LEO took in the scene.
"Leo?" asked a bewildered Reyna. "How?"
Isaac teared up and then wiped his tears. He walked to Leo and slapped him.
Leo winced. "Ouch!"
"Just checking," he said. "We thought you died, or did you come back from the dead."
His chest sill hurt from where the bullet had hit him.
"It's not possible," the demon behind them yelled. It had regenerated its head already. "I killed you."
"Point of correction," Leo said. "You stopped my heart."
"Then how did you restart it?" Reyna asked.
"Thanks to Reyna," Leo explained.
Reyna understood instantly, but Isaac didn't.
"I'll explain later," he said, tapping Isaac's shoulder. He handed Isaac a vial of glowing gold liquid.
"What's this?" Isaac asked.
"I met Dominic on my way here, something about regaining your magic," he explained.
Without hesitation, Isaac opened the vial and downed its content.
He heaved a sigh of relief, and his eyes started glowing green. His outfit changed back to the green pentagram design.
Leo deflected the bullets with a clap, and the demon created another round of them.
"Are we taking him?" Reyna asked, producing two daggers from a leg strap.
Leo suddenly felt threatened. Had she been walking around with two daggers tucked under her gown?
"No, we're stalling," he explained and clapped his hands, producing a sound wave that deflected the bullets.
"Roger," Isaac said and stretched his hand forward. "Illecebrosus caligo."
A magic circle appeared on his palm, and large amounts of mist rushed out of it.
"Let's do this," Leo said.
* * * * *
Their encounter had flattened the whole tower.
The man was exhausted while his opponent wasn't going down anytime soon. His charism wasn't doing much against her, but his curse was. That's why she started dodging his attacks after he had activated it. He had landed some good hits, but that wasn't enough to take her out.
"An old man can never beat an immortal," Belial chuckled. She brandished her whip and lashed it at him.
He grabbed the whip and made a loop around his arm.
"The common misconception that all people with white hair are old is really starting to get on my nerves," he said and sent a violent vibration through the whip which caused it to jerk violently at her end.
She didn't let go and tamed the whip.
A black tendril shot up from the ground aimed for his chest.
He couldn't block on time.
An arrow of light whistled through the air and pinned the tendril into the ground.
"Who's that?" she asked and looked around.
Someone was behind her.
Blanc knew who it was and let go of the whip.
She lashed her whip backwards, but the person caught it.
"Seems sturdy enough. What's it made out of?" Dominic asked.
Noah was tired. All he wanted was to go back to his family peacefully and give Leo the burial he deserved. That was if Irene couldn't revive their. Avenging his son wasn't going to bring him back, and this demon didn't seem to be the one who assassinated his son. She was in on the plan but hadn't fired the shot.
The demon was in good hands. Dominic would surely end its life.
A bow appeared in Dominic's hand and a quiver of arrows at his back. He notched the arrow in his bow, and with no hesitation or time to aim, he fired at the demon.
* * * * *
Dis turned around in the smoke.
He couldn't see them.
The little cowards were too scared to face him head-on, probably trying to use the mist to escape or make a sneak attack.
As he predicted, he felt a hand brush his back. He responded by backing up and firing a round of bullets in his assailant's direction. The mist messed with his senses again, causing him to fire in the opposite direction.
He wasn't going to give them enough time to do either.
* * * * *
Everything was going according to plan but they had to be careful.
The mist had messed with his senses, causing him to move around like a confused child looking for his mother. Reyna had gone to take care of the demon's lackey, leaving Leo and Isaac to face the monster alone.
Leo looked around and found some stones. Coins or metal balls would have been better, but he had to make do with what he had. Since they were mere rocks, they wouldn't do as much damage as metal. They also weren't as sturdy, meaning he could only use them once. He created a protective layer around them and flung them using his charism.
As they left his hand, they sounded like the crack of bullets and flew with incredible speed. They shattered on impact and created craters on the demon's body.
He knew it. The protective layer wasn't enough for the stones to pass through the demon's body.
The demon turned towards them and fired another set of bullets that missed again.
Leo flinched again because he didn't trust Isaac's spell.
The said Isaac had been gathering mana since Reyna left.
"Enough," the demon yelled.
The air started shimmering as bullets began forming above them.
Leo could tell that the demon was going to kill them for sure. The bullets kept growing in number, and Leo didn't think he could protect himself and talk less of two people. They formed a blanket over the whole maze covering the night sky.
"Isaac, whatever you're doing, do it quick!" Leo yelled.
Isaac chuckled. "You're going to run with everything you've got."
"What 'bout you?"
"Just go and get backup," Isaac pleaded. "You're the only one who can get there in one piece."
Leo had no choice but to accept. He was the only one who could get out of the maze without getting hit. So he had to do it quickly.
"Promise me you won't try anything stupid," Leo demanded. "Once you make it through the bullets you'll get away from here."
He nodded in response.
Isaac watched Leo tear through the maze, like a bull, ripping apart the hedges as he went.
Sure, he was stronger than before since his mana had accumulated over time because he hadn't been using magic, but what was the use of excess energy if he didn't have the specific formula to use it.
He was more or less a pre-schooler when it came to magic.
What he was going to do, was to hold on until the demon had expended the bullets. Surely, they weren't infinite.
"Defendere," he casted and clapped his hands. The resultant magic circle was sturdier than any he had ever created before. It grew in size, and Isaac placed it over his head.
Then it started to raining.
What came next was more intense than anything he had ever faced before.
One bullet weighed as much as bowling ball.
More hit the shield, and Isaac knew it wasn't going to work out. He expanded the shield into a dome, channelling some of the weight to the ground.
Only ten seconds had passed, and Isaac could feel his muscles screaming.
He tried to take his mind of the pain by playing a song in his head, but after three lines, he gave up. He then tried thinking of the times he spent with Reyna and Leo.
That also didn't help at all.
"So... much for the power of friendship."
He then began reciting the Lord's prayer.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of right..."
Isaac paused, laughed, and continued.
His situation was ironic.
A witch reciting the Lord's prayer.
Why would he be reciting it if he was condemned to Hell? That was the fate of one who bore magic. Not that there was any concrete proof of it, but that was the conclusion since the first users of magic were forced into the oceans and became sirens.
Why?
Because magic was a cheat code that God didn't approve of.
Isaac hated being punished for his ancestors' actions and didn't ask to be born a witch.
Even with his future set in stone, he was still a proud Christian. Like his mother, he believed that maybe... just maybe, the person up there would open the gates of Heaven for him after he died.
Thinking about it now, he wondered what his mother's fate was.
The buckling of his knees brought his attention back to his predicament. Cracks began to form on the dome, and his arms were feeling numb. The veins on his head felt like they were going to pop.
"... and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
As the words left his mouth, the dome shattered.