Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 567: The last act of a Heartbroken demon

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Radiating a brilliant green aura of Nature Energy, Kaya crossed her legs and closed her eyes in meditation on her epiphany. Now she could conceive Arcane compositions to create Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circle Nature Magic spells even while at the Fourth Circle.

And speaking of her being at the Fourth Circle, she had a strong feeling that won’t remain the case for much longer either; The Arcane Circle had always helped to drastically speed up magical advancement but, following her epiphany and being so imbued with such understanding of the Arcane, the boost was even greater.

Klever kept snarling at Kaya. It yelled profanities over and over, and although Kaya ignored it, she could hear and comprehend every word the demon said. It was how, despite being currently disconnected from her body, Kaya had known all of Klever’s effigies—except this one she had trapped with her spell—had been killed.

Klever had sworn revenge for that but Kaya wasn’t worried. She and the others had cracked the challenge, isolated the actual problem to focus on—which was Klever’s mind—and had won the challenge. It was over.

Succumbing to the strange pain inflicted upon it by Kaya, Klever was powerless. It might have recovered enough to get its bodies moving despite the mental attack but the others had acted swiftly and killed the Effigies before that could happen. Now the only Effigy Klever had left, it couldn’t move, because Kaya’s trapping spell had cut its mind from that body.

Kaya didn’t even mind the yells from the demon. She didn’t mind the threats. Nothing it did could distract her from her epiphany. Or so she thought.

Suddenly, Klever’s mind went silent.

No yells, no threats, no groans or cries of pain.

This didn’t give Kaya peace. Ok the contrary, it made her alert. She opened her eyes and cast them about the demon’s mental space and realized it was still in pain but something peculiar had happened;

Klever had internalized the strange pain Kaya inflicted on it.

Because Klever deludedly thought of its Effigies as individuals and a cure for its loneliness, losing them all hurt so much that the Demon basically turned the pain Kaya was attacking it with, into its own.

This meant that, although Klever was still being attacked mentally, it was not as incapacitated as it originally was and was swiftly regaining full control of its mental faculties.

”Shit—” Kaya started to say when Klever erected a wall in its mind and sought to seal Kaya out of it.

Kaya tried to retaliate, to shatter the wall but although she normally had a stronger mind than Klever, the demon’s pain empowered it greatly.

So she rotated the Arcane Circle, deciding to attack its mind with a different emotion from the trio she had acquired after defeating the Malevolent Aura.

”Sadness!” She yelled.

The symbol representing the emotion was placed at the topmost center of the Arcane Circle and glowed brightly. But when its effects surged out, Klever made it its own once again. Because it was feeling sadness so great at the moment that it was comparable to what Kaya tried to inflict on it.

”Regret!” Kaya yelled and again the Arcane Circle spun.

Regret wasn’t an emotion Klever was feeling right then so it didn’t make it into its own. However, after being bolstered by its pain and sadness, Regret had very little effect on Klever. Pain and Sadness shut everything else out, strengthening and expanding the wall until finally, Kaya was thrown out and back into her body.

”Arghh!” Kaya groaned in pain. It felt like her head was splitting open and blood dripped from her nostrils onto the ground.

She gripped her staff even more tightly but was unable to use it to pull herself upright. Her head felt like it weighed a million tons and bore her down to her knees.

Still, she had to get the message out.

”Kill it,” she croaked.

Aylin, Delia, Eloise and Aurelius had already turned toward Kaya. Once they had done away with the Effigies they had been battling and knew they had Kaya to thank for the ease, they awaited with hope for her exit from the enemy’s mind.

When Kaya finally moved, they let out breaths of relief and didn’t quite catch what she said.

”FUCKING KILL IT!” Kaya yelled, her voice sounding harsh in its gravelly state.

At the same time, black and blue streaks began to crackle explosively from Klever’s form. A shockwave was released, sending Kaya flying.

If Kaya’s request for them to attack the last Effigy wasn’t enough to tell that things were far from over, the ominous crackling of black and blue demonic energy that slammed Kaya with a shockwave certainly did the trick.

