Chapter 49 : Breach

Behind them a familiar figure stood around 1.6 meters tall. The Akten de'Mirsha spell had been undone, revealing Diana’s true features.

Rosa could see a horrifying wound in the center of her chest, pulsing with bloody threads that struggled to restore what remained of a destroyed heart. The sharp shards of rib bones shifted into place, attempting to seal the mangled mess of flesh. One eye was gone completely; crushed while the other was wide open, sheltering a chaotic Crimson flame.

“Huff! Is that… Really Diana… has she lost control?” Rosa muttered. Gazing at Diana’s spiritual energy, she began to worry. Was this truly her partner or was it something else entirely.

‘Her spiritual energy has become erratic. I doubt this could be due to Lady Morrigan’s power’

With rigid movement, Diana turned around, allowing the contractee’s severed arm to fall from her grasp. Her figure suddenly vanished into a flicker of flames before appearing in the air, descending upon the man an instant.

Yet, despite Diana’s newfound power, the contractee was still quicker. With a pivot, he immediately created a barrier of spiritual energy over himself.

The plane-shaped barrier absorbed the strike with a dull, wavering thud. Diana’s body slammed into the barrier, her palms denting the surface as flames spread through like heated glass.

Just as shield trembled under the pressure, the contractee’s focus faltered. The pain from his severed arm suddenly flared up.

Taking advantage of his brief disorientation, Rosa charged at the contractee. With her blades, she delivered three slashes on his right side in quick succession

Creak!

The moment she struck, a spray of blood rushed out, and the barrier began to creak. At that moment Rosa stopped her assault and immediately retreated.

The barrier was about to shatter!

Bang!

Diana’s body crashed through the broken plane, hitting the ground in a burst of flames that rolled across the floor, rapidly vaporizing the surrounding ice. When the fire peeled away, she slowly rose from within it.

GRR..!Gr-r-r!!... grrr..!

Her head tilted mechanically as a shaky bestial growl left her throat. Her lone eye narrowed with fury at having missed her mark.

Sensing something below, Rosa’s gaze dropped.

A shadow darker than the rest, was sliding beneath the sheet of broken ice. It flowed toward the giant hole in the back wall.

“Diana!” Rosa shouted through shallows breaths.“He’s in the shadow!”

Within the darkness slithering on the frozen floor, the contractee realized the tides of the battle had shifted against him. ‘I’d be a trottel to let myself die here, not when I have so much left to achieve. If That person succeeds, the world will witness the birth of a new transcendent…!’

With his injuries and the Diana’s erratic output, his instincts screamed a brutal truth, staying only meant death. Without hesitation, he fled toward the back of the ruined building, slipping through the shadows like smoke.

But before he could make his escape down the rainy street, Rosa focused her mind, borrowing energy from lady Morrigan to supplement her own. ‘We can’t have him escape now!’

Using the link established upon receiving Morrigan’s blessing, she pointed to the shadow and cast her own contract spell.

“Let He that sought refuge in shadow be expelled to the light!” After her words fell crimson liquid dripped down her nostrils, freezing as it met her upper lip.

A sudden surge of spiritual energy tore through the flooded ground, ripping contractee out of the shadow and expelling him onto the soaked pavement as Diana descended again, flames trailing her movements.

‘I should have targeted her from start!’ The man thought.

At that moment the contractee’s hatred for Rosa reached its peak.

'Who the hell are these two!! There spiritual energy levels keep changing… I’m struggle to predict it…!!'

“By thy decree, Halt She that hadst been bathed by crimson flame!!” The man sidestepped Diana’s downward stomp attack then bellowed. Conjuring another shadow sword with his remaining hand, he aimed for Diana’s neck, trying to end it cleanly as her movement faltered.

But the blade met only ice.

Rosa’s wall condensed from the rain, instantly halting the attack.

“You basta–!”

Bang! Before he could finish speaking, Diana had slipped around the obstruction and struck upward. Her fist collided with his lower jaw, shattering the bone in a swift motion. His head recoiling back as the taste of iron filled his mouth.

This time he could no longer hold it in. With each attack he received, the pain only kept building up. For a fleeting moment he found himself unable to think as the intense pain swept his thoughts away.

Acting independently, the shadow armor reacted. Extending Two additional arms from the man’s sides, it traded a flurry of punches with Diana in rapid succession.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sheer force and speed of the exchange created a distorted air vacuum that no droplet of rain could enter. Baring her bestial fangs, Diana met each strike evenly until one landed a hit to her abdomen, forcing her back as her core shook.

Before she could regain her footing, a sharp whistle cut through the air. An arrow of ice shot past her shoulder and buried itself into the contractee’s lower torso.

The man’s head throbbed with pain again. The chilling sensation of the ice piercing his liver had snapped his mind into clarity. He reached for the arrow, fingers trembling as he tried to snap the ice.

However, Diana and Rosa gave him no time to rest, already charging towards him from opposite angles.

“Come on! You Fotze! You wish to die so much… Huh! I’ll deliver your final die Riten!!” The man cursed in a thick westward Selyrian accent.

His body was clearly exhausted yet still, he refused to surrender. With his anger boiling over, his bloodshot eyes lifted towards them, and he began to chant.

“With thee wretched soul I summon…”

“Thousand handed Fiend of Depravity”

“Corpse Devourer… Vul-phe-Gra!!!”

Suddenly a thin seam of darkness split open behind him, widening into a suspended double sliding door.

The dirty panels were framed with a type of wood that Rosa had never seen before that carried an ancient presence. Its surface was covered in bloody hand prints and talismans. They trembled subtly, bulging outward as though something enormous was pressing from the other side.

A broken, fanatic’s laugh tore from the contractee’s throat. He leaned back, his chest rising with manic devotion. “You should Rejoice… You’ll be taken as offerings…hahaha … She’ll devour every last piece of YOU… Hahaha!!”

Before the duo could reach him, his 1.8 meters frame began to sink into its own shadow. Rosa’s expression tightened the moment his face slipped beneath the surface.

Soon the doors clattered open, revealing a deep darkness waiting within. For a moment everything under the rain stood still.

Then something inside the darkness stirred.

A single eye opened.

Rosa and Diana felt a rush of dizziness at the same time. It was like there heads were being drilled into by that gaze. Blood began to seep from the corner of their eyes. They felt their throats contract involuntarily as their contracting air passages instantly stifled them.

By this point, Diana had finally awakened from her frenzy. No longer consumed by the power of the crimson flames, fresh blood graced her pale lips. The fire in her eye dwindled soon after and her body wavered as though she was about to fall.

But the being beyond the gate didn't seem to want her to.

Under it’s haunting gaze, an unknown force compelled her body to remain standing against her will.

Rosa’s knees almost folded beneath her as the sheer pressure pressed down like judgment. She held herself upright with baited breaths that trembled in her chest, refusing to yield as the being seemed to target her specifically. The blood soon filed her sclera and she suddenly felt a tug on her mind.

[”Your no match for that being, if you keep resisting your souls will shatter completely. I'll handle HER instead”]

A familiar voice cut through her thoughts as her consciousness was pushed aside, made into a spectator behind her own eyes. She felt her muscles shift, not by her command. Her breathing pattern changed, becoming slower, utterly even.

Lady Morrigan had taken the stage!