"Shall we dance together, great godfiend?" The conjoined existence of Haruki and Asmodia wore an ear-to-ear smile with its arm held toward Dominion. Attempting to agitate the half-god, it egged him on by gesturing him to come closer with its deep red fingers.
In the form of neither man nor a woman, the enigmatic existence was a quintessential example of androgyny. Curling its fingers shut, the muscles on its arm pulsed out veins with a burning flame coursing inside.
'What the hell is that thing?' Dominion was at a loss for words, and even more perplexed about whether he should attempt to face that monster.
"Asmodia…What have you done?" He asked, his sword finally raised towards the enemy.
"Asmodia?" The enigma titled its head feigning to be bemused. "Who is that I wonder?"
Fuming at the reply from the dual voices, Dominion scanned through the enigma's body, trying to figure out any weak points that it may have. In a transformation that was so hasty, it shouldn't have been too hard to spy for weakness, but to Dominion's surprise, there seemed not a single place on its body that would hint a sign of weakness.
The dark horn, the fangs, the muscles, and even the slimy tattoo-like clothes moving around as if sentient, were immaculate for a warrior.
"Are we done staring at each other?" Asked the enigma, gawking at Dominion.
Returning the gaze, Dominion finally noticed a clue that could potentially lead him to figure out the creature's race. But that hope too was quickly shattered as the eyes of the angelic-demons were neither golden nor violet, but a gradient of both and appeared like twilight.
"What the-"
Tired of waiting around, the enigma shifted into the same form as Dominion while leaping towards him with a replica blood sword. Mocking him further, it made use of Asmodia's time magic to slow things down for everyone but itself.
"Say goodbye to your lower half!" Right about to slash through Dominion's body, the enigmatic presence chuckled out loud.
"Don't get so cocky!" Looking down at the monster, Dominion made use of his own time-slowing ability and parried the replica sword with the real bloodsword.
Although a bit thrown off, the enigma simply leaped back after the strike while keeping the flow of time half of what it was supposed to be.
"Seems like we've underestimated you," the enigma said, smiling.
Letting go of the blade, it clashed its fists against each other, and all of a sudden a pair of floating, giant hands appeared around its body. Following the moment of the enigma, the giant hands cracked their knuckles before forming back into fists.
"Body acceleration, reality alter, fire spirit's blessings, water spirit's blessings," getting into a fighting stance with its body lowered, the enigma kept using one ability after the other to buff up before the next attack. "Here, I come!"
Abruptly leaping forward, it managed to make Dominion back a few steps. Quickly regaining composure, however, Dominion kept a firm hold of his weapon and activated another one of his abilities to counter the attack.
"Reality alter: Body fragmentation!" Creating multiple instances of his body, he surrounded the oncoming attacker with live clones of himself.
"You really think that was going to work?" Hearing a voice behind his real body, he noticed the monster disappeared from his sight in front. Hastefully turning around, Dominion saw the enigma standing behind him with the giant fist inches from his face.
'Fuc-' Not even able to finish the thought, he was crushed under the fist as his body cratered the ground he stood on.
Exhaling with a cackling laugh, the enigma undid its hold on magic so it could relish the look of hurt on Dominion's face in the natural order of time. In doing so, to Riley and Asuka, things moved so fast that all they could gather was that something or someone had risen from the rubble on the casket and now the same monster was standing above Dominion with a pair of giant fists crushing him against the floor.
"Where's master?!" Asuka yelped, her eyes scanning for Haruki all over.
A bit more perceptive due to her job as a spy, Riley quickly noticed Haruki's resemblance to the enigma along with a hint of Asmodia's body curves. Following her companion's gaze, Asuka also felt the same presence of two souls inside the creature.
"Is that?" She mumbled.
"I think so," Riley replied with a nod.
Raising the fist off of Dominion, the enigma revealed under it a bloody pulp of his face barely attached to the rest of the deformed body. Despite it all, Dominion's body stumbled up on its feet and his head healed itself to normality. Shaking his head, he opened his eyes back up to look at the monster who'd squished him like a bug.
"Immortality is a strange curse, isn't it?" Said the enigma as if it had expected this outcome.
In no mood to play any longer, Dominion jolted closer to its body and raised it up high by its neck. To the surprise of the bystanders, neither of them seemed shocked, instead, they both had the same expression as a few seconds ago. The conjoined monster made of Asmodia and Haruki's soul was mocking Dominion with a smile, while the half-god immortal showered it with a gaze of scorn.
"Another word from your mouth and I'll show you what a god is capable of!" Squeezing the creature's throat, Dominion crushed it under the grip of his hand.
Going limp for a second, the enigma raised its head back and laughed out loud to irk the general further.
"Did you forget Dominion?" Grabbing his arm, the creature twisted Dominion's hand until it was torn off his shoulder. Wincing lightly from the hurt, he leaped back, but the wound didn't last much longer as his body grew another hand in just a few seconds. "The emperor's curse only works if your body and soul are torn apart, or if the one inflicted with the curse is an inhabitant of the mortal world."
Spelling out the way the curse worked, the enigma hinted at the fact that Haruki being a mortal of this world was able to use the curse's effect to keep both Asmodia and him alive. Just like Dominion who was only half a god and half human, the enigma was partly an angel, a demon, and to some degree a human from Haruki's soul.
"We're at a stalemate then," washing the rage off of his face, Dominion put up a smile and glared at the creature. "None of us can die until the emperor wakes up and undoes the curse…That is if he even knows how to."
Looking up at the now destroyed ceiling with the face of void eater in full display, the half-god deity wasn't so sure about elongating the battle.
'If that thing eats me, I'll be in Asmodia's domain and then…' Recognizing that he'd be turned into the same kind of marble he'd turned Serena's soul into, Dominion knew better than to continue fighting.
"I can hear your thoughts," the enigma pointed out, peering right at him with its twilight gaze.
"You're a handful, angel of omnipresence," looking back down, Dominion started making his way toward the exit with his eyes still fixed on the creature in front. "I doubt you can keep that form for long, but since I can't wait around that long for now, I'll wait until you're back in your body Asmodia, and then you'll meet the same fate as Almuld!"
Opening a portal that appeared like a mirror of mercury, Dominion stepped right into it and teleported slightly away from the sight of those present in the hall. Left with the enigmatic creature, Asuka and Riley turned back to look at it. Slowly making its way toward them, it split back into two bodies. One of which was Haruki in his demonic form, and the other Asmodia's half-angelic and half-demonic form.
"Master, are you okay?!" Rushing to Haruki's unconscious body, Asuka pulled him up in her arms.
Making her way closer as well, Riley first checked Haruki's nerves and then after making sure he was fine, she quickly moved to take a look at Asmodia.
"Shit!" Getting her hand burnt by Asmodia's steaming body, Riley yelped in pain.
"We should take them somewhere safe!" Asuka suggested while picking Haruki up with her hands around his body.
With the sky ceiling crumbling above them, Riley nodded and helped Asuka carry Haruki to safety. All the while, Asmodia was left in the care of Lulu's arms who carried her burning body right behind Asuka and Riley. Barely making their way out of Protherius's colossal frame while it collapsed, both of them took to their wings and carried the unconscious two far away from the sight of the ever-hungry void eater.
"There is no direct sunlight in Scorchen Gaia, how long do you think he'll be there?" Looking back at the monster devouring Protherius's body, Asuka wondered if it would forever plague the land.
"Who knows? Maybe, we can ask its owner when she wakes up?" Riley replied, staring at the mistress of darkness.
"Yeah, but first let's just get out of here," nodding at Asuka's suggestion, the two demons made their way out of the Scorchen Lands.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