The darkness feels tangible, like wading through jelly. A shock runs through Aki's body, temporarily pausing her movement. It was brief enough that Aki may not have noticed, but a series of windows flash before her eyes at the same time.
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[Time Stop Resistance Lv. 0 - Activated]
[Time Stop Resistance Lv. UP! Lv. 0 -> Lv. 1]
[Threats beyond survivable level detected]
Bound Spirit: Pelgaius of the DeepNightstalker Vampire8 Lesser VampiresRampaging Owrou: Unknown
[Gift Activated: Precognition]
[Tactican Lv. 2 - Insight Granted]
[Switching Titles]
[Title Switched: Witch to Cr¬wn of H¬ma¬¬tas]
[Power insufficient: Forceful temporary access (greater) to Cr¬wn's power]
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Heat surges through her veins as strength fills Aki. Her body seizes as she rapidly blinks away the influx of information and focuses only on what the passive ability of [Tactician] enlightened her to.
The two giant shadow creatures were busy duking it out over the city in the distance, making the very ground rumble as their contest over the shadows went on.
Meanwhile, Larx, the nightstalker vampire, and his thralls are focused on the entrance to the shortcut she and the others had come through earlier.
They hadn't noticed her yet. All the more perfect for her.
A head on fight was already a no go.
Nightstalker vampires are a deviation closer to Earth's modern tales than other types. Practically all powerful in the dark like this.
However, Aki remembers that Shur's bestiary says that nightstalkers are the most feral of the vampire variety. No matter how reined in one might seem, they cannot resist a frenzy if they aren't prepared to encounter extremely mana-rich blood spilling.
Since the thralls most likely belong to Larx, they are nightstalker fledglings and should share the same weaknesses.
Defeating nine vampires and subduing two powerful entities was a tall task, even with the swaggering strength pulsing through her.
Still, Aki hadn't tipped all her cards. Larx and his thralls only know about the bolt attack spells.
"Dent! If I'm right, this'll get you some time to breathe."
Aki dashes down the temple steps, pendulum spinning rapidly in one hand, and pulls out her ax with the other.
She reels back and cuts into her flesh with a quick slash.
"Gah!" She grinds her teeth as fresh, stinging blood pours down her arm and pools around her scarred wrist. "Stars and skies… Bloodbolt!"
Mana thickly blankets her. Aki swings the pendulum hard, the magical command sharpening the free-flowing blood into high speed projectiles.
"Struggle like the rat you are, I know -" Larx detects and dodges the attack first but the scent of Aki's blood – rich in power – makes his instincts take hold. His refined yet dark demeanour crumbles. "THaT's – YEs, fOoD dEliVereD? NoVEl!!"
Larx and his thralls turn away from the secret passage, quarry all but forgotten and hunger clear in their emotions. Frenzy takes over.
They vanish, moving too fast even for Aki's reinforced vision and empowered body to pick out in the dim light.
A thrall – one with short hair and boxy features – is the first to attack, latching onto Aki's back and rips into her neck, shattering the shield like it was no more than paper.
Another thrall appears then and sinks its teeth into Aki's wrist, with a third following suit on the other arm.
Overwhelmed by damage, the illusion breaks, surprising the three thralls and preventing them from reacting to the ghostly chains suddenly upon them.
When it comes to predators like vampires, evading them requires not only masking one's scent but also suppressing one's mana signature.
By weakening her shield to only block her scent and swelling her illusory double with enough mana to make it solid while camouflaging herself, it would be difficult to tell where she actually is at a glance.
Aki manifests from the thick darkness, leaping over the thralls and charging her magic.
"Boost!" Empowered further, she hits them with a sweeping backhand as hard as she possibly can.
The thralls heads crash together, their bones and flesh tearing from the force of their impact on each other.
Aki's expression twists, able to feel the pain just from the sound that was made. "Oh, ah, I'm sorry I should heal – wait no! Don't take advantage of my goodwill!"
"HOw cleVer," Larx speaks from everywhere around Aki. His voice wavers with frenzy but significantly less than seconds prior. "AnY more TRIcKS?"
"Say please." Aki squeezes her eyes shut and swings the pendulum over her head, willing for the crown's light. "Illuminate."
The height of the pendulum's spin directly over Aki's head flashes, the force of the spell mixing with Aki's will as the unseen crown explodes with powerful light. Black becomes white, blinding even Aki who has her eyes closed and aimed down.
"HRRAAAAAAAAGHHHH!!!"
Larx, for all the gained resistances and training to manage Light magic as a Nightstalker vampire, is utterly blinded by pain. His thralls too suffer the consequences and flail around unable to land a hit, resulting in friendly fire.
Of course, being a type of Undead, this temporary stun is only that. Temporary.
"Spectral Bind!"
Aki's ghostly chains wrap around two more of the thralls but miss Larx. Even blinded, he instinctively dodges away from the threat. Meanwhile, the first three Aki chained have broken free of the binds, weakened but still a serious threat.
