Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 80: Side Story: The Disaster of Laraska IV

Hundreds of thousands of demons, two Demon-Archmages and a Devil-class demon, those were the Duchess’ opponents.

And as powerful as the Queen of Destruction was, she still needed a moment to catch her breath.

But her opponent, Zarkiart or rather Zarkiarts, didn’t allow her to.

True to his name, the Polymath split into thousands of small Zarkiarts, of various sizes, strengths and skills. Each Zarkiart using its own variety of skills to do lethal ambushes on her.

With him around she couldn’t relax even for an moment.

But that wasn’t even the main problem.

In front of such numbers, she would just destroy everything as she usually does, but this time, she couldn’t.

The city’s resources were their loot, and keeping the city intact was the one of the Empress’ terms.

She couldn’t just destroy her earnings...

A especially stealthy, football sized, Zarkiart, came in front of her face, before his body shriveled down, his tail enlarging instead as a 3-inch long stinger, aimed at her eye, was launched at point range.

The demon was stealthy as ever, the Duchess only noticing the attack after it was launched.

But she didn’t panic and leaned back, blocking the stinger and destroying the clone with a single swipe of her hands, which had an extremely condensed layer of element of destruction coating them. A spell that she dubbed [Destruction Claws] as it made her hands look like claws.

Without a second’s delay, two beams of demonic energy were shot at her back, her perception and mental avatar already warning her of the attack in advance.

Forming two balls of concentrated element of destruction, the Duchess sent them flying at the beams. The two balls drilling themselves into the much larger beams, not only destroying them but also their casters.

But it wasn’t over, as hundreds of low level attacks were launched at her by the demons guarding the city.

She didn’t tank the blow this time, disappearing with a crackle of black-lighting, she flew low among the enemy lines. Her claws gaining a life of their own as they expanded rapidly, piercing the heads of the demons around her with great accuracy.

The demons who were struck by her claws, had their heads erased even with the slightest graze, dying on spot. But she couldn’t do this for long, as hundreds of Zarkiart clones jumped on her, forming a dome of Zarkiarts, as they kept shouting, "caPtURe her!", "SurrOunD HER!".

Her claws killed the Zarkiarts but they weren’t fast enough to destroy them all.

And the Duchess knew that.

So, she raised her hand, another ball of destruction forming above her palm, which exploded quickly. Destroying the dome of Zarkiarts and clearing her view.

Only for her to see a shriveling three meter tall Zarkiart whose fist grew in size as it approached her, while being covered in green aura.

’Annoying.’, the Duchess thought she turned her claw into a fist, and threw a punch of her own.

-BOOM!!

Another explosion took place in the area, as the green aura and the Zarkiart himself disintegrated into fragments.

But that didn’t matter to the Duchess as it was the expected outcome. But there was one thing, "You are playing around.", she said to the crumbling demon.

"KEkeKE~", The Zarkiart who was disappearing just laughed, "sO aRe yoU, imPErial mAGuS. IF You wAnT Me to gEt seRiOus, yoU Have tO stOP PlAYiNG arouND FirST KekEKE~"

And he was right, despite not having a breathing room she wasn’t giving her all. In fact, she wasn’t even using 30 percent of her power. The only spells she used were her Destruction Claws, and balls of Destruction which weren’t even a proper spell.

The Duchess nodded her head lightly, agreeing with him before she felt something and looked up at the sky; a slight smile appearing on her face as she did.

Another batch of spells could be seen in sky shooting at her, but she didn’t smile because of that, she smiled because she could see a multicolored cloud covering the moon of the demon realm.

Turning back to the demon who was only eyes and ears by now, she simply said, "The fight you wanted is coming to you, really fast.", before she flew into the sky, escaping the spell bombardment.

And as she heard the Earl’s voice – [Poison Rain] – she knew, this would be the last bombardment of tonight’s battle...

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-Drip

-Drip

-Drip

A multicolored liquid fell from the sky.

From a few drops to a drizzle, and from a drizzle to heavy rain. In a matter of seconds, the multicolored rain painted the battlefield.

A poison rain that was as dangerous as it was beautiful...

Muffled screams, cries of pain and cries of help echoed in each battlefield as the rain washed over the cities, affecting even those who were in shelter as the magical poison lingered in the air.

The tussle on the battlefield, the movement of demons, the dazzle in the cities. All of it halted as everything became silent.

Except a few muffled screams, there was nothing to be heard, cause there was no one alive to say something. And those that were alive, were too shocked to say something.

