Chapter 7

Alessia was approaching me. My mind was racing, the gash on my chest was searing. She raised her sword above her head and was about to deliver a devastating downward strike. I braced myself for impact.

Right before Hrotti was about to cleave into my shoulder, I raised Shiko in an upward parry and made contact with Alessia’s sword. She had the positional advantage but my ultimate goal wasn’t to successfully parry her strike.

Throughout this contest, I had noticed something. Right before Alessia connects with her vicious sword strikes, she pours some of her own demonic energy into her Tiamat infused Hrotti. The reason she probably does this, is to control how much of Tiamat’s destructive power is released.

Normally something as mundane and technical as this wouldn’t really make much of a difference in a battle. However, I had Shiko, Shiko could absorb anyone’s demonic energy because she wasn’t exclusively tied to my own as an officially contracted familiar.

Unlike my other two familiars, there was no contract binding her to me. Therefore, theoretically, it was possible for her to consume Alessia’s demonic energy. When Alessia furthered her connection to Tiamat and her weapon of choice, she opened the floodgates for Shiko to latch on and drink her dry.

This is what I was counting on, it was time to find out if Alessia’s demonic energy was as limitless as people believed it to be...

When our two blades connected, the collision created a gust of wind pressure. Alessia had the aerial advantage and she was putting more and more weight into her strike. She really did want to finish things here and now.

I detected that she was starting to increase the amount of her own demonic energy in Hrotti, as a way to increase the destructive force of Tiamat. The instant that the level was enough for Shiko to latch onto, I executed my strategy.

“NOW SHIKO!”

Shiko clamped herself onto the stream of demonic energy that was travelling from Alessia to Hrotti.

Shiko was beginning to glow, Alessia didn’t notice this, I don’t even think she knew that her demonic energy was being consumed. Her clear eyes were burning with determination. It was like she was staring down her worst enemy, like I was her worst enemy. No, she wasn’t directing such an anarchic look at me. I don’t know how I could tell, but that expression was not directed at me. It’s like I could see someone else’s reflection in her bright eyes.

To add to my belief that she hadn’t noticed Shiko, Alessia poured even more of her demonic energy into Hrotti. She was attempting to raise the potency of Tiamat’s power. My knees buckled. No, it wasn’t my knees, it was the ground beneath us. My arms were beginning to shake vigorously. I had to find a way to make her release more, I needed to make her explode before my body gave out from her strength alone.

“You said that you thought I couldn’t defeat the first Prince of Bael, is this your way of showing me that YOU can!?”

“...”

“Pathetic! Is this all the proud Belith House has to offer? Old man Bahamut told me that there was a time that the Belith name was synonymous with destruction and terror, now you’re just the cup bearers to Bael!”

I saw Alessia’s eye twitch. She added even more vigor into her navy blue blade.

“Strongest blood ties to Lucifer!? Don’t make me laugh! Pitiful! That’s right, I pity you. Now run back to your master like the dog that you are!”

The last comment did it. As much as it hurt to have to say something like that to someone that was giving her all for the sake of her noble house and people. It was the only way that I could get Alessia to remove her limiter.

If there was anything I learnt about Alessia from crossing blades with her. It was that she had a warrior’s pride. However, this pride was not derived from her abilities, but from her lineage and family name.

Eternally being at the mercy of the Bael House must have eaten away at her. Alessia must believe this summit to be her one and only chance to liberate her noble house and people.

The fact that she could carry that responsibility on her small shoulders was more than admirable. If I was a normal spectator, I’d pray that such a noble and lionhearted person be victorious and pave the way for long lasting prosperity for the Ars Goetia and general populous of hell.

However, I wasn’t, I had a reason to be victorious too. I had people that were counting on me too…

“HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

Alessia was giving it her all, she was no longer using her demonic energy to regulate Tiamat’s power. She was combining it with her own and seeking to slice right through me. The brilliance of her yellow aura was blinding. Shiko was also emitting a piercing white light. I could feel Shiko take in Alessia’s demonic energy, it was endless.

My arms were giving in and Hrotti was closing in. If her sword made it through, I was dead. There was no doubt. It was like Alessia was throwing the weight of everything that she carried at me. I heard cracking and thought my bones were on the brink of shattering from her all out attack. However, the cracking sound wasn’t coming from my bones, it was coming from Shiko. There was a hairline fracture appearing through Shiko’s illuminated sword body.

Alessia’s aura was becoming dragon shaped. It was like she WAS Tiamat. Hrotti was just a talon attempting to obliterate something blocking the Dragon Queen’s charge. The whole arena became engulfed in a dazzling white and yellow light. I heard a heart wrenching crack and felt my hands become lighter.

Time stopped. The aura that surrounded Alessia was gone. Hrotti had returned to it’s normal, non-Tiamat infused self, Alessia was still edging closer to my shoulder with a determined look, however, the thing blocking her was gone.

Shiko, had shattered…