Chapter Forty-Three
Leach Life drew energy from the bastard and flowed it into me. I kept my hand planted against him as he screamed. It was working. Death magic was effective on him. I didn't relent. I didn't release him. My monster girls had worked together to take him down.
"Lord Zuen, defend your saint!" roared Anguin, crying out to the God of Darkness.
Night burst from him. I had a moment to register it before it slammed into me and threw me back. Static Aura discharged against the darkness that sought to sweep over me. I hit the ground with a hard thud, rolling. My armor clattered.
"Fuck," I groaned.
* * / *
Halia had a heartbeat of warning. She raised her blessed blade before her, bracing her left hand on the flat of the weapon right before the darkness slammed into her.
She flew back across the green and struck a cart that had been left out. Her head cracked against the back of it. She collapsed on the ground. The world spun around her before unconsciousness crashed down on her.
* * / *
The burst of darkness faded. Crystal readied to throw another shard of ice at Anguin. Everyone around Anguin had been thrown back. Usiku, Baaghi, and Paanee hit the ground, their bodies ravaged by the darkness that swept over them. They screamed and spasmed. Paanee thrashed. The attack had ripped her in half. Her tail twitched to Crystal's left, Paanee's torso to the left.
She vanished first. Killed.
Usiku quivered and then went still and faded into motes. Baaghi whimpered in pain, sounding like a wounded kitten. She twitched a final time and was gone. Halia lay still by the cart. Crystal wasn't sure if she lived or not.
Worry stirred through the ice sprite.
But Crystal's little brother stirred. He pushed himself up. His Static Aura had saved him. Such relief swept through Crystal. She would not let anything happen to him. She loved him. How could she tease him and call him "dirty boy" if he died?
"That's my little brother!" she howled and threw her ice shard at him. Then another. A third. She flung them at Anguin with a ferocity.
The bastard twisted around them. They flew past like glittering shards of glass. A winter's gale howled in her. A blizzard that would smother everything with their white anger. She flung her shards, glaring at him.
Nearby, her mother had her roots burrowing through the ground at Anguin. Crystal had to keep him distracted. They had to hold him down. Keep him from killing any more. Terra, Hagane, Smerta, Maya, Halia, Usiku, Paanee, and Baaghi had already died. This had to stop.
Roots burst around his feet. His sword flicked down and cut them as he spun around another of her crystal shards. Mist spilled off the furious Crystal. Her shiny body gleamed as Morana had a big grin on her face.
"Now!" she shouted.
The five ghosts rose from the ground around Anguin. Their spectral hands reached out to grab the bastard. Crystal smiled.
* * / *
"Go, ghosties, go!" Garnet shouted and winged towards Mrs. Lucina, Nina Naughty, and Lana Fulmine soaring through the air. "When they grab him, let's attack!"
"What can you do?" asked Nina. "Throw a dildo at him!"
"Yes!" hissed Garnet. The naughty succubus conjured one out of shadows. A great, big, floppy dildo she had seen in a video game called Saints Row 2. The Penetrator. It was a weapon, a dildo almost as long as she was tall.
The ghosts touched Anguin.
The four fliers launched their attacks. Garnet's floppy dildo spun down out of the night. A flaming pitchfork chased after. Lightning burst from Lana Fulmine's wings, and a beam of light burst from Mrs. Lucina's halo.
Anguin's screams filled the night.
Garnet chortled, "Kweh, heh, heh!"
* * / *
The naughty succubus laughed beside the porn star. Nina Naughty watched their attacks streaking down at the howling Anguin. The five ghosts all had their hands on him, draining the life from him. Down below, everyone else was attacking.
"Death reaps and harvests, let the scythe of Lord Nergal kill!"
roared Director Leo.
Feya flicked her wand and a beam of light fired at Anguin. Morana screamed, the air warping before her. Isatu ran up and threw her wings wide. She breathed a gout of fire that swept at him. All the attacks surged at him.
Anguin thrust his sword into the air as they hit. The scythe struck him in the side. The dildo crashed into his head. Beams of light smote his body. Fire engulfed him. A pitchfork plunged into the maelstrom. Lightning crackled around him.
"LORD ZUEN AND LADY NINAZU!" he bellowed. "UNVEIL YOUR POWER!"
From around the village green, shadows flowed. They surged at him as he stood there battered, bleeding, burned. The attacks had hurt him. He swayed, the ghosts still pressing their hands into him, drawing out his life.
"How is he not dead?" gasped Nina Naughty.
Garnet's chortles died.
The shadows surged over him. They washed over the ghosts. The spectral beauties threw back their heads as the tide of darkness that crashed into Anguin from all sides washed over them. It wiped them away. They vanished. Killed.
The darkness swirled around Anguin. A cocoon of night held him. What would emerge?
* * / *
Maya ran through the village, the monster girls hurrying out the citizens, knocking on doors, making sure they were not hurt. She ran fast and hard. If she had a heart, it would be pounding right now with fear. Her watery body rippled with every step.
Ahead, darkness surged up into the air. A column of it that whirled. A pillar of night. Maya swallowed. She knew this was bad. The undine ran faster, fear for Leo sending waves through her body. Her flesh convulsed, her form wavering from her terror.
"Don't die, you big perv!" she screamed.
Light exploded.
* * / *
I stared at the darkness rising into the night. We had hit him with
everything.
The ghosts had drained his life. My monster girls had sent all their attacks. He had survived it all. And now... Now darkness consumed him.