Ellulia Versus the Four Seraphim Part.1

Ellulia

Three pillars of light shone with intense radiance, causing physical pressure on their surroundings. Even Ellulia, twenty meters away, noticed the incomparably imperceptible weight now present on her shoulders. In response to their display, the buildings consumed in the fire finally ceded to gravity and collapsed with a sharp snap.

The first pillar was a bright, fiery red raging from a jubilant Klause. His wings were ablaze with fire, like the wings of a phoenix. Lobrin was the cause of the second pillar. His mana was also red, a deeper, darker, and somehow angrier red. As she scrutinized his mana’s color, a brief flash of anger rose in Ellulia’s chest before it was suppressed by her bloodline. Lobrin had the quintessential mana wings of a Demigod, with a wingspan of one meter. His most noticeable change was in his eyes, they were the crazed eyes of someone entirely consumed by their hatred, as if he was staring down his family’s murderer. The final pillar of light was a primary blue beaming from the outlandish mage. Celeste gained mana wings with a two meter wingspan, and her mana gained an intangible quality of tangibleness. The only one who refrained from showing off was Master Camble. The painfully human Master Camble looked bland juxtaposed with the other seraphim.

“Will you not be participating, Camble?” asked Klause.

Master Camble leisurely sat on a sturdy piece of rubble before answering, “I’m not needed, you three are enough to handle her.” The other seraphim nodded in response. Master Camble was the strongest of the seraphim, as well as the unofficial leader, meaning the others usually gave him free reign to do as he wished in these situations.

Ellulia stood motionless, unnaturally so, as if she actually stood absolutely still. The onlooking Demigods suppressed shudders up their spines when they took in this oddly unnerving scene.

“What? Not going to try and run?” taunted Celeste.

“You set up a barrier around the Trade District before you arrived,” Ellulia answered lamely.

Celeste smiled superciliously, “Ah, you’re perceptive, perhaps you’ll stay alive longer than I thought.”

When she realized she wouldn’t gain an advantage through discourse, Celeste raised her wand and blue runes formed in the air. Ellulia dashed forward to interrupt her spell, but was met halfway by Klause and Lobrin. Lobrin’s arm regained its functionality; he wielded an executioner’s blade that sang when swung. Klause flew above the ground and started casting his own spells. Their speed and strength increased astronomically, but not so much that I can’t handle it…. Why would anyone use an executioner’s blade? it’s much too big for a regular person to properly wield it, and it announces when the user attacks. It’s only practical use is ceremonial. In her emotionless state, Ellulia was genuinely perplexed as to why someone great enough to be one of the four seraphim would use such an illogical weapon. While ruminating over Lobrin’s weapon choice, Ellulia slipped under his arms and easily spun past him before he could do anything but lift a knee in a failed attempt to block her. Klause stood in her way next, he finished casting his first chain of spells: twin fireballs flew from Klause, one red and the other blue. Ellulia didn’t pay them any credence, instead she jumped through the first fireball unaffected. Klause frowned when he verified that Ellulia was immune to fire, and he switched to his second most practiced element. Ellulia, burst through the second fireball and arrived before Klause, a second too late. The blue flames slowed me down. Lightning buzzed from Klause’s spread fingertips and zapped Ellulia. She fell to the ground, her muscles seizing and locking up, not properly following her directions. Lobrin’s executioner’s blade screamed at Ellulia to move. A spurt of flames scorched Lorbin’s greaves and his sword cracked the stone ground. Ellulia used another spurt of flames to stand, the paralysis already wearing off. She threw her daggers at Klause and ran through the air like she was running up stairs, toward Celeste, who was on the last few symbols of her spell. Klause simply dipped below the daggers with a tuck of his wings and directed his next spell at Ellulia. Suddenly, the handles of Ellulia’s daggers burst in flames and their trajectory changed as Ellulia activated one of their numerous engravings. Klause flickered red as his Mage’s armor stopped the first dagger, and a wince inducing shatter of glass sounded as the second dagger pierced through it. Klause grimaced when the knife sunk into his left shoulder, and the arcane symbols previously buzzing with power flickered before snuffing out.

