I watched Matweirden tear away at the rubble that separated us with her humanoid upper body and her savage lower tiger fore claws. Her human half deftly swept away the smaller stones, while her much more massive tiger half crushed and ripped apart anything bigger, sweeping all that remained aside with callous swats.

  All in all, she stood about twelve feet tall at the top of her head. Her human torso was wrapped in spiked black plate armor that covered everything including her face, though the slits in the visor revealed a pair of ominously glowing red irises glaring out from smooth tanned skin. Her hair, depicted as white in the Count’s ceiling mural, was pitch black and woven into a thick braid that ran down to the middle of her human back. A wicked spear was slung over her shoulder, and a long and partly spined chain connected it to her right gauntlet. On her left arm was a round and bladed shield that would cover a good portion of her torso should she raise it into position or easily bisect anyone she threw it at.

  She cuts an intimidating image, though I’m still more worried about the lower part of her.

  Her black furred lower body was unarmored, but the fluff was so thick and charged with blighted mana that it didn’t need to be. Her claws were unnaturally ragged, but showed no signs of chipping or breaking on the rock so it was likely a symptom of her corruption–just like the stinger on her tail, and the massive set of frankly enormous demonic jaws positioned where the tiger and human bits met.

  I narrowed my eyes at her, and Uriel took the hint and buzzed.

  Oops. I dropped my domain after killing the plant… Granted I never expected her to show up right after, maybe someone who can use space magic, but since she’s digging, I guess my mysterious malefactor decided to drop her off to deal with me instead… Shifted steps. I cast the spell, but unsurprisingly, the blockage on space magic was still in place. Which means that whoever placed it there is likely still nearby, maybe even watching. Therefore, freeing her in the hopes that she will help me is my best bet at battling the unknown. I sighed, and tapped my foot. At least I have a few minutes before she gets to me, so how do I wanna do this?

  Using the Seal of Solemn Man was a given, both the solemn shackles and blight protection traits will be invaluable, but since I haven’t tried out the rebuke trait I had Uriel investigate it.

  So it keeps mightier evils at bay, and sends the weaker ones running to the hills? Not bad, but I do wonder how it will affect her? Can it chase the demon out? Or will its effect be reduced or negated since she’s possessed? Guess I’ll have to find out the hard way.

  Next, I turned my attention to the mostly empty chamber I found myself in. The ceiling was ruined, and there was a treacherous path up into the manor’s bowels. There were also the remains of the nightmare’s dream rotting away on the floor at an accelerated pace thanks to my magic, and then the blackened soul of Palaeshek churning and bubbling at my feet, but not much else.

  So I can flee upwards if it comes to it, though I shouldn’t assume that she won’t be able to follow since the hole is so big. But down here I have the maneuverability advantage since she doesn’t appear to be especially good at digging. That’s pretty much it. I glanced down at the wretched soul. Now, what do I do with you?

  No part of me wanted to touch something so foul, but I also didn’t have time to interrogate him like I wanted, and since I currently lacked the ability to teleport and didn’t want to lose the opportunity to extract information, I had no choice but to briefly reopen my domain to store him there.

  An act that my sore shoulders and back protested sharply.

  Whew! Glad that worked, because my body is really starting to hate me for the trouble… Which also means that I’m going to have to go light on the special powers since they use the same stuff that my domain is filled with.

  Uriel buzzed frantically.

  I rolled my sore shoulders. “So what you’re telling me is that I’m hurting only because I melded my domain with a space she’s already claimed, and that her domain is freakin’ huge?”

  Uriel buzzed.

  “Oh. Okay, so the effects differ too. Gretkarn was a disgusting parasite that needed a safe place to hide and grow so his domain manifested as a fortress. Matweirden is a mighty hunter, so her domain is large to assist in tracking and probably acting as an early warning system when someone strong moves around. Got it. But then why is mine a whole separate dimension? Why does it contain so much of that warm power? Why is the anomaly there? And why can I move mine around?”

  Uriel buzzed again.

  Matweirden cracked through to the half-way part of the cave in, and I forced myself to focus. Alright, good to know, but back to the immediate problem, and away from unanswerable questions.

  I let my eyes dart around as I considered how the many spells I knew could come in handy. Pouring through my plethora of time magic was especially arduous, but I decided to try and not use it too much more, as I didn’t want to tip my hand too far in the event that this whole confrontation was being monitored.

