The Arcane Emperor Chapter 98: Demonic Dungeon

Chapter 98: Demonic Dungeon

Demon Prince Fang sat in boredom as the two Demon Princes across from him argued once more on the best method for capturing the Half-Demon. It had been easy enough convincing them to let him join, as the opposite prospect was working against them. That he let himself place low in the pecking order for producing an heir - something he had no intention of doing in the first place - had certainly helped. And only one of them was suspicious of his motives, but it wasn’t as if any of them truly planned on sharing in the end.

The rest of the Demon Princes were elsewhere, planning their own plots even if all 18 of them were technically working together at the moment. It was more like a ceasefire than anything else.

It had been weeks of waiting for their scouts to report anything, [Vampyr]s working as their messenger birds, if birds could teleport. That clan of Demons had gone on a downward spiral after the death of their young Demon Prince. Many of their members were captured and subjugated while the rest of the clan secluded themselves.

An example of said Demons, grey-skinned with bat-like wings, rushed into their meeting hall.

“What news do you have?” Fang quickly spoke, hoping to avoid any pointless posturing from the other two Demon Princes at being interrupted. The Reaper hated those with inflated egos.

“A few minutes ago, two unknown figures suddenly appeared in the Demon’s village. A Mana and Aura user, most likely in their second tiers.”

“Fang, you said the Half-Demon was accompanied by a Magus?” Demon Prince Felbeast questioned.

“A teleporting one,” Fang responded.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go raid the village like we should have done ages ago.” Felbeast rose, his red eyes shimmering, preparing to transform.

Fang rolled his eyes at what was obvious posturing. If attacking the Werewolf Clan was worth the risk they would have done it from the start and interrogated it’s members. It wasn’t only the enemy races of the past that feared the sharpness of their claws.

“There’s no need to be hasty. And even if we attack, what if the Half-Demon merely teleports away with those she cares for?” Demon Prince Elhaim spoke reasonably.

“We’ll gather all the Vampyrs and prepare to block their teleport,” Fang started, “Though, we may have to adjust how we block it…” he continued and explained the strangeness he witnessed when he saw the Magus teleport. “In any case, so long as they do not prepare to teleport, we should wait and see if they leave the village through more mundane methods. That way we won’t have to attack the Werewolf Clan, nor will we need reinforcements.”

“Good, good, we’ll prepare immediately.”

Sitting alone in her home, Vera Varg felt herself going stir-crazy. Even without external issues, leaving the Demonlands was all but impossible for the current her. At least not in a leisurely manner. Compared to her Half-Demon daughter, the pure Werewolf knew she’d stand out like a beacon in any society. Age and power had only decreased her ability to hide her true nature; going adventuring like she had in her youth was all but impossible for her current self. In fact, when she met Kara’s father, she was already past being able to truly hide her Aura and was unable to enter any significant settlement without a great risk. Even a novice using [Aura Detection] closely enough would go through any disguise of hers.

Even worse, her village was now under permanent, and powerful, watch. Leaving would either draw others to Kara if she went to find her daughter or leave the place vulnerable without her here to act as another deterrent. For all their bravado and raw power, history had left Demons acting as cowards and c.o.c.kroaches. There was little choice when the whole world considered them their enemies, even before they gave the other races a legitimate reason for their racism. They would never risk certain death of at least one of the Princes by attacking her so long as she and a few others of similar strength remained.

That was why, when a Mage suddenly appeared in her home, she found herself relishing for the chance to do something entertaining. Like tearing out his Mana-infused heart. Until she noticed her daughter appearing by his side that is.

“Kara?” she exclaimed in surprise, before rushing over to the girl to give her a hug. Being distrustful of Magi as any proper Demon, her senses were just as much on the tearful reunion with her daughter as they were on the now slightly awkward Magus. Her [Magic Detection] went up and down Kara’s body, including around the corners of her mind - a technique taught to her by her own mother.

“Well, I was just sitting down for a drink. Join me?” Vera offered, not even knowing where to start on this new situation. At the same time her pleasant and relaxed demeanor hid what was beneath. Ready to see just what was going on here and strike if needed. At least there wasn’t any foreign magic working on Kara, if she ignored the Fae-like Body Enchantments almost invisible on her skin. But those were pa.s.sive at the moment.

She hadn’t expected to see her daughter for a very long time. Nor had she imagined a situation that involved a Magus so skilled in teleportation she didn’t even notice him until he was right in front of her.

And here she thought Kara would inherit her penchant for younger men. Not however many centuries old this man was to teleport in such a way. Then again, the man in front of her was stupidly gorgeous. At least her daughter had picked well.

“It seems my gift was well chosen then,” the Magus spoke as he took out a jug of what smelled like an expensive Fae wine… from a Spatial Ring. That he would use the limited s.p.a.ce of a ring to store wine either meant he was frivolous or the ring was ma.s.sive. Both options were equally interesting.

