City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)
Book 6 - The Beauty Of Smoke And Fire Chapter 21

Trump Card

Io was swinging a golden chain around like a whip, smashing all the babies and tentacles nearby. However, he felt his divine power being consumed very quickly; a closer look showed that the dark energy was trying to absorb the energy wrapped around his weapon.

One of the babies even bit in; given that the entire chain was formed from divine power, a part of it was chipped off. However, the trace of energy that had been pulled away could not be assimilated by the black gases the cursed demigod was spewing out. Instead, it worked as a spark that started burning the dark matter away. The baby who bit in and swallowed this power burnt up in an instant, exploding and taking several others with it.

“Who are you?!” the demigod shouted in exasperation, “How can I not swallow your divine power? This is impossible, impossible! I’m a cursed child, I have divine blood flowing in my veins! How can there be any power I cannot swallow?”

Io wiped some sweat off his brow as the swarm cleared for a moment, a fierce expression rising on his face, “Your gods are just garbage! Even if you were ten thousand times as powerful as you are, you wouldn’t be able to mess with my divinity!”

“IMPOSSIBLE!” the demigod shouted.

A bastard demigod was not directly associated with the power of their divine parent, allowing them to absorb any divinity they wished. This was why gods feared them so much. However, there were countless planes outside of Faelor that were different or just more powerful, while the Eternal Dragon was a being that surpassed planes altogether. If a mere demigod in a secondary plane could engulf the old dragon’s power, then Faelor wouldn’t have been so weak.

It was at this point that a cloud of grey suddenly appeared in the air, Nyra walking out and glancing at the environment in the hall. A frown crawled up her face, “Io, what are you doing? Why is it so messy here?”

“What the hell are you blaming me for?!” Io shouted back, “Why are you so late?”

“I have my reasons, why aren’t you using Eternal Glory? It’s the best fit for the situation!” the soul shepherd’s voice went higher. She started to wave her hands, dropping healing spells on a baby that had rushed towards her. The black and white energy immediately turned the creature numb, causing it to fall straight down.

The battle priest just grunted, “Why should I, It’ll leave me with no energy to fight! You’re the one who’s late—”

“You really want to know? Alright then, I was late because I spent some time torturing the demigod inside. Happy?”

Io blanched, snorting as he stopped moving around. His body started glowing with increasing amounts of energy, and in the blink of an eye it was like a new sun had formed in mid-air. This was the ability Io had gained after becoming a grand priest, somewhat similar to the Eternal Glory formation laid down in the City of the Unsetting Sun to defend them from the Daxdians. It radiated holy energy within a certain range, injuring or even killing creatures of darkness, chaos, or undeath. This ability was even more powerful than Richard’s Devout Prayer, and at the same time quite fitting for the battle priest’s personality.

As Io started to glow brighter and brighter, Richard finally managed to open up some space and ask Nyra, “Aren’t these demigods built from pain? How can you torture them?”

“A blade can be cut by a sharper blade. Even a proper demigod can be tortured so long as you exceed the limits of their tolerance, forget these useless fakes.”

Richard felt a chill running down his spine, but continued to take out as many of the creatures nearby as he could.

In this hall of anguish, any enemy who dared to approach Io was quickly burnt to ashes. The enormous body of the demigod constantly writhed in agony as the holy radiance ate away at it, constantly screaming in pain. Numerous tentacles were thrown towards the three present, but the true danger was still from the cries of these sacrificial babies. Any physical attack was cut down before it could get close.

Waterflower finally emerged from within at some point, having finally rid herself of the trap. However, an obvious look of embarrassment crept up her face as she saw the three in the hall basically unharmed. Unlike them, there were a few bloody scratches on her face and the wounds on her calves were so deep once could see bone. The girl screamed in pain under the immediate assault of the crying babies, but she also grew more fierce and bestial as she ground her teeth while slashing out. Thankfully, Nyra quickly added a few barriers and started healing her.

However, Richard’s heart still started to fill with worry. Flowsand hadn’t yet appeared, and she should have been the first of them all. Still he continued to keep himself calm, killing the flying babies one after the other. By the time Io’s ability faded away, there were only a few dozen babies left in the air while the tentacles had all been swept away. The enormous body of the demigod seemed to be splattered everywhere, leaving it at half its original size. For his part, the battle priest was drenched in sweat and the shackles had disappeared. He seemed reluctant to even float in the air.

It was at this point that the demigod’s voice rang out once more, “Amazing! You’re so much stronger than the so-called powerhouses of this plane! But what will you do now? How much mana do you have, how much divinity? You know the number of years I’ve been growing in his place? Here’s my collection!”

Many holes opened up in the demigod’s body in an instant, more black babies flying out from within. It seemed like an enormous hive of deadly bees from afar, but the most frightening thing was that these were completely different from the originals. Most of them had glowing blue or green eyes, the infant bodies covered in fine scales while some of them even had full mouths of teeth. The soul screams were still their primary weapon, but now their bodies were a threat as well.

And the worst part was the sheer number! Nyra immediately paled, as did Richard when he didn’t manage to kill the first one that attacked in a single stab. Hundreds of babies had poured out in a mere few moments, and if they couldn’t be killed in one shot they were sure to overwhelm the group. Their constant cries broke off any hopes of putting up a full barrier as well.

“Not good, not good!” Io shouted, “Call Miss Flowsand, let’s run! We need to leave this damned place, who knows how many more of these things will come out!”

Nyra clearly agreed, but she still looked towards Richard and deferred to his opinion.

Richard’s brows were locked, and after a moment he grunted in anger, “Give me some time!”

Nyra nodded, her hands stretching out to launch the black and white energy all around Richard. The black babies close to him were obliterated under her intense attack, but it was clear that this was a huge drain on her powers.

Richard took out an intricate scroll from a pocket, chanting a long spell before tearing it apart. The paper burnt up in a white glow, space being ripped apart to form a portal in mid-air. A divine aura poured out from the other side, and ancient chants rang out. The cries of the babies were interrupted for a moment as they rushed about in a panic, desperately trying to get away from the portal. The demigod even forgot to react.

A celestial warrior charged out of the portal, a winged angel with a gold and white mask hiding most of his face. His beautiful sword was enveloped in bright white flames, the divine power a natural enemy of darkness and chaos. Just his aura alone pushed back all the darkness in the hall.

This was a legendary being’s strength!

The celestial warrior raised his large sword towards the cursed demigod below, charging over immediately. In only a moment he had turned into a meteor that crashed down on the mass of flesh, tearing it apart with earth-shattering might! The white flames started eating away at the demigod’s body, destroying all of the black babies that were flying out from within.

Still, the demigod managed to fight back. He started detonating the babies before they even left his body, turning them into a black mass that stuck to the angel’s wings. This forced the celestial warrior to spend some of his holy fire to cleanse these stains.

Looking at the fight, Richard couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. This Heaven’s Call scroll could summon a celestial warrior for a period of time, but the warrior wouldn’t necessarily obey the summoner. The Mensas had decided to use it against him because the Archerons had demon blood, so there was a chance that the summoned creature would attack him first and foremost. The only reason he even took the risk here was his confidence that the cursed demigod before him was much worse in the eyes of the gods.