4.21: Bringing a gun to a sword fight

I was beginning to think that it was a stupid idea for me to approach the gate building at the base of the mountains in my human form, and as a squadron of gold plated angels marched towards me with weapons drawn, I did my best to swallow the lump of fear in my throat.

“Halt, human. Your kind shouldn’t be outside of the cities. How did you manage to make it this far without an escort of any kind?”

I looked up at the stern face of a male angel as he studied me intently. One of the others whispered something to the one speaking, and after listening for a moment and looking at something I couldn’t see, he turned back towards me with an angry scowl on his face.

“Squadron! Advance! Spread out and surround her!”

I knew that not being recognized was a long shot, but I hadn’t been counting on actually making it through like this. As I lifted my hands and pointed a pair of finger guns at the nearest angel, he gave me a look of confusion.

“I totally saw this in a movie… and I absolutely had to try it. You all should really back up. I’m holding a really deadly weapon in each of my hands.”

None of them heeded my words, and I took careful ‘aim’ at the closest one and mimed the action of shooting him. Right on cue, the upper part of his torso just simply… ceased to exist. One second it was there, the next he was bursting like an overripe melon. The other angels jumped back from me in surprise, but I merely mimed shooting another, with equally devastating results. The rest of the squadron seemed to get the hint, and I laughed heartily as they all dove for cover. I pointed at an angel crouched behind a metal barricade, and I watched with gleeful satisfaction as the magical bullet easily pierced the barrier, and his head popped like a fucking pimple. I had to take cover myself, as several of the nearby angels had drawn ranged weapons, and were now taking aim at my currently very vulnerable human form. I mentally prepared myself for the physical and emotional overload as I shifted back into my demon form.

Even after practicing shifting back and forth with several of the others to get used to the sudden onslaught of the changes that came with my demon body, it was still one of the most unnerving experiences to go through. All of my emotions suddenly felt suddenly heightened, and the hilarity of the way Areandra had dispatched the angels in coordination with my dramatic play-acting suddenly had me fight against a full-on belly chuckle. All my senses dialed up to eleven, and the onslaught of things I could suddenly, hear, see, smell, and even taste hit me all at once. The heightened emotions were one thing, but being completely bombarded by every sense at the same time was still the hardest part of shifting back to my full demon form.

I knew I was on a time crunch as I shifted from where I had been crouching and stood up. Looks of shocked recognition were obvious on all the angels’ faces, and I drank in their fear and uncertainty like an exquisite wine.

I heard a wet popping sound and saw the headless corpse of one of the angels hit the ground, her choice to poke her head out from her cover to shoot at me proving to be a fatal mistake.

“[Summon Arcane Heavy Armor]!”

As my arcane armor appeared on my body and settled into place on my underarmor padding, I drew the sword Kyra had reforged for me. It wasn't the finished product she planned to make for me, but Kyra had taken the weapon Judas had forged and turned it into a truly formidable weapon. She did so in a way to mostly keep the intended design and enchantments intact, while drastically improving the weight, damage, and balance. If her simple yet incredibly effective update to my weapon was any indication of her true skill, I was extremely excited to see what she would do with a brand new weapon completely of her own design.

I held up my free hand to channel my MP into an overcharged [Blastburn], but I was suddenly distracted by a New Skill notification at the edge of my vision, along with an unexpected surge of energy. My entire body tingled and I got another notification that my Blood Tithe meter had just filled. What the fuck was happening?

The scream of pain as an archangel's arm was severed at the elbow drew my attention back to what was happening in front of me. I aimed my spell that I had charged up a bit longer than I had anticipated, and let the intense arcane energy blast out of my open palm all at once. The beam started small, but rapidly widened as it lanced up and struck the building in front of me. The sound from the resulting explosion was so loud I could feel it as a physical force. Smoke, fire, and sparks of electricity filled the air, but instead of waiting for my visibility to improve, I walked forward with hesitation.

The skin on my hand was burned practically to the muscle, but I paid it no mind as I simply fed my regeneration some extra MP and let it do its thing. I took a single step backwards as I felt a sudden surge of arcane magic immediately to my left, and heard the distinctive sound of armored boots on stone. A shining spear made of radiant violet energy struck the spot where my head had been a second prior, and I reached forward with my free hand and wrapped my claws around the wrist of the female archangel holding the glowing weapon.

I gave the arm a single strong tug towards me, and I found myself staring a rather beautiful angel woman in the face as she was pulled against my body. The soft slkt as she impaled herself on my blade was followed by a low whimpering groan. She was a head taller than I was, and she rested her forehead against mine and leaned further into me as the tip of my sword erupted out of her back. The archangel coughed and sputtered out a mouthful of blood as she stared in complete awe of me.

“S-so… beauti…ful…”

I spoke without thinking, something within me seemed to compel me to do so.

“What's your name?”

“R-Reone. You're… Alle… Allexus.”

“Reone, if I don't do something, you're going to die. Do you want that?”

She looked confused for a moment, but after coughing up more blood she slowly shook her head.

