Rebirth of the Nephilim

Chapter 700: Only One

Jadis’ hearts pounded in her chests with the force of a falling star as she dove out of the sky. She had to force herself not to accelerate to her maximum speed, knowing full well that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from crashing into the colossal leech or the ground around it, possibly doing more damage to Alex in the process. Still, she flew with more haste than she should have, and as she reached the flooded banks of the muddy creek, her three bodies slammed into the surface with enough force to send chunks of dirt and stone flying.

Attacking as a single entity, all three of Jadis struck the leech at the same time. Swinging her hammer like a bat, Jay hit the monstrosity on its left flank. The head of her Demon bone war hammer dug deep into the black, rubbery flesh… then slid off as the leech’s bulk wobbled and bounced like an overstuffed waterbed made of lard.

Dys’ axe fared better, the sharp edge sinking deep into the creature’s right side. A gout of black blood poured out of the leech, flooding out and over Dys’ armored hands and arms. The foul smell of Demon blood was worsened by the accompanying stench of burning acid. Dys winced in pain as the liquid penetrated her armor, stinging her skin with the all-too familiar sensation of a burn.

Syd’s sword staff pierced the head of the presumed Demon, sinking several feet as more of the noxious blood spurted out from the penetrating wound. Having struck all at the same time, Jadis knew that her Mirrored Strikes had to have triggered, yet the damage done to the enemy was not as apparent as she expected. Leaning back, Syd yanked on her weapon, intent on pulling away so that she and her other selves could strike again with a unified effort. However, the moment she tried to withdraw, multiple bright greenish-yellow tentacles burst out from the flesh around her sword staff, wrapping around the blade, hilt, her arms, and even reaching all the way to her shoulders and torso. As she flexed her muscles to pull away, Syd felt powerful resistance made worse as the leech lifted its head and the first couple of yards of its body, dragging her forward in the process. As it reared back, it gave Jadis a clear look at exactly what sort of monster she was dealing with.

The fat, blubbery body of the Demon was as wide around as the Behemoth’s cabin, with an unknown greater length still submerged in the rapidly flowing water of the flooded stream. The head of the leech was no less grossly rotund as the body, with the tip coming to a bulbous, round end. A small, barely noticeable orifice was centered on the tip of the Demon’s face, with no other identifiable features to mark a face visible. In the moment it took the leech to rise up, matching and then exceeding Syd’s height, the tiny hole at the tip expanded, quickly widening to horrific proportions as the inside of the Demon’s mouth was revealed.

Dozens upon dozens of greenish-yellow tentacles squirmed along the walls of the oral cavity, lining a tunnel that stretched further back inside of the monster’s form than she could see. The tip of Syd’s sword staff could be seen poking through the top of the Demon’s mouth, and a number of the tentacles were pressed around it, digging back through the leech’s own flesh to reach Syd and wrap around her.

The same Syd who had been lifted into the air and hung suspended before a mouth that had opened wide enough to envelop even her great size.

“Fuck no!”

Syd shouted a curse as her legs shot out, awkwardly bracing against the edges of the leech Demon’s mouth as it tried to swallow her. Letting go of her weapon, Syd braced against the tentacles grappling her, struggling to rip and tear the fleshy limbs. Her efforts were only partially successful, as she did not allow the Demon to engulf her, nor did she manage to break free. The rubbery tentacles that had latched onto her proved to be unusually difficult to damage, resisting her attempts to rip and tear them. Jadis almost couldn’t believe that such flimsy appendages were able to withstand her efforts. Then, as she felt the horrid, draining, leeching tingle run through her bodies, she understood.

“Essence Leech!” Jay spat, though there was no one around her to warn.

Except for the one person who was stuck under the suffocating bulk of the massive blubbery Demon.

Chopping down at the tentacles that had grabbed hold of Syd, Dys used her axe like a cleaver, hacking away with inhuman speed. Her blows fell so fast that the blood and gore that was generated flew like a whirlwind around her, splattering her selves and the Demon both.

