- Lucifer -
'Fuck!'
Lucifer was cursing himself in his head, wondering if he had gotten complacent or if his luck was just cursed. He flew at full speed and questioned whether or not he should call Death. He wasn't stopping so he untied his pocket and pulled out his echo.
"Lu-" Death tried to speak but the sound of the wind drowned him out.
"HYDERN! ENEMY!" Lucifer repeatedly screamed into the echo as loud as he could.
Death could just barely make out what Lucifer had said and yelled back. Lucifer was only able to make out "UND...OOD!" and assumed Death had gotten the message. He put the echo back in his pocket and started thinking about what to do would when he gets to Hydern.
- Cytus and the team -
Cytus started walking towards Elijah, blind with rage. His spell from before had greatly increased his strength and speed, but now with the hole in his leg, he couldn't run. He decided to cancel the spell, deciding that range was more important. He lifted his hand towards Elijah's body and began channeling electricity.
Sabu was struggling to stay conscious, but he knew he was one of the last two who could stop Cytus from killing Elijah. He decided that the best option was quantity over quality. He threw as many horizontal wind blades as he could, cutting up his hands in the process.
Most of the blades didn't even reach Cytus before disappearing, but a few managed to cut into his back. He quickly turned and shot Sabu through the center of his chest. The cuts in his back reminded him of the real threat he needed to deal with.
'Rip the new lesser apart later, after you kill his guardians.'
Cytus readied another bolt of electricity and fired it at Peter. A thin stone wall rose up and absorbed the shot, which led to Cytus switching targets once again.
'Didn't think you could still participate.' He went to shoot Heinrich, who was shoved out of the way by Yvere.
Yvere took the bolt through her arm and chest, narrowly avoiding a lethal hit to her heart. She could barely stand, but still glared at Cytus, trying to bluff more strength than she had.
Heinrich was suffering from a combination of damage and mana depletion. His quick moving of the stone in an attempt to keep up with Cytus had burned out his reserves faster than he expected. He had enough left in him to create a small dome, but if he covered the four of them Elijah might get killed shortly after.
Everyone was at a loss as to what they should do next, except for Peter. Lao and Elijah were unconscious, Sabu was on his back trying not to pass out, Yvere couldn't take much more damage, and Heinrich was trying to decide what he should do with his last remnants of mana. Peter had already resolved himself. He began channeling his life force.
Cytus noticed Peter glowing with white-ish blue energy.
'You were definitely depleted. I don't know who taught you how to tap into that, but it doesn't matter.' Cytus went to fire another bolt at Peter. His shots had gotten slower, weaker, and less frequent. He understood that things needed to end now.
Before the bolt could reach Peter a new thin wall of stone formed in front of him. Cytus went to follow up on the shot but a massive torrent of flames roared towards him. His hand was melted to the bone as he pulled it back. He tried to duck under the attack to reduce the damage but still ended up getting his back charred. He had one urgent thought now that possessed his mind.
'Escape!'
Once the flames ended, Cytus conjured his wings and flew upwards as fast as he could to get out of range of Peter's attacks. He flew off, thinking to himself that he needed to get as far away as possible.
'If Lucifer shows up now I'll be ash. Have to escape. Have to.'
Peter thought about taking a shot at Cytus as he flew up, but reconsidered, simply happy that he didn't need to fully sacrifice himself to get the monster to retreat. Peter's eyes, ears, and nose were bleeding. His head and stomach felt like they were being ripped open.
'Just live a little longer body, that's all I ask of ya.'
- Yvere and the team -
Yvere trudged over to Lao and checked his injuries with magic. "Forgive me for this, but I won't have enough mana otherwise."
Yvere grew fangs over her canines and bit into Lao's good arm, draining all but a little of his mana. She then healed his concussion and broken arm, along with the two holes she had just made.
Yvere hurried over to Sabu who had been biting into his arm to stay awake. "Stop that. You'll bite clean through it."
Yvere healed the scorched hole in Sabu's chest.
'I don't understand the durability of humans sometimes.'
She asked Heinrich while healing Sabu if he had any remaining injuries, but he shook his head.
Finally, Yvere walked over to Peter who was on his hands and knees clutching his chest.
