Inside the tower reigned a surprising silence, despite all the chaos occurring just a wall away, nothing of it could be heard. Whatever hellish stone those walls were made of, they were incredibly soundproof.
There was only one noise that resonated within the walls of the tower, the footsteps of Lyle and Sylvana as they walked up the long staircase towards the top of the tower. Their pace was slow and steady because of Sylvana having to support herself on Lyle to not trip with the steps.
"My sincere apologies for this" Sylvana said, embarrassed of needing help for such a thing. "Getting used to moving around places like this has been difficult. The castle of the capital is a nightmare for me to roam around, I have to use a cane to avoid colliding with everything"
"Don't worry, the tower isn't that tall anyways, we shouldn't take long" Lyle said, although in his voice there was a noticeable hint of irritation.
"Are you sure about that? Your voice indicates otherwise" Sylvana questioned with a hint of guilt.
"Oh, no, it has nothing to do with you. I have a cut on my face and it burns a bit" Lyle responded. "Besides, the blood dripping down my face feels… awkward"
"So, it's just that. I'm glad that I'm not being a nuisance to you. Also, don't worry about that cut, the more you get injured in battle the less insignificant wounds like that bother you" Sylvana declared.
"If you say so, thanks" Lyle responded, not fully convinced "So, the cannon is at the top most floor, right?"
"That's correct, from here I can see the origin of its emanation of energy, and judging by the distance it should be the top of-" Sylvana suddenly stopped in place.
"Huh? What happens?" Lyle asked with a bit of worry.
"There is someone there" Sylvana said with a serious tone.
"W-What? Did you just notice?" Lyle questioned.
"Apologies for that, but it seems like their presence was being covered by the overwhelming magical emanation from the cannon. Whoever they are, they seem to be considerably powerful and if I'm correct, they make use of wind magic" Sylvana responded, staring upwards.
"I guess it makes sense that they'd have someone to watch over the cannon" Lyle said.
"Although true, I believe that both of us should be able to handle the guard" Sylvan declared, looking at Lyle.
"I trust on your judgement, let's get going then"
The both of them continued walking up the tower until they finally reached the top floor, where they found a small hallway and a doorframe. They entered through the frame and there was a room, empty aside from the Elven Cannon in the middle of it, a big mortar-like weapon, with a base made of wood with a similar look to the bottom of a tree and a cannon that looked like a rose from whose top emerged a dimly blue light.
Next to the cannon, stood a demon woman that looked fairly young, like in her early 20's. The demon turned back to look at them with a confident grin on her face, her skin was red, her eyes yellow with a black sclera, her fangs seemed to be particularly sharp, her hair was black, bristly and long, tied up in a ponytail. She wore a leather top, black leather boots, leather pants with a furry waistband and a loincloth reaching to her knees and golden details. She seemed to be wearing make up, she had her nails painted with a dark blue color and in her hands she held a halberd that looked very sharp.
"So, you must be those I was warned about" The demon as her pupils dilated.
"Huh? Who warned you about us?" Sylvana asked.
"Shit, I think I wasn't supposed to mention that" The demon said in a whisper. "Doesn't matter anyways, none of you will make it out alive"
"You seem pretty confident about being able to kill us both" Sylvana stated.
"Well, I don't wanna be a show off, but I am on the level to become one of the 10 generals of the Esteller Empire. My name is Albedo, commander of the forces of Esteller and once I succeed on this mission, I'll be promoted to general number 10, maybe even 9" She responded with a pretentious voice.
"10 generals?" Lyle asked in surprise.
"I've heard of them, basically they are the best that the Esteller possesses right after Esteller himself" Sylvana said, a drop of sweat going down her face.
"That's right! I easily have the power to beat some of them in combat, I'm just left to demonstrate my leadership capacities and will become the youngest general in the history of the empire!" Albedo declared with a big smile.
"I would doubt your leadership capacities, especially considering what is going on with your troops out there" Sylvana mocked her.
"Hehe, what happens to them is not really relevant, demons are plentiful in numbers. Easily replaceable" Albedo said.
"Your words are starting to make me wanna puke" Sylvana said with disgust.
