Shadow of the Abyss

Chapter 153: World of Shadows Grimoire: Second Spell

Enigmatic Step

Cold death stiffened the smoldering ashes of the air ravaged by the Flames of Hell in a cluster of black nodes of mana erupting into a pillar barreling through the ceiling. It tore toward the skies like a bolt of lightning, bearing the roar of thunder so loud it was sure to rupture the ears of anyone nearby.

The winds screamed as if to flee, following the great pillar trying to connect the Heavens to the earth, laying waste to the elements.

Altair roared like a great demon surrounded by a black Vale of Night as he bore down with all his might. The Bapett struck the earth with such a force a shockwave of nearly fifty meters ruptured into a blanketing whirlwind of destruction. The earth wailed, rumbling with the churning of stone being turned to dust.

When, at last, the dust and the trembling of the earth had settled, Altair had landed silently as a shadow with an ashen complexion. Reina took off, aiming her Godly Armament at the Bapett. She rocketed forth like a blur, with the aid of Broken Moon, arriving at the downed Baqett faster than a snap.

Her golden eyes seemed to almost burn with the Sacred Might of the Eternal Heavens. Reina released a single arrow that split apart the skies in a great blaze of golden light. So radiant it was, Forwin appeared to be beneath another star. The flames that had once been ravaging the castle died one after the other in fear of the Flame of Heaven.

She flashed back to Altair's side with Broken Moon, pale as he was. Falling to her knee with a heavy breath.

"Forty Percent,' She told him.

"Thirty," He said back, opening his circle to pull the mana from Heaven and Earth now that the Baelfire had died. Altair swallowed down another set of Hearthstones, and Reina did the same. Even so, their complexion did not get better.

Their bones felt heavy, and the lids of their eyes had begun to droop with deadly levels of exhaustion. But even so, the battle wasn't over.

The Bapett was getting up. Drenched in the blood that gushed from where one of its horns once laid, nearly half of the demons faced seemed no more than a mesh of gore with an eye dangling from out its socket, spewing blood over the ground. The shoulder that once gripped its ax now carried a gaping hole the size of a grown man's head from where Reina's arrow had penetrated.

Name: Bapett [Cripple]

Race: Demon(Half-Blood)

Str: 538.8 → 342

Dex: 210 → 192

Con: 275 →200

Wis: 452.4 → 341

Char: 40.2 → 31

"This thing is still a bloody monster." Altair cursed, feeling the numbing of his legs from his overuse of Sovereign Gale. He glanced at the pale face of Reina and knew she, too, had been heavily drained. Broken Moon had come with a great strain, and Sacred Flame was an even bigger drain.

They couldn't go on like this.

With a mourning wail towards the skies, ash seemed to billow from the gaping hold in its shoulders that rendered its right arm unusable. The Bapett cried, staggering from out the crator in which it lay. It awkwardly reached for its great axe.

Altair tsked and conjured the World of Shadows Grimoire and turned to the second page past Shadow Cage with a solemn complexion. He had barely mastered Shadow Cage to a level he deemed acceptable, though he had been training the second spell for a little over a year now, with little success without the aid of his sigil.

[Sister of Sepith Felled. Exp Gained]

[Sister of Sepith Felled. Exp Gained]

[Sister of Sepith Felled. Exp Gained]

[...]

╰(*°▽°*)╯ (づ ̄ 3 ̄)づ

What remained of the Bepett was a giant beast of bleeding muscles that held no eyes, much less skin. It dropped to its knees before the Prince, pale as a ghost.

Reina emerged, flashing onto its downed head, and plunged her sword, which blazed the golden radiance of her sacred flame. An arc flew from out of her sword as she performed the first stance of the Nine Celestial Moon Blade Technique her master gifted her, adjoined with Infernal Rage.

"Howling Moon"

As if the Bapett's neck had been made of liquid butter, a searing sword passed through it, stealing away its life.

[Bapett Felled. Exp Gained]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

...

Chiming nearly ten times, Altair and Reina collapsed into the pool of lifeblood pulsing from out of the Bapett before it became no more than a steady stream before it stopped.

Sucking away the blood with a hint of fever, Altair groaned, feeling the backlash erupting from out of every pore of his body. Blood had begun to trickle out.

Enma had been a Second Circle Spell. One at the very peak of its stage that called not only the power of the Infernal Hells but the Darkness. Its power was enough to rival most Third Circle Spells and sometimes fourth.

And had required nearly ten years of his lifespan to cast. It was a drop in the bucket compared to his actual lifespan, but Altair's current body still found it hard to bear.

Reina sighed, gasping for air, feeling her heart painfully hammering against her chest. She rolled over, pale and weak.

"3%," She said, short of breath, unable to feel most of her steaming body.

"1%," Altair replied, suckling at the Bapett's blood.

[Ding]