Ellulia stumbled as her world changed without warning and she surveyed the area to grab her bearings. She found herself in vast wilderness. A moderate amount of trees dotted the grassland, a lake reflected the landscape with a beautiful tint, and behind her was an incline that was a part of a low hill. The Four Seraphim were still in their positions relative to her.

Celeste sucked in a lung full of pristine air and sighed, “Now we can really let loose.” Ellulia made a mad dash for Celeste, the observer in her noting that the air quality did increase drastically, especially considering this was the first time she ever stepped foot out of the Metropolis.

Lobrin and Klause were still shook from the shift and blankly followed the proceedings. Ellulia clenched her fists, they felt empty without her daggers, but she ignored her longing for their familiar handles, or the handle of her actual preferred weapon. She arrived next to Celeste in no time at all and reached out to grab her. All Ellulia needed was a second of contact and she could reduce Celeste to ashes using the ravening flames of Beelzebub.

With no prior warning, shackles spewed from Celeste’s wand and clamped around Ellulia’s neck, wrists, and ankles with a clank. She didn’t use any runes to form those shackles...No wonder she achieved the Arcanist specialization, Celeste Chantell is both a Mage and Warlock. Warlocks have no animus or proficiencies beyond their own imagination’s ease in visualisation. Fortunately, her blood line ensured she would never be bound. The shackles disintegrated like decayed wood, and Ellulia successfully locked her hand around Celeste’s arm, like a venomous snake clamping its jaws down on its prey. Instantly, Celeste exploded in a brilliant blaze that singed the other seraphim watching from the sidelines.

“Celeste!” Lobrin belatedly shouted. Ellulia put her arm out in front of her and activated an engraving on her daggers. The dagger that failed to pierce Klause’s Mage’s Armor shot from the ground into Ellulia’s palm and the dagger stuck in Klause’s shoulder mercilessly ripped through flesh and bone to arrive in her other hand. Then, her arms blurred as her daggers finely diced Celeste into small, repulsive cubes of charred meat, bone, and flesh, all of her fluids instantly evaporating after being exposed to the overwhelming flame. Ellulia stood stationary in mid air, poised for the resistance of the other seraphim, but none came.

Everyone watching felt their stomachs churn and grimaced in disgust. From the sidelines, Master Camble’s face grew darker and darker as the fight continued. It was then that the seraphim finally realized that, despite her plain and somewhat frail appearance, this girl undoubtedly deserves a dragon level threat evaluation. ...This is wrong. My blood line isn’t fighting against a high of emotion, that can only mean Celeste is still alive. Sure enough, the discarded chunks that used to be Celeste’s body disappeared before they could even hit the ground.

“Oh my, that was dangerous,” Celeste derided from over by Lobrin and klaus. Ellulia looked over and saw a perfectly intact Celeste healing Klause’s shoulder. It was a clone the whole time… Father was able to see through her clone, but Lobrin was clueless, so it’s safe to assume I’ll be similarly clueless as to which one is real. That means, I have no chance in killing Celeste, even if she used the most basic clone spell, her real body could be tens of miles away.

Celeste further solidified Ellulia’s conjecture by saying, “I hope you’re not too surprised. It’s painfully obvious that I would never go anywhere near a monster like you without iron clad insurance.” I wish to save killing father until it is absolutely necessary and I’m unable to kill Celeste, leaving Lobrin, the newbie, to be my only prey.

Ellulia descended with a vengeance. Lobrin predictably tried dissuading her from attacking by swinging around his giant sword like a weightless stick. Ellulia danced circles around him and her daggers rhythmically scraped against metal. Ellulia spared glances towards the other seraphim, but none of them reacted fast enough to cause concern, Klause was still injured and Celeste was healing him. Their team work is horrendous. I suppose that only makes sense, it’s not everyday that the seraphim fight together. After all, most threats only require the strength of a one or two of the seraphim to be resolved, and their leader is sitting out for an unknown reason. Either way, it’s better that he isn’t involved. Out of four seraphim, he is clearly the most dangerous. Suddenly, an ear crushing screech of metal came from Lobrin’s armor as it dwindled in multiple pieces. Poor Lobrin’s face was ashen as he watched his previously invincible armor clank uselessly to the ground.

