3-38 Brick by brick

The forest was vast and trees were abundant. The flowers were in full bloom in the current season. Erin dreaded the thought of how she would ever find her sword in such conditions. She did see her sword but the Demon on her tail complicated her search and she was forced to start from scratch and worse, she didn’t even know where to start. There were also some tall bushes that only added to the difficulty. The sword was her pride and weakness. She felt invincible with it but without it, she felt powerless. She could not defeat the Demon without her sword. She tried casting Mystic Blade on her hand but it gave off only a faint cerulean glow and the spell fell apart.

“Fuck fuck fuck… where the hell is it?” she muttered to herself as she searched high and low for her sword. She could have borrowed it from Siv but she feared the strain from her Mystic Blade would be too much for just any simple steel sword. Moreover, steel wasn’t a good Mana conductor. Using magic on a steel blade was an inefficient task.

The roars from Olivia, the shrieks from the Demon, and the faint shrills from Lyra, all of these made Erin even more anxious in finding her sword. No doubt Olivia could overpower the Demon but she didn’t have any means to kill it. She didn’t have any Spirit Magic nor did she have Holy Magic. Curiously enough, Olivia did have Holy Magic but after the last Dragon God died and the throne was left empty, she lost her Holy Magic and so did the other followers of the Dragon God. Erin reprimanded the Dragon God’s heir in her heart but she could also understand why he didn’t succeed to the throne. The responsibilities that came with the throne weren’t things that could be taken lightly without being fully committed. Otherwise, he would just be another loathsome god among the many. And knowing the personality of the heir, Erin just couldn’t see him in the position of a leader.

Chuckling to her wandering thoughts, a sharp silver glint caught her eyes. There were many glints in the forest but this glint was particularly sharp. She squinted her gaze at the glint. Her face brightened and hope returned to her expression. It was her sword. She had never minded how dull her sword looked as long as it was nice to wield but the quality aesthetic of her sword made it possible for it to be found. She rushed over with Fleet Foot and retrieved her sabre with a jump of glee. At the same time, a strong gust blew over her.

“Erin, this is no time to be jumping around!” she reprimanded herself and headed for the clearing they had designated in their plan. She crossed the distance of nearly half a mile under a minute by giving her all with Fleet Foot and Lightning Rush, leaving a charred trail behind her.

Once Erin reached the middle of the clearing, she used Mana Harvest to quickly recover her Mana though she barely filled her Mana pool to three-quarters of its threshold. Mana wasn’t abundant in these parts but she would just have to make do. She fired a Lightning Bolt into the clouds as the signal for the recovery of her sword. She saw Olivia, in her Dragon form, taking notice but not the Demon. It barely reacted to her Lightning Bolt.

Erin conjured up a spear of lightning and threw it at the Demon with all her might. She wasn’t an expert at throwing but as it was a spell, she didn’t need to do all the work. The Lightning Spear corrected its flight path slightly to make sure it at least grazed the mark of its caster. The Lightning Spear hit the Demon square in the back and Erin finally had the Demon’s attention. Erin could feel its glare from afar. She could feel its anger at being played for a fool, chasing down her garment thinking it was her in the flesh.

The Demon wasted no time and flew straight at its prey.

Erin still hadn’t the faintest idea on how to kill this Demon for good. She did receive experience when she ‘killed’ the Velrin-Demon but the other part was still walking. Her Mystic Blade could cut through anything but it was another matter if cutting truly meant the death of its victim.

“No, I shouldn’t be thinking too much. I won’t know if I don’t try everything first,” she told herself. The Demon’s level dropped when it split apart. It regained some of its levels when it absorbed its split part. Erin had the idea of just cutting it until its level couldn’t go any lower.

Erin took out a vial of bluish-green liquid from Olivia’s potion satchel pack. It was the corrosive substance Lyra had laced her arrow with when she shot at the Demon’s wings. The liquid was mixed with Fairy Dust, making it effective against Demons. As the liquid contained Fairy Dust, an idea sprang to Erin’s head.

The Demon was close now. It bared its fangs and claws, gliding towards her without a bloody thirst apparent on its double-face. Erin swung and parried its claws as the Demon flew past her. She turned around and deflected another blow from the Demon who was moving around with its wings. The Demon threw a heavy blow that knocked Erin off her feet but she didn’t lose her balance. She flipped in the air and landed gracefully with her tails fluttering behind her. She popped open the vial and splashed its content at the Demon charging at her. She cast Essence Flare and ignited the small cyan spark into a blazing wave, swallowing the Demon as it neared Erin.

The Demon screeched in agony but just like before, the Mystic Skin of Abyss Magic protected it from any real harm. However, the flames weren’t the only thing burning it but there was also the corrosive liquid trying to melt its way through. Erin closed in and slash at the wailing Demon, drawing a shallow cut on its arm. Her blade wasn’t even clad in Arcane Edge or Mystic Blade but she cut through its flesh.

“Hmm… is it only protective against Spirit Magic?” Erin mused at her observation.

The Demon tried to take flight but the agony embracing it caused it to instantly crash back into the ground. It couldn’t focus on using its wings properly.

Erin lunged and thrust her sword but the Demon parried her strike with its arm-blade that had grown in size just seconds before Erin’s strike touched.

Still engulfed in the cyan flames, the Demon pounced at Erin but she leapt away easily as the Demon was too distressed by the cyan flames. It eyed Erin hatefully as it endured the encroaching pain.

