To topple a titan

Valentina was a few minutes into her fight and still testing the titan's abilities when she noticed that something was wrong. No one else seemed to notice or care, but with her enhanced senses the vampiress could feel it.

Faintly, she could sense her eardrums throb from slight pressure changes. Like a bass played loud and low from far away, a pulsing rhythm could be felt. It didn't leave her confused though, only concerned.

'Those pressure waves are almost certainly from Bessie's gravity. Shit, if she's fighting that means there's an issue in the castle.'

There was an irrational desire to rush back as soon as possible but she knew that it was a stupid idea. Leaving Lilli behind to deal with this monster would result in either mass destruction or a failure to stop it. Additionally, just letting it go was a foolish decision too. So the Archduchess settled for the next option.

"Lilli, Bessie is fighting back in the castle. We need to wrap up here and fast. Don't hold back on your magic, just keep it defensive and cover me; that way you won't level a section of the city."

The commander raised an eyebrow but nodded. The implications of what Valentina said were essentially that the Archduchess wouldn't be holding back. This enemy didn't seem to be able to be defeated by typical means so some of Valentina's magic simply wouldn't be useful in this fight but the rest…

Lilli rolled her shoulders in a mock warmup, smiling as she looked forward to the spectacle. Particularly strong casters like themselves very rarely went all out due to potential collateral damage as well as just the lack of need. But once they got going, it was a wonderful experience.

"Val, I don't think I've cast a named spell in three years. Don't expect too much from me."

The vampiress smirked at the remark as she dodged a chaos shrouded fist from the titan, all while getting ready to unleash her own mana. Despite the cautionary words, she could hear the unfiltered confidence in the commander's voice and it could only bring a smile to her face.

"I actually had to let loose on my most recent mission, so I'm still feeling limber with my mana pathways. I'll be sure to pick up any slack you leave me."

Both of them were grinning like true battle junkies as massive waves of energy rolled off them, and at that moment, they both released their magic.

"[Smrtka's Decree: Afterlife's Ramparts]"

"[Sanguine Oath: Curse of the Viesczy]"

Above Lilli, a giant thundercloud roared. White and black lightning danced across the sky with bolts the thickness of tree trunks. Lifting her shield to the sky, suddenly all those bolts came down and struck at once and the shield in her arm shattered into tiny fragments.

Instead of falling to the ground though, the fragments floated about and remained coated in thick lightning replicating the original shield. Where once there was one mundane roundshied, now there were thousands, each crackling with dangerous energy and forming a seemingly impenetrable shieldwall.

Lilli headed this wall with a new shield. No longer the one torn apart, a new obsidian black shield that looked almost to be made out of raven feathers lay on her arm. And although it didn't crackle with electricity as the others, merely looking at it felt like staring into death itself.

A few feet away, Valentina's own spell had been released along with an aura that began creating her own domain. Emanating away from her body, a cloud of red and black mist roiled and clouded the air, quickly making sight limited and painting the surrounding sky red.

Her vampiric traits began to become even more pronounced and bestial. Her mouth filled with fangs, her nails went dark and thickened closer to talons and giant bat-like wings burst from her back. Her eyes went red too, replacing the white and leaving only crimson along with black slit pupils. She no longer looked the part of a charming vampire but now much closer to a bonafide monster.

Sections of her skin began to crease open leaving red markings that almost seemed tribal, but each of these markings seemed to exude the sanguin mist as well as strange floating tendrils of blood. That wasn't all though. Both the open wounds on the titan as well as Lilli began to release similar threads of blood and they slowly drifted through the air, almost as if trying to reach the vampires.

The rusty scent of blood was paired with lightning's ozone. The sky was red and mixed with lightning and it looked like the apocalypse had come. And all while this terrifying scene broke out, the two women remained grinning even wider as the euphoria of releasing their pent up energy washed over them.

In a flash with speed ten magnitudes above what she had before, Valentina dashed forward with claws barred, practically gliding as she moved. Unlike before where even Lilli's sword struggled to leave a scratch, this time her talons tore through the flesh as desired. Immediately the wound started to heal, but the damage was done.

Some of the blood threads from earlier had already attached themselves to the red patches on Valentina's skin and the most recent wound released a burst of dozens more tendrils. Even after the wound closed, it seemed that these could still remain and as they too began to attach themselves to Valentina, the titan suddenly felt weak.

Although proficient with both blood magic and her innate physical abilities, what Valentina truly specialised in was her hexes. The form created by 'Curse of the Viesczy' allowed her to make constant tethers between her own blood and that of her target. The more that formed, the faster she could inject hex after hex and curse after curse.

