Chapter 274 - DE-MON

The moment he seized an arrow from his black leather quiver designed with gilded feathers, the opposing fiends began to approach him. 

"Strife…!"

Focus, Charlotte. If there is one thing I can attest to about my time with the Argonauts--it's that it made me strong. I am strong enough to make my own decisions and follow them through; that's why I chose to stand by you! Strife thought. 

By his own conscious choice, the arrow given to him by the quiver held an orange form, subtly glowing like a reclusive sun. The head of the projectile held the same star-like shape of the morning entity, sliding it back along the shining, azure string as the fiends drew closer from his east and west. 

Anything I launch, I'm able to multiply--the number depending on the size, weight, and mana signature of the object. Creating duplicates takes its toll in the form of my own mana, and the integrity of the cloned objects only lasts a brief amount of time, Strife thought. 

Turning to face the savage fiend that sprinted at him on all fours, digging up the soil with its rabid claws, he remained calm as his golden irises took a special glow, reflecting in their gilded, refined essence his steel-like concentration. 

I can launch the replicated object to any of my cardinal directions; north, south, east, and west of my current position, though if I'm not launching from directly in front of myself, my aim becomes rather rigid, he thought. 

Steadying his aim, the elvish archer unleashed the vibrant, heated arrow from the strained bow as it fled from his position with a powerful roar. 

Approaching from behind him, the lengthy pillar of a fiend raised its arm to strike the elf--only to stop as an arrow manifested from behind the still man, launching itself towards the colossal fiend in the same, sun-like radiance. 

"Multi-Volant: Morning's End." 

In perfect unison, both arrows shot in opposite directions met their targets--unleashing into a fiery, majestic explosion that inhabited the loose shape of a ten-pointed star, filling the gloomy, inverse land of Avdima's will with a much-missed glow. 

As the volatile orange settled, nothing was left in place of Strife's foes as he let out a soft sigh, lowering his bow. Almost in perfect synch of his victory, the black sphere finally dissolved in completion--cracking apart before disappearing completely. 

"...I did it!"

Distracted by her success, Charlotte was too late to notice the navy-haired man that was held within its imprisonment start to fall over--being caught by the swift elf who rushed over. 

"Are you alright?"

"...Ngh."

Slowly raising his head, Donatien caressed the side of his own shoulder as he stood on his own two feet--grimacing as his eyes seemed worn with a dozen sleepless nights. 

"How long was I in there?"

"Not long; half an hour, tops."

Strife answered the man who seemed unusually groggy--especially one of such intellectual caliber. He didn't seem to possess visible injuries beyond what he had before being captured, but suffered an unseen wound--clear by his strained expression. 

"Impossible. It felt like..weeks. Damn that Avdima...where is he?"

"Fai is still fighting him…"

"We have problems of our own right now."

Accompanying Charlotte's answer, Strife's words brought the worn-out strategist of the Outlanders to finally take in the dreary, nightmarish scenery that enveloped Grandeuve. 

"This is…?"

Adjusting his glasses formed of his own ice, Donatien forced a sharp breath through his nose to supply himself with enough energy to fight against the exhaustion plaguing him. 

"Avdima's ability--it seems to have brought us into an inverse world...what lies in it, well, I believe you're about to see."

Strife's words and abrupt change from a calm aura to one prepared for battle surprised both Charlotte and Donatien as they matched the direction of his gaze--witnessing something standing just beyond the boundary of deathly, hellborne oak. 

I almost forgot about that one...it hid the entire time and watched as I slayed its kin--if they even consider each other kin, Strife thought. 

"Gehehehe…"

Laughing with a voice distorted by both high and low pitches, the skin-crawling fiend stepped out from the lifeless foliage to finally reveal itself.

A most peculiar, fever-dream-born form; walking on feet that resembled nothing but flat, thin poles, its body was formed of sleek, rubbery material that seemed to be sable, inflated leather. Two, massive horns curved out from its head and behind its neck, inhabiting a thickness greater than its own torso as it stared at them behind a face that took the guise of a mask. 

"...Did I crawl from one hell to another?"

Donatien muttered in disgust at the sight of the abhorrent, nightmare-manifested fiend. It was something both he and Strife recognized, but didn't dare mention to the young girl standing beside them in utter puzzlement. 

Is that...a gimp suit?! Donatien thought. 

A devilish fiend...how repulsive for the eyes, Strife thought. 

"...DE-MON Manifestation: Twelve Principle Apparitions: Embodiment of Sexual Depravity: GIMP!"

Unlike the others before it, much to the dismay of those standing before it, the fiend spoke with a voice as unnatural as its existence, sounding out from like a snapped violin being played. 

I see…it's a sort of spirit, likely formed by collective human emotions…in this case…ugh, Donatien sighed. 

"Can you fight?"

"...It's not a question if I can; I will." 

Answering Strife's quietly spoken question, Donatien seemed less than joyful to be plunged straight back into the heated glory that is the act of battle. 

"...Charlotte."

"Yes…?"

Under the gaze of the cold-eyed man, Charlotte felt a shiver run over her skin just from the residual aura emanating from him. 

"I'll leave the support to you."

