It was past midnight. The battlefield was scorched, the air heavy with smoke and mana residue. Ashwick's outer wall had taken severe damage—just as Borin had predicted and the surrounding area was devastated.
Seraphina bore the brunt of the 1v3 assault. As both the frontline attacker and Ashwick's final shield, she wielded her sword with every ounce of skill she possessed, striking at Lilith while maintaining the protective cocoon around the town.
Lilith had healed her balls with her healing magic and met Seraphina blow for blow.
The townspeople felt the shockwaves. Borin worked tirelessly to keep them conscious, while Penelope scrambled to maintain order amidst the chaos.
Meanwhile, Evelyn and Aric fought alongside Seraphina, pushing back against Lilith's relentless assault.
The current status: Seraphina was down to half her mana and regenerating slowly. Evelyn still had about three-fourths left, and Aric held two-thirds.
Lilith, however, was also at half. Unlike the others, she couldn't regenerate mana naturally. She'd burned through a massive chunk just surviving the FOAB, and repairing the damage from Aric's anti-magic bullet cost her even more. She could only gain mana by absorbing directly from the source like a person or weapon with mana.
To make matters worse, her mana flow remained disrupted, doubling the cost of her spells. And because she'd sacrificed a quarter of her soul, the bond between her and Sebastian was beginning to destabilize.
The tide of battle remained uncertain however. Even with Ivy confirming that Seraphina was objectively one of the strongest beings in this world to Aric, she had never truly tested the limits of her power.
That uncertainty was now a liability.
Seraphina might win through endurance but Lilith didn't want to gamble on a war of attrition.
She wanted this fight over now.
Lilith summoned a black flame scythe and swung at Evelyn, who was preparing to hit her with ice chains. Deliberately letting the chains entangle with the scythe, Lilith yanked Evelyn toward her.
But Aric wasn't having it—he fired a condensed wind bullet straight for Lilith's palm. This time, though, Lilith adapted. She knew the real threat among these three was Aric; he could drop another nuke or anti-magic attack at any moment.
The barrier around her body shifted, adapting into something stronger. Drawing on the forcefield she'd used against Seraphina earlier, Lilith reinforced her defenses.
Evelyn was yanked forward, "FUCK!"
Lilith prepared to end her life with a punch through the chest but then a shadow tendril lashed out from behind, pulling Lilith mid-strike. Seraphina surged forward, wielding the Sword of Darkness, bypassing the barrier entirely.
SHHK!
Lilith was stabbed clean through the back.
But she only smiled, "Got you."
In an instant, she absorbed the sword's energy, draining every last drop of mana until the weapon was ejected from her body. Seraphina leaped backward to join Aric and Evelyn.
Lilith touched her neck as if she was sore, "Three of you, huh? One's a monster still half-asleep. Another's an ice princess with no conviction. And the last..."
Her eyes landed on Aric, "A man who feels alien to this world."
"All this, just to bring me down?"
Aric looked at her and manifested a new rifle, DDM4V7. "Well, you say that, but you're on a timer, aren't you? All we have to do is endure. Eventually, you'll lose."
"And besides. We're at war right now. Anything goes."
Lilith summoned Eclipse and a new sword glowing with a bright red and pink aura,
"I guess so. It's a shame, really. With all of this, none of you have found a way to beat me. I suppose—"
"Oh no, you're wrong, demon." Aric cut her off. "I have a way to beat you. Even with your fancy new 'shield,' you're still going to lose to us."
Lilith tilted her head, "How so?"
Aric took aim at Lilith, "Wouldn't you like to find out?"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Lilith now had adapted once again. Lilith didn't know Aric has foresight but she had decided to never eat the bullet straight up. She would parry the bullets.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
This confirmed Aric's suspicions, Damn it. Even with foresight, she's just parrying every single bullet. The ones that did land were nullified by that shield around her.
She is adapting really fast...my foresight is not good enough unless I overdrive it but doing that would just make my head spin...
I need to make anti magic bullets again. I have a good amount of mana to make another condensed shot of it. The mana it would take will be less now thanks to all my perks but I really can't miss the shot anymore.
I need to find a way to outpace her speed.
It was a solid plan—if not for the fact that Lilith had reactivated her mind-reading ability. To compensate for being overwhelmed, she only activated it during combat sequences, knowing no normal person could think two thoughts simultaneously while fighting.