Against resilient enemies, stronger effects might get brushed off, but the constant contact and mixing of blood made it so she became a complete leech on their energy. The war of attrition that Lilli had been destined to lose was now a guaranteed victory so long as Valentina could survive. The more damage she caused, the faster things would end, so that was the win condition.

Meanwhile, the primordial titan was led by mostly bestial instincts and also was only a toddler. There was no 'grand plan' so to speak. However, once it started feeling such an invasive and debilitating energy entering its body, its fight or flight instincts kicked in.

Where before the fight was like a cat playing with its prey, now it felt cornered. The prey had become the predator and this small creature in front of it needed to go. With a sudden burst of adrenaline and fear, the titan began to fight in earnest.

Suddenly, a fight that had only been moderately paced before became explosive. Anyone watching nearby could hardly hope to keep up.

The leonine titan punched with claws outstretched and entropy coating its every action. A flash of black wings passed it by just barely avoiding its strike as claws once again raked through its abdomen. Roaring in its agony, it went to strike the now open and exposed shoulder of the vampire but suddenly the force of ten thousand shields and lightning bolts hammered down on its body.

Supposedly this was a defensive spell, but the giant barricade the paladin had formed was by no means passive. Again as Valentina dashed in and made more gashes, this time on its thigh, each and every counter attack was blocked by Lilli's wall of heavenly shields, only to be returned in a near explosive shockwave of lightning.

These hit and run tactics went on and on. The chaotic aura of the titan was increasing and slowly tearing the Archduchess' clothes and skin apart, but she didn't care. Even if her own skin was torn to shreds, the blood beneath would simply be weaponized.

There was a degree of complacency that Valentina was beginning to sink into. She remained aware and alert, but it was simply too easy to get comfortable when you had a partner preventing every attack from landing. Suddenly though, the countenance of the titan changed.

Through her connections, she could feel a sudden shift in the titan's energy. It was going to do something self destructive, but considering how overwhelmed it was, who could blame it. Valentina tried to get out a word of warning but the combat was simply going too fast to even call out to the commander for aid.

Curling its lips back and barring its fangs, a reality shattering roar emitted from the chaotic beast. The air in a fifty metre radius vibrated and everything in the radius experienced the titan's aura at full force. A crater of dust was felt behind and both Valentina and Lilli felt like their skin was in a vat of acid. But this wasn't the true danger.

Simultaneously, a near invisible orb shot out of the roaring lion mouth directly towards the Archduchess. Despite how hard it should have been to respond though, Lilli suddenly found herself directly between the attack and her liege. If one paid close attention, they might have seen some of her lightning shields disappear as they expended their energy to give her the speed of heaven's lightning.

Standing before the orb of chaos and its target, the paladin braced herself. It wasn't some ephemeral lightning shield that she was using to block. Instead it was her obsidian raven feather shield. As the impact landed, no sound was heard. It was as if the orb devoured everything, even sound. The shield began to get torn apart and flakes shattered and flew off like chips of wood beneath a saw blade.

However, the attack that it had spent so much energy creating did not penetrate. Only a quarter of the shields original thickness remained, the rest was now shards of black floating in the air, but at least Lilli had done her job. Before the titan could even recover though, Valentina called out, "Activate it quickly!"

The fragments that had flaked off of the shield suddenly animated and imbued themselves with the energy of death. Though it was a spell of many parts, this was its true purpose. To create an impassable wall, and any meaningful attack that might pose a threat was to be absorbed and responded to in kind by the power of death itself. It was a boon granted upon Lilli by her very goddess. A power over death that existed outside of her aspect.

Suddenly in a chilling wave, the fragments of the shield floated and positioned themselves around the titan where ethereal skeletal arms then burst forth from each shard and grasped into the beast. Not physically, but instead something much more important. Equivalent to the damage received by her shield, the same was repaid directly onto the monster's soul.

Physical strength, magical prowess, intelligence, memory, lifespan. Everything was devoured by the legions of the dead, and even a titan would be no exception. No longer needing to put herself at risk, Valentina simply stood back at this point. Between the titan's own self destructive attack, her constant hexes, and now Lilli's damage to its soul, the creature had no means to resist.

The two simply stood beside each other, waiting for the dregs of life to be strangled out of the monster. Valentina considered keeping it alive but it was too much of a threat. Now that it was in such a weakened state, it would only be prudent to deliver the coup de grâce now.

While fully waiting for the life to drain from it was perhaps the best option in order to conserve energy, Valentina had zero patience. The later half of this fight had gone by quite quickly and Bessie's fight could still be faintly felt in her ears like the ticking of a clock that could potentially foretell Dahlia's danger.

