Shit!
I regretted not equipping more artifacts before heading outside. But then something else intervened.
I saw the giant guardians pointing their spears at the eyes and shooting their lasers from the tips of their spears at the giant demon.
I kept inhaling the fumes of my pipe with more fervor than ever, even if it made me feel lightheaded. I needed to charge that power as quickly as possible.
If only…
The eye retreated inside the fracture, and blue flames began pouring out, making a high-pitched sound that echoed to my position.
The flames landed on a barrier set up over the city. The guardians stood no chance as their large bodies were effortlessly carried away by that breath attack; some of them even began to melt as they were falling from the sky.
I saw the nobles' army for the first time; many warriors came out ready to fight the beast. Many were emitting more demonic energy than me; they were effortlessly evading the creature's attacks while closing the gap between them.
None of them were seemingly using demonic power, just demonic artifacts. All of them being capable of flying.
They took to the skies and flew towards the creature standing above them; together they were able to block the fire breath and keep pushing forward.
No way.
I was in awe; it seemed that the threat would be taken care of swiftly, but the situation changed when the flames stopped pouring in and instead a dark fluid began to flow incessantly out of the Fracture.
The amount of demonic energy in the air kept rising tremendously, and the people caught in that black ooze were quickly turned into demons.
"What the—"
Then suddenly everything lit up.
The barrier around Lucy had broken; some of his overwhelming power was leaking out in the form of a ray of light that illuminated the entire floating island.
All it took was one clean hit and everything disappeared. The demons on the ground vanished along with the demon trapped within the demonic realm and the facility beneath me. Everything had disappeared.
I was standing on a field of flowers; it was the middle of the day, and the sun shining in the sky seemed particularly warm that day.
I was stranded in that empty flower field that extended as far as the naked eye could see; there were no rivers, no hills, just a large flat land with no place to escape the sun.
I turned around over and over, but no matter how many times I spun around, I couldn't see or detect any other presence. A gentle and cold breeze blowing from the north was slowly cooling me down.
Where am I? Was I transported back to the surface?
I thought as I tried to summon my demonic artifact. I wished to use the cane to teleport myself back to the floating city, but that wasn't possible. The demonic artifact wasn't working.
An illusion? Or a separate space? Either way, this isn't good.
I looked carefully at my chains and saw no distortion around them, so I tried swinging them around only to see no positive results, no smearing in the area, and no cracks in the illusion or space.
This is a more elaborate trick than I could've anticipated.
"Ilay! Michael! Elvis! Leo! Can you guys hear me? Is anyone here?" I shouted once and received no answer.
With nothing left to do, I began wandering in that space, hoping to find a clue to be able to escape, but there was nothing; nothing in that goddamn place made sense. Underneath the flower field and the extremely thin layer of dirt was cement.
I tried punching a hole through the cement, but it seemingly had no end, so I stopped after having dug a hole 10 meters deep.
I tried using my own powers, not just summoning demonic relics, but I couldn't; that space forbade it. It took away the right to make a choice.
If this is not an illusion, and it's not a separate space either, that thing must've taken over my body.
How foolish—how couldn't I have come to that conclusion earlier? It was the only remaining answer.
I immediately began to flex my muscles to stiffen my body; if that thing had taken over, I wanted to hinder it as much as possible, and making it impossible for "it" to use my body was the best solution I could come up with, so I lowered my hands and kept my back straight and my head facing the sun.
I gradually began increasing the strength at which I was flexing my muscles until I felt as if I had just been struck by lightning; shocks reverberated through my body as whatever had taken over was punishing me for getting in its way.
When I opened my eyes back, the sky had turned red, and the space around me had considerably shrunk. With a large ball made out of flesh floating above me.
It was a sphere, at most 20 meters in diameter, with many small tendrils connected to me, urging my body to start moving through the use of small electric shocks.
Damn, all I have left is a gamble; I don't know how that will work, but it may allow me to break through this cursed thing.
I said as I began creating mouths all over my body, forcing them to remain wide open, exhaling any air I breathed in. The demon's punishment got worse and worse, but I didn't budge; I kept doing that until my body exploded.
The shocks made my real body drop the pipe, unleashing the transformation and freeing me from that strange power.
When I opened my eyes, I was falling from the skies, surrounded by the smoke my body was emitting.
Above me was a large tree made of flesh hanging upside down from the Fracture, its branches extending towards the ground below. Hanging from those branches were many flesh cocoons.
I ordered the cloud beneath my feet to solidify to create ground for me to step on while floating in the sky.
This… Just how many abilities does that bastard have? And why hasn't she taken action just yet? Is she waiting for that thing to take all of our lives?
I then heard the desperate scream of my brother echoing in the distance; he had amassed a giant pool of blood, and he was trying to crash against the massive tree.
The many branches were extending themselves towards him, trying to surround him and capture him.
I was still rapidly descending; as I looked above, I saw the same thing happening to me. Those arms made out of that dark elastic flesh were rapidly stretching out to reach me, bouncing left and right as they kept clashing with one another while pursuing me.
I began amplifying the amount of steam my body was emitting and solidifying it mid-air to slow down those hands as much as possible, but it wasn't enough; within just a couple of minutes, they had already surrounded me and forced me to make a bubble all around me.
This damn beast… Do you really think I'll let you corner me this easily?
I began concentrating the power within my right hand as the barrier around me was slowly cracking.
I made sure to concentrate as much steam as possible, making it spiral all around my hand while keeping it compressed as much as possible.
Once the barrier broke, I released the compressed gas, solidifying small parts within to create debris in the ensuing storm to break down the many hands pursuing me, then summoning the Fiery Crown to set fire to the giant spiraling tornado I just created.
Give up! Why bother struggling when it's all over? Just stand down and join us! Become one with us! Together we shall unite the world against the fragments of the Primordial One!
Many voices began echoing in my head all at the same time; they were screaming at me something I could barely understand.
Get out of my fucking head!
I summoned the chains and began spinning them by my side, swinging them in all directions, even striking in the direction I heard those voices from. I simply couldn't stop them; they keep yelling nonsense in my head nonstop.
As the chains made contact with those dark hands, they would explode, as if they were made of slime, making the chains heavier and harder to maneuver as the slime quickly solidified.
After a couple of seconds I could no longer swing the chain; the melted flesh had covered most of the weapon and had fused with many arms in order to stop it.
Wow, impressive. I didn't think a demon would be able to come up with this on their—
"Your arrogance is the same as your master's. The king of brilliance thinks too highly of himself to put such restrictions on his disciples. Aren't you tired of restraining yourself just to be able to use such a mediocre weapon?" The demon's voice echoed as he pulled the floating chain out of my hands.
Mhh? I guess he can also read minds. What a—
The many cocoons began to bloom, letting the bodies of the other explorers fall.
Without thinking twice, I began using the smoke to reinforce the facility to make sure there were no gaps that demons could exploit to get to my sons or employees. I then solidified the white smoke, fortifying everything with a two-meter-thick layer of pure walls.
Then my brother's blood suddenly caught on fire, exploding, setting the creature on fire, and forcing the tree to retreat back inside the fracture it came from.
May the light—
A single slash attack that came from the ground was more than enough to split the giant flesh tree in two.
My sister-in-law had finally stabilized Lucy's condition and unleashed a devastating blow to the demon, then shortly after, a second slash attack split his body horizontally.
I took a sigh of relief as I saw the demonic tree explode.