With a single move, all the demons below B rank were neutralized; hundreds of thousands of demons were killed...

Such power was too much for them to digest.

All demons below C rank died on spot, while the C ranks were totally immobilized, coughing black blood, not far from death. Only the high ranked demons, demons at B rank and above, were able to move. The B ranks being barely able to fight, while the Archmages could only unleash half of their strength.

The only ones who should be relatively fine were the Devil-class demons, in this case only Zarkiart, but was he fine?

No, he wasn’t. In fact, he suffered quite a serious loss.

Zarkiart the Polymath, as he called himself, was an army type demon, while Reynold on the other hand was his nemesis, being an army-slayer type magic user.

Just with his first move, energy-wise, the Earl destroyed fifty percent of the Zarkiarts present inside the barrier. Yes, inside the barrier.

He was sure that there must be parts of Zarkiart outside the barrier. There was no way that a demon with Zarkiart’s power wouldn’t keep some part of himself away from his main body, as a safeguard.

He was sure, cause he would do the same. And though the fact angered him quite a lot, he knew it was inevitable.

’Ekaitza, leave the Devil to me. You handle the rest.’, he said, bolting down at the quite shaken demon on the ground.

Though the clones below C rank died in an instant, the C ranked clones were still alive, albeit barely.

Frantically looking for more clones to recombine, to increase their strength and survive.

Knowing that numbers weren’t going to work this time, Zarkiart changed his strategy.

Combining all his clones, even the near death ones by dragging them using psychokinesis, the demon formed a huge glob of disfigured flesh which was quickly turning into a powerful main body.

But ’quickly’ wasn’t enough, as the Earl arrived right at this instant. Grabbing the disfigured glob of flesh, the Earl heavily stomped on the floor, the ground cracking under his feet as he threw the glob far away from Laraska saying – Let’s change our playground.

Kicking the ground again, the Earl went hypersonic, following the glob of flesh that formed its true shape mid-air.

A over ten meter tall, fully armed Zarkiart, who used his wings and air magic to duck down towards the ground, barely dodging the hypersonic kick that Earl threw at him.

Landing roughly, the demon dug his huge claws on the muddy ground to stop his momentum. Then his hands dug deeper, before he pulled hard. Flipping the ground hundreds of meters ahead of him as earth flew up, shooting at Earl while obstructing his vision.

Taking this chance, the demon’s tail moved, aiming at the Earl as enormous amounts of mana concentrated on his stringer, but even with that amount of demonic mana converging, no mana fluctuations could be felt, the demon’s stealth attribute hiding its presence.

Without a sound, a spear sized stinger was launched at the Earl who was none the wiser to the attack.

But even if he couldn’t sense it, the Earl knew that an attack was coming. He wasn’t a newbie fighting for the first time, while Zarkiart was preparing his move, so was he.

Two vials of red and blue were floating beside the Earl, their contents mixing up with Earl’s mana along with the multicolored rain, as they converged to make up a magic circle.

And right before the second hand in a clock ticked, both attacks were launched. Both of them taking less than a second to prepare their moves.

-BOOOOOOOOM!!!!

A explosion with a scale much larger than before razed the barren ground, destroying it for kilometers as for the first time in a while, a Devil and a Magus were fighting seriously.

Before the black, red, and blue sphere could calm down, its doers were having a clash again.

The Devil chased the Earl speedily, not even backing off to dodge to explosion, even as his skin sizzled under the armor. Getting close, he swung his flaming grey claws at the Magus.

Facing the unexpected attack, a sword immediately materialized in the Earl’s hand, which he swung without delay, striking the demon’s claws as such, that he would be pushed away. After all, he was still inferior to the demon in pure physical strength.

Negating most of the shock of the strike as well as escaping the ghostly grey flames lit on those claws, the Earl flew back. Those claws gave him an bad feeling, that he shouldn’t get close to those flames, and that feeling was enough for Reynold to do so.

The demon followed, not wanting to give up the offensive as he appeared behind the Earl and threw a devastating punch. Once again, the demon shriveled up as his fist itself grew bigger.

With the world again turning grey again, the Earl turned himself mid-air, a uncorked vial floating beside him as its contents followed his hand, slowly changing shape as it formed a palm sized magic circle.

-Crash!!!!!

The world returned to its pace.

The palm sized magic circle blocking the building sized punched, as a delayed shockwave ravaged the area. A kilometer long gorge forming behind Earl’s form.

