The sudden gusts of wind and earth-shattering tremors scared the resting star beasts that were all inside their caves, their body tremble due to the indescribable feeling that they were sensing. The little star beasts that could not withstand the sudden pressure of gracia that was being sucked out of their lungs and hides, making them run away as far as possible, far away from something that will surely bring them to their deaths.
Meanwhile, in a certain part of the inner ring of the Desolate Zone, there were four people that were all continuously releasing their aura to make the star beasts stop approaching, guarding the other three in a circle. At the same time, several star beasts' limbs could be seen lying down in every corner of their encirclement.
Those came from the star beasts that were not smart enough to run away and instead mindlessly attacked the weakest one amongst the four people standing in around a child that was being healed by two reasonably powerful individuals. Unfortunately for them, Nora wasn't in the mood to just sit around and be attacked by the insignificant beasts that comes towards her, so, in the end, they'll rather end up with disheveled limbs or, with a headless body.
Lilith glanced at Nora with worry on her eyes, "Don't push yourself too far, Nora. You still have to take a rest every now and then." As her master, Lilith was worried that Nora might get injured from a star beast's hidden attack if it left unnoticed.
[Black Rank] star beasts has an intelligence that depends on their cultivation and soul's age. Fifty thousand year star beasts could think like a grown up child and could be dangerous. Nevertheless, these certain type of beasts can discern if their chosen victims were stronger than them or not by seeing their prey's aura.
Nora wiped the blood off on her face after crippling a [Desert Wolf] with just one slash and looked at the [Blue Rank] star beasts that were coming towards her. "This guys doesn't stop coming. I might as well dismember them all to appease Prince Luke's pain!" She said, slashing another star beast's head off after lunging towards her, but she dodged it gracefully with just crouching and spinning.
She kept on slashing and killing all the beasts that attacks her with just one sure-kill slash. Levi chuckled and just shrugged his shoulders as he watched Nora rampage against the unlucky enemies that chose to aim at her. "It really is nice to be young, eh," Levi turned his head towards Lilith, "Are you sure you don't want to help her, Your Majesty? She has been doing that ever since we came here." Levi pointed at Nora while he talked to Lilith.
Lilith just waved her hand, "Let her be... I'll just treat it as a training for her. Seeing her growing stronger by the time makes me happy. It's rare for her to show some emotions, too."
"Brace yourselves, Sires! I'll be taking a wave again!" Gargamel shouted behind the four, holding his weapon soul, Witch Doctor's Ward, on his hands. He then released his black star core that floated above his head as it glowed.
[FIFTH STAR CORE: GREAT SUCTION WARD]
Gargamel let out a strong grunt, struggling to keep his soul weapon within his grasp. And then he released his another black star core and put his free hand on Minerva's head while she kneeled as she heals Luke with her light affinity gracia.
[SIXTH STAR CORE: WITCH DOCTOR'S TOUCH]
As soon as Gargamel activated his sixth star core, the color of his left hand turned deep green, with broken skin tearing off of it, and transferred all the accumulated gracia in the air that was previously sucked by Gargamel's weapon soul.
He then put his hand, that was oozing of dark green aura, on top of Minerva's head while she continuously healed Luke. This was the only they can keep maintaining the little prince's body to not collapse and let him suffer even more pain. Still, doing something like this, that was simply ridiculous in the first place, kept the two more motivated to save Luke's life.
"We'll definitely save you, Prince Luke! Just keep on fighting and resist the pain. We're all here for you!" Minerva cheered up Luke, who was now feeling a little well based on his expression.
"Using star core abilities to heal the prince won't help us save him as we tested before. We will keep doing this, me borrowing the gracia in the atmosphere then passing it to you to heal his highness with your pure gracia together with mine." Gargamel said. Being exhausted was not an issue for Gargamel, rather, he will keep supporting Minerva until Luke's blood flow calms down till he collapses.
Gargamel's slightly hunched back, with his transformed green hand made him look like an old demon who cultivated alone for decades, adding his hooked nose, his appearance right now was appalling and at the same time, inspiring. He was happy that his abilities, including his disturbing aura, that were treated as the most evilest and ugliest will help treat the little prince that was loved by everyone including him.
