Several things happened all at once. Marin’s spell was finally ready. For a moment, Sen had thought it wouldn’t come into play; the fight had been all but over. But now, the demon was on the move again, and his guard was down. Marin’s spell hadn’t taken so long because she needed to prepare it. It’d taken a long time for her to slip through the demon’s defenses. As she did so, its eyes went blank and it fell to its knees.
The wards around it weakened, and Sen saw an opportunity. Grabbing Mary’s soul would be impossible while she was within a full-strength demon ward, but now, with him disoriented by Marin’s spell, Sen could act. He couldn’t worry about her body. His only focus was her soul. After they finished the creature off, he’d resurrect her. He just had to hold on to her most precious part long enough to.
[Susanna has almost finished rune repairs. Any moment now you’ll be able to release the technique.]
They’d almost fallen off the cliff, but everything was alright. They’d save Mary and—
Snake charged the incapacitated demon, and Sen cried out. “Snake, no!”
It was too late. A scaled hand plunged into the demon’s back and reemerged with a demonic heart impaled on serpentine claws.
Snake looked at Sen with a sneer. “What? I struck its heart. The girl’s fine.”
Marin’s control couldn’t overcome fatal damage to the body. The demon’s eyes refocused, and its head lifted. The strength of its wards rekindled, even more powerful than before, and it shook violently. Sen’s connection to Mary’s soul snapped like a thread pulled too taunt.
Sen cursed and slipped his fingers forward, fumbling to find it again.
But it was gone.
Mary’s soul was gone. The demon might have been the one to eat her, but Snake had been the one to seal her fate. The idiot still didn’t even realize the danger he was in.
Only the demon’s hand moved, and it reached back to grab Snake by the neck. Two green hands fumbled at the demon’s powerful grasp, trying to free himself from choked airways. The demon’s heart fell and squelched on the floor. It slowly started crawling back towards the demon until it melded into its foot and slowly swam through its body until it was where it belonged again.
The demon turned its gaze to glare at Sen. As it stared at him, it smashed Snake into the ground, and green blood splattered among the dust.
Tonka and Ano finally emerged from the tunnel where Mary had come from. Tonka skidded to a stop, and Ano’s pillow halted in the air when they noticed the demon just in front of them. They both looked around for Mary.
The demon moved before anyone was ready, charging straight for Sen. Half of his attention was still on Milim, ensuring the runes didn’t destroy her body by teleporting her away into nothingness. The other half now had to throw up a rapid defense.
He needed to move carefully. If he used a spell that was too powerful, he risked severing his hold over Milim. Too weak, and he might take a devastating blow of his own. He activated Enhanced Cognition and Time Crawl within a second. The demon seemed to move normally while the others moved in slow motion. It was fast.
“Glacial Candle-Pierce-Maxim!” From the tip of his finger an ice-blue aura resembling blue fire shot toward the demon. It didn’t dodge. It just continued to barrel towards him. The attack pierced its chest, and its entire body convulsed once before the damage was healed.
Sen felt sick when he realized the demon was slowly consuming Mary. She was trapped inside it, and he was only consuming her to heal itself mid-fight. It was all the reminder he needed that most demons deserved to die. Slowly.
He willed Mana Protection to activate. There wasn’t time for another spell, not one that would do anything to deter the creature, and he couldn’t let Milim fade away. He’d endure.
He jumped to the side, pulling the demon away from Milim.
The greater demon followed, when it reached him it drove an uppercut into Sen’s core that sent him shooting into the roof of the chamber. His back smashed through several feet of rock, and despite the strength of Mana Protection, his ribs threatened to crack under any additional pressure. Both of his mental enhancements slipped away as gravity pulled him back toward the earth. He could fight. He could kill this thing. But not without sacrificing a friend.
So he’d endure.
He’d prolong the connection as long as he needed to ensure Milim’s greatest chance of survival. Sen wasn’t sure where that came from. He’d watched people die before. He’d lost his only friend in this world. But here and now, he was driven by a single objective.
Overwhelming Victory.