But that wasn’t the end.

Several tails broke out from the demon’s knuckles, stabbing at the Earl.

The Earl dodged in his place, using minimal movements to dodge the first two tails before twisting the hand holding the palm sized magic circle.

The circle expanded, the massive punch, turning into stone as poison of petrification started taking effect on it. Then a dagger appeared in Earl’s hand, with which he parried another tail before stabbing the tail with it.

-Clang…!

But his dagger got repelled cause a chitinous armor suddenly covered the area that he stabbed, the other tails deforming to form sharp extremities that aimed to pierce him.

Reynold jumped back, more tails coming at him as he parried two more and dodged the last one, pulling hard on it, lifting the massive half-stoned punch as he threw it over his head, only now noticing that there was no shriveled up demon behind the punch.

His eyes glowed a brighter shade of gold, his senses elevating to the extreme as he felt everything in kilometers around him, causing him to notice...Four small, but A ranked Zarkiarts quickly constructing a magic circle, with its center...

’...below me!’

The ground cracked below him the next instant, as a Zarkiart slightly larger than a normal human, came bursting through it, holding a sword covered in ghostly grey flames. In the same instant, the four Zarkiarts moved in sync, saying – [Spirit Lock], a magic that will render one magicless for a few seconds, if it hit.

Note, if it hit.

[Poison Sea]

The Earl said, just as the spirit lock was about to hit him.

-Shaaaa

-Sizzle

A real sea of poison erupted from the Earl, covering everything in the area. The demon, the spell, everything. Only a red sea of corroding poison that ate away at the [Spirit Lock], a spell that was casted by four Archmage equivalents, remained.

But not for long.

-Slash

A grey light shined through it, piercing the sea of red, heading straight at the Earl who was floating above it.

Facing the incoming slash, the Earl didn’t form a new spell, rather he controlled the sea who followed his every whim as he created a wall of red.

A wall that ate up the demon’s spell, slowly dispersing more and more of his power. And when he deemed the slash unthreatening, he dispersed the wall of poison. Blocking the demon’s advance with a barrier.

At that instant, the demon’s eyes shined. A fierce grey flame litting up on his fist as he said, "YoU fELL fOr it!", and punched.

A pillar of grey followed his punch, which easily broke through the Earl’s barrier and continued on for more than a kilometer.

And with his ghostly grey eyes the demon saw, Earl’s silhouette disappearing in the pillar.

’No! IT ShoULDN’t BE thIS eaSy!’

The demon realized as soon as he saw that, the thought of victory never once occurring in his head.

And he was proved right.

-Graze

A dagger fell on the ground as Zarkiart moved his leg, but he couldn’t dodge fully, as a small graze appearing on his leg.

"tCh, mORE poiSoN.", he clicked his tongue, and turned.

Only to see a Earl whose body turned into red poison and fell into the sea.

"dON’T Mock ME!", Zarkiart roared, throwing another punch that evaporated the whole sea.

It was after that, that a small glob of flesh detached itself from his leg, falling down on the ground as it melted away.

The detaching process was quick, but it still took around three seconds.

With just a graze the poison spread not only in the demon’s physical body but also into his spirit body, taking advantage of the fact that an S ranked being’s spirit body and body are technically merged.

And adding another two seconds that he wasted on the sea; it was a total delay of five seconds.

Which by a Magus’ standards was long, too long.

Long enough for him to pour out some serious moves.

A magic circle shone from the direction the Earl flew, causing the demon to turn his head, for he got an dangerous feeling.

A feeling that he didn’t feel during the whole battle.

’ThIs MoVE…iT’S DaNGerOUS…’, Zarkiart thought, his expression turning grave as he stood in place and prepared his own move.

Squinting his eyes, his vision zoomed, finding his opponent standing at the centre of a crater that just got bigger with each second.

Insane amount of pressure surrounding was him, as his golden eyes focused on the three tiny orbs floating on his palm, each orb rotating rapidly on its own axis.

Surrounding there tiny orbs was a magic circle that was beating like a heart, it inflated and deflated rapidly, building more and more of pressure, not caring about its destroyed surroundings.

As if feeling his gaze, the Earl turned his head, locking eyes with the devil several kilometers away from him, his lips moving slowly as he said.

[Poison Domain]

[Stage 2: Adobe of Achlys]

(A/N: Achlys is the Greek Spirit of death-mist.)