Chapter 590: War Against the Demonic Society (iii)

Xavier roared in pain and thrashed against the bindings. His accelerated biology healed the deep lacerations instantly. He flexed his arms to snap the magical wires with sheer brute force.

He lunged at the Elder again. The demonic leader casually stepped backward and pulled another cluster of minions into the fray. Three heavily plated shock troopers tackled Xavier mid-air. They dragged the vampire down into the dirt.

Xavier bit into the closest trooper’s face and crushed the skull between his jaws. He threw the corpse aside and scrambled to his feet. A dozen more puppets swarmed his position immediately. They piled on top of him and buried him under a mountain of armored bodies.

The Elder hovered above the pile and gathered a concentrated sphere of dark matter between his palms.

“You fight like a mindless animal,” the Elder mocked. “You hold cosmic power, yet you act like a starving dog.”

He fired the volatile sphere directly into the pile of soldiers. The blast vaporized his own mind-controlled troops and slammed into Xavier’s chest. The impact hurled Xavier across the battlefield. He crashed through a cluster of boulders and tumbled across the cracked terrain.

Xavier pushed himself up from the rubble. His jacket was completely shredded. Dark blood poured from a massive burn on his chest before his vampiric cells forced the tissue to stitch itself back together. He glared at the Elder and let out another furious screech.

He extended his hands and manipulated the pools of spilled gore scattered across the plains. He formed hundreds of crimson blood-spikes in the air and launched the projectiles at the floating demon.

The Elder smiled and crossed his arms. He pulled fifty minions directly into the line of fire. The blood-spikes impaled the helpless soldiers and left the Elder completely unharmed.

Rin witnessed the futile strategy and gritted his teeth. “The vampire form makes him too stupid to target the actual threat. The minions are constantly blocking his path.”

“We need to clear the field for him,” Kylus shouted.

The Aurelian warrior reignited his thermal cutter and charged the left flank. He unleashed a wave of superheated plasma to incinerate a group of mind-controlled puppets. Rin dashed toward the right flank and spun his swords to sever the violet threads attached to the demonic troops.

Fortunately, their efforts created a brief opening. Xavier sensed the gap in the defensive line. He kicked off a shattered rock and closed the distance to the Elder in a crimson blur. He reached out to plunge his talons into the demon’s neck.

The Elder reacted instantly. He summoned a dense spatial shield to block the strike.

Xavier’s claws struck the barrier and sparked violently. His feral mind failed to comprehend the magical defense. He blindly battered the shield with a flurry of enraged strikes while completely ignoring the dozens of minions rushing up behind him.

The puppets dogpiled Xavier once again to drag him away from their master. The Elder capitalized on the distraction and blasted Xavier with another wave of crushing dark matter.

Suddenly, the boiling clouds parted a second time. A streak of dark violet energy slammed into the cracked earth next to the first Elder. The dust cleared to reveal a second Demonic Society leader. He wore ornate battle armor forged from black bone and wielded a dual-bladed staff that crackled with dark matter.

“You play too much, brother,” the second Elder spoke. His voice echoed across the plains. “Just exterminate the pest.”

The two Elders synchronized their assault to trap their target. The first Elder conjured another dense sphere of dark matter while the second lunged forward with his staff.

Xavier scrambled to his feet to intercept the attack. However, his feral vampire mind failed to anticipate the coordinated trap. The second Elder swept his staff in a wide arc to strike Xavier’s knees, sending the vampire stumbling forward. The first Elder unleashed the dark matter sphere directly into Xavier’s chest.

The blast launched the vampire across the battlefield. Xavier crashed into the obsidian rock and tumbled across the dirt. Before he could recover, the second Elder leaped high above him and brought the staff down with crushing force. The weapon shattered Xavier’s collarbone.

Rin witnessed the brutal exchange and tried to sprint toward his captain. But dozens of mind-controlled puppets threw themselves onto his swords to block his path. Kylus swung his thermal cutter to clear a lane, shouting in frustration as the endless horde of minions dragged him backward.

The two Elders stood over Xavier’s broken body. They unleashed a continuous barrage of spatial blasts and void magic to ensure their victory. The explosions tore the ground apart and sent debris flying into the sky. Xavier thrashed blindly under the assault until his movements finally ceased. His pale body lay perfectly still in the crater.

“A disappointing vessel,” the first Elder sneered.

While the demonic leaders turned away to address the rest of the Vanguard crew, a blue holographic interface flickered to life inside Xavier’s mind. He navigated the Essence Absorption System and bypassed the True Vampire form.

He selected the Lykaios Essence he had acquired from Lyra to utilize the power of the beast god.

[ Essence Activated: Lykaios Descendant Metamorphosis. ]

A burst of blinding orange hellfire erupted from the crater. The flames melted the surrounding rocks into glowing slag. Xavier’s pale skin darkened as his biology rapidly rewrote itself to accommodate the new species.

His skeletal structure cracked and elongated to force his body into a taller, more imposing shape. Coarse silver fur sprouted along his forearms and jawline. His hands morphed into lethal claws capable of shredding starship plating.

His legs shifted into a digitigrade stance to provide unmatched agility and leaping power.

The demonic fire wrapped around his torso like a protective mantle. His white hair darkened into a sleek silver mane.

The two Elders spun around to face the blazing crater. They prepared another volley of dark matter to strike the emerging threat.

Xavier stood up from the molten rock. The feral crimson glow faded from his eyes, replaced by a piercing icy blue ringed with violet. He rolled his shoulders to test the newly formed muscles and brushed a speck of ash from his fur.

“The vampire form is useful for clearing out trash,” Xavier said. His voice remained perfectly calm and articulated, contrasting his previous mindless screeches. “However, it makes me far too reckless.”

The Elders stared at the evolved beast in sheer disbelief.

“A being who can transform,” the second Elder muttered.

Xavier cracked his neck and summoned a sphere of hellfire over his palm. “I kept my sanity, and I gained the strength of a god.”

Suddenly, Xavier vanished in a streak of orange flame. He bypassed the entire wall of minions with a calculated void step and reappeared directly behind the second Elder. The demon swung his staff in a panicked arc.

Xavier ducked the clumsy strike and grabbed the weapon with his bare hand to crush the black bone staff into splinters.

Before the demon could react, Xavier drove his claws into the Elder’s chest. He channeled the demonic fire directly into the wound to incinerate the creature’s organs instantly. The second Elder collapsed into a pile of smoking ash.

The first Elder panicked and raised his hands to summon his violet threads. Fortunately, Xavier possessed the tactical brilliance to counter the magic. He leaped into the sky and hurled a barrage of fireballs that burned the glowing strings to cinders. He landed gracefully in front of the remaining leader and offered a mocking grin.

“You rely too much on your toys,” Xavier smiled.

He grabbed the Elder by the throat and lifted him off the ground. The demonic leader clawed uselessly at Xavier’s silver-furred arm.

Xavier ignited his Golden Authority to mix the primordial starlight with the Lykaios hellfire. He sent the combined cosmic energy surging into the Elder’s body to obliterate the demon from the inside out.