“Any fancy ideas for this one?” asked Amyra as she brandished her fming giant bde cleaver of a sword at the demon in front of her. She had cut the demon vertically in half just a few seconds ago, but it had already become whole once more. The demon showed no pain or anguish on its face, as if its supposed grave wound was a mere illusion.

  “Their tenacity is their greatest strength, but it’s finite. Demons are not indestructible, just tedious. We can only keep cutting it up until it can’t regenerate anymore.”

  “Sounds like a wonderful pn. Straightforward. I like it,” Amyra said and lunged at the demon. Her cleaver cshed with the demon’s sabre with a jagged edge. The two metal edges scratched and screeched against one another, drawing sparks that flew between them. “Strong. Looks like your physique isn’t just for the enjoyment of the eyes.”

  The demon pulled back and returned with a thrust.

  Amyra skillfully parried the sabre and countered a high cut.

  Instead of dodging, the demon caught the bde with its bare hand.

  “Wrong move,” Amyra grinned. The fmes on her bde grew with a roar. Plenty of swords had melted from this intense fme. A hand of flesh would surely be incinerated… surely, but that was not the reality before her. “What the…”

  The demon’s grip remained wrapped around her sword as the fmes continued to rage. With seemingly great ease, the demon moved the bde away from itself, pushing back to the wielder.

  “This son of a—”

  The demon’s other arm was not idle. It brought its sabre up before swinging down on Amyra.

  Erin flew right into the sabre’s trajectory and caught the bde with her own. With a cry of strength, she pushed the demon back and drove her heel into its face.

  There was no groan or shout, but the demon stumbled backwards regardless.

  “My fmes are useless,” Amyra said with a despondent look.

  “Then, you should make yourself scarce.” Aedan came in between Erin and Amyra.

  “Your Grace? What do you mean?” Amyra questioned.

  “Leave this to me and Erin. You will take Lyra and get her to Iris. She’ll know what to do. Lyra is stable for now, but the remedy will not save her life. Therefore, you must be quick.”

  “Your Grace, I can’t just—”

  “Do as he says, Amyra,” Erin ordered. “And also, take this with you.” Erin took out a small book from her bosom and tossed it to Amyra.

  “What’s this?”

  “Marsh’s ledger.”

  “This is—”

  “Now, Amyra! There’s no time to hesitate!” Erin shouted. “Lyra doesn’t have much time. So, please. Don’t argue and just go.”

  “It’s coming!”

  Erin turned around just in time to see the demon rushing up to them with its sabre, wound and ready to swing. Though she was ready to receive the blow, the demon’s sword was stopped by a bde that wasn’t hers.

  “You’re surprisingly naive, Erin,” said Aedan, who was locking swords with the demon. “Do you think it’s wise to guard against a demon’s blow with so little distance away from your face? What if it had some nasty tricks up its proverbial sleeves, and it’s waiting for you to let your guard down?”

  “I won’t worry about that. You’re here, aren’t you?”

  Together, they pushed the demon back with another csh of swords.

  Erin took this fleeting moment of rest to gnce behind. Amyra was gone, and so was Lyra. She could only hope that they would make it out of this pce alive.

  “She’ll be fine.”

  “...I know,” Erin said after a short silence. “By the way, that sword of yours… It’s mithril, isn’t it?”

  “It is.”

  “Mithril and more.”

  “More? Like what?”

  “That’s a question for ter. Right now, we need to deal with this demon.”

  The demon growled. It had many opportunities to unch another attack, but it stayed its hands.

  “It’s not very aggressive, is it?” Erin mused.

  “It’s gauging us. This one possesses some degree of intelligence… This is going to be difficult.”

  “Can you keep up?”

  “I may be a pale imitation of the person I was, but I still have my experience, wit, and wisdom.”

  “You sure do. So, you want to take the vanguard?”

  Aedan chuckled wryly. “You can have the honours.”

  “Then, I shall entrust my back to you, Aedan,” Erin said and charged towards the demon with her sword raised and her tails flourishing.

  The demon raised its arm with its hand spyed open. Bck fmes ignited in its open palm.

  “What trick is this now?”

  From the burning palm of the demon, bck fmes came belching out in a stream.

  “Demonic fmes, huh…” Erin was unfazed by the torrent of bck fmes heading her way. She imbued her sword with Mystic Bde and Essence Fre. She also unleashed her Aura Domain in all its glory. The bck fmes dwindled and shrivelled before her bde even came close. And when her bde came into contact with the fmes, she easily cut the fmes into nothing.

  “Erin, watch out!” Aedan suddenly shouted.

  Erin was devoting the entirety of her attention and focus on her opponent and the battlefield. Yet, she didn’t perceive the reason for Aedan’s sudden cry for caution— until she did. The feeling of imminent death struck every fibre of her body. She didn’t know where it came from. She gripped her sword tightly and let loose around her, unleashing a flurry of sshes around her. In the midst of her frenzy attack, she felt something was caught by her frantic bde. As she looked up, she saw a vague and ephemeral figure of the demon, disappearing into ashes and pieces. However, the demon was still in front of her.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “A doppleganger, and an invisible one at that.”

  “You saw that?”

  “I did.”

  “How?”

  Aedan shrugged. “Since most of my powers are sealed, I can only attribute this to my unique constitution as a True Dragon. We do have very sharp eyes.”