  So I definitely want to lay some traps ahead of time like I did back in Kormath, maybe make a few footfalls with earth spines and frozen lances at the bottom, maybe freeze the walls to prevent her from jumping around, add spikes for good measure, heck! I could create a few especially large stalactites or icicles and drop them on her as needed. So let’s get to work!

  I didn’t have too much time left, so while I was digging out the dozen or so pitfalls, big enough only for one of her massive paws each, I cast earthen needle, frozen lance, frozen field, and contain with the mana in the crystals to set the traps in the floor and on the ceiling as I wanted.

  Then, I used my oft forgotten mind over matter magic to mold some of the excess dirt to cover the pitfalls enough to support me but not her.

  By that point she was making the last bit of debris tremble, so I quickly recast, strength release, and speed release and added feral form, animus armor, cruel claws, radiant armor, static shield, and Bretta’s old surge and swift just to be safe. again with the power of the crystals.

  With mighty eagle’s wings on my back, razor sharp claws on my hands, and several layers of elemental and physical defense added, I felt pretty ready to–

  “Woah!”

  Matweirden wasted no time bursting from the broken down tunnel, and in one swift motion, grabbed her spear and hurled it at me.

  Now, the chain on that thing is long, and she is certainly strong enough to throw it the whole way, but she was still pretty far, and as it turned out, it was just a little too far.

  I mean, the spear did scratch the tip of my nose, but thanks to my barriers it didn’t hurt.

  However, both radiant armor and static shield broke, and I felt the sickening touch of blight which turned my stomach.

  Oof! Blegh! Not off to a great start! However it’s better to have those shields than not, and even better to know that everything about her is blighted. So static shield, radiant armor, and blight protection go!

  While Matty weir snapped her spear back with one practiced flick of her wrist, I used the crystals to restore and bolster my defenses. I had tried to skimp on blight protection since I wanted to test if it was necessary, since I didn’t need it against Goldrath, but it clearly was so I couldn’t afford to be frugal.

  She charged at me, and afraid she’d throw her spear or shield, I hit her with luminous blast.

  The bright flash didn’t do any damage, but down here in the deep darkness the intense and sudden light stopped her attempts at ranged attacks and gave me the opportunity to catch her off guard with magnetic hold.

  She didn’t stop barreling toward me though, so I pulled her further, using her armor and weapons to drag the rest of her into position over the first set of pitfalls where I stopped her cold.

  Oh come on! Stop flailing your feet and step on the traps!

  It took a bit of doing but eventually one of her powerful hind paws broke through and was skewered on the earth and ice spikes below.

  Stoically, she grunted and, apparently able to see again, pitched her spear at me once more.

  I dove out of the way, resulting in a loud crash and a spray of rocks where I used to be, and snickered as she tried to free herself, only for her other back foot to fall into another trap.

  Good luck getting out! Not only are the spikes barbed, but I’ve added in the contain spell to really stick you in there. Now let’s add, ice bind, and scintillating shackles!

  With two of her feet now very useless, I pushed with my maintained magnetic hold to try and get her to reposition the other two, but she was wise to my play, and used her bulk and muscle to staunchly refuse to budge.

  It was really weird to watch her start walking on only her front legs while using her anchored spear to haul herself up, but even with my magic combined with the ring’s rebuke trait, she still managed to break free.

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  And with a dissatisfied snort, she flicked her feet and the wounds closed after being engulfed in clouds of blight.

  Great, so rebuke is basically useless against someone so massive. Or maybe I need to be closer? I did feel something, but it clearly doesn’t work at this distance. And what’s up with that resilience? She hasn’t even cast any spells yet, but she broke through so many of mine like they were minor inconveniences!

  Clearly annoyed with me, she struck her spear against her shield and muttered some incantation or another resulting in purple lightning building up and then arcing out in all directions.

  The sudden strikes crackled fiercely and scorched the ground leaving glowing stones behind, but my sparking shield absorbed the worst of it and as it broke again I snapped and used nyx.

  I expected to cancel the whole spell, but I only nullified the single bolt that hit me, so in a panic I dove underground to evade any further strikes from the dark essence blightning.

  Uriel! What gives? Why am I having so much trouble here? I made that plant look like a chump by comparison so am I to believe that she’s really that much stronger?