Just what had her daughter gotten herself into? And how come she had so much fun while her lovely mother was stuck at home? Though, depending on how the conversation went and just what her relationship with the strange Mage was, she may very well be having her fun after all.

Rainer felt like a third wheel as he watched mother and daughter catch up. It seemed he was the only one who took the offer to sit down as Kara and her still hugged, and her mother spun her around a bit commenting on how big she’s gotten. Given that Kara was an adult when she left and had been gone only a year or so, Rainer was finding it hard to understand how his Wolfkin wasn’t offended. Getting big could only mean getting fatter, something that most certainly didn’t happen. An Aura thing perhaps?

Sighing to himself, he took out three gla.s.ses and poured the Fae wine. The large wooden room was quite bare apart from the occasional rug or the table he sat at. He supposed a lack of gla.s.s-making techniques, or magic to subst.i.tute it, meant no windows either. He shivered a bit before activating [Arcane Invigoration] to a small degree. Colder than expected.

All the better to get his mind off any ill-will he still felt towards Kara’s mother, remind himself he’d probably have done the same in her mother’s place, and that he was here to make a good first impression.

He looked over at the two as they came over to sit with him. While Kara certainly took after her father, it wasn’t as if her mother didn’t add to that. Vera was just as beautiful of a woman, looking as if she were in her 30’s, though with what he could describe as a harsher appearance. Stronger lines, but still good looking in a way only possible by the more magical races. She had red eyes and black hair just the same as her daughter, though lacking the same white fur inside her ears as Kara.

And certainly larger in other areas, he noted before quickly pushing that thought out. He wasn’t looking to make that kind of impression.

“So, I suppose we get introductions out of the way? Vera Varg,” she said, smiling at him and taking an almost feral sniff at the wine in front of her. Looks like going for broke and getting the best wine he could find had been a good idea. It was good that non-Fae basically no longer visited the Fae Realm, so there was little issue acquiring it. Though, he understood from Laneth that the hospitality offered wasn’t unlimited. Already having the Devil and occasionally Goblin there pushed at it.

Though, he was quite sure there was some sort of threat behind Vera’s smile. For that at least, he couldn’t blame her, it wasn’t as if he held anymore trust towards Magi then she did.

“Rainer Nvos, Kara’s boyfriend.” He returned the smile, only to be interrupted by a jab in his side by Kara.

“You really need to watch out for your magic.”

Rainer frowned before looking back over to Vera who seemed just about ready to jump out of her chair and attack him. Looks like he tried to mimic her smile a bit too much. Oops.

“Right. Sorry. Been dealing with a lot of politicians recently. The magic I use for it comes out on accident sometimes.”

“Scaring politicians? I can get behind that,” Vera said, shaking off her earlier threatening mien. Demons didn’t really have politicians for the most part, apart from a village or clan chief, their populations being too small and divided. Even then, said leaders were almost always the strongest and the oldest, which meant they were often not the most fit to rule, for better or for worse. Demon Princes, while holding authority and technically territory, were more like generals than rulers. No, she was thinking of Human n.o.bles. She had killed more than her fair share of those annoying things over her travels.

Kara’s friendly jab and reprimand had calmed Vera quite a bit on there being something fishy about their relationship. Even if there was nothing magical going on, the idea of her daughter being subverted by a far older mage was certainly possible. At least just from this, it didn’t seem that way. Of course, in that scenario, the Magus would have to be an idiot for trying to use Kara for… anything, given all those who wish for her.

Vera and Kara settled into a light conversation on what her daughter had been doing since she left the village. Rainer himself hadn’t heard the start of the story and was a bit interested, but it seemed Kara skipped forward to the interesting part, as in the Dungeon.

“It’s good you had such a safe place to level away from the all the Demon Princes after you,” Vera noted, quite surprised at how many cla.s.ses Kara had brought to level 25.

“Though, the reward itself brought its own problems-”

Rainer stepped on her foot under the table.

“What?”

“Kara, can we talk in private?”

In another room, Rainer used the ring he still had from Furtak to put up a sound barrier.

“What’s wrong?” Kara asked.

“Were you going to tell your mother Mana-well?”

“Yes… I don’t see…”

“And [Sleep Learning], and any other secret? Kara you can’t just-”

“What do you mean ‘I can’t just’? She’s my mom, Rainer. Not some stranger I just met and hired to take care of my political goals because I’m too lazy.”

“Kara we can’t just… And that was an accident, it’s not like-”

“Or my war-torn sister who attacked and tortured an incredibly powerful mage for seemingly no reason. Did you even think about what showing the Mana-Well to your sister could mean?”

Rainer grimaced.

