Chapter 157

Chapter 157

Chapter 157

The merchant and his servants bowed low, exiting the storage room full of boxes and crates to shut the door behind him. His feet clapped against the store’s floor until the sound of the next door at the far end of the hall opened and shut again - leaving the beholder demon alone with Athela and Fay in the dark.

Not that any of them had any qualms with being in the dark, they were demons.

[Beholder Demon, Level 28]

Athela casually glanced around, not seeing anyone or anything that could be a threat, then folded her arms. Fay’s illusion dispelled a second later, revealing the horns, tail and wings of the succubus - as well as Athela’s red eyes, pitch black skin, and the arachnid limbs ripping out of her back.

“What do you want, eyeball? Spit it out, don’t just sit there. I doubt it’s about the ingredient I was looking for concerning my master's birthday present, so whatever it is - make it snappy.” Athela eventually said after the two sides just stared one another down - evaluating each other in turn. She inspected her fingers that each turned into a long obsidian claw, one by one. “There better be good reason to call us in here like this. My friend and I are on a schedule, don’t waste our time.

Fay nodded with a more polite smile and a brief bow of her head. “What she said. We don’t have much time to waste. Please tell us what it is you desire from us.”

Blinking a couple times from various different appendages, the beholder demon pulled up the cortex forums. From there he navigated to the main page of Panu, and scrolled through the forum posts until he found the one he was looking for. Selecting a video channel, he set up the display for Riven’s battle in Chicago. Pausing the video feed when it gave a snapshot of Fay and Athela, the beholder demon turned back to them.

“You are the same. Yes?”

Athela rolled her eyes. “Congratulations, you’re not blind.”

“That’s correct.” Fay confirmed.

The beholder hovered in silence, took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly while casting his gaze downwards. His demeanor changed to that of a strange and manic glee, and he even blinked away a cascade of happy tears that came unbidden to him - which was very much a surprise to the other two demons in the room.

“My name is Brezkevix. I need your help, and the help of your master. It's only right considering you happened to show up at the wrong place and the wrong time... Could you not have just stayed away from the city for another day or so? That's all it would have taken... You should have been more careful!”

Athela’s eyebrows raised in surprise, feeling very unsettled by the entire situation. Something about this wasn’t right. “Uhm... And just what can we help you with?”

The beholder’s mouth widened to abnormal proportions, and a hiss of hot air escaped its lips as its iris began to glow. “You can help by dying for me!”

With a cackle, the beholder self destructed and unleashed a maelstrom of violent, unholy energy that crashed into the other two demons like a freight train. Athela and Fay were both thrown backwards, smashing into an invisible barrier that’d been erected along the walls of the large room’s interior. Fay screamed in pain as ethereal chains rapidly bound her to the wall and began to burn her alive, but Athela was too quick to be caught and blurred ahead - trying to find who or what was attacking her as a plethora of spells detonated around her.

*CRASH*

*BOOM*CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

*THUD*

Flurries of infernal spears, globes of blood, and a swarm of ravenous insects ripped out of spatial tears that tore into her like a hurricane of violence.

And despite how agile she was, Athela had been caught completely off guard.

*RIP*

*TEAR*

*SPLAT*

She was violently whipped around, half of her jaw hanging off and holes riddling her body as she gasped for air. Three of her arachnoid legs were ripped completely off along with one of her arms, burn markings scorched her body and one femur was sticking out the side of her thigh when she slammed into the floor after the barrage was done.

A man’s voice called out above the screams and cries of the flailing, burning succubus. “STOP! WE MUST FINISH THEM WITH A BLADE!”

Athela’s vision blurred, and blood began to pool around her as she tried to activate a portal back to the nether realms - but it was blocked. Enchantments - having been inscribed into the surrounding stone walls, ceiling, and floor - were obstructing her passage back home. But she could still make out the robed, hooded figures of eight men and women circling her, with one of the older ones - a Japanese man with a neatly trimmed white beard - coming to the front. Two more demons accompanied them as well: a minotaur, and a humanoid cthulhu abomination from the outer realms.