  “Well, keep looking out for me, will you?” Erin did not wait for a response and rushed at the demon.

  Bck fmes gathered in the demon’s palm once more.

  “I won’t let you!” Erin shouted and threw her weapon, which she had morphed into a spear. The spear flew straight and true, imbued with the fire of the Spirits and the might of Mystic Bde.

  The demon scoffed. It was quiet but Erin caught it. The demon threw fmes in its hand at the spear— no, it was slightly off. The fmes flew past the spear, barely scratching it. However, the fmes exploded as it was right beside the spear.

  “Bollocks,” Erin cursed. She dispelled her weapon and re-conjured it in her hand.

  The smoke and fmes subsided quickly. The demon was striding towards Erin while dragging its sword across the ground.

  “What’s with this confident strut? Such an egoistic performance. Do you even have an ego?”

  The demon answered with its sword raised. The bck fmes were still burning in its other hand.

  Erin charged at the demon again.

  The demon swung its sword down.

  Erin side-stepped the bde and retaliated with a thrust.

  The demon repelled the thrust with a faint explosion from the fmes in its palm.

  Erin was quick to recover her stance and lunged back in with a cut.

  The demon parried the cut and struck back with its burning palm.

  Erin retreated a few steps and twirled, bringing around her tails, which were enfmed with Essence Fre. The cyan fmes swallowed the bck fmes and encroached onto the demon’s hand.

  The demon flinched away and yanked its hand out from the fmes. The gentle and warm fmes were burning away the twisted flesh of the demon. With a look of indifference, the demon shook the fmes off its hand. Its hand was clearly wounded to a great degree, but it was not groaning or whining.

  “Does it not feel pain?” Erin questioned.

  “Doesn’t matter. Just don’t let your guard down. There’s more to come from this cunning demon.”

  “In that case…” Erin hopped into the air as she morphed her weapon into a giant axe, which she then threw with the strength she could muster.

  The demon leapt away from the spot where the axe would nd, but the axe was thrown with such force that it formed a massive crack and a shallow crater. Since this was underground, much dust had accumuted in the ground. Clouds of dust and smoke were thrown and raised into the air.

  Streaking through the smokescreen, Erin picked up her weapon along the way and swung the axe into the demon, who barely noticed her rapidly approaching presence in time.

  The demon could not block her axe as Mystic Bde cuts through all. Therefore, the demon could only parry and parried Erin’s axe it did. Then, the winds behind the demon shifted and a sword was thrust through its chest from behind.

  “Through the heart and all,” cheered Aedan, the wielder of the sword which was thrust through the demon.

  Taking advantage of the brief instance of the demon’s surprise, Erin sliced the demon’s head off. The head slid off from the neck and went rolling to the ground. However, its body remained standing and its hand remained gripping the sword.

  “Figures,” Aedan tutted.

  The headless demon swung its sword upwards, nearly cutting Erin in half.

  “An inch closer and my innards would be exposed for all to see,” Erin muttered. She already knew something was wrong when the sword remained in the demon’s grip.

  The headless demon spun around with its sword thrust out. Aedan had to let go of his sword to avoid being sliced and diced, and also avoid being burned by the bck fmes that were already engulfing the sword. The demon pulled the sword out of its chest and tossed it at Aedan.

  “Holy fuck!” There was just barely enough time for Aedan to take out another sword and batter away the mithril sword thrown at him. This time, the sword he took out was a sabre with a bck, thin, and long bde.

  Erin came silently from behind, but the demon already knew her presence. The demon spun around with its sword swinging. Erin flipped over and sliced at its neck, only to remember that its head was already sliced off.

  “Fucking idiot!” Erin cursed at herself.

  The demon pressed on and nded a heavy blow on Erin. She barely managed to deflect the blow but much of the force and weight were still passed onto her body and nerves. Her hands felt numb but she could still move them. There was no time to be worrying about her hands when the demon was already swinging its sword again.

  “Careful now!” Aedan swooped in and caught the demon’s bde with his sword. He tried pushing the bde away but the demon quickly overwhelmed him in a contest of strength.

  “Leave it to me, you idiot!” Erin pushed Aedan away and took the demon’s bde with her own. She then forced the demon back with her strength.

  The demon stood its ground and pushed back. Fmes began burning in its other hand.

  “Oh, no, you don’t!” Aedan was quick to act. He kept the burning hand in pce with the point of his sword. He had intended to pierce its palm, but this sword of his was cking the means.

  The demon finally opened its mouth, which had never once opened, even just to groan or moan. Smoke oozed out from its mouth and a bck, reddish glow began to brim from within.

  “Damn,” Erin muttered and tackled Aedan to the ground. She then quickly covered themselves with her tails, that was wrapped in the fmes of the Spirits.

  The demon let out a roar, spewing dark reddish fmes at Erin and Aedan.

  The bck fmes quickly overwhelmed the cyan fmes. Sensing her loss, Erin invoked the Exalted Spirits. Immediately, the cyan fmes engulfing her tails fred up two storeys, but the dark fmes reduced it to only half a storey.

  “Erin! What are you doing!?” Aedan screamed.

  “What does it look like!? Saving both of our arses!”

  “You’ll die like this!”

  Erin smirked. “You and I both know I can’t die. So, be prepared. We are going to unch our counter the moment the fmes stop.”