The captain's face had changed, now spotting red markings made by blood flowing from his head injury.
He forced a smile and said, "Blood sacrifice…."
Suddenly, confusion clouded his face and he looked at Zamright with realization and understanding.
"Zamright run. Lanterns are slaves, they kill any of us that aren't under the….!"
His face became red with a painful expression, fighting something but he couldn't resist long, his face features disappeared, becoming flat.
Zamright's heart shook, 'What is this?' he wondered. He never saw anything like this.
The next thing that happened was the man with a featureless face created a mouth and it continued reciting the incantation. "to... Blood Ice Demon!"
That was the last thing he did before his body convulsed and exploded. Not just him, the other guards that were killed by Van all exploded.
A gloomy sensation filled the air as the exploded corpses created rain of blood out of nowhere that filled the building. Sealed by other means, the blood raised up to Van's knees.
However, Zamright was standing on its surface as it rose to about a metre.
Zamright has not killed the guide he had slapped away but the blood drowned him and he died. Another explosion occurred which increased the blood volume.
The space around them became bright reddish, Van breathed in and he felt he was choking on it. His veins bulging, he felt fear as if he was transferred to a battle field for demonic bloodbath.
Suddenly, the blood was pulled in one direction alongside the reddish mist and turned into a single drop.
Van breathed deeply the clean air but the horror on his heart and face didn't abate. He might have seen a lot of things and survived hellish war but this was one of the dreaded things he never got used to.
"Master. This is a defile power. We shall run!"
Van shouted in horror. There was one rule when facing something like this during his waring time, and that was… run on sight.
The drop of blood moved up to the ceiling and it became red crystal ice then it dropped and shattered.
From the shards, a simple red ice doll was arranged. It was one foot tall, with humanoid features and spread-out princess-like skirts.
Its face was featureless and the cold aura it was emitting was palpable.
At every passing second, Van was becoming more terrified.
However, his master was having a slight frown.
'Is this all the Great Lantern can muster!?'
He had expected to face dangerous people that would threaten him but he was disappointed.
'Did the world become weaker or what?'
Despite all the fanfare, he knew this thing was weak and can't amount to much.
The doll spun on its high hill and he was about to be encased in ice.
Clap!
The ice shattered.
Then as it moved in a dance like, ice spikes materialized and attacked him. He made another clap and the attacks were shattered. Attacks continued to come and clap dismantled it.
The doll body increased in size and inhuman eyes now carved on its face. What happened next was it grinned that will leave Van in despair for months to come and he instantly fainted again.
Even Zamright was taken aback by the grin before he raised his hand to defend a physical attack from the ice demon.
He was sent and slammed on the wall which he somewhat was cushioned rather than solid impact.
Checking, Zamright found himself on that weird creature.
"What are you?" He asked but the creature moved and made Zamright avoid the Ice Demon next attack.
It dropped Zamright gently and then lashed out at the summoned demon.
Zamright wondered why this thing was protecting him.
The creature has six arms, with a slender body, and a long tail with bushy hair that always caresses the floor.
Upon closer observation, Zamright realized that as long as the hairs touched the floor it kept floating and if not it would begin to descend down.
Its face was cylindrical with two large eyes. There seemed to be no mouth on it.
By all indications, the creature wasn't strong physically but it can phase through objects and attacks.
Zamright raised his hand and clapped in a series of frequencies which shattered the ice demon doll to pieces.
Using that moment, the creature pummeled the pieces with its six arms.
The creature glided back to Zamright and stared at him.
It was behaving as if It knew him but Zamright did not remember it at all. As Zamright was sensitive to vitality he felt that the creature was weaker than it should be as if it had not been fed for quite some time.
"What are you?" Zamright asked again.
The creature raised one of its hands and pointed at him and then at itself. But before it did anything else a pressure descended upon them.
Zamright frowned and he looked back.
Above the pummelled ice pieces was a strange red circle in making, suspended in the air.
A hand, as large as Zamright, came through the circle and the pressure intensified.
The floor cracked and then blood bubbled up from there and a powerful suction force tried to drag Zamright.
The ice demon was here in person. With incredible ease Zamright resisted but with mild annoyance.
As for the six-armed creature, it was being dragged away.
The ice demon understood that its prey wasn't being affected properly, it slammed its giant hand, shattering the floor and Zamright found a flat ice with markings above him.
Two giant arms each as large as him, moving fast to grab him.
Zamright decided to move and his speed was incredible. He didn't move far, the ground became very cold and pierced his legs.
That did little to hold him though but then he hit a glass wall and his movements came to a stop.
At the entrance of the building, ten layers of people, each holding an artefact of power to hold Zamright in place.
"Vanish!"
"Vanish!"
"To unholy red Ice Priestess Castle!"
"Vanish!"
"Vanish!"
It was an orchestra of voices that empowered the already established ability binding Zamright.
He began to be pulled toward the demon ice portal and he was forcefully pushed into it.