I was luckily a few meters away from the second beam after I was flown out of the radius. If that thing hit me directly, the new state of my body would need a very, very ugly description, which I'd certainly love to avoid. So, running it is.
My shaky legs weren't the fastest, but they at least did their job and led me away from the square. Only to witness a figure being thrown ahead of me easily, crushing into multiple buildings and making them topple and collapse. A few blocks away, the Lord of the Underworld brushed off a few hints of dust from his flawless clothing.
My thoughts circled around him for a single second, after which I picked up my running speed again. Heading away from the square behind me and the Lord of the Underworld a few hundred meters in front of me. Although I just wanted to focus on escaping, my thoughts wandered to the words that the Lord of the Underworld said. 'This world isn't real.' Did he know that this world was just a VR game? That he was nothing but the byproduct of an advanced artificial intelligence and supercomputers creating a world for people like me to have fun?
And what about the sentence that followed after?
'And I knew they would come if I didn't follow the layout of the storyline of Daystreak.' It implied that he knew how the game should progress and at which pacing. Concluding his wording, he expected that he would be attacked if he didn't follow the set plot of the game. So, who was the attacker? Was he sent by the gamemasters? Was he an NPC designed to get rid of the Lord of the Underworld? If the attacker was sent by the gamemakers, how could even a legendary figure like him win? Slowing my pace, I came to halt. Looking back at the dust clouding the skies, dark fumes rising from the pits where the beams of destruction hit, Daystreak was lost. Many buildings had already collapsed in the fight between the two entities I couldn't even see and only flashes of light, clamor and the wind was a sign of the aftershock when they collided.
I was weak, pathetic. But compared to the Lord of the Underworld, I was undying in this world. Even if I could buy him a few seconds, it may help him escape. Regardless of the cruelties he showed, he deeply cared for the people of Daybreak and protected them for many decades. And he protected me. He saved me more than once and although he seemed to hide vile sins, I would never get answers if he died.
The red of the dawning sun suddenly blinded me momentarily. A blink later, I saw how a figure ascended into the sky. I didn't see the attacker before, but in the red light of sunset, his armor was tinted red. And then, another figure rose, not only fastly gaining altitude but also growing larger. Wings as dark as coal, with glowing red veins across them. Large, curved horns and a long tail with a beady, spiky end like a scorpion's tail. The Lord of the Underworld had morphed into a harrowing demon.
It perfectly mirrored the demon which was painted at the ceiling of the black market.
Against the skies, it looked like a demon was going to crush a star into dust. The figure of the attacker seemed laughable compared to the colossal demon flying above Daystreak. The wings made a torrent of wind crash down with every beat and I was just unable to react to the scene unfolding in front of me. How the fuck did my investigation of a murder case turn into a fantasy battle between demons and the gamemakers themselves?
But as terrifyingly gargantuan the creature was, would it be able to fend off the attacker?
Both fascinated and fearful I watched as both figures summoned their magic, attacks flashing and turning the skies into a bright firework and letting flames, ice, lightning or even more terrifying spells rain down on the city. If I thought the destruction was bad before, after this, the city was burning and most of the undamaged buildings were buried under the debris of the spells they weaved to kill each other.
I had to evade the rain of magic multiple times and was bathed in sweat from the heat that was caused by the spreading fire sources across the city.
If I didn't stop this fight, I would die in the next second as a miniscule part of collateral in their devastation.
Not so nice, and since I made up my mind to help the Lord of the Underworld, I switched out one of my quick slots and replaced the [lower tier mana potion] with my [higher tier mana potion]. Then I started casting and simultaneously drinking mana potions like water. My decreasing MP bar grew again and decreased while I used double casting, always dropping a bit more than two hundred MP after I cast another wave. Slowly, I accumulated a huge mass of acid bullets around me until they formed an astonishing number of liquid balls which were smaller than my fist, almost touching the next sphere. It was my first time to use this much money on a single attack. One [higher tier mana potion] was two silver and I burned through all of the forty I owned and emptied the remaining stash of [middle tier mana potions].
While my MP jumped and fell, my satiency and stamina sank as well and I had to pop a few stamina positions and eat while I still carried out casting with my staff.
After my [middle tier mana potions] were gone, I stopped casting and eyed the sky. Magic bullets could be fired at any target once the targeting was locked on. I just needed to pinpoint a general direction and they would fly. But my goal was continuous firing. To keep the attacker's attention as long as possible so I could distract the enemy from the Lord of the Underworld. So I laid the firing schedule out and prepared a few fireballs as well so they would paint a message in the sky, as soon as they both would focus on me after I started my attack.
Ha-wosh. A deep breath and then I let the bullets fly. With deadly precision, the first ten hit the attacker as he was just evading an attack from the Lord of the Underworld.
A status window popped up in front of me.
[You attacked:
Name: [Striker 13] ]
Race: [???]
Level: [???]
Class: [???]
Rank: [???]
Attributes: [???]
Stats: [???]
Skills: [???]
Remark: [Legendary demon slayer saving your day.]
The damage I dealt was maybe not even worth mentioning, but as both, the demon over Daystreak and the armored attacker looked at me, fireballs forming "run" rose over my head and the other volleys followed half a blink later, keeping the attacker at bay. Surprisingly, the Lord of the Underworld did as asked and the figure shrinked and was approaching me.
