Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 114 - 109: Ray Vs Varkain III

-Whoosh

As the wind blew, Agnil crumbled into dust, in absolute silence.

It wasn’t until the demon’s cackling pierced the silence that I snapped back to reality, or I would have liked to say, but somehow a wooden stick landed on my head. After a casual look, I burnt that stick to crisp and looked the demon.

"Hahahaha!"

Actually, I was quite confused about why he was laughing. Was he laughing because Agnil’s last ditch attack failed? Or it was something else?

Not just the demon, in fact, I was confused about the whole situation. I just told Agnil to destroy the formation. Why did he have to go and blow himself up?

From what I saw, the golden light exploded from his chest, more specifically, his stomach. Did the old man accidentally mishear me or something, having some misunderstanding that spiraled into him eating the leaf?

Just placing the leaf on the center of the formation and triggering it with his mana should have been enough. And yet he went and blew himself up.

Or maybe he had already eaten the leaf beforehand? Then didn’t just ask him to die for me?

Well, it didn’t matter that much to me. We barely saw each other for a few seconds so I don’t care much about an old man who shook hands with the demonic cult, forced or not. He was going to be arrested and dispatched once I took him back anyways. But three people were always better than two, atleast in fights.

Atleast, he redeemed himself, chopping one of the demon’s arms.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!"

But that thought soon went to gutter as the demon’s laughter grew louder, more unhinged.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

His body convulsed with mirth, one hand covering his face as he doubled over.

Meanwhile, I who was watching all this turned grim. A demon convulsing with laughter was never a good thing.

So, when he finally stopped laughing, I was tense. Ready to be attacked any second.

But that didn’t happen, instead the demon’s laughter turned into a heavy sigh as he complained loudly, "Hah! What a waste of time! All that time and resources invested here being wasted.", muttering a few more things to himself.

And while I knew better to not interrupt in a demon’s monologue, something compelled me to ask, "Why is it a waste of time?"

"You really don’t fear death, do you now boy~? Or is it that you really didn’t understand? I’d be disappointed if you didn’t. I don’t like dumb kids.", he turning around to look at me with an unpleasant smile.

I plastered a smile on my face as well and answered plainly, "Your mum said the same thing, maybe that’s why you never met her."

’Ray! What are you doing?! Don’t provoke him! Let him leave if he wants to leave.’, Fostoria who was standing on the tree top of a tall tree faraway, immediately scolded.

’Excuse me? Are you really taking a demon’s words at face value?!’, I rebuked the naive young elf, adding, ’Besides, I know what he is talking about.’

Well, the demon finally understood that owning the Tree of Light is not something he can do, even if he or a Satan appears in person. And he was right, if a leaf contained this much power, then I can’t imagine how powerful the whole tree was.

The demon’s smile cracked at my reply as his face turned dark, his star shaped pupils burning with fury, "I was going to kill you anyways, but you just turned yourself in for a world of pain."

’See?’, I said to Fostoria, before opening my mouth for another colorful remark, but well, it was broken by the demon’s punch before I could.

’That fucking hurts!’

My teeth flew out of my mouth, as I tried to reach out the acceleration circle above me.

Surprisingly, I reached it. The tip of my fingers passed through the circle, followed by my arm, but that was when I was stopped.

With his giant palm, the demon held onto my leg and yanked me back causing the [Acceleration] circle to crackle with magical might, exerting even more pull on my hand.

It was like a tug of war between the demon and the magic circle, with me being the rope.

And both of them won, leaving me, the one who lost, divided in two pieces.

Then again, it was on my initiative, I purposefully lowered the magic flowing through my arm in a certain one region, under such pressure it wasn’t able to hold and…

With the eerie sound of flesh tearing, half of my arm flew in the air, while I was taken into the demon’s grasp.

Hanging upside down, with blood spurting from my hand, I kicked on the demon’s hands. But my kicks that could easily crush a person bones into bits, were like a little ant’s sting to the demon.

Arrows rained upon him like water droplets, but, "This is getting old!", the demon snarled, as a barrier appeared on his side, intercepting the arrows.

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Then with the help from his tail, he caught my other leg in his hand too, a purple glow accumulating before his mouth as he grinned, "Now, let me see your face as I castrate you!"

’This pedo demon!’, I cursed, letting go of my sword that was now being restrained by his tail and reached up, condensing the barrier on my hands, or my hand in this case, I tried reflecting the spell…

…but I underestimated its power.

At that close range, the spell pierced through my shield, even burning through my armor and hand. It got so dangerously close to family jewels that I could even feel the heat on my balls.

’Goodbye, my friends (balls). I go now to my rest.’, I gave up, a second away from becoming like the boy who said this.

(A/N: Let’s see how many people know this ref.)

And if you thought that I could just recover them anyway, you haven’t been kicked in the balls have you, boy?

Thankfully, God had different plans.

A screeching arrow hit the demon right on his chin, tilting his head upwards, towards his own hand.

’Old tricks work the best.’, I heard in my mind, but I honestly didn’t give a fuck, my balls were safe that’s all that mattered… and the pain was almost driving me insane.

I had already used a pain resistance artefact that dropped my reaction to pain by 30-40%, but even then, things were getting unbearable.

I was losing a chunk of my flesh everytime I exchanged blows with the demon. Constantly getting mutilated, gutted, chocked, torn apart, or burnt, like now, when the demon’s laser burnt my legs, allowing me to escape but, it was very painful and stressful.

