Chương 40: Chapter 36 - Peace and nails

That static really didn't sound good. Astarielle! She burst into reality next to me, standing on the tentacle worms. She scrunched her face, her heels digging into worm slime. I pointed at the nearest elevator door.

"Blast that open. Now." She pointed at the door. A burst of crimson flame left her fingertips and exploded the door. I unsummoned her, having the worms throw me in. I bolted through the offices, unsummoning the worms. Ashy flew after me. At the maximum running speed I could manage, I blitzed through the offices. Shadow guards materialized in the next office. I ran between them. They slashed after me. I ignored them. Ashy cleaved one in two. I ran into the next office, maintaining the speed.

If I had the layout of the building right, the floors were symmetrical, so the path I originally took from the staircase would work to get back even forty floors higher. More shadow guards awaited in the offices ahead. I ran between them. In the next room too. Easily a dozen shadow guards chased me now. In the next office, I vaulted over a table, stumbled, and almost fell. I managed to keep my balance, and Ashy cut apart the shadow guard that got to me. I ran on, picking up the speed once more.

Though if Peace was involved, then I was going to eventually run into an energy barrier. This whole building was a setup, I realized. That was why the barriers separated me from the others so cleanly. And she didn't show up at Paradise offices, so that I wouldn't suspect her involvement. Damn it, it was clear in retrospect. But now it was too late for that. I reached the staircase. Up or down? Down. No way they got up as fast as my tentacle elevator took me. I ran down the stairs. An explosion thundered from below.

Shit. I sped up. I missed a step. The slip sent me barrelling down the stairs. Pain shot through me, and I smashed into the railing on the platform underneath. Damn it. I got off and continued running, just slow enough to manage. My shields were so impenetrable because I barely moved and didn't attack. While running, they didn't absorb stuff nearly so well. Another explosion echoed from below. I made the next set of stairs. An energy barrier blocked my path. I bolted into the offices. Astarielle!

She flashed into me.

"Destroy the floor." She raised her hands, a pentagram lighting up at her hands. Another shimmered into existence on the floor. The few seconds it took her to cast the spell felt eternal. A pillar of crimson flame lit up the room, annihilating the floor and the ceiling, digging down and up. There. Two floors underneath me, I spotted a gray qi blast passing through the empty space. I summoned a hundred tentacle worms, already in position to catch the floor edge on the other side.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Astarielle caught the worms and swung down. The worm rope stretched and tensed as I reached the floor. They threw me into the room ahead. I landed into an attempt at a somersault. I slipped, falling, faceplanting on the floor once more. All my charisma was really helping with this. But I could see them. Chen just smashed his hammer into the crystal.

The crystal bounced off, cutting off his arm with a laser beam, Adaeze's barrier shattering without slowing the attack down. I got up, running to the door. An energy barrier blocked my path. And everything around me, sealing me into a larger cube. A trap. Damn it. Ashy flew in through the door. A beam from the crystal instantly cut her in two. I pulled to summon both of the succubi, aiming for outside the energy walls. It failed. Instead, I summoned Astarielle and Ashy next to me.

Chen spun, holding the hammer with one hand. Jade energy wreathed his entire form. The crystal dodged the swing, flying to his chest, releasing an explosion. An explosion shook the building, blowing up the wall in front of me. I could see the whole room now. Chen somehow remained standing, his body partly torn by the explosion. But he still stepped in, swinging at the crystal. The crystal flew by his head, decapitating him with a swift laser beam. Chen's separated parts shimmered in the air, emergency extracting.

Damn it. I glanced at Astarielle.

"Find a way out of this!" The third eye popped on her forehead. She knelt by the barrier, scanning it. Peace stood to the right, face serene. Sarah hid behind her shield to the left, gathering white flame into her blade. In a blur of motion, Zhong was descending on the crystal while Kenji bolted from the shadows, aiming for Peace. Adaeze was recasting the barriers, clutching her staff, joints white. The crystal spun like a top, whirling from Zhao while releasing a barrage of laser beams.

They pinned Sarah in place, hitting her shield. Kenji dodged most of them, but one shot through his knee, blowing the joint apart. He bounced off the other leg, pouncing at Peace. The crystal bolted to him. In the blink of an eye, it crossed the room and pierced his chest, flying through him, shattering the barrier Adaeze had just cast. Extract, damn it. I couldn't hear anything, so they couldn't hear me either. Ashy tried to poke at the barrier, to no avail.

Adaeze cast a massive barrier in front of Zhao and Sarah. They bolted toward Peace. The crystal flew up, bombarding them from above. Zhao swayed in a spot, his form more of a blur than a man. Sarah raised her shield, but the impact stopped her run. Adaeze raised her staff to defend herself. The energy beams tore through her shields. She put all her strength into shielding Zhao and Sarah, so she didn't have enough on herself. The lasers cut her vertically into three parts.

They fell apart, all shimmering in the emergency extraction. What the Hell was she waiting for? Just extract already! I wanted to scream at her. As if stepping on air, Zhao ran up to the crystal and jumped into a massive spinning kick. Shadow qi blasted through the air from his leg. The crystal flew under him and spun with a laser beam. Zhao twisted his body. The laser still cut off his leg. He landed on a plate of hardened shadow qi, balancing on one leg. The crystal flew at him.

He punched into it with an open palm. An even larger shadow qi blast filled the air. The crystal flew straight through, annihilating his arm, shoulder, and a part of his torso. His form started shimmering as he collapsed. I pressed the earpiece and shouted, "Extract yourself, for fuck's sake!" Sarah couldn't hear me. Instead, she charged toward Peace. The crystal flew around her, landed on her back, and released an energy blast.

With a scream of pain I couldn't hear, Sarah flew forward, landing face-first three feet before Peace. Her body started slowly shimmering. Finally, the extraction.

"I can't get through this," Astarielle shouted.

"Not even with the pillar of Hell spell." Damn. Peace would finish Sarah off and just walk away as if nothing happened. Peace stepped to Sarah, ducked down, and from behind her belt, she pulled a long iron nail. Shit. The pamphlet listed a vessel of true faith as a requirement for summoning their goddess. True faith didn't mean a follower of Mefista, but of God. I raised my hand.

"Ashy, cut my palm." Ashe spun in the air, lightly cutting my palm. Peace rammed the nail into Sarah's back, to where the explosion peeled off the armor. The shimmering on Sarah's body stopped. Peace stole the beacon because it didn't extract with us. She reverse-engineered it to make the nail to stop us from extracting. I was too slow to realize. I ducked down, putting my palm on the floor. The blood flooded out, forming a pentagram around me. I reached for half of my total mana. The air around me quaked.

The entire building did, as if hit by an earthquake. Peace's and Sarah's hair floated up, as if they were swimming in deep water.

"With my blood, I open the gate through ten thousand worlds…" Peace graced me with a faint smile. She caught Sarah from underneath and started lifting her with her arms.

"Through Void and Hell, I form the path. Across time and space, I open the way…" Peace lifted Sarah up. The crystal flew above Peace. A column of light wrapped Peace and Sarah, coming through the ceiling.

"I open the way for the second exile. I open the gate for the forsaken rose..." Peace graced me with one more smirk, and the light drew her and Sarah up. The barriers from around me vanished. I exhaled, stopping the incantation, drawing in whatever leftover mana I could. They were gone. Fuck.