  Uriel took a bit, but buzzed.

  Ugk. I glanced back at the line of crystals now packing the tunnel behind me. Guess you guys aren’t as useful as I’d thought. You’ve got more juice than any mage, but not a deity… or a deity and a demon. So I’m just gonna have to– My senses alerted me to Matweirden’s mana gathering at an alarming rate directly above me. Crap!

  Quick as a lick of lightning I bolted forward through the earth, up and away from the frankly massive ray of dark magic that just devoured the space I occupied mere moments ago. Compared to Gretkarn’s big water cannon, that thing was so much scarier since it didn’t leave any trace of anything behind.

  Uriel buzzed.

  As I flew up into the chamber there was just one big gaping hole about ten or so feet around where so much stone used to be, and it went a good half mile or so down too.

  And you’re telling me that death ray came out of that gnarly set of gnashers in her torso? I knew I had a bad feeling about it too. But fine. If you wanna go hard, I can play too. Tidal lance!

  Since Uriel had a knack for copying magic automatically, I unleashed Gretkarn’s castle crusher on a much smaller scale, bisecting the blighted beast lady at the waist.

  She didn’t even try to dodge after my previous magical flukes, so naturally she was quite shocked to suddenly have her point of view drop along with her humanoid torso.

  Heck, given the angle I was at I took a good bit of her tiger haunches off too!

  But she wasn’t exactly helpless.

  Thanks to the demon inside her, tendrils of blight burst forth and more or less sucked the severed parts back into place reattaching them in no time flat.

  A wicked growl rumbled from the oversized jaws, and she finally spoke. “So you’ve got more bite than you led me to believe. It won’t matter. There is no damage you can do to her that I cannot repair.”

  I raised my eyebrows, bemused. “Oh, so I assume I’m talking to Elguriad then?”

  Her head reared back in shock. “W-what? How do–”

  I closed the distance with a single beat of my wings, and used the ring’s rebuke alongside my own augmented strength to push her away in the direction of the next set of traps.

  When I made contact, I felt a much stronger reaction. A ring of gold light rippled out from my right hand, and as she was flung back a mass of shadowy blight was partly pushed out of her too.

  She crashed into the frozen wall, cracked a good portion of it, and my perfectly poised stalactites shot down and, while unable to pierce her defense, pinned her under heavy chunks of stone and ice.

  The demon’s distorted voice howled and hissed. “W–what are you?”

  But I wasn’t about to miss my opportunity, and quickly used both solemn shackles and purge on the shadow before it could reintegrate itself with Matty weir.

  I yanked the gold chains that embedded themselves into the demon’s dark form and focused the white light conjured by my power into a blade to cut the section revealed free.

  “Grrahhhhh!”

  The demon’s distorted howl rocked the chamber as I severed part of its being, a part that I immediately erased with yet another purge.

  Wouldn’t want it reattaching, assuming its possible, since demons are, apparently, like evil farts or something.

  Another muttered incantation heralded a surge of deep purple shadow that blasted away the stone and ice, sending a storm of shrapnel my way.

  I put up a barrier to block the bullet-like debris, but she launched her spear as a follow up, probably with the backing of a few abilities, as it punched through all layers of my protection, and my shoulder too.

  But I played it cool and didn’t let out so much as a peep.

  Though it did hurt.

  Like a lot.

  Now it was my turn to get yanked around, but thanks to my wings I wasn’t completely overpowered, and a quick use of feral form changed my feet into talons that easily anchored me to the ground thanks to divine unearther.

  I gritted my teeth, and leaned away from her as I slowly worked the spiny spear out. I had to constantly reapply blight protection to ward off the worst of it, but the part that was actually in me made my shoulder ache and burn like crazy. This… really hurts! I haven’t been stabbed like this since. Yeah. Goldorath. Blasted demons and their stupid possessions, and their bliknin’ blight! Why does it have to hurt so much? I mean on a scale from one to ten, Gretkarn was a solid eight, but these demons are easily a twelve!

  My feet slid and I could see the half crazed grin on her face as she drew the chain ever closer. “You. Can. Kill. Me. I know this now. It’s disturbing. So I’ll kill you first!” She panted, grunted, and reared her feet back and to the side to get more leverage and momentum. “Gaah!”

  If I wasn’t impaled, I’d have laughed as she fell into another set of spikes, this time with her front legs.

