Divine Retribution

Staring at the chasm created by Ei's attack, Paul legitimately didn't know what to say. He knew she had performed feats such as splitting an island but knowing something was possible and witnessing it for himself...it just hit differently.

After hearing Xinyan quietly mutter, "Holy shit..." Paul regained enough of his senses to ask, "Did you...did you kill her...?"

Without removing her eyes from the chasm she had created, Ei shook her head and answered, "She's still alive. While I am confident that attack did some damage, her immortality appears to be of a different variety than I am used to..."

Before Paul could ask what she meant, Ei was forced to dodge as a blue mist surged from the glowing, Electro-purple chasm and attempted to strike her in the face. She reciprocated with an Electro-infused slash, but while the energy diffused through the cloud, momentarily stopping it, her actual strike had no effect.

Narrowing her eyes, Ei surprised nearly everyone present by raising her left hand aloft and releasing a terrifying stream of blinding Electro Energy into the sky overhead.

Though he was nearly blinded by the attack, Paul forced himself to look skyward as he recalled the scene of Palpatine using his Force Lightning to attack the Rebels. It was a genuinely soul-shaking sight to behold, but he didn't understand why Ei was exhausting her limited reserves until he saw dark-purple storm clouds beginning to congeal out of thin air.

Voicing the thought that had crossed the minds of nearly everyone, Paul remarked, "We should probably move..."

Without needing to be told what to do, Ganyu promptly changed to her human form to discard her harness before reverting to her Qilin form. She was a little reluctant to part with the carriage and her specially-crafted harness, but such things could be replaced with relative ease. The most important thing was assuring everyone's safety.

As Paul and Party raced off with remarkable swiftness, Moore stared in the direction of their retreat with a stone-faced expression on his face. He wasn't surprised they had left him behind, but it would have been nice if they had at least offered...

Before Moore could think to retreat on his own, the stream of Electro-purple lightning from Ei's hand abruptly ended. The previously bright and oppressively sunny day had become an eerie twilight, the horizon in the distance still lit up like high noon while the sky overhead was as dark as a moonless night, offset by periodic flashes of purple lightning.

With her purple eyes glowing against the backdrop of the darkness she had ushered in, Ei's expression and tone were as frigid as arctic waters as she gazed at the noticeably more petite form of Atofe congealing from the mist. A substantial portion of the Mana constituting her body was trapped in the chasm formed by Ei, so she was nearly a full head shorter than she was previously.

Undaunted by the cataclysmic storm brewing overhead, a gleeful smile developed across Atofe's face as she firmly stated, "You're strong. A lot stronger than I was expecting."

Adopting a marginally more serious expression, Atofe questioned, "But how long can you keep this up? From what I can tell, you're not exactly 'whole' at the moment. At this rate, you'll end up destroying yourself long before you deal any lasting damage to me."

Extending her right hand, Atofe summoned her dark-purple greatsword from the chasm carved by Ei. The latter's speed made it nearly impossible for the two to trade blows, but Atofe was confident she would emerge the victor if Ei kept exhausting herself. Then she could exhibit the true power of her Cursed Holy Sword, Necross.

Maintaining her icy disposition, hand still raised toward the sky, Ei calmly replied, "This form exists to serve and protect my Master. If it is destroyed in that pursuit, then so be it..."

Raising her brows, Atofe was about to ask what compelled someone as powerful as Ei to serve another, but the words never reached her lips as a bolt of actual lightning impacted her from above.

Though the lightning was significantly weaker than the attacks that had struck her previously, barely even damaging her armor, Atofe was forced to grit her teeth as the energy coursed through her body and 'purified' it from the inside.

While Atofe was paralyzed in place, several additional bolts of lightning began striking her at an ever-increasing tempo, pinning her to the ground as hundreds upon thousands of bolts impacted her body like rain.

Unable to even scream, Atofe could only grit her teeth and endure as the armor covering her body melted along with the eyes in her sockets. There was very little an Immortal Demon could do against Lightning Magic other than dodging it. She would typically do precisely that, but, as Ei's previous attacks hadn't done any lasting damage to her body, Atofe had mistakenly resolved herself to tank everything the purple-haired swordswoman could throw at her before returning the favor once she was exhausted.

As Atofe was suffering the hubristic taste of Divine Retribution, Ei turned toward Moore and stated, "This storm will persist for half an hour. Once it subsides, tell your Mistress that the only reason she was spared was due to the determination of my Master. He currently does not view Demonkind as his enemy. She would be wise not to change that."

Finished speaking, Ei dissipated her sword before disappearing in a flash of brilliant purple lightning. With Electro-infused storm clouds overhead, she could effectively teleport anywhere her Diving Lightning was able to reach.

Seeing Ei disappear, Moore's expression turned grim as he observed the continuous stream of lightning raining down from the sky. He wanted to free Atofe from its influence, but his instincts told him he would be struck down the moment he tried. And unlike his great-aunt, he likely wouldn't be able to recover...

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After Ganyu brought them to the edge of the storm clouds, nearly thirty kilometers away from the epicenter, Paul gazed back at the veritable pillar of lightning, muttering, "Well, that could have gone better..."