Common knowledge dictates that almost all of the melee ranged classes of fighters lose overwhelmingly to heavily armored classes, however, that fact starts collapsing the further up the chain of power you go. Even if the armor is engraved, thick, and mostly plate mail; enough attacks from Ellulia’s daggers in a few choice locations, and it would be reduced to scrap metal. Of course, it’s practically the opposite of common knowledge that was even in the realm of possibility, but Ellulia has nothing but free time to explore.

Enough time passed that Klause was fully healed, and shot another spell at Ellulia. A giant pillar of ice, more than ten meters tall, fell from the sky like a hammer of judgment. Ellulia enveloped herself in a shower of unbelievably hot flames, melting the ice then swiftly evaporating the liquid before it could touch her. The steam roared in indignance, and the explosion rocketed Ellulia and Lobrin forty meters away. What was that? Did Father add an explosive spell? But how is that possible, I sealed his explosive spell at the beginning of our encounter. Ellulia pushed herself perpendicular to the ground mid roll, uplifting soil as her feet sunk into the ground and absorbed her kinetic energy. Lobrin flipped, rolled, and banged against the ground the full forty meters. Unnoticed by the participants of the showdown, Master Camble stood from his rock and leisurely approached Lobrin’s crash site.

Ellulia had no time to relax with the mages finally starting their offensive. Countless five meter long spikes of ice flew at her from every direction. Ellulia effortlessly snaked through the waves of projectiles, not letting a single spike of ice touch her in fear of exploding again. In the midst of cartwheeling past flanking spikes, Ellulia noted that walls of ice were being erected around her. As long as I attack from a distance, I can melt through those walls. They know that, too. instead they’re planning on me being too busy dealing with something else to have time to do that. The storm of ice spikes abruptly vanished, Ellulia found herself in a giant ice colosseum for one. The ground shook as two three meter tall water golems thudded to the ground. They vaguely resembled a giant plump human, with black holes for eyes and ears, and a black line for a mouth. Their appendages were longer in proportion than a human’s and they had comically small fingers for their size. For Celeste to be able to make two water golems in such a short amount of time using sorcery, she really is formidable. It may also point to her being more comfortable using her Warlock abilities rather than her Mage abilities. The water golems stomped toward her with unnatural speed for something that big. Ellulia hid her daggers with a flourish and faced her open palms toward the golems. Fire spate from her palms and pummeled the golems in a struggle between evaporation and regeneration.

Golems are a unique race of half sentient monsters. While they don’t sound pleasant, monster is just a term for anything nonhuman, and half sentient means only the older or gifted individuals from the specific race have sentience and the ability to learn. In nature, golems are non hostile monsters that are biologically incompatible with humans but don’t refrain from interacting or living in human areas. Golems are also a trademark of higher level magic because their fighting ability, even when not sentient, is relatively high, making a golem using magic is extremely difficult, and the mana cost is humongous. Golems made through magic also have additional augmentations, such as regeneration; however, Celeste used sorcery, not magic. Sorcery is the system Warlocks use to effect the real world. Sorcery uses imagery instead of symbols to cast spells. As a result, there are stark differences in the way the same spell functions. The most important difference in this instance: when a golem is made using sorcery, is saps mana from the user to regenerate and move. while if magic was used, that would be specified in the runes and mana isn’t required for the golem to move or regenerate because some of the mana cost for the spell would be used specifically for that purpose.

Ellulia continued evaporating the golems as fast as they could regenerate and wearily awaited their next move. Suddenly, Ellulia’s eyes went wide and her whole body spasmed as something shifted deep inside her. So this was their plan. Ellulia peaked inside her spiritual body and saw that the ever sturdy chains holding Beelzebub had loosened. Ellulia completely overlooked the fact that abusing Beelzebub’s power meant that the seal would weaken.

