Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 559: SHUT UP!

...

Aurelius heard the sounds of footsteps and the vague sounds of the conversations that followed before actual combat began. He felt it when something wrapped around him and pulled him away from Klever, and he felt it when he was being fueled with enough life energy to mend his injuries. And then, he felt a soft hand supporting his head and tipping mending potions into his mouth.

Despite all that Aurelius felt and heard, though, he was thoroughly uninterested in standing up. He didn’t even rejoice at being healed. He just remained transfixed by the vision of his goddess.

And when that vision began to slip away because he was regaining consciousness. Aurelius thrust out a hand like he was trying to grab and hold on to it.

The thought of parting away from this rejuvenating light and the peace of Aether’s godly domain was devastating, and he would have vehemently refused if he had a choice. But he didn’t have a choice, and soon his eyes no longer saw the vision; they were staring at the roof of the Sealing Cube once again.

With a frown, Aurelius’s hand remained outstretched as he cast his eyes about and saw the two pairs of battles happening within the Cube;

The Staff-Wielding Klever was being pressed by some brilliant spellcasting by Aylin Khione while Eloise mostly hung back and provided support.

The Axe-Wielding Klever was locked in an even more serious battle against Delia, who was fighting it in close quarters, and Kaya, who was standing only two feet away from where Aurelius was lying with her staff held tight in her hands.

By the time he opened his eyes, Aurelius was only able to catch the end of the exchange; His eyes went wide when, by the combination of Delia and Kaya’s efforts, the Axe-Wielding Klever was killed.

Aurelius could understand that maybe being taken on separately by groups of two had made the challenge of defeating the two demons easier, but he couldn’t help feeling like it only made it much more glaring how he had failed a challenge that he was supposed to face on his own.

Instantly, his lack of interest in the proceedings vanished.

This was his fight!

This was his mission, appointed to him by Aether, and he was going to face it on his feet. If he died, then so be it!

Death would be preferable to lying on the ground and relying on those who had no obligation to be here, facing the fight in his place.

Kaya and Delia had just turned their sights onto the Staff-wielding Klever that Aurelius leaped to his feet and stepped forward to join them in glowering at the one demon left.

"You’re up," Kaya said with furrowed brows, "Good."

"Thank you for your help," Aurelius said and then paused as a pressing question came to mind,

"How did you get through the cube?"

"You should ask Delia. I’d like to know too," Kaya said with a shrug, "Though I’m pretty sure it was Divine intervention."

"Divine Intervention..." Aurelius repeated, and his mind worked fast until something clicked in his head.

’Of course,’ he thought, ’Anyxyl!"

Anyxyl ’Nyx’ was the goddess who had come to their aid when they fought Belron. This was particularly interesting because Anyxyl and Aether—Divine Sisters—had been enemies since they came to being, as they signified and represented total opposites;

Aether the Goddess of Divine Light and Anyxyl ’Nyx’ the Goddess of Primordial Darkness.

Suddenly, Aurelius understood the conflicting emotions he had sensed from Aether in his vision; The Goddess must have felt relief that her Apostle could be saved and must have also felt annoyed that, once again, her rival was interfering in her dealings.

Understanding Aether’s emotions made Aurelius feel hearty; His goddess hadn’t rejected him after all. She still cared what became of him.

’I won’t let you down,’ he solemnly vowed in his heart.

As Aurelius began to harness his Mana and Divine Energy to rejoin the battle proper, he noticed something strange happening where Delia was standing— where Klever’s corpse still lay on the ground.

"What—?" Aurelius started to wonder.

"Delia, look out!" Kaya yelled. She had noticed what Aurelius had and had clearly made better sense of it because she seemed convinced of danger.

Delia reacted. Her instincts warned her of the danger, but it was already too late as a spearhead stabbed her in the back and drove right through until it protruded from her chest.

"Ack!" Delia let out in pain while her eyes widened in shock and confusion. She strained to turn her head back to catch the face of her attacker.