"I'm fine, really. Just-" he grunted in pain, "Just need to get through this moment." Yvere knew what he had done to generate the last attack.
"Did you use all of it? If you did I can kill you now as a mercy," She said, holding back tears.
"Not...all...thankfully. Enough...for this...so...please...just...a moment," Peter's words were agonizing. The thought of taking the mercy kill just to end this never left his mind.
Yvere walked over to Elijah to check if he got injuries from falling off of the uništi. "A few bruises. You destroyed your hand again, but you'll live."
The uništi had been standing exactly where it was when Elijah fell off.
She looked up at the uništi. 'It would be a terrible time for you to be hungry.' She lifted Elijah over her shoulder and carried him to where Sabu and Heinrich were sitting.
Yvere placed Elijah down and walked over to Lao, picking him up the same way and bringing him to the others. She could see Peter, now on his back, breathing heavily while looking up at the sky.
Yvere healed most of Elijah's hand. Lao didn't have that much to give, and she had almost none of her own left. She tore a non-burnt piece of her cloak and wrapped Elijah's hand. There was gauze in the supplies, but she couldn't bring herself to stand up again.
'If that monster comes back I'll just accept my fate.' She thought, lying down and looking up at the sky.
- Lucifer and the team -
Lucifer landed by the group panting and readying his magic. He looked around at the scene of the battle and sprinted over to where everyone was.
Peter pointed to the sky. "Gone."
All of them were clearly worn out, or worse. He noticed the black wrapping around Elijah's hand and ascertained a little of what happened.
'Elijah must have shot the same bolt from before at whoever this was. Yvere and Lao must be low on, or out of mana.'
"Who did this?" Lucifer asked menacingly, his eyes glowing stronger.
"Cytus," Peter answered.
Lucifer's face tensed with rage. He wanted to fly off and find the monster so he could turn them into ash but knew he couldn't risk leaving the group alone.
'If...no, when I see you again Cytus I'll make you wish you never took Uriel's body.'
Lucifer's anger clearly showed on his face, so when the innkeeper from before came up to him he almost fell over in fear.
"I was just checking if they're okay. We don't have a healer in this village, but we do have medicine that might ease their pain."
Lucifer was trying his best to regain his composure, but could only manage a half-smile. "No thank you," He said through his teeth.
The innkeeper walked away, scared that he just angered the Devil. Lucifer went to get some of the medicine they had in their supplies, making sure to keep his eyes to the sky, and his ears perked for any sound that was out of place. He came back with a few different bottles of painkillers, offering them to the conscious members, and saving two for Lao and Elijah.
"How long before they wake up?" Lucifer asked Yvere.
Yvere looked around at the team. "Maybe an hour with Lao. I can't say for certain about Elijah. He used what I assume is all of his mana firing at Cytus, so there's a good chance he's going through stage two depletion. He'll wake up by tomorrow, I just can't say when."
"Give me the full story," Lucifer said.
Yvere gave a long explanation that detailed everything that had occurred between the group and Cytus. Lucifer looked at Elijah with respect.
'I'm sorry for thinking you might be the same as the other reborn I've taught. Thank you.'
Lucifer started thinking about how they could have done better in the fight. He couldn't help himself, but there wasn't a chance he would ever tell them the thoughts he was having unless they asked him.
'Sabu's casting speed is still slow and Heinrich was trying to do too much with his limited mana. Peter should have had Sabu in the back throwing wind blades, while he stood in the middle, ready to be anti-air.'
Lucifer went over all the different possibilities in his head. He wasn't sure if the group could win, even if they were fighting optimally, given that they weren't prepared, so he was thankful that they chose the actions they did.
'I don't know what would have happened, so I should stop speculating.'
Lucifer had some information that helped ease everyone's mind, "Death is on his way here. I made sure to tell him there was an enemy as I flew over here. He shouldn't be too far behind."
The four sighed in relief.
"Once he gets here I'm going to fly off and look for Cytus. With the amount of damage he took he shouldn't be able to sustain flight for long, probably," Lucifer mumbled the last part.
'It's lucky that Cytus doesn't know how to use lightning magic and fly at the same time, otherwise they would have all been killed.'