6-69 Sacrifice
It was not easy, even for demons, to put themselves back together if they were cut into multiple pieces. It would take a lot out of them, and even more so if they accelerated their regeneration.
“Do you think this will stop me!!??” Ivan burst into a roar as he climbed to his feet from the ground where he had been lying here and there.
Azaela grimaced. “You are truly tenacious, William Marsh.”
Ivan had been cut into four pieces, but he had pieced himself back together like nothing had happened, though that was only the surface. Demons had extreme regenerative powers, but this power was finite. They could only regenerate as long as they had the energy to do so. Demonic power, dark energy, black mana, the source of their strength went by many names. The names might vary, but it essentially functioned the same as normal mana. In the realm known as hell, the essence of their power was ever-replenishing due to the nature of that very region. However, this was not hell. It was far from it. Ivan boasted greatly, but he knew his defeat was already assured, and it was only a matter of time.
“Damn you…” Ivan groaned. Compared to before, he had lost nearly a quarter of his mass and half of his vigour. A ferocious, grotesque giant beast he was then, but an enervating, lame creature he was now. “This… shall not… stand. I will… see her.”
“Doesn’t matter what you want, William Marsh,” Azaela said. “Your fate is sealed. Even surrendering is too late now. I can only grant you a swift death now.”
“You can’t kill me… I can’t… be killed. I am not… like the others…”
“Anything can be killed. I have killed demons before. You’re no different. I know what I must do. I’ll just have to keep killing you until you're exhausted, every last drop of your essence.” With the battleaxe and the greatsword still in her hands, Azaela charged at Ivan.
“Urgh… Damn you!” Ivan snarled and lashed out with his tendril-like appendages at Azaela. He had grown many of them after he put himself back together. It wasn’t fully his intention. He had only wished for more strength, and the appendages just popped out by themselves, unlike the previous times, when he only transformed and morphed at his will.
Azaela worked her weapons like a shredder. The appendages rushed at her, but the moment they fell within the reach of her weapons, they were all shredded. There were at least twenty of them in the onslaught, but not a single one so much as grazed Azaela’s hair.
The appendages were useless. They were fast and lethal, but Azaela was even more so. Ivan knew he had to adjust his strategy. Horns grew out of his back as the last of the appendages did their best to hinder Azaela’s rapid approach. The horns didn’t grow more than a foot before they stopped. Instead, sparks flew between the horns, producing more sparks. Once the sparks had amassed, lightning began to crack between the horns.
“Abomination…,” Azaela muttered with a faint smile. “Impressive. A shame that such versatility in combat is always a trait of evil.”
From Ivan’s hands, or claws, lightning shot out.
Azaela produced a rod that was only as long as the lower arm and as thick as a small coin’s diameter. She threw the stick at the lightning. Like moths to flames, the lightning streaked towards the rod, instantly charring the stick into cinders and charcoal. The lightning faded away after having satisfied its appetite for destruction.
“W-what… was that??”
“A lightning rod.”
“Why do you have such a thing on you?”
“I took you for a fighter, Marsh. But it seems I was mistaken.”
Ivan growled in displeasure.
“A combatant of my disposition will have a vast array of tools at the ready. Lightning Magic may not be common, but it isn’t rare. One should be prepared if one has the means to. This is elementary, and you do not know it. Clearly, our strength and skill are on different levels, but yours were elevated by hollow supports.”
“Damn… you…” Ivan continued to growl in the same manner. He unleashed more lightning at Azaela, but she produced more lightning rods to divert the attacks. She rushed towards him when all the lightning attacks were neutralised. He kept her at bay with a large bolt of lightning that he spewed out of his mouth.
Azaela brandished her shield and let it absorb all the current. A wise choice she had made. If she had used a lightning rod, it wouldn’t have been enough. She would be caught in the lightning’s grasp along with the rod. The shield was barely enough. It crumpled into a ball as it turned into molten metal, but it solidified almost immediately when the lightning died down.
All of a sudden, the lightning stopped crackling between the horns. Ivan tutted and leapt away to create some distance.
Azaela didn’t follow him. Instead, she pointed at Ivan with her finger and uttered a chant. Drops of light converged at the tip of her finger before shooting towards Ivan in a beam.
Ivan threw his palm forward to block the beam, but it pierced right through his hand and also his left shoulder. His entire left arm came flying off.
Consumed by light, Azaela flashed forward, instantly closing the gap between them.
“W-what are you— Light Magic?”
Azaela swung her gigantic axe.
Ivan blocked the axe with his other arm. It stopped the axe from cleaving into his main body, but his arm was completely pulverised.
Azaela allowed herself a faint grin. She noticed her opponent’s regeneration ability had slowed down drastically. Her opponent’s limits were truly near. She retracted her axe and swung it at Ivan’s head.
Ivan stomped the ground. The ground cracked underneath them. The sudden violent displacement of their foothold caused the axe to miss his neck. He lunged at Azaela as he twirled, swinging his tail into her.
Azaela lost her bearings. It would take at least a few seconds to recover them. The tail swung into her. There was no time. Therefore, she planted her axe into the ground and pushed herself off the ground. The tail swung under her, but she didn’t let it pass. With her greatsword, she thrust down at the tail, skewering it to the ground. With her axe, she chopped it off from Ivan. Then, she spun in the air and drove her heel into Ivan’s face. He went stumbling.
“You are slipping, my host.”
