[Elders please direct your attention here, I have active surveillance that shows the creature.]Gesturing for the two elders and Solaris to take a seat, Dax took the moment to examine the two 10 winged angels that Dax last saw when he stood trial in the 14th sanctuary. The elder who addressed Dax like he himself was royalty had brown wings with grey streaks which matched his shoulder length hair, making him look like some kind of middle aged man from a Korean drama, being way too handsome. He had glowing golden eyes that combined with an entirely flawless face, the only thing that ruined his most perfect beauty was a tired expression that made Dax recognize him as an immortal being which had lived for too long and grown tired of life. Like the other elder, he wore an elaborate golden set of plate armour, imbedded with countless red and blue monster cores that would be used for empowering the wearer"s defences. Like Solaris the two elders wielded elaborate golden pike spears which were around their own height in length, engraved with runic formations that pulsed in a deep red light.
"My~ What an elaborate siege you have set up here, good job containing the demon for so long.. But you should leave the rest up to us."
The other 10 winged elder gave Dax the expression of a cheerful neighbourhood aunt which constantly showed a large smile and had long golden hair which matched her wings and flowed all the way down her back, but something about her smile put Dax on edge like she was some kind of bloodthirsty monster which hid behind a bright and happy facade.
[Yeah no, there"s no way I"m going to leave all the fun to you 3, brush me aside and I will make your life a pain for the next 2000 years.]
".. Okay fine. Then I trust you and Solaris to cover and act as support for us."
[That was my intent all along. I can annihilate its physical form, but do nothing about the spiritual, so I"ll leave that to you 3.]
Handing the two elders communication devices so they could coordinate better, Dax took a moment to catch up with Solaris before the battle.
[So how did the other elders take you leaving the sanctuary?]
In response to Dax"s attempt at striking up a conversation Solaris" slightly lessened as she breathed a deep sigh.
"I feel like they expected it. Hemera and Apollo here practically raised me, so they immediately understood and respected my decision. It was due to these two that I"m still allowed to set foot inside the sanctuary, normally abandoning the sanctuary would warrant a death sentence."
[That just means they"re looking out for you, like a family should.]
"Family?..."
Seeing Solaris" strange response to Dax"s a.s.sessment, his smile lessened a bit before responding to her open ended question.
[What? You don"t like the "F" word?]
"No I do, it"s just that I never expected to have a family… That"s normally somethings only mortals have."
With a slight hint of sadness in her voice, Solaris had a regrettable look in her eyes which made Dax flick her forehead as he bloomed a smile under his mask.
"Aw!~ Why!?"
[Because you"re acting like a child~ Have you honestly spend several hundred years in this world believing that you have to be related by blood to be a family? It"s about forming lasting connections, nothing more, nothing less.]
Taking a second to absorb Dax"s words (and healing her forehead with a bit of magic.) Solaris looked like a lost child as she asked Dax.
"Then would you consider the two of us family?"
Feeling like he couldn"t afford to just answer half seriously, Dax took a decent time to formulate his words, which only made Solaris more worried.
[If that is what you want yeah. Ever since we survived that station I considered us comrades at the least, from there it"s just a short distance to family. At least in my opinion.]
"I see… Then can you do me a favour, seeing that we are family?"
As Solaris did her very best to retrain her proud and superior aura, all 6 of her pure white wings fluttered in excitement as she suppressed a child like giggle.
[.... Sure.]
After momentarily blacking out Dax did his very best sound normal as he responded to Solaris.
(What the h.e.l.l is wrong with her?)
"C-could you help me tie up my hair?"
Handing Dax a hair tie with a child like smile on her face, Dax couldn"t say no even if his life depended on it.
[Yeah I can do that, although I still only have a single arm so I"ll make a drone do it.]
"Ehhh!~"
Seeing Solaris" disappointment bloom on her face Dax had a slight chuckle to himself as he grabbed himself an a.s.sault rifle and checked on the drone formations.
---
Having crushed what seemed to be an almost endless swarm of golems already, the demons had started learning about how they moved and which of them were the most dangerous. Having destroyed another of the cannons manned by 4 golems, the demon felt a dangerous presence and immediately erected a defensive barrier as something descended from the sky and struck it.
"YOU!"
Instantly recognizing the archangel that was one of the ones who sealed it as he tried to price its chest with an accused holy spear, the demon"s rage flared.
