Chapter 428 - Anger & Envy (I)

----

After readying herself for the battle, Sapphyr looked towards Apollo, who gave her a faint nod. Since transforming, this was her first solo battle. Even when they first appeared in Ashiraem, all of the battles were done alongside Fuhrer and the others, so there was always an ally ready to assist.

However, against this animated corpse, it would be a solo battle. After all, if she wished to absorb the Ira it contained, then it required her to defeat the enemy by herself. Similar to how Apollo's demons from the Lost Council weren't allowed to assist in the battle against their brethren.

It was a sort of test to prove if they were truly worthy of absorbing the energy.

"Do you believe she's ready?" Fuhrer questioned while looking towards Apollo, who seemed to possess a blank expression as he watched Sapphyr near the corpse. Judging her as a typical Greater Demon would be wrong because she was something special.

In addition to being a full-fledged demon, she retained one trait that didn't belong. The ability to summon Xezym whenever she saw fit. However, even now she decided against doing so because having a Spirit appear in the Nihilistic Rings was akin to painting a beacon on herself.

Unless Apollo permitted her to or the situation was unique, then Sapphyr didn't see herself summoning Xezym.

"We'll have to see," Apollo said. In truth, he too wanted to understand the greatest extent of Sapphyr's power. Was she truly a strong contender for that important position? He wasn't too sure just yet, thus he needed confirmation.

Finally, Sapphyr unfurled her wings and darted towards the animated corpse with a serious expression. Since everyone was watching her closely, losing was something that Sapphyr didn't wish to do. While she wouldn't be reprimanded for it, she wanted to prove her worth.

Especially after her little verbal squabble with Geneva.

Therefore, Sapphyr started the battle with overwhelming momentum. She used a portion of the shadow techniques learned from Destrys's legacy to augment the Partial Shade Silhouette that Apollo introduced to all of his demons. 

As for the Umbra Phantom Mantle, that still proved to be beyond them as it required a potent grasp of the Tenebrous Dark Winds. Except for Typhir, who trained in these exact winds, the rest were on a tangent and would require quite some time to veer back onto the right path.

Swoosh!

Sapphyr appeared behind the animated corpse as a wave of shadowy embers obscured her presence even more than it did when Apollo cast the step. Since she possessed a bizarre affinity for darkness after melding the intimate traits of two extreme beings, it gave her an upper hand in this aspect.

Still, as fast as she was, her rapier was stopped the moment it came in contact with the corpse's skin. The durability of its sparse skin was simply inconceivable. A muffled clink sounded, causing Sapphyr to frown.

On top of that, the corpse's reactions, while slow at first, seemed to pick up. It turned around swiftly while executing a wide swing. Still, despite how wide the swing was, it moved at an awfully fast pace.

Fortunately, it still wasn't on par with Sapphyr's agility as she moved along with the strike of the corpse. As a result, an eerie noise was heard from the corpse's body as it rotated its torso over 180 degrees, something that was usually impossible.

Nevertheless, since this was a body without a true conscience, it didn't register the pain. While it roared, it was only aimed at Sapphyr for her slippery movement.

In addition to her advantage in speed, the fact she was the only side with a weapon leveled the playing field. Because if this corpse was allowed to wield a weapon to extend its range, then Sapphyr wasn't sure if it was an opponent she could overcome.

Suddenly, a surge of dark flames ejected from her wings as her hair fluttered from the strong gusts. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Apollo's faint smile and nodded happily. 'I'm… doing good.' 

With this thought, Sapphyr lifted her rapier and drew a circle in the air. This was one of her original techniques, but there were some minor improvements made after acquiring her Dark Abyss Flames. As she drew the circle, a ring of black flames appeared.

In the next moment, she thrust her rapier through the center, causing a thick torrent of shadowy flames to surge towards the animated corpse. Before even walking into this battle, Sapphyr had decided to not hold back in the slightest.

As a result, she executed a large technique in the beginning stages of the battle.

Meanwhile, Apollo was quite surprised by what he saw. 'Although she hasn't used her Ira, this move is quite strong.' While not unstoppable, the attack was still strong enough to gain Apollo's attention. It was on par with his Demonic Massacre Wave because of the sheer amount of flame energy she embedded into the attack.

A Lesser Demon wouldn't be able to withstand a single hit from this attack. Unfortunately, her opponent was not a Lesser Demon.

All of sudden, the animated corpse released a bestial roar towards the beam of incoming flames. At first, it seemed as if it was just done in anger, but everyone soon learned that wasn't the case.

The initially fast attack continued to lose momentum as it approached the corpse. By the time it collided with its body, while the flames were still apparent, the attack had lost approximately 80% of its momentum!

This allowed the corpse to take only a single step back before walking through the blanket of dark flames. Without any prior indication of movement, the corpse lunged forward, arriving before Sapphyr in a mere moment.

She wasn't even allowed the time to be in shock before the corpse retaliated with a rampaging smash.

Of course, Sapphyr dodged it. But, the location of the attack was extremely close to Apollo, which resulted in the corpse momentarily switching targets. It performed a mad dash towards Apollo with fists saturated by in Ira.

Fuhrer made a move to defend, but Apollo shook his head. He picked up Gram from beside him and stepped to the side.

Just as the corpse came in contact with his weapon, Apollo turned around and reversed the corpse's momentum, sending it flying into the wall. 

Bang!

"Control your opponent. It's something mindless, so don't allow it to switch targets," Apollo instructed before once again stabbing Gram into the ground before him.

"I-I'm sorry!" Sapphyr stammered. 

"Don't be sorry, it's something that you weren't expecting. Just learn to adapt quickly," Apollo responded in a light tone, which caused Fuhrer to experience some shock.

'Since when did the young Lord become so understanding?' Fuhrer thought to himself. He was almost certain that Apollo would end up criticizing her mistake. However, he was wrong. Even Apollo didn't expect the corpse to switch targets.

Then again, he was the only other person in the vicinity to launch an attack towards this enemy, so perhaps it possessed an instinctive hostility towards him now. Regardless, it wasn't anything Apollo was worried about.

"I understand!" Sapphyr answered with an adamant expression before looking at the corpse with an ice-cold gaze. 'You almost got me in trouble. You'll have to be punished for that.'

Whoosh!

A rush of Sin escaped from Sapphyr's body with two distinct colors. One was crimson, symbolizing her use of Ira, but the other was a violet color, which caused Apollo and Fuhrer to become even more invested in the fight.

"Oh? It's her first usage of Invidia, I wonder... just what has spurred on the utilization of that?" Fuhrer said in a teasing tone while looking towards Apollo.

"Yeah, yeah. I know what you're insinuating. Either way, she only has a finite amount of that Sin," Apollo responded. He understood Fuhrer was trying to say he was the cause for Sapphyr's excessive reaction. 

And, he wasn't wrong.

Meanwhile, Sapphyr rushed directly towards the corpse instead of circling it. Clearly, she was angered as it showed in the change of her battle style. Granted, just because she was annoyed didn't mean she lost all reason.

Again, the corpse roared, except instead of an overwhelming sound wave, a condensed beam of Ira shot from its mouth. Of course, as a corpse lacking in intelligence, it didn't understand the property of the Sin that Sapphyr revealed.

It belonged to the envious. In other words, the ones who loathed those who possessed more. 

Therefore, Sapphyr pointed her rapier coated in a violet hue at the incoming beam and slid backward as she narrowed her gaze. In the next moment, she whipped her arm like a lasso and send the beam back towards its origin.

BOOOM!