Devourer

I surveyed the Syndicate members before me and honestly I felt quite relieved. After a sparring match with Mahaila she revealed that I was capable of beating most of the Syndicate except Nemesis, Heimdall and Persephone. 

Nemesis was once a member of the Blade’s old crew, and one of the earliest members of his group. Yes she was one of the weakest members in terms of fighting ability with her instead being more of a manipulator rather than a combatant. However, the members of the Blade’s old crew were not to be scoffed at regardless of how one member stacked up against another. The Blade for instance could take on his entire crew by himself and win rather easily so the strength disparity was quite significant.

Mahaila mentioned she could probably beat Nemesis in a straight fight but knowing Nemesis if a fight does happen Nemesis would not fight fair. Nemesis would no doubt have numerous things in place to tilt the scales in her favour. After all that was what happened last time, Mahaila’s last battle with Nemesis ended with Nemesis's victory. 

As for Heimdall and Persephone, Heimdall was the best warrior in the Syndicate boasting high offensive power. He was able to reliably dispatch the elite high angels of the Silver Maidens and Golden Legion. However, he would still lose against members of the Divine Council. The members of the Divine Council were simply a cut above the rest, even Uriel the Archangel of Mercy who was the most peaceful of the Divine Council was no weakling in combat. In fact Uriel even had some private tutelage under the Blade and the Crowfather. They apparently took a liking to the gentle-hearted angel. 

Persephone was an odd one, she was a powerful magic caster and the last of a long-dead race known as the Shadowlings. The Shadowlings belong to the same generation as the Elder Demons and the Ancient Seraphim. The Shadowlings were adepts of a rare branch of magic known as Sigil Magic. According to Mahaila, Persephone has not even taught Nemesis how to use Sigil Magic. So as far as the world was concerned Persephone was the only surviving user of Sigil Magic. This particular type of magic worked on the soul rather than the body making resisting and purging the effects extremely difficult. Unlike Soul Magic that tries not to damage the soul as much as possible Sigil Magic instead strikes the soul with little regard for damage or long term effects. A cruder and far more cruel variant of Soul Magic.

As for the man in front of me Theseus, he was the youngest of three lieutenants. Heimdall led the group that’s main task was to hunt, capture and kill angels. Persephone and her task force were Nemesis’s doom bringers, able to turn cities into hell scapes. Theseus on the other hand was just an enforcer, he threatened and negotiated. He was the one that spent the most time interacting with the larger world. Simply put if Theseus failed at his task Nemesis would send someone who would be far less gentle, most of the time it was Persephone and sometimes Nemesis herself would resolve the issue. If Nemesis or Persephone arrived in a city intent on exacting some kind of punishment, cities tend to end up depopulated and in ruins. 

The man in front of me was easy enough to defeat, his strength was his defensive abilities. His main tactic was to defend then counterattack. But this strategy falls flat on his face if you cannot defend in the first place. My [Void Enchant] for my blades now has a unique ability that would be quite hard for Theseus to deal with. The more [Resistance] my blades encounter the harder they cut. So I doubt his shield can hold up to my strikes, of course that was if I wanted to kill him. It may be more beneficial to let him crawl back to his mistress. I know pretty words won’t work on someone like her, only a show of force would be heard. Plus Mahaila told me the Syndicate was on my side, well kind of. They wanted the Seraphim dead and extinct, as for me well…

Extinction seems like such a waste honestly, after all the Ariel girl behind me seems pretty nice. She saved Legiana, who was a monster, which by itself was already a departure from what I have heard about the Angels. If they could be reasoned with, I have no issue sparing them, my goal was to survive and just relax. I have no interest in world domination in and of itself. It’s just that control of the world meant control of resources which would enable a great many things. 

If I had eyes I would narrow them as I gazed at the defiant gaze of Theseus. His previous words, his posture and his gaze were all defiant. He spoke of taking the angel back to his dark mistress yet here he was just standing there menacingly.

“You know with your little defiant line previously I was expecting you to take the initiative.” I said and Theseus didn’t reply; he just stared right at me, waiting for me to make the first move. It was a sound strategy to see what the opponent could do. That is… if you were some inexperienced novice. However, thanks to all the memories I now have I know that the last thing you want was for your opponent to dictate the tempo of battle. 