Erin raised an eyebrow when she noticed the Mystic Skin started to tear but immediately patched itself up before the tear got any worse. She used Spirit Sight and found that the miasma surrounding the Demon was gradually decreasing and so was its Mana but at a quicker pace. She was surprised to find out the Demon was still using Mana.

“Nothing’s perfect, I guess,” she muttered to herself. She felt a sense of superiority as the Demon fared worse than her in a drawn-out battle.

The Demon was reaching its limits. A Demon drew its power constantly from another realm, making them an inexhaustible powerhouse but this Demon couldn’t. It was an artificial Demon. It could do no such thing. It howled into the sky. Erin saw the shallow lingering miasma among the forest slowly flow towards the Demon with its howl as the beacon.

“Oh no, you don’t.”

Erin cast Mana Harvest and drew the miasma to herself instead of the Demon. She then turned the miasma she absorbed into Mana.

The Demon snarled at Erin’s actions but she smirked in return. Tears began to form over its Mystic Skin and some of these tears stayed torn. Out of desperation, the Demon hurled itself at Erin.

Erin backstepped its blow and lunged back in with a slash so fast that the Demon saw only a flash. A fresh wound opened up on its torso but without the aid of Spirits, the wound closed up immediately. Erin didn’t mind and kept slashing at the Demon, giving it wounds that healed just as quickly as she slashed. The Demon soon realized what Erin was trying to do. She was trying to exhaust its Mana faster than it already was.

The Demon distanced itself away from Erin but she kept their gap closed with Lightning Rush. She conserved her own Mana by slicing and slashing without using Arcane Edge. Every slash and slice ran deeper after the other. The Demon was also slowing down. Not just its Mana but also its stamina was running low. The quarter of itself that was a human became its bane.

“This... shall... not... standdddd!!!” the Demon roared.

Erin felt her skin scrawled from that roar alone. “What is it trying to do now?”

The Demon’s wings disappeared and its right arm seemed to shrink into its shoulder. Its left arm-blade lengthened and enlarged, to the point it became thrice its body size and more than thrice its body’s length. It began to spin with its long arm-blade using its body as the axis. The strength of its spin was whipping up a tornado.

“For fuck’s sake, Velkan!” Erin yelled. “Your sister will be so disappointed in you.”

“Si...lence…!!!” the Demon howled, spinning its way towards Erin, gouging the ground in its wake.

Erin sighed. “For what it's worth… I’m truly sorry… but it doesn’t excuse what you are doing.” Erin clad her blade in Mystic Blade and slashed.

The tornado was still charging towards her but it split horizontally into half as it was still spinning. It only stopped spinning a few seconds after it was split into half and the whirling winds dispersed. Similar to the tornado, the Demon was split into horizontal halves. The upper half instantly withered and crumbled into ashes.

[Experience gained +20% - Level Progression: 75%]

Erin was about to heave a sigh of relief but her Sixth Sense reacted to an unseen danger. She raised her sabre just as tendrils of darkness sprouted from the stump of the Demon’s lower half. She blocked most of the attacks but a few grazed her.

The Demon’s lower half stood up and began growing back its upper half. Erin swooped in and bisected the regenerating Demon with Mystic Blade.

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 85%]

She observed closely on the two halves she cut. The left half withered into ashes but the right half held on to its colour. Erin slashed at the right half but it pulled itself away from her by sprouting out tendrils. Erin chased it down as it started regenerating. Using Lightning Rush and Fleet Foot, she reached the half before it could grow big and impaled the small mass of Demon flesh.

[Experience gained +5% - Level Progression: 90%]

The mass of flesh withered into ashes except for a small part. Erin didn’t miss that small lump of flesh but before she could reach it, it dug itself into the soil.

“Oh fuck...” Erin uttered. She examined the underground with Spirit Sight. The small lump of flesh was spreading itself all over the ground.

The ground began to tremble and Erin leapt away before it erupted. Black tendrils emerged, followed by clumps of dirt and rocks, all held together by the black tendrils. It was using the fertile soil as its body.

Erin was surprised to learn its level was now only five but its appearance did not seem like anything with a single-digit level. The Demon Earth Golem looked intimidating, but only for a second. Half of it crumbled as it tried to stand up but it repeatedly failed to hold everything together. When the tendrils used too much force to hold themselves together, it ended up crushing its body. It cried when it realized its actions were futile.

Erin was even starting to feel sorry for it.

“Well… it is only level five… But even so, it’s too dangerous to leave it alone. I must destroy every last bit of it.”

Erin popped open another vial of the bluish-green liquid and splashed it on the struggling Demon Earth Golem. The tendrils flailed around as if begging for Erin to spare them. Some of it tried to leave but it couldn’t divide itself on its own accord even though it could survive from being split into small bits.

“Rest in peace, Velkan,” she said and threw a ball of cyan flames at Velkan.

The fire grew wildly and swallowed the tendrils, dirt, and rocks. Shrieks, shrills, screeches, all manners of agony voices came from the burning lump. It could even flail around. The fire burned quick and in a matter of minutes, everything was charred to cinders.

[Experience gained +3% - Level Progression: 93%]

Erin waited until the fire had completely consumed everything and left nothing whole after it faded, then she slumped to the ground, heaving a long sigh of relief.

“Fucking...” she breathed deeply and held it for a few seconds, “finally...” she let it out. She closed her eyes just as Olivia’s shadow loomed over her. A faint smile touched her lips as she let her shoulders sag.