“And yet I never said a word. Because I trusted you Rainer. And so in turn I trusted your decisions on who to tell what, and on what to reveal to whom. I thought we talked about it, that my mom didn’t have much choice when she had me awaken my Aura. I thought you of all people would understand that.”

“What do you mean, me of all people?”

“What would you have done in her situation Rainer. Would you have really been content only having me perform the rite of pa.s.sage? What about that talent stealing ritual from the Blood Soul Guild? The one that only worked on younger children since they were less attached to their talents.”

“I-”

“Oh but you’d never risk your child with such a ritual. You’d have to experiment with it over and over again, to make sure you hammered out all the side-effects. My mom knew what my future held, and how much more bleak that future would be if I didn’t have Aura. How much worse would you have done?” Kara spoke and then immediately regretted it. She looked in Rainer’s eyes which now seemed more introspective than argumentative. And hurt. Not knowing what else to do and still quite angry, Kara left room before saying anything else.

At some point during the argument, Luna had ended up on Rainer’s hair and was now ma.s.saging his head.

Rainer sighed as he rubbed a strand of hair through his fingers. All he wanted to do was Void-walk somewhere away from here. But when reminded how unsafe it was here, he’d never leave Kara alone. And she wasn’t wrong either, about any of it. When they met up with his grandfather and mom again, he already planned on telling them everything. And Kara wouldn’t say a word about it despite knowing his grandfather had sealed his magic in the first place. Would it be so unreasonable to a.s.sume he’d react poorly to Rainer having something like a Mana-Well?

And he himself had no idea the lengths he’d go to in Vera’s situation. Or he did and just didn’t want to think about it.

Sending a few complaints to his Void Will, he calmed himself down with Luna’s silent presence, and wondered what he should do.

Sitting across from her mother, Kara sat in silence as she calmed down.

“Kara are sure it’s wise to take your Trial so soon?” Vera asked, looking curiously at the room her daughter left but the Magus didn’t. Had she not told him the full extent of the problems that followed her? Gradually, Vera lost her caution over there being some sort of Magic worked on her daughter.

Kara sighed as she thought over how to explain her enchantments and more importantly [Sleep Learning]. Yes [Mystic Dancer] technically made the upcoming Trial harder and included Enchantments in its cla.s.s. But she doubted it took into account something like Void-Step, and more importantly [Sleep Learning]. The sheer amount of time it took to train up a skill that consumed one’s Body Enchantment was unfathomable. Had she not been able to refresh her body, Kara couldn’t even guess at the decades, or even centuries, it would take to reach the next point. And that’s not even counting the fact one would need a personal Body Enchanter, and countless Mana Crystals, for such training.

A point where she could get the same effect and the Enchantment only stopped working for a few seconds.

Despite her disagreeing with Rainer, she didn’t want to reveal these secrets on her own. Said man reappeared moments later right next to her. Kara looked up at him sheepishly. No matter who was at fault at first she definitely made it worse. And knowing him, he’d be less mad at her and more going over what she said to him repeatedly, wondering how true it was.

“Talk again?” He pointed to the same room and the Wolfkin followed him soon after.

“I’m sorry,” two voices overlapped the moment the wind barrier went up.

The two stared at each other, before Rainer broke out in laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“I had no idea that could actually happen in real-life.”

“What… never mind. Rainer, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said-”

“But were you right,” Rainer interrupted. He had no idea just what he was capable of. Up until now, he had kept his actions only against those who he truly needed to kill or were his enemies or worse, but what if in the future that changed? Would he have done worse in Vera’s position to a.s.sure Kara’s strength and safety?

“You are not evil Rainer. And even if you were evil, I can hardly find fault in knowing you’d commit acts of evil for me.”

“No, I think most could in fact fault me. We’re not exactly normal are we?”

“You’re only noticing that now?”

Rainer chuckled and shook his head. A small part of him remembered Kara’s comment on his sister and that perhaps she could use some therapy, maybe all of them could. Attacking Yazir like that wasn’t normal, even if the result was beneficial and in all likelihood he could have ended up their enemy.

“Are you ready for your Trial?” Rainer asked after a short silence.

“I am,” Kara honestly felt herself over prepared with how easy it was to abuse [Sleep Learning] when it came to Body Enchantment-type skills. As well as the Aura-intensive cla.s.s skills of her Werewolf half.

“You don’t want to sleep here… or?”

“We should head out as soon as possible. My mom already told me Demons are watching the village, the longer we stay here the more time we give them to do something about us.”

“Agreed,” Rainer sighed, though he was comforted in how sure Kara seemed about her Trial.

“On that note, don’t you think we need someone other than us three? You’ll basically be a sitting duck while I take my Trial.”

“Us four,” a m.u.f.fled complaint from his coat came out.

