The aura that had engulfed Elizabeth eventually dispersed after a moment, leaving a much shorter, blond haired girl with two jagged wings coming out of her back and two large fangs on full display as they emerged from her mouth.
"Normal people would probably soil themselves seeing this form… But showing my true self to a fallen angel is quite exciting! It feels like my skin is tingling." Elizabeth cackled. "But allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Bloodweld, a pixie."
"That doesn't sound very intimidating." Russel sneered. "Oliver! Get ready for a fight."
Oliver looked up and seemed frightened by the sight of Russel in his demon form, his eyes widened and he backed up.
"What are you Russel?" He asked.
"We'll talk later. For now lets kill this thing." Russel spoke, motioning to Bloodweld.
Oliver looked towards the pixie and scowled, drawing his sword and pointing it at her. Bloodweld sighed before smirking viciously at the two.
"I'd love to fight you, but I always prefer taking the easy way." Bloodweld explained as she reached out her hand as it started to glow. "Obstupefacio."
Twin sparks flew out of her hands, racing towards Russel and Oliver. Russel saw as the spark hit Oliver in the chest and caused him to suddenly freeze up and fall to the ground. The bracelet on Rusel's wrist started to glow and absorbed the spark. Russel looked back to Bloodweld who had an obvious look of anger on her face.
"That damn elf… I got rid of him first for a reason." She sneered, looking at the bracelet on Russels wrist. "So spells like that aren't going to have an effect on you… But it'll work fine on the human. Let's try this then… Fulgur!"
A large beam of lightning shot towards Russel. He jumped and rolled to the side to avoid the bolt of lightning before flying towards Bloodweld with his sword outstretched. He swung his sword at her but she blocked with a dagger produced seemingly out of thin air.
"Don't you want to know why I did it? Pretended to be an innocent girl to win your trust? Acted like I was someone who needed help, only to lure you into my domain to kill you? Why I caused so much death to have your soul?" She sneered as the two clashed blades.
She pulled back before launching a quick assault of strikes against Russel which he flew upwards to mostly avoid, causing her to only get a few shallow cuts along his leg. He changed direction and fell towards the ground with his sword pointed at the pixie. She dodged the strike easily and released a few strikes of her own. Anticipating this, Russel turned and deflected her blows, propelling himself off the ground the moments he touched it while swinging his own sword wildly. He managed to make a few large cuts across the pixies arms sending blood flying. The two closed in on eachother once more and locked blades.
"I gave you many more pleasant ways to die, you know. I even came onto you a bit, though I wasn't expecting to get shot down so coldly. Maybe if you had returned my advances things could've even turned out differently." She smirked.
"You mean when you tried to hijack my mind with whatever was in that soup. No doubt positioned yourself where I'd save to save you and then act like we were attached at the hip. Even if I had, you want my soul to revive Satan… While I know next to nothing about what that means for the world, I have no doubt there would be something in it for you." Russel scowled. "I highly doubt you would give up a possible position of power, or the granting of a malicious wish."
"Touche." Bloodwelf smiled.
Russel drew back and released a few energy beams towards the pixie, each of which was dodged as though she expected where each shot was going. Changing up his tactic, Russel launched forward and fired multiple beams at random before swinging his sword at random as well. Bloodweld scowled as she became unable to read Russels movements until she was barely dodging his sword strikes.
'Perfect.' Russel thought as he fired a large beam right where she would have to dodge.
The beam hit Bloodweld directly and she screamed out in pain and shock. She fell to the ground where she started to writhe. Russel quickly descended with his sword pointed straight down. He was confident that the battle had come to a close, and ended up burying his sword deep in the dirt. His eyes widened as he heard a voice from above him.
"Fulgur!" Bloodweld screamed.
Russel saw a flash and felt his muscles spasm and his body go numb for a moment before feeling a terrible burning sensation that didn't subside. He struggled to look up at the now laughing Bloodweld.
"Who would have thought you would become so sloppy when your enemy looks defeated. It's quite disappointing really." The pixie teased.
Russel growled and fired a few beams of energy towards the pixie. Which were once again dodged as though they were nothing. He watched helplessly as she giggled and rushed at him with her knife outstretched. Russel steeled himself for the pain before he saw a quickly flash of steel in front of him, deflecting the knife and knocking Bloodweld out of the air. Russel looked over and saw Oliver breathing heavily.
"Thanks…" Russel smiled.
"That's what friends are for." He wheezed.
Russel turned back to Bloodweld who was getting up and rushed towards her in the air. He started swingley with precise accuracy, cutting up her arms and torso with shallow cuts. Bloodweld flew into the air with Russel in close pursuit. His mind flashed back to the midair chase he had with Arthur as he felt Kathleen's ring fly around its chain.
"You need to die!" She screamed. "I will be the one to revive my lord! It will be I who claims his favor! You need to die so Oblivion can be reunited!"
