Chapter 334

Washington D.C. - 2:33 PM

Shortly after the slime hit the ground, he rapidly circled and surrounded me. Sharp tendrils shot out of Crokillik like bullets in an attempt to pierce my skin. I watched his approach, turning to sweep my vision over them, and I was glad I could see again.

My body reacted to my thoughts immediately as I spun and sliced through the tendrils. That didn’t stop the attack, which instead became projectiles that still threatened me and I was forced to duck. Crokillik surged upwards and inwards in an attempt to trap me inside of himself. He almost managed to seal the dome before I acted.

The Armor of the End had assimilated my clothing and gear and allowed me to keep using their skills and passives. I activated Shield Sphere from the Tunic of the Twin Lions, and a barrier flew out of my body.

Crokillik splattered against it like a bug on a windshield, the slime composing his body ballooning outwards. He clung to the barrier, sizzling against it and rapidly bringing down its health. It had the same amount of hit points as I did plus ten percent thanks to the Castle Wall passive, but I wasn’t about to wait and see how long it would take the Demon Lord to break through.

The answer was always going to be faster than I wanted.

Flexing my six white-feathered wings, I flapped them once and left the ground. I pulled them in as close to my body as physically possible to prevent them from becoming too damaged in my escape. The moment I was about to hit the Shield Sphere, I dismissed it, flying through the hole in the slime.

I gritted my teeth as Crokillik struck one of my lower wings. My wingspan was long and even the ones emerging from between my shoulder blades trailed beneath my feet. I knew I wasn’t going to make a clean escape, but I didn’t expect this.

The Demon Lord hadn’t just struck me, but latched on. My feathers burned, and he had gotten a good grasp of the limb holding them. The bulk of the slime snapped upwards in an instant, some of it taking on the upper half of the enemy’s Orcish form with a sword for an arm.

Just as I was about to stop Crokillik’s attack, my wings all spasmed. Pain rolled down my spine, but it wasn’t because of the Demon Lord. My timing was thrown off, and a blade as thick as my wrist attempted to pierce my armor.

Sara’s protection was sturdy and could hold up against most enemies, but Crokillik’s attack created a thick gouge in the pearlescent white metal. Not only that, his unique composition meant that he was only stymied for a moment. The blade slid against one of the holes for my wings and shifted directions, getting underneath the Armor of the End. It pierced through my skin, burning like unholy fire.

I activated Shield, pushing him out before he could infiltrate my blood stream and course through my body. The Demon Lord was a dangerous enemy that wouldn’t hesitate to fill my lungs with liquid fire or rip out from inside of me if it meant creating a debilitating injury. Torture like that came easy to him.

The barrier wouldn’t last forever, though. His mere presence was causing it to take damage. Crokillik held on while I did a barrel roll, trying to throw him off my wings. His body shifted, wrapping tentacles as thick as ropes around my appendages. Even though he couldn’t hurt me, he could still grapple me.

Recovering from the poorly timed spasm, my four feathered sawblades appeared beside me. I used Orbit, Pull, and Spin to get them going, cutting through the tentacles as quickly as I could. They were tough despite being ooze. The Demon Lord of Potential’s form was as strong as his will, and he was the most dangerous of them all for a reason.

My Shield started to shimmer, and I activated Crash Test when I was sideways. We went flying into the remains of the Hirshhorn Museum, breaking through several walls of stone and coming out the other side to strike the Federal Aviation Administration building.

The whole while, my feathered sawblades kept up with us and continued to cut through Crokillik. I managed to free my arms and legs and swallowed back the Angelic transformation. It was only for a fraction of a second, but my wings disappeared along with the Demon Lord’s grip on them.

I stopped focusing on my human form immediately after, causing them to reappear as Esaraphelscion’s Vow took back over and used Break Free automatically. The act had freed me.

My wings were renewed, but the wound on my back was taking too long to fix itself. I realized that I was only healing at normal speed. Even though the Demon Lord was sporting both of my Reaper marks, I wasn’t getting anything extra from him. No enhanced healing or Mental Points, though the latter was harder to see the results of.

He was simply taking the damage and tanking through what I was dishing out, no healing required.

Crokillik’s bulk shifted in an attempt to catch me again, but I Constructed a spiked plate between him and my wings. I had hoped that he was going to pull it towards him, damaging his body in the process. He was too fast for that.

