Banana Republic IX

Tainted with the blood of the fallen warriors, broken by those who passed through the shield of his defender, Irwin's form did not falter nor break. Not once, for he knew the consequence of such would be his and Charlotte's undoing.

His left hand had been broken when he had stopped a witch's attack spell, barely functional as he wrapped the Flaming Whip around the knuckles and palm.

The rest of his body was not too dissimilar to the injuries his hand had accrued. Having been restored repeatedly by his regenerative abilities and the potions he had bought using the credits he had gained from trading infernal vessels and witches, Irwin successfully evaded immediate capture and made their way out of the inner compound.

Charlotte, like him, was much too worse for wear, yet a smile was plastered on her bloodied face. Her cheeks were swollen, eyes a little too red, and left leg were slightly twisted in an unnatural angle, but all those injuries seemed to have little effect on her attitude.

She had been dutifully abusing the ever-loving god out of her natural ability to manipulate glass, gracefully creating hundreds of non-crystalline constructs that barely protected them from the hundreds of attacks they received every waking minute.

"I found-ughk!"

A witch, dressed in what seemed to be battle gear, tried to gather her compatriot's attention, but her throat had been slit the moment she opened her mouth. 

The attacks with which Irwin stabbed, sliced, slashed, thrusted, and pummeled the enemy became almost mechanical. As if his brain was operating his structural organs and he, the consciousness, was merely an observer that directed his body's next moves.

Sweat mixed with blood dripped from his neck down to the small of his back, tingling his taut nerves, quivering under the monotonous manner in which he leapt and dodged away from sudden attacks.

Not a moment's rest was given to the both of them, reprieve and rest was but a gift they dare not receive. Especially not when four more demons appeared before them, far more powerful than the slew of infernal creatures and Borrower witches that they had slain.

One of them was already familiar to his eyes. Sibili, the Ignictus in charge of bringing him to this island.

"Well, well. 're I thought you'd be mah ticke-"

"Shut. The fuck. Up!" Irwin interrupted the demon's faux southern accent and ran towards Sibili.

The demon's smirk turned into a scowl. It breathed in a large puff of air, creating a bulge on its vessel's belly as it tried to release the blazing air at one go.

But before it could open its mouth once more, a whip of azure flames wrapped around its arm and pulled it towards Irwin. He knew that Sibili could escape the entangling flames, but the demon needed concentrating on its fire breath lest it dissolve in its mouth.

As he had correctly guessed, Sibili did not activate the ability he had previously used. Instead, it blasted a puff of dark flames in a straight line, as if it had swallowed a flamethrower.

Even though he had evaded the line, being a few inches away from its vicinity was still enough to feel the scorching pain pervading his skin.

But that pain did not last long, for the Angel Blade in his right hand snaked its way to SIbili's bulging stomach, killing the demon and the vessel at the same time.

"See, that ain't so- oh, fuck!"

He wanted to say some cool one-liner, but the flames captured within the vessel's body strained against its skin. Irwin pushed back from the body, using his feet to kick the vessel away from him as he felt the impending catastrophe.

Sure enough, as soon as his body landed a few dozen feet away, the vessel emitted a high-pitch squeal. It was as if a gasoline tank was left open, only it emitted a much more rancid odor before an enormous explosion rocked the area with black flames.

Irwin tried to jump away from the encroaching hellfire, but, fortunately, Charlotte was there to spare him the energy as she shielded him and her with glass shards. It spared them from the near sun-like heat that enveloped the entire area like that of a miniature hydrogen bomb.

The other demonic cohort of Sibili was not so lucky as he was. 

One was near enough that the explosion burned and tore away its vessel, forcing it to vacate the area and its meat puppet. As was evident by the struggling black smoke that flitted away moments after the explosion.

The other two demons were also it, albeit had the mind to shield or dodge away from the explosion. Still, the massive damage with which their vessel and self took was enough to incapacitate them for a few minutes.

Irwin only took nine seconds before their lives were converted to store credits.

They then ran away. Their goal was to escape, not to kill all the demons and witches under Dagon's command. That would be futile and, not to mention unnecessary.