“N-no. I want…to… live…”

I knew that carrying on a conversation was something I really couldn't afford to do, but it was as if in that moment nothing else mattered.

“What are you willing to sacrifice to live, Reone?”

This time when she spoke it was without any hesitation in her voice.

“Any…thing...”

Several things happened at once. (I love saying that)

I wrapped my arm around Reone's back and held onto her tightly as I turned her slightly away from me. With her no longer pinned against my body, I withdrew my sword as quickly and cleanly as I could. Slightly shimmery blood gushed out from the hole in her chest, and I quickly turned her back towards me as I let my sword fall to the ground.

“[Blood of the Corrupted One]!”

I felt the intense burning fill my veins as a whopping 50% of my massive HP total burned away to fuel a mysteriously overcharged blood magic healing spell. Instead of channeling the effects into either of my hands, however, I looked up at the gorgeous dying archangel, bit my lower lip with my fangs hard enough to draw blood, and pressed my lips to hers. Her eyes went momentarily wide as my healing spell began to take effect and she tasted the tang of my blood, but as I gently pushed my tongue into her mouth, she let out the tiniest moan and began to kiss me back eagerly.

As Rhione pushed her tongue into my mouth, I felt a shift of power within my body. The archangel let out a confused whimper as whatever was happening within me was also affecting her, but both of us were too lost in the other to pay it any attention. The sound of what I assumed was a male angel's shouting as he drew closer to me was abruptly cut off, and I felt a splash of wet innards paint our right sides. This seemed to break us out of our impromptu make-out session, and I reluctantly started to pull away. Before I could unseal myself from the gorgeous archangel’s lips, Rhione's hands slid up my back, and gently grabbed the back of my head. Instead of kissing her back, however, I closed my eyes and turned my focus inward towards the power that I felt welling up inside of me.

Rhione’s body stiffened in my arms as I felt the swirling energy shift like it was reaching out to her. The archangel’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she suddenly went completely limp. With only the slightest bit of exertion I caught the taller woman and slung her unconscious form over my shoulder. I turned right in time to see an angel mage who was casting a spell scream in agony as his left arm and a large portion of his torso exploded in a shower of gore. I bent down, retrieved my sword, and channeled a small amount of MP into [Corrupting Fire]. The handle and blade instantly ignited into bright crimson flames, cleaning it in an instant. I sheathed the sword and scanned my surroundings.

Areandra had done an amazingly effective job at decimating the not insignificant number of angels that had been guarding this side of the gate building; and from the state of the various corpses, she had been experimenting with different types of magical ammunition. As I stepped over half-charred or half-frozen bodies, I also looked around for any hidden enemies. When I saw that the coast was clear, I turned around and looked up at the nearby mountains where my newest lover was sniping from. I opened my Minion Menu and selected Areandra. I waved my hand and focused my thoughts on my Nephilim girlfriend. A black swirling energy appeared in front of me and quickly coalesced into the shape of Areandra. I opened my mouth to say something as she fully materialized, but when I saw the look of panic I narrowed my eyes and gave her an inquisitive stare. Before I even had a chance to ask what was happening, dozens of lances made of white energy… no… white fire struck the spot where Areandra had just been hiding. I looked up to see hundreds of archangels flying at top speed towards us. The one leading them was wreathed in a plume of white fire that trailed behind her like a comet. I couldn’t see her from this distance, but I could easily imagine Adelaine’s sneering face as she drew closer.

When I heard a faint melodic humming coming from the archangel slung over my shoulder, I looked back at her curiously. As the humming got louder, I felt a swell of arcane power building up around her. Despite the fact she was obviously casting some kind of spell and there was a very real possibility that she could be attacking me, I knew that she was helping me. And suddenly I felt… lighter. The air felt easier to breathe, my muscles felt the smallest bit less fatigued. As a soothing wave of arcane magic washed over me, I adjusted Rhione so I could set her back on her feet. From the way her head lolled slightly to the side as I maneuvered her in my arms, I could tell that she was still pretty out of it, so I turned to look at Areandra. As if summoned by my thoughts, Areandra was already holding her arms out to take hold of the limp archangel. She narrowed her eyes at me slightly before glancing back up at the rapidly-approaching enemies.

“Allie… I don’t know what will happen if I respawn now. The last time I saved my progress was back in the castle. Will I just drop to level 1 in this body or will it reset me to my Fallen Angel form? Not gonna lie… I’m going to be super pissed if I lose this body and my baby.”

I opened my mouth to tell her I didn’t know half the shit my corruption could do, but she cut me off by continuing.

“Well… it doesn’t really matter… we have a clear path into the gate building. I’d much rather take our chances in there than deal with super angel bitch and her legion of sparkly assholes. Just be sure to keep the enemies off of me since I’m going to have my hands full with this unexpected addition to our party.”

Despite the serious tone she spoke in, I could see a slightly amused smirk teasing at the corner of her lips. She adjusted Rhione so she was laying over her shoulder like I had been carrying her, and motioned with her free hand for us to proceed. I took one last look up at the oncoming enemies before turning on my heel and dashing towards the gate building with Areandra right behind me.