Well a bit of mockery seems to be in order, it seems this Theseus guy has spent too much time beating on weaklings. He has no idea how to fight a superior opponent. When you are pressured into a corner you do not huddle up and defend. You assault and breakthrough, you are already in a poor position why would you stay there?

“[Path of the Wind].” I said as I casted a powerful speed buff that required a lengthy channel. I saw Theseus’s eyes widen and I smirked in response. So what will he do? Let me finish this buff channel? Or will he intervene? I know what he was going to do, he was going to do exactly what I wanted him to do.

Theseus charged forward intent on stopping my channel. I laughed as I cancelled the channel right as he was about to reach me. When someone forcibly cancels a channel the ether would short circuit and spin out of control before discharging violently. But what if you could get it under control?

I instantly began reining in the discharging ether, funnelling it into my blades. My blades glowed blue and crackled with unstable ether, I raised my blades intending to slash at the charging Theseus. His eyes widened in shock as he ground to a halt but still within my strike range. The same was true for the other Syndicate assassins. In truth attack wasn’t for Theseus, ether was a funny thing, it loved to flood from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. 

So right as my slash contacted Theseus’s shield I released all the stored ether in my blades. I could tell the shield was a powerful relic, most likely highly resistant to ether based attacks. Nothing short of a highly specialised penetration spell would breach its defences. But even if this formless unstable ether could not pierce the shield it still had to go somewhere…

There was a loud bang, like a hammer striking a metal wall, followed by a flash, then the sound of thunder. The blue ether blasted outwards in a flurry of arcing lightning bolts and the lightning scorched the five remaining Syndicates. Four were lightly wounded because one of them was too close and now he was just an unconscious, smoking body on the ground. I followed up the strike with another slash, this one with the intent of knocking Theseus back and for my final attack I buried my blade into the chest of the unconscious Syndicate assassin, I made sure to avoid the heart. He was a precious source of information and his power wasn’t that bad either. 

“That’s one…” I said with a laugh and the remaining Syndicate assassins all took shaky steps back. Only Theseus stood his ground but I could sense the fear in the other assassins. 

“Afraid are you? Of course, all of you are, the body knows when it is about to die…” I said with a bestial laugh and the assassins all flinched at those words.

“Steel yourself, we have our mission. If we run, Lady Nemesis will not be far behind us.” Theseus replied curtly.

Then I sensed an even greater jolt of fear. The members of the Syndicate apparently fear their Dark Mistress more than death itself. This can only mean the alternative was far worse than what oblivion could offer… well that was rather concerning…

Still, I cannot deny the effectiveness, after all, it was enough motivation to push these soldiers into a suicide mission.

“And they say I’m a tyrant.” I said with a wry smile before letting out a chuckle.

“Fear is a powerful thing, isn’t it? All of you learned that very well from the Firstborn.” I said as I channelled power into my blades and gave it a light enchantment, I didn’t use my [Void Enchant] just yet. If I just cut all of them down instantly I wouldn’t be able to gather information on how they fight. They do say there was no experience like first-hand experience.

“Fear was only one of their weapons, it is a crude instrument. Perfect for those who prefer to club their way through all their problems.” I said as I brandished my blades and the Syndicate members all tensed as they readied for an attack.

“But you know, I’m a clubbing kind of guy too…” I said as I paused for a moment before charging forward.

Theseus instantly raised his shield and moved to meet my charge. The other assassins scattered around me. Typical strategy of assassins, they were trying to get into my blind spots. Only problem was, I don’t have blind spots, I have a 270 degree cone of vision and my other senses accounted for the rest. 

I let loose a hard horizontal slash at Theseus with both blades. I aligned the edge for blunt force rather than cutting power and the strike knocked Theseus off balance. He ended up having to do this staggering spin to the side to keep his footing. The point of this strike was to knock him away, the other assassins will think they have an opening but there was a reason I used a horizontal strike.