Thinking it over for a bit, there was but a single person they could ask. Gunthar still needed to level, and his sister still needed to take her Trial before she’d be useful, or rather capable of surviving, against anyone other than Mana users and your average Tier 2 expert. Anyone else, Rainer couldn’t just ask them to take such a huge risk and he’d be more worried about protecting them.

So a deal with the Devil it was to be.

“I’ll be back soon then, catch up with your mother in the meantime? If you trust her, I trust her.”

“See you soon,” Kara smiled, watching as he Void-walked away. It was a far more interesting sight when she understood more of what was happening through her leveling of her Void-Step enchantment.

Rainer sat across a table from Amer as the Devil enjoyed himself with wine as always; the man had grown quite languid in his new relaxing life. It had taken only a few words and another trading of the [Mana Presence] tome to get the Devil to agree to his request: sending his Avatar with him whenever they would be heading to the Trial location.

The [Archon] had little doubt that the trip to the Demonic Dungeon would be free from issues.

Amer shook his head as he held a copy of the tome in his hands. The real kicker was the Armament spell attached with it. It would still require the Devil to learn the skill and the spell wasn’t truly complete, but it mattered little to the Devil.

“Really, you should've gotten at least three favors out of me for this.”

“Are you offering?”

“Do I look like a charity?” Amer said, enjoying the recently learned knowledge that something like a charity could even exist. The Fae were ever a strange race to him. All the better for it, given that what was familiar to him was not pleasant in the slightest by comparison.

“Nah, you don’t have hips for it, but I’m sure you could pull it off if you tried hard enough.”

“What?” the Devil asked confused. And then grumbled something uncomplimentary under his breath when Rainer explained that Charity was also a name for a woman.

Rainer chuckled at how much the frankly childish joke, that wouldn’t be unfit coming out of a 10 year old’s mouth, bothered the Devil. He supposed that was an advantage to being from another world and culture.

“Just call when you need me. And make sure no one grabs my Soul. Plus, I’ll be expecting the Mana Crystals to remake my Avatar if I die,” The Devil said, now enjoying the [Archon]’s grumble as he agreed. Remaking an Avatar was not a cheap thing. And he fully planned on getting more than the fair share of Mana Crystals out of him.

Rainer then explained what Kara’s mother looked like since she would likely be traveling with them, along with who they may end up facing and general knowledge on Demons. He left soon after giving some advice on [Mana Presence].

“I’m sorry I have to leave so soon grandmother,” Kara spoke to the black-haired Demon, who had a few tinges of grey in her hair. Despite being close to the end of her lifespan, Demons aged far better than other races and suffered from nearly no decrease in strength up until their natural death. Kara’s grandmother was no exception.

A bit away, Rainer shifted awkwardly as Vera’s eyes bore into him. What was it with him lately and powerful, older women glaring at him like he was a bad child?

“Yes?” He asked.

“I’m guessing your argument was over all the Demons after Kara? I’m surprised you took it so well.”

Rainer frowned a bit, confused, but recalling the conversation when he dragged Kara away her guess wasn’t illogical. Though, now he couldn’t help but chuckle at the question.

“No it was about something else. Kara told me a long time ago about most of Demonkind, and perhaps eventually most of the world, being after her.”

“Truly?”

“Want to know what my response to that was?”

“What?” Vera asked, amused. While also wondering where Kara had heard the prophecy from. Vera saw little reason to spread that bit of knowledge around, nor burden her daughter with what may be untrue. Magic which predicted the future always seemed a bit too fanciful for her. Though, it was undoubtedly true that Kara, with her extra primary cla.s.s, had the potential to be stronger than anyone else within her tier.

“I kissed her for the first time.”

The Demon stared at him for a few seconds before laughing and putting an arm around his shoulder.

“Though I can’t say I’m happy about the age difference,” Vera joked, prodding at just how old this mage was exactly.

“What can I say, I like older women.”

“I’m afraid this older woman isn’t into sharing,” the elder Wolfkin said.

“Huh? I meant Kara,” Rainer responded confused, though his mind was more so on how they’d yet to introduce Luna.

“Y-you…” Vera stuttered, though the question that was on her lips got back interrupted by Kara’s return.

“To the Trial then,” her daughter said without the slightest bit of nervousness.

Rainer nodded and Void-walked the trio away, the stunned Vera remaining silent as they vanished.

“He teleported,” Demon Prince Felbeast said in rage, “I told you we should have attacked!” It looked as if he was but a moment away from charging at the snow-covered village.

Fang ignored him as he switched to a Soul with strong detection abilities. Most monster Souls in general had far better skill in that than other races, but the small silver bird he killed was a step above them and had an innate skill for it. It had, after all, taken 7 years of constant hunting to catch it. He had gone after it for so long out of sheer madness as it taunted him, rather than any sort of real goal after a while.

