Heretic Spellblade 6 - Ch17

Chapter 17

“I will not be sullied by the crumbs that have fallen from my master’s mouth,” the dominion screeched from above Nathan and his Champions.

Up close, he noticed that she wore something akin to a uniform. A platinum and gold vest struggled to contain her impressive chest, as if somebody had intentionally created it two sizes too small, and a black velvet shirt and ruffled skirt barely covered the tops of her limbs. He could even see her plain white panties, as well as several thick glowing metal bands wrapped around her inner thighs.

But aside from her overly erotic uniform, one more thing stood out to Nathan. A red emblem forming a sigil he felt he should recognize but couldn’t seemed to loom from the left breast of her vest. Staring at it for a moment caused something to scratch at his mind.

Every instinct in his mind screamed at him to stop looking at it. He averted his eyes and slammed up mental barriers.

Then, when he glanced back, he saw nothing adorning her vest. No emblem, no sigil, no nothing.

“She’s got nice tits, but they’d look nicer wrapped around your cock,” Maura drawled as she waved an arm shrouded in darkness at the dominion.

As with Tarako’s earlier attack, this spatial slash did nothing as well. The dominion sneered at them, still unmoving. Her inky bubble continued to bob around her.

Nathan’s other Champions took shots at her as well, save Sunstorm. She knew better than to waste her effort and instead cut down every demon on the platform around them in a few puffs of darkness and some spatial slashes.

Nurevia peppered the bubble with her crossbow bolts. Lightning burst from one of Tarako’s blades.

And… that was it. Nathan blinked as he realized he’d left behind everyone else.

Ciana stood next to him, her greatsword held effortlessly with a single arm. She ignored the monster above them, aware that her abilities weren’t of much use here.

But Narime or Seraph might have been useful here, he had to admit. Astra could have tried ripping the dominion from her bubble, too. Fei was Fei. Sen had her array of powerful spells from Ifrit.

But then, he realized that he had still brought three trigems with him, along with the Twins and Ciana. And they were arguably stronger than they’d ever been in his old world.

If he couldn’t defeat middling Messengers inside portals with this much power, what chance did Nathan have of stopping cascades? If his true enemy, the Twins’ boss, threw another tantrum like this, he might need to face many more Messengers. And he couldn’t trust that he’d have every single Champion by his side in every fight to exploit their weaknesses.

Belatedly, he realized the obvious.

He still stood here, sword in hand.

So he pointed it at the dominion. She sneered at him.

More demons appeared around them, mostly from the Messenger, and he saw her inky bubble begin to darken. A host of flesh blobs also began congealing. She likely had some plan to finally fight him, instead of simply flashing her panties at him.

Two green squares of light glittered around his sword. A supercharged fourth range spell.

“Really? You think a pitiful wind spell from a mere human can pierce defenses crafted by my master?” the dominion spat at him, condescension oozing from every syllable.

Magic from his binding stones—or wherever he was pulling magic from these days—poured into his spell. He’d always cast his spells using power from the binding stones. Doing so gave them extra oomph, much like how Sen relied on Ifrit for the same thing.

But, somehow, he knew that things were different now. His spatial slashes had carved apart Artemis despite her seeming immortality. The power of Messengers wasn’t as omnipotent as it used to be.

He unleashed his spell. A funnel of wind burst from his sword, like a tornado directed along its path. If he’d pointed it at demons, they’d have been ripped apart.

In the dominion’s case, her bubble contorted on impact. Before she could do little more than widen her eyes in shock, it popped.

Then the wind blast hit her directly. Despite its ferocity, her skin seemed impervious to his power. She grit her teeth and glared at him. Fury radiated from her as she hovered there, wings curling around her body. But her clothes proved less invulnerable.

Just as when he used this spell against Thanatos, the wind tore her uniform to ribbons. She hovered there in the aftermath. Several of those black bands had shattered, leaving just one. A tattoo adorning her belly shined in the bright white light emitted from the sky.

The dominion opened her mouth.

Sunstorm didn’t bother letting her speak. Two of her onyxes glowed as she snapped her sword upward.

A thin line ran through the dominion’s entire body. A soft gasp escaped her as she began to fall apart.

Just like that, they’d…

Not won. Nathan noticed the lack of response from the demons. Whenever a Messenger fell, a scream instantly rose from the demons. They instinctively knew when their end was coming.

Especially as the flesh blobs continued to congeal around them.

Everyone else sensed the issue as well. The Twins clicked their tongues, even as the dominion’s two halves continued to slide apart in the air in slow motion.

“Always so fucking dramatic. These bitches always love to play up their stupid regeneration,” Maura said.

She waved a hand at the dominion, attempting to use another spatial slash.

That got a reaction. The inky bubble snapped back into existence, blocking the attack.

Instantly, threads of raw, red flesh burst between the two halves of the dominion. Thousands of them snapped her back together. Somewhat akin to the way Artemis had healed herself, but less apparent that the dominion was undead.

“You cannot hope to harm the spawn of the abyss with such pitiful power,” the dominion said, her body fading into the darkness of her bubble. “I have come from worlds between worlds to see you consumed by that which you cannot hope to understand. The ineffable that holds you within its paw, much as humanity ponders the lives of its prey before stuffing it down its maw.”

Nathan got the feeling that was a practiced speech. It had to be, given it rhymed.

“Now, perish!”

He sensed the threat before he saw it.

As did Ciana.

She thrust her greatsword into the air. A gleaming barrier of light sprung up above them, splitting the world in two as she activated her diamonds.

Above them, a hundred black relic swords emerged from the sky as if summoned from individual portals. The Twins clicked their tongues and made dismissive gestures for some reason. Meanwhile, the dominion reappeared a hundred feet above them, her uniform intact again.