The ground shakes from an explosion in the distance, catching Aki's attention for a second too long. Larx dashes up, kicking Aki with an empowered leg. The impact resounds like a cannon blast, the shockwave visible even in this black and white world.
Aki blocks the attack by crossing her arms and is instead sent flying.
She adjusts midair to roll into a defensive kneeling position. Larx is already waiting and stomps on her back, pinning Aki to the ground.
"In battle, it is imperative to finish off your foe before showing all your abilities, young lady. Were I not planning on capturing you, your death would have come by hundreds of times over." Larx taunts.
Now able to properly open his eyes, he gives Aki a condescending look. His thralls on the other hand, are still struggling to recover their sight. "Any more cards to play?"
"Just one, yeah. Thanks for asking."
Larx frowns, confused then surprised as his unspoken question is answered.
"Have you forgotten?" Dent's blade cuts through one of the most exhausted thralls' neck and flows into a second then a third's vital areas. "I thought I put up a memorable fight."
Cutting wind follows the expert sword movements directed at Larx, though the nightstalker easily evades at the cost of freeing Aki.
With a nicked sword, broken armour, and a swollen brow, Dent stands protectively in front of Aki. She gives a word of thanks and quickly stands, healing her arm in the process.
"I am still here, monsters."
Larx scowls, glancing from Dent and Aki in annoyance.
Before further blows can be exchanged, a howling ripple of power shakes the space around them. The air grows intensely heavy, even the pitch black appears to screech in protest to the sudden gravitas.
Paralysed by the influx of mana and miasma mixing together, no one, enemy or ally, is able to move.
BOOM!
The edge of the overlook where the two thralls Aki had chained were tossed to is ripped from the connected land. Necra and Pelgaius in the midst of their power struggle have directed their attention at the group of combatants.
A spark of recognition foreign to Aki strikes her. Necra's eyeholes ever so slightly widen for a second seeing her and Dent there.
"You wouldn't happen to be here to help us, would you?" Aki gives a tense grin though she can't unfurrow her brow.
[The narrative being, powerful yet pitiful. Your soul will serve to empower us greatly!"] Necra's excitement warbles, the overlapping voices sounding maniacally pleased as well as woefully full of despair.
Pelgaius pushes back, slamming Necra into the stones and drags the owrou across the ground trying to sweep up the other intruders in the attack.
Rather than counter, Necra levels a sharp gaze at those on the ground, with Aki as its primary target.
Craven emotions, twisted and ominous, hit Aki like a punch to the gut. It launches small but fast projectiles at everyone, but only Aki stays put in spite of the danger.
"Wait wait wait! It's me! Winter's friend! We met before, remember!? I want to help you!"
Necra swipes at Aki, targeting her head with a powerful horizontal slash. Aki ducks and leaps backward in one swift movement, dodging the attack easily.
However, Necra keeps the momentum and turns the swipe into a grapple.
The fluidity of the move catches Pelgaius off guard, resulting in a choking slam headfirst into a row of magic lamps on the street. Necra tears into the mass that is Pelgaius, then targets Aki once more.
"Hold on! I know you're going a little crazy right now but," Aki dodge rolls forward, leaving a series of spectral chains to deflect a beam of miasmic energy Necra fires after her. "You helped out a lot before in the catacombs! How come you're going crazy here? What about Winter?!"
She spins out of another attack's path and focuses on Necra. Her eyes brighten as she scans the owrou.
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[Crown Ability Activated: Eyes of the Heart]
[Target is in a state of madness]
[Souls are in turmoil, unable to consent]
[Quell target's heart to instigate change]
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Its cloaked body shimmers with specks of light being smothered by erratically shifting darkness many times bigger. Their extreme aggression is clear.
"Figured it wouldn't be that easy." Aki squeezes her wrist tightly.
The shadows harden around her and the others, becoming lunging spears or exploding orbs in rapid succession.
Necra's souls contest their desires, burning over crawling embers pleading for an end.
Pelgaius' own emotions of desperate loyalty swell against Necra's brutal assault.
Aki quickly realises the offhanded onslaught is unable to form dangers within the range of her light. Effectively making her a pseudo-safespace from the more destructive shadow attacks.
As long as she doesn't accidentally step close to a corpse of rubble large enough to cast a shadow from her light that is.
"Dent, I'm coming to you! You'll be safe if you stick close!" Aki shouts her reassurances but Necra is actively isolating her from friend and foe.
It is all anyone can do just to avoid getting torn apart by Necra. One solace being that Pelgaius' largely ignores them and is solely focused on the cackling owrou that is its opponent.
Blackened water takes a bladed shape and explosive beams rain down around the field, damaging Necra and everything nearby.
Several even follow a line to the only source of light around.
