NOVEL NEXT Chapter 216: Execution
Veanya starts explaining the plan and while I’m open to her ideas, by the second I can see my girlfriend’s face contort more and more.
“Are you sure that this is the only way? I have to say I’m not a fan of that plan at all.” She finally comments once Veanya rounds up her plan. “Can’t you just do the same and channel into my bow instead?”
“No, your bow isn’t sufficiently attuned to holy magic like Amicia’s sword is.”
“And what about Sidolphus and his hammer then?”
“He needs to keep the devil distracted for the plan to work. Besides, Amicia’s sword is already stuck in the core. Having Amicia distract him instead of Sidolphus could maybe work but without a weapon she would be left at a disadvantage and taking it out prematurely won’t work either.”
“Hmmm. And what abou-”
“Sam.” I put my hand on my girlfriend's shoulder, shaking my head just a little while I look into her eyes. “It’s fine. I think this can work.”
“But, Ami…” She looks down at my blood soaked plate armor.
“It’s fine. You are here now, you, Sid and Gamma can occupy him while we go in for the kill, right?”
“Hmmm.”
“I promise I’ll throw myself in front of Amicia if need be, Sam. I’ll cushion the blows.” Veanya steps in and puts a hand on my right shoulder where my shoulder plate has been replaced by my mana. “But in the best case scenario this thing will be over faster than the conversation we just had.”
Sam puffs her cheeks. “Alright. I’ll take you at your word then.”
“Thank you for your confidence, Sam.” Veanya gives my girlfriend a polite nod.
Although Sam smiles back, she does remove Veanya’s hand from my shoulder in one swift move, after which she embraces me in her arms. “Go and kill that thing fast so we can go back to holding hands and cuddling, okay?”
“Priorities?” I laugh.
“Only the highest priorities one can have with a cute girlfriend like you.” She chuckles and gives me a kiss on the cheek, staring into my eyes afterwards.
“Ah, yeah… that’s fair.” I blush and then give her a kiss of my own, this time on her lips of course.
When we distance ourselves from one another, Veanya looks at me with a gentle smile. “Are you ready to do this?”
I nod. “I am, let’s go.” Before we continue I roll my right shoulder and neck loose, the pain from before is now completely and truly gone. After which I spread my wings wide.
Veanya on her turn walks up behind me and wraps herself around me, holding on tight while giving me as much freedom of movement as is possible with her clinging to my back. I can still move my wings rather freely but it will be quite a bit harder to make precise manoeuvres mid-air like this. It’s all up to Gamma, Sid and Sam to make sure we won’t need to.
“You are sure we don’t need to relay any part of this plan to Sid, right?” I ask.
“He’ll roll with whatever happens.”
“Okay then.” I look over to Sam one final time.
She gives me a blow kiss and then turns around, starting to pepper the purple devil with her skills.
With a powerful flap of my unbroken wings I shoot the two of us straight up into the sky, well above the tree cover and out of sight of the purple devil.
“Okay, I’m going to start building up the charge now.” Veanya says as I already feel her mana flow into me from her arms hanging around me. While she does so it leaves us hanging up in the air in relative peace and quiet. It gives me a moment to look at where our defensive lines were, and from the looks of it, there is no combat there anymore for the time being.
My train of thought is interrupted by a sudden pang of burning pain near my left collarbone. I can just notice a stray lightning bolt shooting from one piece of my armor to the next.
“This is way more elemental mana then your body is used to. Try not to move too much before we dive down. Otherwise it will get quite painful.”
I decide not to nod just in case a bolt of lightning connects my chin to the rest of my breast plate. But the more mana Veanya pumps into me, the stranger and more painful my body starts to feel. Ice cold to scorching heat to pieces of my body that feel like they are getting petrified. It’s clear that the elements are starting to go rampant inside of me.
“Amicia, dive, dive now.” Veanya says as she keeps channeling her magic into me.
She doesn’t need to tell me twice as I let myself drop and then give myself a boost of speed with another flap of my wings. According to plan, this is also the time where I start building up my own mana into my arms, preparing myself for the biggest slice I’ve ever managed to perform so far. The moment I fly through the tree cover I establish visual contact with the purple devil who is still fighting Sidolphus in the distance, and more particularly on its exposed core which holds my embedded blade.
The elements continue to rage in my body, becoming more consistently painful by the moment. My body is reaching the upper limit of what it's able to hold. The addition of my own magic is not helping either, but I manage to connect the hit, it’s going to be devastating.
With tremendous speed I fly past the trees, straight towards our target. Luckily with a straight shot towards it.
But just a couple of seconds before we reach the devil, disaster strikes as the devil sees our approach. Because of Sid’s relentless attacks, it can’t really focus its attention on us completely, but it has just enough leeway to duck behind a massive tree, interrupting my path towards it. Going around is not an option, not with this ticking time bomb inside of me.
“Keep going!” Sam shouts almost simultaneously as the purple devil’s manoeuver, just as I was planning on aborting the mission and unleashing the elements and going back for a plan B.
An arrow of light hits the side of the tree, exploding soon after, leaving a chunk of tree missing right in my fly path, leaving only splinters in its wake.
I zoom through just as the tree starts to topple but that matters not for Veanya and I as our goal is within reach now, as the unfazed devil stares us both straight in the eyes. But it has no response to our actions.
It doesn’t even move when I raise my hands above my head, make my sword reappear in them, and seal the devil’s fate with one last, powerful downward swing of my sword. In the fraction of a moment I can feel the built up energy inside of my body leave through my arms and into my blade as my entire vision goes white as I make contact with the purple core.
The only thing that follows is numbness in my limbs while my vision stays the purest of whites.
Next thing I know I’m staring up at the blue yet smokey sky above and my girlfriend looking down on me with a smile. Embers swirling past her face.
“Did we… do it?” I want to try to get up but Sam holds me down. That’s when I realize I’m laying with my head on her lap.
“You did. But try to take it easy. It took quite a lot out of you.”
“Did the devil get me at the last moment?”
“He didn’t.” Sam shakes her head. “You just got hit by the force of the explosion you caused. It knocked you out cold.”
“And it created a huuuuuge crater.” Gamma appears in my field of view with the biggest grin ever. “The explosion was so beautiful to witness. With all the elements going off it was such a colorful spectacle.”
“I bet you are sorry you didn’t capture it.” Sam chuckles.
“Oh, don’t you worry, I did. This button is actually also a camera, you see.” Her huge grin grows even wider. “I’ll show the footage to you later.” That message is directed at me.
I set that new information aside for a moment. “How is Veanya doing? She also got hit, right?”
“She is fine.” I hear Sidolphus’s voice, making me turn my head towards him. “But she will take a bit longer to recover. Her self-healing is not as strong as yours.” Veanya is just laying down on the forest floor but it looks like Sid provided a pillow for her with his bedroll.
“I can help with that.” I want to raise my arm before I notice that all the strength has left me.
“Your mana is practically gone too.” Sam says while she caringly runs her thumb over my cheek. “It’s best to just give yourself a moment, truly.”
I give her a slow nod. “I take it the battle is over then.”
“Yes.” Sidolphus replies. “We have won, for now at least.”