Klever grinned back at her. Its demonic eyes were wide with delight, and its fangs glinted. When it cackled, its barbed tongue slithered out of its mouth and flicked like it was tasting the air.

"Really," said Klever, "Did you think you could defeat me, little godling?!"

"NO!!!" Kaya yelled so loudly that Nature motes burst into appearance in an explosion of her magic. The Motes infused into Delia’s impaled body while a massive collection of vines was conjured and went stabbing at Klever.

Aurelius stared for a second, confused at the events. He looked down, and on the ground lay Klever, still very much dead, and sitting on top of it was another Klever, identical to the one that had been killed except that it wielded a Spear instead of an Axe.

Upon closer observation, the new Klever appeared incomplete. It looked like it was pulling itself out of the Klever corpse on the ground and was not yet done when it stabbed Delia in the back;

The new Klever’s left arm was only half out, so it looked like it was sharing the Klever Corpse’s forearm. This was also the case for its right leg. It was a very strange and creepy sight to watch the demon pull itself free of its corpse.

As Kaya’s vines went stabbing at Klever, the Demon cackled even harder and twisted away, ripping its arm and leg out of the corpse, thus becoming a whole being as it avoided Kaya’s attacks.

Kaya’s vines were relentless, but Klever was more than their match. Despite having the same level of Demonic Strength (Equivalent of the Fifth Circle) as the dead Axe-Wielder and the still-breathing Staff-wielder, the new Spear-wielding Klever was faster than the two.

The Staff-wielder was mage-like, and every movement seemed to rely primarily on spells. The Axe-Wielder had prioritized strength over speed, but the Spear-wielder was all about speed. Speed and technique.

The way it spun its spear, parrying the vines, jabbing at them and even slicing off bits all over before delivering a final cutting strike, was so fluid that one might have even admired it.

"What the hell are you?!" Kaya yelled as she kept up her attack on the Demon. At the same time, she created a vine encasement around Delia, hoping she wasn’t too late to heal her.

Klever cackled— both of them.

"Did you really think—" said the staff-wielder as it repelled Aylin so hard that she struck her head against a stone formation.

"—that you could end my life?—" said the Spear-wielder as the two kick-started alternating speech.

"—I who paid the ultimate sacrifice to banish loneliness—"

"—I who paid the ultimate price to never again be outnumbered—"

"—I who sacrificed potential for speciality—"

"—I who truly comprehended the value of the ancient Demonic Effigy Arts—"

"—while my kind largely discards it—"

"—HA!—

"—I laugh at your ignorance—"

"—I revel in your despair—"

"—One of your number has fallen—"

"—while my number can only ever grow—"

"SHUT UP!" Eloise interrupted with a loud yell.

Eloise’s entire body was trembling. Her attention had been called to Delia’s impaled body by Kaya’s yell, and since then, she had just stared. The only move she made since she began to stare was to flinch when she heard Aylin hit the stone formation.

Never had she been in a situation where she got to watch someone get as hurt as Delia had been hurt.

Even during the demonic outbreak of the Lochxen Forest, Eloise had not seen anyone as close to death as she could now very clearly hear Delia was. Due to her attunement to sound as a Sound Mage, she could hear the sputtering sound of Delia’s heartbeat as Kaya’s magic tried to keep her going long enough to heal the damage.

What she could hear from Delia’s body and the gloating, creepy, and disconcerting two-mouth—one-voice speech of the demons roused something in her.

As she yelled for Klever to shut up, Eloise harnessed her Divine energy in a way she never had before. The most destructive spell she could think of sprang to mind, and she struck her wands together in a crisp sound that rang clear within the Sealing Cube.

A strange-looking musical note made of Mana and divine energy appeared and let loose an eerie tune that caused the Staff-Wielding Klever’s hair to stand on end. The tune created a ripple that caused the ground around the Demon to tremble, and the very air molecules thrummed with a pressure that all bore down on the Demon’s shoulders and forced its knees so hard into the ground that it cracked.