Not Another Enemy Raid V

Nintur gazed at the Empty warily, the sight of which caused every fiber of her incorporeal being to shudder and convulse in utter disgust. Yet, at the same time, she knew that disgust was but a side-effect of her very being demanding the destruction of the Empty.

For the Empty was an anomaly. An entity that should not exist because it wasn't an entity at all–it was the prison world personified. If it were not for her plan to be revived from the throes of death, the Empty would not have awoken.

Therefore, the Empty's existence was conditional and, for Nintur to escape the dark world imprisoning her, that condition had to be revoked and circumnavigated. 

'A loophole', she thought, 'a clause in the laws of reality that will allow me to break through this world and enter the mortal plane.'

A sudden surge of energy severed her murderous ideation as she felt a power long gone from her body. A swirl of energy gave her pallid skin a bit more blush, golden strands slithering around her torso like vines in an ancient tree. 

That surge was not enough, however, as she was still very much incapable of standing up on her own two feet, much less break through the Empty.

Her divinity had been severed from existence by their immortal enemy, but through a forbidden ritual and the sacrifice of a thousand priests, she had been able to delay her true death. Now existing in a state of incredulity, living and dead in a manner unseen before. 

Before she had left the mortal plane and slumbered in the prison world, she had created seven servants using the last remnants of her power. They would be weak, of course, but given the height of their power at the time of her death, she knew it would only be decades before they could gather enough worship to revive her into existence.

Although her grasp of the horology was subpar at best and the fact that she was mostly slumbering throughout her time here and had just been awoken by the successive burst of energy, Nintur knew that more time had passed than she had hoped and planned for.

The surges of energy were nowhere near enough to empower her and three of her kin had already died in the process. Still, that fact did little to frustrate her. What she was more worried about was the fact that the Empty was not chittering within the edges of her sight.

"What is it you want?" She had asked, yet all the answers she received were a smattering of laughter.

She had waited a long time before the Empty spoke another word. Words that she had yet to decipher.

"Go on, then. Little one." The Empty chittered, a figure made of nothing but slithering dark oil. "Try it. Once that's done, we can sleep once more."

●●08:21 A.M. - Irwin Bellios●●●

He retreated tactically.

Facing off against Ninsar and Mamu that, based on their name and that of Suzianna's inside information, were considered to be a master swordsman and magician, respectively, was just asking for an untimely death.

He ducked down every so often, evading Ninsar's knives, that were as fast as a speeding bullet. She did tricks with the knives, too, with the paring knives ricocheting off of the wall to nick him on the front of his neck.

He jumped away from a butcher knife, hurtling towards him at the speed of sound, breaking into another door using his back. Rolling away from the door, Irwin launched up into the ceiling to avoid a ricocheting steak knife.

He breathed out hot air, cursing his past self for not adding flexibility training in his regimen because the sudden movements were making him worse for wear. Still, his Enhanced Physique was more than enough to compensate for his untrained hamstrings.

He hid behind the wall as Ninsar entered the room with confidence, her hands swiftly swinging to parry Irwin's initial slash. Ninsar's knife chipped at the Angel Blade's razor sharp metal, but that did not counter the force behind her muscly arms.

Irwin was forced to stumble back a step, tilting his head to evade Ninsar's other bladed arm. Luckily, his Viceroy's Promise–which he would only remove when he's in bed with another person or taking a shower–had granted him the most helpful Danger Sense skill.

He changed his grip on his Angel Blade and tried to slam it into Ninsar's chin, but pulled back the attack when Ninsar moved to block his hand. Having wrapped the Flaming Whip around his left arm, Irwin used the opportunity given to him by the feint to send a flaming, spiked, check hook on to her cheeks.

Ninsar was blown away by the blow and landed smashingly on to the other side of the wall, destroying the surprisingly tasteful furniture placed there.

