Capítulo 16: The Final Confrontation
General POV:
Deacon Briar stands, wiping the dust off his church uniform, regaining his usual calm composure. He'd lost two disciples in a mission against the same demon, especially against one that he could have finished if he wasn't distracted. Watching it drop Jacob's lifeless body and open its mouth and swallowing, it confirmed what he'd feared. It did indeed eat souls.
But with the demon being more powerful than before, he doubted that he could be its match anymore, therefore, his objective changed to escaping once again. Unfortunately, the people on the planet might be sacrificed, but once the church brought reinforcements, a purge would take place, cleansing the demon. Of course, his reputation would take a hit, but it didn't matter.
The hollow turns back to the Deacon after his meal, feeling that Jacob was stronger out of Phoebe. Unfortunately, his strongest spell was the Divine Countenance, which proved to be useless to the hollow as he had to be of faith for it to work. He was about to go back to tormenting the Deacon, he sensed a feeling from him. He'd backed the Deacon into a corner, and from his seriousness, he knew that the Deacon was planning something.
As the Deacon's spell is still in effect, he begins to show its full capabilities. The end of mace begins to twirl in front of him. Slowly at first, but then as it gains momentum, an aura of light begins to emanate from its speed. The hollow allowed mana to flow through the end of his blade, using one of the knights' skills to extend it further. Both paused, waiting for the other to move.
Suddenly, both charged each other simultaneously, each with the intent on killing the other. Reaching the Deacon, the hollow slashes out, aiming to cut off the Deacons head. He ducks the hollow's swipe, then counters by swinging his mace towards the hollow's body. He twists his body out of the maces way, also avoiding the deadly afterglow.
The Deacon recovers his missed attack fast enough to use the end of his mace to block a downward slash from the hollow. The Deacon says a quick chant and his body pulses, sending a dome of light. Familiar with the attack that wounded him earlier, the hollow jumps back, dodging the Deacons spell.
Creating space, the Deacon once again starts chanting. The hollow can feel a large amount of mana coming off the Deacon, and he can't wait to consume his soul. Charging, with a greedy glint in his eyes, he attempts to cut the Deacon off by stabbing towards his stomach.
The Deacon side steps the attack, not faltering in his chant. The hollow increases his pressure on the Deacon, continuously stabbing towards the man, each aimed towards his vital points. Using both his mace and the end of it, the Deacon blocks any stabs he can't dodge, his years of experience showing as he continues his chant throughout the onslaught.
Feeling that the Deacon was finished channeling his mana, he knew he failed to interrupt his spell. Neither Jacob nor Phoebe knew the words to his chant, so it was most definitely a higher tier spell. Not knowing the spell's effects, he attempts to make space between them, the maces winding attack cuts him off by flying behind him.
The Deacon's entire glows a brilliant light, flashes of the rainbow occasionally flash off him as he finishes his chant. As the Deacon glows brighter, the hollow has to avert his eyes. He can feel the intense heat from the spell as he manages to back away from the Deacon.
Clearing his eyes, he looks back towards the Deacons position in time to see an object flying towards his mask. Instinctively, he raises both his knife and arm to protect his vital point as the mace crashes into him. Luckily the knife takes most of the attack, but it is destroyed on impact along with the arm holding it. Wincing in pain, he realizes that the Deacon discarded his only weapon, as his eyes snap back to the man.
He looks in shock as he witnesses him turning to retreat back down the street. Phoebe's spell that he used to keep him contained was no longer there, allowing him to escape. Rage builds in the hollow as he knew he couldn't let his prey escape. Ignoring his injury, he instead focused all his power into chasing the Deacon.
The hollow ran at a speed faster than anything he was capable of before. Even with his legs deteriorating from overexerting, he would heal it. When his healing wasn't catching up to the damage he was causing to himself, he started running on all fours, increasing his speed more.
Sensing a danger behind him, the Deacon turned and for a split second, fear gripped his heart as he saw the hollow just behind him. Using most of his mana in that last spell, he can only begin to chant another spell as the hollow reaches out.
Grabbing the Deacon's leg, he trips the man, as the hollow smiles in triumphant. Poising above the Deacon, he goes to kill the man, but the Deacon finishes his chant and rays of sunlight fly towards the hollow. Using his arms, he blocks any rays from his mask, but his legs go unprotected as he drops next to the Deacon.