Celeste and Klause grimly observed Ellulia from the sky. Celeste sighed heavily with a look of regret.

“I agree,” Klause said out of nowhere.

Celeste seemed to guess what he meant and responded, “If only she used her talent for good, she could even beat Camble for the youngest seraphim in history.”

Klause was slightly taken aback and asked, “Do you really think so? She already proved she’s stronger than Lobrin, but do you really think they would accept someone so young? Especially considering that Abyssal Lord inside of her is practically a disaster waiting to happen.” Celeste ridiculed Klause with her fierce glare.

“That girl is a genius. Haven’t you heard of the saying, common sense doesn’t apply to geniuses? Do you want to know who first used that phrase? It was your father, king Elmore. He said that when he faced opposition for his decision to make Camble a seraphim at twenty three years old,” Celeste explained.

“I see,” Klause mumbled. “You made those golems through sorcery, correct? If so, why are they not more of a drain?” he changed the subject.

“Ah, well I just made it seem that way. In reality, my real body made them using magic.” Klause opened his mouth to say something else, but Celeste interrupted him, “I already know what you will say, and I think you’re still underestimating her. In her eyes shines an understanding of everything she sees, and our plan wouldn’t work if she didn’t think she could exhaust my mana pool by repeatedly destroying the golems.”

Klause looked at her funny and said, “… If it’s not too much to ask, how old are you?”

“ According to the church’s calendar, I am three hundred sixteen years old,” Celeste answered after doing some mental calculations.

“My gods, I’m only 58! I thought death was already lurking in my shadow,” Klause exclaimed.

Celeste had a complicated expression as she said, “Some would say death is fickle, others would say everything is fair in death. I would say: death is impossible for any human to ever understand, so why try? And, in the end, it never turns out well for those that do.”

Klause hesitated before asking, “...Are you referring to Kangan?” Celeste gave a small nod before they sunk into silence.

Ellulia staggered away from the golems, trying and failing to split her attention between them and Beelzebub. With her bloodline working overtime using the little amount of power Ellulia allowed it to keep Beelzebub sealed, panic started worming its way into her chest. Crap! If he gets out, I’ll have to do what I did eight years ago. Can I even seal the memories of Demigods? Ellulia grit her teeth and forced herself to stop. The golems caught up faster than she expected and the first one slammed their stub of a hand into her side. A pained cry ripped from her throat as she slammed against the colosseum like a rag doll. The ice shattered in a small area around the point of impact and she ended up buried in chunks of ice. How the hell did I handle moving at those speeds? I didn’t even see that golem attack me! As she struggled to lift herself from under the ice, she heard a terrifying clang. Ellulia visited her spiritual body and shuddered in fear, one of the twelve chains that restrained Beelzebub for eight years fell lifelessly to the pitch black ground of her inner world. There’s still eleven more chains, that should be enough, right? Despite making a sound observation, she still felt horrified to her core.

“Finally…” a hoarse voice boomed in her spiritual body. Ellulia jumped in fright. Eliot… lend me your strength! Ellulia yanked the reins of her bloodline and took back control before steeling her resolve and attempting to replace the lost chain.

“Wait! PLEASE!” the hoarse voice carried a shocking desperation that stopped Ellulia in her tracks.

“W-what?” Ellulia squeaked. Beelzebub’s sigh of relief sounded like it would shred the throat of any physical creature that attempted to copy it.

“I, Beelzebub, an Abyssal Lord, am pleading with you...t-to show mercy.” From the amount of pain in his voice, it sounded like Beelzebub just said the most humiliating thing in the world.

“If I show mercy, you’ll attempt to take over my body, or simply escape and kill me when you regain your strength,” Ellulia said as she narrowed her eyes menacingly, gaining confidence from Beelzebub’s unexpected reaction.