"I"m here too!~"
While Apollo distracted the demon, Hemera closed in from behind it with a wide and bloodthirsty smile on her face. While it was preoccupied, Hemera priced her spear into the demon"s corrupted flesh and twisted it with her immense strength and ripped out a large part of the demon"s shoulder as she compressed mana in her free hand and formed an offensive spell.
"Javelin formation: Lightning spear of the prophet!"
Shooting out a blinding spear of light, Hemera vaporized a large part of the demon with holy light.
"INSOLENT PESTS!"
Expanding its presence, the demon spread corrupted mana throughout its surroundings and forced the archangels away. Having created a gap, the demon hastily constructed an offensive spell.
"PURGE!"
Creating a sphere of corrupted flame around it that exploded outwards and devoured everything around it, the demon created some s.p.a.ce for itself as it started healing its injuries. Sadly the demon was blessed with the entirety of Dax"s attention, so the second it started healing a hail of 205mm t.i.tanium alloy penetrators pelted the demon and its surroundings, allowing the archangels time to prepare offensive spells.
"Javelin formation: Righteous cleansing!"
While Appolo shoot out a golden beam of light that melted the ground beneath the demon, Hemera dropped to the ground as a 10 meter wide spell circle formed around her.
"Aspect of the sun: Second formation!"
Having completed her spell Hemera truly looked like the aspect of dawn as her entire body glowed with light.
"Take this!"
Stomping down her foot the golden aura drained out from Hemera as it dispersed into the ground before it erupted out from underneath the demon.
"Rampart formation: Bulwark."
Having received a message from Dax, Solaris stepped out in front of Hemera and Apollo before creating a wall of golden runes.
[Splash~]
At Dax"s command, the area around the demon was sh.e.l.led by countless 205mm SAPHEI sh.e.l.ls exploded with airburst fuses, filling the area with shrapnel and fire.
"... Impressive. Good job Solaris, and Dax too."
Looking at the countless pieces of shrapnel that were harmlessly deflected by Solaris" defensive formation, Hemera couldn"t help but be impressed with the qiton"s pure destructive capabilities.
[You"re welcome, next wave will hit in a bit.]
Hearing Dax"s pleased voice over the earpiece Hemera got the impression that Dax was taking it easy, but she couldn"t be more mistaken as he was currently sending out a few million commands every second.
"Javelin formation: Lightning spear of the prophet."
With the breathing s.p.a.ce offered by Dax, Apollo had time to prepare another offensive spell he shoot out while charging the demon to not allow it a chance to heal its mounting wounds. Leaving a faint afterimage, Apollo"s spear cut through the air as the aura that surrounded it expanded and cut into the demon before the spear"s material form even impacted.
"ARRGH!!"
The golden spear really seemed to hurt the demon which responded by turning its one arm into a swarm of tentacles it sent towards the spear wielding archangel, secretly forming an offensive spell at the same time.
[Oh no you don"t.]
Dax however clearly saw what the demon was trying to do and sprung out from behind cover a few hundred meters away with a squad of drones, quickly sending a hail of concentrated rifle fire that hit the demon and disrupted its casting before he ducked back into cover and relocated.
(This is going nowhere… I guess I"ll need the redmatter after all, and it might be a good idea to get the jug over here too…)
Even with all the damage the angles and Dax were doing together, he realized that they did very little damage which stuck to it as the demon constantly kept healing and flung out spells without slowing down.
[How long can you people keep this up?]
Addressing all 3 angels Dax got very different responses.
"Until its dead!"
"For hours."
"One more hour of this intensity at the most."
While Hemera and Apollo put on tough acts Solaris also seemed to realize there was something wrong. While the demon kept being forced back and cursing loudly Dax"s feeling that something was wrong only seemed to increase, then he realized it.
(f.u.c.k! ICI plot primary contact"s path over the last 30 minutes!)
As Dax"s sight switched to a bird"s eye view of the ruins that were once the magic academy, a red line was drawn across the terrain representing the demon"s path. It formed an almost perfect circle, as if the demon was drawing a magic formation with the corrupted blood it was spilling.
[Everybody get away from the demon, its activating some sort of gigantic spell formation!]
"What are-"
[Its been running away from you people in a perfect circle while dripping cursed blood all over the place! That"s not f.u.c.king random!]
The very second the two archangels realized what was happening, the demon bloomed a bright smile as it invoked the spell formation it had spent the last few hours forming.
"RISE MY BRETHREN! YOUR TIME TO EAT THIS WORLD HAS ARRIVED!"