They sent attacks at Klever and it didn’t try to deflect, block, or dodge them. Most of the attacks were incinerated by the demonic energy coming off Klever’s body but the few that got past and pierced it didn’t cause it to fall. The demon’s expression looked devastated but it made no sound.

And then, there was more blue and black demonic energy crackling all over the scene. The godlings cast their eyes about and saw that the cracklings were originating from the Klever corpses on the ground.

Before the godlings could theorize what the phenomenon might mean or even begin to devise how to battle it, an Effigy rose from the floor. From the gaping hole in its chest, Delia and Kaya recognized it as the one they had combined their efforts to kill. It was also the first Effigy to fall.

”No!” Delia said with gritted teeth. She had no idea what was about to happen but knew it couldn’t possibly be good so she moved to intercept it.

*Brrzztt*

*BANG!*

Delia was usually very resistant to lightning damage as a Storm Mage so whatever was crackling from the Effigy most certainly wasn’t Lightning with how hard it ravaged her insides and sent her flying up to smack into the roof of the sealing cube before landing back down.

Delia stirred as she hit the ground. Her body ached but fortunately she hadn’t had another near-death experience. With gritted teeth, she watched with the others as the two Effigies combined into a singular entity whose horn grew longer as a result.

The energy of the crackling blue and black demonic energy got stronger as well, inching past the equivalent of the Fifth Circle.

The next Effigy corpse to rise was one that looked charred by lightning and its head had been split open. Delia recognized it as the one she killed when she opened her eyes after exiting the Abyss of death.

The Effigy combined with the already combined dual-combined Effigy, causing the energy of the crackling demonic energy to swell further.

”It’s putting itself back together,” Eloise said out loud what everyone was thinking and realizing.

Another Effigy rose, riddled with holes that had been made by Aylin’s ice spike spell, and combined to further strengthen the singular unit.

Next, were two Effigies who were riddled with holes from Eloise’s musical lance spells.

The one to combine after that had a hole in its chest where Delia’s fist had broken through.

And then, there were the two Aurelius had slain in quick succession.

And finally, the thousand pieces of the Effigy Aylin had shattered flew to join the combination as well.

By now, Klever’s horn was even longer than it had been when the first two Effigies attacked Aurelius because, for the first time since this all began, it was truly only one; One mind in one body.

And it was utterly alone.

The godlings, besides Kaya, prepared to fight. But the idea was daunting because after combining to form a singular and profoundly lonely being, Klever’s demonic energy was crackling even more erratically. It was well past the equivalent of the Sixth Circle now and settled right in the Seventh.

”No!” Kaya yelled as she got to her feet, avoiding Klever to approach her friends,

”We need to run. Find cover!”

”What’s happening?” Aylin asked as Kaya, still weak from being slammed out of Klever’s mind, collapsed into her arms.

”It’s suicidal,” Kaya said with a prominent swallow.

”What?” Eloise and Delia—who had stood up and walked over with a slight limp—asked as one.

Kaya winced. Her perception was in overdrive and she had flashes of times when she felt Klever’s emotions like they were hers.

”Klever is in pain. At first, it wasn’t actually its pain but rather something I attacked it with. But after losing its Effigies, the pain became real. The sadness became real.

Klever is heartbroken and it’s going to kill itself... taking us with it!”

”Not if we kill it first!” Aurelius said and was already tossing an attack at Klever— one backed with the might of his magic and the Divinity that Aether had granted him; A combination that had served him well to kill two of the demon’s effigies so far.

Alas, the attack was obliterated the moment it got within range of the erratic crackling of Demonic energy around Klever’s singular body. The energy was now far too great to be countered by any of the godlings as they currently were.

The demonic energy grew even more erratic, priming for what promised to be a devastating explosion. In the midst of all that, Klever finally moved, raising its face toward the ceiling, its nightmarish black hair swept down its back as black tears dripped from its eyes.

This would be its last act.