NOVPUBI was sitting against a half-destroyed tree while looking at a crystal giant, Demonic energy was leaking from his body, in fact his body was crumbling into particles of Demonic Energy.
"(Layla, how are things on your side?)" (I)
"(We are under attack, there is a Demon fortress above us, it was invisible until now, but it suddenly appeared in the middle of the sky!)" (Layla)
The crystal giant was running towards me, with a little difficulty I jumped deeper into the forest with it following me, my body recovering quickly, but the pain I feel was still the same.
"(How is everyone?)" (I)
"(Fighting, we have hundreds of really strong Demons and 8 Divine level Demons, we are barely holding on...)" (Layla)
"(Ragnar! What’s going on there?)" (I)
"(Demons, many of them, but the strongest are avoiding fighting... I can’t talk now... they...)" (Ragnar)
I closed one of my eyes and shared the vision of my 2 Familiars, Layla was fighting the numbers with help from Erica and Nicole, Elizabeth was leading the fight against the leading Demons, but only 7 were fighting and they clearly weren’t going all out.
The last of the Demons was standing with his eyes closed and arms crossed as if the war around him didn’t exist, something is happening and I think I already know what it could be.
While I was thinking about these things and sharing my Familiars’ vision, I was also running, my body was whole, but my energy was empty, what in this place was the same as being already dead.
"(Layla, come back to me discreetly.)" (I)
"(I’m a little busy right now, you idiot master!)" (Layla)
"(It doesn’t matter, come back now and we can resolve this or at least reverse this situation.)" (I)
I wish I could summon her here, but that could attract attention, not to mention that I can barely maintain my body at the moment with so little energy left in me.
"This bastard won’t stop chasing me." (I)
Behind me the crystal giant looks like a priceless bulldozer taking everything out of the way between me and him, it doesn’t matter if I’m in his field of vision or not, this bastard still manages to find me, I’m also having a hard time recovering my energy, he seems to have something blocking all the Magical Energy here, maybe that’s the reason we can’t find the center of this place.
After several minutes of running inside the forest I managed to recover a little, as I have not yet established the Penumbra Magical Power Source here, the source is still inside me and naturally recovering my energy, thanks to this I can run normally now and ignore the pain completely.
With a few more minutes I would be able to finish off that damn tractor behind me since the Demon that controlled it is no longer here and it was while I was thinking about this that Layla arrived crossing the giant with her body surrounded by flying swords while being chased by dozens of Devils.
"But what..." (I)
"Hold on to me!!" (Layla)
I raise my hand as Layla’s small body grows to the size of a young woman in her late teens, she holds my hand without slowing down and flying between the trees smoothly preventing the pursuers from reaching us.
"Why are they chasing you!?" (I) 𝖓𝔬𝖛𝔭𝔲𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
"I said I was busy!! But no... my wonderful, idiotic master needed me so much!" (Layla)
"That’s why I stopped fighting and ran as much as possible, do you know what happened!?" (Layla)
"..." (I)
"I miraculously managed to alleviate the fighting of others... THAT’S WHY SEVERAL DEMONS STARTED CHASING ME!!!" (Layla)
"There’s no need to shout, leave that aside and answer, can you use your Essence together with me still flying?" (I)
"With you, what are we going to do?" (Layla)
"First recover my energy and then..." (I)
"I understand." (Layla)
I didn’t need to complete my thought, Layla’s angry face gave way to a smile more Demonic than that of our pursuers.
With nothing else to say, I let the Magical Essence of the Penumbra Fairies flow from me to Layla and then back to myself forming a complete repeating cycle, using this combined Essence I was able to connect with this place more deeply and realize the power of another Essence, but it wasn’t just that, it was a complete Divinity.
This Deity was forming chains that surrounded the trees, the earth, the wind, the heavens and everything my eyes could see, everything was being restricted except for us.
"(So that was the reason, now it makes sense...)" (I)
This restriction was preventing me from absorbing the Mana from this place that should belong to Layla and me, it must also be the reason why we couldn’t find the Core in this area.
The only good news is that the Power of the Essence of Divinity cannot be hidden, they are apparent for anyone who can feel them to know what they represent, this was a power of control and had an obviously Demonic Aura.
"(I need to calm down and focus... breathe Zenos, breathe.)" (I)
I took a deep breath to calm my anger before starting what I needed to do, reaching out my hand the power of our Essences gathers in my claws, as Layla and I pass through some of these previously invisible chains, I use these claws to cut these chains.
In this place, my power and Layla’s is no less than within a Territory, in fact it is even greater, even a Comet Divinity cannot deny my power to liberate this place.
With the chains breaking I could feel the energy flow in a completely different way, it was like breaking an illusion and with that I was able to be nourished by the Mana of this place recovering my full energy in seconds when it should have taken hours.
"Layla!" (I)
"< Eclipse Magic: Forsaken Around the World >" (me/Layla)
This was a magic that I invented alongside Érica, this is a magic that uses my power of Authority along with Affinity with all elements to deny someone’s existence, this is more than just a curse, this is a decree for target elimination, the stronger the target, the worse the Mana consumption is, making it impossible to use this in combat even with Layla’s help, but in a place where our Mana is infinite it was the best choice.
The mana was flowing out of my body like a broken dam as more mana entered my body taking its place, I felt like the path a river passed through.
The magic itself, as powerful as it was, was not something spectacular to see, the magic circle was inside me while a mist came out of my hand, as well as my Starfire in the form of mist.
This mist was not something that could be dispersed with the wind, struck or even avoided, it needed to be negated and as far as I know only a Deity could do that.
The mist took the enemies and marked in their Souls that they are renegades by the forces of nature, I created this magic after seeing the Creatures of the Abyss who are denied their existence by the universe, unfortunately my magic is just an inferior copy of that.
With the magic in action they can no longer absorb energy, their senses and instincts will become confused without the support of the world around them, gravity will be heavier, the air will become a barrier in their path, the ground will give way beneath them feet and all this will weaken them, especially in this place where everything is made of Magical Energy and is alive.
The trees seemed to come to life as their roots and branches attacked the pursuers, even the clouds above dropped beams of energy onto them, the air particles around them froze as they took over their bodies and I saw them becoming confused.
"< Shadow Movement >" (I)
What I did was enter a shadow together with Layla, then travel through the shadows shortening the path back, this was less apparent than a teleportation spell and we had already managed to lose our pursuers.
"Like I said before, can’t we do this?" (I)
"But you said we would finish them off!" (Layla)
"That was before you realized how ridiculous this situation is, you also saw the chains!" (I)
"There’s someone who’s trying to take control of this... what’s his name again?" (I)
"Magic kingdom." (Layla)
"Yes, this Magical Realm belongs to you, probably the Core we have been looking for since we arrived must be sealed by them even more tightly controlled than the rest of the place." (I)
"What I did by breaking the chains must have already attracted attention, killing them would have slowed us down and more enemies would have arrived, our priority is to retake this place to turn the scales in our favor." (I)
"How do you plan to do that?" (Layla)
"I have a plan, I just hope it’s who I’m thinking, because we’re only going to have 1 opportunity." (I)
In my mind I remember what I saw through the eyes of my Familiars, that Demon who remained still with his eyes closed, then there was also that Demon fortress of theirs floating above the mansion.