They were simple words, but enough to ignite the engine within the girl's heart as she fervently nodded her head--finding the courage to stand before such a powerful entity with these two men at her side. 

"Strife, you're with me. I'm an ice-user as I'm sure you're aware."

"Indeed; wind is my specialty--I'm an archer, but don't let that misguide you into thinking I can't join you on the vanguard."

With his sable bow in hand, Strife stood side-by-side with Donatien as they eyed their unorthodox, obscene enemy. 

"Ready?"

"Whenever you are."

Answering Donatien's question with a narrowing of his eyes--the group of three froze as GIMP had disappeared from their frontal view; feeling in that moment of frosted limbs the presence now lingering behind them. 

"Ge-he!"

It's fast! Donatien thought. 

Even my eyes couldn't…? Strife processed. 

As the two men of once opposing forces threw themselves around to face their agile foe--it was too late. With a speed that gave little room to counter, it dug two of its latex-formed fists of sable destruction deep into both of their guts.

With a push that looked as strainless as a single stride, GIMP sent the two men flying back with a stomach-bursting force, shattering the dirt in their path as they flew at a monstrous velocity. Now left alone, the vermillion-haired girl stood behind the malevolent manifestation with her resolve being quickly tested. 

"Young…"

"...Huh?"

Charlotte could barely muster anything that sounded more like a passing breath from her lips as she listened to GIMP speak in its distorted voice, muffled by its unorthodox physiology. 

"Smooth...young...so much to break down! Ge-he-he!"

Without using its own two, sable, bulbous legs to turn itself around, the corrupted apparition twisted its limbs backwards before contorting its neck in the same manner--completely seamlessly as its hollow eyes now looked down upon the young girl. 

Fingers, arms, legs, even her breath--they all trembled alike when standing in the unnerving, malicious presence of a being formed completely out of malevolence itself. 

No...I'm sick of this! Being helpless, waiting for others to save me--I can't be afraid my entire life. I won't be a burden...I won't be a child that needs to be coddled! Charlotte thought. 

"...Nodens: Purifying Whirlpool!"

Raising her hand and yelling out with her quivering heart words born of sudden courage and resolve, from her will she manifested a whirlpool of clear, rejuvenating water beneath the feet of the approaching spirit--catching it in the tight grasp of the raging waters. 

If it really is an evil spirit--then it should be weak to something like this…! I can do this…! She thought. 

"Oh...Augh…"

As its moans and groans unleashed in a series of high and low pitches, Charlotte felt her heart thump with a victorious cheer at these sounds of approaching victory. 

"It hurts...so good!"

Those painful sounding groans were now laced in complete ecstasy as that sense of victory now washed away before the girl's eyes as she witnessed GIMP moving seamlessly from within the binding of the swirling pillar of aqua. 

Bringing its sable arms and knees close to its body, GIMP curled up before expanding its limbs out ferociously with heinous laughter--completely dismantling the spell in that single action. 

"No way…"

As it escaped the holds of the fallen magecraft, GIMP stepped towards the girl with its pole-like feet, its rubbery body supplying a hefty amount of ear-wrenching noise as it moved. 

"Thanks for the assist, Charlotte."

"...!?"

From behind the approaching spirit, the voice of a certain ice-wielding man reached the girl's ears before an icy wind wrapped itself around GIMP's unsightly form. 

"Geh?!"

Before it could react to the birth of frosty air, its body--slathered in water--was subject to the fingertips of the forming ice as it stretched across its sable, inflated body, wrapping it nicely into a statue of frosty azure within moments. It was no less of a frightening sight having been sealed within an encasing of Donatien's steel-like ice; falling to her knees, Charlotte attempted to catch her fleeting breath as the danger as sharp as a katana seemed to dissipate. 

"That one's speed caught me by surprise...but speed is all it had." 

Donatien remarked as he stepped around the frosted apparition, approaching the girl as his bare abs were reddened from the fearsome blow. 

"...Just speed? It's strength wasn't anything to scoff at either…"

Caressing his affected abdomen, the elven archer stepped over with a cough as the three turned their gaze to the frozen form of GIMP. 

"It only felt that way because it caught us off of our guard. Still...that pressure I felt from it earlier; I felt none of that here."

Adjusting his glasses with a subtle push of his fingertips, Donatien looked up at the tall, unsettling fiend encapsulated in ice. 

"Is it really over…?"

Charlotte's question accompanied her shifting, amethyst irises as she looked at the sealed fiend. Even motionless and bound, the harrowing aura it emitted wasn't dulled. 

"I'd like to believe my ice isn't so fragile as to be escapable in a situation like our friend finds itself in right now."

"...Still, I wasn't able to do anything."

Holding a guilty look on his face, Strife returned the arrow he held between his fingers back to his quiver. 

"Don't worry about such things. I was simply the one who reached the enemy first; the result would've been no different if you found yourself before it."

"Thank you, Donatien, I don't deserve such kind--"

Before the elven archer could finish his words meant for the glasses-wearing otherworlder, a daunting, fear-inducing orchestra of cracks resounded; the sound of a brittle, solid object being parted across its surface. 

"Impossible--!"

In a violent burst of unorthodox strength, the encasement of ice shattered and blew away into particles of frost--freeing GIMP from its bindings.