3-35 Percipitated

EnroItzal

A monstrous creature of a shape between a beast and a human climbed its way atop of a small and shallow hill. Velkan, now a Demon of a hideous form, looked around his surroundings. His mind was no longer his own but his unrighteous fury and Marduk’s. Under the two’s influences, he hunted down Erin to enact his fallacious vengeance. He followed his mark’s scent to this hill but here the scent ended. Confusion and anger stirred together as he became lost in his next course of action. He began to thrash around and crater the ground with his fists like an ape.

All of a sudden, the ground glowed in symbolic patterns all around him. An explosion ensued after the glow, swallowing him up in the wake of the destruction that spanned a radius of more than three hundred feet.

“Whoa...” Lyra gasped in amazement. “What was the liquid you drew those symbols with?”

Erin, Lyra, Siv, and Olivia were hiding some distance away on another hill, overlooking the explosion that Olivia had triggered.

“Dranic ores ground into sand mixed with grey spores, then dissolved in a magic solution. Once it's dried, it’s hard to even scrape it off even if you used something sharp and hard. It’s great to use as booby traps,” Olivia explained.

“Mistress, did you see what level was the Velkan-Demon?” Siv asked.

“I couldn’t. It was too far but I doubt the explosion barely hurt it.”

Olivia glared with a frown at Erin. “Then why did you ask me to set that trap? The potion used to hide your scent and Dranic ores aren’t cheap. They cost me a fortune.”

“Can’t fault me for trying and hoping I was wrong.” Erin shrugged. “And that’s the tax for stalking me. Consider us even now.”

Olivia scowled dumbfoundedly. “I can’t believe my lord favours you,” she said with a scoff.

“I can scarcely believe it myself too.”

The force of the explosion created a ripple around the epicentre. The rippling force swept past the four, blowing their hair and apparel up. Erin’s nose twitched after the strong gust settled.

“Olivia…”

“I know, Lady Erynthea...”

“Not good...” Siv mulled along with them.

“What’s not good?” Lyra asked.

“The gust just blew away the potion that was masking our scent,” Erin answered.

“Oh… that’s unfortunate… terribly so.”

From the smoke that was the remnant of the explosion, the Velkan-Demon erupted into the air from the cloud of dust. As he fell, he was falling towards Erin’s way.

“He’s coming!” Lyra shouted. She aimed her bow at the Velkan-Demon falling through the air. She marked him with Seeker and released her fingers on the pulled string.

The Velkan-Demon let the arrow hit him but it bounced right off his skin.

“It’s ineffective?” Lyra blurted out her surprise. “Erin, what level is he?”

“He’s only thirty-two but… I can’t read the rest.” Erin frowned. “It’s all scrabbled. I can barely read his name.”

“His Demonification is greater than Rayor’s,” Olivia said.

“Well, that’s bad… and a little good at the same time,” Erin muttered, drawing her sabre.

The Velkan-Demon landed before them and a small crater with cracks formed beneath his feet due to its weight and landing force. He looked to be a Demon with an uncanny appearance of a gorilla and some kind of reptile, capable of being two or four limbs as he moved around. His face had a faint trace of his former self.

The Velkan-Demon howled with a hollow voice, sending shivers down their spines.

“He’s even uglier up close,” Lyra remarked.

“Wait for my mark,” Erin said and rushed towards the Velkan-Demon. She threw an Aura Shot to stunt him as she closed their gap. Once she was within reach, she set him on fire with Essence Flare. The cyan flames quickly grew into a large blaze.

An inhumane scream pierced the air as the Velkan-Demon screeched in agony. Siv even had to cover her ears to withstand the grief of a diabolical beast. Erin was affected by the scream too but her slight level advantage helped her in withstanding the screeches even though she was right in front of him.

“The flames of the Spirits aren’t doing anything!” Olivia pointed out with a loud voice.

“I can see that, Olivia.”

The cyan flames were instilling pain upon the Velkan-Demon but it was obviously not burning into his flesh. Upon closer inspection, Erin found a thin layer of dark purplish energy preventing the flames from burning through.

“Abyss Magic: Mystic Skin?” Erin squinted her eyes at the information displayed about the dark layer of magic.

“That’s an advanced tier of—”

“I know!” Erin cut off Olivia’s explanation with a shout.

The Velkan-Demon, still in flames, lunged at Erin with its huge fist. It wasn’t a claw like Rayor’s but simply a fist that was as big as his torso. Erin flipped over the hook and sliced at his shoulder as she spun into a landing. She had purposely cut him without the use of Arcane Edge or any magic augmentation.

