Chapter 364: Stop that blade!
"Insolent Child... You dare to betray your king and side with this wretch... You made a mistake bringing me my axe, and now... It will be your death. A traitors death." Red rumbled as he pressed down on his axe more, pushing Lilith down even further.
Her body, already sunk to one knee, started to compress with the weight of death upon her shoulders. But all of a sudden, her aura began to flare.
It had already been growing steadily since the moment she caught the axe, but the growth it took in this moment was like a volcano erupting.
A cloud of pure blackness burst from Lilith’s body, lapping around the edge of the colossal axe like flames and flooding the room in darkness, before all of it was pulled back into Lilith’s body.
Black veins crept along her bulging muscles and wriggled beneath her skin, as the power seeped into every fibre of her being. Her eyes turned pure black, and her face twisted with a feral rage, as she started to stand.
Her legs still trembled, and blood was trickling from where she was holding the axes blade, but even still Lilith slowly rose. A fact that Red could not deny, but also could not understand.
His face twisted with fear and confusion, before he pressed down onto the axe more. He forced Lilith back down, but only for a moment, as she rose once again. More and more force he put into it, until even his arms were starting to shake as he used both to push the axe down.
Yet this colossal, mountain cleaving giant was being overpowered and resisted by a woman the size of an ant.
It was not as if Red could not understand the power behind it. It was all because of the aura that was pouring off of her, seemingly endless in its growth. But what confused him was how. How was this possible?!
These levels were ones he had only seen before in leaders of grand armies. Heroes that led armies of hundreds of thousands into battle, and were seen as indestructible by their troops. So how?! How could this woman, and a gathering of a mere six people, create a level of aura that belonged to the worship of armies?!
Naturally, his confusion was valid. From his size and perspective, in which a person was as small as an ant. How could he see the small ornate skull floating in the air? To him, it would be like spotting a dust lint.
But even if he could see it, and identify the skull for what it was, he could not possibly imagine the amount of people that were watching through the Scrying Skulls unblinking ruby eyes, nor the mindset of the insane Graceless.
In the real world, on the popular streaming site Fidg.it, a new stream popped up amongst the hundreds. Normally it would have been lost amongst the crowds, if not for the thumbnail of the Demoness acting the role of Atlas and the attention-catching title of ’Siege of Infernus, FINAL BOSS SLAYED!!!1! (Unmissible. Action Packed!)’
Those who randomly scrolled, and the guild assigned researchers searching for any extra information that could help them, were the first to join. When they saw the validity of what they were seeing, as well as the incredible sight of a single individual challenging a towering demon, the stream quickly spread.
The numbers rapidly grew, from single digits, to double, then quadruple and even further beyond. The worship of an army that the Demon knew was nothing compared to the hype of the gaming community.
Especially with the help of the streams creator.
"Keep it up, She’s doing it." Saige whispered to Vestra, as he kept his system interface up to watch the stream through. His eyes glanced between what was showing on the display and what was happening before his eyes.
The two were similar, but not entirely the same.
Sweat dripped down Vestra’s face as she waved her wand like a conductor, channelling her illusions into the eyes of the Scrying Skull, performing real time editing of the footage. She masked the signs of the Blue Skinned Demon, and instead put all of the focus onto Lilith and the Demon.
She amplified their features. A little eye glow here and there, an extra oomph on the muscles, a shine on the skin. But most important of all, Vestra made sure that Lilith’s aura was visible and surrounded her body like a black inferno, defining her imposing figure against the fiery background of the flowing lava and ornate throne room.
Vestra even added a touch of background music, just enough to set the tone. Music that swelled as Lilith rose to her feet and finally switched from the defence to the attack.
She switched her grip on the blade, wrapping one arm underneath it and digging the fingers of the other into the flat of the blade enough to crack the blade steel even further.
Lilith slammed her feet down onto the air platforms, using the last of the magic of the scroll to adjust her stance into something wide and firm like a mountain, before she began to heave.
Her aura exploded again, the black flames roaring out of her body even without Vestra’s editing, as she began to lift. The Scrying Skull raced backwards, its ruby eyes drinking in the scene hungrily as hundreds of thousands of people watched with wide eyed awe as Lilith lifted not just the axe, but the demon holding it.
The Colossal Red Giant, his grip so tight on the weapon in his hands, was lifted off of his feet by that very same weapon.
She lifted him high, until he was directly over her head, before slamming him down just by twisting her body. Then she twisted it and slammed him again. Floor, Floor, Wall, Floor, Wall and Finally Ceiling as Lilith spun in place and launched him like a hammer-throw.
The Scrying eye watched it all, every moment of it streamed and causing Lilith’s aura to swell beyond what she could reasonably handle. But in that moment, as the Giant Demon crashed to the ground, the image of the ant-sized Demoness holding the Giant’s axe was burned into the minds of all those who watched it.
Especially that of tank players, who found themselves not a Demon, but a Goddess to worship as the prime example of what they were capable of.