At the same time, Jay grabbed hold of her Syd body, pulling hard with one arm around her waist. Even more of the sickly yellow tentacles were reaching out of the gapping orifice, latching onto her and trying to drag her in, but Jadis wouldn’t let that happen. She wasn’t going to turn into fuel for the foul leech, giving it the strength it needed to murder Alex.

With the thought of needed strength, Jadis realized that she wasn’t taking advantage of a skill that she had recently been gifted. With action as fast as thought, she corrected that mistake.

Dys wrapped one arm around the base of the remaining tentacles that were sticking through the leech’s flesh to grab hold of Syd. Grappling the Demon’s limbs, she felt Unbreakable Hold take effect, drastically increasing her Strength stat. In the same moment, Jay pulled hard on Syd, and in one wrenching motion managed to pull her free from the tentacles the new tentacles that had started to grapple her.

The moment she had broken free, a gurgling sound hit Jadis’ ears as the monstrous leech rumbled and flexed. As Jay and Syd rolled out of the way, the vile Demon regurgitated a fountain of foul-smelling filth that instantly made Jadis want to vomit herself. Blood, flesh, and bones were mixed into the septic slurry, forcing Jadis’ two bodies to instinctively scramble away from the decomposing sludge. However, as her other selves did so, Dys saw the dark, thin shapes squirming through the putrescence, giving Jadis a half-second of warning before the multi-front attack.

Jay’s hammer came down on the body of the essence leech that tried to reach her, killing the one Demon as two more sprang at her. Leaping into the air, Jay avoided the touch of the leeching attackers by flying up into the sky several yards, moving out of their range. Syd was not so lucky.

Dodging to the right, several more of the lamprey-like Demons hurtled past Syd thanks to her quick movement. But half a dozen more threw themselves at her in the next moment, forcing her to spread her wings and dodge again, just as her Jay self had. With her weapon still stuck in the head of the colossal leech, Syd had no choice by to use her hands to slap two of the essence leeches away from her. Her defensive acts were successful against both, yet it was a third leech that she had not seen that managed to wrap its long, thin body around her left ankle and begin its painful draining of her stats.

At that point, three things happened at once. With her attention split three ways to begin with, Jadis was able to understand much of what happened in the moment, though she could not see everything at once. Still, she did her best to respond as swiftly and decisively as she could, as she knew more than just her life depended on her.

As Syd rose higher into the air, she reached for the leech that had latched onto her ankle. Even as her gauntleted fingers wrapped around slimy form that had attached itself to her, she saw its black flesh turn yellow and bubble, expanding rapidly in what looked like an uncontrolled reaction.

As Dys let go of the massive leech, leaving it with the parting gift of a strong elbow to the head, she saw the blue glow of Alex’s Bold Smite suffuse the huge Demon, burning it from inside out with Divine power.

As Jay rushed forward, her speed accelerated by Knight’s Daring Charge, she spun on a tilted axis, doing a full revolution right before she reached the titanic essence leech. Extending her war hammer at the perfect moment, the head of her weapon impacted the upper expanse of the monster’s fleshy, boneless head with the force of a trebuchet at full extension.

The sickly yellow, bubbling flesh of the essence leech that had latched onto Syd ruptured, tearing itself apart before Syd could even put any force into her attempt at removing the horrid thing. Jadis could feel the effect of her attributes being syphoned end as the leech exploded, but Syd had no time to even check if the Demon was truly dead or not as a cloud of greenish-yellow putrid smoke burst in her face, causing her to choke and gag in revulsion and pain.

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As the lesser leech was exploding, the greater was reeling back from Jay’s blow, its body folding bonelessly on top of itself for a second or two. In that moment, as Jay spun around to strike again, Dys launched herself at the ground, taking the opportunity she had hoped to create. There, pressed into the muck by the titanic, rubbery form that had launched its surprise attack, was Alex.

Her demonic lover was already scrambling out from under the giant Demon, pulling away as fast as she could, though her movements were clearly hindered. Dys could see that one of Alex’s monstrous arms was bent the wrong way at the elbow, and some parts of her armor had been dented or even outright flattened. Worse, several of the leech Demon’s snot-yellow tentacles had burrowed their way through its own flesh and had latched onto Alex, no doubt draining away her stats.

