Nightmare Part 3

Chapter 15: Nightmare Part 3

As the echoes of Cassandra's victory faded, a terrifying new development unfolded before her eyes. Scores of portals, gaping maws into the violate depths of the Abyss itself, ripped open throughout the courtyard. Demons began pouring forth in seemingly endless waves, a relentless tide of claws, fangs, and insatiable hunger.

Cassandra's obsidian eyes narrowed as she assessed the rapidly deteriorating situation. Even her extraordinary skills would be pressed against such overwhelming numbers. But she was not alone this night.

With a subtle hand gesture, shadows coalesced and took shape around her. Five towering wraithbone constructs, each brimming with the eldritch energies of the Talia bloodline, materialized at her side. These were her kin, fellow scions of the noble Talia family, united in their mastery over the shadows.

Erykas Talia Levasti, a gaunt, severe figure swathed in layered shadowsilk, was the first to make his presence known. With an upraised hand, spears of solidified night burst forth to impale a knot of demons, skewering them like grotesque shish-kebabs.

"The vile overreach of these fiends knows no bounds," he rasped, summoning a corona of razor-sharp umbral blades to orbit his form.

Beside him, the lithe, feline shape of Alayne Talia Levasti seemed to dissolve into living shadow. "Then we shall remind them of the price of such arrogance," she purred, her voice seeming to echo from every angle as she became one with the infinite black.

The demons faltered as their senses were assailed from every side by the lethal assassins' onslaught. Here, a hulking horror would simply cease to exist, sliced into ethereal slivers by Alayne's impeccable technique. There, entire clusters would be skewered and flayed by Erykas' whirling blades, driven to maddened frenzy by their inability to counter the murderous assault.

Runa, the youngest of the shadowbound warriors, moved with a dancer's poise. Though she lacked the raw power of her elders, she made up for it with endless guile and creativity. Ribbons of pure darkness lashed out to constrict and crush demons with vise-like force, only to sweep them into lethal ambushes as she flowed from one assault to the next in an endless, deadly acrobatic feat.

Oliver could scarcely believe their eyes as the battle unfolded before them. Just moments ago they had stood at the precipice, battered and surrounded by a seemingly unstoppable demonic horde. But the arrival of Cassandra and her shadowed kin had turned the tide in the most spectacular fashion.

Oliver watched, jaw agape, as the Talia scions danced amidst the endless tides of demon flesh with a lethal elegance. He had heard whispered tales of their clan's mastery over the infinite darkness, but witnessing it first-hand was another matter entirely. As an Arch Mage, he found himself unable to defeat even a single demon alone, once again realizing the immense power held by the Levasti Family. The Talia's alone could annihilate a small nation single-handedly.

Erykas' whirling blades sliced through the largest behemoths as if they were made of parchment. Alayne's lithe, fluid form seemed to transcend the physical realm entirely, phasing in and out of reality to appear within the demons' ranks and sew utter chaos. And young Runa's hypnotic, serpentine movements bewildered and ensnared, leaving the fiends as malleable prey for her elders' killing strikes.

But it was Cassandra herself who left Oliver's mind reeling. Her absolute command and cold mastery over the infinite black was a sight to behold. The Shadow Queen seemed to hold dominion over the very plane of reality itself, shaping and bending the darkness to her inexorable will.

At the center of the maelstrom stood the obsidian-clad assassin, an implacable pillar of lethal grace amidst the storm of tearing claws and rending fangs. Each subtle gesture, each minute twitch of her fingers conjured forth nightmares given form - razors of animated shadow that flensed demonic flesh from bone with surgical precision.

Oliver felt a shiver run down his spine despite the overwhelming tide slowly turning in their favor. He had witnessed true power this night, the kind that transcended mortal reckoning. The demons, for all their hellish might, were but playthings to Cassandra and her shadowbound kin.

"By the Veil..." the young scions of the Vier Family first time witnessing the power of the Shadow Wraiths murmured under his ragged breaths. "What incredible power. To think such mastery over the infinite night dwells in the veins of a human bloodline..."

His gaze drifted back to the unconscious forms of Nora and Camilla cradled protectively in Oliver's arms. A fleeting sense of gratitude washed over him that they did not witness the terrible, beautiful intimacies of death dealt by the Talia's blades this night. Such sights would haunt even the most hardened soul.

For all the darkness they commanded, Oliver saw clearly that the Talia were guardians and protectors at their core. Fierce, merciless, but driven by an oath as ancient as the night itself to safeguard the realms of the living against any encroachment from the infinite black. Truly they were shadow's double-edged blade - as much a bulwark against the unknown as they were an avatar of its terrible, all-consuming hunger.

"Good grief.. Of all the places the Infernal King could be born they had to be here." Cassandra suddenly appearing right in front of Cedric said annoyed.

Hearing the word "Infernal King" Oliver almost fell unconscious but managed to keep it barely. The way Cassandra said it so casually it sounded like she was just doing annoying chore. The last time an Infernal King appeared all living life in this continent almost went extinct and here she was saying it like it was nothing at all.

"Good grief... Of all places, the Infernal King had to be born here," Cassandra said, appearing suddenly in front of Cedric with an annoyed expression.

Hearing the term "Infernal King," Oliver nearly fainted but managed to stay conscious. The casual way Cassandra mentioned it made it sound like a minor inconvenience. The last time an Infernal King emerged, nearly all life on the continent was almost wiped out, yet she spoke as if it were nothing.

"Where is Aurelius? We need to destroy the cocoon before it fully forms."

"He's on an expedition ordered by the king. I've already sent a messenger to inform the capital of the situation. Gather the knights in the mansion and arm them; an all-out war is about to begin." With that, the shadows beneath their feet swallowed them, transporting everyone in the mansion to the main Levasti House.