Chapter 43

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’s 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.

The spell Flash burst into my mind. I couldn’t give up. I had to stop this monster, or we were all dead. I was dead. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live with my monster girls. I wanted to show this world that I wasn’t a threat.

“Radiance erupts, let the brilliance of Lord Shamash explode!”

The light exploded before the darkness. It snapped the pillar of night. The illumination was so bright, it drove back all the shadows and revealed not Anguin, but a hoary creature. A hulking, hairy beast with horns thrusting from his forehead and cloven hooves. He looked like a beastman from 40k. Something hairy and misshapen.

“This is a saint?” I demanded at the foul thing.

The thing that had been Anguin roared with bestial fury, something between a bear and a goat. The sound echoed through the air. An unnerving sound. The thing still held its sword. Anguin fixed eyes on me, full of fury.

Isatu breathed fire. My dragoness engulfed the foul monster with her fire. The sword slashed, parting the flames. A blade of night flashed across the distance, traveling even faster than they had, and gut Isatu in half.

My dragoness screamed as she fell into two pieces to the ground. Then she vanished. I felt her die like a monster girl. She must be bound to my Void Crystal thanks to our connection that gave me the Fire Glyph. My heart pounded. I was running out of monster girls, and he had grown stronger than ever.

How was I doing this?

Morana the banshee rolled her eyes.

“Oh, god, what a poser,” she said, shaking her head. Her cloak of mist swept down her back. “You really went for the Baphomet look? What are you, some wanna-be satanist. That’s so prep!”

She rushed at him and drew in a breath. It was time to scream. To pour her dark soul into an attack. Death affected him. The ghosts proved that. They had given their existence to hurt him. To drive him to call upon his ultimate form. Now they had to defeat him.

She stopped as the monster bellowed and screeched.

The air warped before the banshee’s wail. It slammed into the hairy, disgusting beast. Anguin flinched and staggered from the power of death seeking to rip his soul from his body. Oh, her scream was loud, but it wasn’t a sonic attack. This was no thunder. It attacked the very spirit.

Feya flicked her wand. A beam of light fired from the fairy as she fluttered low to the ground. It streaked out and struck him as he staggered beneath the assault of her deathly cry. Another beam of light slammed down from the motherly Mrs. Lucina above.

She would never let anything happen to me, Morana thought. She’s a great mother.

Anguin whipped his sword. Scythes of darkness, blades of utter midnight, swept from him, hurtling across the battlefield. Morana jumped to her right, ready for it. She rolled on the grass and took in another breath.

The angelic Mrs. Lucina flapped her wing hard. She banked hard to the right while Feya darted to her left. The spectral blades flashed through where Mrs. Lucina had just flown. She turned around, her halo pulsing with her anger.

Morana was still alive. The goth girl had dodged the attack, too.

Lana’s lightning crashed down on the bestial Anguin. He had become a devil-man. It was so disgusting. Nina’s flaming pitchfork slammed down a moment later. Garnet shouted and started hurtling dildo after dildo down on the beast. They struck him, bouncing off him.

Then Leo was chanting below as the monster dodged the attacks. The lightning crackled around the ground. Pitchforks buried into the soil. Beams of light fired from Feya’s wand and Mrs. Lucina’s own halo seared the grass.

Morana screamed, slamming into him again. He staggered and roared, fighting against the effect.

“Keep it up!” Mrs. Lucina shouted and fired another beam that struck the shadowy beast. Something wavered in its flesh. It didn’t burn it but a puff of shadowy mist erupted.

A ball of light appeared to the monster’s right. It shed light on it. The creature didn’t seem quite so solid bathed in the light.

A blade of night slashed at Leo. He rolled and came up again. Other swords of darkness hurtled from the monster, flashing at them all. Mrs. Lucina fired off a beam, striking one. Morana rolled on the ground, narrowly dodging hers.

Anguin whirled, able to move easier. A flaming pitchfork struck his flesh. He ripped it out but it vanished in a burst of flames before he could throw it back. Ice shards struck his back, Crystal screaming on the ground. Roots burst out of the ground to grab the monster.