Swinging her axe in a horizontal slash, Dys cut through the five tentacles that had latched onto Alex with one blow. As she did so, she felt Alex’s strong tentacles grab hold of her legs, so Dys kept going, using the momentum of her swing to carry both of them away from the enemy Demon. As she did so, she felt a strong resistance to her movement, not traveling as far with Alex as she would have expected. Looking down, Dys immediately saw why. The relentless simulacrum that Alex had been fighting when the leech had attacked had not died. The single-minded Demon was holding onto her, biting down on one of Alex’s large tentacles with its round, shard-filled mouth.

Jay slammed her hammer down on the huge leech again, trying to either kill it, or at least keep it distracted. As she did so, she noticed that the damage done by her other selves to the Demon had already healed significantly, the blood flow having stopped and the wounds mostly closing. The leech had to have insane regenerative properties to be able to heal so much in such a short amount of time, Jadis realized. Perhaps having an ability that was a match for Alex or even exceeding her capabilities.

“Get off!” Dys snapped as she swung her axe at the simulacrum at an awkward angle.

Rocks went flying from the stone Demon’s body, but it continued to hold on to Alex’s tentacle. Dys’ anger at the foe who was tearing into her lover put all of her focus on the Demon, to the point that she nearly missed it when something she had thought was one of Alex’s tentacles wrapping around her started to painfully drain away her health. Striking at the black length that had no neon-blue tip, she crushed the essence leech in her hand before it could do more than siphon away a few dozen points of her health.

“How many are on you!?” Dys demanded, realizing too late that Alex had been infested with an enemy that had a natural camouflage on her body.

“Four…”

Just as Alex called out her answer, several squirming tendrils that were twisted among her tentacles began to change color, turning sickly yellow as they bubbled and grew to a distorted size.

Without a word, Alex pushed herself away from Dys, letting the weight of the simulacrum drag her down to the muddy earth below. It was an action of self-sacrifice, one that Jadis knew would save her from a lot of pain, considering how much had been inflicted on her Syd self by just one of the exploding leeches. Not that Jadis was going to accept that action from her lover. Ever.

Syd slammed into the simulacrum from the side, still half blinded by the noxious gas that had burst in her face. Her tackle crushed the bulky Demon, sending its broken body flying away as Syd caught hold of Alex right as the leeches erupted in a cloud of putrescence. The gas burned her lungs and eyes, but Syd carried Alex away, guided by the sight of her other self hovering above. Dipping low, she hit the water of the flooded creek, letting it wash the Demon-born filth away from her and Alex for a few seconds before rising back up into the sky, carrying her limp lover far out of range of the fight.

“No, you fucking don’t!” Jay cursed while she avoided another vomitous spray of sludge.

Spinning to the side, she slammed her hammer as hard as she could against the huge slug, causing it to rock back from the force of the blow. The putrid yellow tentacles that filled the inside of the Demon burst out if its flesh, trying to wrap around her weapon and pull her in. Jay immediately pulled away, leveraging her immense speed to her advantage, keeping out of the reach of the tentacles that could not match her Agility. When Dys struck from the other side less than a second later, the Demon’s body was split open, a rend in the rancid flesh that tore at least six feet. A geyser of acidic blood erupted from the open wound, some of it splattering on Dys to sizzle on her armor even as she flew past at great speed.

As Jay charged forward again to land another blow on her much slower opponent, the leech began to whip its head wildly around, spraying foul liquid laden with essence leeches in every direction. Jay backed off, not wanting to get another one of the attribute-stealing menaces on her again. The risk of slowing down when close to the massive Demon was too great, at least when she was partially weakened by having one of her bodies out of the fight.

In the few moments that Jadis backed off from the spraying leech, the putrid slug rolled back into the creek, slipping under the current with surprising ease. Jadis had not thought that something so large could move so smoothly, nor hide so completely in stream that she doubted was all that deep.

