Chapter 90: Arc 5: Chapter 23

Song Ming’s defence would be far weaker than what Bianca could pull off, but considering how well she was able to kick away lightning bolts, Song Ming had a bit of faith in her pet’s success. Instead, she focused on those on the other side, at the doorway of the decrepit structure, a couple of cultists that were clearly preparing some sort of attack upon them.

Bianca only had a few seconds to respond, and concluded it would be best to raise her Abyssal Shield first, and she did this just in time, since a series of crimson lighting bolts shot from their hands and struck the smoky barrier just as she pushed her own hand forth, strengthening the barrier around the spots they targeted. The smoke managed to absorb the lightning, meaning that it was no higher than the second realm (or no lower, given that energy couldn’t be externalised at the first realm).

‘Those aren’t the big threat, so I should handle them quickly then make sure that Song Ming is safe,’ she determined, waiting until the last of the blasts had been dissipated and rushed out, bringing out her weapon and swinging to unleash an arc of her own crimson, cutting through the air and towards her foes.

Her power cut into them and split them all in half, turning the rest of their bodies to dust, immediately making Bianca bite her bottom lip.

“Shit. I think these things aren’t quite human!” Bianca exclaimed, “They’re either illusions or decayed… things!”

“W-Wha? Okay, so… What do we do to defeat them?” she replied, kicking one of the cultists near her and discovering that they, too, melted away so trivially.

“How the fuck would I know… They have to be appearing from somewhere, or being controlled by something, so we need to track that person or thing down and kick their ass!” Bianca exclaimed, though it was far easier said than done, ultimately, “Remain here and I’ll try to look around and see what I can find.”

Song Ming nodded, so Bianca leapt away and rushed out of the front entrance of the building, finding a street that didn’t look too different from the one they had left, although it was blatantly changed in a few respects. For one, the land felt as though it was charred in much the same manner that the skin of the cultists was, and there were patches and cracks of glowing red and orange scattered about, as though the ground was breaking on a metaphysical level.

Whatever it was, there was almost certainly an illusion or a dream over this place, and thus she was a little concerned that she might be injuring innocents if she recklessly swung all over the place. However, it all depended on the type of dream that it was. If it matched the one she had experienced in Yu Juan’s hands, then it would be one that she could break out of, and one that wouldn’t harm anyone else.

However, she was sure that there could be another form of dream, wherein she was still awake and wandering about, doing everything she thought she was doing, and if she happened to swing at someone, it might injure them-

‘Hold on, why the fuck do I think that I know anything about this? I don’t, so… Demon Queen? Mind lending a hand?’ she asked inwardly, though that too felt stupid the moment she tried it.

As everyone had already established, it appeared that the Demon Queen manifestation was part of her, whether the Demonic Tyrant had placed it there or not. Therefore, talking to it should’ve been impossible, and yet…

‘Spiritual perception… Oh fuck, of course!’ she realised almost as soon as she asked the question, making her ponder if she had actually heard a reply.

Nonetheless, she had released her spiritual perception and felt it wade through… something. Whatever it was prevented it from reaching far, but she was able to touch the floor and then spread it out, letting the Demonic Tyrant take care of controlling it to the furthest edges of what her spiritual perception could manage.

From that perspective, the strangeness of the world faded, and she could see things as they truly were, which matched the reality she had witnessed mere minutes ago. There weren’t any bystanders nearby, so it didn’t seem like she had cut anyone that didn’t deserve it, suggesting the phantoms were purely figments of the illusion, which was… good. It was certainly better than finding out she had killed someone entirely by accident, which she really ought to have considered a little more prior to doing it, but still… good.

‘And what do I- right, tell Song Ming,’ Bianca turned around and called out – a little louder than necessary, just in case anything was dampening their overall perception of the reality of their surroundings, “Use your spiritual perception!”

Of course, by doing this, she also gave away to whoever had inflicted this illusion upon them that she had seen through it, but she figured it was better to deal with the true foe rather than merely confronting the phantoms they could create without any difficulty. She couldn’t quite determine whether it was her own thought, or something loaned from the Demon Queen, but either way, it was definitely a good idea.

The illusion didn’t fall away immediately – unfortunately – and instead a dozen more cultists manifested around her, but she could act with confidence now that she understood how to check their true nature. Any bystanders that came along could be safe, but the illusions would not be, an important fact when she considered that the illusions might come at a certain cost to the one creating them.

Perhaps a single illusion was trivial to create, equivalent to Bianca using a little bit of planar energy to help her shave down there, but it was still a certain expense, so it would be better than doing nothing.

Besides, the illusions had a clear ability to inflict harm, as they did damage her shield, so letting the illusions build up would do nothing more than putting her and Song Ming into a more dangerous situation. Then again, if she gave it a second of thought, if they were able to harm her, then they had to have enough energy invested in them to be truly worthless to whoever was creating them, and that meant that taking them on was an even better idea.

