The pillar of green light gave Nihil enough time to retreat, nimbly jumping away as Junia screeched from pain.
"You've grown uglier since I've last seen you, Junia." Minerva landed on the older woman's fuming body, her Praes' viridescent sheen stronger than ever.
"Lucky me, fresh prey to feast on." Despite being trampled on, the Medice recovered enough to give her usual snarky remark. "I hope seasonings accompany you. You do lack flavor after all."
"Foul hag!" The young woman's expression twisted with rage, moving to decapitate her with the scimitar.
Yet, it wasn't going to be that easy.
Black ichor ascended from the ground like a darkened wave, coiling around the young woman. She aptly reacted, cutting the attacking tendrils in fluid motions before thrusting her weapon towards Junia.
"Too hasty. You've never learned, Minerva." Her enemy didn't even try to evade, letting the blade pierce her as she rose in blinding speed. She grabbed Minerva's throat with a wrinkled hand, oozing inky matter. "I'll make good use of that new toy of yours." Her whisper rang like an alarm, prompting the rebel to gorge her Praes with Mana.
"Vis Mille-..!" Another palm forcibly closed her mouth while a torrent of darkness stifled the scimitar's growing power. It stuck to her prey like a corrupting miasma, beginning its slow assimilation.
"This is bad. If she absorbs even one spellcaster, we're finished. Decima!" Nihil yelled from his position, only then noticing his sister's struggle with the ever-regenerating pikes.
He took a breath, raising his arm towards the paralyzed Minerva. "I'll have to… kill her, sorry-"
"There will be no need for that." A blur went past the young Homunculus, shredding through the blackened tendrils in a matter of seconds.
"What…?" The boy could barely believe his eyes as the Sakit Urusk's assassin slashed every attack Junia sent at him.
He tore the viscous liquid that was trying to devour his companion, his daggers whirling and dancing between his hands.
"Damned zealot, you have no business here!" She conjured an obscured blade, but before she could even use it, a knife pierced her skull. Two gaping maws sprouted from her sides to try and catch her opponent, yet he needed but an instant to hack them off.
"How unsightly. Your existence is even more abhorrent than that of Homunculi." Arshaka spat in disgust before leaping away with Minerva, though closely followed by sharpened claws.
He threw one of his dirks in a practised movement, lodging it right between Junia's eyes.
"Il Shadn," A white lustre escaped the projectile, releasing paralyzing vibrations directly into the Devourer's body.
"Now." He said in a barely raised voice.
The next instant, dozens of chants reverberated throughout the central square, followed by a multitude of ravaging spellcasts. Like a multicoloured rain, they crashed against the immobilized Junia, birthing a thundering explosion that shook all of Cochlinia.
Aeden and his friends watched in awe, hoping that it was enough. Yet, the simple click of a tongue crushed their faith.
"Accursed thing," he muttered. "Minerva, I'll need you to distract her."
The woman grunted in agreement, conjuring back her Praes in a single thought. "What about the others?"
"Don't let anyone approach her!" Megissa bellowed, this time holding Vita. "She's a step away from the Imaginal form. A single casualty could mean the end."
"By the Great Puppeteer, this is going to be a hurdle." the assassin sighed, twirling new dirks between his fingers. "Keep hitting her with all you've got. I'll go in."
The only answer he got was the booming impact of the launched spells. Nevertheless, Junia's Mana flow seemed only to get stronger. She was stabilizing her control and could release much more power thanks to that.
"How thoughtful of you, slithering back into the settlement again after your escape. You've greatly broadened my options." Projectiles lost themselves inside the shroud of inky matter that surrounded her, continuously absorbed.
The Medice raised her forefinger towards the sky, purple Mana glistening on its tip.
Nihil's eyes widened. "She can use spellcast now! Be caref-..."
"Il Sopor." A chilling wave suddenly swept through the battlefield, plunging the weakest spellcasters into complete oblivion. The ones who resisted were still disturbed, which made for easy targets.
Her blackened tendrils lashed out in a devastating onslaught, hunting fresh blood like starved predators.
"Cursed be this abomination. Minerva, protect them!" Arshaka lunged forward, throwing precisely aimed dirks towards his enemy. Her corrupted ichor jumped like the fiercest of waves, gulping the daggers and crashing against him.
"An Qafza." The assassin's legs gorged themselves with Mana as he skirted around the assault, hurling another volley of knives to her sides.
"Il Vanus." Junia leisurely snapped her fingers, conjuring violet light blades to counter his weapons.
Viridescent detonations sprouted up all around her, disintegrating her darkened appendages each time she closed on a target. Displeasing as it was, the old woman was probably sure that she could outlast Minerva and thus, gave her no heed.
Instead, she kept her focus on the zealot from the Sakit Urusk, who was the most significant threat at that moment.
Arshaka whispered a chant, allowing him to abruptly sprint and reduce the distance between them. He then whirled another blade onwards, which she promptly deflected with a blackened claw. The move was slow, but it seemed to have served its purpose, as they now were in close quarters.