Pain shot through my head as he ripped the Construct apart. I created another one and used it to kick away, flying through an empty window. He shot out several tendrils like harpoons in every direction. Not only did the Demon Lord stop completely as his body solidified like a sea urchin, but he was quick to resume his pursuit.

Two of his harpoons broke through the Force Field I had put behind me, both striking with enough force to break through steel. I descended onto the ground as he chased after me, tentacles nearly whipping stone into dust in his pursuit. Taking a breath, my feet hit the dirt and I turned to face him.

I raised the Staff of Raphael and my holy sword to block a spinning blade not unlike my feathered saw blades. Crokillik coagulated back into his Orcish form, his expression measured and calculating as he pushed down on me from his new extended height.

“You’re going to die here,” he said patiently. I was forced to take a step back, and I used Push on my weapons to prevent myself from losing more ground. “You are in my playground; death is assured.”

“Only for you, Crokillik.”

Taking a moment to check my surroundings, I knew where I was and where I had to go. The Potomac River was my best chance at a killing ground. I wasn’t fool enough to think water would work on him the same as low level Slimes like the Kingtin, but it would make it harder for him to escape the fatal blow. All I had to do was lead him that way.

Putting two Force Fields between me and my weapons, I sent both back into my inventory. He surged forward, cutting through the first one in a second as I readjusted. My feathered saw blades cut at his back, but didn’t go too deep. I didn’t want to lose the weapons. The extra holy damage they caused was light but would be doing a lot of work.

I managed to get My Diamond Bowling Ball out just in the nick of time. Crokillik’s sawblade spun harmlessly against the Filbin object, which had grown truly powerful as the symbol of the Seven-Tenners, and allowed me to almost effortlessly keep him back thanks to its blessings.

The Demon Lord’s spinning blade broke into two, splitting up before heading straight for my head. I backed away before retrieving my holy sword and surging forward. I managed to get three strikes in before I passed him, but only just barely.

Thanks to his position as the Demon Lord of Potential, Crokillik’s stats had been slowly rising to meet me. Nothing as drastic as the transformation the Hellbreaker had brought on, but he was without a doubt getting stronger and faster. 

Crokillik turned around, his body shifting more than him physically moving, and three spikes shot out towards where I was going. I threw the bowling ball backwards. It lit on fire the second it left my hand. Not with its usual flames, but with something altogether holy. That was an interesting trick that probably came from my juiced up Angel form.

The tendrils coming for me bounced off, barely moving the projectile, and he tried to swallow it up. I smiled as the Demon Lord consumed the bowling ball. It slowed down, blackening the red slime and activating the Burn Lane blessing to further reduce his physical stats. Since the Demon Lord wasn’t an authorized wielder, it fell to the ground and stayed at rest.

There was no frustration in Crokillik’s aura as he relentlessly came after me. He was just as calm as he had been before. Terror tried to claim me as I stared into his eyes a little too long for comfort. He didn’t even need them given what he was. The feeling passed quickly since mental attacks weren’t very useful on me.

He rushed me, and I flapped my wings and soared backwards. I Pulled a piece of stone wall free from the building we had just been in and an overturned semi-truck towards me, switching to Orbit at the last second. Then, I retrieved the holy blade from my inventory and swung it upwards.

Distant Slice nearly cut Crokillik in half as he flattened himself. The stone wall broke against the side of the semi-truck, coating the slime in dust that disintegrated instantaneously. Two thin crescent blades appeared from inside, one going high and the other cutting through the soil. I sidestepped before they could strike me, and they changed direction after meeting in the middle.

The Demon Lord forced me back even further right to where he wanted me. Several spikes punctured the semi-truck completely like it was paper, attacking a wide area.

Just as I was about to dodge, my legs spasmed. I barely kept myself up with Flight, and I was forced to throw up more Force Fields to stop Crokillik’s attack. My barriers were angled in order to buy myself more time, and the Demon Lord tried to surround me the moment he slid past my influence. 

Gritting my teeth, I used my lower wings as legs to walk myself back while my other four were tucked in tight to prevent the Demon Lord from grappling me again. They weren’t meant to be used this way and I was struggling to get away.

The spikes followed, coming straight for me, and then slowed down. I noticed that the bulk of Crokillik’s body was missing. I couldn’t see it with my aura. In a moment of intuition I flared my wings out and flew upwards.

