Chapter 1157: The Demon and The Sorcerer [Part 7]

Chapter 1157 – The Demon and The Sorcerer [Part 7]

For half a second, it succeeded.

Then the bindings flashed again.

Lux teleported away before another strike could land.

He appeared near the left wall.

Runa landed near the sealed door on the right.

Again, their gazes met.

Lux slowly straightened.

His daggers remained ready, but he no longer aimed them toward the creature’s core.

The guard stood between them, chains rattling, chest heaving.

Lux studied the restraints. The brands. The fury. The resistance. Then he understood.

"Seems like you don’t want to be here."

The creature’s crimson eye shifted toward him.

Lux tilted his head. "More importantly..."

His grip tightened around his daggers.

"You don’t want to fight us."

The creature’s enormous chest rose. Fell.

The crimson symbols branded across it pulsed beneath ruined armor, each flash forcing its muscles tighter.

"I..." Its voice scraped from behind the cracked mask. "Don’t... want to be here..."

Lux’s eyes narrowed.

The creature suddenly screamed.

Not a battle cry.

Pain.

Its back arched as every chain embedded through its flesh snapped taut.

Then it disappeared.

"Shit."

Lux moved.

A fist ripped through the space where his head had been.

The creature spun immediately, moving with terrifying precision despite fighting against every motion.

Lux crossed his daggers.

-CLANG!

Impact traveled through his shoulders.

He slid backward. "System! Full analysis. Now!"

Crimson windows exploded across his vision.

[Emergency Analysis Initiated.]

[Target Classification: Demon-Type Entity.]

[Origin: UNKNOWN.]

[Sin Affiliation: UNKNOWN.]

[House Affiliation: NONE DETECTED.]

[Status: CURSED.]

[Binding Status: Multiple Compulsory Authority Layers.]

[Infernal Registration: NOT FOUND.]

Lux ducked.

A claw passed over his horns.

He teleported three meters sideways. "What?"

The creature pursued.

Lux barely got one dagger up. "That’s it? No name? No status history? Nothing?"

[I am searching.]

"Search faster!"

[I shall inform the database that you are impatient.]

The creature attacked again.

Lux pivoted around the strike, slashed across its arm and immediately pulled the blade back.

The cut regenerated slowly.

[I have found nothing within the Infernal Database matching this entity.]

Lux’s eyes sharpened. "What?"

[My conclusion: this demon did not originate from Hell.]

"That’s impossible!"

[Your compelling rebuttal has not altered the search results.]

The creature changed targets.

Runa.

She had moved closer to the sealed door.

The creature’s body snapped toward her.

Its eye widened.

It charged.

"Barrier!"

A black-gold wall erupted between them.

The creature smashed into it.

Cracks instantly spread across the shield.

Lux’s arm trembled.

Runa stared through the translucent barrier.

Lux gritted his teeth. "Demonic Orbs."

Dark spheres bloomed behind him.

"Hit him."

They launched.

The first detonated against the creature’s shoulder.

The second bounced beneath its legs.

The third ricocheted off Lux’s own barrier and struck its back.

The creature staggered.

Several debt curses latched onto its body, weighing down its movements.

Runa moved beside Lux. "What now?"

Lux looked toward the sealed doorway.

The prisoner.

That was why they were here.

Not to spend twenty minutes beating the unwilling security system Kaelmor had apparently made out of a living person.

"Can you find the prisoner?"

Runa looked at him. "You want me to leave you?"

"I want you to search."

Her ears flattened. "That thing is strong."

"I noticed."

Another orb detonated.

The creature tore through the smoke.

Lux threw up Barrier again.

His shield buckled. "I’ll handle him."

Runa hesitated. "Lux—"

"Go!"

His voice cracked through the chamber.

"Our noise has already alerted this entire facility. If Kaelmor has anyone monitoring it, the clock started the moment you introduced the front doors to the opposite wall."

Runa’s mouth tightened.

"We need to move fast."

She clicked her tongue. "Fine."

Then she ran toward the sealed passage.

The creature saw her.

Its crimson eye widened.

"Don’t..."

The bindings flashed.

Its body lunged.

"DON’T HURT HER!"

The desperation in its voice struck Lux harder than the fist had. "Don’t... hurt her!"

Its claws reached toward Runa.

Lux teleported directly into its path.

Twin daggers crossed.

The collision blasted dust outward.

Lux stared into that single visible eye.

The creature was begging him.

While trying to kill him.

"Yeah," Lux muttered. "I understand."

The creature roared as the curse forced its arm down harder.

Lux’s knees bent.

Stone fractured beneath his boots.

"You’re not doing this willingly."

Another chain ignited.

The creature’s free hand swung.

Lux released the block and teleported backward.

The fist missed.

Barely.

"But unfortunately..." Lux glanced toward Runa disappearing through the doorway. "...neither am I."

He didn’t want to kill this creature.

That complicated things.

Lux hated complications.

Especially compassionate ones.

If it had been a willing servant of Kaelmor, this would have been beautifully simple.

But this?

The creature was a prisoner wearing the job title of guard.

The creature charged again.

Lux looked at the ring on his finger. "Sovereign Event Horizon Ring."

The artifact awakened.

[Activation Confirmed.]

The world folded.

The chamber stretched unnaturally as distance lost its meaning. Walls bent outward, the ceiling rose into darkness, and the floor beneath Lux transformed into an endless black plane threaded with silver geometric lines.

The creature stopped.

For the first time, confusion interrupted its compulsory attack.

[Private Dominion Established.]

[Localized Spatial Law: Under Sovereign Control.]

[External Temporal Relationship: Distorted.]

[Authority Pressure: Increasing.]

The creature looked around.

Lux rolled his neck. "Welcome."

Its bindings flashed.

It attacked.

Lux didn’t move. "Distance."

Space stretched.

The creature ran toward him.

And ran.

And ran.

Lux remained five meters away.

Its crimson eye widened.

"Oh, don’t look at me like that."

Lux rotated one dagger. "You were cheating with speed first."

The curse flared violently.

The creature roared and somehow forced itself through the distorted distance.

Lux’s eyebrows rose. "Oh?"

A fist reached him.

Barrier.

Lux slid backward.

The creature followed. "Impressive."

Lux teleported above it.

His boot struck its shoulder.

The creature stumbled.

"Abyssal Grasp."

The black plane opened.

Tendrils surged upward, wrapping around its legs and torso.

The creature tore three apart immediately.

Lux landed.

"Pressure."

The dominion responded.

Gravity, or something close enough to it, multiplied around the creature.

Its knees slammed into the floor.

-BOOM!

Silver lines cracked beneath it.