Scrambling to his feet, the Deacon starts to limp away, determined to make it back to the weyline. In a final act, the hollow reaches out, unable to grab the Deacon, he instead slaps his back, leaving a bloody handprint. The Deacon cries out in pain as he feels an unnatural burning from both his leg and back, but he ignores it, using every bit of his strength to distance himself from the hollow.
Unable to heal all his wounds in time, the hollow can only watch as the Deacon escapes him. Letting out his rage and grief that the Deacon successfully escaped him, he lets out a howl.
The surrounding forest and any animals who hear the howl shudder in fear, hiding immediately. The Deacon, who also hears it, feels goosebumps as he continues to limp away. His breathing goes heavier with each step as he wonders why he's struggling. Feeling like he was safe; he decides to take a break for a moment to regain his stamina. Slowly sliding down a tree, he takes a look at his leg to see a dark marks where the hollow grabbed his leg.
Black blood oozed out of it, and he looked gravely at it. He regretted not being able to learn any healing spells, but he was grateful for being able to escape the demon. Looking up at the sky, he took a second to appreciate the beauty of the sunset. Feeling the fatigue from the fight, he dared to sleep for but a moment.
Slowly he felt the pain aching his body fade the more his eyes drooped, until finally, he gave up and slept. Each breath he took was slower than the last until, his body stilled, and grew limp.
Meanwhile, the hollow lay there, wallowing in his sorrow at his missed chance at getting the Deacon's power. Maybe it would have been enough to make him evolve. Now, the Deacon would retreat to the weyline and bring back reinforcements. His doom was imminent, and he had no idea how to get off the planet in time, as the weyline was exclusively for those in the faith to use.
A noise in the distant snaps his attention to it as he rises to his feet. He spies a tall rabbit eared creature with a white coat of fur. Under his whiskers was a wide smile as he slowly approached the hollow.
"Good evening brother. I come bringing an offering." He announces as he throws Reuben to the ground in front of the hollow.
Of course, the hollow immediately identifies him as Silverfoot, the demon responsible for leading them to him in the first place. Did he think that offering Reuben was enough to make peace?
The hollow didn't know how correct he was to assume such a thing as Silverfoot thought exactly that. Silverfoot had no qualms about doing such an act in offering Reuben as he already absorbed the mana from the other one who was stronger. As he observed that the other couldn't sense him until he intentionally made a noise to reveal himself, he knew that he couldn't sense mana like he could. Therefore, he feinted that Reuben was the stronger that he was offering.
He greedily sized the other demon up, looking at the waves of mana rolling off of him. This demon was already capable of going toe to toe with a Deacon like that, and was still standing. If he took that mana from the demon, imagine the evolution he would achieve. Correcting his composure, he went back to smiling, appearing to befriend the new demon while plotting his demise.
The hollow didn't fail to catch Silverfoot's momentary look, even if it was for but half a second. Even if he didn't see it, he knew not to trust this creature so easily. So instead, he smiled back at Silverfoot.
"Thanks, I'll accept your apology." The hollow replies to him. He doesn't move to eat Reuben's soul in front of Silverfoot, instead just straight up killing Reuben. It wouldn't do to reveal such critical information to someone like Silverfoot.
Plus, he could tell from the fight and everyone's memories that Reuben was the weakest out of the group. He was the first to get tired and the first to run away. The hollow doubted that he would have contributed much to his strength anyway, so he didn't miss Reuben's soul.
"I didn't catch your name, friend." Silverfoot says, closing the distance between them.
The hollow thinks for a moment. He'd been nameless most of his past life, but now he had a chance to name himself. Looking at Silverfoot, he saw his white coat with bits of silver and his qualities of a rabbit, and assumed that most demons must name themselves based on their appearance or their initial powers.
He could follow suit, but his appearance wasn't that impressive to define his being based on it, and he had no intention on revealing his powers through his name. Taking a second, he remembers in his past life, learning about different mythology. He stuck on Norse mythology, namely one figure. The Serpent, who represented a loss of honor or the status of a villain. A tormentor of the dead, and in some stories went as far as eating them. Perfect for him.
"Nidhogg." The hollow says proudly.
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