Not wanting Paul to blame himself, Jean placed her hand on his shoulder and stated, "You couldn't have known how 'demonic' the Immortal Demon King truly was. The important thing is that we all got away."

Suppressing a sigh, Paul shook his head and said, "Truth be told, I'm not that surprised by Atofe's actions. Everything she said about humans and their treatment of Demons is, more or less, accurate. Compared to what 'we' do to her kind, the treatment she affords her captives is fairly tame...not that that excuses-"

Interrupting Paul's response, the sound of a nearby thunderclap startled everyone as Ei appeared near the edge of the storm cloud. In the very next moment, she practically 'flashed' over to Paul before dropping to one knee, lowering her head, and saying, "Forgive my imprudence. While I was ultimately unable to do so, I attempted to kill my opponent..."

Though he was unsurprised by Ei's behavior, Paul was still a little annoyed that she had defaulted to her overly serious, samurai-like personality after months of relative closeness. Thus, instead of simply informing her it was okay, he surprised the buxom Archon by bending down and scooping her up by the pits of her arms and forcing her to stand. Then, with a deadpan on his face, he flatly said, "I told you to stop kneeling to me..." while fixing her somewhat disorderly attire.

"..."

Not sure of how to respond to Paul's words and actions, Ei just offered a demure, "Nn..." before lowering her head to avoid the gazes of everyone present.

Nodding his head in approval, Paul resisted the urge to pat Ei's head as he asked, "How long is your attack going to last...?"

Without raising her head, Ei dutifully replied, "Approximately twenty-eight more minutes..."

"Right..."

Turning to the rest of his Party, Paul surprised nearly everyone by saying, "We're continuing onward to Fort Necross. If we try to escape now, it will make our exploration of the Demon Continent impossible. There's no way Atofe will simply ignore us, so we'll take the fight to her home."

Returning his attention to Ei, Paul asked, "Can you keep fighting...?" in a calm yet audibly concerned tone.

Raising her head, Ei's expression became serious as she replied, "So long as another God-ranked opponent doesn't appear, I can continue fighting indefinitely."

Squinting his eyes and smiling, Paul remarked, "That's great. Because we're going to need your strength if we want to take over Fort Necross before that muscle-headed bimbo recovers."

Without further discussion, Paul ordered everyone to get on Ganyu's back before directing her to race towards Fort Necross. The demonic fortress was known to be impregnable, but without Atofe and Moore to protect it, Paul was confident they could wreak havoc and seize the throne room by the time the immortal duo returned. If Atofe didn't admit defeat after that, they would have no choice but to flee and gather reinforcements...

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Precisely half an hour after it had started, the torrent of lightning raining down on Atofe's body began to dissipate. Once it had stopped altogether, Moore made his way over to the rather sizeable crater that had formed to find a pool of liquid stone and a skeletal, charred-black corpse covered in red hot armor.

As Holy and Lightning Elemental Energy prevented Immortal Demons from dematerializing and dispersing into particulates of Mana, Atofe had been forced to endure the brunt of Ei's attack in her physical form. She was still alive, but every ounce of flesh from her body had been burned away, leaving naught but a child-like skeleton behind.

Without so much as batting an eye, Moore ripped off his left arm before tossing it toward the skeletal remains. His flesh began to char and slough away instantly due to the intense heat, but that didn't really matter. The most important thing was the Mana contained within the limb.

Though Immortal Demons were unable to drain the life of most creatures, they possessed the unique ability to draw vitality from their descendants. The moment Moore's arm landed next to her, a dark-red mist flowed from the cracks in between the charred flesh, flowing into Atofe's skeleton and nourishing her body starting from the marrow.

As if prompted by Moore's sacrifice, Atofe's body began to regenerate at an alarming rate. It didn't even take a full three minutes before Atofe, now in a form only slightly more developed than Kishirika, appeared within the magma pool, seemingly impervious to its heat.

Noticing the condition of her body, an amused chuckle emanated from Atofe's throat as she mused, "Wow, how many hundreds of years has it been since I assumed such a form? I believe the last time was the night before my husband kicked the bucket? Hahahahaha~!"

As this was far from the first time her body had been split in two, both literally and physically, Atofe wasn't concerned by her present state. She also didn't bother to ask if Moore was okay despite the fact he now had a single arm. He would eventually regenerate the lost limb, so the first thing she asked him was, "Where'd that purple-haired monster run off to? We're nowhere near done."

Instead of conveying Ei's words of warning, Moore replied, "I believe she returned to her Master's side. Beyond that, I'm not sure where they went."

Clicking her tongue, Atofe muttered, "Boring..." before rising from the pool of magma. Her red-hot armor conveniently readjusted to her new size, so she didn't have to worry about streaking around naked whenever she took an attack that destroyed either her body or armor.

Just as Atofe recovered her sword, a teleportation circle appeared a few meters away from her and Moore. The number of individuals that could use Teleportation Magic could be counted on a single hand, so Atofe was unsurprised when one of her Heavenly Kings, a red-skinned woman with black hair and glowing red eyes, appeared. She had a red crest carved on her abdomen and an outfit resembling tribal garb, but the first thing Atofe and Moore noticed were her many injuries.

"Bhathia? What the heck happened to you...?"

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