Growling in impatience, a new surge of mana washed over her. All the tendrils of blood tied to the now collapsed and heavily breathing titan pulled taught and coiled around each other like a woven rope. The red miasma filling the air also seeped away and joined up with this newly created cable.

With a burst of energy, Valentina brought her ongoing spell to an end, demonstrating the climax of the ability. 'Curse of the Viesczy' was meant to transform her into a bestial vampire and maximize her blood hexing potential, but it was named after a particular variety of true vampire for a reason.

The viesczy, more than anything else, was known to devour the hearts of their targets. With a small flourish, all the red strands between herself and the titan pulled taught and suddenly a massive hole formed in its chest. The creature that was normally so hard to injure suddenly had a gaping wound the size of a human head passing through it and most remarkable of all, it wasn't healing.

Using a concentration of blood magic and with the aid of compounded curses, the spell came to an end and the creature that once seemed indomitable was left in a completely unrecoverable state. The backlash of using the spell on such a strong target, even if it was weakened, left the Archduchess almost fainting as she coughed up blood, but currently she couldn't care less.

All her bestial features were receding and she struggled to stand, but she managed to at least give instructions.

"Lilli, fly me to the castle and I'll recover on the way. Then you return and clear up the rabble."

The paladin frowned a bit at the blatant disregard for her own health, but decided now wasn't the time to nag the Archduchess. Swallowing her complaints, she supported the nearly collapsing woman and then lightning coalesced at her back forming a set of raven like wings. After a brief check to make sure that Valentina wouldn't fall, the two then took off at insane speeds, travelling almost as fast as lighting itself.

Lilli smirked as she relished the speed. It never got tiring and it especially felt good when someone else relied on her. She chuckled as she started thinking of things the Archduchess could owe her but, maintaining some semblance of professionality, she decided to let Valentina go with just a firm grab to her shoulder.

"Val, don't do anything stupid. If there's an enemy that can put up a fight against Bessie, then you need to recover before you can fight them one on one. Don't rush in like an idiot, got it?"

Valentina knew how much she forced her last spell and was still reeling from the side effects so she just nodded along. A couple of minutes and she would be in good enough fighting condition, but at least she could start stumbling to Dahlia's suite immediately and recover on the way.

That was the plan but suddenly the deep bass sound of gravitational attacks stopped. There was a calm that seeped through the castle and Valentina's heart raced.

Plans can change remarkably fast and stumbling to her destination was no longer an option. All of Lilli's warning fell completely on deaf ears the moment the vampiress feared for her love and so, manipulating the weak amount of mana left in her body, Valentina forced her body to move as if it wasn't on her last legs. She could maintain this state and her fighting form for a few minutes but would pass out immediately after but she truly didn't care.

The commander sighed but decided to let her do her thing. Following orders, she simply turned and left in the opposite direction. A bunch of ne'er do wells were still littering the city and it looked like she would be the clean up crew.

Valentina quickly dashed through the castle. It was apparent that Bessie wasn't the only one fighting. Some conflicts had apparently occurred in a few places in the castle, though they all seemed like minor skirmishes to distract the guards. It was a concern, but something to be dealt with later. Dahlia was the one and only priority.

Arriving at the suite, she immediately saw the devastation. Obvious signs of Bessie's magic lay about in the form of puddles and clusters of coral and barnacles, but the clumps of clay that lay about were new. She was going to investigate when she noticed it. The scent of Dahlia's blood.

There were spatters in a few areas and a genuine pool of the stuff had been collected in two different locations. It wasn't enough to kill her, but she was in bad shape. Following the scent of where the blood led, droplets led Valentina deeper into the castle until she finally reached the infirmary.

She must have been only a minute behind them as she entered and immediately she was greeted by a maid fully clad in armour. No words were spoken. Bessie gave a faint gesture but otherwise remained vigilant. She could tell how exhausted the Archduchess was and knew that right now, the security of both her mistresses fell on her hands.

Leaving the maid behind, Valentina saw Dahlia and nearly collapsed right then. She was alive. She was safe. It was okay. But no, it wasn't. With her last shred of energy, Valentina stumbled to the bedside and plopped down right beside her love. Bringing the sleeping girl into an embrace, she laid eyes on the large gash in Dahlia's arm and sighed.

'If I'm going to fall unconscious anyway, I may as well push myself just a little more.'

Channelling all the remaining dregs of mana she had, the Archduchess used her magic to heal Dahlia as much as possible and replace any blood that was missing. The healers would need to do the rest but as she lost consciousness, Valentina smiled. She was beside the only person that mattered and she was able to help alleviate her pain, if even barely. It wasn't good enough, but for now she could accept it. For now, she would sleep.