Before Irwin could follow up on his attack, Mamu entered the room like an ethereal fairy. Their gliding form and mysterious smile lay in direct contrast to the grounded and bloodied form of Ninsar.

They threw their crystal ball into the air, which caused a puff of glittering dust to spread across the air, akin to a visible contagion of microplastics. Alarm bells rang inside of Irwin's head and he immediately held his breath before rushing towards Ninsar in order to not be outnumbered.

Ninsar had already stood up and was rallying towards him when he turned his attention towards her, which meant that Irwin had no other choice but to battle both pagan goddesses.

Mamu kept blowing glittering dust into the air, enclosing Irwin in a tight space while her sister did her best to tear off a limb or two. Unsurprisingly, Irwin was kept on the defensive by the sheer number of knives Ninsar wore on her person.

Worst of it all was the sheer strength held within Ninsar's arms, a limb full of rippling muscle and unrestrained synergy with her swordsmanship. Even with his tenth level Swordsmanship skill, Irwin was barely able to keep up with her speed and technique.

While Irwin deployed sensible stealth strikes between flaming punches, all the while evading the motes of purple void-like clouds that passed over him. Whenever his oxygen was low, he would roll under Ninsar's attacks and breathe in the air on the floor.

Ninsar had caught on to that fact by the fifth breath, freeing a hand and grabbing Irwin's blazer mid-breath before throwing him to the ceiling. He flew into the concrete ceiling and fell down like a lifeless puppet before Ninsar kicked him in the side.

"Jesus fucking christ," Irwin cursed aloud as he rolled away from the goddess and crashed into a nearby wall. It took him a few coughs before he could stand up, albeit shakily, barely noticing a few gulps of glowing dust sneaking into his mouth. "Do you all need to be fucking strong? Fuck's sake."

Ninsar said nothing in return, merely throwing both knives at Irwin like he was some kind of practice dummy. Unfortunately for her, the practice dummy with a dirty mustard suit was moving quite swiftly and completely dodged the attack.

'Need to retreat.' Irwin thought to himself, body swaying along the tides of stainless steel sweeping around him. He was not supposed to kill the two here, merely allowing Suzianna a reprieve from the oppressive vigilance of her sisters to enact the next step of the plan.

Still, he had inadvertently cornered himself in an enclosed space. Things took a turn for the worst when Irwin suddenly felt his legs swell for an unknown reason, numbing parts of his ankles and knee joints that made it difficult to strafe from Ninsar's attacks.

"Sine detrimento est…" A shimmering field of azure energy covered Irwin's body, deflecting a speeding paring knife from taking his eyes out. Yet that same knife broke the energy shield in its entirety, forcing Irwin to conjure another one.

He pushed forward with confidence, mouth unfaltering in its invocation of his Energy Shield. Not worrying about dodging, Irwin forced Ninsar back for the first time in the fight. 

Even the cloud of odd-looking, dangerous dust was thrown on the back of his mind as it could not pass through the Energy Shield, which meant that Mamu would activate another ability.

Desperate to remove himself from the disadvantageous position, Irwin threw the Angel Blade at Ninsar at full force. It forced the pagan goddess to block with all her might to prevent damaging her body while she was busy. Irwin entered the cloud to reach Mamu.

That was a mistake, however, as he was immediately hit with the smell of cookies and other baked goods. The scene before him altered from a despotic fog of purple haze to a familiar scene within the Greythorne Manor.

Ella entered the kitchen in a hurry, wearing nothing but an apron and a disheveled ponytail. She passed by him and bent down to check on the smoking oven, showing off her tight body.

"What the fuck?" Irwin shook his head at the deranged thought, knowing full well that he was in the middle of the battlefield.

"Later." Ella responded, grumbling all the while as she took out the clearly burnt cookies. "Well, damn. That'll be the last time I do that."

Irwin furrowed his brow in confusion, about to ask what she was naked, when the realization hit him.

"I fucking hate enchanters."