Corrosive demonic energy burned the air around me, pressing hard against my Ancient Defense Array and slowly chewing through it.
I let out a breath of surprise. Kessith was stronger than I expected.
I urged my armor to drink Ambient PaleFyre while I prepared an offensive.
First, I activated my Nether Fire array and tapped into my Salamander rune — the designated fire-breathing enchantment. Then, I layered it with Wind Manipulation. Finally, I spiked the attack five times with Amplification and Precision Runes and let it rip.
An ocean of fire screamed from my hand, carving a massive valley through the demonic energy field and slamming into Kessith head-on.
The Dragonoid let out a surprised squawk, but before he could recover, I struck. Summoning Severance, I channeled dimensional energy through the blade and stabbed at an open portal just above his neck. The strike was fast — too fast. He tried to sidestep, but a moment too late. The blade sank into the side of his neck and ripped outward with a vicious swish. Kessith stumbled and gurgled as black flame licked up his scales. He clamped a hand over the wound, frantically staunching what should have been a death sentence — but miraculously, it wasn't.
He was recovering and quickly. He'd be back in fighting form in seconds by my estimation. An eternity in battle.
Still. It was bullshit.
The ground exploded under me, and Tanos came flying out — body encased in futuristic armor that had spread from his breastplate to cover his entire form. I caught the rage in his eyes through his tinted visor. He swung. His hammer was three times larger than before, and radiated PaleFyre so dense it could actually make it through my Defensive Array.
Fire burst from beneath my feet, launching me out of range. I glared at my transformed foe, triggered Cloak for a fire boost, and summoned Eryx. They wrapped around my fists, amplifying my fire manipulation and raw power severalfold.
I snapped my fingers, summoning three pillars of Nether Fire that twisted and spun into a roaring tornado. Tanos's metallic roar echoed through the flames as he leveled his hammer at me and unleashed a beam of PaleFyre. It was far stronger than anything Kessith had conjured — and it would've caught me if I had been a hitch slower.
Prince Daven chose that exact moment to reenter the fight, accelerating behind me and slashing out a razor-thin arc of PaleFyre. I ducked, slammed my palm into his chest, and unleashed a fivefold Amplified Flaming Strike paired with a full-powered Advanced Burst.
The blast tore through his cloak so fast he winced, but his armor held strong. He'd transformed like Tanos, gaining even more comprehensive protection.
Prince Daven grinned, swinging again — faster this time. Behind me, Tanos tore free of the tornado and charged, hammer raised. Kessith seemed to have recovered as well; the wound around his neck had completely vanished.
I suppose it was time I stopped playing with my food.
I funneled another Amplification rune into Time Warp. Reality came to a screeching halt.
I batted the prince's strike aside, grabbed him by the neck, and teleported us to the surface of Demos — Mars's moon.
His armor began to shine, adjusting, recalibrating — but too late. I blasted him with Salamander flame laced with Anathema Fire and watched him stumble back. His PaleFyre cloak fought against it, but faded in moments. Then his armor's enchantments flared — the markings and arrays burned bright, clearer than ever. It was far more intricate than anything I'd crafted so far.
It was designed to adapt and protect from magical, physical, and technological attacks. The full-body form, which both Kree had called upon, drained the armor's reserves and tapped into their personal energy to push them beyond physical limits.
The armor held well, and I guessed it would continue to do so for a long time — unless I placed my thumb on the scale. So I did just that.
"Wait — no. Please." He barely managed the words.
I grabbed his shoulder and fanned the flames, feeding more energy into the purple fire. It scorched the enchantments with an explosion of Purple Fire so Bright, the demons probably caught a hint of it from the surface of Mars.
I absorbed the blaze just before it ate into the metal beneath. The armor shone with a familiar luster I hadn't recognized at first.
"Is that Uru?"
Indeed, it was.
His mind was an open book now that his defenses were gone — not that he could manage speech. All his enchantments were compromised. He couldn't breathe.