"Same here" Lyle declared with a disgusted expression.
The elf summoned a magical double sword, right after that, both she and Lyle got into their battle stances. Albedo stood still in calm.
The demon chuckled. "You're so cute thinking you can beat me" After finishing her sentence, Albedo finally got into a battle stance.
Both parties stood still, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
"Lyle, I need you to tell me a couple of things" Sylvana whispered.
"What is it?" Lyle asked.
"The ceiling, how high is it?" The elf asked.
Lyle took a brief moment to look at the stone above them. "About 3 meters if I had to guess" He responded before fixing his gaze on Albedo again.
"Alright, and also, what weapon is she holding? For the way she's standing I'd say it's a spear but I can't be sure" Sylvana questioned as she stared at Albedo.
"I don't know what it is exactly. It looks like a spear combined with an ax" Lyle answered.
"It must be a halberd then…" Sylvana whispered.
"Are you gonna talk all day or are you gonna attack?" Albedo said with a mocking voice.
The three of them remained still for a few moments before Sylvana quickly turned her sword into a bow she used to shoot three magical arrows at Albedo that she dodged without problem. Lyle reacted by activating his dark boost and lunging right at Albedo while she was dodging. As soon as she shot the arrows, Sylvana turned her bow back into a double sword and began running towards Albedo.
The demon was able to dodge the arrows but while doing so both Lyle and Sylvana had gotten really close and were about to hit her by two sides. Nonetheless, this did not delete the smile on Albedo's face.
Out of nowhere, a burst of wind pushed back both Lyle and Sylvana. They quickly recovered and stood in place for a moment, wondering what just happened.
"Of course! She can use wind magic!" Sylvana said out loud.
"Ah, you noticed. Yes, that's my specialty, I wanna see you try to get close to me. I assure you that you'll fail miserably" Albedo said with a pretentious smirk.
"Why you-!" Lyle said as he lunged at her again, but once again a burst of wind threw him back.
The demon laughed at them as Lyle continued to pursue an opening to attack Albedo but her bursts of wind seemed to cover the entire room.
"Agh!" Lyle exclaimed as he stood up once again, his breathing was starting to get heavy. "What are you trying to achieve? Your wind barely does any damage"
"You're right on that. I think it's time I get a bit more serious" Albedo said, as she lifted her halberd.
The demon aimed her halberd towards Lyle, she took her time as Lyle prepared himself to dodge. She threw her weapon at Lyle, accompanied by a burst of wind that propelled the halberd extremely fast. Lyle was barely able to avoid a lethal hit but still got a cut on his left arm. Before he could recover appropriately, Albedo pointed at her weapon with her hand and made it go back to her, making another cut on Lyle's arm in the process.
Lyle did his best to endure the pain as he got into his battle stance again. Albedo laughed at him.
"That's all you can do? What a-" The demon's words would be cut short by a magical arrow passing in front of her face and striking into the wall.
Albedo turned to look at Sylvana, who held a crossbow made of magic. The elf shoots many arrows at Albedo that she dodged easily.
"Are you even trying to hit me?" The demon questioned.
"Just as I thought" Sylvana said in her mind.
Lyle attempted to take advantage of Albedo being distracted with Sylvana to attack her, but the demon hadn't stopped to pay attention to him and released another outburst of wind, making Lyle flinch. But at the same time she did so, a magical arrow impacted right on her stomach, it didn't pierce through but it did affect her.
"Argh!" Albedo exclaimed in surprise.
"What the-?" Lyle questioned.
"Lyle! Her wind doesn't affect magical attacks and she can't move while using her magic! If we coordinate we can take her down!" Sylvana yelled at the swordsman.
"So, you noticed" Albedo said, her expression unreadable.
With this new information, Lyle once again attacked, getting pushed away by Albedo's magic as she got hit by multiple magical arrows thrown by Sylvana. This situation would repeat itself a few more times, even if Sylvana's attacks didn't do much damage to Albedo, it was slowly accumulating.
