บท 14: Arthur's-past - part4

- Are you a marquis? - Clare asked, trying not to let her voice waver as an unprecedented fear began to take hold of her. After all, only the temperature of Cocabiel's cloak was affecting her, even at a distance and with her doing her best to protect herself.

- "Yes," Cocabiel replied with a smile on his face as he looked around, then glancing in a southerly direction he said. - Getting the humans out of the area and calling in so many reinforcements... Clever, I don't think the mess will be too big then, but... At least the humans in this area need to die! - As soon as Cocabiel finished speaking, his flame-formed coat began to ripple and generate a gigantic, constant torrent of white flames that melted the nearest cars and the asphalt beneath him. Even Clare, who had been standing firm before, was forced to concentrate even more on her defense while sweating from a small portion of the heat that couldn't be prevented from reaching her; after a few moments, the flames that had been spreading furiously seemed to calm down and recede, the flames agglomerated and condensed until they seemed to take on a different constitution where instead of flames it just looked like a kind of white metal that exuded a significant amount of heat, the "metal" began to squirm and slowly stretch out, taking on a shape that resembled a snake, this snake was the size of a building of ten or more floors.

Cocabiel looked at the gigantic snake for a few moments and even smoothed the part of its body next to him. - Burn it all. - Cocabiel whispered to the snake as he moved his hands away from it; as soon as the words sounded, the snake opened its mouth, a massive amount of air began to be sucked into amount of air began to be sucked into the mouth of the snake-shaped heaped of flames, the air suction was so strong that even some concrete blocks, motorcycles and the remains of cars flew into the snake's mouth, it was only after a few moments that the snake stopped inhaling the air and finally exhaled it.

Flames shot out of the snake's mouth, resembling those of a blowtorch; after expelled the flames continued to burn and wherever they touched the place would melt and an explosion would soon follow. Beatriz panicked when she saw this. Looking in the direction of her car, she could see that even though the flames hadn't gone in her direction, the car still ended up overturning due to the explosion of some nearby cars and thanks to this it was thrown and skidded for a few meters; Beatriz felt a chill run through her whole body, a strong feeling of anger and helplessness, mixed with guilt took over immediately, this made her ignore the snake, Cocabiel and Clare who was telling her something, her vision seemed to darken when all she could see was the car which now had its wheels turned towards the sky while still spinning, ignoring a possible attack from a marquis she just ran towards the car with all her might.

Cocabiel looked at Beatrice who was running towards the car that had two humans in it for a few moments before returning his gaze to Clare. - Valac, take care of her and the others who are running away, I'll play with the rest after I get rid of that other girl. - Cocabiel said without looking away from Clare, keeping a strange smile on her face. - Well, daughter of Loki... I hope you're ready! -After saying this, the skin that had only served to express her smile widened even more as strange symbols began to circulate in the air; in the middle of these symbols some numbers and drawings appeared and came together in a circle in mid-air, these symbols seemed to be made up of the same flame that formed the serpent, and the faster the flames of the circle rotated, the more the space inside it became clear. Cocabiel's magic was so fast that Clare didn't even realize what he had done in the first second of the action. By the time she finally noticed the use of magic, it was already too late. His spell took less than two seconds to complete, and suddenly all the fire within that circle fell upon everyone.

Except for a circle a meter in diameter around the magic emitter himself, everything within a radius of half a kilometer was incinerated; of the nine members who had followed Clare to intercept the marquis, only two remained and one of them was crying with his hands around his leg, where everything below his left knee had disappeared. Clare, who was standing next to the marquis, was horrified, just one attack had reduced her team to just one person, Clare was stunned and tears even ran down her face without her realizing it, but she still managed to stay in the same place, after the shock she slowly began to calm down thanks to her training; facing Cocabiel she raised her right hand and purple rays formed, then she raised her left hand and an arc formed of purple mist appeared, housing the rays in a line that seemed to be made of smoke she tensioned the slightly ethereal rope and then released it.

