Chapter 69: Animosity.
Damien slowly raised his hand.
black miasma seeped from his skin, gathering around the ice cave as it steadily condensed into a familiar shape. Priesty’s frozen antlers gradually emerged from the darkness, followed by his blood-soaked face cloth..
Naomi’s smile finally faltered.
For the first time since waking up, genuine danger settled over her.
Vincent watched quietly from the side, making no attempt to interfere. Damien had already made up his mind, the best way to preserve himself was to take this opportunity to kill Naomi, he can figure out Andrea later.
Naomi watched as Priesty manifested in his full glory, standing at almost nine feet, the undead priest was nearly three feet taller than the average Eidolon, wielding an ancient ritual staff decorated with faint glowing runes.
Naomi’s eyes went cold, she couldn’t keep playing with them, it was time to leave, and kill both of them while she was at it.
But just as Priesty’s claw was about to descend, Damien’s brows suddenly furrowed.
The ice cave had become brighter.
At first, it was subtle. The pale blue walls surrounding them reflected more light than before, the frozen ceiling gradually glowing as though sunlight itself had somehow seeped through layers upon layers of ancient ice.
A low rumble echoed through the cave.
Damien’s expression suddenly changed.
"...MOVE."
Before Vincent or Naomi could react, a colossal pillar of pale light tore straight through the ceiling.
The entire cave exploded.
Ancient ice vaporised instantly while countless cracks spread across the walls in every direction. The frozen ground beneath them shattered apart, chunks of ice and stone collapsing into an endless abyss below.
Damien barely had time to recall Priesty before the ground vanished beneath his wheelchair.
"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me."
The world turned upside down as countless fragments of ice rained around them as the four figures disappeared into the darkness below.
...
Damien slowly opened his eyes.
Instead of darkness, he was greeted by light.
Crystal-blue ice stretched endlessly overhead, reflecting beams of sunlight that somehow reached this hidden world. Strange plants covered the surrounding cliffs, their leaves glowing with a gentle blue radiance that illuminated the underground landscape.
A clear stream quietly flowed between patches of snow and emerald grass, creating an oasis that shouldn’t have existed beneath miles of frozen earth.
Damien remained silent.
"Damn it Chiefty, what the hell are you even aiming at?".
He rubbed his forehead before letting out a long sigh.
"Every bloody time."
His cold blue eyes drifted upward.
"Every single time I finally decide to kill somebody, something happens. I’m starting to think my affinity with murder isn’t as high as I thought".
A low growl echoed in the distance, and the undead priest walked over, Damien breathed a sigh of relief, at least Priesty was fine.
"Come carry me, I still can’t walk".
Priesty obeyed without complaint, but now there was only one problem.
Damien had absolutely no idea where he was.
With little else to work with, he simply ordered Priesty to walk in a random direction. He wasn’t expecting to find anything. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long before the sound of violent impacts echoed through the frozen oasis.
He eventually came across Vincent and Naomi, the two were already fighting to the death, without the courtesy of inviting him, so Damien decided to watch instead.
Vincent stood perfectly still, his pitch-black eyes locked onto Naomi as she charged straight at him. The moment Deadlock began taking effect and her body started to freeze in place, Naomi suddenly dissolved into a mass of slimy black goo before sinking into the ground.
She resurfaced behind Vincent almost instantly, reforming into her human shape as her palm shot toward his back.
Vincent calmly stepped aside, Naomi was slippery but she wasn’t fast, well at least not fast enough to surprise Vincent.
Her strike missed him completely and landed against a nearby block of ancient ice. The moment her palm made contact, the enormous ice boulder silently dissolved, collapsing into a puddle of black sludge that quickly seeped into the frozen earth.
Vincent seized the opening.
Before Naomi could dissolve again, his eyes locked onto her, her movements visibly slowed as Deadlock took hold. Without the slightest hesitation, Vincent swung his walking stick into her chest.
Boom!
The impact launched Naomi dozens of metres across the underground oasis.
Damien’s eyes widened slightly.
"Freaks, they’re all freaks."
He hadn’t expected that kind of raw physical strength, Yet something even more unbelievable happened.
Just before crashing into the ground, Naomi dissolved once again. Her body melted into black sludge before merging with the frozen earth, completely erasing the force behind Vincent’s strike.
She travelled beneath the surface at frightening speed before erupting directly in front of him once more, her palm already thrusting toward his chest.
Vincent never looked away.
His pitch-black eyes remained fixed on Naomi from beginning to end, the invisible pressure crushing down on her soul with every passing second.
If not for Meld allowing her body to dissolve completely and shielding her from a portion of Deadlock’s effects, she would’ve died from a single glance.
This was precisely why Vincent despised fighting high-level Awakened, most of them possessed Dormant Abilities that granted some form of basic resistance to soul attacks.
Naomi’s was troublesome enough.
Damien’s, however, was different. Vincent still remembered his soul attack being shrugged off as though it had never existed.
Compared to Damien, Naomi had no such luxury. She was forced to keep Meld active almost constantly. The moment she stopped.
Her soul would be extinguished.
The two exchanged blows again and again, one attacking relentlessly while the other remained impossibly composed.
They finally separated. Then Naomi suddenly noticed Damien standing quietly in the distance, being carried like a princess by his undead, his amused expression pissed her off.
Her expression instantly darkened.
"Die!" she roared before dissolving into black sludge and shooting straight towards him.
Damien was at loss. "Noami, where is all this animosity coming from?".