Countless hands emerged from her corrupted ichor, ready to tear the man apart. However, he didn't seem to be fazed, his gaze inflexible under his cloak. The metallic sheen of a dagger appeared from nowhere, slashing the viscous limbs faster than a blink.
"An Alraq." The cultist instantly thrust it towards her throat, but one of her claws was already in the way. "Feeble attempt," was all she heard before the blade pierced her right eye. Another shank snaked from under his sleeve, rising to her skull - but when Junia tried to block it, she felt its chill perforate her abdomen.
"What's happening!?" Unable to follow his movements, the Medice unleashed a raging torrent of black matter from her entire body.
"Al Diruo."
"Vis Millea!"
The world gleamed in blue and green as Nihil and Minerva's destructive spells smashed against the older woman, disintegrating her inky ichor. She was left wide-open in front of Arshaka, who conjured his Blessed Relic amidst a pallid radiance.
"In the name of the Great Puppeteer, I shall erase your tarnished existence from this world's canvas," His adorned Praes impaled her heart, its enchanted moonstones glistening like a thousand suns. "Hazar Muruk."
White light rose in a dazzling pillar, dissipating every one of the Devourer's tendrils while Junia howled like a maddened creature - her voice ululating from the pain.
__
"How dull." A woman mused, far away in one of Numidea's five cities. Everything about her screamed red, from the scarlet lustre of her long hair to the pure cardinal of her eyes. Even her dress, a combination of Numidean armour and a vermillion imperial robe, glistened like flames with each sway.
Slightly tanned skin and beautiful, gentle traits made her appear like a woman in her late twenties - but no one would mistake the oppressive presence of the Sorceress of Slaughter for that of a mere human.
"You shouldn't spy on him, Damara. You promised the boy." Next to her stood the famed Sorcerer of Knowledge, Cernunnos. The antlers crowning his black hair and the vegetal coils adorning his grey attire contrasted greatly with his sister's looks.
"I can't help it, elder brother. I don't understand why he refuses to use my legacy. It's His now, he should enjoy it." She leisurely sat on a reclined couch, looking through a mirror-shaped spellcraft. It was directly showing her the events happening in Cochlinia.
"You simply refuse to accept it. He knows what will happen once he releases the seal. That's exactly why he asked Archelaus to craft him that cloth." Cernunnos observed Cloelia through the room's large windows. Despite what he said, he didn't stop himself from taking a peek or two at the mirror.
"What would happen is inconsequential. He makes too much of a fuss about it." Damara's dismissive behaviour puzzled him.
"Should he use that power… You would start dying. We both know what kind of sacrifices you had to make for a child. This is one of them."
"It won't happen instantly. Moreover, if that doesn't bother me, why should he be hesitant? As long as he lives - as long as he blossoms, nothing else matters."
"Imagine yourself in his place. Would you make that decision if our Mother's life was at stake?" he asked, curious about her thoughts.
"It's different," her retort came quickly. She didn't want to ponder on the subject. "Anyhow, it doesn't matter now."
Something was happening in the mirror.
"How so? Did-..."
His question was cut short by a wave of scorching Mana engulfing the entire palace. Damara's long hair danced as insanity crept its way across her face in a dangerous smile. Her fiery gaze focused on the events shown by the spellcraft, pure excitation oozing from her expression.
"Here it comes!"
__
"Is it over?" Aeden looked at the collapsed Junia, her body abnormally twitching on the ground.
"It seems so. How did you do it, Arshaka? Even my Praes barely managed to damage her," Minerva was intrigued, still clutching her scimitar.
"Devourers do not truly count amongst the living, or rather, its biological definition," Megissa explained, almost sighing from relief. "They're sentient Mana, simply emulating the intricacies of life. That's why they need to absorb others, and why destroying their Anima is fatal. That's what you did, I presume?" She hasn't forgotten that the cultist almost killed her. A tint of hostility still shone through her eyes.
"It is correct. As for my Blessed Relic's abilities, I'm afraid I'm not obliged to share them." he slowly raised the beautiful dagger over the struggling Medice for the coup de grace.
"Guys," Decima's troubled voice rang through the somehow silent battlefield. "Where are the Cochlinians?"
Arshaka suddenly turned towards the villagers' previous position, only to see an empty square.
"Wha-..."
A splatter of blood followed that brief moment of inattention - Dark and frigid, the old woman's blade pierced the assassin's chest. Her azure eyes twitching with anger, she still took the time to whisper:
"Where is your Great Puppeteer now?" she violently swung his body away, letting him smash against a destroyed wall.
"Arshaka!" Minerva exclaimed, panicking while trying to charge her Praes with Mana. Yet she didn't have the time; sharpened tendrils rose from the ground, impaling her arms, then her legs, before throwing her away like a ragdoll.
Decima immediately appeared behind Junia, fists enhanced with a bluish sheen. Two blackened claws hacked off her limbs, but when they healed back, the old woman conjured a jagged maw right on top of the Homunculus' head. She crushed her skull with no delay, then covered her body with a torrent of corrupted ichor.
"Al Averro!" A series of explosions erupted on the Medice, but she brushed them off with a wave of her hand, oozing inky liquid.