"Can't have you dying on me. Not yet."
I needed him alive if I was going to steal his Spaceship.
I touched his chest and stripped the armor away, leaving him naked. Then I plopped one of my spare helmets over his head — one containing no offensive enchantments, only my Life Preservation runes. It would give him oxygen.
My eyes flicked back to the surface of Mars, where both demons still stood. I portaled in.
"What have you done with the prince!" Tanos bellowed, accelerating as soon as he laid eyes on me. He brought his hammer down hard.
He was even faster than last time, leaning hard on the physical enhancements of the armor.
I sidestepped, twisted, and lashed out with my spear, charged with Anathema Fire and five Amplification runes. It was like a warehouse packed with TNT had gone off.
Tanos flipped through the air, body wreathed in purple flame. I chased after him with a swish of my wings, appearing behind to drive my spear into the small of his back. A pane of telekinetic energy wrapped around the spear just before impact. It'd been charged with five Precision runes.
It tore through his cloak and shield, leaving a terrible scar across his Uru armor.
The fuck. I suppose it wasn't the best metal in the cosmos for nothing.
Tanos twisted, infusing his hammer with energy as he swung. I parried, sending the weapon screaming skyward and numbing his hand before I rammed another Amplified Telekinetic Spear into his gut, punting him back with another flash of Anathema Fire.
Before I could pursue him. His hammer came spinning down from above — and exploded midair. A dense wave of PaleFyre burst, its potency and power more on the level of what I'd expect from Belasco.
It swept me up and dragged me into the core of the energy construct. There, the pressure skyrocketed. My Defense Array hummed and flickered as it systematically collapsed.
The rest of my armor lived for it, though, drinking in the heat and demonic energy. I drew Wall and triggered the Absorption enchantment on my spear, but it barely helped.
Then Kessith struck, unleashing his domain.
It expanded across nearly half a mile, seizing reality in a grip so tight I gasped. His power swelled fivefold.
"This is for my kin, Nephilim!" he roared, thrusting a clawed hand skyward. His domain ignited in an explosion on par with an atomic bomb. The blast surged outward in a blinding flash, moving so fast it nearly caught me before I could react.
My first instinct was to teleport out, recalibrate, come at the problem from another angle — maybe with a little more strategy — but the stubborn, prideful part of me refused to retreat.
I had the power to squash them. I was just dragging my feet.
I activated Devil Trigger, unleashing a tidal wave of demonic aura that raised all my stats by 300%.
The sphere of PaleFyre trapping me ignited with an explosion of Anathema Fire.
With a wave of my hand, I summoned my enchanted weapons.
Kurogiri, Severance, Knight Killer, Invictus, Dancing Star — my kusarigama — and Aternis, my new dual spear.
Each carried three Amplification and Precision runes, in addition to Storage enchantments and several formidable offensive arrays.
Breathing deep, I drew on all of them, linking telekinetically. Then I tapped the ten Amplification and Precision runes embedded in my armor. To take the mental load off, I triggered Mind Cloak and drew deep on the affinity, flooding myself with an otherworldly calm.
Then I began casting — with a 5,600% boost to every action. First, I threw up the densest telekinetic shield I'd ever seen. It was thicker than buildings and wrapped around me in a wide bubble as the explosion washed over. It chewed through a tenth of it before stabilizing, atomic fire consuming everything around me. The heat and radiation leaked through the barrier, but my armor drank it in greedily.
Narrowing my focus, I found both demons through the atomic haze and raised a hand, seizing them. They tore muscles and screamed mentally, but it was futile.
Futile — an apt summary for this fight. I could've ended it the second we arrived on Mars.
Still, it had been educational. Fun. Even. And who couldn't do with a bit of un.
I sank my telekinesis into their bodies, ready to rip their brains and hearts apart. Kessith had already survived an attack that should've killed any other demon twice over, and Tanos was a PaleFyre — who knew how durable he really was.
What I found under their skin, though, was more than I bargained for.
Nanites.
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