He was done compromising. He wouldn’t let anyone else die today. No more.
As he fell toward the demon, the creature opened its mouth and a breath of green flames formed in its throat. Sen closed his eyes. He had no choice but to trust in Mana Protection. In battle, even delaying for a few seconds can be the difference between victory and defeat.
He just had to endure.
In that moment, for just a split second, he sensed Mary’s still beating heart. It was faint, and she was certainly on the verge of death.
But she was alive.
“I’ve got it!” Susanna called out!
Sen’s eyes ripped open, and he released his hold on Milim. He repositioned himself into a dive heading directly toward the demon and its attack. For a split second he glanced at Milim, and she smiled, mouthing a message to him.
“You’ve got this.”
When he next saw her, she’d know he’d proved her right.
“Mary’s still alive!” he cried out. Mana Aggression surged through him, and he endured the flames that rolled over his body, bringing a powerful fist across the demon’s face.
It grunted at the blow. The demon leapt backward, gaining some distance to assess the situation. Sen wasn’t the only one acting now.
Susanna’s golden hand lowered her onto the battlefield. Girch rolled his neck. Alari readied her blade. Snake lifted off the ground with a groan. Tonka and Ano exchanged a look and nodded. Even Dasai and Marin seemed uncharacteristically ready to fight.
It was Alari who called out to the others. “The runes are back up. But surviving isn’t enough. That thing has to die.”
“And we’re saving Mary!” Ano growled.
Alari looked at him and nodded.
There were two options. Bring down the demon’s wards so Sen could get a hold of her soul, or physically release her from the demon’s body. Either were acceptable. Regardless, the rune wouldn’t activate as long as she was trapped within the demon’s personal wards. If Mary died inside it, she wouldn’t resurrect and teleport to the opening of the dungeon like the rest of them.
The demon looked around at them and smiled, its jagged teeth creaking and groaning as they pressed against each other unnaturally. Its gums bled. “Play over.”
Sen tensed. Something powerful was welling up inside the demon.
The demon slammed its hands into the ground, and geysers of darkness shot outward and pooled together, forming a chaotic tsunami of putrid, powerful magic. It washed over the room. Sen knew without getting close that to touch it was to die. “Don’t let it get you!” he yelled. But he knew there was little most of them could do.
Girch charged the demon the moment the spell started, perhaps hoping to disrupt it. The black liquid rushed over him, leaving only blue light behind. A golden hand sprang up under Susanna, and she rose into the air, but as soon as the liquid reached the base of the arm, she fell. Blue light overtaking her as well. Dasai and Marin ran for one of the tunnels. Sen lost sight of the others as the water neared him. “Spell Refusal Maxima,” he said. As soon as the water reached him, it split and went to either side instead of touching him. This spell was costly, and even with his vast stores of mana, he felt the draining effect it had on him. When the black water dissipated, Sen surveyed the room.
Only three others remained. Snake, Alari, and Ano. The others hadn’t made it. Ano was holding a piece of Tonka’s uniform. He must have tried to lift his friend before the clothing ripped and sent him plummeting below. It didn’t matter. Their friends were safe.
Flamesaber erupted into life in Alari’s hands. The golden bands on Snake remained, despite the fact that Susanna had been teleported away. That was quite impressive. Sen wondered if the spell was self-sustaining, or if it drew from Snake’s own magic. There was the possibility that Susanna was maintaining it actively, but that would be quite the feat while being transported away by a rune that triggers with death. Again, more research was required.
Alari sighed. “I guess we’re doing this, snake boy.”
“Rot and die,” Snake said back.
They leapt into action, exchanging a flurry of blows with the greater demon.
Ano walked next to Sen. “What do you need from me to take that thing down?” he asked.
Sen turned to look at him. “Can you hold it still? After we free Mary?”
“It’s almost as if you already know my powers. Yeah, I can do that.” Beside Sen, Ano slowly unzipped his pillow and shook it. A mass of feathers fell out of it and drifted onto the ground. When it was completely empty, he tossed the pillowcase several feet away.