Russel started to increase his speed and swung towards her ankles, severing his feet in midair. She scrambled out in pain and started angling towards the ground. Russel looked and saw Oliver looking at the two of them with his sword drawn. Russel formulated a plan in his head and started to attack Bloodweld so that when she dodged they would get close to Oliver. When they approached the ground Russel started to swing his sword hard and fast, causing Bloodweld to panic and dodged straight towards Oliver who severed her spine with a quick slash. She screamed and was turned around by the force of the blow.
"Glacies!" She screamed, now facing Oliver.
A beam of ice shot out of her hands and pierced Oliver's chest. Russel took the opportunity this attack presented, and with one last, decisive strike decapitated the pixie. He looked to Oliver who smiled as he fell over backwards.
Russel threw his sword down, bent over Oliver. There was a large spear of ice embedded in the young man's chest that pierced him clean through and was about the thickness of three spears put together. Russel cursed at the sight of the injury, but was relieved to see that the ice was on the right side of his chest, giving him a chance to live.
"Hold on Oliver… You'll live through this." Russel assured him.
"I better… You still have a lot of explaining to do, you demonic bastard." Oliver smiled weakly.
"I know. I'll be willing to answer any questions you have." Russel sighed.
"Hey Russel…" Oliver wheezed.
"Yeah?" Russel asked.
"Thank you… For avenging her… The woman I loved." Oliver smiled, looking over to where Rachel's body would have been if it had made it out of the illusion.
"We both did it… The nightmare is over now." Russel smiled.
"Good…" Oliver whispered.
Russel watched as Oliver's eyes started to close and his breathing slowed. Russel looked at him sadly before hoisting him onto his shoulders and walking towards the frightened black horse who had witnessed the battle. Russel started to stroke the horse's neck to calm it down. After a few moments it calmed down and started to nuzzle Russel as he continued to pet the horse.
Russel jumped onto the horses back and put Oliver in front of him to prevent him from falling off. Luckily the wound didn't bleed thanks to the solid ice freezing it, but his skin kept growing colder and turning blue slowly. Russel took one last look around the area and fixed his eyes on Bloodweld's body not too far away. He cleared his throat and spat on her corpse before spurring the horse.
The horse didn't have a saddle, and Russel wasn't a great rider so he kept losing his balance as the horse galloped through the trees. His thoughts were racing almost as fast as the horse as he recounted everything that had happened over the past week or so.
'Eastcliff, the huge camp, the visions.. I think its safe to say this has probably been the worst week anyone has had in their lifetime…' Russel thought. 'I need to learn more about this power, to master it so I never lose control like in the volcano. And whatever that form I had during the fight with the Echo… When my body became wrapped in flame I had a significant power boost… Is it possible to trigger that on my own and not black out after? Even if I black out it would be a powerful trump card…'
He looked down at Oliver who grew colder by the second. Russel looked sadly at his friend who was on the verge of death.
'That's right… I have a friend now, one thats a guy… That's a first for me. Everyone always said I was coldhearted and scary back when I was young, and I distanced myself from everybody from Kathleen.' Russel remembered. 'To think its a noble I'm with too… Oliver Eastcliff, the son of the late lord of Eastcliff… I'm starting to remember that night.'
Russel hit a tree branch and almost fell off the horse. He cursed as he tightened his hold on the horse who continued to gallop at full speed through the thick forest.
'How did it all come to this… Just two of us survived, and one is already on the verge of death. I still have the injuries on my leg, but I'm lucky the injuries I sustained in the illusions didn't carry over to the real world. Else I'd most likely be dead. I need to be more careful going forward about how I handle fights huh?' Russel chuckled to himself.
He felt his body warm as the sun started to rise and light trickled through the trees. He couldn't help but smile upon seeing the dawn of the new day. The nightmare of the last three days was finally over, but with so many dead he felt no accomplishment. The horse started to slow from exhaustion, so Russel patted himself down to look for Navvare's book. He pulled out the old book and opened the cover, trying to grasp its contents.
Around an hour later Russel's reading was disturbed when he saw the light grow more intense. He put the book away and watched as the horse walked into the light. Russel was expecting that he had run into another bluff or something similar, but found that he had emerged into a large, open area full of destroyed buildings. The area looked like it had been burnt to the ground like Eastcliff, and Russel initially thought he had somehow winded back in Eastcliff. But instead of an area nestled in a valley like Eastcliff the ruins were half hidden in the forest, and the area exposed to the open sun were to overgrown, showing that this area had been in ruins for at least a few years.
He curiously rode through the town. Though it was alien to him, something felt strangely familiar about it… Almost like he had memories here. He started to sort through his memories, trying to force his brain to tell him what was triggering his sense of deja vu.
"So you've made it to your true home. Welcome to Dublios, Russel Diabolous." A man's voice cried out.