Minerva controlled her gracia inside Luke's body and protected his blood vessels to not get strained and prevent it from tearing apart. At the worst case, Luke's blood vessels will tear apart, resulting him to becoming crippled and cannot circulate his gracia anymore. That would be a devastating disaster to the Royal Family and even more to the demons who were expecting a peaceful future, with Luke leading them all.
Seeing her son feeling better and better by the second, Lilith heaved a sigh of relief and smiled. "I guess holding off the beasts for ten minutes more should be enough time. Luke's blood flow be stabilized by then. But, I'm still confused why his awakening is so violent. It's like the heavens are not letting him awaken something from inside him." Lilith pondered, then turned towards in front of her, easily ripping an arm of a star beast that pounced on her.
The barrier of the Sanctuary was a little far away from where they were standing on. Luce said that a mile away from the barrier should be enough distance for Gargamel to use his star core abilities. They cannot let anything happen to their people as well as Luke.
Lilith glanced at Luce, that was staring blankly again at Luke, "Dear, there's something I'd like to ask you..!" Her sentence was interrupted as something unexpected happened in front of her.
Lilith gasped as she saw Luce suddenly collapsing and then threw up a mouthful of blood, his eyes, wide shut and full of despair, "Hehehe... There's no hope. I can't hold him for long at all. His power is beyond us mortals." Luce muttered, so fast that Lilith didn't manage to hear all of them.
"Dear..!" Lilith's cry startled the others and they all turned towards their King, lying on the ground, his expression looking like the gods has forsaken him.
"There's no way something could hurt the King!" Gargamel exclaimed in his mind. He then looked at Minerva who replied a nod back at him, telling him to go and that she can hold it off for a while.
"Hahahaha!! No one can stop me now, Luce! I'll let you taste despair for holding me back but still, you failed!"
Just before Gargamel even started to trudge hurriedly towards Luce, a shout that came out of Luce's storage ring stopped him from his feet. The voice felt sinister and almost like something that could only hear from their nightmares. All of them could not move around at all, hearing the white-haired devil's voice that was filled with the purest killing intent that no one have ever expected to be emitted by a being before!
Then almost immediately, they all saw a black shadow coming out from Luce's ring and walked towards Luke, that was also feeling the killing intent that the devil was emitting.
"I'm so sorry, Azrael! Your useless father couldn't protect at all... Please forgive me!" Luce, who was being help up by Lilith that was also trembling from fear and from the pressure of the devil's killing intent, couldn't help but only grieve as he watched his precious son be possessed by the white-haired devil's soul.
Luke struggled to breathe from the all the pressure that pressed him to the ground and looked around frantically. "Am I gonna die, again?" He thought while tears poured down from his cheeks, watching the shadow approaching his slowly and could tell that this being approaching him was feeling excited from all the things that were happening around him.
"Don't resist, my child. For we shall be one after I take your body. I even used my remnant soul's remaining gracia to further strengthen your body..." The shadow said, crouching beside Minerva and as he brushed Luke's hair. "Too bad you're not the one who will use it anymore." The shadow continued, his red eyes emitting a cold light inside them while he looked at Luke with pity.
Minerva glared at the shadow beside her, but it was all for naught as that was the only thing she could do at that situation. But then, her attention turned towards Lilith, her Queen and master, that was trying her best just to move from the pressure that was restricting her. "My Queen!" Minerva shouted in her mind with joy, but she was at the same time worried for her.
"You... get away... from my son!!" Luke heard his mother's voice from behind the shadow in front of him. He could feel that his mother was struggling to even speak, yet she raised her voice against this god-like being.
Lilith, with all her might, released her nine star cores, glowing simultaneously, and took out a whip that was refined and made from the tailbone of the last black dragon from her storage ring. The artifact's was named by her father, the former Demon King, Vladimir Ashe Morrighan as 'Bahamut', as a namesake for one of his closest friends when he was still the king.
