Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 287: Confrontation

“I… I can’t believe you’ve truly made it this far…”

Countess Veylin’s voice.

It came from deeper in the lair.

And it was quivering.

But then, she found strength somehow, stabilizing herself. Her shock turned to begrudging acceptance, then simply wrath, filled with the desire to end their lives.

“You’ve destroyed… innumerable years of work!” she hissed. Her voice started swelling with overwhelming fury; the venom in it was palpable. “Do you have any idea how long I spent creating those adorable children you butchered? Each one, a masterpiece of fang and silk… each one, perfect.”

A pause came. And then, when she spoke again, a note of hunger slid into her tone. She started purring darkly.

“I do hope you won’t mind if I make good use of the corpses you leave behind. They’ll serve as such comfortable homes for my young. My little ones will eat your flesh from within… and when the time comes, they’ll burst free from your rotting husks to greet the world and serve me.”

Diaz’s eyes narrowed. Without a word, he tapped the hilt of his dagger against his leg, a subtle signal. Then he slipped away from the group, letting the shadows swallow him as his rogue spell blurred his outline into nothingness.

Kaiden’s gaze moved to Jack and Leon. They both gave short, grim nods. The unspoken agreement was clear: push in while keeping the backliners safe.

The three men did just that, pushing forward through the throbbing corridor. They pushed through one last fleshy archway and entered… a different world.

No dangling egg sacs. No writhing silhouettes of unborn monsters.

Instead, the chamber spread wide, lit by a cold light.

And at the center, a throne which was massive, elegant, and hideous all at once stood, woven entirely from bones lacquered in spider silk.

Upon it sat Countess Veylin.

She was no longer the towering, grotesque monster they’d glimpsed before. Her monstrous bulk had condensed into a tall, willowy, humanoid form. The form they saw first, before she transformed.

One long leg crossed over the other with graceful poise. Her back reclined against the throne, her head tilted a bit to the side, as though their intrusion was little more than a mildly irritating formality.

Confident. Composed.

A predator who already knew where her prey would die.

Diaz was the first to move.

From the shadows above, he descended in silence with twin daggers glinting in the cold light, both aimed for the Countess’s throat.

At the same time, Sasha loosedt an arrow. Luna’s body crackled with lightning as she lunged, sword wreathed in white-blue arcs.

Nyx’s pointer finger made a small circle, sending her blades whistling through the air with invisible force.

They never reached her.

From the darkness beside the throne, it slid into view… The Heart.

Tendrils, thick and glistening, whipped out in a blur, catching steel, deflecting arrows, halting every strike mid-flight as if swatting away gnats.

The Countess’s lips curved into a slow, self-satisfied smile.

“Oh… how priceless!” she breathed as her eyes danced over their collective shock.

Kaiden’s jaw tensed.

Sasha’s eyes bulged almost out of their sockets.

Luna’s lightning faltered for a fraction of a second.

Nyx’s mouth pressed into a thin line.

Even Diaz, suspended mid-drop by an unyielding tendril, released a shocked gasp.

The massive shadow loomed over the throne. Its shape was only half-visible yet unmistakably monstrous. A proper creature of horror. A living nightmare.

Those were the best terms to describe whatever this entity was.

“How do you like my beloved child?” the Countess asked with a sweet, velvety voice.

Aria’s eyes went wide. “Wait! Is this the parasite from your story?! The one you were supposed to give one drop of blood to every day?!”

The Countess’s previous small, amused smile shattered as she began laughing, becoming wild and ecstatic.

“Oh yes… I might have done ‘a bit’ more than a drop a day, but as you can see, it was the correct choice. My baby grew into such a strong young man! Why, with only one drop, he would’ve starved…”

Her gaze softened as her hand caressed the slick, pulsing flesh of the Heart.

“… and I simply couldn’t let that happen.”

Bastet stepped forward with golden light already blooming from her palms.

A swirling corona of heat roared to life as her Solar Burst coalesced into a focused beam that shot across the chamber. It struck the Heart square in the body, releasing the scent of seared flesh that flooded the air. The grotesque surface sizzled under the solar energy of the Ra-Blessed Felinid.

Her feline gaze traveled upward over the towering bulk of the creature. “This is it? A living mound of meat? No armor, no chitin… not even a layer of scales. You expect me to believe something this naked is supposed to be difficult to kill? I’d say it more so feels like a giant target practice dummy.”

The Countess’s smug smile trembled at the corner for a simple second, but she didn’t speak. The Heart answered for her.

The blackened wound Bastet had carved closed instantly. The pale tissue knit itself together with obscene speed, sealing without even a scar. A deep, reverberating *thoomp!* rolled out from its core, and a massive tendril lashed toward her with a whip-crack.

Bastet’s smirk faltered.

“Or not…” she muttered, just before bracing herself.

A second solar assault flared into being from her hands, meeting the tendril’s impact in a burst of sparks and molten steam. Still, the sheer force of the blow pushed her back enough to make her fly a good few steps and land painfully on her side.

Vaelira didn’t bother hiding her irritation. If anything, it radiated from her in waves. The usual cold, calculating glint in her eyes was gone, replaced with the sharp, primal determination of a woman whose patience had been obliterated.

“Alright,” she said, snapping her fingers, “I’ve officially had enough of this dungeon. The ex-monster showed us that her ex-colleague can be damaged. Let’s just overwhelm it with so much damage it can’t heal.”

Instead of the measured, surgical summoning she was known for, where she was even willing to let her allies suffer crippling wounds just so she could be placed in a more favorable position, Vaelira went all in from the get-go.