“It was a short range teleport, it seems they are heading North-east, and the only place of note there…” Demon Prince Talrai, a recent arrival much to the chargin of the others, mentioned. He had joined up with them, apparently having a spy amongst that informed him immediately of what was happening. The white-haired Demon’s form was that of an eagle-like beast, allowing him to come here quite quickly.

“The Demonic Dungeon, let’s hurry,” Fang responded and the [Vampyr]s around them prepared a long-distance group teleport. All of the [Vampyr] Demons shifted into their grey-skinned bat-winged forms.

Fang himself couldn’t teleport completely blind, being limited to eyesight, detection range, and places he’s very familiar with. And keeping up with the now long-gone rapidly-teleporting Mage would cost too much Aura. No matter how talented his Demon Prince [Vampyr] Soul was, Fang knew his limits. Competing directly with a master of a strange form of teleportation was asking to lose. They’d just have to take the risk they got there before them and could stop the young Half-Demon from potentially dying in her Trial.

With a few more directions from Vera, he managed to find the Demonic Dungeon. Looking across the open snowy tundra, he saw the entrance to it.

A large obsidian circle fanned out, hundreds of feet in diameter. In the center was a far darker circle tinged with a blood red, looking like a giant eye. The falling snow seemed to unnaturally avoid it.

Rainer shared a long kiss with Kara, and she shared a surprise one with Luna shortly after. A surprise to Vera that is as a small Fairy appeared from seemingly nowhere, became a 5’6’’ Silver-haired woman, and then shrunk again, before returning to the Mage’s jacket.

Kara headed to the center, as Vera just placed one foot along the edge. It seemed her mother was leveling another cla.s.s recently, and took this chance to switch to another. The Trial could only be accessed in the middle, but cla.s.s changes on the outer rim. Different from the World Tree which was partially worshiped, the Demon’s Ring, or Demonic Dungeon, was just seen as a tool with its origin having a variety of explanations.

[Demon, Female, Greater Demonic Werewolf(2nd) lvl 24, Blade Maelstrom(2nd) lvl 24]

[t.i.tle: Blade Master]

Rainer took a glance at the two blades… or rather slabs of metal Vera had tied to her back, amidst her fur clothing. Around her neck hung an enchanted necklace, a Trial reward, which let her keep her equipment unaffected as she shifted. He guessed it was affordable only because it’s storage functions were so limited, an easy way to save points in a Trial reward whether you remembered it or not.

“Not as pretty as Kara’s weapons huh?” Vera commented, seeing where he was looking, “All Ymir ever gave me was a c.r.a.ppy spatial ring,” she faux complained and seemed to hide any real feelings about the Wolf King.

“I gave Kara a Spatial Ring too,” Rainer commented.

“I know… hers is so much bigger,” Vera said before coming up close to him. Too close. “Don’t you think your mother-in-law deserves a nicer Spatial Ring too?”

Rainer frowned as he was just reminded of his early plans, plans that he forgot after their short fight and the fact that Vera was coming with him; He pictured something more private. Looking over, he just saw Kara’s eyes as she disappeared in a flash of red light. Rainer knew that with months of [Sleep Learning] under her belt, she was ready.

It didn’t make it any easier. His only saving grace was that the Trial was time-altered and at most she’d be gone for a few minutes. Rainer didn’t even let himself think about the other length of time she could be gone for.

“So who’s the little Fairy?” Vera asked, looking at his jacket speculatively. But before he could answer a ma.s.sive fluctuation of s.p.a.ce signaled that their trip to the Dungeon wasn’t a lonely one.

Four veritable shining suns of Aura lead the group, as the dozens others started fanning out in a circle. Rainer drew in a long breath as he detected the Aura of the four in the lead. It was there he was reminded in Vera’s own strength as he sensed hers as well, not falling too far behind these figures. He appraised the four of them, finding them all to be at the height of the 2nd Tier.

“I told you we should have attacked earlier, if you cost-” The [Greater Demonic Kodiak] growled out, his brown hair and beard seemingly standing on edge from the ma.s.sive amount of Aura pouring from him. He appeared just like a large and tall human of 7 and a half feet.

“If I what?” The [Greater Demonic Reaper], currently covered in brown scales with two draconic looking wings behind him, threatened back, perhaps reminding the others who the strongest one here was. Already their earlier plan of a united front was failing. Not that the Reaper cared too much about it, his only plan was to rush and cripple the Half-Demon before flying away with her. He needed a safe spot to properly consume a full Soul.

Rainer narrowed his eyes as he quickly realized who the most dangerous one was. By a longshot. The Draconic vibe to whatever Soul he currently wielded was far too strong.

“Now now, it’s not nice to argue in front of our guest,” a well groomed Demon interrupted, long-white hair speaking of either inherit genetic advantage or great care. [Greater Demonic Roc], Rainer noted, his second cla.s.s being obviously Aura-related, [Aura Morpher]. Just like the other three, who all seemed to focus on something that upped their Aura.