Beelzebub suddenly cried out, “The golems, they’ve reached your position!” Ellulia slammed her consciousness back into her physical body to see a watery death sentence descending on her head. Ellulia scrunched into the fetal position and put her arms above her head in a pitiful attempt to shield herself from the blow. Steam hissed as she exploded in flames, evaporating the water golem, but somehow not affecting the ice near her. W-What? How did they… I didn’t call those flames. I called those flames. Ellulia jolted in surprise and looked around for who said those words. Don’t you know it’s extremely rude to ignore something you were just talking to? Beelzebub? You can hear my thoughts? Of course, I am chained just out of reach of your soul. What does that have to do with it? That doesn’t matter right now, just know that I am completely incapable of breaking out or taking control of your body. The only thing that wretched twelfth chain did was prevent me from communicating and make it feel like I was constantly choking, despite not having a physical body or needing air, FOR EIGHT YEARS! Ellulia had to admit that sounded like the abyss, but played the ignorance card. I’m well aware that you are ignorant to many things. You waste away in that prison you call a castle every single day, you never try to understand your many blessings of fate, you let your urges transform you into a serial killer, and I don’t even need to mention Eliot. E-Eliot? Yes Eliot! You run away every damn time he approaches you! Every single time you so much as think of him, your heart is so fucking loud that I wish I had ear canals to plug, and of course you disregard everything else I said and focus on Eliot, your filthy human attraction towards him controls your every action! When you should be focusing on how not to die right now! It was then that her bloodline finally chose to work again. Because you suffered for eight years, I’ll let that tantrum pass, but remember who is in control. Beelzebub grumbled cantankerously, but unwillingly agreed not to be too rude. Now, tell me where Celeste’s main body is. Beelzebub is a life form of pure mana, things like mana manipulation are simply instinct, so it goes without saying that he would be able to sense Celeste’s mana signature and discover the location of her real body. It’s only seventy meters west.

“Something is wrong!” Celeste warned Klause. Watching from high in the sky, they sensed something change in Ellulia. After a few seconds, Klause realized what it was.

“Her flames! She suddenly has complete mastery over them.” In the Colosseum, Ellulia completely dispatched a golem through evaporation, which was only possible if she evaporated every single atom of the golem before it could regenerate. With an expressionless glance from Ellulia, the other golem burst into flames and failed to regenerate, as well.

“This is getting out of hande, go tell Camble we need help,” Celeste called as she flew down to face Ellulia.

After melting through the golems and the colosseum, Beelzebub explained what a gas explosion was and told Ellulia: when she was using it, the flames were always at full blast because she failed to control the temperature. While she didn’t fully understand the theory behind it, she knew how it applied in practicality.

Ellulia ran through the air at full speed towards Celeste’s real body. Behind her, Celeste’s clone struggled to keep up and fell further behind. The Four Seraphim of the Crucible Empire… propaganda calls them the strongest in the world. In reality, they're not much. They don’t work as a team at all, and leave much to be desired in skills. Suddenly, Beelzebub let out a hearty laugh, as if what she just said was the most humorous thing he had heard in the last eight years. This is why the other races look down on humans: they never see the bigger picture. Even now, when you’re completely impartial, you still can’t see objectively. Though they have lost strength over the years, and frankly they’re pitiful compared to the originals, it isn’t that the seraphim are weak, you are just outrageously talented. Tell me, how are you so worldly? You’ve been trapped for the last eight years, and before then you lived in the Abyss. Is it not obvious? I used to be a human. In fact, I was the court mage of the Crucible Empire during the reign of Roland III. I see, you’ll have to tell me more later. How do you plan on dealing with the failsafes Celeste set up? Ellulia mulled it over for a moment. I don’t need to, I only have to seal her courage and back her into a corner.

Ellulia arrived at a seemingly normal, uninteresting, and random area. She was in a wide valley between two hills, her eyes locked on an empty piece of land. Ellulia flicked her dagger at the empty space, hitting and revealing a blue, transparent forcefield. Defensive spells that were prepared in advance activated, uplifting the land and encasing Ellulia in a box of earth, quickly closing in to crush her. Ellulia kicked with moderate force, and debris peppered the ground as she stepped out of the giant hole she ruptured in the side of the cube. Ellulia dashed forward and reduced Celeste’s force fields to discarded pieces, resembling shattered glass. When she was only two meters from Celeste, Ellulia abruptly halted. Celeste stopped the use of her spell, a water prison that would only work in close proximity to the target. Ellulia bore into Celeste’s unsteady eyes and she sprouted an insidious, bone chilling smile. Next, she started quietly giggling sinisterly. Celeste’s breathing shifted to laborious and she frantically surveyed her surroundings when she heard the laughing from all directions.