“Silence, demon!” Ivan shot back. His left arm had regrown, but Azaela did not give him any time to appreciate it. She was upon him before he realised. Gone was his left arm once more. He felt his right arm returning, and he took a swipe, but she blocked his regenerating arm with her sword and cleaved through his shoulder with her axe.
Ivan screamed. Caught in a pinch, he lurched forward with his fangs bared.
Azaela withdrew from him by sliding on her feet, just enough to escape his bite. She countered with an axe to his face.
Ivan avoided having his head crushed, but a nasty wound now drew across his head and face. Half of his nose even fell off.
“Perhaps I should have made this paladin my host instead. She is good, better than most I have seen.”
“Good luck with that, demon. She’ll burn you up before you can even get close.”
“Only if she knows I’m close. I can just worm myself into her mind and plant seeds of doubt of her faith and cause… as I did with you, my host.”
Ivan snorted with a grimace.
“You already knew that, I see. You just let it happen?”
“You wouldn’t have accepted me as your host if I didn’t. I need your power.”
“I’m ashamed to say that… I am not enough. You are going against a monster here. This one… she’s unparalleled. I want her.”
“If you only intend to gloat, do shut up. You’ll have plenty of chances once I’m dead.”
“As you said, I doubt I would, not unless you weaken her first. But I suppose that will not be possible. You have lost.”
There was no denying it anymore. Ivan had lost the battle. His arms were regrowing at a snail's pace. The wound on his face wasn’t even regenerating anymore.
“You are finished, William Marsh.”
“I am…?” Ivan chuckled weakly. “I suppose I am… but… I will not be alone in my demise.”
Azaela frowned and threw away her weapons. She brought her hands together and began praying with her eyes closed.
An opportunity, Ivan saw, but before he could act, a translucent dome of light surrounded him.
“Ruva,” Azaela spoke. “The evil has been subdued and served to you. May your judgement upon him be swift and just.”
The dome glowed, and a circle of inscriptions appeared on the ground underneath Ivan.
“This is the end for you, Ivan Soze. A pity. You will be smitten by her god. Nowhere left to run. Truly a pity. We have such a strong compatibility.”
“No. This may be the end…” Ivan growled. “But I will let it end like this. I have come this far. I will not surrender now! If I have to… If I truly have to, I will peel away her sense of self and join me in the afterlife!” Ivan bit his finger and began drawing a twisted sigil on the ground using his blood.
“Oh, wow… You are truly one wretched scum, Ivan Soze. To think you have placed such a spell on your dearest love.”
“She’s alive because of me. She won’t live long when I’m gone. I’m simply granting her mercy right now. At least, we can be together at the end of our lives.”
“I know this spell, this curse. It is effective, but quite flimsy in a very nasty way. Are you aware of the consequences if this spell is broken or interrupted?”
“I am well aware of that…”
“I see. So that’s what you’re aiming for. Love is indeed strange and twisted, even for us demons.”
Ivan looked to the sky as lights filled the dome, swallowing him. “I shall be with you until the end, even if I have to change… for the worse.”
****
“Damn it, Aedan. You can put me down, now,” Erin grumbled. She was being slung over Aedan’s shoulder, carried like a piece of rag. “I may be enfeebled, but I still retain the strength to carry myself on my feet.”
Aedan chuckled. “I have no doubt about that. I’m just making sure you won’t be carried back to the battlefield by your own feet.”
“That’s not possible. I can’t join the battle even if I wanted to; you said it yourself.”
“Yes, I did, but I don’t believe that is enough to deter you from trying. You are known to plunge yourself into situations where none of the odds favoured you. Therefore, I cannot let you walk on your own until we reach the edge of the forest.”
Erin tutted. “You will run out of breath before we’re even halfway there.”
“A-Argon…” Katya called out weakly with a raspy voice.
Aedan immediately stopped and put Erin down. He turned around and saw that Katya had collapsed to her knees, gasping for air. He wasted no moment and went to her side to check on her condition.
“I feel… weak…”
“What? Already?” Erin gasped. “Aedan. You said she would at least have a week before—”
“This is not it,” Aedan said. “This is not her body deteriorating. This is… something else.”
“Something else? What could it be?”
“Excuse me,” Aedan apologised and went behind Katya. Gently, he slid her clothes down, revealing her back and a strange red sigil painted on it.
Erin frowned. “What is that?”
“A cursed spell,” Aedan answered. “By itself, it’s nothing. However, if applied similarly on another individual, it will link the fates of the two who share the same manner of sigil. If one dies, the other shall die too.”
“So… Ivan has one, too?”
“Given his obsession with Katya, I say he would have one, too. Yes.”
“Can you do something about this?”
“I can. It’s easy to break this spell.”
“Then, break it already!”
“However, once this spell is broken while it is activating, the caster would suffer a great rebound, one that turned him into a mindless, ferocious beast that will chase down the one who bore the same mark until one of them dies.”
“So, we just need to kill him before he can kill Katya, right?”
“To put it simply, yes, but killing him would not be easy in that state. He will feel no pain nor any fear of death. He would force his body into the most wretched state just to achieve his accursed objective. So, I ask you, Erin, can you take him on in your current state?”
Erin couldn’t answer. She knew the answer. No, she couldn’t. If she were the target, she would be confident, but she was not the target. Katya was.
“Do… it…” said Katya.
“W-what?” Erin blurted. “Katya, what are you—‘
“I said, do it. I’m dying anyway. This way… at least I get to make sure he dies too… So, do it.”