Chapter 173 - Demon suppression (3)

With millions of eyes constantly inspecting its opponents and surroundings, the creature didn't miss when the gigantic magic formation which had been shielding the entire academy from its attacks failed.

TARGETS ACQUIRED, RUNNING FINAL IFF CONFIRMATION, STANDBY… 

ERROR, FRIENDLY IFF SIGNATURES DETECTED: RUNNING SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC…. DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE, NO ANOMALIES DETECTED. ESTABLISHING CONNECTION, DIALING FRIENDLIES….. CONNECTION FAILED.

With friendly units in the area that ICI wanted nothing more than to carpet bomb, its code of autonomous operations kept it from doing so even as they had not yet been identified. 

-

"Any second now…."

Looking up into the sky as the spell formation that had up until now covered the entire magic academy slowly dissipated, Dax saw a small light among the countless twinkling stars. Without a word, Dax raised his arm, then pointed his middle finger towards the sky as he saw a single red light in the sky.

"That should do.."

"... Did you just flip off the stars?"

Looking at Dax with some confusion, Terra believed there was something wrong with Dax.

"No silly, I flipped off the low orbit surveillance satellite which just passed over us and confirmed my identity that for ICI that has spent the last few hours trying to kill us."

"Wait what!?"

Turning towards Lux, Terra believed Dax was joking (about the judgment day stuff) But when she saw her expression Terra's smile froze.

"An ineffective and/or nonresponsive unit is not worth saving, when we lost communication with the larger part of the ICI architecture we were all considered either deserters, compromised or combat ineffective."

"But is that enough to warrant us being eliminated?"

""Yeah it is.""

Seeing both Dax and Lux's honest and instant response to her question, Terra wondered what kind of military force she had joined.

"So when you flipped off that satellite?..."

"Yeah, I just saved your life, you're welcome. Now bring me up to speed please."

---

While Terra and Lux still tried to kill the angel, Lilly and Victor were both being pushed back by the demon and its minions. While Lilly handled close quarter combat and kept the lesser demons at a safe distance Victor kept disrupting the spells they were trying to form.

"Blessing of fire!"

As Lilly charged forward with such power that she left deep cracks in the stone, the grand elder coated her entire body in a suit of armour made by pure elemental fire.

"Blessing of earth!"

With another spell forming on top of her defensive barrier, Lilly's winched in pain as a gigantic boulder of rocks formed at her outstretched fist and short towards a lesser demon. The boulder completely obliterated a grouping of monsters, when the formless creatures burst apart like ballons corruption filled the air and only Lilly's elemental armour kept her safe from harm.

"Victor!"

"I got you! Spell 0210: Void!"

In Lilly's defence, Victor smashed his foot into the ground, making a complex spell formation spread out under him. Invoking the spell a sphere of absolute nothingness formed in front of Lilly, annihilating the demons which came into contact with it along with the wall of a nearby school building. Seeing the destructive output of the 2 mortals that faced it, the demon's smile lessened quite a bit. 

"HMM.."

Sharping its senses by serval magnitudes the demon sent out a bust of mana which closely examined the continent it was located on, then the invader from a different plane of existence once more widened its smile.

"NO PEST'S NEARBY!? THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TURE!"

Laughing loudly a completely black spell circle spread out around the demon, the formation compleated almost instantly and made chains of void strike out towards the demon, devouring its dimensional event horizon and allowing it to enter the reality fully. Revealing its entire form, the demon spread sickness throughout the magic academy and corrupted the very land upon which it stood. The demon could be described as a bipedal humanlike creature, but only to the vaguest descriptions. Its head was filled with eyes of varying types and colours, on top was a crown of antlers and other kinds of horns. Its body was vaguely humanoid, extremely chiselled muscles were a potent reminder that now it could use its physical body, one shouldn't get close to it. Below its waist, any theories that the demon was anything humanlike was completely shattered, a malignant mess of tentacles eyes and teeth was all that met the eye. 

"... Ugh, I'm feeling sick."

Looking at the demons true form Lilly felt a buildup of gastric acid in her mouth as blood started pouring out of her nose, a side effect of straining herself too much while her concentration wavered.