This proved to be the correct decision. He had used the Demonic aura in the dirt to hide underground, and violently erupted out of it. Two sets of jaws came at me from either side, and I had to quickly reorient myself so I was horizontal to barely escape the teeth that tried to close on me.

I wasn’t out of the woods yet, and I accessed my full suite of Warmind abilities as Crokillik’s body changed to pursue me. Seven spiked balls were Constructed between us and I Dropped them down, Spinning them as erratically as I could. The four feathered saw blades cut him at ground level, but they still weren’t doing much.

A solid stream of slime attempted to strike my midsection, but the Demon Lord pulled back before it could reach me. He couldn’t wait for the Constructs to burn away and attempted to crush them instead. I dismissed the lot after the first one disappeared, though they had done their job.

The amount of damage the spikes would do against Crokillik were minuscule compared to the psychic barrage that accompanied them. Each slice was doing more than one and a half times my Willpower in damage. It wasn’t something even the Demon Lord of Potential could ignore.

So, of course, I created seven more Constructs and sent them down. He recoiled, and I flourished my holy sword before flying down and using Drop on myself. It was a deliberate move that would leave myself wide open.

Each of the Constructs disappeared when they were batted out of the way with expert precision, only to reappear on my blade. Four were bands with small wings on them spread out across the sword and three were long extensions to the weapon itself. 

Crokillik attempted to block, raising his arms and hardening them. The Scalpel of Angelic Healing struck the Slime and stalled before I added all the applications of Drop I could on the various Constructs. That made all the difference, turning the Demon Lord into two different pillars. A trail of holy energy erupted from the tip, slicing through what I couldn’t beyond the blade.

I hit the ground and rolled backwards as a wave descended upon me. A series of spikes shot out from the closest point in the Demon Lord’s body, and I put my hand out. I had timed it perfectly

My Diamond Bowling Ball blinked onto my hand with my fingers already in the holes, and I shifted to block the attacks. They bounced off, giving me enough time to jump away from the tsunami. It followed after me, and I changed my Constructs again to act as breaks. The Demon Lord did his best to split and avoid them.

His movement made his approach predictable. I swung the scalpel with reckless abandon as Crokillik continued his approach. Every cut I made split the slime for a second or two, but those gaps were filled in quickly. It was easy to see that Angelic Disruption was working, though, as each strike with the holy blade left a scar behind that I could pick out with my aura.

I slammed the Constructs into him before dismissing them. They reappeared between us, slowing him down slightly. He was, however, catching up in speed. I continued moving the Constructs into Crokillik, making sure that each one did at least some damage.

Jumping over the broken overpass, I used my Heelies to get a little extra distance. The roads were shattered so I had to use my Force Fields to get away, and the slime pursued. There wasn’t much time left, but we were slowly getting closer to the Potomac River.

The Demonic presence was fading fast as the holy energy in the air broke it down. It wouldn’t be considered Hell for much longer, and my transformation would end with it. Given that Potential was living up to his moniker, I needed to put him down for good.

I mentally sent Sara a message with Entwined With The System, and she was quick to answer.

<<<>>>

[[Patron Message]]

You have roughly two minutes at most. One in a worst case scenario.

<<<>>>

The news made me click my tongue. That was less time than I thought. Should have expected it from a bomb called the Hellbreaker, though.

My intuition tingled again, and I realized that I could feel the bulk of Crokillik’s body hidden away underground as he chased me down. The terrain had lost enough of its Demonic energy that I could sense him through it.

I attempted to change direction and fly straight upwards when I reached the roundabout on the way to the Potomac River, but four strings shot out first. They met in the middle, far faster than the Demon Lord had been previously, and flared out in the direction I was heading.

The swift movement made me think that he had been holding back in an attempt to catch me off guard. It had, unfortunately, worked..

Juking to the left, I had to throw up a Force Field to bounce off of when a solid wall of slime appeared in my path. I fell slightly before flaring my wings out to catch myself. By then, it was too late.

Crokillik had completely locked me in. I couldn’t see anything going on outside, my aura stopping with his body, but I still had my telekinetic mitts on my feathered saw blades. I Pulled them all towards me, hoping to break through. They stopped, I felt that much, but kept on Spinning.