Any route of escape that needed a vehicle of some kind was out of the question, the witches would soon bring a maelstrom of spells to any unauthorized aircraft or watercraft leaving the island. Teleportation was the key to their escape.

He was fortunate enough to have the mind to trade away the corpses of the demon vessels and witch corpses. 

The two dozen corpses were worth a staggering four hundred store credit and that was including the seven Health and Magical Energy potions he had bought which cost between twenty-to-thirty credits. As the potions that expensive had lessened the strain on either their stamina which they sorely needed, Charlotte for her Krousurgy skill and Irwin for when he goes in for the kill.

He bought two more 'Mana potions', as he had liked to call it. They were these round bottles with a long neck propped closed by a cork, inside of the bottles were dark blue liquid with a white ball floating within.

According to the description, however, the potion did not merely give him 'mana' and, instead, acted upon a principle of stamina conversion. It activated any unused cellular energy within his body and allowed whatever part of his body that stored his magical energy to convert stamina to magik.

To be perfectly honest, he did not fully understand the description, nor did he know what Acetabularii was and how they created the potion.

"Need one?" He asked Charlotte, who nodded intently. "Here. Give me a heads up if you're losing steam. I have a stamina potion, but it'll be a onetime pump."

"I-I'm still good on stamina." She replied, taking out the last of her prepared hex bag and throwing it at the loose clump of grass beside her. Her eyes turned purple as she flicked her wrist and the grass swallowed the hex bag. "Last Golem's down. Where we headed, sir?"

"The stone circle, there, you see it?" He pointed to the large hill west of their current location, a bluff whereupon a massive rock formation was constructed in which the witches used to operate heavy spells. 

"We're gonna use it or are we gonna jump?"

Seeing her pop open the bottle and gulp down the potion, Irwin did the same and invigorated his magical energy. "If my guess is correct, then we can use that to jumpstart a long-range teleportation spell."

"Won't that take too long?" She asked.

"Most druidic ritual circles lessen the duration or consumption of their spell and that's the biggest motherfucking circle I've seen in my life." He replied, taking another hit of the potion. "They're gonna know what we're going to do. Best if you take all the glass you can handle."

Charlotte smiled, wiping away the dirt and blood on her face. A mixture of demon, witch, and her blood.

"Don't worry, sir. I'm a good cutter!"

Irwin nodded. "Let's go!"

●●●●●

It did not make sense.

She was the Priestess of the Corrupted Coven and her necromantic divination was more than powerful enough to pry through infernal dealings. But the man running around the island continued to elude her and, not just her, but the entirety of the Corrupted Coven.

If not for the fact that explosions and bellows of fear and wrath happened every minute or so, then they would have deemed him dead. No, even if he was dead, he would still emit a signal no matter how faint.

"He's invisible to us." Her words came out like water out of a river, merely a process of nature. 

But the effects were far more dangerous than a mere river, for her master was within the vicinity of the temple and that remark could be the catalyst to her destruction.

For she knew that Dagon does not like admitting weakness. Weakness was boring and she doesn't like to be bored.

"What did you say?" Dagon's question was innocuous enough, but the meaning behind it was more than her nerves could handle. 

She bowed her head, trying her best to stop the trembling. "Our spells aren't working on him, your lordship. We see nothing but darkness in our crystal balls"

Dagon scoffed, frustration flaring at her void-like eyes. "Track the witch, then."

"We can track them through her movements, but there is a delay in pinpointing her exact location." She answered hastily, silently nudging her sisters to activate the divinatory spells.

If it was not bad enough, a witch dove nearby and landed hastily, her dark skirt getting caught up with her broom as she made her way towards their position. 

"Uh, m-master. Dromanera has r-reported that the escapees have killed seven demons and eleven witches thus far. The familiars think that they're heading towards the Aegis." She kept her words short and to the point, not daring to stop mid-way.

"Release the hounds." Dagon giggled, licking her lips.

"Already have, mi'lord." The witch replied hastily, head still not daring to look her master in the eye.

Dagon, then, barked a bout of laughter. Her vessel's face expressed what could be seen as joy, but, by the sheer aura she released, it could be anger.

"What joy. Converge NEAR the Aegis. Surround them at a distance. Let's see if he can handle my newest pet!"