"This place feels like drowning in a cesspit" remarked Molarine as the group stood in front of the mansion.
Layo was busy giving healing to Ipiti, who kept yelling curses and crow in much clearer voice than usual.
"What are we waiting for? Dea is in there, hiding like a rat!" Molbas kicked the gate open, the various towers were seemingly completely empty and no one was here to stop them from getting in the way.
Before they bursted through the front door, they took a certain formation with Molarine in the front and Molbas closing it with Ipiti sitting on her shoulder.
Jamilo had stayed by the carriage, utterly terrified by the terrifying presence that emanated from the mansion, he had never noticed such a thing the times he had approached it.
The inside of the mansion was dark and it appeared that the lights had been destroyed recently, the place was made of intricately carved wood, inpressive shapes had been made into the walls, representing various scenes, most of hunting scenes, none of them rung any bells for the group, they must have made to represent scenes relating to the owner of this place.
The ground creaked with every step but no enemy was to be seen yet, the place was incredibly eerie and silent, it was like they were the only ones present inside.
Molarine took a step forward and suddenly, a bright light filled the area, coming from the ground itself, the light engulfed most of the group and once it started fading away, only Molbas and Ipiti had been left behind.
'What that a teleportation circle or something?' wondered the swordswoman as she tried to see the circle in question but nothing was left.
She had no idea where it could have taken them and whether or not they were even still alive, she couldn't sense them anywhere nearby.
Her and Ipiti exchanged a glance, she decided to push forward still, the chances that Dea would just slither away were to high for her to take the risk of retreating.
Her next step however, was halted as she felt something heading for her, she jump back, seeing a dark sphere floating, flying through the air where he head would have been.
The sphere seemed to be made of mana but had managed to remained undetected until it decided to attack.
Coming from behind a corner, a man with a crooked back and patches of hair missing appeared, he seemed calm but there was no mistaking that he was boiling on the inside, he scorned at her as the sphere flew back to him.
It expanded in size, before taking position in front of him in a defensive manner.
"You, who dare believe that you can challenge lord Dea, your casket will be left utterly empty!" he spat as the sphere expanded in an instant, grazing against the walls, ground and ceiling of the corridor, making a dreadful grinding noise as it entered into contact with them, completely erasing what it touched.
It went forward, moving forward at a faster pace than would be expected from such a large object, Molbas grabbed Ipiti with her hand and bashed through a nearby door, running across the place, hoping to lose the man and eventually, get the drop on him.
The chase proved to be rather arduous, as the man turned out to be faster than his bent back suggested and didn't worry about erasing the place to find her.
"You think you can run away from me?! I am Sniqueul! You are nothing and you will be nothing!" he yelled as he caught sight of her.
She was unable to lose him and she ended up running into a dead end, a large open room with only a single entrance, Sniqueul stand in the way, the sphere flying around him.
"Don't even think about it, this sphere is one that erases everything it touches, my domain is that of space, nothing your pitiful sword can do about it" he looked down on her, wearing a demented grin on his face.
He taunted her but his breath was ragged after running around for so long.
The sphere shrinked to a fist's size and zoomed around the room at a greater speed than before.
Sniqueul watched her struggled to dodge his orb of space, analysing the environment and noticing that something was off, Molbas was slowly but surely getting chipped off as the orb grazed her but something was missing.
"Where is the bird?" he wondered looking up at a chandelier but not seeing the parrot.
'No matter! I will kill Molbas first!' he concluded, as he accelerated the cadence of his attacks even if it was mana consuming.
Everytime she would try to close the distance with him, he would simply increase the size of the sphere and block her way, making sure to keep her at bay, he would have been in trouble had it been two people at once but in a duel situation, none of them had what it took to get to him.
The teleportation circle provided by the crow had proved useful, he had just had to link it to the deepest part of the mansion and gather all of the undeads created by Dea, he couldn't predict how it would go but it would leave him enough time to finish her off, after that, he would simply resort to hiding to attack.
Molbas did her best to dodge but her options where limited, the orb wouldn't slow down if something got in its way and blocking it with her sword was obviously out of the question.
At its current speed, the orb could sometimes hit her but it was too small to sever anything in one go.
The chandelier suddenly started to move on its own a fact that made one smile and the other snarl, as if moved by an invisible force it started swaying faster and faster until it was launched right at Sniqueul.
The chandelier itself was no worries as he was able to retrieve the orb and protect himself this way but that left him without anything to keep Molbas at bay for a few moments, as well as covering his vision of her.
From one of his sides, the tip of a blade shot out towards him, he brought his right arm in defensive manner but the blade pierced right through it and went through his throat as well.
he gurgled up some blood and gritted his teeth as his control on the orb of space faltered for a few moments, making it disappear.
With a swift turn of her blade Molbas severed both his arm and head cleanly off, seeding the two pieces flying in the air.
'Was that the damn bird?!' surprisingly enough, Sniqueul found himself still able to think clearly, in fact, he thought in a faster way than before it seemed, he could still fell his body despite being separated from it.
He saw two of his teeth falling out from his mouth and his body grow colder, his body twitch as his left arm took a hold of the swordswoman neck.
Molbas saw the decapitated head rolling on the floor, staring right at her.
She cut off the other arm as well and kicked the body away from her as she noticed the orb of space suddenly reappearing.
"At long last! I am worthy! I just needed to prove my worth to lord Dea, what better way than die for her?!" spoke the bodyless head while smiling like a madman, two sharp teeth now amongst his teeth.
Molbas managed to get the arm to stop strangling her and sliced it to pieces before doding the orb in extremis.
'That bastard wasn't a vampire at the start of this and what kind of vampire is perfectly conscious after that much damage anyways?!' Molbas was confused, the orb blocked her way but at least, with how sliced he was, he wouldn't be able to easily assemble himself back.
He was stuck as three different pieces excluding the minced arm.
His head, right arm and armless body.
If she could destroy his head completely, he would at the very least be unable to attack anymore.
Ipiti used her ability to collapse the ceiling on his head but despite being buried beneath rubbles, he still managed to control his orb perfectly.
The injuries she had sustained may have been fairly light but she would end up passing out for sure if this kept going on.
The orb had been reinforced by his transformation too, it was faster even when larger now.
The tip of her sword was swallowed, then it was the turn for her as it ran straight through her left elbow, severing the arm completely, then it grazed against one of her ankles, severely slowing her down.
The orb increased in size, large enough to swallow her whole, he knew that she wouldn't be able to dodge at all.
Ipiti watched powerlessly as the orb neared Molbas, there wasn't anything Strength could do, the floor beneath the swordswoman wouldn't collapse no matter what.
The parrot eyed the body and started pecking at his open neck, hoping that this would somehiw distract the vampire.
The orb stopped its course for an instant as Ipiti kept on pulling on whatever was exposed, the body twitched and flailed around.
His right arm shot forward, grasping the bird thightly for a moment before letting go, moving the orb again, Sniqueul couldn't control his loose limbs accurately as well as the orb.
"That's my win!" he declared as heavy presence made itself known.