Chapter 720 - Daemon (Patreon)

Ptrek glanced at Lysandra, his eyes wide. Not because of the man's transformation but because, so far, the elf seemed calm and collected no matter what she did. Yet, after seeing the man change, he could see drops of sweat forming on her forehead, "What is a daemon?" the dwarf asked.

Hearing that, the man scoffed, "Of course you wouldn't know. Expecting any sort of intelligence from you people is a waste of time," he turned to Lysandra, "You seem to be a bit smarter. Tell him."

The elf clenched her fist to stop her hands from trembling, "A daemon is what happens when someone is bound to a spirit, and the spirit goes berserk. They gain incredible powers and a near-infinite amount of mana… but they are supposed to lose all rationality, and the excess of mana would destroy their bodies. Almost no one is able to survive this!"

The man smirked, "That is correct. Unless we outsource that frenzy," he glanced at Silah.

The blacksmith was still screaming, but it didn't sound only like pain. It was the mad roar of a mindless beast. Her body convulsed violently, being only stopped by the restraints around her body.

"Silah!" Hera yelled and rushed over, trying to see if she could do anything to stop this. Seeing the tube still attached to the dwarf, the Empress pulled them out, using her basic healing spell to close up the wounds made by the needles. Yet, even with the silver liquid no longer entering her body, Silah didn't stop screaming."

The man laughed, "Don't bother. Once this process starts, it only ends when the battery dies. And those tubes were the only thing slowing down that process. Now, she is going to die quickly. But don't worry. You will die first."

Hera tried to hold Silah down and covered her in an Elemental Armor that would increase her regeneration. Unfortunately, the moment she tried covering her with mana, the spell broke. It seemed like she couldn't be affected right now by anything that didn't come from the spirit that was giving her mana.

'Edge, stay there. Keep trying to help her regenerate,' Hera was still staring at Silah, but she spoke out loud, "And what happens if you die?"

"Me? Don't know. We wouldn't experiment with our own people. I guess there is a small chance that the connection would be completely broken. But I wouldn't count on it."

"Small chance?" Hera turned around, "Good enough for me," she dashed towards the man again, her face burning with rage. She went for an upward slash with Crimson, with Viper following that up right behind with the same move. While the first strike hit the man barely doing anything against his skin, in the second one, Hera triggered the Grasping Strike skill to attempt to bind him. The effect only worked for a fraction of a second, but it was enough for the Empress to step back and dodge an incoming counterattack.

What she didn't expect was that the man imbued his sword with some sort of energy slash that flew out as he attacked. That spell was about to hit Hera square in her chest as Nimbus created a layered honeycomb barrier in front. It was a good idea and a version of his mana barrier spell he trained to improve, but it wasn't enough. The energy slash broke through all of those barriers, shattering them without even stopping. Lurize wasn't about to let the Empress be hit by that blow and tackled her, pushing her away while appearing in his full form. The entire court understood how the Empress wanted to kill this man, and without any witnesses, they wouldn't have to worry about being seen.

The spell continued, heading straight to Silah, but the man used his mana to shift the path of his energy slash, making it slam against the wall, opening a large gash on the metal and exposing more of the red light behind it. Hera noticed something moving back there, but she didn't have time to worry about it. Before the Empress could get back up, the man dashed forward, brandishing his weapon as red sparks covered his body. He came with a downward slash aimed at Hera and Lurize, but Livy appeared in front of it, blocking the enchanted sword attack with her war axe. When the two weapons collided, the ground under the Leviathan cracked. Thankfully, either the floor was sturdy enough to hold them even after being broken, or they were already at the lowest level of the facility.

It only took five seconds from the moment Hera attacked the Daemon to the moment Livy appeared to block his sword. During that entire time, Lysandra was still recovering from the shock of seeing someone under the effects of demonic mana and talking like nothing happened. Even more frightening, he seemed to be in control of his own spells. That wasn't the case when someone became a Daemon. The afflicted would go berserk and use the raw, unfiltered mana from the spirit they were bound to to attack and to increase their attributes.

Not wanting to leave Hera to face this enemy alone, Lysandra started attacking. Sending elemental spells to hit the Daemon. This was the only kind of strategy people had when facing this type of enemy. If they managed to use a spell that opposed the spirit directly, it would be easier to make it waste enough mana for it to collapse.

The man ignored the incoming attacks, being hit by spears of fire, ice, and stone. Each of the spells was only able to slightly scratch his skin, but his focus was still on Livy. He recognized her as the biggest threat since the Leviathan was able to stop one of his attacks. Hera also didn't want to give him time to think of a way to fight back and return to the fold. Using Viper and Crimson, she spun around the man and slashed at his back. Following that, she continued her spin to get away while DJ, Amber, and Chris came from above, aiming at roughly the same place. She stepped to his left, away from the sword he was wielding only to be hit by the man's fist square in her face. The Empress felt something break on her cheek, but she was unsure if it was her jaw or cheekbone. In response, Daskka made some mist enter the Daemon's body, trying to push the red smoke inside his nostrils. However, as she forced her way inside, the man's mana pushed her back, expelling the mist with a single breath.

As the man stepped forward to continue his attack, Dao yelled, 'Jump!'

Livy, Lurize, and Hera all jumped just as the sword unleashed a [Chain Lightning] on the Daemon. The electricity coursed through the man's body and spread to the metal floor and walls, causing all the electronic equipment around the room to spark. Thankfully, Lysandra and Ptrek were still on the corridor, which was made out of stone, protecting them from the attack. The same couldn't be said for Silah. Her back was firmly pressed against the metal bed, and as the lightning traveled, her body was marked by it.