"How…?" Arshaka uttered between two bloody coughs. "Your Anima should be destroy-..." She closed her fist, and a darkened hammer flattened the assassin's skull into a grisly mush.
"While you - O bright minds - wasted your time and focused on protecting the weakest of your spellcasters, I simply had to devour the paralyzed inhabitants." Blackened liquid leapt to absorb an incoming light beam, much to Nihil's horror. She wasn't able to block Destruction spells before. "One by one, as discreetly as possible."
It took a single motion to sweep the remaining enemies in a tidal wave of black miasma, forcing them out of the central square. Solidified pikes penetrated the unluckiest ones, while the others simply crashed against already crumbling buildings.
Only Aeden and his friends remained untouched, primarily thanks to Nihil's barrier. Megissa maintained Vita behind her in case the spell wouldn't hold.
"What do we do now? Please tell me you have something else, Aeden." She seemed desperate, her golden eyes flickering between each new casualty. "She must've healed her Anima using the settlement's inhabitants as a resource. They weren't assimilated but literally devoured. If that's true, we don't have time."
The ethereal grey of Mana Oculus glistened in her gaze.
"Her Mana flow is growing at a rapid rate. She must've found a workaround for the pupa stage. In a few minutes, she'll reach her Imaginal form."
'Aeden… You can make it. It's not wrong...' The young Sorcerer addressed himself as if trying to convince his own body to move.
"I can't maintain it anymo-..." Nihil's spherical protection fell apart, making him take the full brunt of Junia's attack.
The soft thump of his crash resounded throughout what was left of the habitations.
'For your friends. For Vita. For Aloysius. For everyone who fought against this evil.'
"Now, what do we have?" The Medice approached them, her body elevated by the constant stream of corrupted ichor, gushing from under her robe. "A one-armed Homunculus and a Manaless Mathematician. I do hope that I haven't scared you into silence. Hearing people's last words has become my favorite past-time recently." she opened her palm towards them, readying the last attack.
...
"Can I ask you something, Junia?" Aeden finally spoke, his remaining hand gently touching the spellcraft covering his eyes.
"Oh? What do you want?" she was intrigued.
"How were you able to awaken the Devourer? The eggs were frozen, and standard spellcasting shouldn't be able to rouse one so quickly." He slowly untied the pitch-black cloth while his friend watched, confused.
"Simple. Witchcraft." her reply came in a matter-of-fact tone.
Megissa gasped, and Aeden's expression completely changed.
"So you dare use the Witch's art - the one gift only her children are allowed to wield?" His calm voice barely shrouded his seething. "Don't you fear the Coven hunting you down?"
"As if," she laughed, clearly looking down on them. "I hold no respect for that odious crone and her little rats. Once I become an Imago, even Sorcerers won't scare me."
"Enough," he muttered, almost inaudible.
"Hm?" she didn't hear him.
"I said enough." It was barely a yell, yet his command shook the entire settlement. Aeden finally ripped the spellcraft, revealing a set of crimson eyes glistening with the shimmer of fresh blood.
__
"HE DID IT!" Damara's study crumbled under the roar of fire as she watched her son, her dress undulating with each whirling flame.
__
Junia could only remember a reddish blur before she was trampled upon in every sense of the word. Vermillion Mana crushed her corrupted ichor with its weight, leaving her defenceless as Aeden tightly gripped her wrinkled face.
The same madness once again took over, filling the Sorcerer with the purest joy. The delight of expected bloodbath, the sweet whisper of murder, and the call for slaughter - everything enthralled his senses, filling him with a surge of power he had never felt before.
That exquisite sensation forcefully twisted his bearing, etching a warped smile on his face.
"I don't remember properly introducing myself either," he softly spoke. "I am Aeden, son of the Sorceress of Slaughter and grandson of the exalted Witch." Overwhelming thrill guided his words, and like a controlled puppet, he repeated every murderous murmur. "You dared flaunt the power of the Great Mother, a legacy you aren't even fit to look upon, before me. For that, you shall suffer the most excruciating of punishments."
The atmospheric Mana itself started to dance around Aeden, coiling and slithering towards the frozen Medice. His destroyed arm sprouted back, lifting her by the throat as hidden thaumaturgy flew in his mind.
He chanted in an unknown tongue, spilling an incantation he had never heard before as the wisdom of the Witch itself breathed strength into his spell:
"eniuD na sa atnaeD nniacaB!"
…
What ensued was but a faint memory, but looking back, it was indeed that moment that changed everything.
A pillar of scarlet light, and Junia's very essence being ripped apart and reconstructed - not into a living human, but a bloody, sentient mass of flesh.
The Witchspell had linked her to Cochlinia's barrier, using her as a core. Thus, she'd forever protect the settlement she wished to destroy but also bear the full brunt of the atmospheric Mana.
Every cell in her body would mutate and be forcibly healed back, imprisoning her into an eternity of pure agony.
Megissa had looked at the laughing Aeden, drunk in his frenzy, and realized the gap that separated them.
It wasn't strength… nor intellect.
No.
They didn't even belong to the same plane of existence.
'Was this what you meant, Teacher,' she had finally understood. 'When you asked me to help him become one of you?'