MAGUS INFINITE

The tribulation lightning took the shape of massive golden spears, and in the high heavens there was a faint impression of an eye that grew clearer as the third bolt fell, then the fourth, and the fifth.

Heat, shockwaves, sounds, and bright lights exploded across the surface of the ocean for hundreds of miles, and in the distance, I was sure that there were cities where even Arcanists were hiding their heads from the fury of the battle that was ongoing here.

The dragon’s head was now a ruin of cracked bone and blackened scales, its many eyes flickering and dying one by one. The demon’s voice was desperate, thrashing, trying to find a way out of the cage I was building around it with lightning.

”THIS IS NOT THE END, ELRIC! I have been inside you! I know your fear! I know your weakness!”

Every lightning bolt that fell from the sky was consuming a lot of my Anima, but even without the Lightning Arcanist Title aiding my Anima regeneration, the passive regeneration of my Anima was more than enough to handle this cost.

The only thing I had to look out for was the presence of the heavens itself announcing itself here; oddly, I welcomed this because I wondered what sort of changes this would bring.

The sixth bolt fell, and the screams of the demon weakened to a whimper, while I glanced at the sky... it was as I thought: the heavens only judged those that it was capable of judging, and at this point, I had no idea why I kept calling it the heavens, when it could as well be just a construct of the Academy.

The seventh bolt fell, and the dragon’s head shattered with a roar that cut off in the middle, and the pieces fell into the ocean. I watched them sink, as the demon’s presence flickered once, twice, and then it was gone.

No... that cannot be right... This was too easy; I had fought this demon before, when I was far weaker, true, but it had shown extra abilities that it had not shown here.

Suddenly the entire world went black, as what I once thought was Darkness Essence covered me; it turned out to be Darkness Laws covered me. I began to unleash the lightning in my channels when a cold hand covered my entire face, and someone leaned on my back and whispered into my ears, their breath stinking of rot,

”Your body is strong, and your magic is powerful... but I am a Soul Flayer Elric, and we fight our battles in another way... Your soul is mine!”

I gasped as a foreign presence invaded my soul, and I found myself inside the Hollow Room. Looking down at my body, I saw that it was weak and mortal, stripped of the magic that coursed through my channels.

”Crrrkkkk....”

A sound like fingernails drawn across a chalkboard made me turn around as I felt the presence of the demon spread through the hollow room, cold and hungry, reaching for the core of who I was.

I tried reaching for my lightning, and it did not answer. The Hollow Room was not a place where my lightning could reach, and the demon had shoved me into its depths. Without the Hollow Avatar, I had no power here, since I did not understand this darkness.

So, I did the only thing I could, and I began to run while my mind was furiously working in the background... How had the demon broken through my defenses and found its way into my soul?

The Hollow Room stretched in every direction, a vast, dark space that seemed to have no end. At this point, why did I insist on calling this a Hollow Room?

I did not know where I was going, but I knew I could not stay still. The Soul Flayer was behind me, its presence growing closer with every heartbeat.

”Run, little spark,” Sad whispered, and its voice was closer now, almost intimate. ”Run as fast as you can. It only makes the chase sweeter.”

I ran through the darkness, my feet barely touching the ground. I did not think I could outrun the demon, but I needed time, because I think I understood the reason why the Soul Flayer could pierce through my defenses, and that may be due to the Darkness Laws it had surrounded me with.

It must have used it as a vehicle to access the darkness inside the Hollow Room, and dragged my soul with it into this place. However, knowing this, I did not know how to solve this problem unless I was given enough time... time for the resistance of my Adamantium Flesh, coupled with Mortal Shell, to purge this demon away from my body.

However, as I ran, I began to discover that the presence of the demon was not coming closer; instead, it was lessening. Glancing behind me, I saw something peculiar... the darkness of the Hollow was beginning to slowly consume the darkness surrounding the demon.

”WHAT... WHAT IS THIS?!”

I stopped and turned towards the demon, seeing flashes of its real shape as the darkness was being drawn from it. The demon was humanoid, with a dozen tentacles where its jaws should be, while its eyes shone a sickly yellow.

”How can the void be inside your soul... No, this is madness!”

The eyes of the Soul Flayer turned towards me, and I was surrounded by a yellow fog. When it vanished, I saw myself inside a room with eight frozen lightning bolts, and the Soul Flayer appeared not far from me, cloaked in fading darkness.

”Now, let us see where you can... Arrgghhh!!”

Light and immense heat suddenly exploded from the shards of frozen lightning laws, as if the presence of the demon was an affront to them. Bolts of lightning with different colors fell on the demon, burning away the last patches of darkness covering it, while its screams became shrieks so loud that I had to cover my fragile ears.

”How...how... how... How many shards of lightning do you have? This is not possible!”

The Soul Flayer thrashed, its consciousness recoiling from the lightning, its darkness peeling away in layers. It tried to retreat, but the lightning held it, burned it, consumed it.

Then I felt a surge of power, and the Soul Flayer pushed. The explosion of darkness threw me backward, and I felt myself being dragged through the depths of my soul, past the lightning room, and into a forest where the wind blew in rhythm.

I gasped in pain and slowly stood up, just as the battered figure of the Soul Flayer emerged from behind a tree, it looked around for a while and did not see anything except the bright moon shining overhead. It turned its yellow eyes towards me.

”Are you no longer running, little mouse? I do so enjoy our chase, but frankly, I am becoming tired of it; you are truly a meal that is hard to digest.”

I took several steps back and looked at the Soul Flayer with an odd look in my eyes, and its face squeezed in apprehension, ”What is it, little...”

It was at this time that the Soul Flayer realized that the rhythmic wind that was blowing across the forest was not wind... it was breathing.

It slowly turned around and sighed, ”Oh, for the love of all that is infernal....”

”BOOM!”

The massive paw of a fox crushed it flat.