It seemed like a matter of time before either Lyle or Sylvana landed a critical blow on Albedo. Lyle had lunged at her one more time at the same time as Sylvana threw her arrows. The swordsman noticed that he was getting closer than in previous attempts, but he didn't get to notice the grin on the demon's face as she lunged at him, dodging the arrows and hitting Lyle in the chest with the ax of her halberd, boosted with wind magic that threw Lyle against a wall. The hit hadn't been lethal, his armor managed to take the hit but it got cracked in the process and one of his ribs broke.
"You must be stupid if you believe that I only have one technique. I may not be able to move when I release a huge burst of wind, but when the amount of wind is smaller I can move as free as the wind itself!" Albedo exclaimed with a maniatical laughter.
Sylvana began sweating as Lyle made his best effort to incorporate into the fight again. The elf jumped next to Lyle, looking to discuss a new plan of action. Meanwhile, Albedo seemed a bit lost in her thoughts.
"Oh! This is gonna be wonderful! Once I finish dealing with you two and accomplish the mission. I'm more than sure to get a spot between the generals! Ah, I already can imagine it! Having obedient servants obeying all my requests no matter how stupid they are! I may even get to meet Lord Esteller himself~!" The demon said, lost in her fantasies.
"She is way too confident, that's gonna be her doom" Sylvana said in a whisper.
Lyle held his own chest, trying to overcome the pain of Albedo's hit.
"Can you continue?" The elf asked.
"Yes, yes. I can get over this. Tsk" Lyle said with a grunt.
"The previous strategy will no longer work, but with her new approach, I doubt she can push us both away at once. The most optimal approach would be to attack by different sides" Sylvana declared.
While Sylvana and Lyle planned their strategy, Albedo had continued to mumble nonsensical fantasies of her hypothetical success.
"-and things could escalate until we get in bed and- ok, maybe I'm starting to overthink. I have to… take a breath and…" Albedo said to herself.
Lyle and Sylvana knew they had to take advantage of her distraction. At first they planned that Lyle attacked by the front and Sylvana flanked her, but because of her incapacity to see the walls they ended up deciding that it was safer that Sylvana attacked directly and Lyle flanked.
With the plan ready, Sylvana summoned a magical double sword and lashed out towards Albedo while Lyle began running, rounding the room so he could take Albedo by surprise. The demon quickly noticed the elf lunging at her and prepared herself to attack, she used her halberd but thanks to her agility Sylvana was able to jump over her and hit her in the face with the magical sword, like her arrows she couldn't pierce her skin but she could damage her.
The elf and the demon clashed their weapons multiple times, it was hard for Sylvana to maintain her stability because of the little wind bursts each of Albedo's attacks came with.
Lyle tried to take advantage of Albedo's distraction by attacking from behind but the demon was able to spot him from the corner of her eye and unleashed another strong burst of wind that pushed back both Lyle and Sylvana. The demon threw her halberd towards Sylvana but the elf managed to roll on the floor to not get hit, resulting in Albedo quickly using her magic to retrieve her weapon.
It was clear now for both Lyle and Sylvana that there was one optimal way to take on Albedo, Lyle had to be the one attacking so Sylvana could support with her magical attacks at the distance so Albedo couldn't just take them both down at once. With that in mind, Sylvana maintained her distance from Albedo while Lyle lunged at her.
Sword and halberd clashed one time and again repeatedly. Albedo's skill was evidently superior to Lyle's, but thanks to Sylvana's support, the swordsman was able to keep up with the demon fairly decently, even if the small bursts of winds that she released with each hit made it difficult for him to maintain a stable posture.
The commander was slowly taking the advantage over Lyle, despite having to focus on dodging Sylvana's magic arrows, she had managed to land a few hits that almost allowed her to land lethal hits on Lyle that the swordsman managed to react to thanks to boost on power the negativity from his fear was granting him.
Spotting an opening, Albedo swiftly did a low kick that took down Lyle into the floor. She tried impaling him with the point of her halberd but the armor managed to prevent the weapon from piercing deep enough to cause a significant bleed. Albedo tried again but this time she targeted the shattered side of his armor, Lyle's fear increased, causing his dark boost to increase his power enough to be able to react, grabbing the halberd by the handle right before it hit him, initiating a struggle between them.
