CHAPTER 63: LILITHS DEN (5)

As the creature of nightmares walked closer I began to feel a pervasive feeling of bone deep hunger. It was as if I had not eaten in days maybe weeks, I could feel that this hunger felt... hollow? It was strong and it felt like my insides were shrivelling away. But, I also felt a resistance to this feeling. Trying to focus on this feeling I turned my attention to my body and tried to identify what it was, it took but a moment and I felt a smile form on my face as I understood what this resistance was. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad after all?

The multiplied creature was around 10 meters from Zara and was still slowly progressing towards her. I could see that all of my companions, bar Ivy anyhow held grimaces on their faces and Kana was clutching her stomach in obvious pain. That turned to one of relief however when I unleashed my aura of life. A wave of near invisable green power washed out of me just as it approached the half way point between myself and the creature I felt a sudden burst of resistance unlike anything I had experienced before now.

I tried to pour more mana into fuleing my aura but instead of pushing forward all it achieved was to expanding the area behind me. More annoyingly however was that I felt the resistance grow in strength. My aura seemed to be pushing back the fiends hunger but in return for me holding it back from affecting my companions I recived the full brunt of the fields attack.

It was a strange experience, I was like an extension of my will was being challenged, in this case my will to heal and provide life to my friends and lovers was in direct opposition to the fiends will of a never ending hunger the strain it placed on both my body and soul was noticeable but to my relief was manageable, for now at least.

"Stay in my aura if you can but we need to kill this thing quickly! I don’t know how long I can hold it back!" I called out, as if it understood my words a fresh wave of malice and hunger battered at my will, driving me to my knee as a sharp stab of pain lanced through mg very being.

Thankfully my companions didn’t need more encouragement to attach the fiend and not a moment later a arrow infused with wind rocketed towards the monster and pierced right through one of its limbs, as the arrow was around half way through it exploded and managed to separate on of the disturbing flailing limbs from its body. A nerve rattling screech reverberated out from the devil as its limb landed on the ground with a wet slap.

Swiftly following this an arc of fire extended from a sword slash from Zara who was remaining just at the edge of my aura and standing as the bulwark to protect us from the nightmare that is even still advancing towards us. The fire seared the flesh of the devils hungering maw but the damage looked to be mostly superficial, but that was not the end of her attacks and that signal flame slash was soon joined by 1 more, and then another and another till 10 slashes of flame had lashed across the body of the devil.

Whilst the individual attacks didn’t deal a huge amount of damage the barrage of blows was enough to halt its advance and deal significant damage. One more of its now 7 limbs had even been cut through and the stump was left cauterised and raw.

Amanda too stuck to ranged attacks and unleashed a barrage of blood bullets that struck the tentacled beast. Each droplet struck with the force of a hammer blow and caused the surrounding flesh to undulate in truly disturbing ways.

Dawn also helped how she could, unleashing a cry that bolstered all of our strength and allowed her nature mana to coat everyone’s attacks adding an additional layer of damage to our barrage of attacks.

The devil was now truly on the back foot and it was howling in fury and pain as its flesh was beaten, burned and scoured with wind. But the one who truly felt a painful blow was non other than Ivy. By tapping into my prodigious mana regeneration which was boosted curtesy of me turning my dress into my ’combat’ form which exposed a great deal more skin she gathered a ball of green and pink energies above her outstretched hand.

As the ball grew in size the pressure it unleashed continued to grow as the ball began to rotate faster and faster as the mana within was compressed further and further turning what had ballooned to a beach ball size down to the size of a tennis ball. When it reached this size it suddenly stopped rotating, the air around it seemed to freeze and time seemed to stop before Ivy spoke in a sensual and commanding tone.

"From natures lust I call you.

Embrace the sleep that calls you.

Be ready for your final test

As nature once more calls you to rest."

Upon the completion of her chant the ball of mana shoots forward at a blinding speed. It swiftly enters into the gaping maw of the Devil of Hunger and all seems to stop for a moment before a almighty explosion of power erupts out blasting part the devil and putting the hideous creature down once and for all.

As the devils body explodes we all collectively take in a deep breath and I find myself reining in my aura as my mana supply has dwindled significantly thanks to the expenditure of supplying Ivy with the power for that spell and the cost of maintaining my aura at such a high intensity.

Still though the fight seems to be over and it take all my will to not collapse to the floor right there. After all we do still have one more combat task to undertake, I can only hope that it is easier to deal with than that last one.

We are given hardly any time to catch our breath before we once more hear the sound of footsteps approaching from within the open gate.

I struggle back to my feet and quickly glance at my companions and see looks of grim determination on all of them. Feeling a smile tug at my lips I decide to give a quick pep talk before we face our final foe. "Good work so far everyone, just one more fight to go. Let’s do this."

Might not be the best speech but I currently don’t care given how tired I currently feel. Still I decide to cast spear of the wilds so that I can unleash a powerful strike as soon as it emerges. It seems like everyone else is also charging an attack of their own. Kana has her bow drawn and wind mana is steadily gathering around the arrow building up in intensity and awaiting its chance to be sent forwards.

Zara and Amanda don’t seem to have a chargeable skill so instead are just readying their blades to charge in in case we are unable to finish it ourselves. As the footsteps get closer a figure slowly emerges from the open gateway. And it’s visage surprises me quite a lot, for instead of a fearsome beast what I see before me can only be called majestic.

It appears to be a stag coated in white fur and its head is adorned with majestic antlers that appear to be made of crystals and seem to glow slightly. "Is that a stag?" Is Zara’s confused voice. This causes me to look at her and Amanda she nods at that confirming that she too is seeing a stag, this confuses me as I was under the impression that each monster will be hidden by illusions to everyone who does not have a afffinity towards lust. But seeing as everyone else is able to see it I began to wonder if this is part of another trial or still a part of the combat test.

I hold back on loosing my spear and indicate Kana to hold off for a while too. "Are we to fight this creature or is this a different test?" I ask no one in particular. But I receive a answer from the one person I didn’t expect to hear from, the stag itself.

"You have proven your capabilities in might. For defeating the Devil of Hunger without suffering any injury your final combat test has been waived. Now you must undertake the trial of wills." Its voice is ethereal and almost forces me to embrace sleep for how relaxing it sounds. I force myself to pinch my arm as I should not be this relaxed around such a unfamiliar creature.

I quickly look at my companions and see that they are also looking tired and that initial feeling of worry starts to turn into one of panic. This does not feel right, why would a stag be the one to announce the beginning of the next trial. Every time before it has been either a disembodied voice or the system itself that has spoken. Deciding to trust my gut on this one and not give the stag a chance to speak further and lull me into a potentially lethal slumber I unleash my spear after quickly infusing it with fire.

It seemed like no one expected this to happen least of all the stag as my spear flew forward to strike it in its head. A echoing boom erupts out and a spray of blood splatters onto the floor as the now headless stag collapsed to the ground. As I stand their and wonder if I had made a mistake or not I am relieved when I hear the hauntingly beautiful voice echo out from all around me.

"Congratulations contenders, you have shown strength of arms and will alike. You have completed this trial and you rewards await."