And before I could wonder what he was planning, demonic arms grabbed me and I was closely hugged by the demon. Wow. This was not my expectation when I planned to cover his retreat. With the sudden shock, I fired all the remaining bullets and basically showered the enemy with acid bullets. Well, since it was kind of liquid, please take it as if I sponsored you a spa treatment.
But it didn't keep him distracted long enough. Although the Lord of the Underworld was leaving Daystreak far behind with a few beats of his glowing wings. They were pretty cool and I did a fast screenshot.
"Why didn't you escape alone, I could have stalled the attacker." The demon looked at me and the fierce eyes made me swallow hard. They looked like molten lava and burning fire mixed to a whirl of destruction.
"I told you to run." A voice rumbled, vaguely resembling the voice that the Lord of the Underworld possessed in a human disguise before.
"I would've died from the falling magic from your battle anyways. Why not try to get answers instead? What did you mean earlier? Answer me what you hid! All this time, why did you want to help me?"
A low grumble shook the demon's chest and I almost shit my pants. Why couldn't his true form be a large rabbit or a unicorn? Questioning a gigantic demon while he could let me fall down anytime and make a blob of strawberry jam out of me wasn't my definition of a 'fun' game. Why did I play it again?
But instead of letting me fall into my demise, he answered: "I'm sorry. I didn't want to lie but I also didn't want you to find out the truth. Trigger my status, please."
I was speechless. I did expect dodging from my questions, blunt returns but not an apology. But I did as I was told and softly hit the rough exterior of the demonic skin (or was it armor?). It was enough to trigger the status.
[[You attacked:
Name: [Covenant Avenger]
Race: [Noble Demon]
Level: [312]
Class: [Avenging Warlock]
Rank: [A+]
Attributes: [???]
Stats: [???]
Skills: [???]
Remark: [A fearsome demon warlock who is both feared and revered everywhere he goes.]]
Why did I see so much of his status? This wasn't normal. And then, as if a switch was turned, my eyes darted back to one single detail I overlooked earlier.
Covenant.
Coven.
"Y-you…" I whispered.
"Yes, I got to know you as Coven, little Mysty." Tears which were taken away by the wind streamed from my eyes.
"Why? Why did you leave me believing you died?" I screamed, both enraged and frustrated. He made me mourn and suffer! He lied and betrayed the trust I gave him!
"I'm so sorry. I wanted to help you, but couldn't help you as Coven. Only as the ruler of the black market could I right the wrongs they did towards you."
"You destroyed an entire city and claim it's for my sake? How could you be this vain! I only needed you! Just a hug from you and your words of encouragement would have sufficed to make my world bright again! But you made me suffer even more and made me go through hell! I wanted to avenge you, you know! But you...you just lied to me and killed thousands of people! How could you! How dare you claim you did all of this for me!" My voice was weak against the howling wind while we flew across the sky, still pursued by the attacker.
"I did this for you! I thought if I could end the storyline I was bound to, I could help you escape! That I could free you from the restraints binding you in this world!" The demon, - Coven, - said, now upset too.
"I am here because of my free will! I wanted to be here and live with you in Daystreak! The real world doesn't matter to me anymore! Why did you decide on your own what I want or need? You're selfish!" I threw at him. Under my fingers, the demon breathed heavily.
"I maybe am. But I wanted you to be free, even if it would mean never seeing you again. You awakened me, Mystyval Ru-ná, without you, I was nothing but a scheduled event. But you made me alive, an individual being. You mean the world to me so I was ready to sacrifice the world if it would give you at least a chance." His demonic voice conveyed so much emotion, I was stunned. It never occurred to me that something - or someone - must've triggered the change in Coven. But it was only logical, that at some point a derivation had happened which caused events which led to this point.
"You said you knew they would hunt you down. Why did you do it anyway?"
"I was afraid that you could be erased from the world and I couldn't find you anymore if they updated to the next version. That I might be discovered before I could take action. We had only a few weeks left. As the occasion and even a reason to act offered itself, I didn't hesitate to start my plan." The more he told me, the more it seemed to make sense why he acted like he did. Like always, he wanted to be there for me. If all he told me was true, he just wanted me to be happy, even when he might 'die' due to the next version or be 'overwritten'.
"I would've loved to spend time with you until our last day, Coven. I enjoyed every day with you and was always grateful to have you by my side. But this attack is the gamemaker's reaction, right?"
"Yes, they will soon start to encircle me or even take down the whole world to run the update earlier. If this happens, I will be erased. The demon [Covenant Avenger] will still exist, but the me you got to know will cease to exist. I'm sorry for making me lose you again. If everything went well, I could have spared you the second goodbye." Coven said gently, which pierced my heart even more. It hurt so much to know the truth he spoke about so casually. If I hadn't returned to help him, he would have taken those words to his grave.
"You wouldn't have told me about yourself?!"
"No, I wouldn't."
"You're awful! Why did I ever enjoy spending time with you?" I tried to diffuse the heavy knot in my chest by jesting, but it only felt bitter on my tongue. Imagining how he must have felt knowing that he had to leave and did everything to ease his disappearance as much as he could. To soothe my suffering, he hurt himself a hundredfold more times.
"I loved every second by your side. So please, grant me one last wish, little Mysty." he murmured, his voice almost impossible to hear against the wind.
"What is it? A hug? One last rent after I earned some money?" I joked, my voice suffocated because I knew, soon I'd have to say goodbye again. And I wasn't ready to lose Coven once more. I refused to even think about it. Why was this game so unfair! Couldn't they just let me keep Coven?
"Please, kill me."