In case you didn’t notice, I was trying to act like a third person, trying to be simply like a gamer playing a game, throwing jokes here and there, but slowly I was reaching my limit.

I had been mutilated so many times that I was barely holding my body back from going in shock due to trauma. But now it seems that my mind had enough too, it was reaching the limit too. Questioning—Why I have to endure this? Do I really have to do this? Can’t I just give up? What is my fault and all that stuff.

Though, I erased such thoughts as soon as they appeared using [Parallel Mind], but I kept having more and more of them, that too faster and faster.

In fact, I have been using such thoughts as shield to protect the spells I was preparing, from the demon magic disrupt, but at this rate I’ll be overwhelmed by them. It was also slowing down the rate of my recovery, not the physical recovery rate, but the mental one, the potions I was using were equal to unlimited lives as long as I drank one before dying, so my physical body was not a problem.

It was taking longer for me to mentally recover from each injury and it was also getting harder to continue that third person act.

Also, the demon had stopped playing around, his goals changed. From obtaining the [Tree of Light] to killing us, so even my life saver artefact would only give me another life. If the demon somehow managed to kill me using Fostoria’s attack, I was as good as dead as he could just kill me again.

Let’s finish it then.

’Fostoria, final round. Support me with all you can.’, I said, plainly, as I retreated using [Acceleration] and started working.

First, I took the potions and replaced the holy vials even though the dark curtain had been destroyed, but it was the usual routine, so my actual first task was summoning the artefacts.

No way, I only had one! Being cheap when your life is on line is basically another form of suicide!

So, I summoned the first one. Someone to take on the demon’s hits, the [Obsidian Goliath], a towering 15-meter tall, autonomous golem made of obsidian and reinforced with enchanted metal, with magical veins running across its body, revealing the molten core within.

It was strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the demon, could take hits, cover us under his large body and regenerate it’s armor.

It was the perfect tank. So, as soon as it appeared, I sent it to assist Fostoria with battle, this short moment had already left her haggard, with a palm missing and a deep gash along her spine.

Second, was someone to support Fostoria, a ranged dealer with more punch, the [Plasma Sentinel]. A sleek, floating drone made of highly polished metal with a plasma core at its center.

The best way to describe it would be Megatron in his plane form, with all his guns aimed at you.

If someone loved guns, then they would cum at the sight of this thing. It had a stunning twenty barrels that it could shoot from, each barrel having a unique ammo with unique effect, ranging from, energy based to physical bullets.

For context, its longest barrel was in fact a rail gun barrel, you can imagine the rest. It had a powerful shield that could protect him, though it couldn’t fire when that shield was active.

Once again, I sent it straight to battle.

As for the last one- Fuck!

-BOOM!!

I dodged the purple beam at the last second, looking at the demon who seemed infuriated as he lunged at me. It was at that moment, a magically enchanted metal went hypersonic, hitting the demon straight on the face, flinging him back.

I didn’t wait to see what happened next, instead I switched spots and quickly took out another item.

It was a rusted knife wrapped in holy talismans; sure, it was rusted, but the intricate workings on the knife guard, and the golden weave that ran across the grip suggested it’s extraordinary origin.

The third was someone who would support me. A close combat fighter, [Abyssal Wraith], but instead of an artefact, it was an actual proper summon.

So, peeling off the talismans, I placed the rusted knife on the ground, and quickly chanted spell.

"From the depths of the abyss, I call upon the shadow that walks between worlds. Heed my command, wraith of the void, and rise from the eternal darkness to serve!"

Unknown runes formed in my mind as a dark magical circle slowly formed around the knife, then with a hand over the knife, I spoke the keyword—Arise.

The air got colder, the shadows got darker, the surroundings seemed reject this phenomenon, but I powered through it, and soon, with an uncanny shriek matching its name, a hand of shadows coalesced into existence, grabbing the knife.

-Ahhhhh!

Then, came another hand, lifting off the ground as it grabbed my own. It felt cold, and it felt ethereal, but soon the shadows stirred, gaining mass, gaining flesh, solidifying into a solid form. A tall menacing figure, clad in an intricately designed knights armor, with ghostly blue flames seen burning through its visor. Taking a step back and after greeting me with a bow, twin ethereal blades materialized in its hands, glowing with an eerie blue light.

Looking at the knight towering over me, I nodded in satisfaction, before commanding him to guard me.

Phew, now that the first task was done, time for task two.

Task two was a simple routine, I tapped the air six times, creating runery with my mana, a runery designed to contain something.

Following that, I took out six vials each of different colour, except instead of black coloured vial I used a holy one, and placed them into different runeries.

Then, I activated my sword’s enchantment, its own runery dragging the six balls of runery floating in air. Finally, the runeries activated, attaching themselves to my sword with magical sparks, as power of elements flooded into me.

It improved my capabilities in a comprehensive manner, as I became one with the elements. Basically it converted all my moves into spells, boosting them with the power of elements.

Yes, I had casted, the [Lore of Elements]. I found a way to cast of quickly.

’Since, gathering the elemental essence took time, I stored it beforehand.’

Not a groundbreaking idea, but it worked.

Lastly, I drank another magic potion, overcharging myself with mana and then, with a simple command to the [Abyssal Wraith], "Let’s go.", I ran towards the demon