Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 292: The Power of Space

For the first time in her life, Nyx managed to grip onto more power than she should have been able to do. In this moment, worried for the life of her best friend, her power surged above and beyond her current supposed power level. Such was the power of Telekinesis. Its might relied less on the Mana and Magic stats, and more on one’s mental strength and endurance.

The air shivered.

A pulse of psychic force erupted from her core, making every loose stone rattle, every strand of web tremble. Her previously normal, human eyes flared into blazing constellations spiraling across her irises. Her veins strained, becoming visible beneath her skin, each heartbeat pumping more raw space-energy into her hands.

The world around her bent, with the edges of stone warping and any other sound muffling into a distant echo. Dust motes froze mid-air, trapped in the gravity well forming around her. Her breath hitched once, then steadied as her mind coiled tighter, denser, hungrier.

Reality strained like glass about to crack.

”Haaaaaaaah!”

With a raw, resonant cry, Nyx released it all. The ground beneath her shuddered, and the burst of telekinetic force made the entire chamber feel as if it had been yanked inside-out for a heartbeat before snapping back.

The force pushed Kaiden from her grip out as if he were a loose ballista bolt, hurling him forward with bone-snapping velocity straight toward the Countess’s face.

Wind roared against his ears, and his cheeks began peeling back as if trying to tear free from his skull. He couldn’t even blink; his eyelids felt glued open by the velocity. Every heartbeat was a thunderclap in his chest, and the stone floor blurred beneath him in a dizzying streak.

Through the pain and the roaring wind, his gaze found her, Luna. The girl was suspended high in the air, thrashing against the monster’s venom-laced bindings and the Countess’s massive claw still covering her eyes.

That sight alone drowned the fear away from his mind, drowning out even the raw ache of his skin threatening to peel off. The only thing left was the need. The need to reach her. To rip her free and save the love of his life.

His free hand moved to clench around his other hand, helping reduce its strain. The knuckles of his hand whitened as he forced the blade to align perfectly in front of him. He locked his shoulders, tightening every muscle so that the sheer force wouldn’t tear the weapon from his grip.

The Countess, meanwhile, was too lost in her own pleasure to notice the incoming threat. This was her flaw. She did not possess a warrior’s discipline, but a glutton’s arrogance. Borrowed strength had made her reckless, comfortable, too certain that no threat could pierce her fun.

She was savoring Luna’s panicked gasps, drawing out the cruelty, barely sparing a thought for the others. The mages? She’d decided she could handle them without even looking. Kaiden wasn’t even worth a thought in her mind. What could a melee warrior do against an enemy who was currently glued to the ceiling of a tall room using her webs?

Nothing. Throw their weapon desperately, maybe.

She didn’t expect a human missile to come screaming at her from below.

Kaiden’s arc carried him high, high enough to see the Countess’s inhuman advantage: she had latched herself to the ceiling with thick strands of web, dangling over the chamber like a predator spider.

Too late, her head snapped toward him.

The blade came down in a silver blur.

Her hand, the one holding Luna, separated at the wrist in a spray of dark ichor. ”ARGHHHHH!!!”

Her shriek shook the air, a piercing sound that was equal parts rage and disbelief.

Kaiden shot past, but his arm lashed out at the last possible instant, catching hold of Luna’s trailing web line. This move of his sent them both hurtling toward the far wall.

The wall was coming fast, too fast. His brain deducted the obvious: ’We’re going to become human paste.’

”Kai!” Nyx’s voice rose with deadly urgency.

She threw her hands forward, making telekinetic power snap out like a tidal wave. The sheer speed of his body was far beyond what her mind could grasp. Her nose burst instantly, and blood streamed down her lips as the force backlash pounded into her skull.

Kaiden’s momentum didn’t even slow despite her effort.

Nyx’s knees buckled, her vision narrowing to pinpricks, but she refused to stop. Even as she collapsed to the ground, she threw her hands out again.

Her eyes reddened due to tiny veins bursting in her sclera, and a cough wracked her body before she spat out a large mouthful of blood.

”STOP!” she screamed, pouring the last dregs of herself into the grip.

The chamber groaned as if her will was bending it too. The invisible hands of her mind dug into Kaiden’s chest and shoulders, dragging, fighting the impossible velocity.

In the next moment, Kaiden slammed into the wall. But instead of a bone-shattering crunch, it was a bruising blow that left him gasping but alive. His boots struck stone, legs absorbing the recoil before he kicked off, launching himself back into open space.

With one clean, brutal slash, he severed the webs still clinging to Luna. The girl fell into his arms, and he held her tight, twisting his body in the air to take the brunt of their landing against the floor.

Nyx lay on her knees far behind them with one trembling hand still outstretched. Her chest heaved, but her eyes, still glowing with the remnants of that impossible surge of telekinetic power, locked on the two of them.

They were alive.

She fell unconscious.

”Fuck! I almost became the useless extra character that showed off the boss’s next phase with her dumb death!” Luna cursed in Kaiden’s arms before wiggling herself free and doing her best to stand.

But the poison of the webs made doing so impossible. Just like Nyx, the Storm Valkyrie found her knees on the ground. But she caught herself before fully falling to her face, and uncorked an anti-poison potion with trembling hands and a swimming vision.

While the Storm Valkyrie was recovering, and the Space Valkyrie was out for the moment, the remaining three fighters locked their hardened gazes onto the Countess’s wreathing form.

It was time to end this.