“Shit! My sword staff!” Jay and Dys both cursed as the enemy disappeared, her weapon still lodged in the Demon’s head.

Syd did not join her other selves in the cursing, nor in the subsequent searching, as she had more important matters to concern herself with.

“Are you alright? Are there any more of those leeches on you?”

Syd’s words came out in a painful rasp, bookended by ragged coughing. Her throat felt like it had been shredded by the gas that came from the exploding leeches, and her eyes and nose both burned with a terrible sting. She wanted to rub at her face, but with her helmet and gauntlets on, all she could do was endure the suffering as she waited for Alex to respond.

In fact, Jadis realized, that was not all she could do.

Casting Eyes of the Succubi, Syd used her enhanced vision to check Alex over. At the same time, she also used the ability to scan the roiling waters for any sign of the huge leech’s aura. Jay and Dys were racing back and forth over the creek bed in an ever-widening pattern, looking for the filth-laden monstrosity, but nothing was visible through the dark waters of the flooded stream. Either the Demon’s aura was hidden by the muddy water, or the vile leech had already fled far further than Jadis had expected, avoiding its inevitable death.

“I don’t see anything on you,” Syd coughed as she checked Alex over, wincing at how diminished her lover’s aura was compared to its usual intensity. “Talk to me, Alex. Are you okay?”

“I am… injured…” her sweet Demon replied in voice that had no rasp. “But I… Will heal…”

“Yes, yes you will,” Syd agreed with relief as she held her lover close to her chest, feeling Alex’s wrap her tentacles around her. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have put you in danger like that. That was all my—”

“It was… Not… Your fault…” Alex stated firmly in a rare moment where she cut Jadis off. “You could not… Have known…”

“I might have seen that fucker coming if I had been using my Succubus vision,” she countered, still not willing to forgive herself. “I should have been using it. I’ve got more than one set of eyes.”

Jadis had not been using her ethereal sight as she had been carrying Alex. Her lover’s powerful aura interfered with her vision, surrounding her in a way that made it difficult for the body holding her to see, so she forgone the use. She had thought that she would just cast the spell if she needed to. A foolish mistake to make, one that she would not repeat.

“All is well…” Alex reassured Syd, one hand brushing against the side of her helmet in a loving gesture. “I will… be fine… Besides… I have… Good news…”

“We could use some of that right now,” Syd coughed again, already thinking of how Eir’s lips would soothe her when they got back to the airship.

“I leveled…”

“Seriously!?” Syd cried out, her voice cracking with the strain. “That’s wonderful! Fuck, I’ll find that piece of shit down there later—let’s get back and tell everyone the amazing news!”

Jay and Dys pulled away from their search, resigned to the loss of the sword staff. Jadis doubted it would be a permanent loss; either she would find the Demon again and pull the sword from its corpse, or an ally would in the near future. The weapon was a small price to pay for Alex’s safety, and the final level she needed to unlock her tertiary class to boot.

“What did you get offered?” Syd asked, her excitement overriding all other concerns. “Something amazing, right? Don’t tell me Severina was right and you were offered a ‘Justicar of Jadis’ option.”

Alex was quiet for a few seconds, her thoughts clearly on the notifications visible only to herself. Syd could not see her lover’s face thanks to the helmet she wore, but when all of her tentacles suddenly went stiff, then curled in on themselves, she knew something was wrong.

Something was terribly wrong.

“What happened?” Jay and Dys both asked, all of her previous excitement disappearing in an instant. “What’s wrong?”

Alex had curled up, her body and limbs wrapping around herself in a tight ball. Fear practically radiated from the woman, to the point that it could literally be smelled in the air. Jadis had never seen her lover look so distressed before. Wrapping her armored arms around her, Syd held Alex close, cradling her lover and rocking her as they floated through the air, high in the night sky where nothing in the world could touch them.

“Tell me what’s wrong, Alex,” Jadis whispered to her. “Everything will be alright. I’m here for you. Tell me what’s wrong, and we can fix it together.”

“I have… Been offered… Only one class…” Alex spoke, her voice small and afraid. “I have… Been offered… Demon Lord Alex…”