BXBX NOVEL Chapter 166 166 - A Baffling End
Time was but a small hurdle for the mistress of lust to leap over, and with the engraved magic circles buried under the sand and rubble, nobody even noticed how easily she'd stopped the flow of time.
"Time to clean up this mess," still in an elusive form made of mist, she flew over between Almuld and Haruki.
Standing between the two, she peered up at her contracted servant and just glared at his glowing hand for a moment. The spell Godsmite brought her both good and haunting memories. And so pulling Haruki down to earth with her countless phantom hands, she tangled her fingers with his and drew out all the mana from his body so that the spell was bound to fail.
'That should allow me to finish up here.' Rejuvenated with a small amount of mana, Asmodia turned to the demon lord frozen in time.
Just looking at his face made her want to crush him under her heels, but given her weakened state, she would only end up angering the undead warlock with a shallow scar on his body. Brushing her thoughts away her scorn, she planted her finger against his armor. Running it in a circle, she drew a magic circle to teleport the warlock back to his domain.
"The title of wrath wouldn't suit my puppet at all," saying those words, she pressed her finger in the middle of the circle and channeled it with enough mana to activate the teleportation. "Your death would only be a hurdle, for when the time comes, I want him to take my head instead."
As a dark miasma crawled out of the magic circle and began consuming the warlock's body, Asmodia took a step back and watched as he was shrunk to dust under the layer of darkness. Once she was certain that the warlock had been teleported away, she turned to Haruki to send him away from the battle as well. However, the very first step she took towards him, a grunt from the back caught her attention.
"Who goes there?" She muttered, flipping around to look.
"Y-you…" The person she saw crawling towards her surprised even a demon lord like her.
Despite the pause in time, Michael was crawling over to the mistress. His eyes shot with blood, and his skin on its path to recovering his youth, was enough of a reason to make anyone's skin crawl with discomfort. But to the mistress who knew Michael's master, the sigh in front of her was only slightly amusing.
"I almost forgot…" Slowly moving in his direction, the mistress of dark squatted down in front of him. "That you are one of the few who can use time magic."
"Wha-what are you doing here? WHAT IS THIS MESS?!" Clawing at her body with his recovered strength, he passed right through the illusion of her real body.
"I pity you," said Asmodia, her eyes squinted in hurt. "The emperor cursed you too, didn't he?"
Reaching for his skin, she finally let him feel her touch. Trailing her finger up his chin, she rested it right by the temple.
"Take your hands off of me, you monster!" Trying to slap her hand away, he felt himself passing through her body once again. "I don't need your help!"
"Immortality is a grave poison warrior, you deserve better than what you've offered," taking advantage of his weakened state, Asmodia forced her mana in through his temples to make him forget everything about what he'd seen. "But don't worry, it'll all end once the emperor's rein ends, be it through my hands or the next lord of depraved demons."
As a wave of her magic scurried through his brain, all of his memories about the battle were slowly stripped away. Clenching his teeth from the mental assault, Michael felt himself drifting, and by the time Asmodia was done, he'd slipped into a deep slumber.
"I wish I could heal you, but…" creating a magic circle over his head, Asmodia tapped her index on it to activate the teleportation. "The curse should keep you alive since I can't at the moment."
Restricted only to archaic magic with the use of magic circles, she couldn't help hasten the rejuvenation of Michael's body at all. Instead, sending him away into the emperor's clasp was the only real option she had to help him.
"Don't come in my way again, and I won't have to keep killing you," with those parting words, she saw his body shrink to dust under the cloak of the mist.
'Now for the last part.' Turning her attention to her puppet, she quickly walked up closer to him. Once standing right in front of his eyes, she created yet another magic circle on his forehead, however, this time the inscriptions were a little different.
"Plunder," with that word alone, she stripped Haruki of the skill that allowed him to borrow Asmodia's powers.
Letting out a tired sigh, she simply took a moment to gaze into Haruki's crazed eyes. In them, she saw no reason, no control, just an impulsive drive to trample any and all who got in his way. And although she preferred his immorality, the lack of any moral compass was sure to drive him away from the path of vengeance and into something much more sinister.
"You're not ready to be a demon lord, not yet," having fulfilled multiple requirements to become a demon lord, Haruki was one step away from turning into the lord of wrath, but interjecting in the fight, she'd deter that from happening.
'You've come too far to ruin my plans.' Hoping to one day make Haruki fulfill the last requirement with her, she wanted him to over her title as the demon lord of lust. 'Sleep for a while and recover your sanity.'
Pressing her finger against his forehead, she implanted a small seed of mana to keep him from waking up until it eventually runs out of power. Right as she did so, a crack in the greyed world appeared overhead. Almost as if to signal to her that the effect of the magic circles controlling the flow of time, had finally begun to crumble.
"I'll see you soon, perhaps in a dream, or a nightmare," stepping away from Haruki's still body, she parted ways with a warning. "Be ready, for time is running out for the both of us, and the emperor won't be as forgiving as he's been so far."
Her body swept away by the wind, made her disappear from the battlefield.