Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 558: What hope...?

Kaya’s eyes swept the Cube and took note of the two identical demons, with one of them standing over Aurelius’s prone body. Her brows furrowed, and she flexed her wrist, casting a spell circle to conjure vines that wrapped around Aurelius and pulled him away from the Axe-Wielding demon who looked like it was about to deliver a final strike.

Nature motes sprouted from the vines and infused into Aurelius’s body, trying to mend his injuries.

"There are too many injuries to heal," Kaya said with gritted teeth. It would take a lot of her reserves and a lot of time to mend Aurelius enough to revitalize him.

"Here, these should help," Aylin said, and with a flick of her wrist, she deposited five mending Potions on the ground beside Aurelius.

Aylin had a very ample reserve of Potions and ingredients which she had spent the past week or so brewing and gathering. Not even for emergencies but really to further her skills at Alchemy.

With hurried thanks, Kaya grabbed a potion and began to feed it to Aurelius. But by then, she felt the creepy, chilling presence of malevolent eyes on her. She raised her head and saw the two identical demons staring at her and the others.

"Why are there two of them?" Eloise asked, and she was so gripped by those demonic eyes that she sounded like she had only just made the discovery.

"I don’t know," Delia mumbled like Eloise’s question hadn’t been rhetorical. She sounded like she would like to know the answer to that question herself.

Delia retrieved her Warhammer from her storage ring and grabbed the handle very tightly with both of her hands.

"You shouldn’t be here," one of the Demons said.

"How did you get in here?" Asked the other.

"Well, no matter," said the first, who then pointed at Aurelius, who was still being healed by Nature Motes while Kaya tipped a Mending potion into his mouth,

"That is our quarry—"

"—Hand him over—"

"—or don’t—"

"—either way—"

"—for having stepped in here—"

"—you shall fall—"

"—as surely as he."

There was something creepy and disconcerting to Kaya and the others about hearing the two demons speak alternatively. The voices and inflections were so identical that it truly seemed like hearing a single being speaking— except that the words were coming from two separate lips.

"We shall fall?" Delia asked and was suddenly gripped by confidence and bravado. "In case you haven’t noticed, you’re outnumbered."

’Who cares that they’re two?’ Delia thought with a scoff, ’I can sense that neither of them is as powerful as Belron was. And it’s still four—maybe even five once Aurelius can stand again—on two.

We can do this.’

Delia’s confidence was infectious. None of the others looked as unsettled as they were before. Eloise retrieved both of her wands and held them at the ready. Aylin had icy blue spell circles at the ready, and Kaya retrieved her staff and struck its end against the ground.

"Outnumbered?" One of the demons repeated and let out a chilling cackle.

"I am Klever—"

"—I am never outnumbered."

As the two spoke in alternating speech again, the axe-wielder swung its axe, creating an arch of Demonic energy that struck toward the ladies.

Aylin thrust her spell circles forward, and they created a screen of ice carved with ornate images that no one had time to truly observe before the arch struck it. The screen was shattered into shards of ice, but the demonic attack had been blocked.

Under the cover of the shards, Delia did a graceful twirl, and wind cracked with lightning in a kind of mini storm wrapped around her body, and she dashed toward the Axe-Wielding Klever faster than the eye could follow.

Axe blade and Hammerhead struck one another to create an impactful sound that sent a little shockwave all about from the point of contact. Delia’s arms vibrated from the strike, and she frowned when Klever didn’t appear at all affected.

"Ha!" Klever laughed, and with a heave that seemed effortless, he shoved Delia back.

"Hngh!" Delia groaned, but by conjuring a wall of wind behind herself, she refused to be sent reeling too far back.

Delia used the wall of wind to push herself back at Klever, striking her hammerhead toward the Demon’s midsection. Klever was ready and twisted to the side to avoid the strike while swinging its Axe to decapitate Delia, only to realize at the last second that it had all been a ruse.

"You—!" Klever snarled with wide eyes.