Instead of letting him constrict and confine me, I set up several Constructs around the area. He had already proved to be wary of them, and I didn’t foresee that changing.

I was about to spring into action and destroy the top of the rectangular pyramid I was trapped in when the Demon Lord made his move. He couldn’t constrict me and make the space smaller thanks to the strategically placed Constructs, but he could still attack.

Dozens of spikes emerged from the walls and floors, each coming towards me, and I activated Cheetah Sprint. I chose a side, sending my bowling ball into my inventory to be replaced with the Staff of Raphael for the extra stats.

With my speed doubled, there was no way Crokillik was keeping up with me no matter how much he had held back earlier. My sword sliced the spikes before they had a chance to hurt me, and I maneuvered around the limited space as gracefully as I could. There was no room to spread my wings without them getting struck, which meant I was limited to my Flight ability.

Every time I managed to knock off a spike and prevent them from reaching me, they simply fell to the ground and were absorbed into the slime again. Angelic Disruption was working, but at this rate it would be far too slow. Crokillik started changing his pattern as I made a lap around the enclosure. His tendrils started coming in delayed intervals to ruin my timing.

Returning to the center, I rose as high as I could, slicing the spikes that prevented me from ascending. Droplets of slime rain started to fall, leaving the main body. They wouldn’t cause nearly as much damage, but each one would still burn if they touched me. I paused, considering for a split moment, and fired off every single Starstone I had behind me.

They lit up and shot off with a scream while I was forced to remake my Constructs into lawn mower blades in order to protect me. They Orbited around me, trying to keep me safe. A few droplets made it to me, sizzling against the armor and sliding through the joints to eat at my skin.

I winced, but let them. They weren’t attached to Crokillik anymore, so they shouldn’t last long against the holy power my body contained. It seemed as though they were too slow to be considered attacks, so my halo didn’t activate to redirect them. I prevented more from landing on me with Force Field, though. No reason to keep taking damage. 

The Starstones screamed towards the top of the rectangular pyramid. Their fire damage did almost nothing, but they still managed to explode and create a bulbous sphere against the point. It tried to snap back into place a moment later.

“Enough!” I yelled, activating Noble Roar for the second time in this fight.

Crokillik paused just long enough for me to fly upwards and activate Shield Sphere. He splattered against the edges once again and immediately started shifting. I could see the path to freedom in the blue sky above, but the escape route was closing. Not only was he surging upwards to cut me off, but he was ignoring my Constructs to come at me from below.

This might be the best chance I got. It wasn’t the Potomac, but it would have to do.

I reached the top of the Shield Sphere and dropped it so I could escape. Hundreds of tendrils shot out, faster than the rest of the Demon Lord’s body. I Constructed more barriers and threw up my Force Fields, managing to protect myself from all of them. All except one.

My leg was skewered from heel to knee and started spreading under my skin. Muscles gave out, bones broke, and veins swelled enough to pop. The usual burning sensation at Crokillik’s touch was made so much worse. I activated Shield to force him out. 

It worked, but he continued to hold onto my leg and climb me just as he had before. The calm aura he the Demon Lord had been emitting changed to one of eager hunger. He could sense the desperation on me, though I wasn’t sure if he knew why. I had certainly proved to be his match, and I doubted he would leave me in a position where I could escape once captured.

Not seeing another way out, I hit myself with Touch of Heaven and started charging my big attack even as I continued flying upwards as best I could. My wings, Flight, and several applications of Lift all worked in tandem to pull Crokillik off of the ground. He was weighing me down now and I wasn’t nearly as fast even with Cheetah Sprint.

Still, his body was off of the ground and coming towards me. It would take him time to fall back and try to hide under the streets in order to avoid my attack, and by then it would hopefully be too late. Breathing in, I started charging my attack.

Shield only lasted for half of the time it took to start up Dragon’s Breath. My leg was immediately encased in Crokillik’s slimy body. Several spikes pierced me as my appendage twisted at an unnatural angle, breaking in several spots. I grit my teeth before looking down and opening my mouth and firing my attack with no regard for my own legs.

Normally, Dragon’s Breath was a solid beam of golden energy. Holy, thanks to being a Half-Angel, and brilliant. It was a little different now.

The beam was still there, but flames identical to my hair roiled off of it in every direction. They made the attack much larger than anticipated, and it seemed to be even more potent. The buildings, vehicles, and roads all around the roundabout started to melt from the holy heat.