“Plain attacks have no effect. He’s at least three-quarters Demon,” Erin surmised. “But he’s not completely vulnerable to the Spirits either. This leaves me with one option.”

“What do we do, mistress?” Siv asked.

“You two stay back for now. There’s nothing you can do.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the Velkan-Demon attacked again. His primary means of attack was his oversized fists. It was strange for Erin to see something so heavy but moving so fast. The fists did not slow him down. At a glance, the fists looked like they weighed nothing but when Erin parried a punch, she felt a tremendous weight. She couldn’t believe how Velkan was moving around with that much weight. Her hands even felt slightly numb from parrying the punch.

As Erin traded blows with the Velkan-Demon, she was also slowly luring him away from Lyra and Siv, she couldn’t care less about what happened to Olivia though. With her superiority in levels, Erin was able to continuously parry the blows. She tried dodging at first but the fists were too large for her to dodge them completely to go unscathed. She eased her numbing pain by using Spirit Mend on her hands. With Spirits all around, the fight wasn’t as hard as when she fought the Ashen Knight.

Once Erin deemed she was suitably far away from Siv and Lyra, Olivia not in consideration, she used Mystic Blade and sliced the Velkan-Demon’s left arm off. The Velkan-Demon was too shocked to even scream. Erin brought her sword around and aimed for his other arm. But the Velkan-Demon leapt into the air to escape from Erin’s blade.

Before the Velkan-Demon touched the ground, Erin seized this short window to cast Lightning Spear. She threw the thundering spear at him as he landed. The attack spell inflicted no wounds but the remnant of the lightning held him in place. With Mystic Blade coated on her blade, she went in for the kill.

“I’m sorry, Velkan,” she apologized in a whisper. “I’m sorry, Velrin.”

“V-Velrin?” the Velkan-Demon spoke with a stutter.

Erin felt sympathy and sorrow brimming for Velkan but she didn’t stop her swing. She couldn’t risk Lyra and Siv’s lives for a brief moment of sympathy and sorrow.

However, the Velkan-Demon shuddered and he split himself apart before Erin’s blade could. His sudden and unforeseen manoeuvre allowed Erin’s swing to only cut the air.

“What the fuck is it now?” she cursed as she watched the split forms of Velkan slowly morphing into a whole form of their own.

The one on the right morphed into a smaller version of what Velkan was, with the other difference being his fists were only half the size before. The one on the left morphed into a similar form but claws for its right arm and a blade for its left arm grew in place of fists. The other difference was its face. The resemblance wasn’t the face of Velkan but the face of the late Velrin.

“What in the twisted irony of fate is this?”

The Velrin-Demon pounced at Erin who was still trapped in her disbelief. She broke out just in time to deflect her lunge. Sparks flew when her claws collided with Erin’s blade. Erin had dispelled Mystic Blade as she wasn’t sure cutting her opponent was of any use. The Velkan-Demon attacked from her left flank. Erin raised an Arcane Aegis in defence. The fist collided with the magic shield. Erin stayed on her feet without being moved. Since the Velkan-Demon had split apart, the current Velkan-Demon lacked the same strength as before. However, the Velrin-Demon attacked at this moment. She swung her arm-blade, slicing the thin air apart. The sound of the air being cut was enough to let Erin know she made the right choice of dodging it.

The twin Demons worked in unison. They attacked with a rhythm instead of coming at Erin without any strategy. Erin was impressed and terrified at the same time. Their teamwork didn’t seem possible for a pair of mindless Demons but Erin’s disadvantageous state proved that notion wrong. They were relentless with their assault and there was next to no opening to the interval of their attacks. Erin’s advantage was her skill and level. The Demons’ levels were halved when the Velkan-Demon split into two.

Still, Erin would rather fight one Demon with a level near hers than two Demons half her level. As the fight went on, Erin understood something about the twin Demons. The Velkan Demon was slow, obvious, but strong. The Velrin-Demon was physically weaker and less durable as Erin managed to easily kick her away but she was faster than her twin and her arm-blade was sharp enough to cut through Erin’s Arcane Armor and Arcane Aegis.

Erin was being pushed back, literally. On her current course, a wall of rocks stood behind her and her path was becoming narrower as the trees grew close to one another in these parts. She had no trouble cutting down the trees but it would slow her considerably and left herself open for the Velrin-Demon’s rapid attacks.