Delia hadn’t actually committed to her attempt at Klever’s midsection. She had expected not to succeed and had prepared for that. So now that Klever had gone for such a wide swing for her neck, she ducked low, conjured a chaotic wave of water that swept her away from the front of the Demon to behind it for an attack at its spine. An attack it would not be able to block.

Klever had already committed to a twist of its body as well as an Axe swing. It would need to readjust its body first before it could parry Delia’s attack. At least that was what Delia thought until her Warhammer struck the Demon’s Axe in another ringing clash that left her arms vibrating even harder.

Klever’s chuckled.

"Too slow!" it taunted.

Delia saw tension in the Demon’s arm and knew it was about to shove her away again. But then, Klever’s eyes widened, and it pushed away from Delia completely right before a gigantic thorny vine struck the ground where it had been standing just a second ago.

The vine’s thorns tore through the ground as the vine lifted and swung toward Klever, who parried it with its Axe. Klever actually tried to slice the vine, and while it cut the vine deep, it didn’t cut through it.

Nature Motes sprouted at the cut on the vine, and the damage was mended right as it went swinging at Klever again. It all happened so quickly that for a second, the Demon was so wrong-footed by the vine that it backed away and tried to regroup.

Having tipped the third mending potion down Aurelius’s throat, Kaya left him to recover and was standing again, her feet planted apart for better stability as she gripped her staff tight and channeled even more Mana into her spell, conjuring two more thorny vines to join the first so all three could pursue the Axe-Wielding Klever and keep it on the defensive.

"Paltry tricks!" Klever snarled and seemed to finally have regained control of itself and the situation.

With its chest heaving—ample tits trembling with its annoyance—Klever swung its Axe and sliced the Vine that came stabbing at it in two. It did the same to the other two vines in quick succession.

And then, Klever sensed a presence. It turned toward the presence, its Axe raised in ready defense, but it was already too late...

*BAM!*

... Delia’s Warhammer—charged with the magic of a chaotic storm and exuding Divine energy she had harnessed from within herself—struck the Demon in the jaw in a strike that sent a strong shockwave rippling all around in a wave. Whatever sound of pain Klever might have produced was snapped shut in its mouth as its upper and lower rows of fangs were practically sealed together.

The demon’s claw-tipped feet were lifted a foot off the ground due to the force of the attack, but somehow, it retained enough control of its arm to still swing its Axe at Delia.

But before the Axe could make contact, Kaya conjured two thorny vines which were also infused with the Divine energy within her body, thereby strengthening them beyond what the demon could break.

Klever had struggled to slice her vines in their ordinary state, so once divine energy was involved, there really was no chance.

One vine wrapped around the Demon’s wrist, holding its Axe back while the other—the larger one—stabbed its tapered end into Klever’s back, tearing through its flesh.

Delia became wrapped in a funnel of wind and rose seven— eight feet in the air before diving back down, her Warhammer —crackling with Storm Magic and exuding subtle divine might—drawn back until she swung it and struck the demon in the chest with an earsplitting *BANG!*

Klever hit the ground with so much force that dust erupted in a thick cloud.

When the dust settled, Klever lay spreadeagled on the ground, its demonic black and blue and eyes lifeless. Sprouting from the demon’s chest was Kaya’s vine that had ripped right through its back. The demon’s blood oozed thick and dark like it was days old rather than newly shed. Klever’s demonic might fizzled into nothing.

It was dead.

Kaya and Delia were breathing from exertion—Delia more so—and they seemed unsure of their victory. Sure, they had been confident but... could it really be so easy?

"There’s one left," Delia said, and she turned toward the staff-wielding Klever.

Once Delia had gone after the Axe-Welder and Kaya joined the effort, Aylin and Eloise had turned their attention toward the Staff-wielder, if for nothing more than to prevent the Axe-Wielder from having any support.

And now that only the Staff-Wielder was left, they fought with even more confidence.

After all, what hope did their enemy have to overcome a four-on-one?