Being a renowned tracker, Dominion was blinded by his own competence. Instead of looking for Margarette in the middle of it all, he'd presumed her to be hiding safely in the castle with hoards of guards protecting her kingdom. It didn't help that he'd parted from the soldiers the moment they'd landed in Hestemia, after all, he cared only to find the queen and the lives of the soldiers were of no importance to him.
While making his way through the windowed corridors, he glanced over to the stained murals depicting tales about Atlas, and unknowingly, sometimes even him. Halting at one such relic, he looked around the empty space, growing increasingly suspicious about why he hadn't run into anyone.
"Grhhh!" Growled the fiery cerebus accompanying him through the castle.
"What?" Dominion asked, looking at it from over his shoulder.
The beast turned its head to the side and motioned toward a branching direction. Staring down its length, it kept growling louder and louder until it couldn't contain itself and commenced to bark.
Trusting the beast's senses, drew his bloodsword and stepped forward. Raising it in the very direction, he mumbled a spell, unleashing a flood of blood to shoot out from his weapon. Everything in the path was pushed as further back as possible, however, amidst the flood, an invisible frame stood diverting the blood away from itself.
'Fuck…' Despite being invisible, with blood pooling all around her, Riley couldn't move an inch. 'I need to climb a column or wall, my feet are giving my potion away.'
The moment she jumped and the imprint of her feet was out of the pooled blood, Riley attached herself to the back of a column with her sabers in a way that she was still in Dominion's blind spot.
"Trying to hide, eh?" Dominion chuckled at her attempt to hide again.
Drawing his hand back, he gave his bloodsword some momentum before throwing it into the air. The moment it was set free, it arched around the passage and made its way to stab Riley in the back.
'Swiftwind-' Trying to use a spell to escape the blade's trajectory, Riley was reminded why she hadn't been sent on missions for a while. 'Shi-'
"Aghhhh!" Stabbing through the spine, Riley was pinned to the wall. "F-fuck this blessing! Ughhh!"
Failing to cast spells because of the benevolent actor's blessing, Riley cursed her fate. The shooting pain undid her mask, revealing her body to Dominion and his beast. Stretching his arm forward, Dominion recalled the bloodsword back into his hand, and with the blade taken out of her Riley came crashing down to the ground.
"Riley Phoenix if I'm not wrong?" Quickly absorbing all the blood back into his blade, Dominion made his way toward the fallen Riley.
'Dammit, and I thought this would be easy…' Reaching for her potion sabers laying on the ground, Riley brought them closer to her body. Taking a closer look at them with her head pressed against the floor, she noticed the vial in one of them had shattered while the other had a slight crack on it. 'This is gonna hurt.'
"What?" Upon getting closer to the spy, Dominion was shocked at the sight of her stabbing herself in the thighs, but it all became clearer as the wound on her back sealed itself shut. "A potion blade? What a wonderful idea, ahaha…"
Genuinely impressed by the tool, Dominion wanted to interrogate her about its origin, but alas, there were more pressing matters that took precedence. Holding the sword to Riley's sword as she laid on the floor, Dominion decided to ask her a few questions.
"Where's Margarette?"
"Lonesome widow," Riley whispered under her breath instead of an answer.
Unbeknownst to him, the giant frame of an invisible threat now loomed right behind Dominion. The beast, more than able to see the reaper-like familiar, began rushing toward its master to protect him.
"Don't waste my time," pressing the tip of the blade into Riley's skin, Dominion tried to threaten her some more, but all of a sudden as Riley smiled, he instantly knew something was wrong.
Looking over Dominion's shoulder Riley was smiling not at him, but at the raised scythe in the lands of the lonesome widow. However, as she was just about to strike down the demi-god, the fiery Cerberus lunged at her as if she was a measly prey.
"Portal!" Not taking any chances, Dominion teleported himself away from the chaos and appeared right back where he stood before coming over to talk to Riley.
While looking at the mess left behind, although Dominion couldn't see it through his eyes alone, his fiery beast managed to tear the skull off of the lonesome widow. Rising back to her feet, Riley cursed under her breath as she saw her familiar disappearing. While summoning it back wouldn't be a problem, it would use too much of her mana and the Cerberus was too swift for the clunky widow to stand a chance against it.