The swords rained down on them. More appeared to replace those that crashed down on Ciana’s barrier. Explosions burst from each blade as its magic shattered on hers. A deafening cacophony cut off all sound from Nathan’s ears.

Ciana stood there, greatsword towering above them. She seemed completely fine.

Concerned, he checked her gems over the link. While she was draining energy reasonably fast, this was nothing compared to past battles.

This dominion might be strong, but she hardly held a candle against somebody like Siv. Ciana’s barrier had held up against some of the most powerful foes Nathan had ever fought. This was nothing.

As the rain ended, the demon balls around them shifted to the edges of the ivory platform. After they transformed into towering figures, twice the height of a normal demon heavy, thick black plate armor slammed into place on their bodies and relic weapons gleamed in their hands.

Nathan wondered if he should call these demon superheavies. They looked the part.

“Does she really think that giving them better armor makes the mooks more threatening?” Sunstorm drawled, twirling her swords. “That’s the right word, right? Mooks?”

“You got it,” Laura said.

With a nod, Sunstorm vanished in a puff of darkness. She reappeared on one side of the platform. With a glimmer of two onyxes, she carved apart half of the demons. They’d barely even had a chance to admire their new weapons and armor.

Nurevia followed suit, peppering the new arrivals with her crossbows. Their armor held up against her onslaught better. Unfortunately, the dark elf proved a crack shot. Every joint or opening that allowed a bolt through it became a cause of death. Demons fell just as swiftly as if they were unarmored as Nurevia slowly turned.

Despite the deaths of their brethren, the demon superheavies let out roars of fury. They began to charge. Or what was left of them.

Ignoring them, the Twins began to float toward the dominion. Sneering in response, a whirling inferno surrounded the succubi.

“Is that…” Sunstorm looked up in shock at what she thought might be Sen’s inferno tornado.

Nathan shook his head. He’d seen the inferno tornado too many times to mistake it for anything else.

But with this demonstration of fire magic, he now knew that the dominion could use the natural elements, or something close.

He’d been told that dominions were the opposite of succubi. It seemed that meant they didn’t use ascended magic in the same way.

Forming a fist, he stared at it and allowed a spell frame to appear and disappear.

What, exactly, were the natural elements? What even was magic? Was that dominion truly using the same type of magic that regular sorcerers used? Or was she creating fire directly, in the same way that a Champion might with a gem?

What made that fire different to the natural elements summoned by a sorcerer?

Now wasn’t the time to ponder the nature of the universe, he realized. Not as the inferno subsided and the Twins appeared from it in armor formed from their usual darkness.

Demons closed on them. More continued to form rapidly around them. The rain had finally stopped, allowing Ciana to unsummon her barrier.

The unicorn bared her teeth and darted in front of Nathan. Her greatsword carved through a demon and his black plate with a great rending of steel that nearly caused Nathan to clap his hands over his ears. In response to the demon’s blood, the relic greatsword glowed a bright gold.

Eyes wide, Ciana froze.

Then she vanished.

A moment later, another demon screamed as her greatsword cleaved him apart from behind. Her blade whirled through him and into another. Then she vanished again and tore through more a few feet away. Again and again, she sucked up demon blood with her relic weapon and teleported.

“Terrifying things,” Tarako said, staring at the glowing blade. “I’m guessing there’s an onyx buried deep underneath all that ceremonial steel.”

“We’ll talk about the relics later,” Nathan replied. “Can you help me kill our mutual friend?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” The fox glared up at the angelic Messenger, who continued to duel with the Twins using a variety of elemental spells. “Her regeneration is imperfect. If you can bring down her defenses, I can end her with a single Nine Tail Slash.”

“Really? I’d worried it was like another Messenger I fought. She proved nearly immortal.”

“The one who caused this? I need to hear more about her after this. Narime was in no condition to tell me much.”

Somehow, Nathan knew that would prove an awkward discussion.

“We’ll only have one shot,” Tarako admitted. “I can only use my Nine Tail Slash once every two minutes. Because I used it earlier, I wasn’t ready when you brought down her defenses. I underestimated you. Again.” Her ears flattened. “My apologies.”

His heart skipped a beat. “It’s fine.” Grunting, he tried to form a plan. “I doubt she’ll let me pull the same stunt. I’ll need an opening.”

“Then let me help.” Sunstorm appeared next to him. “Ciana and Nurevia have this handled.”

Even with a neverending flow of superheavies, Sunstorm was right. Ciana was tearing apart demons in twos and threes every second. Nurevia barely needed to try to keep half the other half of the platform clear.

But their enemy didn’t care to let them pull off the plan smoothly.

“I feel you’re forgetting something,” the dominion screeched.

As she spoke, the Twins charged through her bubble and grabbed the Messenger. Screaming, yet seeming incapable of throwing off her assailants, the dominion writhed impotently. Not that the Twins seemed to know what to do either. The inky bubble continued to darken.

Then it burst. Not to rain down swords, though.

Instead, a new mass of demons appeared. Ones focused on Trafaumh’s defenders.

And the two Champions Nathan had left behind.

- - - - -

Commentary: Some fancy new stuff on top of the Messenger. As always, I'm trying to let the Champions show off a bit. But this is no Siv fight, primarily because I'm trying to avoid throwing too many insane Messengers around. I have mixed feelings about that, because it makes it hard to build tension, but I'm concerned about being too bullshit against Nathan. This is already a lot.

Part of the issue this book will have is that Nathan's going to be struggling to get that clean win, given the odds stacked against him, and I know many people want the clean win. In Book 4, I reduced the amount of combat to just a few major battles for that reason. Here, I'm trying to create the idea of a huge crisis and lots of pressure with lots of spread out battles that constantly require Nathan to put out fires.