Chrysalis

As it turns out, Al is not doing all that great. The amount of fire mana the eyeball can bring to bear is absurd, and the concentrated beams he produces would punch a hole in just about any monster I’ve ever seen.

But Somonax just doesn’t seem to care. Whatever the hell those wires on her back are, she can work up some serious momentum as she whips her thousand blades about. As far as I can see, those sword-like appendages have a few effects built into them.

For one, they can obviously cut through mana with ease, since she’s gleefully slicing everything Al sends her way. For two, whatever they and the wires are made from, it sure as heck isn’t a material native to the third. I refuse to believe something that advanced isn’t more expensive than what a demon is given naturally. Third, and I’m not sure how she does this, but she can clearly control them independently.

All thousand of them.

Luckily for me, they appear to only have a range of fifty metres or so, otherwise, she could probably be slicing up me and Al at the same time. If I were to hazard a guess, Somonax has a rather large chunk of brain matter hidden away in her demonic pocket dimension, similar to Invidia, but unlike Invidia, all that grey matter is devoted to whip and blade control.

It’s an incredibly straightforward strategy, one I’m sure she’s poured a ton of her evolutionary energy into. Many blade, blade cut good, more blade, more slashy.

It’s like if Tiny were obsessed with swords instead of fists and muscles.

Somonax probably has more going on under the hood than just this, but I don’t have the time for a more in depth examination, since Torrifex has spotted me again.

POW! POW! POW! POW!

Now that I’m in range and Pyrixan is still refusing to move, I oblige her by resuming my rapid fire bombardment of acid in her general direction. At this point, she’s surrounded by a disgusting, bubbling mass of acid and ash, like a particularly noxious swamp. The acid approach was my best approach by far, but I can tell that I’m losing the battle. The demon probably doesn’t feel the need to move since she feels all she has to do is sit and pump out ash until she eventually has enough that I can’t fight back.

As aggravating as it is, I don’t have the time to devote to slowing her down, since Torrifex is about to blast me with another fireball of doom.

Give me a break already!

He doesn’t. Real shocker there.

Empowered Dash!

after that shot. I mean, more than it was before. The third stratum generally adheres to a ‘blasted wasteland’ sort of aesthetic, but after being exploded by a gigantic fireball of doom, it has achieved a whole new

as quickly as possible and this seems like an appropriate

the

I can do multiple things at a time. Like make two separate gravity

unleash the two bombs, empowering both

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLLLLLLLLL!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLLLLLLLLL!

supermassive effort I started the fight with, but empowered by the altar, they’ll do a lot of work if they

to want to move, covering

he needs a moment to recover. He’ll be able to avoid the point of impact, sadly, but he’ll be close

Which is good enough.

full fury. Once again, we are treated to the shrieking wind and groaning stone as the forces of gravity run wild,

have to note that two bombs don’t seem to play nice with each other. Everything caught exactly between the two spells is relatively fine, since gravity is basically balanced out there, but that’s a razor thin line to tread. Everything else

INSECT!] Torrifex roars in fury. [I

surviving.

with for the time being, I need to turn my attention to Somonax.

low on resources here… that

Invidia! Have you finished laying the

isssss alssso

But

[Almosssst.]