[ LILAC PHANTOM'S PATH: COVENANT OF BLOOD]
The sky suddenly became blood red from all direction, and Lilith, hiding within the red fog that gushed out from a huge arachnid, that was twenty feet long, baring it's fangs towards the shadow, disappeared and erased all her presence. They were all suddenly enveloped in a red-blood dome that imprisoned the being that seemed harmful to Lilith.
The white-haired devil whispered in amazement as he looked around the domain ability that he was in. "This girl has potential... She actually had a domain-type ability. And it's a full star path activation at that...", he thought.
Then the shadow stood up and made his way to the domain's center, towards the place where he could take the full force of Lilith's ability, "too bad it won't work on me just like that." He trudged confidently until he reached the position where all the red fog's concentration was the highest.
The white-devil's shadow provoked her to make a move. But, Lilith knew that something like this won't work against the shadow that can even take down Luce, even if it's in his mind space. She knew that the moment she made a move and revealed herself, the shadow will attack.
"Come ooon! Show me what you got."
"Don't just hide in the fog. It'll be convenient for me to get these over with..."
"You're wasting your breath, so just come at me! I won't even move right here, in this spot!"
The devil provoked Lilith, hiding her presence in the red fog that seemed to be a blood mist that came from thousands of people spraying their blood all over the air. But at the same, he was waiting for her to make a move so that he can end her worthless life, measuring from where would she appear and disappear again from his vision that seemed to be getting more and more obstructed by the red fog.
There were only silence for the next minute, despite him provoking Lilith over and over again and he was getting irritated by Lilith's patience. "I'm getting tired of this game... where is that damned girl? She couldn't be prioritizing her subordinates and family, right? I'm sure, that killing intent she released earlier muddled her thinking and would come at me rushing towards her death." The shadow clicked it's tongue and now tried to detect Lilith's presence in the red fog.
What the shadow didn't know was, the moment he got caught in [Covenant of Blood]'s range, his death will be imminent and he will slowly die; losing his mind first and then be eaten by the bloody creatures that the domain produced, depending on the enemy's strength.
Lilith placed Luke beside his father, "Stay here, Luke. Mom will get back in a moment after I defeat the bad guy, okay?" She asked Luke in a comforting tone and put up a smile to calm her child down.
Lilith's previous prim expression had changed into that of a fierce and furious beast. Her black dress with platinum purple line at its ends had changed into a majestic black battle dress with tattered ends that continuously drops blood looking streams of gracia that radiated in her battle armament, the whip artifact Bahamut attached in her hips. Her ruby red eyes were hidden behind a veiled helm that has black feathers attached to them.
Luke smile, "I'll be looking out for Father while you're away, Mom! Don't worry and kill him." Nodding, Luke assured his mother that he was compose enough to take care of others rather than only himself.
"This servant apologize for his incompetence! I couldn't even move while the enemy touched the Prince's hair!" Minerva knelt in the sand with tears on her eyes.
The red dome that covered fifty meter radius flickered as Lilith glanced at Minerva and Gargamel that was lying in the sand like Luce. He was also bleeding, and it seems like he was hit in the spleen and needs to get treated immediately, unless his life will be in danger.
"Leave them to me, Your Majesty. I can still heal them all and calm them down. That's the only thing I could do right now as I was still incompetent to help you as well." Levi knelt on the sand, talking with a miserable tone. "If only I was stronger!" He gritted his teeth in frustration, keeping his head down as to not dishonor himself any more.
"I'll leave them to you, Lord Levi. Please take them to the Sanctuary while you still can and request a reinforcement immediately... I can't hold that thing for long." Lilith turned her head back towards the red dome where the shadow was still imprisoned.
"I will do as you command, Your Majesty... Please keep safe, Your Majesty!" Levi said. The way he said, he was more like pleading than bidding Lilith good luck. He wouldn't know what will Luce feel like if he knew his wife saved him from absolute danger.
The queen then quickly get inside the red dome to finish off the devil's shadow before she rans out of gracia to use. Hoping that everything will turn out as she planned