Chapter 1156: The Demon and The Sorcerer [Part 6]

Chapter 1156 – The Demon and The Sorcerer [Part 6]

The attacker appeared above them.

Lux looked up. "Oh, f*ck off."

He dropped the barrier.

Teleportation.

They disappeared just as the creature crashed into the floor.

The chamber buckled.

Lux reappeared beside Runa near the opposite wall.

He looked at the crater.

Then at the thing rising from it.

"All right."

Enough fencing.

He opened his palm. "Demonic Orbs."

Darkness erupted behind him.

One orb.

Five.

Ten.

Twenty.

Fifty.

They filled the chamber like a swarm of miniature black moons, each pulsing with unstable demonic energy.

Lux pointed toward the dust. "Go."

The orbs attacked.

The first ten shot forward.

The creature dodged.

The next fifteen adjusted course.

It dodged those too.

Unfortunately, Lux had never said they needed to behave like respectable projectiles.

One orb struck the wall.

The creature paused.

Runa blinked.

The orb bounced. Straight back. The explosion caught the creature’s shoulder.

Lux smiled.

Twenty more bounced from walls, pillars, floor and even Lux’s barrier.

The chamber became absolute nonsense.

The attacker tried to evade one orb and moved directly into another explosion.

A debt curse attached itself.

Its movement slowed.

There.

Lux saw it.

Just slightly.

But when fighting at these speeds, slightly was everything.

The attacker roared.

First sound it had made.

Power surged outward.

Several remaining orbs detonated prematurely.

The creature charged.

Lux crossed his daggers.

This time Lux held.

The floor cracked beneath both of them.

Whatever this thing was, its physical strength was monstrous.

Lux’s arms trembled. His smile widened. "Runa!"

She understood immediately. She came from the side. Her fist slammed into the creature’s ribs.

It staggered.

Lux drove a knee into its abdomen.

Then Telekinesis struck from above.

The creature crashed onto one knee.

Not enough.

It surged upright again.

Lux sighed. "Persistent bastard."

The creature swung.

"Abyssal Grasp."

The floor turned black.

Something beneath reality opened.

Shadow tendrils exploded upward.

Dozens.

They wrapped around the creature’s ankles first. Then its wrists. Waist. Chest.

The attacker thrashed.

One tendril snapped.

Another immediately replaced it. More emerged. Some coiled around its limbs while others pierced through the dark-red aura surrounding its body, dragging it downward.

[Terror status attempted.]

[Resisted.]

Lux clicked his tongue.

The creature roared and tore one arm free.

Runa stepped backward. "It’s breaking out."

"I can see that." Lux raised one hand.

The air above the chamber ignited.

"Hellfire Rain."

Runa’s eyes widened. "Lux—"

"Barrier."

A dome snapped around them.

Then Hell opened overhead.

Fire fell.

Not ordinary flames.

Black-red streaks hammered the chamber like burning meteors.

Each impact shook the underground complex.

The creature vanished beneath fire and dust.

The Abyssal Grasp kept it trapped inside the bombardment.

One tendril broke.

Another tightened.

The sealed doorway behind the creature glowed as its wards desperately absorbed stray impacts.

Lux watched carefully.

He didn’t want the entire facility collapsing.

Mostly.

Lux dismissed Hellfire Rain.

Silence crashed down afterward.

Smoke rolled across the chamber.

Pieces of burning rubble dropped from above.

Lux lowered the barrier.

Runa coughed.

They could see something moved inside the smoke.

Lux immediately raised his daggers.

Runa clenched her fists.

A shape emerged.

The creature stumbled forward.

One knee nearly gave out.

Lux’s attacks had torn apart the dark aura that had concealed it.

Finally, they could see what they were fighting.

Lux’s smile faded. "...Oh."

The figure was humanoid.

At least, it had been once.

It stood nearly eight feet tall, its body wrapped in shattered black armor fused directly into gray skin. Thick chains had been driven through its shoulders and back, broken lengths dragging behind it across the floor.

Ancient royal symbols had been burned into its chest.

Its face was partly covered by a cracked iron mask.

One horn had been broken near the base.

The other curved backward like a blade.

And beneath the damaged mask...

One crimson eye burned.

Not mindless.

Not feral.

Furious.

Runa stared at the chains. "Lux..."

"I see them."

Those weren’t decorations.

They were restraints.

The creature wasn’t guarding the prison voluntarily.

Lux’s system scanned it.

[Analysis incomplete.]

[Multiple binding curses detected.]

[Behavioral control magic detected.]

[Royal authority imprint detected.]

Lux slowly lowered one dagger.

That changed things.

The creature dragged itself upright again despite the tendrils restraining its legs.

Its remaining eye fixed on Lux.

Then it spoke.

One word.

Broken.

Hoarse.

Forced through what sounded like centuries of pain.

"Run."

Lux stopped smiling.

The creature moved.

Not because it wanted to.

Lux saw the exact moment its body betrayed its mind.

The royal symbols burned into its chest flashed crimson. Chains embedded through its shoulders tightened by themselves, dark energy crawling through them like veins.

The creature’s eye widened. "No—" Its body vanished.

"MOVE!"

Lux and Runa threw themselves in opposite directions.

A massive fist struck where they had been standing.

The floor collapsed.

Stone exploded upward, and the shockwave sent broken pieces of marble screaming through the chamber.

Lux twisted through the air, wings snapping open before he landed on the remains of a pillar.

Runa landed on the opposite side, claws digging into the wall before she pushed herself upright.

They looked at each other.

Neither needed to say it.

That attack had been stronger.

Much stronger.

And worse?

The creature had warned them.

Its body turned toward Runa.

Its eye didn’t.

That crimson gaze remained locked on Lux.

Then its head jerked unnaturally toward Runa.

The royal imprint flashed.

Its legs moved.

Runa’s ears flattened. "It’s being controlled."

"I noticed."

The creature charged her.

Lux teleported between them.

Twin daggers crossed.

-CLANG!

The impact traveled straight through his arms.

Lux’s boots slid backward.

Three meters.

Five.

Seven.

His wings opened to stop him.

’F*ck.’

Strong. Not merely high-level strong.

Whatever Kaelmor had turned this thing into, it possessed enough raw physical power to make Lux take every strike seriously.

Yet beneath the cracked mask, its eye looked furious for an entirely different reason.

Not at Lux and Runa.

At itself.

The creature forced one trembling hand against the other arm as though physically trying to stop its own attack.