I used the momentum of the strike to carry my body to the right. I used my wings to stabilise and accelerate the turn while my blades found a pair of assassins who were just about to jump me. The two of them ended up in four pieces. They were most definitely dead, my blades had a [Blighted Wounds] effect and I laced them with this cocktail of poisons I made from the venoms of Wyverns, Manticore’s and those freaks I ran into in the Primordial Font. The venom by itself was not that dangerous since I still haven’t solved the problem of making it fast acting. It takes awhile to really get going so if it was cleansed in time the venom would do very little. However, the [Blighted Wounds] reduced the effectiveness of heals and cleanses so that should stall them. Also since they were now in two pieces the healer would basically only have a few seconds to reattach both ends, get rid of the [Blighted Wounds] and counteract the poison. Which was pretty impossible unless you had some spell that could do all of the above at once. I know the Archangel Uriel had a spell like that but she wasn’t here and she sure as hell wouldn’t save these assassins anyway.

That left two more assassins, one of them backed off when I did my spin and the other kept going. Whether the one that kept going was brave or stupid remains to be seen but I had an idea which it was.

The assassin buried his blade into my side as he intoned the spell [Malignant Corrosion]. I felt a burning sensation in my side and instantly I heard that voice in my head sound out.

Corrosion detected 

Shedding affected armour plates

Shedding complete

Armour regeneration complete

Toxin detected commencing adaptation

Adaption complete

Pathogen detected commencing removal

Removal complete

All threats neutralised

Resume combat

While I was listening to all that I had snatched the offending assassin with one of my lower arms. The assassin predictably tried to use an emergency teleport to get out of my grasp. It was a typical strategy, teleportation was expensive in terms of ether so it was usually only used in emergencies or crucial moments. 

My body had a natural ability to disrupt spells to anything that was in direct contact with me. It’s a rather clever little adaption that I received naturally. It caused most spells to be shredded on contact with my body, reducing their offensive capabilities.

This assassin had more resistance so more of his spell went through. However, all that succeeded in doing was making more ether short circuit and this ended up frying the assassin. By the end of it she was unconscious and just a smoking limp body. I crushed her in my hand and her body popped like an overripe grape.

“That’s four…” I said and I turned to face the last assassin. I could sense that Theseus had recovered and was closing the gap. I activated a [Solarite Decoy] and sent it towards Theseus to keep him busy.

I pounced on the last assassin blades raised, I slashed downwards fully expecting him to jump away. I noticed this one was like a rabbit, rather jumpy. He liked to leap up and backwards when threatened. Sure enough, the assassin leapt into the air and I fired a wave of spines at him. You couldn’t dodge in the air unless you activated some kind of spell. To this one’s credit he teleported to dodge the spines. But there was something about teleportation that most don’t know. The spell will appear at the destination for a split moment before arrival. Most wouldn’t be able to detect this and even if they could they would have to react to in time. But I could detect it and the thing about combat teleportation was that the user would typically look at the destination the moment before teleportation. I say typically because there were those like Mahaila that had such good spatial awareness that they could teleport without even looking at the destination or even look in a different direction to confuse the enemy.

So I turned and fired a wave of spines at the destination. The assassin arrived just in time to see the incoming spines. The shock of the prediction delayed his response for a moment and though he managed to dodge the worst of it one still pierced his right leg nailing him to the ground. Then I fired one more spine and it went right into his chest killing him. 

With the assassins settled I turned to see Theseus slowly overpowering my decoy. I sent a mental command to the decoy, ordering it to overload and detonate. I saw Theseus’s eyes widen in shock as the decoy flashed before exploding. Theseus was knocked back and he tumbled backwards, his armour now smoking from the blast. 

“That’s five.” I said with a smirk as I approached Theseus who had just scrambled to his feet.

“You’re on your own now.” I said with a laugh and I saw Theseus’s gaze dart to the corpses of his men. 

“Shall we continue?” I asked and Theseus let out a growl as he raised his weapon.

In truth at first, I wanted to play around a little more but this was honestly getting quite boring. Plus I didn’t want to come across as too cruel to that Ariel girl behind me. Theseus raised his spear and charged. I could tell he was pissed, his vitals were going crazy. If he gets any more pissed off he might actually get a stroke.

I guess I should end this soon before he kills himself…

I activated a [Void Enchant] on one of my blades and I slashed at his shield when he got close. I intentionally struck at the part of him that had the highest resistance. My [Void Enchant] would do more damage the higher the resistance was. When I struck the shield my [Void Enchant] crackled and my blade carved a deep gash in his shield. But the cutting power wasn’t the only thing that went up. The physical force also went up significantly and the structure of the shield buckled slightly. Theseus was thrown back tumbling back into the dirt, I could see the arm holding the shield was broken and it looked like he had a bunch of fractures all over his body.