"You're not the only one…"

Even with his senses numbing and while he was slowly losing his sight from the extreme strain he put his body under, Victor still felt sick to his stomach from looking at the demon, as if something primal in his mind told him that the demon was not something that should exist in the world. 

"LAST CHANCE TO BECOME MY PET, I WILL BE A LENIENT RULER."

With its maim mouth foaming and dripping out acid as it spoke, nither Lilly or Victor wanted to get closer to the demon, even if their life depended on it.

"Yeah that's going to be a definite no from me, what about you Victor."

With a smug smile on her face as blood still poured from her nose, Lilly made her defiant attitude known to the demon.

"That's also going to be a no from me, I already told you. I will kill you and then be hailed as a hero, get the f.u.c.k.i.n.g message already!"

Also showing a defiant smile Victor nodded to Lilly, if they were going down, they were going down together.

"THEN PARISH IN AGONY!"

Forming a complex spell formation in front of its 'hand', the demon looked to be smiling as it invoked its spell.

"IMMOLAT-"

But before it could complete the incantation, the creature from another reality was hit with a hail of bullets.

"Dax!"

Looking at her saviour that as always had a large smile plastered on his face, Lilly felt her face heat up.

"Did you miss me? Now get your ass over here, you're within the strike zone!"

-

CONTACT. 

Having positively identified Dax as a friendly contact, ICI had moved to support him even as they had no direct line of communication, so when Dax started shooting at some creature, ICI sprung into action.

DIALING HIGH ALTITUDE FIRE SUPPORT, CHARGING ANTI PERSONAL HEL... CHARGE COMPLETE, SENDING TRAFFIC.

FIRE MISSION CONFIRMED, PAINTING TARGET.

RELATIVE GRID OF INTEREST: 09 07 08.

ELEVATION: NULL

ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION: LEVEL ZERO

FIRE AT WILL.

Like being struck by a spear from heaven, the demon and its close surroundings were suddenly bathed in high energy ionizing radiation.

"ARRGH!"

Suddenly the demon's skin started melting as if it had suddenly been thrust into the core of a star, some invisible force ruthlessly tried to vaporize it. 

GOOD EFFECT ON TARGET, DAILING ADDITIONAL HIGH ALTITUDE FIRE SUPPORT, CHARGING CLASS 2 HIGH ENERGY LASER... CHARGE COMPLETE, SENDING TRAFFIC.

FIRE MISSION CONFIRMED, TARGET PAINTED.

RELATIVE GRID OF INTEREST: 09 07 08.

ELEVATION: NULL

ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION: LEVEL ZERO

FIRE AT WILL.

While the stone pavement slowly started melting, the demon only appeared to be in pain, something Dax knew wouldn't last for long. Taking the chance while the demon was distracted Lux, Mare, Lilly, Victor, Terra and Dax disengaged from the demon and linked up with the drone forces that had started overrunning the academy the second Melisha's barrier dissipated.

[PLEASE PROVIDE POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION.]

Pointing their weapons at Dax, the drones (and by extension ICI) didn't seem to trust their supreme commander, something the qiton didn't seem to take issue with.

"Callsign LIMA INDIGO ECHO 144 DELTA. Now invoking emergency reformatting of command and control structure, registration 044587356420."

Confirming his identity the drones lowered their weapons as one of them handed Dax a Reaper mask.

[RIGHT OF PASSAGE CONTROL PROTOCOL CONFIRMED. COMMANDER DAX OF THE 125TH WETWORK OPERATIONS COMMAND NOW IN CONTROL.]

"Good to have you back ICI, link me in please."

[PREPARING FOR FULL MIND DOMINATION. WARNING: COMPLETE MIND MELT IN EFFECT. EXPECTED CORRUPTION AT 100% PATTEN BLACK NOW IN EFFECT. ALL UNITS ADDED TO ARCHITECTURE, RAM AND PROCESSING POWER INTEGRATED TOTAL CONTROL HANDOVER COMPLETE. ICI ENTERING SLEEP MODE]

Taking a deep breath as he felt his mind drift to cover every single unit that was now under his control, Dax filled the surroundings with bloodl.u.s.t.

[Now where are those f.u.c.k.i.n.g elvers?]

"... Don't be petty now dad, I'll take care of them with Lilly and the others."

[... Fine. Time to kill this 'demon' then.]