When he let go of the rope, a mist identical to the one that formed the bow came out of Clare's feet and enveloped the whole place, creating a kind of dome. When he saw this, Cocabiel's face lost its smile as he heard the thunder grow louder and louder. - Brr! booom! Booom! Brr! Baroom - As the sounds grew louder, Cocabiel concentrated and his coat transformed into armor, turning him from a monster into a medieval warrior in all-white armor. A gauntlet formed on his left arm, turning into a shield; after preparing himself for the unexpected, he closed his eyes and strange symbols came out of his body again, but before they could take shape, he heard wind being cut, both near and far, warning him to give up his magic. Cocabiel raised the large shield on his left arm to protect his abdomen and head, but as he covered his line of sight, the rest of the magic behind him, stagnating in a half-skull formed by flames, was completely extinguished by several arrows, followed by a series of explosions. - Ka-boom! ta-bum! Baruuum!... - in front of him, causing him to fall on his shield and leaving his back completely exposed. As he tried to get up, he heard the hiss of approaching arrows - Zim! - Before he could take any action, he was hit in the heart and head by arrows.

Observing Cocabiel's body lying for a while, Clare couldn't help being a little confused and ended up asking Loki. - Didn't you say I could barely hold my own against him? What's with this situation? - Clare, who had relaxed and loosened her grip on the energy rope, noticed that a whitish smoke began to rise from Cocabiel's fallen body. At the same time, the air around Cocabiel's body began to become distorted due to the heat; even she, who had been using her soul to protect herself with Loki's spells, found it difficult to bear the temperature, and just as she was about to step back to observe the situation, she heard a shout coming from all directions.

- LOKI! I wouldn't kill your toy, but you with your tricks.... You'll pay for that damn joke this time!!! - Cocabiel's voice exclaimed with hatred from all directions, and it made Clare's head throb, but in the next instant that pain simply vanished, and her lips drew into a smile, and unable to control herself she was forced to watch herself speak with derision. - Cocabiel, do you think you can change the outcome of the fight? My dear representative beat your shell just like I beat you... What are you going to do? - After saying this, the smile remained on Clare's face, as if the demon's words were some kind of joke.

- My shitty shell lost. So what? You think everything's fine now? You've just ended my mission anyway, so it doesn't matter anymore, I'm going to kill your dear fucking representative!!!

- Fufuhuhuhu... Cocabiel, oh Cocabiel... You know? I don't mind teaching you a lesson, both through her and in person in the future... - Loki who had a relaxed smile on "his" face as he watched Cocabiel with obvious mockery in his expression, however, despite his relaxed appearance Loki was panicking inside; Loki who was trying hard not to show the slightest nervousness outside began to explain the seriousness of the situation to Clare directly in his mind. "Clare, that madman is going to burn the soul out of that shell to kill you! You don't stand a chance here! Hell, I don't know if I have a chance to use your body without consequences... While he burns the shell, he'll have almost half his strength, and believe me when I say that's enough to erase this district." Loki paused for a moment and sighed with his real body as he observed his adopted daughter's ridiculous thoughts. "All right, all right.... I'll help you, but I need to take over completely for a while, okay? If you don't let me, it'll be difficult to control your body; now I don't know if you're trying to say anything since, I can't read your mind active, so for now just relax and let me sort out this mess..." After that Loki closed his eyes and waited, almost immediately he realized that he was totally free and the smile on Clare's face got even bigger, the mist became thicker, so thick that it looked like a purple liquid under his body, then Loki walked smiling towards the demon who no longer had anything but burning bones that became thinner by the second, and his flames became bigger as the bones dried. When they were both only a meter apart, their images became blurred and they appeared in the sky; Loki unleashed a burst of purple lightning from his hand that became entangled with a column more than ten meters high of white flames, with which he managed to prevent most of Cocabiel's power from getting out of control.

- Shall we play a little demon bastard? - Clare's voice changed a little, she seemed to become more mature and attractive, her sneering tone also became more prominent, which only served to irritate Cocabiel even more.

- You bastard! - Cocabiel roared as he looked at the woman enveloped in violet rays, and he launched himself towards her while engulfed in flames. Thus began the battle that would boost Clare's currently declining status and allow her power to rise to a whole new level. Moreover, this would also be the day that Arthur's trauma would be formed, a trauma he didn't even know about and would only realize years later, on the very day he relived the experience.

"This is already the second chapter where the last paragraph has disappeared when viewed on cell phones. To avoid this, I've decided to duplicate this message at the end of each chapter, hoping it will resolve the issue. If you're reading this, I apologize if it's intrusive, but it's a better solution than leaving the chapter incomplete."