It moved. It looked as if a head was popping up inside it, and slowly, the pillow expanded to be much larger than it was before. The sensation it radiated was almost like the one he felt from his temporal world, but that was unlikely. Those were extremely rare. This was something similar, but different.
Sen focused on his own spell. It would require some prep time, but luckily Snake and Alari were keeping the demon distracted. He watched Snake in particular. The boy was fighting much harder than usual. Sen wondered if he was fighting harder because he wanted to save Mary. Despite the fact that they didn’t seem to like each other very much, Alari and Snake moved well together. It was when Alari gave him a simple nod of the head that Sen realized they had a plan. Snake jumped back rapidly, clearing himself of the area and reaching the wall on the side of the room. The demon turned, focusing all of its attention on Alari, who drove toward him.
“Key of Hell - Flamesaber!”
Sen realized her sword acted as a maximizer, and he gained a newfound respect for magic weapons. A sword that could bring out a spell’s full potential. The crimson blade erupted into a blazing sun, and flames danced around its edges. The demon swung a fist to counter it. A portal opened directly behind the greater demon, and it turned, a look of fear in its eyes.
Alari tackled it through one side of the portal. They disappeared for a split second before reemerging on the other side. The demon’s uppermost layers of skin were gone. It screamed in agony, and its body began to convulse rapidly. It was consuming the rest of Mary.
Sen took a step forward, but Ano placed a hand on his shoulder. “They’ve got this.”
Snake shot forward as if he were a recently cast spell. His arms turned green up to his elbows, and a purple liquid formed in his palm. “Serpent’s Poison - Venom!” His claws grew several inches, and the purple liquid dissolved into them. As the demon stood, rousing itself, Snake drove claws into its back, ripping it open. He reared his hand back and plunged it inside the demon once more until he found what he was looking for. He ripped Mary’s body from the demon’s stomach and flung her backwards. Snake turned and glanced at Sen. “Finish it,” he hissed. The demon blindly swung its fist backward and tore off Snake’s head.
On the other side, Alari stumbled out of the portal. She had only a few strands of hair remaining, and they’d melted into her flesh. It looked as if she’d been burned alive. She face-planted. Blue light consumed her and Snake. They would be in the same condition they’d been when they entered the dungeon when they materialized outside the dungeon.
Beside him and Ano, the pillow had grown to the size of a door, and a black figure that looked like a charred corpse exited it. Its eyes were sunken, empty holes; its skin black and dry, and it radiated an eerie power that Sen couldn’t quite place.
“What is that?” Sen asked.
Ano frowned. “My sleep paralysis demon. It’s a long story. Whatever you need to do, get ready.”
Ano shot forward through the air. His pillow floated alongside him. The demon looked up, still recovering from its wounds when Ano delivered a powerful blow to its core. The attack physically lifted the demon into the air. Ano didn’t hold back. He drove punch after punch into the demon’s body. Pounding it with all he had. The fabric of his sleeves ripped as he sent bursts of pure mana into his arms with each strike. Finally he jumped up, clasping his fists together and driving them down onto the demon’s head. It smashed into the ground below. Ano held out a hand, and his pillow shot forward, holding the demon still.
“Get ready!” Ano called out.
Sen nodded. He held his hands together, as if he was halfway through a clap and froze. His fingertips pointed directly at the demon. It shot a look at him, sensing the swell of magical power. “Silent Spell Maxim.” Ano wouldn’t be able to learn this spell regardless, but he didn’t even want the concept of this spell to exist in anyone else’s mind.
He spoke the spell’s name, but to anyone looking at him it would look as if he was mouthing gibberish. “Temporal Hell - Eternal - Maxima.”
The rush of void-black temporal energy shot toward the greater demon. The demon was still recovering, but went to dodge. It froze.
The sleep paralysis demon stood above it. It bent over and craned its neck at an odd angle to stare the greater demon in the face. The demon didn’t move an inch. Its eyes grated in their sockets to look at the spell coming straight for it.
There it was. The look Sen wanted to see. Fear.
The spell hit the creature, and it disappeared into the temporal space especially created for this.
Sen followed.