"You all can come out now," The merchant announced, clearly being aware of our presence. And seeing how the shadows in the room receded, we were all exposed. Fifteen demons were left, with there being five groups. Three groups of four, one group of two, and one group of one. And that singular person was mysterious. I just couldn't take my eyes off of them as they unraveled their bandaged hands and arms.
"Shall we settle this diplomatically, or do you all want to fight over it like these immature babies who died for nothing?" A demon with long dark green hair announced. Her voice resonated through the room, serving as a sort of anesthetic for the tense air.
"Is this the reason why you killed those other people when you said you wanted to befriend them?" I turned to Orion, whose eyes were plastered all over the cloaked figure. Her hands and arms had been completely unveiled, revealing long stretches of black tattoos shaped into the same patterns as that of alchemy circles.
"O-Oh yeah, of course. That's why I killed them," Orion stuttered, still not taking his eyes away.
"Yeah, whatever."
Nothing was really happening as everybody stared each other down. I was sure most wanted to settle this diplomatically, but a few were definitely preparing to go all out and immediately start yet another slaughter fest. If that were to happen, then I was just going to stand back and leave everything to settle down again.
But, in just a fraction of a second, the cloaked woman whose arms were covered in strange runic tattoos disappeared from my sight and appeared right next to the demonic Empress. Her horns had been snatched up, and as she began to run towards the exit, her hood slipped off, revealing a beautiful face.
She had runic tattoos crawling up her neck, cheeks, and the temples of her forehead, but even those couldn't suppress her unrivaled beauty. She had slim eyes, black pupils, and long, silky black hair. It was almost too good to be true as her skills almost seemed to negate any thoughts of her being some kind of princess.
"Blegh…" She stuck out her tongue while also harnessing a large smile that plastered across her face. "You all can suck my balls, demon dicks…."
Just as I used my max speed to catch up to her, getting to her before anybody else could, I heard Orion shout from behind me. He almost seemed desperate to reach the woman's ears as he began to run towards us.
"Wu! Wu! It's me!"
"Hm? Orion?" Her eyes widened at the sight of my friend. She immediately stopped in place, and it was so fast that I didn't have time to hit the brakes, causing me to get sent flying into the metal wall of this warehouse. "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you were on the overworld?"
The two seemed familiar with each other but didn't get much time to talk as Wu was jumped by every single demon within our premises. Flying bolts of water, fire, air, and earth were tearing through the air, just narrowly scraping the woman who clicked her tongue. She was cornered despite not even being pressed up against the wall. And a sword made from the water was narrowly scraping her face.
SHING
Just as she was about to get sliced up, though, a single spear tore through the demon wielding a sword of water, cutting him in half. The tip of the spear then twirled around as Orion stood in front of the woman who couldn't help but smirk. The two looked like old friends suddenly meeting each other in the most obscure spot in existence.
"No need to protect me, asshole… they just took me by surprise, that's all."
The woman unsheathed a large scimitar from the depths of her cloak, most likely pulling it out of some kind of spatial pocket. It looked way too big to fit anywhere in those baggy clothes of hers, so that was the only reasonable option I could think of.
From the very bottom of her shoes, a string of power traveled through her muscles. Using her legs as a base and source of explosiveness, she unleashed a powerful slash that tore through three of the demons whilst also injuring two others.
"GET THEM!" I heard the merchant shout in the distance. He was completely undefended and almost a bit exposed, and as an intrusive thought flashed in my mind, I couldn't help but smile. I took note of the current status of Orion and his friend and then proceeded to vanish into thin air.
Using the icy breath of my ancestor, my concentration focused on one singular point on the merchant's neck. This normally would have been revealed by an insurmountable amount of concentrated bloodlust, but with one of my skills: [Presence Deletion], I was able to work around this one drawback.
And as the living flesh gripped around my shoulder and swallowed my entire arm, I formed the barrel of a hecate sniper. I approached the man, all the way until I felt his breath tickle my nose, and from a point blank range…
BOOOOM
My sniper fired straight into his neck, but for some reason, it felt blunt. On top of that, once the smoke of the shot had been fired off, I noticed the man's neck and head were still connected. These two should have been separated as soon as I pulled the trigger.
"Dammit…" I clicked my tongue, seeing blades of shadows immediately begin to fold over me like the crescent of an ocean wave. It toppled down, ready to slice me into hundreds of pieces. It's looming presence of death arched down into me, about to pierce both of my eyes and a shatter a hole straight through my skull. But… "[Throne World: Concentrated Capsule of Ice]."
[Your throne world has drawn the attention of a few gods]
[A few gods look down on this battle with awe]
[A few gods smile at your unrestricted power]
"Hmmm… you're different than before," The merchant muttered, rubbing the side of his neck, which I had blasted with a point-blank explosion. It was practically a nuke when shot that close, yet in just a fraction of a second, he was able to slip shadows between the barrel and his skin, negating most of the damage but still injuring his throat. This was apparent by his raspy voice and light coughing… but now it wouldn't just be his throat that was injured. "A young woman like you shouldn't have access to so much power. It almost scares me."
Frost began to collect on my skin, sending a blast of icy mist to escape from my lips. A blast of sheer cold exploded from my flesh, freezing more and more of the warehouse around us while the merchant in front of me took a few steps back. The demonic empress was completely unaffected, but her broken mind seemed to flicker with a flash of life as the surrounding wave of ice suddenly stopped.
"And then… concentrate it into a single spot," I muttered, dropping one of my daggers made from black ice. It shattered upon hitting the ground, only for those shards to fling right back to the one I still continued to grip with my right hand. It formed a short blade that the merchant looked to stop.
A wave of shadows exploded from his body, forming thousands of rippling waves that threatened to pierce me. The bloodlust that they held within the center of their abyssal bodies was incredible. It was enough to send shivers down my spine despite this throne world practically killing every emotion in my body.
FWOOSH… FWOOSH… FWOOSH…
Large towering walls of ice erected in front of me, stopping the tsunami of shadows. And as those shadows died down while getting ready to form another wave, the surrounding frost blasted right back into my body, turning me into a statue of ice.
"AHAAHAHAHAAHA! WHAT AN IDIOT!" The merchant cried out, sinking his shadows into the ground and then arching them back up until they were right beneath me. I felt their dark properties tickle my feet, but before they could draw any drop of blood, the ice from my body exploded outwards.
It was a shockwave that disrupted the shadows, giving the ice enough time to suck into my body and travel into my blade of black ice. It extended and extended and extended until a long sword had been formed, its frozen properties so cold that it began to nip at my hands. Any longer, and I might even lose my hand to the frostbite.
As I let out a long breath of icy mist, the man took a step backward, feeling something wrong. But it was too late as I flash-stepped into his guard, breaking it and stabbing this sword right through his chest. Even the hundreds of layers of shadows he had gathered around his body couldn't stop the blade dripping with icy death.
CRACK
The sword created a blooming flower of ice that stuck out from the man's back. The pistil of the flower split off into five individual dragon heads, still made from frozen water. They arched backward, roaring with the intensity of a thousand suns. And then proceeded to devour every last square inch of the merchant.
