, Lakyus was also proficient with swords and wielded Kilineiram, a cursed sword with immense power, along with six floating swords she could command with her mind. All six were regularly flying out, killing a demon each and every time they flew, but even that barely helped.
"Together with the Red Drop, we might just turn the tide of the battle, but you know what needs to be done if he fails and no other solution is found," Evileye remarked.
Evileye had always been a pragmatist and it wasn't in her nature to be a righteous hero. In truth, she could abandon the whole kingdom in a heartbeat if not for her friends. These people she now shielded would turn on her the moment they found out she was a vampire, screaming for her blood as a non-human. Even her team needed time to come to terms with her true nature, Gagaran, and Lakyus in particular.
She wasn't alone in her team with such sentiment. Two ninjas, Tia and Tina were also adventurers only because of their loyalty towards Lakyus and harbored no desire for pointless heroism. Yet all three of them valued their friends too much to ever abandon them.
"We can't. If all is lost, I will fight till my last breath so more people can escape." Lakyus shot back harshly.
Evileye chose not to respond. There was no real point in it. Together the Blue Roses retreated back to the nearest camp to take a short rest and wait for the arrival of Red Drop, having slain as many as they could.
The meager and cold meal was eaten in silence, downed with a rapidly diminishing bottle of wine reserved for high-ranking adventurers and officers. Evileye found no enjoyment in this meal. In the exhaustion, her mind lingered on one sustenance her body constantly craved: blood. It was moments like this where she had to exercise her willpower to not wander off and find an easy victim she could drain just enough to not permanently harm.
The wait luckily wasn't too long and their adamantine-ranked counterparts arrived. The leader of the group, Azuth Aindra, was first to approach them clad in his flashy red armor with the helmet in his hand, followed by Lusenberg, a tall warrior who had butted heads with Gagaran about who was the strongest, sometimes nearly coming to blows when their parties interacted. Behind him walked Alasamtro, a priest who was a devout worshiper of the God of Light. The last one was Hibra, a spellcaster who mostly remained in the shadow of his more flashy team members but a competent fighter nonetheless.
"How's my favorite niece and her team doing? We came as fast as we could." Azuth greeted them as he flashed a toothy smile to Lakyus.
He, after all was, the reason why she became an adventurer in the first place.
"Not good. The demons aren't slowing down. Uncle, if you fail, we might be out of options." Lakyus voiced her worries openly.
"Then I can't fail. Nevertheless, I could still use some backup just in case. Evileye, are you up for tagging along and watching my back?" Azuth now turned his attention towards her.
His suggestion made sense. Despite having his own team they weren't even remotely on her level and even with his suit he still could fall victim to overwhelming numbers if all things went wrong.
"Sure. But I couldn't pierce the barrier protecting the Cardinal so he'll be up to you." Evileye replied, standing up from the box she sat on and adjusting her mask.
"I'll take care of the Cardinal, you just watch my back and make sure someone doesn't sneak up on me while I'm busy." Azuth nodded and put on his helmet which clicked in place with a metallic sound.
"Good luck shorty. Come back in one piece." Gagaran slammed her massive hand on her shoulder.
"I will," Evileye grunted with slight annoyance at her friend's antics and cast [Fly]. As Azuth shot up in the sky she followed, barely keeping up with the man's breakneck speed.
The magical suit Azuth used once belonged to a player and was a relic no smith or even magician understood. There was a rumor that the suit chose its owner and only upon its current owner's death a new one could use it. Evileye was unsure if such rumors had any merit but they at least served as a deterrent for anyone just wanting to steal the armor, as few wanted to contest the strong warrior who donned it.
Just as they crossed the front line about a hundred meters above the ground level, a group of flying demons moved to intercept them. Azuth used his magical ranged weapon, firing projectiles in rapid succession toward the beasts, killing them in droves. She, knowing how dangerous even a single rogue element could be, did her best to shoot down the rest with buckshot, ice blasts, and earth bolts, felling any that escaped Azuth's initial barrage.
With the speed they moved, reaching the epicenter took only a few seconds. Evileye scanned the area cautiously to see any good landing points, analyzing what could ambush them and the best routes for retreat should teleportation fail.
What came as no surprise was that the demons had flattened out the crater and had begun to construct something around the portal by using the stones from surrounding houses. Yvon stood in the very center of it all by a makeshift blood-stained, stone altar with a group of young, naked men and women tied up and tossed into a pile beside it as another pile of mutilated bodies was formed on the other side, corpses and almost-corpses arriving every second.