Pelgaius ignores everyone other than Aki. Though the umibozu attacks far less frequently than Necra.
"Why!?"
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[Gift Activated: Precognition]
[Tactican Lv. 2 - Insight Granted]
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"Ah."
Dent, Larx, his thralls, and her all turn their attention to the light emanating from over her head. The only source of light tearing a hole in whatever spell creates this black and white world.
A vacuum rips the space between them open, effortlessly devouring the corpses of the ship's crew that hadn't survived earlier. One of Larx's thralls gets caught in a second space tear closer to the warring monsters. For all of a vampire's – even a lesser vampire's – strength, the thrall is pulled apart like wet paper.
The only solace is the wet squelching sound is barely audible over the sounds of wailing souls and the gruesome scene is obscured by the area's enchantment outside of Aki's light zone.
Necra swats down, missing Aki and Dent by a hair. Her warning system won't do any good here as it hasn't stopped going off after it started.
"Thanks, I KNOW!" Aki swats at the empty space in front of her helplessly. "Light aside, what are these feelings?" She murmurs.
Conflicting emotions put her in a chokehold as her eyes pass over Necra's own.
Stuck in a contest of strength, owrou and umibozu try to pin the other.
Even so, Aki can tell that the hooded eyes of the spirit are trained on her.
Another alert as solid shadows stutter up between Aki's legs. Necra's clawed finger freezes for a moment, allowing Aki to twirl back just before she's grabbed.
"Close!" Aki stumbles on the landing and falls on her butt.
Dent is off to the side, whipping up a wind barrier to avoid most attacks while trying to get to Aki. Larx and his thralls meanwhile, are mixed between trying to carry out their mission and fighting against the threats overhead. Pelgaius has the advantage now, curbing Necra's attacks on them for a moment.
Aki clenches her fists. Rampant emotions full of desperation still strike her even as Necra is getting beaten down. It has yet to take its gaze off her.
Owrous are as rare as they are extremely dangerous. Not because they're powerful, though they are, but because it isn't a singular entity. Rather, it is the collection of at least 100 souls that died in brutal fashion granted an overarching ego.
Facing off against one is the same as fighting an army working in perfect harmony. Necra, however, is far more powerful than Shur's bestiary alluded to. Aki is sure of that since she's been feeling several hundred thousand emotions from it at least.
Yet this creature is being subdued by the dominance of the umibozu above it.
Pelgaius' eyes pulse with swirling white energy. Around it, white lines of wiggling arms break apart the flat black around Pelgaius and repeatedly blast the pinned Necra while an extra four lower limbs it grows blast at Aki and the others, attempting to create space between them and the temple area.
Dodging one dark magic blast sends rubble flying and pins Larx's leg in an awkward position. As if sensing the vulnerable position, Pelgaius follows up with a beam of sizzling darklight. Larx tries to counter with Light magic but it fails, unable to do as Aki's done.
"So this is it." Larx sighs.
Her legs move on their own. Before she knows it, Aki stands defensively in front of Larx, and is slashing her pendulum in a wide forward arc.
Pelgaius's attack explodes against the layered attack and shield combo. Rather than dissipating against Aki's defences, it curves from the finely controlled wave of mana Aki releases, reverberating in such a way to create a roaring boom.
Pelgaius' own attack swerves back on him, blazing across his chest.
Aki winces, squeezing her eyes tightly from the sudden, shocking sound. Her ears ring and her balance sways but she manages to stay upright.
The dark mass that is Pelgaius splits apart, wailing in frustration and disdain as the umibozu struggles to reform his body.
"Quick, take my hand before they recover." Aki grabs him with both hands, pulsing her mana through her body and his.
"Huh? Uh, yes. Of course." Larx blinks rapidly, swept up by the urgency in his quarry's tone that he can't help but follow her instructions.
Aki calms his panicked mana first, then helps him flip away the rubble that pins him.
"You saved me." Larx states. He blinks in disbelief, suspicion evident in his gaze. "It pains me to say but I owe you a favour."
"Then will you help me calm Necra and take down the slave trade run by the Eastern Underworld King?" Aki asks. Her eyes glitter with the same sincerity that her smile shows.
"No."
A rush of overwhelming emotions strikes her from behind. It is all Aki can do to keep herself standing.
She feels Dent and the thralls enter the range of the crown's light, their hostility toward each other taking a backseat against the looming presence of the owrou.
The countless conflicting emotions from Necra are clearer now. Louder. Many times more powerful than before and far more desperate.
So thick are the emotions now that Aki can practically hear the voices of the dead screeching at her. Aki can see the miasmic vision of countless phantom arms clawing at the edge of her light, begging for something.
Half beg for release. For salvation. Or to return with Winter, chiming on about a promise. The other half calls for power and devastation. At how unfair something is but she can't quite hear what.
Yet the loudest emotion, the strongest desire coming from Necra is a deafening demand to devour everything in front of it.