Chapter 1897 Domain Suppression
Two S-ranked Empusas emerged from the sea of demonic creatures.
There were also three A-ranked Empusas who attempted to merge but failed.
It seemed that several conditions needed to be satisfied before they could fully fuse and give birth to a higher-ranked demonic ent.i.ty.
Apart from these five high-ranking Empusas, there were also several small fry demonesses remaining.
All of them became the subordinates of the five Empusas, following the rules of the demonic hierarchy.
These Empusas hissed and yelled at the castle intruders, especially looking at Jolly with conflicting expressions.
There was a part of them that wanted to surrender to Jolly because they could instinctively sense that he was Eren"s pseudo-avatar, who was at the top of the demonic food chain. However, the ruined castle itself had placed many restrictions on them, preventing them from allying with anyone outside the castle owner.
Shaai was left aghast to find out that there were still some demonic creatures in Labh Salem that she didn"t know about. She was particularly intimidated by these spectral demons, who merged and raised their ranks.
One of the Empusas" biggest strengths lay in the way they hypnotized their opponents. They could make men and women smitten with their looks and gestures. When pract.i.tioners fell prey to the Empusas" charming skills, they practically signed their death warrants with their own hands.
If Jolly wasn"t present among the group, these Empusas would have tried affecting Shaai and Yona"s consciousness with their demonic skills.
One could say that the Empusas" charming skills were just the concepts of Mist Of l.u.s.t used in different ways.
As such, Jolly obviously had the ability to dispel these demonic skills. Thus, the Empusas didn"t even bother wasting one of their trump cards against the castle intruders.
"Don"t worry. It only works because there"s a compound domain cast around the castle. These are a special variety of demons you usually won"t find in Labh Salem.
The world would have been a much bigger mess than it already is if they were able to replicate the same feat outside the isolated zones," Yona said suddenly, as if reading what was on Shaai"s mind.
"You know what is more painful to deal with than Empusas? Furies! and Scyllas. And Lamias as well. But they can"t be created that easily. So we don"t need to worry too much.
My main self did a lot of research on them here in these ruins while she was in Labh Salem as a witch. Let"s just Demon Prince of l.u.s.t was not the only Demon Prince she had in touch with in those days. It"s that research that made her G.o.ddess Two Lips.
Anyway, About these Empusas. They are not that strong. Because they have gotten rid of their spectral forms to raise their ranks, we can kill them without having to use the Soul Spells. And don"t forget we have someone who can suppress them."
Yona said while looking at Jolly, who took it as a cue to unleash the so-called suppression Yona was talking about.
Mark of the Seven Sins: Domain of l.u.s.t
Jolly spread his Sin Series Domain once again, and the entire castle was brought into his domain"s sphere of influence.
He also added the attainments he had gained from the Virtue of Chast.i.ty into the domain, which started to work surprisingly well against the Empusas.
Even the S-Ranked Empusas had their mana signatures suppressed when Eren unleashed his Sin Series Domain strengthened with Virtue Series Attainments. Scree. Scree. Scree.
The Empusas screeched and hissed as they charged at the trio. Jolly let the two ladies handle the matter.
In the next moment, he took out his beaked mask and disappeared from the place, his presence vanis.h.i.+ng into thin air.
Since Jolly had the profession of an a.s.sa.s.sin, Eren had obviously given him the beaked mask of Sage Loxley. This mask was very effective in carrying out a.s.sa.s.sinations. However, it couldn"t be used for a very long time. It also had some other limitations.
Eren had obviously upgraded the beaked mask after turning it into the Hex artifact. Using the perks available to him with the use of Menaka"s Blessing and the Mesh itself, he was able to boost the effectiveness of the beaked mask to a new level for a limited amount of time.
Meanwhile, Yona and Shaai took action. They made full use of their S-Ranked powers and attacked the two S-Ranked Empusas head-on.
As for the A-Ranked Empusas and the rest of the small fry? They could only support their S-Ranked leaders pa.s.sively from a distance.
The A-Ranked Empusas tried to attack Yona and Shaai together but ended up severely injured.
Apart from the Soul Spells, intent-based magic was also highly effective against the Empusas.
With the demonic creatures" own intent-based magic suppressed under Jolly"s domain, the A-Ranked and below Empusas had very little defense against Yona and Shaai"s combined a.s.sault.
A fierce battle raged between the two sides. Shaai"s intent-based magic was so strong that it started to damage the castle, which was supposed to withstand any demonic power hurled its way.
Yona"s Spirit bloodline magic was more refined. She targeted one of the S-Ranked Empusas from a distance using her string instrument while keeping the waves of subordinate Empusas at bay.
Meanwhile, Jolly used his invisibility perk to eliminate two of the A-Ranked Empusas one after the other.
He didn"t have to go for the trifecta kill because Shaai managed to kill her while dealing with her opponent. So he started a.s.sa.s.sinating the lower ranked demons as efficiently as he could despite the chaos.
***
Half an hour later.
The battle between the two sides was finally settled.
After the end of the battle, the portion of the castle that had survived for thousands of years was raised to the ground. The battle would have changed the landscape of the region in a bigger way than it already had if it weren"t for the compound barrier.
"These d.a.m.ned snakes better stay dead this time," Shaai cursed as she took her labored breaths while surveying the destruction, standing in the middle of the debris.