She knew exactly what Aric was planning and blinked to catch him off guard. But Evelyn had his back, parrying Lilith's sword with her own.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
"Tsk." Lilith summoned chains of black flames from behind Evelyn to grab Aric.
But Seraphina intercepted, grabbing the chains with her bare hands and yanking Lilith toward her.
Mid-yank, Lilith let go of the chains, dodging a condensed water bullet followed by an ice round from Aric. Had they hit, they would've instantly frozen her. Instead, she soared upward to evade.
Her mind-reading on Aric was paying dividends, but Seraphina remained her equal. Swinging her sword, Seraphina slashed Lilith's chest open, inflicting poison and decay.
SPLAT!
The pain was real. Kicking off mid-air, Lilith gained distance to heal herself.
"Motherfucker. I'm down to half my mana, and healing will drop me closer to a quarter…"
But Seraphina was relentless, charging back in with her sword. Lilith barely managed to parry with Eclipse, siphoning some of Seraphina's mana in the process.
"Just die already, demon!"
When Seraphina tried to impale her with tendrils, Lilith disengaged and countered with Bloodbane, corrupting the blood within Seraphina's tendrils.
This exchange now resulted in Seraphina feeling damage from it as Bloodbane corrupts the blood within. Since Seraphina's tendril is an extension to her, she felt the corruption in her blood and this made her retreat to heal herself.
"What the hell? She can corrupt me as well? Through what? The sword?"
She felt confused and her heartbeat spiked alarmingly before her healing magic stabilized her.
"I need to be careful exchanging blows with her. She siphons my mana with Eclipse and corrupts me with that other sword."
Aric from a distance decided to overdrive his foresight once more and steadies himself with his anti-tank rifle. He hadn't crafted the anti-magic bullet yet, opting instead to load blue lightning rounds.
"There's no point in wasting an anti-magic bullet if she'll just parry it. So…"
He loaded the gun. "I'll have to surprise her myself. I'll make a weapon that she can't just dodge or parry."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Lilith saw the bullets coming and barely parried them—but what she didn't account for was Aric closing the distance after the final shot. With his lightning boots propelling him forward and him deconstructed his rifle in the split second, he delivered a devastating face punch.
It bypassed her new barrier with his anti-magic brass knuckles.
BOOM!
The ground beneath them cracked, trees swayed, and wind whipped everywhere.
Lilith didn't budge, but her face caved under the impact, "Yes, Vayne. You're the only one giving me proper fun."
Aric took a boxer's stance. "Man, shut your bitch ass up."
Aric swung at Lilith again but Lilith dodge it now as her reaction speed was better and she was mind reading Aric.
Left, Uppercut. AHH! JAB! STOP MOVING!
He swung at Lilith again, but she kept on dodging every attack which made Aric frustrated.
Lilith smirked, raising Eclipse to parry but this was a mistake.
CLANG! CLANG!
The anti-magic brass knuckles began eating away at the blade. Realizing this, Lilith switched tactics, summoning black flames as offense.
Aric raised his arms as the flames threatened to engulf him—but suddenly, Bloodbane emerged from the inferno, aiming for his heart. He parried with his brass knuckles, causing the sword to waver.
Lilith growled in annoyance. Putting both swords away, she glared at Aric.
"You're such an—"
Aric punched Lilith's nose but was barely blocked by her palm,
"I told you. Shut your bitch ass up demon."
Lilith tried to siphoned some mana from Aric but the brass knuckled nullified the attempt. He swung his legs, aiming for the balls again which made Lilith scared and backed away by fleeing upward.
"Hey! Come back down, you pussy!" Aric lashed out with a wind whip, snagging her ankle.
She dodged, but Aric using foresight, conjured another whip at the predicted spot. Again, she evaded. This made Aric weirded out and frustrated as well.
Not only can she parry my bullets like that one dude from devil may cry, she is also dodging every attack from me. Just how strong is this bitch!?
Lilith blinked, reappearing high above the battlefield, suspended in the smoke-choked sky like a phantom star. Slowly, she raised her hands, fingers curling into a sigil as ancient black flames coiled around her wrists.
Bringing her hands together, she pointed them downward like a spear.
A rift tore open above her and a blade wreathed in black flames, fell down.
Lilith caught the blade and felt the new surge of power, "Meredith… become my blade once more."