Chapter 27: Desperate Demon

Mortem roared at the duo before flapping his wings and bursting forward. His sights were aimed at Ferral first, cocking back his arm for a punch. Ferral put up his guard, but at the last second, Mortem switched his attack, forming a large blade for a cut. With barely time to react, Ferral dodged the attack, but his arms were sliced off from the forearms. Mortem’s tail swatted at Ferral, sending him flying back into one of the buildings.

“Papa!” Laura cried out before taking a punch to the ribs, sending her to the side.

Ferral got out of the building, dusting himself off. “Looks like you still have tricks left, huh?” He chuckled. “Good! I was starting to get bored!”

Ferral charged forward. Mortem set his feet on the ground, tendrils shooting from his ankles into the stone. Ferral knew they were coming, so he jumped to the side. Sure enough, the tendrils erupted out as spikes from where his feet would’ve been. Ferral broke off one of the long spines and continued his charge. Mortem growled, letting out another, larger wave of the tendrils. This time, they completely surrounded Ferral and came down from the sky. He twirled his red spine-staff, smacking away each of the tendrils as they came down.

Laura pulled out three throwing knives and tossed them at Mortem. They whizzed through the air, but Mortem raised his right arm and let them impale him. He looked at Laura with annoyance, sticking out his right arm, ready to fire off tendrils. Laura gave Mortem a smirk, confused. Mortem looked back at where Ferral was, and the spine-staff drove straight through his forehead. Ferral leaped up, uppercutting Mortem’s jaw. While the clone stumbled back, Laura burst forward and kicked Mortem away. His massive body hit and tumbled across the ground. Laura panted, resting her hands on her legs.

“Are you alright?" Ferral asked.

Laura sighed and gave a thumbs-up. “Yeah,” she huffed, “my legs are just a little sore.” She had been trying to replicate what Berus was doing back on Devil’s Cove. Unfortunately, Laura was only harming herself, barely able to do it once.

Back in the medical plane, Cello was more or less patched up when she heard the sound of another plane landing. She got up from the cot and made her way outside. It was nighttime, and all of the clouds had rolled away, revealing the starry dark blue sky. The plane landed beside the medical plane; Armin, Everett, and Anthony made their way out shortly after. Cello jogged over toward them, her body shooting with pain, forcing her to quickly slow down.

“Mr. Armin!” She called out. “What are you guys doing here?”

Armin and the others turned their heads when they saw Cello speed walking over. “Cello,” he said, “good to see you’re okay.”

Cello stopped in front of the three and nodded. “It’s been rough out here,” she commented, “but that’s beside the point. Why are you all here?”

“To be honest, we only came here to drop Ferral off an…”

Cello abruptly stopped Armin and said, “Wait, Emperor Ferral?! What are you talking about?

“What?!” A voice shouted from behind Cello.

Cello turned around, and the others looked behind her. Berus came stumbling over, his hand over a bleeding scar on his stomach. His face was still a little pale, and his breathing ragged.

“Sir!” A nurse shouted as he ran over to Berus. “You’re not fully healed yet! The wound could open up again if-!”

Berus whipped his head back with a sneer and snarled, “Get lost!”

The nurse stopped and lowered her head, taking a few steps back. Berus continued making his way toward the group.

“What do you mean, my father is here?” Berus asked in an aggrieved tone.

Anthony stepped forward and said, “Yeah, should be on the battlefield and helped fight off Mortem.”

Berus angrily scoffed, moving his eyes toward the gate of the complex. Before anyone had a chance to speak further, Berus darted toward the entrance, Cello reaching out her hand to try to stop him.

“Berus, wait!” She called out, but he was already gone. Cello cursed under her breath and chased after him.

Amrin turned to Everett and Anthony and said, “Let’s go help get the survivors out of there. While Mortem’s distracted.”

The two nodded, and they ran toward the battlefield.

Ferral and Laura had Mortem on the backfoot, all he could do was defend. He flew into the air, flicking his tail and raining down several spines. The two jumped out of the way of the barrage, but Mortem stuck out his hand and unleashed tendrils at them. They dodged the tendrils, Laura landing on her hands and contracting all of the muscle fibers in each arm. She exploded into the sky, heading straight at Mortem. Laura’s arms had gone limp, so she rammed her head into his face. Ferral ran up the tendrils from Mortem’s arms, leaping off them and flipping over Mortem’s head and slicing off his wings. The clone fell to the ground. As he started getting up, Berus used both his feet and blew a massive hole through Mortem’s chest. The young prince tumbled across the ground but quickly recovered and got up to his feet. Mortem fell to the ground, stunned for a bit.

“B-Berus?!” Laura exclaimed.

Ferral didn’t say a word. “.....”

Berus was already in Super Full Power, but still held his stomach. He looked at Laura and said, “Are you alright?”

Laura nodded and said, “Yeah, Papa’s been helping him.”

Ferral walked behind Berus, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Glad to see you’re fine, son.”

Berus quickly whipped around, smacking Ferral’s hands off. “Shove it,” he hissed, “I don’t wanna hear anything from you.”

“Fine.”

Laura joined the two and instantly noticed Berus’s bleeding scar. “Berus…are you sure you can fight?” She asked, worryingly.

“I’ll be fine,” Berus replied.

Ferral turned to Mortem, seeing his body get up and slowly start healing the hole in his chest. “We just need to wear it down,” Ferral said. “This is a war of attrition, and that’s the only way we can stop it.”

“Oh yeah?” Berus snorted. “Then what?”

Laura rummaged through her robe, her eyebrows raising, and pulled out two flame strips. She looked at the two and said, “I have two strips left. We wear that bastard down long enough, I’ll slap them on him, and that’ll be the end.”

Ferral and Berus both nodded.

“I’m not sure what those are,” Ferral commented, “but if they can aid us, go right ahead."

Mortem panted heavily, sweat running down his face. He grit his teeth before letting out an ear-piercing shriek. The ground beneath shook, then completely broke apart as wave after wave of tendrils burst from the ground. Everyone around the complex stumbled and tripped, Armin and the others trying to quickly evacuate the area. Pieces of the floor and whole buildings fell into the water beneath them. The tendrils sharply dove toward the complex, as if more than a thousand arrows were raining down from above. Mortem flew into the air, making the storm of tendrils miss him.

“Both of you, hide!” Ferral shouted, pushing Laura and Berus to move.

They hopped onto whatever parts of the ground were still standing and made their way into a nearby building. With no more time, Ferral shoved the two into the building, and the entire complex was covered in red. Mortem flew back down to the ground, landing on whatever was left of the stone floor. Most of the tendrils had gone straight into the river beneath the complex. All around, everything was destroyed. Any buildings that were above water were littered with tendrils. Berus and Laura slowly stepped out, Laura gasping when she saw most of Ferral's body impaled.

“Papa!” Laura cried, running over to his aid.

Ferral chuckled, lifting his head and said, “I’m fine. Gonna take a lot more than this to bring me down.”

Mortem wheezed from exhaustion. “How…are you…all…still alive?!” He screamed, furiously clawing at his face. “Die! All of you! Just die already!”

“He seems pretty exhausted already,” Berus commented. “Let’s hurry up before he tries to pull anything else.”

Laura nodded and said, “Right!”

Ferral, who was still pulling out the spines from his body, said, “Go on ahead, kids. I’m gonna need a minute.”

Laura nodded, and Berus didn’t respond. The two siblings bolted forward, hopping from the remaining pieces of the ground. Mortem hissed as he saw them coming, straining himself to get up.

“Need…food…” Mortem muttered under his wheezing breath.