“You made one vital mistake…” Ellulia’s ghastly voice felt like it licked the back of Celeste’s neck and sent shudders down her spine. “You exposed your crippling fear of me…” Celeste was long past hyperventilating as she visibly shook and instinctively shrunk smaller and smaller. Ellulia cackled with delight before finishing with, “But it’s only natural… After all, all humans fear death.” A dagger glinted in the light as it mercilessly flew through the air and aimed for celeste’s neck; a dreadful scream echoed throughout the valley.

Ellulia jolted in surprise. She was in the middle of beheading Celeste, how did she end up dug into the side of a mountain? She checked her body and grew more confused. She had several broken ribs and her right arm’s bones were shattered. Beelzebub… did you see what happened? You’re finally conscious! Hurry, he’s coming! Wh-what are you saying? Ellulia heaved herself from the pile of rocks and saw who Beelzebub was so afraid of.

Ellulia’s heart skipped a beat and she failed to stifle a gasp, her bloodline completely incapable of suppressing the extreme amount of awe she was experiencing.

“It’s beautiful…!” she muttered without thinking.

Master Camble cradled the shaking Celeste in his arms and whispered comfort. When she calmed down, Master Camble gently deposited her in Klause’s arms and laid disdainful eyes on Ellulia.

Despite dripping with hatred and killing intent, Master Camble’s eyes shone with unspeakable beauty. They were the indescribable color of the gods: Equilibrium. Sprouting from his back were a pair of gallant wings that somehow didn’t shadow its surroundings despite shining with intense radiance. Master Camble’s mana wings were a pure Equilibrium that can’t be described as any color or shape and spanned more than three meters. The only discernible quality that the human mind could comprehend is the absolute balance that lorded over everything with its soft breath and iron fist. Hence, the most common names being the color of the gods and Equilibrium.

Regardless of Beelzebub’s fervorous attempts to snap Ellulia out of her trance, he was silent compared to Equilibrium’s symphony. What ultimately restored her senses was the sound of her blood splattering. She looked down to see no pool of blood on the ground. Ellulia scrutinised the whole process and came to a realization. Blood slid down her arm and dripped from her finger tip to splatter on the ground, but it would disintegrate the second it made contact. It was being disintegrated Master Camble’s Equilibrium. They’re… clashing. My bloodline suppresses everything and anything, from the air under my feet to my emotions. Equilibrium is the absolute balance, my bloodline is a blemish it must erase to restore order. Activate your bloodline at full power! One of Beelzebub’s desperate cries managed to make it through. What did you say? Don’t you see? It’s the only way. What if I lose control? You controlled it fine eight years ago! Besides, it might be the only option left for us now. That man has somehow managed to understand a part of the universal law of Equilibrium, the only way he could manage that is if he’s a genius among geniuses. But he doesn’t fully grasp the power he’s playing with, his control is even worse than yours. Ellulia was overshadowed by hebetude and her body sunk closer to the ground with each passing second. It’s useless, I can’t compare to something like that, especially considering my arm. Are you still ignorant to your own power?! Haven’t you noticed? Your arm has already begun its repair. Ellulia double checked and found that she could successfully lift her arm. I’ve witnessed your growth over the last eight years, I know you’re capable. Ellulia clenched her fists and felt the power behind them, but was still light headed. Think about Eliot! If you give up and die here, you’ll never be able to see him again. Like the final push over the edge, Ellulia’s cloudy thoughts cleared and the sun shone with radiance. Pulling from an infinit source of strength, Ellulia stood and faced Master Camble.

"You're right, I can't die now. I swear to the gods, I won't die until I've courted Eliot," she promised under her breath.