In a normal fight against a normal opponent, each contact that the scorpion demon has with its opponent will weaken them. But Aeternus isn't normal and this isn't a normal fight. The scorpion could weaken the blades of flame with its pincers and successfully defect them or even break them apart. But Aeternus isn't slowing down.
Aeternus would make contact with the pincers but the sin energy of the scorpion would be burned away once it comes in contact with the chaotic flames on his body instead of affecting him. The stingers the scorpion demon usually relied on didn't work because Aeternus never allowed them to touch his body. That left their only hope to the beholder.
The two demons intended to work in concert to ground Aeternus down but he is no slouch himself. Try as they might they couldn't get away scot-free from each of their exchanges. He wielded the large two-handed weapon with ease. Sometimes it was large with a longer reach and other times it was short for quick withdrawal so that he can easily react to the scorpion's stingers and the demoness's sneaky attacks.
Some of his attacks were feints. They would block his weapon only to realize that it is light and there is no force behind it. Other times, his casual attacks will weigh a ton that will throw them aside like toys. If not for the distraction caused by the beholder, they would all be dead.
Even so, they were the ones being grounded and Aeternus wasn't even serious. He was just enjoying the sensation of fighting two skilled opponents who knew weapon mastery and waiting for the beholder to finish preparing that trump card of his.
The beholder had delayed the casting of its ultimate technique by interfering with the fight. If it hadn't, then it would be left alone to fight Aeternus. The smaller eyes on tentacles attached to its large single eye fired various spells at Aeternus but all they did was distract him. The eye could create small mirrors that reflected attacks at Aeternus.
It surrounded the two frontline fighters with these small mirrors to protect them and it saved them from untimely death. The mirrors could help block some attacks but the reflection ability wasn't effective on Aeternus. Blades and bolts of flaming chaos that are deadly to others were harmless to Aeternus.
The eye was frustrated. Its basic sin ability of copying abilities wasn't working on Aeternus. It couldn't copy Aeternus' abilities and the ability reflection wasn't working either. Which left the trump card. The trump card was so powerful that it even had to pull energy from the surroundings to create it because of his lacking energy storage.
'With it, I should be able to incinerate the bastard.' the beholder thought to itself.
It had confidence in his trump card. But the need to assist the others in holding Aeternus back made the fight longer because it was still loading the attack. It took it 1 minute and 27 seconds to prepare the attack. To the two demons holding Aeternus back, it felt like 1 hour and 27 minutes. They were stressed to the bone.
"It is ready. Withdraw." The beholder said to the two.
NAME: Niva
RACE: Demon of Envy.
BLOODLINE/SIN: Envy.
DEMON RANK: High-Rank Demon.
HEALTH: 100%
STAMINA: 78%
MANA: 4524
SIN ENERGY: 4185
ATTACK RATING: Physique:180. Spirit:180. MAGIC:180.
DEFENSE RATING: Physique:180. Spirit:180. MAGIC:180.
SIN ABILITY: The Envy of Power(EPIC)- Make two copies of any magical ability or skill that you see at equal power.
The Thorns of Envy(LEGENDARY)- Reflect a magical attack at its source at higher power.
STATUS: Pretty Confident.
The two vanguards withdrew from confronting Aeternus. He didn't stop them but watched them go. Meanwhile, his eyes were twinkling and he would be smiling if he had lips. The three of them formed a triangle with him as the base.
"You can still surrender. You're a strong demon. Our alliance has lost a lot of strength today and we could do with your strength." The scorpion said to him.
The demoness joined in. "Demons die every day. There are no eternal enemies or friends. Only benefits matter. Of course, you will have to pay for the damages you caused. I'll take your blade and the other two will take your spatial artifact."
Aeternus's amusement increased. Demons are realistic creatures. While their emotions influence them most of the time, they prefer to focus on the benefits. These demons had their lives at stake earlier and didn't even dare to beg for mercy. But now that they consider themselves of equal strength with him, they decided to negotiate.
They understand that strength is needed for negotiation. In their opinion, a dead demon is of no use to their currently weak alliance. In a way, their normal protocol is still on track. They will ask him to hand over his loot or they will kill him.
"Niva is it? You must be feeling pretty confident." Aeternus said to Niva the beholder.
"Surrender." The beholder said to him.
Aeternus nodded in understanding. "You know, I am a demon of envy too. A mid-rank of course. Not nearly as evolved as you but I know a thing or two about demons of envy."
The eye chilled at that revelation. The first sin ability of demons of envy is the ability to copy attacks. It can copy all attacks as long as it sees them, but it can only create a limited copy of a single attack. Even worse, it needs the proper amount of energy to reproduce the attack and there's a limit to the amount of attack it can copy. That means a demon of envy can copy a demon lord's attack if it has the mental space for it, but it requires energy and time to put it together.
Niva has invaded numerous worlds and has faced off against a lot of gods. That has allowed it to see stronger entities at play and to witness abilities far beyond his level.