Sylvana didn't just stood still, she began shooting arrows at Albedo, however, the power of these arrows had significantly decreased since the beginning of the battle, by this point it had been nearly an hour since the whole conflict had started and she went nonstop for a good while, her magic was far from full.
At that moment, something clicked in Sylvana's mind.
The elf summoned a magical sword and lunged at Albedo, the demon released her bursts of wind to keep her away, without her hands available to direct her magic she had to use all out bursts which resulted on each time she did, Lyle was able to push back a bit thanks to the brief moment she couldn't move. Sylvana persisted in trying to attack and Albedo continued using her bursts of wind that each time seemed to push back Sylvana less and less.
Eventually, Lyle managed to make Albedo flinch. As the demon stepped back he quickly reincorporated into position. The darkness surrounding Lyle weakened significantly and his breath was heavy.
Sylvana jumped right next to Lyle to check on him. He was fine but getting tired.
"Lyle, did you notice?" The elf questioned.
"What thing?" Lyle asked.
"Her recklessness. She may be powerful but she doesn't manage her magic well, I doubt she can effectively continue to push us both back" Sylvana declared.
Lyle understood what the elf meant, it was time to combine their efforts and both of them to lunge at the demon who was already in battle stance again.
Without hesitation, the pair attacked the demon who didn't attempt to use her strong bursts of wind. She fought them both only using her weapon, she had even stopped to use small bursts with her attacks, having realized her excessive magic usage. And even so, the demon just barely was managing them both at the same time, her skill with the halberd was impeccable but she was slowly getting overwhelmed by having to fight two foes at the same time.
Suddenly, Albedo let out a strong burst of wind that pushed Lyle and Sylvana all the way into the other side of the room. The demon was panting heavily, the pair recovered fairly quickly and looked at her, she was bleeding, but that wasn't because of them, it had been her own desperate move that hurt her.
She was infuriated. The gaze on Albedo's face was angry as it was desperate. She charged wind on her hand, an extremely focused blast that she used against a wall, making a small hole, enough for her to fit through it. The sounds of the battle taking place outside weakly sneaked into the room through the hole.
"I hate to resort to this, but next time we meet you'll regret having ever met me" She seemed to be preparing to escape. "BUT DON'T THINK I'LL JUST LEAVE THE CANNON TO YOU!"
In a surprise movement, Albedo threw her halberd embedded with her magic at the attack with the intention of destroying the Elven Cannon. Sylvana was just able to react and run towards the cannon as fast as she could and get hit by the halberd in her right shoulder, falling into the ground in front of the cannon.
"Huh?!" Albedo was not expecting that.
"You crazy bitch!" Sylvana yelled, still with the halberd impaled on her shoulder. "You almost killed us all!"
"What?" The demon said in shock. She had a realization "So… if the cannon gets destroyed, it explodes…"
With a grin, Albedo retrieved her weapon using her magic. Things had changed now, she was confident in being able to trigger the cannon's explosion and escape flying with all of her remaining magic.
"Lyle! Keep her busy, I'll destroy the cannon!" Sylvana yelled, holding her bleeding shoulder.
Albedo was confused on why she would want to destroy the cannon, especially when she just stopped her from doing so. She saw as the elf stood right next to the cannon and began whispering something.
It didn't take a genius to realize how things were, whatever she was spelling would destroy the cannon without triggering an explosion, not what she wanted. Albedo wanted to attack her directly but Lyle wouldn't make things easy for her.
Despite his tiredness, he activated the dark boost again, the darkness was weak, and yet, once the clash began, they seemed to be on equal grounds. At least at first, but it didn't take long for Albedo to take the lead, almost slicing Lyle's head in half, but he managed to dodge the lethal wound, but still got hit on the shoulder. Making him regret not getting shoulder pads as Ascalon once suggested, even though she still just hit his armor, it had been a strong hit.
Lyle was unable to keep himself standing and fell to his knees. Albedo prepared to finish him off with a swing of the ax head of her halberd right into his head but Lyle was able to prevent the hit from being lethal, but still the attack hit heavily, resulting on the swordsman being sent a few meters away and getting his dark boost deactivated.
