Damn she was fast. Every time I teleported to catch up, when I got my bearings again, she was already at the edge of my sight. I had to start running. I felt incredibly fast while running on all fours like this, but she was still faster. I strengthened myself with a spell but it helped minimally. I tried to lessen the effects gravity had on me to lessen my weight and gain speed. Still not enough. I had to catch up to her before she does anything serious.

Come on, think, what could I do? I have magic limited only by my imagination… An earth wall maybe? I attempt to create an earth wall ahead of Myria while we ran. I succeeded and a massive wall of earth erupted from the ground to block Myria’s path… She plowed straight through it, punching a hole into it like a cannon… She didn’t even hesitate.

“Myria, stop right now!” I shouted out to her while trying to think of something else. Ah, maybe increasing her gravity? I attempt to increase her gravity to slow her down… Only, she appeared to gain more momentum… “Fuck it, if that’s how we’re going to play…” I shot out a bolt of lightning.

Myria made a quick leap to the side and glanced back in surprise. Her surprise took a sudden turn into a look of determination, and she seemed to redouble her efforts… Great.

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Neith the guard patrolled the castle walls of Pandemonium, keeping an eye out particularly for the army of the Aesir or the Jotun. Instead what she saw were two figures approaching at incredible speeds. The closer one was white, while the other was black. The black creature was firing bolts of electricity and some other ambiguous spells at the white creature, but the white creature avoided everything and continued running… Straight for Pandemonium.

“Sound the alarm!” Neith immediately called out. Creatures that could move that quickly and used spells had to be dangerous, and she wasn’t going to take any chances. A bell rang out as another of the guards heard Neith and pulled the rope swinging the massive bell found in each of the castle towers posted along the walls.

Guards rushed up the ramparts and along the wall to ready themselves against the threat, lining up on either side of Neith with long bows. Neith nocked an arrow to her own bowstring and readied herself to take aim.

“Take no chances! Fire as soon as either get in range!” The captain of the guard called out. They would be in range in only a few moments. Simultaneously, every guard drew back their bowstrings and took aim. As if with a silent order, all the guards released their bowstrings simultaneously. Arrows filled the sky, then suddenly evaporated into oblivion.

“Wha-what is going on?” The guard next to Neith voiced her own concerns.

“F-Fire again!” The captain of guard ordered. Quickly, we nocked arrows and drew bowstrings once more. This time the arrows were fired as soon as possible, rather than going into the sky as one massive wave of death, they would come down in bursts. Again, however, every arrow that reached its zenith evaporated into nothing.

The guards did not get another chance to fire more arrows, the white creature leaped onto the the walls, right in front of Neith. Guards fell back in surprise, and some had enough of their wits about them to draw daggers and swords. The creature eyed Neith critically for a few moments.

“Are you Veloth’s fiancee?” It asked sweetly. Neith blushed. ‘As in L-Lord Veloth’s…?’

“N-no.” Neith stammered out. Certainly she would not be against it however. What would it be like to marry?

“Where are his fiancees?” The creature again asked with its feminine voice, sweetly. Neith, however, was not about to answer. This creature was an unknown and powerful threat. Neith was not about to endanger her future rulers by telling the creature. Neith simply shook her head while drawing her sword, pointing it at the creature. The creature frowned, abruptly leaping over the guards and the rest of the wall to land in the courtyard of Pandemonium.

Abruptly the black creature appeared out of thin air.

“Where?” It simply asked… Its voice was strangely familiar. “Where did Myria go?” The creature asked again, growing more impatient. Did he mean the white creature? Then it would be best to stop him here and lessen the threat to Veloth’s fiancees.

Neith pointed her sword at the black creature along with many others nearby. A large number of guards had also gone to chase the white creature.

“You will go no further, creature.”

“Ah! That’s-” The creature sounded surprised. He abruptly interrupted himself with an astonishing feat… His shape shifted. He looked almost exactly like Lord Veloth in the nude. However, his hair and tails was a virulent burning orange like Lord Kel’thul’s, and the man had six tails instead of Veloth’s two.

“Impostor! You dare to take the form of our future king!” Neith shouted in outrage while blushing at the sight of the man’s crotch. Many other soldiers also shouted in outrage, many calling for the impostor’s head.