'I can't turn invisible either, what the hell should I do?' Watching the beasts slowly walking closer and closer, Riley's mind raced to find a way to escape. 'Swiftwind-'
Once again before the spell could be completed the flow of mana was abruptly cut off. Left with no other option, she stepped away backward but was soon pinned against a stained-glass wall. Coming face to face with the growling beast, she could feel her skin burning and her clothes were the first to burn off.
"Get away from her…" A familiar voice rang into her ears, but it wasn't until the glass behind her shattered that she realized who it was. "That's my spy, you mutt!"
Flying through the glass, Haruki grabbed the beast by its throat and slammed him into the wall on the other side. Not letting go, he transformed his claws into that of a frost dragon and froze the flames on the fiery beast's body. Its head on both ends tried to snack away at the demon lord but shielded by dark magic, they couldn't get even a nibble of his skin.
Freezing the beast down to its tails, Haruki finally let go. As its body hit the ground it shattered into a million shards of ice. Turning his hand back to normal, Haruki turned to look at Dominion while also creating a clone that can heal Riley's injuries. Lowering himself to the ground, he lowered the cloak's hood and stared directly at Dominion. Had it been another time, he would've been concerned about dealing with him, but now with the possibility of farming gods for levels, he saw meeting Dominion as a great opportunity.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm "What the hell are you doing here?" Dominion asked, his eyes widened in shock.
"You thought your brother killed me, didn't you?" Haruki replied with a mocking smile.
"Along with the other demon lords, yes, I did," getting a strong grip on his blade, Dominion held it steadfast towards Haruki.
"Ahaha, well you've been even more misinformed than I thought then," Haruki revealed, slowly walking towards him to shorten the distance.
Taking one last glance at Riley before moving forward, he opened a dungeon portal beside her so she could easily escape. However, it seemed leaving her master behind with a monstrous demi-god wasn't something she could do.
'Leave…' Haruki said to her through hive mind.
'I can help, and I'm not leaving you here alone.' Riley replied without wasting a second to think it through.
'Fine then, just stay out of the way.' Shifting his attention back to Dominion, Haruki parted his body into two. One his own, and the other resembling Asmodia with her real soul temporarily vesseled inside it.
Stretching her limbs as she walked beside Haruki, her presence surprised Dominion as he could feel the aura of darkness emanating through the clone.
"Finally, I get to move around a little," walking with clanking heels, she let out a playful giggle looking at the enemy.
"Just shut up and fight," Haruki advised, a layer of ice stretching over his skin.
Eventually turning into a demonic frost dragon adorned in a mystic cape, he stopped a few steps away from Dominion and so did his companion in battle.
"Shall we begin?" The two asked in unison, their right arm stretching towards the demi-god.
Standing before them with his head visibly fuming in anger, Dominion felt mocked by the demonic duo. Not only were they underestimating him, but they even dared to chatter with each other while he had his blade pointed toward them.
"While I didn't like my brother," sliding his right foot slightly backward, he readied his body to unleash his full potential. "I'll certainly enjoy avenging him by killing you two!"
With a jolt, he turned into a stream of silver light and disappeared into a collection of mercury portals that had opened all around the corridor. For a moment, the duo was confused about where he went, but as a giant fist of mercury emerged from a portal right above them, both of them knew exactly what was happening.
'Time Magic!' Before the fist could make it to their heads, Asmodia slowed down time to give them enough time to get out of its trajectory.
'Transformation?' Haruki asked Asmodia, just to confirm his suspicion.
'I suppose, possibly the same as your shadow monster.' Asmodia replied.
Although the two were safe from the first strike, as the hand came down to the floor, it smashed right through and sent the whole place crumbling to the lower levels. And as if that wasn't enough, the shock from the sudden disappearance of the floor made Asmodia's spell come undone due to shock.
"Don't underestimate me, you weaklings!" Following Dominion's warning, all the portals disappeared while the three demons were still falling, and before they hit the ground, they were all grabbed by crushing fists of metal. "I'll crush you to death!"
"As if I'll let you," Haruki mocked, the white of eyes turning into absolute dark.
'He's gonna kill us all…' Thought Asmodia, letting out a sigh.
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