For the first time since the fight started, the Daemon buckled because of the attack. His tough skin was unable to stop the lightning from damaging his body. Ptrek also threw the venomous spear that Hera gave him, trying to help the fight, but the weapon just bounced off the man without even bothering him. Lysandra continued to throw spell after spell at him, each with a different element. Fire, water, grass, light, sun, defense, attack, shatter, and everything she could imagine in hopes of finding the opposing force to his mana. Yet, every single spell just hit the man's skin and fizzled out. The strongest ones were only able to singe his skin slightly. She saw the lightning cover him and considered using her own electric attacks, but doing so would put Hera and Silah in danger.

Seeing that Dao was able to deal so much damage to him, even while he was empowered by spells that would usually cost his entire mana pool, he decided to stop playing around. That odd sword with a flat edge was right behind the betrayer, the human who was working with the lesser species against his work. Removing her from the picture would solve a lot of the problems and make sure that only those who understood that the MAZE belonged to humans would be around. The Daemon jumped forward, kicking Lurize out of the way. The muscles in his leg grew due to the excess mana, only to have that extra mass compressed into a human leg again. Livy came in to block, swinging her axe, but the room wasn't tall enough for the Leviathan, and the awkward swing was blocked by the Daemon before he punched the sea serpent in the chest hard enough to make her armor crack. Still, Livy continued her attack only to be stopped by one of the man's hands, who was now holding the blade of the war axe. In a quick motion, he continued going towards Hera with a one-handed downward swing of his sword. The Empress didn't have time to dodge. Instead, she raised both Viper and Crimson to block, the impact causing her to buckle under the weight of the attack, slamming her knee to the ground. However, the sword was stopped thanks to DJ, Chris, and Nimbus also joining in the defense. Even with all those efforts combined, they only managed to block the sword and stop it from getting to Hera. There was a brief pause when the Daemon continued pressing his sword down, trying to break that defense created by this group with a single hand while the other was still holding Livy's axe, the Leviathan unable to retrieve it despite her strength.

The man bared his teeth at Hera, getting very close to her face, some of the madness from the daemonic spirit seeping through his body. Trying to find some weak point or a way to turn this around, the Empress focused on his red skin. She realized that the color wasn't coming from the skin itself. Instead, there was a sheet of mana covering the man. The magic was dense and compact, thousands of points of mana on every centimeter of his skin. It covered everything: his nose, mouth, and even his black teeth, but there was one part of his face that didn't have the same protection. His eyes.

Hera closed her mouth and gathered some mana inside, forcing herself not to puff her cheeks and spoil the sneak attack. After a moment, with the man still trying to push his sword down and his face uncomfortably close to hers despite everything, the Empress spat out a poison spray directly into the man's eyes. Activating her [All In] skill to deal even more damage.

As the orange poison splashed across his eyes, the man roared in pain, stepping back and waving his sword aimlessly. Hera felt her poison affecting him, and she told it to focus on making him weaker and messing up with his mana. Even if he could cast endless spells, if he wasn't able to control his mana properly, his magic wouldn't have the same effect.

Lysandra also decided to take advantage of that situation and prepared a spell that took a few moments to get ready. She already was working on that while the Daemon was trying to cut Hera in half and now she could fire without worrying about being blocked. A small amber-colored orb moved slowly towards the man, and when it touched him, it burst almost like a net covering the man completely. Even with all the power and strength the Daemon had, he was now moving considerably slower. The elf then created some sickly gray chains around her hands and threw them at the man, wrapping his limbs. The spell wasn't able to stop his movements, but he once again became slower. The parts of his body around the chains lost some of their color, not just the red but also the pinkish-beige of his skin itself.

The Daemon roared at the same time Silah let out a blood-curdling scream. Hearing that, Hera jumped forward at the man, telling her court to grab him. Livy and Lurize dashed forward. The man's sword cut Livy's stomach, but the Leviathan forced herself to continue as she grabbed one of his arms, pulling him down to the ground. Lurize went in for the other arm, which was still holding the weapon, but the Royal Tutor couldn't move it by himself. Nimbus quickly joined, and together, the three titled blades forced the Daemon to kneel on the floor.

Hera quickly grabbed Amber and Crimson and told all her court to activate all their buffs, sharing them thanks to the [Army of One] skill. She yelled, making her voice echo through the tunnel leading back to the prison, and slammed the weapons she had in her hands directly at the Daemon's head. The man forced his eyes open needing that visual information, but he was only able to see a pair of blades right as they pierced his eyes. Hera watched as those white balls popped, blood spilling out of the sockets, but the Empress wasn't done. She triggered Crimson's [Bloody Claw], sending three extra blades of blood out front of the tip of the dagger, which was currently inside the man's skull. At the same time, she activated Amber's [Dragon Fire Strike] and [Forged in Dragon Fire] to increase the damage as much as she could. There was a sickening dull sound of meat being tossed to a wall as the Daemon slumped back motionless. Hera removed her blades from the eyes, and his head leaned forward, what was left of his burning and mangled brain leaking from the sockets.

His skin returned to normal, and the tattoo on his neck stopped glowing. The man was dead. There was no doubt about it. But just as Hera was about to take a deep breath and relax, Silah let out another scream, ending in a gurgle. Confirming what the Daemon said. Killing him was not enough to stop whatever was going on with her.