With Lyle out of the way, Albedo focused her sight on Sylvana, she pointed her halberd at her and charged towards her. At the last moment, the elf turned back and tried to defend herself, but she wasn't fast enough and ended up being stabbed in the abdomen by the head of the halberd. Sylvana spat blood that fell onto the handle of the halberd and the floor under it.
The demon smirked with malice, thinking to have successfully prevented Sylvana from destroying the weapon. Nevertheless, she would be proven wrong as she saw how the cannon's light suddenly turned off and it began to wither.
The Elven Cannon became gray and off-colour, its roots dried and the petals of the cannon began falling apart as it opened to show its withered insides. Sylvana gave Albedo a smug smirk.
Before doing anything else to Sylvana, Albedo's focus was caught by the sound of a ground. She turned back to look at Lyle, who had stood up again and held his sword firmly with determination in his gaze.
The demon retrieved her weapon from Sylvana and pushed her into the wall near the doorframe with a burst of wind to let her bleed out before dragging her attention towards Lyle. The elf laid in the ground, holding her wound, trying to reduce the bleed. Her head looked down, she no longer had the strength to keep it up, nonetheless, something caught Sylvana's attention. Through the floor, she looked at what seemed to be multiple figures coming up.
Meanwhile, Albedo stared at Lyle with pretension. She had already beaten him, what could he do against her in his current state? She laughed at the dare of the swordsman.
Lyle however, was focused, not in Albedo, but on his sword. He was going to put into practice an idea he had not too much ago, he wasn't sure things would play out as he desired, he hadn't tried to do it even once. But alas, it shouldn't be too different from the time he summoned a blade of magic, he thought.
Lyle took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused all of his energies into his sword. Darkness surrounded him, he had activated his dark boost again.
Filled with fear, he yelled. "Dark Dragon Cut!"
The blade of his sword suddenly was enveloped in total darkness, shaped in resemblance to a dragon. Albedo was confused but prepared when Lyle lunged at her with all the power he could gather.
She could see him swinging his sword towards her, she put her halberd to block the hit but the handle got sliced in half. Another swing of Lyle's sword made Albedo flinch and let go of the leftovers from her weapon fall into the ground as she tried to dodge the consecutive attacks from Lyle.
His speed hadn't changed, neither had his strength, but the sharpness of the sword and the size of the blade had increased by the darkness. Albedo was able to notice but not to react in time, resulting in her getting a superficial cut on her collarbone, a slice through half of her right hand and two fingers cutted off her left hand.
Albedo knew she had to do something about this before she tripped or Lyle cornered her against the wall. She came up with an idea and decided to go along with it without considering further options.
In the next swing of Lyle, she moved to the side and towards him, getting slashed through her left cheek as she extended her right hand towards Lyle and grabbed his face, immediately letting out a burst of wind on his face that entered through his eyes, mouth and nose.
As soon as the demon had retired her hand from his face, Lyle fell to the ground, his dark boost deactivated, barely capable of breathing, his eyes reddened and blood dripping from his nose. Albedo breathed heavily, she lifted her fist in the air, determined to end this already.
However, two magic blasts, a rocky one and a watery one, impacting on her back made her off balance. Lyle noticed her moment of weakness and without second thoughts, quickly swung his sword.
A slashing sound echoed through the room.
Lyle faced towards the ground, doing an effort to breath and despite that he held his sword tightly in his hands but without making any force to lift it. The edge of the sword rested against the rocky floor, staining it with the blood dripping from its tip.
A fleshy wet sound was heard. The upper half of Albedo's head, falling into the ground, followed soon after by her body, which fell into its knees before falling to the side. Albedo's tongue rested on the floor as a pool of blood formed under it.
Buzzing, that's all Lyle heard, his vision was all blurry, everything seemed to spin around him. He noticed something moving towards him, white, brown and some degree of pink, he couldn't tell exactly until he felt her hands on his face, Stella's hands. She healed Lyle and tried to speak to him, it took a few moments but he regained his hearing.
