"Finally, it’s time! I’ve waited long enough, I trust that you will not keep me waiting any long-...hm? What’s going on with that one?" Inquired Plasmuk, pointing at Lumena.

Yeah, I’d like to know that too. Her entire body looked slightly different, like it wasn’t solid anymore, almost as if it was a hologram or something. She had smoking pipes protuding out of both her palms, and her tongue had turned into a pipe too.

This is her Soul Weapon Ascension, huh? I wonder what it’s capable of...

"Hey, before we start, I have a suggestion...obviously, we’re at a disadvantage here, you’re more powerful than we are. So, this could end up being a boring fight for you. To even the odds a bit and ensure that this is a more thrilling battle for you, I have a suggestion...why not expose your core, so that we have a better chance of beating you? It’ll make for more of a challenge than the way things are with your core hidden, our chances of finding and destroying it are pretty slim, so you’re not in much of any danger, which could make this fight seem too easy," I remarked...please agree, we could really use a handicap here...

"Huh? Why would I do that? I don’t want to die. If this fight turns out to be easy and boring, it simply means you weren’t powerful enough to challenge me. I see no reason to needlessly put my life at risk," He responded, sounding bewildered at the suggestion.

Well, so much for that.

"That’s too bad, but I guess there’s no point in whining about it...let’s get started," Sighed Lumena, before she raised her arms and fired out gusts of smoke from the pipes on her palms and the one that her tongue had tranformed into, unleashing a massive cloud of smoke that swirled around the humanoid form of the sludge, forming a rapidly spinning sphere around it.

She then pointed a finger towards it, forming a small ember of flames and firing it out towards the intensified sphere of smoke. The flames flew through the air towards it, and the instant it made contact with the smoke...

"Boom," Said Lumena, as a fiery explosion burst out, blowing away the humanoid form into several small chunks, which splattered across the ground and walls...before being absorbed by the layer of sludge coating the space, as she added, "That probably didn’t do anything, but it felt pretty good."

Yeah, that was pretty cool. I doubt it was very effective though. Suddenly, the layer of sludge on the ground behind her began to move, rapidly shooting up towards her back in the form of a narrow, razor sharp spike.

"Hey, watch out! Behind you!" I exclaimed, but I was too late, as it struck her lower back and pierced through, bursting out the front of her-...huh?

There’s no blood...wait, has her entire body turned into smoke? Her outfit was torn by that attack, but her actual body took no damage.

"I can’t maintain my Soul Weapon Ascension for very long...but while I’m in this state, I can’t be hurt," She declared, as a massive explosion of smoke burst out from her, rapidly filling the entire cavern.

But the smoke was avoiding myself and Izzy, simply just floating around us...she couldn’t control her smoke with her Soul Weapon’s base form, but not only can she control the smoke she’s producing now, but her output has grown both larger and faster, and quite significantly at that. Her level of control over it is astounding.

And the sludge coating the walls, ceiling and ground, they’re slowly but surely melting away. This smoke, it seems to act like an acid, corroding and melting through whatever it comes across.

"Are you trying to escape? Well, that won’t do...," Came Plasmuk’s voice, trailing off as the layer of sludge all across the area got thicker.

"Tch, damn it," She muttered to herself, as more sludge spikes came shooting out towards her, piercing through her body but doing no damage as the parts they struck turned to smoke.

Hm, I wonder if she’d be able to survive a Black Hole Spell while in this state?

"Hey, don’t take all the fun for yourself," Remarked Izzy, before blasting out a massive wave of Negative Energy from her hands, blowing away large chunks of the sludge coating the ground, but those gaps closed up almost instantly.

This kinda hurts my pride, but my survival is more important, so...hey, you ready to take over, Azazel?

’Yes, I’ve been waiting for this. Make the switch!’

"Here goes...now, Contract: Azazel!" I chanted, a wave of Negative Energy bursting out of my body as I tranformed.

Wings and a tail extended out of my back, my skin turning dark blue as horns grew out the sides of my head. My power surged drastically and rapidly, as my consciousness faded back into my subconscious, transferring control over to Azazel...

"Greetings, King of Slimes, Plasmuk! I am the Demon General of Rage, Azazel!" He declared loudly, as my fists began glowing.

Wow, dramatic entrance much?

’Sh-shut up, the coolest characters in the ’animes’ you showed me in your memories always introduce themselves dramatically, I just thought I’d give it a try!’

And?

’...it was rather embarrassing.’

Yeah, sounds about right. Also, ’animes’ is wrong, it’s ’anime’ for both singular and plural. Get it right, you wannabe Otaku.

’...is that really important right now?’

"This presence...a Demon? Ah, I see, a Contract...how unexpected, one of the legendary Demon Generals, has formed a Contract with a human. Well, no matter...this should be even more fun that I-...!" Began Plasmuk excitedly, before Azazel cut him off by balling my fists together and slamming them onto the ground.

As my fists collided onto the layer of sludge underfoot with devastating force, it shattered apart like jelly, as deep cracks spread out from the point of impact, extending out across the ground and going halfway up the walls, as more smoke filled the area and Izzy blasted out a wave of blue flames from her mouth.

Suddenly, the sludge all over the area became a darker green, becoming less and less transparent...is he compressing his sludge to make it more durable?

Sure enough, all our attacks were suddenly being less and less effective, clumps of sludge burst out and engulfed the blue flames, sealing them up and cutting them off from the air to extinguish them.

Most materials burn or melt instantly when they come into contact with blue flames, but those masses of sludge that he used to to engulf them are mostly intact.

"Come on, is that the best you can do? I still have not even started to attack in earnest! For your sakes, I hope you didn’t keep me waiting a whole day only for a sorry showing like this!" Plasmuk’s voice boomed through the cavern, echoing across the space...

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Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

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