“No! I am… Oh...” The creature exclaimed upon seeing one of his own tails. ‘Fool, if you were going to perform such an outrageous act at least get the visage of our Lord right.’

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I lost Veloth! Now I just need to find those whores and get rid of them. It was surprising that veloth went to such lengths to stop me, all the more reason to get rid of them. I can birth as many children as Veloth wants, he does not need mortals to hinder him. Now where?

I managed to get inside and past the weak mortals guarding the entrance. I still ran into patrols inside this castle as well. I could attempt to blow the entire place up with an explosion, but I wanted to confirm the death of all the other fiancees.

Besides, what is so special about them that they deserve Veloth’s attentions? I am everything he needs. I needed to finish this quickly as well, after all Drema was already headed back to Jargen, and I refuse to fall behind.

“What’s this? Veloth, you… No, wait, you are not him.” A gaudily dressed man now confronted me upon turning a corner. He knew Veloth. That means he must know where the fiancees are.

“You, tell me where Veloth’s fiancees are.” I demanded of him.

“Oh, sure, I’ll tell you, just let me put this on you.” The man said, pulling out an ivory band from a pocket somewhere with a large grin. “I lost much of my collection in order to restore this for Veloth, but you should do just as well I think, If you are at all comparable to him.

I was immediately skeptical of the band. Something about it did not feel right. I backed up a step, from a mere mortal, no, from a mere object. This action I involuntarily performed then infuriated me. I lashed out in anger at the man, forgetting I wanted him alive long enough to tell me the location of the fiancees. My claw struck the man’s face, but something was wrong again.

My claw had bounced off the man. The man looked at a now glowing ring on his right hand.

“Wow, that actually took quite a bit. I had been seriously developing my collection for the moment I would fight Veloth, and so far it is paying off.” The man grinned widely, raising his right hand, palm outward towards me. I felt an abrupt shock through my body. Another of the man’s rings was now glowing. I quickly lost all feeling in my body. What is this mortal?

“Hoh, you are resisting quite well. How about this one then?” The man said, and one of many earrings on his left ear began to glow. Chains abruptly surged from the castle floor, wrapping my body and making my already numb and jerky movements more restricted. ‘This mortal, I’m going to kill him, regardless of whether he knows where the fiancees are.’

The man had the largest grin plastered on his face yet, and with his left hand reached toward me with the ivory band. I readied multiple spells, and began flinging them furiously at the man. Energy beams, Ice spears, Lightning bolts, very explosive fireballs, mental disrupters, mana drains, boulders of earth, anything I could think of in the moment. The man staggered back at the onslaught of spells, now many of his gaudy jewelries were glowing and shattering. ‘His power seems to lay within the jewelry, but it appears they can only take so much.’ Following my train of thought I continued to bombard him with my decidedly weak spells. I did not use stronger spells because I still did not want to destroy the castle yet.

The man at last fell unconscious, and the chains dissipated, but the paralysis I felt still lingered a bit. I struggled to stand, but with this paralysis it was nigh impossible until it dissipated. I began to hear footsteps. Someone was coming this way. They sounded light and small. Soon enough, coming around the bend ahead of me behind the fallen man was a small girl with a bowl of candies in her hand, of which she partook frequently.

“Oh? Om nom nom nom… Greed, you dolt… Om nom nom nom… How many times do we need to tell you not to play with your prey?”

“Oh, Gluttony, I just wanted to see how strong she was… Doesn’t feel as strong as Veloth is now, but she is as strong as he in the past. Makes you wonder does it not? Are they all this strong?” The fallen man sat up, yet not a scratch was on him. He had faked his defeat?

“Greed, you broke a lot of toys… Some of those were Envy’s I’m pretty sure... Om nom nom nom... If Envy finds out…”

“Leave it Gluttony. I took care of the… ‘replacements’ already.” The fallen man stood.

“Are you Veloth’s fiancee?” I asked, the paralysis now faded enough for me to stand.

“Bwahahaha! Me? You are a funny one... Om nom nom nom.” Was the girls only response. Was she playing dumb? I readied a magnitude of spells to release at once and emitted a fierce bloodlust. I’m am going to kill both of them.