{ I'm going for a kill. Watch my back. If things go south we're retreating through the same path. } Azuth sent a message, descending.
{ Got it. } Evileye replied. There were numerous flying demons present in the area, not to mention at least two Slane priests who survived the explosion. She sent a barrage of offensive spells in the direction of the two humans, making them retreat and set her eyes on the nearest demons, powering up more earth projectiles.
Azuth meanwhile attacked Yvon with a rapid-fire attack that clashed against the cardinal's magical shield. And it became clear within moments even that wasn't enough to stop the author of the catastrophe that had taken countless lives already.
'This is bad. We might-' she couldn't finish her thought as her [Fly] spell got canceled and she plummeted towards the ground, feeling the mana from the very air being drained.
'Dammit!' She swore as even her attempt at using her mana to mitigate the incoming damage failed. Without her magic, she was still stronger than a human but not by that much and a hundred-meter free fall was bound to break bones at the bare minimum.
To her relief, Azuth was still in the air and attempted to attack Yvon again, but he failed to notice or chose to ignore her fall. Evileye accepted the incoming pain without any regret or hesitation, embracing the fall. Stopping Yvon was a lot more important and she would make the same choice if roles were reversed.
The collision with the ground was as painful as she expected. Despite the attempt to roll, her ankles were shattered. She grunted in pain and rolled on her back. It would take at least a few minutes to regenerate even if she was completely cut off from her magical abilities, minutes she didn't have right now.
'He has some magic nullification ability. If nothing else it would be beneficial to report this.' She slowly sat up and turned her attention to her surroundings. The demons closed in on her and there was little she could do to stop them. Yvon and Azuth were still exchanging magical attacks which were brushed off by both.
A massive winged demon reached her first and picked her up as she tried to kick, punch, and bite the beast to no avail. The demon in response broke her extremities one by one, sending jolts of pain with each agonizing crack of the bone. She didn't give the monster the satisfaction of her screaming, clenching her teeth.
She was unceremoniously carried towards Yvon, which meant she would either be sacrificed or kept alive for an unknown reason. With her regeneration still working, her hands and feet slowly cracked back into place, but this time she knew better and remained still. Being a non-compliant prisoner would only cause her more suffering, and if she were to become one there was a chance to learn something and then perhaps find a way to escape by playing compliancy. There was no way Yvon would be able to keep up the anti-magic shield indefinitely, she just had to bide her time.
Her full attention was now on the fight. Azuth was performing careful strikes and retreating to a safer distance while avoiding Yvon's magical blasts. It seemed that all his attacks were futile and there was no indication that the Cardinal's shield would fail any time soon, resisting every one of the former's attacks.
Then something truly unexpected happened. A precise blast shot out from the portal and Azuth got hit head-on. He lingered in the air for a moment longer, touching the hole where his chest once was, and then fell unceremoniously, colliding with the ground a moment later with a crash.
'This is just great.' Evileye shook her head lightly. The situation was bad and she had no clear way to escape at the moment. All she could do was to hope that her natural regeneration would help her survive.
She was brought before the mad cleric who greeted her with a bloody, toothy smile. "Ah, you return. The tainted one."
"Ironic coming from you, cardinal." She spat back, bile escaping her lips.
Yvon snarled as he took her mask and tore it off her face, breaking the silk thread holding it in place, and tossed it away.
"Show your face to the world, beast. You are consorting with the monster Gods, you don't deserve to live, but my Gods are merciful. Once the cleansing is fully underway, you too will be saved and your cleansed soul will be sent to them." Yvon announced.
Evileye chose not to respond. There was nothing left to be said at this point. All she could do was bide time and look for openings.
"Defiant?" Yvon chuckled. "Ensure she does not escape," he ordered the massive demon holding her.
The demon brought her to the nearby house and slammed her petite figure which had stopped growing since she was twelve, against the wall. She grunted in pain and attempted to dig her nails into the demon's hand, which did little.
The beast in response picked up a steel pole from the ground and drove it through her abdomen right into the wall, and then bent it around her stomach tightly to ensure she couldn't move.
Evileye panted as she struggled against the pain that would not go away as long as she was kept like this. For her to heal fully, the metal needed to be removed. But pain mattered little. The more pressing matter was to warn everyone that the assault had failed, but she had no means to do it. As of now, she was but a helpless observer of the continuous atrocities taking place.
Proofreading by Stac, nate051499j6, Sluethen, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, mfkz_rocker, x4x, fvvck
Editing by aidan_lo.
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