"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.
Yet again, a blast of icy mist exploded from my mouth, causing the frost on my tongue to ease me up. My throat was dry from the chilling feeling, and my mind felt a bit sluggish from the slowing properties, but besides that, I felt pretty fine.
[HP: 81/100 MP: 14/50 SP: 53/80] - Above Human
"Dammit…" I muttered, watching my mana continuously drop as the dragons of ice finished devouring the shadowy being and disappearing into thin air. They shattered, leaving small particles of ice to floating through the air around me, like the mist of an amusement park. Not only did it cool me down even further, but it made me look pretty elegant as I stood over the demonic empress.
She stared at me blankly. There was absolutely no emotion in her expression as she looked up at me, but it was not like I was trying to impress her in the first place. I only came here to get rid of a large threat that most likely would have betrayed us and kept the horns for himself… okay, that was very unlikely, but the possibility was always there.
"Wanna come with me? I can feed you good food," I suggested, and with my dull tone, the woman instantly warmed up to me. She didn't show it on her stone-cold face, but I could tell she lowered her guard. No longer was her aura and bloodlust practically scraping away at my life force and flesh.
"I guess…" She replied in a very monotone voice. Just like her expression, her voice was a bit dull and tomboyish. It was raspy from a presumable lack of water but held a hint of elegance to it that I'm sure I would be able to hear if I helped her recover. "But why not just kill me?"
"Huh? Why would I kill you? What would I get out of killing you?" I lightly chuckled, turning my eyes over to the complete massacre of demons happening across the room. Orion and his friend immediately got into their groove, and it wasn't long before they were sitting atop a pile of corpses, heaving for air, trying their best to catch their narrowly escaping breath.
They both looked like gods of war, with the draft pouring in from the various open doors scattered across the warehouse, fluttering their long hair. Orion looked truly elegant. He truly looked like a god of war as he stabbed the bottom of his spear down into the pile of bloodied corpses below.
"You respect him… a lot, don't you?" The demon beside me asked. Her question was a bit strange since I didn't expect her to be the type to understand feelings… but I guess being an empress, you pick up some things, whether intentionally or accidentally.
"I want to be like him one day. I want to be so strong that nobody can ever stand in my way. I want to be as calculative and smart as him, to where even the most technical of traps are no more than a passing breeze… I respect him a lot, and that's why my dream is to be just like him. Me and my friends think the same. Most don't show it, but we look up to him a lot."
…
(Orion POV)
"Hey, it's been a while," I stretched my hand out towards the cloaked woman, and as she reached out her bloodied hand, we dapped each other up. She still remembered our handshake… this really was her. "I guess that deal with Athena still pulled through despite her being locked up or whatever. I'm glad you're here."
"I'm glad I'm here as well. But, it was a bit too sudden to my liking… to the point I needed an instant power-up. And as you can tell from my skin, I obtained a pretty good instant power-up in exchange for part of my life span. But I also became a demon, extending my life span, so I'm good… I hope," She lightly chuckled. "But hey, let's talk somewhere else. This is a pretty gross setting."
"Are you saying you carved those runes on your body? I've never heard of such a thing… and how would that even work?" I asked while sitting up from the pile of corpses below and slowly walking to Aisa conversing with the demon empress.
"They're not runes. They're magic circles. They're different from whatever you have on your back. They grant me various power-ups and even allow me to summon some sweet weapons, but it's unfortunate most of these take tons upon tons of mana. It's so much that most of these will suck every last bit of mana from my body, so they're more of a last resort than anything. Although the ones that don't completely cripple me are still useful."
As I was invested in Wu's explanation, I saw Aisa out of the corner of my eye. She was helping the demon empress up, who seemed much calmer than I initially anticipated. To be honest, I really expected some kind of outburst with her trying to kill me, Aisa, or Wu… but she just stood up calmly, slowly analyzing the situation.
"News of this will erupt through time and space. Eventually, the entirety of hell will know that you are housing me. Are you sure you don't want to kill me? Not only will you receive a massive amount of experience, but you'll obtain a title that will grant you stats beyond your imagination."
And just from those words, I withdrew any idea of killing this woman for a reward. Clearly, she wanted to die for something. Killing her would activate something either bad or good, but I wasn't going to risk it. So, I just pushed any thoughts of killing her into the back of my mind, and without even verbally announcing it, Aisa and Wu thought the same.
"Uh huh… Let's go," Aisa muttered, trying her best to help the empress up, but for some reason was struggling greatly. Not only was she sweating bullets, but her legs were trembling, and her arms were shaking. "Fuck… you're heavy as shit."
Aisa tossed the demon off of her and towards me, allowing me to carry her with ease. My strength was much higher than Aisa, so this task was nothing more than a breeze. Although… yeah, even with my high strength, I could still feel how heavy she was.
"Alright, where are we going?" I asked the group. Nobody had any ideas of how to proceed from here as we could essentially be called wanted now. Not only were we housing such an immensely strong creature, but we also had her horns which I assume held tons of power. "Alright, let's just go back to the vampire estate. We can't really leave the city. Any disagreements?"
There were no objections to this statement, so we quickly exited the warehouse after I moved the woman onto my back, allowing me to carry her faster across the city. There wasn't much chaos yet, but over time, and as we approached closer to the vampire estate, I heard some chatter of what happened at the auction house. We were labeled villains, but our appearances were never described nor displayed. So, we were in the clear for now, allowing for a nice and easy entrance back to my base, where I was just praying the vampire would let us stay.
But, surprisingly, as we entered through the front gates and I stepped into the mansion, the vampire duchess immediately greeted us before getting down on one knee and lowering her head.
"Your Highness. It's a pleasure to meet you again."