‘I can’t really know for sure, but it seems like this place had to be prepared in advance to be able to target us… Did they know we were going to shop for robes, or was the illusion just targeted at the building and we fell for it from the moment we got near? Lucky they decided to target this very spot instead of any other place in the city…’

Her spiritual perception confirmed that those cultists were all fake, so she swung her blade and sliced them apart with her energy in one go, giving her more time to look around and check how Song Ming was doing, and also trying to spot the source of all this madness.

“Bianca, can you figure out if this stuff is… a planar energy-based skill of some kind?” Song Ming suddenly called out, prompting Bianca to look over.

With a glance, she was able to confirm that even without calling down her anchor, she was handling her illusory foes without any trouble, and doing so using Energy Waves, meaning that their physical stability was rather… low.

“Well, it might be, your skill is certainly effective against it… Try kicking the thing!”

“Which thing?”

“The whole thing! Just kick it!”

The Violet Kick was able to compete with the lightning of a tribulation, which Bianca understood to be some rather high tier stuff. Therefore, her logic was that it might have some capability of disrupting the illusion, based on nothing more than her intuition. If it was the Demon Queen offering said intuition, then she was set, and if not…

As the kick struck the air, seemingly without any benefit, the air froze for a moment, and then ripples spread throughout the entire building, reaching the outside before fading. It felt as though it would end there, but after a moment, the air shattered, and the truth revealed itself.

The worn down structure was replaced with a normal building, although an empty one. Every tear in the world was gone, and two groups of people were standing by on either side of the street, kept at bay by guards, gazing at them with various expressions – explaining the lack of bystanders for Bianca to accidentally injure, at least. However, none of this mattered all that much compared to the location of those that had inflicted this upon her and Song Ming.

Even if they tore apart the entire area, somehow, they’d be able to get away with it since Yan Taijun would understand the circumstances and forgive any excess usage of strength. However, if they failed to find and stop the cultists that had targeted them this time, they would be in danger for as long as they lived.

Luckily, with the veil gone, the perpetrators were almost obvious amidst the otherwise ordinary surroundings. They were standing atop the building, looking down at Bianca and, as far as she could tell from such a distance and with the hoods of their robes covering their faces, frowning.

“They’re on the roof!”

She didn’t wait for her pet to react and rushed ahead, jumping up with all the strength she could muster to reach the roof before the cultists could back away.

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They did turn and begin to flee, but as she landed on the brown tiles of the roof, she launched a quick slash filled with hateful crimson light that raced ahead, forcing them to stop and reply. The one in front was the first to react, turning around on the spot while the others ran ahead and turned only a moment later, their reaction time clearly failing to keep up.

Their leader raised both of their charred hands and unleashed some kind of energy – planar energy, as usual, of course – that instantly burst out and wrapped the roof in shadow, numerous phantoms growing from the darkness. Each one stood in a strange fashion and, despite no eyes being visible, seemed to stare at her directly, their very presence threatening her and, somehow, everything she cared for.

‘It’s just like the nightmare world that Yu Juan was plunged into… They’re able to summon this out in the open?’

Her understanding was that they could either force the nightmare onto someone, or create an illusion in place with a bit of preparation and effort. However, since they could also manifest the phantoms just like that, then she either didn’t know enough about them, or this was something the cultists in the lower realms couldn’t pull off. In other words, the one responsible might well be in the third realm, as Bianca was.

As she was pondering this, her energy hit the phantoms and exploded, but she could tell even from afar that the blast was blatantly too far away from the group of cultists to truly harm them. Naturally, she swung again, unwilling to let them get away too quickly, but before she could see the result, Song Ming also arrived at the top of the building.

“Quick, do something to stop them!”

Song Ming acted immediately, unleashing a wave of pure planar energy that curved around and avoided the blast of crimson that Bianca had produced, successfully colliding with something on the other side.

As the explosion of Bianca’s energy cleared, they were able to see what it was that Bianca had hit. Where one of the cultists, presumably the one in the highest realm among them, used to stand, now stood an amalgamation of the cultist and one of the phantoms that had manifested, resulting in a figure that was over two metres tall, with two pairs of arms. One set was mostly human, not standing out too much from the rest of the body – all the typical charring included, of course – but the other was elongated, with numerous spikes protruding from every part of them up to the hands.

That pair of hands was elongated and with sharp, clawed fingers, bent in such a way as to partially cover the palms, where there seemed to be a gaping mouth with numerous fangs and teeth that were obscuring the opening.

Numerous spiky growths covered much of the cultist’s body, and phantom shadows surrounded her even with those direct manifestations, acting almost as a shield.