The Fourth Demon Prince, a black-haired [Greater Demonic Hydra], seemed uninterested in doing anything other than stare at the Demonic Dungeon.

“Guest?” Rainer questioned, taking the opportunity to talk. The more they talked the better, after all, Rainer fully planned on running the moment Kara finished her Trial. Hopefully letting the more pompous looking Demon, the only one of the three wearing clothes other than just furs, control the conversation would help. He seemed like someone who would like the sound of his own voice.

“Why yes of course. It’s been ever so long since we’ve had a Magus grace our lands so far east. Who would you be the guest of other than us Demon Princes?”

“I suppose so. I’m glad you’ve prepared such a welcoming for me then,” Rainer said, now glancing out at all the [Vampyr]s. Only a few were above the 2nd Tier, but none were particularly strong. However the strange mix of Aura and Magic radiating out from them and affecting s.p.a.ce was curious. They were…

Rainer froze for a brief moment as he realized what they were doing.

How did they know…

It was a weakness of his own he never even considered, but the moment he thought of it, knew it would be one. If loosening s.p.a.ce improved his [Void-walking], what would the alternative do? Rainer guessed that even the most casual Void-walk loosened it ever so slightly. And if he wasn’t able to? Would it be as simple as the Void-walk being blocked, or something far more gruesome? And sheer amount of power involved meant it may not be an easy solution for him to cancel the magic. At least not in front of the heads of this group.

The Four Demons, or rather Demon Princes, simply stared at him, before the well-dressed Demon, looking like a human n.o.ble than anything else, spoke again. Perhaps they too didn’t know what to do when the other side had an unknown strength and with the object of their pursuit was temporarily missing.

“Well then as your host, I have a simple offer to make. Leave now and we’ll pursue you no further. Surely a single woman isn’t worth all of the Princes of Demonkind seeking your life. Nor would you want our attention solely on your Guild, would you Magus?” It never paid to p.i.s.s off a Mage Guild, and the spatial ring on his hand was an easy tell to his status. As if his impressive teleportation abilities weren't enough.

Rainer faked surprise on his face. [Acting] was ever the useful skill. And the Demon of course had no idea what his ‘Guild’ was, but he pretended the threat bothered him and rubbed the spatial ring on his hand.

“Oh… you didn’t know? The Werewolf tribe were never as loyal as the dogs you’d expect them to be like,” he said, looking as if he enjoyed the glare coming from Vera.

“And here I thought it was just a single bad ex-boyfriend,” Rainer said tiredly, making a show of looking up at the mid-day sky for a moment and inching a bit away from Vera. Hopefully, she didn’t believe in his [Acting], though, he supposed it would put merit to it.

“The h.e.l.l do you even all want with her?” Rainer said, now glaring back at them, seeming snapped out of his thoughts. It wouldn’t do to be seen too eager to run away. And hopefully this question showed Vera he was [Acting] as this was something he should already know.

“To fulfill her role as she should have. A Half-Demon is quite important to us after all. And yet she would run away to those who would see us all dead… a traitor to her kind no?”

“And her role being?”

“What else but to be a focal point of our race? It is her duty to guide us forward. Are you willing to stand in the way of the entire Demon race?”

Rainer grimaced at bit at that phrase, and fed off that rage to his Void Will. It wasn’t time to strike.

“Then-” Rainer started speaking before being interrupted.

“Enough talk,” the previously silent [Greater Demonic Hydra], growled out, part of his pale skin shifting to scales. They were all aware how the situation would change if or when the Half-Demon returned. Even though she would be newly advanced, not being able to kill your opponent was a major handicap. “Are you going to leave, or not?”

The world turned grey, the snow gently floating down seemed to disappear, and silence took on a new meaning. The Void descended, and it’s commander required attention.

“I was not aware it was you who I was speaking to. Or perhaps you claim yourself superior to the other three Demon Princes?” Rainer ground out, enjoying the shock on their face as they tensed under the pressure. The Void was a fearsome thing.

“Now, now, there is no need to be ha-”

“Nor was I aware it was you who was in charge. What are you even supposed to be? A Demon pretending to be human pretending to be a n.o.ble? What kind of twisted posturing is that? No… the only person I’m interested in hearing from is the Reaper. Not only is he by far superior to the rest of you, whatever your goals are here, it’s clear his are far different. A Half-Demon Soul is a tantalizing thing.”

Rainer enjoyed the quickest flash of anxiety on the [Greater Demonic Reaper]’s face as the three temporarily forgot about Rainer and their brains clicked in gear. They likely hadn’t even considered that he’d be after her Soul. Why would they? Wasn’t she far weaker? But to Rainer who was aware of the power of taking a full Soul, and having appraised the necklace of the Reaper, it was a valid guess. Even though the [Archon] himself had no idea on the truth of the matter.