Crokillik actually shrank back some before trying to climb further up my leg. He fought against the waves of energy burning through him, going straight for the prize. I could tell through his aura that the Demon Lord actually thought he could outlast me like this. That worried me, and I wasn’t often worried about my own mortality.

This was a special case, so I worked on two things.

The first was activating Overclocked Body. Halving my Constitution was worth it when my Strength and Dexterity stats both doubled. My hit points lowered, but that was the least of my worries when Dragon’s Breath’s damage was based on my stat total.

Second was activating Dark Sacrifice’s second mode, giving up a hundredth of my max health per second to increase my stats by an additional ten percent. My damage resistance increased, which offset some of the pain I felt.

Both of these working in tandem caused my Dragon’s Breath to become almost blindingly bright. It slowed Crokillik down enough that I couldn’t feel him crawling through my body anymore. He hung beneath me like the pendulum of the clock, some of his outer mass disintegrating from my efforts.

The feeling of eager hunger only became more intense, and he finally began to heal. It wouldn’t work on the cuts from the scalpel because of Angelic Disruption, but everything else was fair game. I, too, ate up half of his recovery, but all that really ended up doing was slowing down access as my leg became whole again.

At this rate, I wasn’t going to be able to kill him even with the Mark of Rot stealing some of his healing.

Thankfully, I had one more trump card.

Retrieving a skill book from my inventory into the crook of my arm, I pulled up the menu and hit Yes to learn what was inside.

<<<>>>

[[Notice]]

You have learned the passive Halo.

[[Notice]]

This passive is being assimilated into your race. Adding Incomplete Half-Angel to the list of abilities your halo now has access to.

<<<>>>

“Thanks, Coe,” I thought to myself.

Raising my arm, I made the same gesture I had seen from Aaron’s bastards. My halo started spinning when I began to use my new toy.

For the first time, I felt fear in Crokillik’s aura. The lowest parts of him descended to the ground, trying to get to cover.

The ambient holy energy leftover from the Hellbreaker entered my halo and spread through me. It worked like an insatiable vacuum, moving Heaven itself with a hungry greed. My Dragon’s Breath became impossibly bright and wildly more potent. I could only see through my aura because it physically hurt to keep my eyes open.

Crokillik’s body disappeared wherever the holy light touched him. His outer slime boiled for a mere moment before flash frying and crumbling to dust. The pieces that flaked off disintegrated in an instant. In seconds, the only part of him left was in my legs.

Which did not survive, either. Despite the Armor of the End and my own innate holy resistance, my legs disintegrated just as quickly as Crokillik did. It was a necessary tactic; I had to make sure he didn’t survive.

The pain was much more manageable than it had been when a Slime was inhabiting them, but I still didn’t let up. I kept the beam going for as long as I possibly could, destroying even more of my body just in case there was any part of him leftover.

There was no fanfare as the Hellbreaker finally finished its job. My angelic transformation stopped cold, reverting me to my base form minus everything beneath my waist. Dragon’s Breath returned to its normal gold luster, no longer so much more powerful than it had been before. The Scalpel of Angelic Healing reverted to its original form now that there was no corruptive presence keeping Demon Slayer active.

A halo, simple and gold, hung beneath the Celestial Crown of the Rising Star. That was thanks to the passive, and I hazarded a guess that my race probably wouldn’t be considered Dormant anymore.

I turned off all of the abilities hindering my health and hit myself with the last Touch of Heaven. My lower half almost fully regenerated from that alone, and I pulled my gear out of my inventory so I wasn’t pantsless. I had to give it to Sara, she had been thinking ahead when she had crafted the Armor of the End. It was heartening to see I hadn’t lost my pants, Heelies, or, most importantly, my socks.

With a breath and a stretch, I started descending to the ground. I took a seat right there in the destroyed road, looked around, and started laughing as notifications came in.

Damn, that had been a fun series of events.

My laughter stopped when a tall figure, regal and bright with six wings and a radiant halo appeared in front of me. He all but teleported there based on the speeds he had appeared.

The Angel in full Heavenly Regalia with a flaming sword at his hip, an actual Seraphim, looked down at me. “Anthony Franklin,” he said, his voice deep and booming. “We have much to discuss.”