As the mantis exploded into a red mist of blood and rot, rida jumped back before any of its remains could get on her clothes. As she landed beside Cerilla, she lowered her sword and exhaled, "Get back. I need to get rid of the mist."
Cerilla looked at her with a confused face as everyone else jumped back. "What? It’s dead, right?"
rida looked back at her and then turned back to the mist. "The bug was already dead when that thing ca here. What I was fighting was the fungus controlling it, and that thing burst into spores when I cut it. That mist is full of them, so I’ll have to drive them away."
rida lifted her sword and stabbed the ground.
With a dark green flash and a wave of demonic magic, a crack opened in the ground. A tall demonic eagle with black feathers, glowing green eyes, and three talons erged, glaring forward with fungus growing out of its eyes.
"Blow it away."
Under rida’s command, the eagle started flapping its wings, creating a hurricane of wind powerful enough to blast all of the red mist out.
The eagle faded away after completing its mission, and rida sat down. "It’s over, you can rest for now."
Everyone looked at her, then looked up. The shockwaves of Arad’s battle above them still shook the place.
"Arad is still fighting."
"You don’t need to worry about him. Out of everyone that you know, he’s probably the last one you should worry about." rida pulled a piece of cloth and started cleaning the blade of her sword, even though it was spotless. With the speed she swings it at, the air friction alone is enough to scrub it clean.
"I know the Elvish Goddess." Cerilla sat beside her and replied with a smile.
rida laughed, "Doesn’t change a thing."
Seconds later, the battle above went silent. It was over. Arad then showed up, wounded all over and dripping with poison, "It’s done, that snake was really sothing." He looked around, checking if everyone was there. Grace still didn’t return.
But at that mont, rida’s sword pierced his chest, going straight through the heart and spine. "Who are you?" She asked with glowing green eyes.
"What...are you doing?" Arad growled, and she didn’t even entertain him for a second, slashing his face in half.
The won in the back scread, and Cerilla yelled at her, "What have you done?!"
"Arad can heal, he has no reason to return with his wounds open, and he doesn’t need to look around to find if Grace returned or not, he is already keeping her leashed with his void magic." She stabbed Arad’s corpse with her sword, growling, "Now, Rot!"
Arad’s body burned with crimson fungus, rotting away like wood eaten by termites.
But at that mont, the corpse twisted and contorted, standing up as all of the rot faded away. "Now, aren’t you one ruthless demon? Killing your husband without a second thought?"
rida didn’t care to listen, or even give the monster a chance. The second half of the sentence was spoken by its severed head that rolled on the ground.
rida quickly brandished her sword and slashed the body again into pieces, only for it to stand once more. "You can’t kill ."
Of course, rida wasn’t listening, and she ripped the thing apart once more. Her sword moved too fast for anyone to see, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to let the monster get a chance to move.
"Bitch! Stop cutting..." And the thing was once more ripped to shreds.
"It’s the leprechaun, fire! Use fire!" D scread in the back, and Jasmine pulled her away, "Don’t! You’ll set the tree ablaze."
The leprechaun smiled, knowing well that no matter how crazed rida was, she wouldn’t dare go against the World Tree’s will and use fire.
The two magma demons disagree, though. Since they lunged at the leprechaun before it could finish its thought, drowning it in boiling magma.
"When did?" The leprechaun jumped back, its body charred and burned.
The mont he didn’t die, rida already decided to burn him to a crisp, and about the tree, she’ll think about it later; for now, everyone’s safety cos first.
If anyone gets hurt, Arad said he’ll burn the tree anyway, so she doesn’t have to even think about it now. He left her here to protect them and make sure they are fine when he returns, and she won’t disappoint him.
But of course, as violent and unhinged as rida was, she was far from being stupid. A second later, the leprechaun found itself in a strange world, standing in the middle of a dull swamp, reeking of a musty, moldy odor.
"If you think the tree can protect you from , then you’d better forget it." rida was standing a fair distance away from the leprechaun, looking at it with two cold, green eyes.
Soon, hundreds of demons started chanting and pounding their chests, surrounding the whole area as they watched with hunger and malice. This place wasn’t in the mortal world anymore.
This was rida’s domain in the abyss, the fungus layer. And they were now in the killing arena, a place where demons who disobeyed orders get publicly executed. rida had pulled the leprechaun to the abyss, where she could go all out without worry.
Back inside the tree, Jasmine and D were panicking, trying to quell the flas left by rida’s magma demons. It wasn’t sothing they couldn’t manage, but still, it is taking them a lot of mana to douse all the flas.
"You also pull people into the abyss? Not just pull demons out to carry our orders?" The leprechaun spoke, but as usual, rida wasn’t going to even entertain the thought of speaking, and she lunged at him, swinging her sword so fast that it turned bright red from the air friction, setting anything it touches ablaze.
The leprechaun barely dodged the swing, but the spores erging from the swamp ignited and exploded in his face, sending him flying back, engulfed in flas.
rida was far too strong to be faced head-on. But even if he managed to beat her, her army of demons would still co after her, and how could soone even escape from the abyss? Climbing up doesn’t seem like an option.
The leprechaun died quickly, burned into ash. And when rida returned to the tree, Arad had already arrived, and everyone was safe. But, it wasn’t over.
"That wasn’t the leprechaun’s true body. It turned into a dead bird when I finally burned it." She looked at Arad, and he nodded, "It’s a monster that replaces people’s souls and wears their bodies like clothes. A deadly shapeshifter."
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