It was unfortunate their suspicions didn’t have any lasting effects. Perhaps they saw his guess for what it was?

Rainer briefly noted that the stabilizing to the s.p.a.ce seeming to vanished under [Void Descent] before dropping the skill.

“How can I be a.s.sured if I leave today, you won’t come after me?” he then asked, looking at the Reaper, but it wasn’t him who answered.

“This isn’t a negotiation, Magus. Leave now or you die,” the large Demon Prince spoke up, returning everyone's attention away from the Reaper.

“You need only walk beyond the barrier,” the [Greater Demonic Roc] spoke and pointed to his left. As if matching his threat, the Magic and Aura coming off the [Vampyr]s multiplied. Still seething from the earlier insult it seemed, or perhaps at the Reaper. But he made no more moves to speak, all of them agreeing to the recent words it seemed.

Rainer stared for a long-time before preparing himself, sinking completely into his Void Will so that his worries over Kara wouldn’t affect the fight. It was time, a [Void Descent] loosened the s.p.a.ce, he pinged Amer, the Devil’s Avatar appearing by Rainer’s side at the same time as Rainer’s own Avatar appeared in front of all Four Demon Princes. Runic lines of violet glowed across his body.

[Arcane Awakening: Final Arcanum].

A ma.s.sive torrent of Arcane energy arced out, lashing at all four. Amer disappeared, a clawed hand of Miasma and Aura stabbing into the first [Vampyr] he appeared next to.

Each of the four Demon Princes reacted in a different way. The [Greater Demonic Kodiak] shifted as fast as he could, a powerful cladding of Aura wrapping around him in an instant. The Hydra-like Demon, turned into seven separate Serpents as they all flew away as fast as they could, two getting caught in the blast. The Roc wrapped himself in a sphere of thick Aura, tanking the blast.

Rainer dashed away and saw with genuine surprise it was the Reaper who took the most damage, missing an entire right arm, wing, and part of his shoulder and right ear.

Out of the four, the Reaper took the worst bet, choosing to teleport away instead of block and having it disrupted by the sheer amount of Arcane that attacked them.

Five serpents covered in black scales converged on the currently magicless Avatar and tore it apart as it fought them off as best it could. The Magus’ body strength surprised the serpent but in the end the Avatar fell, the Soul quickly dissipating.

As Rainer dashed backwards, he cursed himself for not testing this sooner. He hadn’t expected his Avatar using Final Arcanum to have blocked his main body magic as well. His original plan having been to grab the body with a Void-walk right after the Final Arcanum. But their Mana Pools were connected. His only saving grace was that it seemed to recover quicker than normal and the Reaper was too injured to even think of grabbing the quick-to-dissipate piece of his Soul.

“Carry me and run,” Rainer quickly yelled at Vera, who complied, but not before watching his Avatar torn apart.

“What of your brother?!”

“It’s an Avatar, clone, fake body, projection?” Rainer quickly rattled off terms for it as they rushed away from the four Demon Princes. With a deep hiss, the Five serpents were the first to chase after them, followed by a rampaging Werebear of black fur and red eyes. A spinning sphere of red liquid aura carried the still humanoid [Greater Demonic Roc] toward them.

Rainer grimaced as he felt something wrong with himself. His Void Will seemed to go out control as it had in the past but even as he retreated his consciousness from it, the rampaging did not stop. He yelled in pain from his very Soul, his thrashing caused Vera to drop him, as she then spun around and shifted into her Werewolf form, a good deal larger than Kara.

Barely registering the scene around him, Rainer looked inward. He had no idea what was going on, his mind only recalling Talvara’s words that Void Will normally didn’t exist in a body that could also use Magic or Mana. He almost missed the serpent that had slipped past Vera’s a.s.sault about to attack him.

A plumage of Violet Flame a.s.saulted the Serpent, who hadn’t managed to clad himself in time, confident in his regeneration. After all, his two nearly destroyed bodies from the earlier attack already rose from the gla.s.sed ground beneath it. Yet this time, he felt the flame burn his very being. Crying out in a pain he never felt before.

The serpent recoiled, just the same as Rainer who still writhed on the ground, his Soul under a.s.sault from his own Void Will.

Several powerful Curses striking the Demon Princes gave them pause, before they were flushed out by a ma.s.sive amount of Aura. The caster of said curses now found himself under a.s.sault by all other Demons around them. Taking the weaker ones out one by one as he teleported across the snowy field.

Rainer’s pool of Mana and Arcane Energy snapped back into use as he quickly converted Mana to Arcane Power. [Arcane Awakening] flared to its maximum and [Arcane Invigoration] flowed to his Soul. The Void Will in him calmed.

