I placed a wall of lightning around me, Lightning Edict holding the shape of a diamond in my head as I imposed it into the walls, a brief flash of engraving resonated in the air as I wrote a dozen scriptrs of Harden on the walls, all that was all the time I had for defense... and it almost did not matter as the two demons tore their way through the wall of lightning, barely slowing down.
The left one’s wing came down like a falling roof, and I Stormstepped clear a half-second before it caved the apex where I’d stood, black stone shattering. The stone fragments hung in the air for a moment before they zipped back to their roots and the surface of the pyramid became flawless again.
I barely glanced at this miracle of magic as the Thul on the right raked its claws across my back before I twisted, opening me to the ribs, and I felt the cold of the thinning air get into the wound.
I still had no access to my domain as space was still in chaos around the pyramid, and I felt the Stillness die the instant I reached for it. So no domain to aid against these creatures, just me.
In all my time in the loop, the first rule I had learnt from all my deaths was to learn the patterns and the abilities of the enemies stronger than me, as quickly as I can, then I can commit. Usually, this took many loops, but my arsenal was increasing as well, and I wanted to see how far I could go in this loop.
Quickly glancing at my status screen, I was shocked when I noted the number of demonic essence I had harvested as I fought my way towards the top of the pyramid.
[ Stored Essence: 198,041 → 378,671]
I knew that I had killed a lot of demons, both two-horned and three-horned Narghul Sorcerers, as I fought my way through the chaos, and I was so close to opening the Fifth Earth Gate.
This fight took a new dimension in my head, as I no longer just wanted to understand these demons; I needed to kill them, since they should be able to give me the essence that would push the gate open.
"Focus, they are just ancient demons that would cleanly devour a lesser world without the presence of a Sovereign, and there are just two of them... so, nothing to worry about. You’ve got this."
I imagine the voice of Aurora in my head, and I smiled before my eyes became laser-focused.
I gave ground, blinking between their strikes, taking the measure of the pair, and I soon noticed that the demon on my left was stronger, while the one on my right was faster, and they strangely maintained this formation while they attacked me.
Well, it made it easier for me to understand their pattern and abilities, so I did not bother to think too much about it.
Conventional lightning strikes were useless; even while backed by my enhanced Anima and Arcanist soul, the hide of the Thul seemed to drink energy as well as force. It would take an army of Arcanist to tear through one of these demons.
The right one lunged, and I let it, since I now understand this pattern. I stepped into the lunge instead of away from it, breaking their formation since I was now inside the reach of the claws. Before the demon could move out of the way, I put a compressed spear of Tribunal lightning up under its jaw into the soft throat, and that went in, the lightning burning up into its skull, and it screamed in pain.
The demon reeled back; it was hurt, but not dead, and I smiled because if I could hurt them, then I could kill them.
∞
I moved forward, and suddenly the ground tilted, as the pyramid was no longer rising straight up, and was now being pushed at an angle.
Due to the sheer size of the pyramid base, it was as if the earth was flipping, and I felt gravity lurch and the black square bent under my feet, and both Thuls spread their wings to steady but I did not have wings, not that I needed them when I had Heaven Beast Tamer and could borrow the nature of the fox to disregard the pull of gravity, still, I nearly went off the edge, before I anchored my body to the stone.
I think we must have reached the edge of the atmosphere as the cold became something that I began to feel, and the violet sky was turning black.
I nearly laughed when a part of me noted that this was, objectively, the most absurd place I had ever chosen to die. Aurora would be very jealous when she woke up and read my mind, seeing everything she had missed.
The demon on my right growled and brought both wings down at once, a clap, and the force of it hit me as if a mountain had just slammed into me, and it flung me off the summit into the thin cold dark.
∞
I fell up... that is the only way I can say it. The pyramid was accelerating skyward, and I had been knocked off it, which meant that for one sickening moment I was not falling toward the ground, since the ground there was hundreds of kilometers below and receding, and I was hanging in the near-black cold with the whole broken world a distant red ruin far below.
I was disoriented for half a beat, but the nature of the Moon Fox dwelled in my soul, and an innate understanding of space and gravity, reoriented my perception before I lost myself in the everlasting darkness, and I furiously drew my Anima from my channels and cast Stormstep, and I was back on the rising pyramid behind the stronger bat, both hands full of every scrap of Tribunal and Edict I could hold, and I aimed for the shoulder that held its wings.
The Thul began to turn, but I had placed everything I had inside the attack, and it exploded from me like a golden sun and drove into the body of the demon. Its skin held back my spell for a moment before it burned to ash, and all my lightning went through.
For a few seconds, the entirety of the Thul lit up as bright as a star as my lightning ate into its flesh and soul, and the Thul screamed, and it went off the edge, down, or up, or out, into the receding red ruin far below, one wing beating uselessly, gone.
Shit... it was not dead, but it left me with one, and I needed to kill it before the second one returned.