Chương 49: At Death's Door (III)

The roar of clashing metal was already fading, replaced now by the demons' screams of pain and terror.

"I'm not sure I like doing this! It doesn't even look like a battle anymore, it's just a massacre!" exclaimed a visiare soldier as he drove his sword into a demon who was trying, without success, to hide among his packed-together companions. Beside him, another young visiare cut seven demons in two at the same time. Or rather, he severed the space those seven demons occupied.

"Don't forget that they're the invaders! It was them or us!" Osvel shouted, turning toward the rest of his battalion.

"And this is for Thaelor too! The demons were responsible for that attack by those green creatures!" But seeing the danger Osvel represented, one of the more powerful demons seized the chance to attack while the visiare's back was turned. This was no ordinary demon. His sword began to glow with a sickly green light. By the time Osvel realized what was happening, it was already too late... Or so it seemed.

An arrow suddenly appeared, lodged straight between the demon's eyes, and he collapsed at once, letting out a guttural sound. The arrow had not flown through the air. It had appeared directly in the enemy's head. It was a terrifying thing, if one stopped to think about it. Osvel looked toward the line of hills and found Ily there, visibly annoyed, holding her bow with one hand while gesturing with the other for him to be more careful.

"If she put that much dedication into hunting, she wouldn't come back empty-handed almost every time," Osvel muttered with a smile. It was then that some demons began taking out gemstones glowing with a somber purple light.

"Careful, they're planning something!" Osvel shouted. But there was no need to worry, because the stones went dark the very next instant. ***" Veiled Trail" Sae and Drazira looked at Nerez, whose arm was still raised beside them.

"Veiled Trail?" Sae asked.

"What did Lord Nereziel just do?" Drazira added. Nerez, for his part, looked at the two of them while scratching his head, wearing an expression that showed he had almost as many doubts as they did.

"Let's see, how do I explain this... according to Drazira, the demons had souls imprisoned inside the netherite stones," Nerez said, taking a netherite stone from his own pocket.

"'Veiled Trail' is a skill that lets me interact with the passages that form between a soul and the river of death." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"As expected of the god of death!" Sae exclaimed.

"That means...!" Drazira said, holding her breath. Well, at first I could only travel to those passages. Now that the proficiency went up to D after I used it, I can open those passages myself. A pretty useful skill if you happen to find a lost soul...

"When I heard your story, Drazira, I ran a few tests, and it turns out I can open those passages inside the netherite stones themselves," Nerez went on, putting the netherite stone back in his pocket.

"Apparently, the souls wasted no time using them... or what do I know, maybe they were sucked in or something." Without the souls' power, the demons were left at the mercy of Nerez's army, and it did not take long for some of them to begin surrendering. Fortunately, the skeletal soldiers moved with machine-like precision, and the demons who had thrown their weapons to the ground were quickly removed from the front line and subdued by the skeletons in the rear ranks.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the visiare or the forest spirits, who more than once, in the heat of battle, struck down demons who had already surrendered.

"This... this cannot be..." Drazel muttered as he watched the scene unfold. But the despair in his eyes was quickly replaced by fury. As he searched the hill for his sister, his gaze met Nerez's. At the sight of him, Drazel felt his blood run cold for a second. But his anger and ambition were greater than his fear.

"You! You're the necromancer!" Drazel roared, extending his long claws as he lunged toward Nerez.

"If I eliminate you, those skeletons will disappear too!"

"Sae, get Lord Nereziel out of here! I'll hold Drazel off!" Drazira shouted, releasing the power of Escarion as it split into metallic blades that soon became a bolt of lightning and shot toward the demon.

"Don't make me laugh, sister! Gift from a god or not, you have never beaten me!" Drazel's claws shone red, just like the scarlet eyes he shared with his sister, and with one powerful swipe, he deflected the lightning aimed at him. Sae put her hand on Nerez's shoulder when she saw that Drazel would reach them before Drazira could recall her weapon. But Nerez raised a hand, signaling for the Archonte to wait.

"As much as I would love to run away from my problems, I don't think that's necessary this time. For one thing, he doesn't look like a particularly difficult opponent to beat. And for another, I don't think he'll even reach us..." Drazira and Sae looked at him, then exchanged a glance. Both of them realized what he meant at the same instant the boom of something breaking the sound barrier thundered above them.

"It's finally my turn! You said I could go once the demon got close to you, Nerez! You can't take it back now!" With a powerful leap that made her look as if she were flying, Cerys crossed the distance separating her from Drazel in a fraction of a second.

"Don't get in my way!" the demon snarled, unleashing a furious swipe that left a trail of red light in its wake. Cerys spun her gigantic scythe with a wide smile. On the first turn, Drazel's arm was severed as if it were made of butter. On the second, his wings followed.

"Aaaaaagh!" The demon crashed to the ground, screaming in agony. And then she says I'm the one who humiliates mortals... Cerys wasted no time and adjusted her descent toward the fallen Drazel. He managed to react at the last instant and jumped to the side, narrowly escaping the scythe blade as it split the earth in two where he had been.

"Damn... it..." Drazel groaned, trying to cauterize the place where his arm had been with magic so he would not bleed out, but to no avail. The wound would not close.

"Don't think... you... are the only ones with spatial magic!" In a matter of seconds, the demon began turning into mist.

"Oh no no no no, I won't let you!" Cerys appeared before him with another powerful leap and swung her scythe with fierce momentum. She felt as if the blade had begun to connect, but Drazel still managed to vanish into thin air.

"No way!" Cerys cried in dismay.

"This world is full of cowards!"

A shadow blacker than a moonless night opened its eyes. They were two luminous points in the darkness of an existence formed from mist with a human outline. Before that being, a dying demon had appeared.

"Lord... Lord Erebion..." he managed to get out.

"It's an emergency!" Drazel lay bleeding on the ground. In addition to the stump where his arm had been, he now bore a gigantic open wound in his chest.