"Lyle, oh gods, are you ok?" Stella asked, worried.
"Y-Yes, I am… I'm just… a bit exhausted" He barely managed to respond.
"Here take this" Stella said as she offered him a blue potion that Lyle drank without questioning.
He felt slightly better, still tired but not so much.
"Sorry, that was just a magic restoration potion, not very good for body exhaustion but it's something" Stella said as she closed the bottle.
"Good enough" Lyle said as Stella helped him to stand up.
"Wow, dude, that was amazing!" Dante exclaimed.
Lyle noticed the other people in the room, Sylvana was healed, she looked tired but she wasn't bleeding out. Standing at her side were both Dante and Terrac.
Stella helped Lyle walk towards the rest.
"Sylvana, are you alright?" He asked while walking.
"I'm fine, thanks to Stella" Sylvana responded.
"And you are fine thanks to us!" Dante said as he shook hands with Terrac.
"That's right, it's all thanks to us!" Terrac exclaimed.
"Hehe, thanks guys" Lyle said with a weak smile.
"We can't rest now, the battle isn't over" Sylvana declared with a grunt of pain.
"I wouldn't say so" Dante stated. "When we entered the tower the demons seemed very defeated already. I'm pretty sure many of them were giving up"
"Really?" Both Sylvana and Lyle said in unison.
"Yes, there is nothing to worry about. We fucking won!" Dante exclaimed with enthusiasm, followed by Terrac.
"That's great news. Umm… may I know where the rest of the team is?" Lyle asked, turning to look at Stella.
"Don't ask me, Ascalon was with us when we entered the tower but when we did, he suddenly said he had other things to do and went god knows where" Stella responded.
"And what about Mistia?" Lyle asked with worry in his voice.
"I have no idea, haven't seen her since the beginning of the battle"
At the same time, at the edge of a forest near the Demon Tower, a blood covered Mistia staggers as she gets to a tree she supports in. Her breathing is labored, her vision is blurry, memories flow before her eyes; Memories filled with blood, begging, fire and death. Mistia's sight gets blurrier and blurrier, her breathing gets heavier and heavier.
One of her hands gets surrounded by darkness, shaping into a blade that she slowly moves into her own neck. Her hand shakes as it presses against her throat, her vision continues to blur and her breath only gets heavier.
"Mistia"
A familiar male voice catches Mistia off guard, who dispels her blade and turns back to look at who had talked to her. Her breathing lightens and her vision clears enough to notice Ascalon standing there.
"What are you doing here?" He questions.
Mistia doesn't answer, she looks down at her bloody hand.
"Seems like you were busy" Ascalon said, staring at all the blood covering his teammate's body. "None of it is yours, am I wrong?"
Ascalon stayed quiet, waiting for an answer that would never arrive. Mistia refused to say a word and continued staring down.
"I don't know what is going through your mind, nor do I care. But whatever you were planning to do. Don't" Ascalon stated coldly.
Once again, Ascalon waited for an answer. He was about to say something but to his surprise Mistia actually said something this time.
"If you don't care, then why are you here?" She asked in a barely audible whisper, her voice sounded broken.
"I don't care about you, but I care about Lyle, and he cares about you. So please, make this easy and come back. I don't think it would be easy for Lyle to handle the loss of another beloved one" Ascalon said, despite his words he seemed very chill.
Mistia finally lifted her head, almost surprised by Ascalon's words. It was a weird feeling, she already knew that, but hearing it from someone else's mouth felt different. Having a confirmation of someone caring about her, made her feel something warm from inside her chest.
"If he was here, he would probably say something like, 'Your life has value'. Or some shit like that. I'm pretty sure you could come up with something and say it with his voice in your head" Ascalon said.
"Your life has value" Those words echoed through Mistia's mind, however, the voice in her head wasn't Lyle's, but a female one that she almost couldn't remember.
"Let's just go back, I'm pretty sure we won, so there is nothing to worry about" Ascalon said as he began to walk back towards the battlefield.
Mistia stood still for a few seconds, she looked at the ground and then at the sky. She doubted a bit but in the end, she decided to follow Ascalon.