“Uh… What is that thing?” Song Ming muttered, “At least the others are sticking around…”

Indeed, the cultists that had fled behind this one had stopped a short distance away, technically still in danger of being attacked but sufficiently far enough away to effectively be safe from either Bianca or Song Ming being able to reach them. Of course, both of them could try something to bypass the one in front and get at those in the back, but there was little sense to doing so for the moment.

“That thing is one of the cultists, probably in the third realm, and they seem to have summoned one of those nightmare things into the real world.”

“Is that what you saw inside Yu Juan’s mind? Heavens, those things were terrifying…”

Bianca nodded and then, as she considered the matter for a second, sighed, “I think I’ll have to do the thing again… Promise me you won’t let me do anything stupid, okay, pet?”

“What do you… oh, right. Uhm… I’ll try my best, Mistress,” Song Ming replied, glancing over for only a moment before placing her focus back on the cultists, in the same way that Bianca didn’t let them out of her sight.

While the lead cultist was doing them a favour and standing still for whatever reason, there was no guarantee that all of them would remain quite so passive for long, and a moment of inattention could lead to injury, death or worse, if they happened to be afflicted with whatever it was that Yu Juan had been enduring.

Regardless, Bianca didn’t have much trust in her other side not to get out of control or go too far with her deeds, so she didn’t want to risk anything beyond the barest necessity.

She inhaled, then turned within her mind. Whether she merely imagined it or truly saw something some part of her mental landscape, the sudden shift couldn’t be ignored, whether by her or, judging by the sudden shudder on Song Ming’s part or the narrowing of eyes on the side of the cultists, by others.

 

“Ugh… How the fuck am I still using a kitchen knife? How have I managed to not get myself a sword yet?” Bianca suddenly exclaimed, though her light words hardly matched her aura.

Darkness visibly radiated from her, and on the surface of her knife were countless sparks and arcs of crimson, leaving little of the original metal beneath visible. More importantly, any that she gazed at instantly felt the intense power within, or at least it certainly seemed that way to Song Ming, who nearly melted into a horny puddle the moment she saw that intense gaze once more.

She loved Bianca in her normal state, of course, and loved obeying her every command whether she was confident in giving them out or not. Even the most shy and cautious attempt at speaking with her held a certain charm. However, when the Demon Queen took the reins, Bianca suddenly became so… hot. So sexy and alluring and domineering and utterly captivating… She bit her bottom lip and felt her panties grow wetter by the second.

If she was to be completely honest, she’d prefer to have the Demon Queen at all times, especially considering how often her appearance correlated with her summoning her cock… another thing that tempted her to drool and drop to her knees as she indulged in her fantasies.

However, she couldn’t abandon Bianca to fight on her own just yet. Thanks to her breakthrough, she was, at least in theory, stronger, and their foe had someone at her realm plus ten or eleven cultists at the second realm, so if she just fell to the ground and started masturbating… well, it would be rather hot, in a way, but this wasn’t the time for it, no matter what she – or her body – wanted from her.

Instead, she ignored the wetness building down below and raised her blade.

“Anyway, it is time to kill some assholes… and I don’t think this lot will necessitate the use of my cock, either,” Bianca muttered, glancing to Song Ming for a moment and nearly breaking all of the willpower she had mustered not to fall to her knees, “That sounds odd when I say it out loud, doesn’t it?”

The moment the last word left her mouth, she disappeared from her spot, using Tormentor’s Strides to rush forward in a cloud of darkness and emerge beside the third realm cultist and unleash a rapid slash of crimson, her motion filled with so much strength that she shook the very air and repelled her foes with her might alone.

Of course, while she was quick, her foe was still in the third realm, and seemingly empowered by something from their Terror archetype. Therefore, as Bianca struck out, the cultist responded in kind, an arm lashing out and colliding with the crimson light around her knife.

As the two met, an explosion shook the roof of this poor building, but Bianca endured, and when the cultist amalgamation punched with one of the empty hands, she was ready to respond in kind, though at the last moment Song Ming spotted the smoky Abyssal Shield manifest in front of her hand. It was able to block the strike completely, and then immediately fade as Bianca’s crimson light surged out and hit the spiky fist away.

The other eleven didn’t remain idle while their superiors fought, with some running around to try and strike Bianca while a pair chose to focus upon Song Ming instead, rushing towards her and forcing her to stop ogling Bianca’s sexy ass for a moment.

She summoned a Planar Current to act as a defensive layer around her, both to guard from attacks and to prevent the cultists from recovering planar energy as easily, then channelled her energy to her sword and released her Nebulous Aura. It surrounded the blade, creating a second layer of steel with an edge sharper than that of the blade itself, then breathed in and stepped forward.

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