Shakily and with panic quickly beginning to set in, he rubbed his eyes and stared - beginning to full-body tremble as he lurched back from the countertop. It’d only been an hour, just how the fuck had this happened?

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?

His aura began to billow out. Rage quickly was replaced with fear, fear was replaced by anxiety, anxiety was replaced with desperation, and desperation was replaced with extreme sorrow like nothing he’d ever known before. Even when Jose had died, it was nothing like this.

It was nothing... Like this...

The mask temporarily opened up. Lurching forward and vomiting violently onto the countertop to the loud and angry or confused expressions of discontentment by nearby patrons of the bar - the hallucination around him began to flicker and abruptly stopped working altogether when yet another message appeared.

[Your minion Fay has had her demonic contract forcibly severed. A demonic minion slot has opened up.]

The entire bar was now quiet as his aura began to slowly climb. Red frost began to accumulate along the chairs, cups, walls and ceiling as he just stared - dumbfounded at the system notification. Everybody there as staring wide-eyed at the man many of them recognized from the world forums. Fully armored with a black robe, red mana began to swirl around his body as the maw along his chest hissed with building rage to match his own. All seven eyed feathered began blinking rapidly, and the horned pauldrons on either shoulder glowed more and more brightly as the room began to shudder with power.

Why hadn’t his malignant prophecy activated?

Was it still on cooldown from the last time he’d used it to save Kathrine’s life?

But that’d been three months ago? Or was it just not important enough to the prophecy for a trigger point?

No that didn’t seem right, the blonde woman he’d saved in Negrada had meant nothing to him! It should have activated! WHY hadn’t it activated!? IT SHOULD HAVE FUCKING ACTIVATED!

His fingers clenched around the desk, smashing the wood to splinters underneath as he began to whisper - with that whisper turning into a scream. “No... Nooo, no, no, NO, NO-NO-NO NOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

His body pulsed, and everything around him for over a mile erupted into a nova of red. Bodies and buildings were vaporized within seconds, and the resounding explosion sent a shockwave that radiated for miles as his scream reached the heavens and all activity in the city stopped.

With it came an aura of malice and rage, and the hot sands of the desert froze over as Riven’s body ripped through a tear in space as he raced towards the last location he’d felt the two female demons with his soul aperture.

***

He looked down at Athela’s broken, smoldering body that still had black flames trickling along her skin. Her once beautiful features were now barely recognizable, and the tiara she’d prized so much - the very first gift he’d ever given her - was laying covered in blood a few feet away in a pool of her own viscera.

Riven dropped to his knees, ignoring the screams and commotion outside at the carnage he’d indiscriminately wrought in his moment of panic. He also couldn’t care less... because right now, his very world was falling apart.

His best friend had died, again.

Riven let out a hiccuping sob as he buried his face in her unmoving chest. Bringing her body up to his own, he continued to cry while rocking back and forth - shaking violently while he continued to shake his head in denial over and over again. The words he wanted to speak were garbled both in his head and as they left his lips, and he was left as little more than a mourning, bawling child - reduced to the same state he’d been left in when his mother had left him all those years ago.

From the side of a pile of crates, the merchant who owned this shop was breathing fast. His heart pounded in his chest, and he held the communication stone up to his mouth to whisper a report. “Make your move to steal the cube now, he’s preoccupied and probably will be for some time. His reaction was far more volatile than you anticipated and-”

The merchant’s voice caught in his throat when all seven eyes along the glowing crimson feathers coming off Riven’s porcelain mask focused on his location.

“You cut out. Continue the report.” Kenji’s voice came through at a hushed whisper - but even he on the other side of it stopped when a ravenous scream of hate roared across the sky - and the visage of a great maw darkened the land.

The roof over the top of Riven and the merchant shattered, and the sandstone material it was made out of was sucked skywards as Riven found a target for his rage.

There would be retribution for this.

There would be pain.

And in this realm of magic and miracles: he would find a way to bring Athela back if it was the last thing he ever did. Even if he had to tear apart the entire world to do it.