Though Erin was on the route to a defeat, her chances of victory weren't zero. In fact, it was actually an optimistic portion. The twin Demons were competent but they had a routine. And once Erin figured out their pattern, she could turn the tides. The two were mindless Demons in the end.

Erin blindsided the Velkan-Demon with a blast of Essence Flare. He tried to put out the flames by flailing around but it was fruitless. Since his level was reduced, the pain was even more unbearable for him as the heat of the cyan flames seeped into his skin.

Erin parried the incoming slashes from the enraged Velrin-Demon without a fault. Even the Velrin-Demon had a look of astonishment when she realized her attacks were completely annulled. Erin grabbed the Velrin-Demon's arm-blade while she was still in astonishment. Erin coated her hand with Spirit Armour and Arcane Armour before she touched the blade. With her higher value of Might, Erin pulled the Velrin-Demon in and lopped off her arm-blade with Arcane Edge.

The Velrin-Demon screeched in anger and lunged at Erin with her claws. Erin parried her claws and plunged her own arm-blade through her torso. Erin then ripped the arm-blade right across the Velrin-Demon’s body. Dark blood spilt out along with blackened guts. The Velrin-Demon stared at Erin with rage and refusal of her fate but her gaze went dark.

[Experience gained +15% - Level Progression: 55%]

Erin let out a heave of relief when the experience notification came out. If that didn’t work, Erin didn’t know what else would. She half expected the Velrin-Demon to split further into two. She couldn’t be more grateful her fears didn’t come true.

“Vel-Velrin...”

The stuttering hallowed voice entered Erin’s ears once again. She held down a shudder and faced the Velkan-Demon.

“Vel...rin...” The Velkan-Demon approached his twin’s crumbling corpse that was being carried away by the winds. He tried to grasp at the ashes but all slipped right through his bulky fingers.

“She’s dead, Velkan and should you be. You’re no longer meant for this world.” Now that Erin was sure her Mystic Blade could kill them, she doused her sabre with a blue sheen. “It’s time for you to rest, Velkan. I’m sorry that I couldn’t keep my promise. I truly am.”

The Velkan-Demon paid no attention to Erin. He was trying to gather the ashes of his twin but to no avail. He started clawing at the ground with his fists when the ashes were cleared off by the winds. He began screeching lowly in a trance.

“Forgive me, Velkan.” Erin raised her sword, prepared to swing down but before she could, her Sixth Sense bellowed. Erin immediately dove away from Velkan as a pair of wings sprouted out from his back.

“Velrin!!!” he howled into the skies and his demonic wings grew larger as if reflecting the volume of his grief. His fingers morphed into talons, turning his fists into claws but retaining the size of the fists.

Erin watched in horror as the worst surprise was just beginning.

The face of Velkan was pushed to the side, making way for another face on his head. It was the face of Velrin. A single head shared by two faces. Two pairs of eyes. Two noses. However, still a pair of ears and a single mouth that was now as wide as two mouths.

Erin had never felt so shaken even in the face of her strongest adversary. She was witnessing the true horrors of a Demon.

The two-faced Demon turned its four eyes at Erin. It stared intensely at her, slowly creeping towards her. It walked like a gorilla with its frontal limbs supporting its hind legs. The wings wavering behind it as if signifying the calm before the storm.

“Level twenty-seven...” Erin muttered exasperatedly in her heart. “How the hell did your level increase just like that?”

“Erynthea!!!” The two-faced Demon roared with a voice that was more hallowing and terrifying than before.

“This is so unnerving,” Erin mused aloud and went into her stance.

Erinthea - Faerie-kin: Five-Tailed Fox-kin

Level: 34 | Status: None

Might: 22 | Arcane: 41 | Finesse: 36

Magic Arts

Spirit Magic Lv. 10 | Arcane Edge Lv. 5 | Arcane Armor Lv. 10 | Lightning Magic Lv. 10 | Arcane Aegis Lv. 7 | Mystic Tail Arts Lv 3

Combat Arts

Sword Art Lv. 8 | Fleet Foot Lv. 5 | Brawler Lv. 5

Innate Skills

Appraisal Lv. Ex | Night Vision Lv. Ex | Sixth Sense Lv. Ex | Toxin Resistance Lv. 7 | Lust Deviant Lv. Ex | Mana Harvest Lv. 1 | Lightning Resistance Lv. 1

Unique Talent

Mystic Blade Lv. Ex | Revenant Lv. Ex

Level Progression: 55%

Remaining Skill Points: 0

Remaining Ability Points: 0