Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 325: Apostles of Nyx (2)

Delia gripped her Warhammer tightly and let Divine Energy surge through her. Thanks to Nyx’s Divine Backing, she could actually harness and wield it. Still, she was well aware it was temporary. She was also aware that this didn’t actually grant her access to Divine Magic. It only made her capable of coating her magic with Divine energy. There was a difference.

She looked to the side at Caius, and his eyes scanned the Cube. Instinctively, Delia knew what he was looking for; The spinning Discs.

Caius had not been in a position to worry about his secret the last time he shifted. There was still a chance that the shadow magic of the Umbral Fox’s trait had kept him shrouded enough. And if that were the case, he’d like to keep his Vampirism to himself.

After a thorough scouring with his eyes and senses, heightened with Divine Energy, he was sure there were no more spinning Discs in the Sealing Discs. They had all been destroyed in the clash between Belron and Aurelius.

With that, he shifted.

His eyes turned Vampire red, his fangs appeared and his fingers became tipped with claws. To be honest, he had always had Nyx’s backing. Like every Vampire, he had her divine edict to be able to pierce through any skin. It had been a surprise that it held true even against a Demon but it had been a welcome surprise.

Still, the use of his fangs and claws demanded very close combat. And the last time that happened, he was struck to the ground with a broken chest and shattered ribs. So of course he welcomed a backing that actually allowed effective range attacks.

Delia stared at Caius’s Vampire form and had to tear her eyes away. There’ll be time for that later. They had important work to do now.

In the air...

Within the vortex of Demonic and Divine energy clashing, Belron had a wide grin on its face as it parried Aurelius’s spear as it had done many times already before spinning and landing a hoof-kick to Aurelius’s head to send him slamming into the Cube wall.

It wasn’t the first time such an attack had happened and it had happened just as fast as they had been battling thus far. Belron charged in to follow up and Aurelius, wheezing slightly, raised his Spear in a ready parry.

Except, before Belron got close enough, something collided with it in a blur of electric blue-grey.

”There you are!” Delia said with a wide grin.

Belron’s eyes went wide when it sensed the harnessing of Divine Energy coming off her form.

The Fiend had allowed Delia to attack it many times earlier and not once had she done this. Hence why it had so casually cast her aside and turned its sights on Aurelius.

So where— where in all the hells had this Divine intervention come from?

Only now did Belron notice the darkness that had enveloped the inside of the Sealing Cube. It had been so engrossed in battling—battering—Aurelius that it hadn’t sensed the arrival of another Divine presence.

But the Fiend noticed now.

”Ngh...” with a groan, Belron shoved Delia away.

The darkness that had descended upon the scene, wrapped itself with Delia’s Storm Magic, imbuing it with Divine edict as a lightning crackle sounded as she was suddenly gone from Belron’s sight.

The Fiend swiveled to the side and thrust a clawed hand forward, summoning a Demonic Circle that blocked a Warhammer strike that Delia made.

*Bang!*

A spell circle appeared above Delia and a powerful, earsplitting sound rocked the Sealing Cube.

*KRAKA— BANG!!!— BOOOOOOMMMM!!!*

The largest streak of lightning Delia had ever cast descended. With its power easily surpassing the Fourth Circle and capable of pushing against the Demonic energy within Belron’s magic.

Delia didn’t settle for one strike though.

Heady with her lack of pain, she went wild with her attacks.

In a second, she had hit Belron’s Demonic circle ten times.

In another second, she hit it Twenty Times for thirty hits in total.

Delia let herself get drunk in her speed. It felt like the perfect reward for having to watch a battle that was too fast for her to observe.

HER the Storm Magic genius had been too slow.

The Fiend even had the gall to think of her as being of no consequence!

”Well, why not try turning away from me now!!!” Delia yelled as, despite all of Belron’s attempts to reinforce the Demonic Circle, her attacks finally destroyed it.

Belron frowned.

But it was ready.

It clicked its fingers in Delia’s direction and a spell circle appeared, priming a beam of Demonic energy that cracked with hellish Lightning and sizzled with infernal heat.

But just then, a purple spell circle appeared.

Belron recognized it but it was definitely different this time. This time, it had a Divine backing.

The Upgraded ~Galleon’s Gate~ appeared and its demonic maw opened to accept the beam which was unable to simply nullify and tear through it.

The Demonic beam reacted violently with the defensive spell and with a *BANG!*, they exploded as one, unleashing a cloud of smoke.

Delia broke through the smoke a split second later. All of that had been to clear the way for her attack which she landed against Belron’s face, sending the Fiend slamming into the ground.

*BANG!*

The Fiend hit the ground, created a crater, and was almost instantly back in the air, its expression was one of fuming. Delia flew at it, swinging her Warhammer once again. When she missed her attack, a spell circle appeared and she unleashed the might of a storm against it.

As Belron moved to either evade the attack or block/deflect it, Caius raised his hands, calling Mana and Divine energy, summoning a Spell circle.

~Dark Missiles~

It was yet another Third Circle spell that Caius had given an upgrade to make it worth casting as a Fourth Circle Mage. But it no longer only sought to strike and sink into the bodies of its targets. Now, every conjured dart packed an extra punch.

Belron discovered this when a barrage of Darts came flying at it right after it avoided Delia’s storm attack. It thrust out a spell circle but every single dart avoided the shielding attempt, moving with purpose to hit the Fiend. Belron parried the first two with its hands and they exploded with Forceful Magic that forced its arms to swing widely.

”What?” Belron let out but then Delia landed yet another Warhammer hit, taking advantage of the Fiend’s distraction.

*BANG!!!*

While Belron was spinning away, the rest of the Darts hit, striking its body and unleashing Forceful impacts that repelled it into the wall.

On the ground, Caius leaned back like a baseball pitcher readying for a throw. And then he followed through with a ’throwing’ motion.

*Sprrittttzzzz— BANG!!!*

From Caius’s outstretched ’throwing hand’, a spell circle was conjured, unleashing Lightning that was molded into a Spear and launched at the Cube wall.

It was as though he had known where the Fiend would end up after the collection of forceful Darts from ~Dark Missiles~ because Belron struck the part of the wall Caius had aimed at a second before the ~Lightning Spear~ struck. ’Pinning’ the Fiend to the wall.

But then the energy of the ~Lightning Spear~ spell went erratic and it broke apart, wrapping around Belron’s upper body. Everywhere the Lightning touched, Belron felt like it was being pierced.

Also, it discovered the darts that had hit it were capable of more than just forceful attacks. Their energy spread all over its insides, corroding its Demonic energy.

Compounding the parasitic nature of Darkness and Divine energy’s ’righteous’ desire to get rid of Demonic energy, Belron could tell it would be down to half its reserves in seconds.

In response to this threat, the Fiend tapped its feet against the air and from that point, red sizzling lines appeared, creating a pentagram that seemed to open a reservoir with which Belron was imbued with the required excess to purge itself of the Dark magic corroding it. As well as break apart the Lightning’s hold on its upper body.

The Reservoir also renewed all of the Fiend’s expended energy.

Still, it wondered, what had changed?

It had been able to overwhelm Aurelius whose grasp of Divine energy surpassed the other two put together. Why had it been so hurt by their attacks?

Was it because there were two of them?

Was there some strange synergy that made fighting them so... notable?

Aurelius stood then, glaring hard at Belron. His head was covered in blood but the halo on his head was as resplendent as ever.

Belron grinned, showing off all of its sharp teeth.

”Come at me. All three of you...” It said, ”When you fall, and you will, I want it to be with you knowing you did all you could.

It just wasn’t enough.

It never was.

It never will.”