  Ice bind, scintillating shackles, and let’s add another couple contains for good measure.

  She rolled her eyes as my ice and order essence magic manifested around her feet and tried to brute force her way out like before, but reality defied her expectations.

  This time my spells wouldn’t be so easily broken.

  She snarled, and shouted the incantation for “Bolt of suffering!” which sent another round of purple lightning down the spiked chain toward me.

  The spell itself was as fast as actual lightning, however the incantation gave me ample time to prepare the timing on nyx so it was completely countered this time.

  Matweirden’s eyes grew ever wider behind the grim veil of her dark helm, and I finally managed to rip the spear out, but I didn’t release it.

  I pulled.

  Naturally, I also used minor regeneration, and light heal to recover my wound, though it itched like mad the whole time, probably because of the lingering blight, but with my shoulder recovered, I was able to quickly gain the upperhand in our game of tug of war.

  Now it’s my turn. Bolt of suffering, and mold.

  My purple lightning shot back at her, but she wasn’t able to react since mine came with no delay or warning.

  Unlike a normal bolt, this dark essence magic hung around after striking and was obviously designed to torment the one hit as she began to spasm and twitch while doing her best to overcome my spell.

  Which gave me a prime opportunity to alter the ground under her hind legs into quicksand, compelling her to move them into the awaiting pitfalls prepared for her.

  Ice bind, scintillating shackles, and contain.

  With her final two feet secured, I clenched my fist and cast magnetic hold, tase, and paralyze.

  “Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhh!”

  Between the still enduring dark magic and these two new inhibitors, Matweirden flailed as best she could, but being unable to free her feet, constantly electrocuted, gradually numbed, and with her upper body restrained thanks to her now dented but still in tact plate armor, she at last capitulated and allowed me to rip away her spear and shield.

  Goodness gracious! That was way more of a workout than I was expecting. I glanced back at the basically useless crystals behind me. I thought these things would be a big help, but all they were was a big hurt.

  “I– I– I– will not be… slain!”

  The distinctly demonic voice that issued from Matweirden roared as ominous dense mana gathered in that wretched maw of mangled and misshapen teeth.

  It’s pretty obvious what’s about to happen, so right back at cha’ big boy! Oblivion!

  The two beams of unsettling purple light crashed into one another creating a sound not too dissimilar from a couple of jets firing up their engines.

  Perhaps needless to say, the room quaked, the ice on the walls splintered and fell, and my remaining stalactites came tumbling down, with the few that came into contact with the clashing magic simply dissolving into, well… oblivion.

  Okay. Got her trapped. Now, how best to rid her of the demon? Do I just try to purge it out of her? Do I give her ??? protection? Give rebuke another go? Solemn shackles? I know the last two are effective, though ripping the blight out of Galviston proved pretty difficult, and that stuff wasn’t sentient. Uggh. I thought the demon would give up the attack, but with the beam unceasing, and my mana reserves dropping, I ceased the spell and spun out of the way of the sustained shot. Whatever I do, I better make it quick and efficient. I really don’t think I can afford to spend too much more mana on this.

  #

  “Well, well. Looks like it’s about to be our turn.” Gregorious’ slow clap irked Josephene to no end as he smiled back at her. Each strike of his palms sent a shiver down her spine. Not because she feared him, but because he was taking Anon far too lightly.

  You reported that Anon could take down terrestrial deities with assistance from an entire city. But we’ve just witnessed them handle the Marquis’ similarly powerful nightmare’s dream, and Elguriad who has completed the possession of Matweirden one right after the other. Not only is Anon able to plan out an entire battle in mere minutes, but they’ve also demonstrated the ability to adapt and learn new magic mid combat! Even casting without an incantation!

  With her blood pressure rising, Josephene swallowed hard, and forced her voice to remain steady. “Yes. Shall we go?”

  Gregorious snickered. “No, not yet. I want to see what they’ll do to Matweirden. If they wanted her dead I think she’d be dead by now, so once they’re done it should give us the opportunity to grab them both with ease.”

  “As you say.”

  She sat back, but kept her eyes trained on her teacup. I’ll admit that could be worth watching. However, it could just as easily go wrong. The image of the Wise Old Friend’s gently swaying branches haunted her. I won’t let that humiliation happen again. Whether Gregorious wants it or not I’ll step in the second things look like Anon’s about to slip away.