Before becoming far worse. Instead of holding each other at bay, the Arcane and Mana seemed to instead antagonize the Void Will within him, and the opposite as well. Rainer nearly fell over once more before he manipulated the two to calming down. He had a far greater problem facing him.

A whip of liquid red Aura striked out at Rainer, the [Archon] barely dodging with Void-walk. Spikes of the red aura solidified and a.s.saulted him right after, as Rainer himself returned fire with [Arcane Combustion], barely dodging the homing attacks of Aura. The Arcane-Fire spells merely bounced off the still shielded Demon, who did not seem to lose even a bit of Aura.

They traded fire as the Demon Prince proved himself to be an endless vat of Aura, any of his attacks merely returning under his control afterwards.

Rainer rushed forward, knowing he needed to capitalize on this before the other two Demon Princes joined in once more. An [Arcane Blade] extended from his hilt and he Void-walked behind the Roc Demon Prince. He saw him sneer as the blade struck against his red shield. Yet in moments that sneer turned to panic as he retreated, the arcane weapon cutting through the sphere and missing the Demon only by inches.

Rainer chased after the Demon. His face grimaced as he lost control over his Arcane, Mana, and Void Will for a brief moment, the still out-of-control energies lashing out at his own body once more. It didn’t seem that problem was going away.

Every Void-walk predated a strike with his [Arcane Blade], cutting through and dissipating the thick Aura. Rainer detected the Demon’s Aura and noted with satisfaction that the formerly bottomless pit of Aura now started to drain. Several slashes of the blade cut the Demon Prince directly.

A distorted voice interrupted their fight as six serpents soared towards Rainer. Something about his Aura seemed less.

“I will chase you to the ends of existence Magus!” The six serpents didn’t even pay attention to the sphere-covered Demon Prince who retreated at once. Nor did their seventh body, now nearly gone from the still burning Violet flame, even twitch.

Rainer countered with six circles of [Arcanum], the beams of magic shooting at the close-together serpents. It hit all six in some way, the Hydra Demon Prince charging forward with reckless abandon. The six serpents, fangs gleaming with Aura, attacked from all directions. Just as Rainer was about to Void-walk away, he lost control over his energy pools once more and stuttered.

He barely dodged a few of the serpents, taking careful note where Luna was on his person, before lashing out with his [Arcane Blade]. The Serpents seemed to pay no mind to their decapitated forms and regenerated almost instantly at the cost of Aura. Rainer continued to attack them, mixing in [Cone of Arcane-Fire] which they avoided like a plague, finally managing to dislodge all of the serpent heads that were biting him. [Arcane Invigoration] countered the Aural-like venom coursing through him alongside Luna's flame.

It was in irony that the reason he couldn’t dodge the serpents in first place, proved to be his savior. The rampaging pools of energy in him either destroyed or consumed the venom that went towards his Soul before Rainer brought them back under his control.

Vera fought the Werebear to standstill, both their forms covered in wounds, though her clearly on the worse end despite her speed advantage. She retreated as red aura lashed at her from the side, clipping the bleeding Werewolf.

A Draconic roar of fury brought all the fights to a pause. Covered in bronze scales the last of the four Demon Princes joined the fray, completely healed. Rainer watched as he made a beeline straight towards him. The Magus barely reacted in time, [Void-walking] at the last second before a claw of Aura tore in him two.

Every Void-walk the Demon Prince appeared right after in a flurry of bronze, leaving no room for Rainer to retaliate. Void-walk after Void-walk, he dodged the enraged Demon. After dozens of Void-walks, Rainer reacted too slowly, and a claw of cut through his torso, his high Const.i.tution barely protecting what lay beneath the skin. The force of the blow sent him crashing to the ground. He blacked out for a brief moment as his head hit the ground, his mind too disoriented to Void-walk, he barely managed to enter Shield Mode before another claw of Aura slashed at him.

The Arcane-shielding shattered as another furious claw slashed down at him. Before Rainer even had the chance to Void-walk away a final presence entered the fight.

A Werewolf appearing larger than before appeared in a Void-step, the formerly dark blue Body Enchantments glowing an eerie crimson red as their power surged. Her claw stabbed through the back of the Reaper, blood spilling on Rainer beneath him, before he reached out with his own [Arcane Blade].

Rainer slashed at the Reaper’s legs, cutting them both off. The Demon Prince howled in pain but managed to shift to another Soul and teleport away, Rainer just barely missing with [Void Grasp].

Contrary to all expectations, the Reaper healed almost instantly after taking on a bark-covered skin, roots wriggled and twisted as they replaced his legs before he returned to his usual bronze-scaled form.

Without missing a beat, Rainer spared Kara a smile from behind his grimace and grabbed her b.l.o.o.d.y claw, taking the both of them to Vera.

The group vanished before the Demon Princes’ eyes, the Devil disappearing shortly after.