One of the worse noises in existence was a cry of suffering. After witnessing the sight before me, I came to believe that among those cries of pain and unimaginable torment, the scream of a demon being tortured by a vampire, especially the one next to me, was the worst.

"GrrrAAaAAaaanGgh....."

The demon made incomprehensible sounds with each damage Kelia inflicted on the blood effigy. After she poke a hole in its torso, she proceeded to methodically remove, piece by piece, various parts of the statue.

In parallel, I could observe the demon being ripped apart progressively. The more horrifying fact was the healing factor of the demon was working against it. Similar to when I made his blood combustible, it only prolonged its sufferings.

After all, the effigy was linked to the demon. As such, when the demon recovered, it also recovered.

The demon tried to bear through the agony and attack us but the pain was visibly too much to bear even for a being such as he.

"I am wondering something. I am guessing the spell you used is pretty powerful but I would have thought that demons have a higher tolerance to pain..."

I was curious. In my inference, demons were beings of countless sins and would be of undaunted ferocity against most things. Because of this, I felt the scene of the demon writhing in pain slightly absurd.

Without stopping her brutal torture, Kelia turned toward me and calmly answered.

"This isn't just any powerful spell. Its purpose, meaning the primary objective behind its design is simply bringing the maximum amount of pain possible and imaginable.

Physical pain isn't the primary reason why he is writhing on the ground. Although, it is contributing to it. The true culprit behind the agony of this demon is the secondary effect of the spell.

The spell secondary effect coalesces all the pain, big or small, that one ever went through and brings it back each time the blood effigy is damaged.

Though it's not great at eliminating powerful foes, it's the perfect tool of torture. Additionally, once under this spell, the target range of movement is heavily restrained by the misery he is going through."

She paused after saying this and looked at me knowingly.

I understood quickly, the demon was thoroughly restrained and I was free to dish out attack upon attack on him. This combined with the damage created by Kelia's spell would allow us to waste enough of the summoning energy to send the infernal horror back to his home.

"I understand. How long can you maintain this spell?" I asked

"Don't worry about it, as long as his blood cells are still alive I can maintain the spell for a long time. The energy I use to maintain their vitality is not that much considering it's the specialty of blood power."

"Ok, I'll get to work then."

Though willpower was more effective if I wanted to cause real damage to him, I decided against its usage. This demon knew something about it. The less I used it the better it would be for me.

*Let's get physical then.

I shot toward the demon, like a bullet out of the chamber. I was on him instantly. I could see numerous red veins pulsing and glowing under his skin. Judging by the red ominous glow, I would say that they were a physical manifestation of Kelia's ministrations.

The demon was in a kneeling position, unable to even rise to its full height.

He was too debilitated by the pain to even avoid my blow. My leg fell upon the demon's head like a celestial guillotine.

BANG!

The demon's head impacted the floor rather violently. Still, blood wasn't drawn.

*Tch... So hard-headed.

I complained inwardly.

I reached and grabbed one of his horns. With a full-powered swing, I sent him crashing above. In the meantime, Kelia continued to wreck the effigy and by consequence, the demon would randomly spit blood, have a member ripped apart, or an organ burst.

"YOU-" The demon tried to speak but I interrupted him by launching a barrage of punch, palm strikes, and kicks. He became a punching ball as I afflicted him with the utmost care I was capable of.

My hand poke through its stomach like a spear. I then proceeded to remove the organs that fell under my reach. This wasn't a fight anymore, it was more like an unfair beatdown.

-------

After 4 hours of this, I was slick with blood and sweat. The demon was currently a mass of unrecognizable flesh on the ground. A glance at Kelia showed that despite what she said, keeping the spell active was taking its toll on her. She was incredibly pale. More so than usual for a vampire.

In her eyes, I could see hunger, extreme hunger.

*When is the energy is going to dissipate? It looks like her blood power will be exhausted soon. Then the blood effigy will die and the demon will be released from its hold.

As these thoughts coursed through my brain, I resolved to end things as fast as I could.

*This means, I need to use my willpower and be creative. After all, like Clarisse said my imagination is the limit. As long as I am smart and quick enough, he will be sent back before being able to analyze the power I use.

Having come to this conclusion, I hesitated no longer. I raised my hand toward the demon and twisted abruptly. As if a distortion had appeared from the void, the demonic flesh twisted and started breaking down.

It was like I had put him in a blender. Before he could recover enough to assume his humanoid or canine appearance the void blender reduced him into blood juice, again and again.

I thought of this method to enhance the damage rate and exhaust the energy faster.

Before long, I could feel something different in the air. An oppressive feeling. It manifested like a buzzing in the back of my mind.

"The Veil. The greatest magic spell in existence." I could hear Kelia mutters from a distance.

"It's what I am feeling. The Veil? The thing that is stopping demons as well as angels to roam freely on this plane?" I asked with awe.

I never felt a power like this before. It was so vast that it seemed boundless. It was different from the presence of hell. Where hell exerted pure destruction, darkness and torments, this presence felt detached, transcendent, and omniscient.

"Indeed, it's the Veil. It seems that we succeeded. The energy of the summon is expanded. The energy purpose was to cloak the demon's presence from the Veil, now that it is exhausted the Veil can feel it and will expulse him momentarily." She explained.

Not long after, an incredible built up of power brought both of us to our knees. Kelia and I had both canceled our onslaught by this point. This respite allowed the demon to regain a humanoid form.

Sadly it was too late.

"Good. Good. Good." The raucous voice of the demon reverberated around them. The fury behind this repeated word could be felt by us.

"I have never been humiliated to this degree by such inferior creatures. Very well, I concede defeat this time. But worry not, I, the great Verok, will remember the scent of your soul, immortal human."

As he finished those words, the reality seemed to twist upon itself and with a barely audible 'pop'. The demon vanished. The presence of the Veil followed in his footsteps and disappeared too.

*Sigh

I sat on the floor feeling wrung out.

"Samsara..." Kelia's voice made me look at her. She was extremely pale now and her fangs were out. Her eyes were glowing a hungry red.

"You are thirsty." I constated frowning. "Why didn't you drink the blood of the demon while we had him under control?" I asked her.

"If I had taken it. I would have been marked by him. No matter where I went he would have been able to sense me. Unless you can kill a demon, it's better not to drink its blood. You will only be trading your freedom for power." She spoke while getting closer to me. The usual callousness had left her face and now she looked at me with a disturbing interest.

Of course, the interest was in my blood. Her face was flushed with bloodlust.

"I can give you my blood if you are that thirsty," I said suddenly. She paused in her steps then blurred forward. She was upon me in a blink of an eye. I gave her my wrist and she drank like a woman stranded in a desert.

*I guess, using blood magic makes her go hungry faster than average vampires. After all, she uses blood power to fuel it and blood power comes from the blood absorbed by a vampire over time.

Interestingly enough, I didn't feel like when Chloe bit me. I wasn't getting excited. I was mostly calm.

She finished after a moment and stood up. She wiped an escaping drop of blood with her finger before sucking on it.

"Thanks for the meal." She had regained her composure. "I have to say, your blood is the best I have ever had." She said as an after-thought.

"No problem, are you back in top shape now?"

"Yeah. I even became slightly stronger." She looked at me as if she wanted to peel my skin and see what I was made of.

I shivered and said.

"Let's find the others and finish this mission."

Like this, we resumed our exploration of the structure.