Then to my surprise, he raised his spear as if to throw it and I saw ether begin to gather at the spear. 

“[Walpurgis Enchant].” Theseus roared and then I realised he wasn’t aiming at me, he was aiming it at Ariel. The Walpurgis line of spells were extremely destructive spells based on cursed fire, if that spear hits Ariel she might not survive. 

I dash in front of the spear as it flew towards Ariel, I know I can take the hit so I caught the spear with one of my hands. The spell discharged and a great red fireball engulfed me, I sensed the damage as it melted my armour plates. 

Cursed fire detected

Activating [Regenerative Molt]

Purging affected armour plates

Purge successful

Regeneration successful

Resume combat

Now I’m pissed, that fool would rather kill Ariel than secure his own escape. He was like some dog that has been trained so well it would run off a cliff if ordered. Lucky for me this attack seems to be concentrated with a focus on damaging a single target. So the blast was rather localised.

I looked at the ruined stump that used to be my left lower arm. It took only a few seconds but soon I had a new arm. I moved towards Theseus who took a cautious step back as he raised his ruined shield.

“You little shit…” I growled as I flexed my now healed arm.

I dashed forward, I am not in the mood now. I’m not going to kill him but I do plan to rough him up slightly. I lowered my body closer to the ground in the pose that I used when I’m really in a fight. It’s far less regal but it lowered air resistance and I could use my arms to help propel myself forward. It also had the added benefit of making me a smaller target. But for this instance I just wanted the speed.

Theseus reached out his hand to call the spear back. Without looking I grabbed the spear with one of my arms just as it flew past. Then I whirled and slammed my tail into Theseus sending him careening into the trees. The strike ended up knocking some of my own soldiers flying since they were surrounding us to form a cage.

I approached Theseus and he struggled to get to his feet. My strike had broken even more bones and I saw him cast a spell as he desperately tried to heal his wounds.

“You are a dog on a leash, held by your mistress. Even when facing death you still try to carry out your mission with no regard for your life. You disgust me…” I growled as I threw the spear into the dirt in front of him, as if daring him to pick it up and strike me.

“But you are happy aren’t you, happy to serve your mistress as if your vengeance will somehow bring you peace. People like you are witless fools, happy as a hog that has its face in the trough. With no thought at all about the butcher’s axe…” I said as Theseus reached for his spear. I let him pick it up just for me to cut off the hand that held it. He fell to the ground clutching his stump, his teeth gritting so hard he might crack his molars. 

“You are a brute undeserving of your own aspirations. So you look for someone with the will and guile to guide your brawn. So you play your part as her pawn, a toy for her great schemes and rapacious plots. Grasping at things you are undeserving of receiving.” I said as I reached down and picked up the fool.

As I looked at him I saw defiance still fresh in his eyes. He was a fool, a loyal fool but a fool nonetheless. That must be why his scheming mistress sent him, she never expected him to succeed. He only expected him to play his part in this bad theatre show. In truth as far as the Syndicate was concerned this whole farce was just a negotiation with Nemesis. No doubt I was being watched by some of their best infiltrators…

“I’m going to let you live because I rather not have a war with the Syndicate just as I almost finished building that shiny city in the distance. So how about you go back and tell your mistress that me sparing you is an olive branch and me killing your men was payment for fucking up my forest. Sounds good?” I said and Theseus just hatefully stared at me.

“I’ll take that as a yes, in case you get any other ideas, the next time I have a run in with all of you it’s war. The first thing I will do is hit that silly little base you have in my sewers. Got it?” I said and still no response. He was just hatefully staring at me as he ground his molars to powder.

“I don’t think your mistress will be overly pleased with that state of affairs. So go back and tell her my message, if she wants to send a messenger I’m fine, but no more attacks on anyone in my territory. Am I clear?” I asked as I leaned in and I saw him still grinding his teeth. 

I sighed as I looked at the defiant look on his face. I suppose I couldn’t exactly wait until he actually ground his teeth down in powder. Alright time for a more direct approach…

“I guess you really are witless, ok I’ll make it simpler…” I said as I bared my teeth.

Answer me or I’ll bite your fucking head off…