The bright flames exploded from the dragon’s body, the shadowy tentacles burning in red wrapped around the dragon, ignited in yellow-orange flames, bursting apart into black motes.
The demon and the dragon slowly flapped their wings, levitating in the colourful sky, facing each other, dark clouds spreading around them.
‘That is smart… burning shadows with hellfire to gain greater maneuverability of flames. But it must cost so much mana up here in the sky with very few shadows.’ Vesuvius felt like it was similar to him using magma and steam to conduct electricity.
The demon’s shadow body suddenly morphed, its left hand growing and turning into a large black mass of shadows brightly burning in red, its size easily larger than the whole dragon and demon put together. Its shape was twisted as a branch of an old tree, its fingers long and crooked, ending in claws of red flames.
Vesuvius felt like laughing, seeing the comically large limb attached to the demon that was smaller than it.
The large limb moved towards the dragon, its crooked black fingers widely opening as if wanting to grab him. The wind loudly howled around it as it turned into a red and black blur with its speed.
The dragon crackled in lightning, electrical tendrils passing around his armoured body. A nova of blue and gold lightning tendrils exploded from the dragon, spreading in all directions in a spherical shape, impacting against the hand that was closing around the dragon.
Large electrical arcs exploded all over the black morphed arm, loudly crackling and brightly flashing, throwing electrical sparks all around it. Its movement stopped for a split second.
Vesuvius flapped his wings, a sudden gash of wind whirling thick clouds around him as he used that small opening and flew out. A second later, the large black hand closed behind him with a loud clap that sent nearby clouds in all directions.
‘Just keep wasting your mana, you idiot!’ Vesuvius inwardly snickered at the demon using powerful shadow attacks in environments unsuitable for it, ‘He should just go with flames to create an opening and then strike with his shadows to use it.’
The dragon quickly accelerated, winds howling around him, leaving behind a dark trail of smoke. His long, curled horns were crackling with electrical arcs orbiting around them.
A large lightning arc shot out from his horns and split the sky in half, striking the demon. A loud thunderclap shook the sky as the demon’s large body flashed with lightning. The large shadow arm exploded into red and black particles.
“Ahhhh!” horrible, painful shriek followed the thunderclap, shaking everything and sending shivers through the mortals on the ground.
The demon’s panted, its red flames extinguished, and its black shadow body tattered with holes as an old piece of dirty fabric.
‘This is the reason why I didn’t go with just putting everything into agility, trying to avoid all attacks. Just one moment of surprise and everything is over.’
Vesuvius opened his mouth, yellow light flickering inside as he prepared to finish the demon.
The demon’s red eyes flashed, the black burning sphere above them instantly breaking apart as if someone had melted a snowball. Streams of black shadows and red flames from the orb flowed into the demon, its body immediately regenerating.
The demons instantly flapped their wings, launching towards the dragon, clouds behind whirling from the shockwave.
The bright yellow magma erupted from the dragon’s mouth, blasting towards the incoming demon.
Bright red hell flames ignited around the demon, quickly growing in intensity as the demon moved their fist forwards towards the stream of magma while accelerating.
[You have successfully spread your faith, +1 FAI]
The magma hit the demon and enveloped their whole body, flowing around them without stopping as if the demon had walked into the middle of a magma river. The bright red flames flashed around the demon’s body as they slowly burned away, evaporating.
Vesuvius felt his heart beat louder, his reptilian eyes growing wider as the demon flew towards him, ignoring their body melting in the breath of magma.
In an instant, the demon’s enlarged fist enveloped in red flames connected with the dragon’s head. Uncomfortable sound of cracking echoed through the sky as the glowing orange magma-like barrier that formed before the dragon’s head shattered like a pane of glass.
The red fist slowed down but continued forwards, connecting with the dark volcanic stone around the dragon’s head. More sounds of cracking echoed through the night as the dragon’s heavy black body moved backwards, the red flames erupting around his head.
The dragon closed his mouth and eyes in instinct as all of the armour protecting his head shattered into millions of fragments, revealing the black scales covered in dozens of brightly flashing runes. Their surface rippled like an ocean during a storm, bending and screeching under the fist, small cracks spreading through their smooth, shiny surface. The red flames brightly seared around them.
[You have successfully spread your faith, +3 FAI]
The dragon opened his eyes, seeing the giant demon falling from the sky, leaving behind a trail of black dust, most of their body missing. The world around the dragon spun, his head hurting horribly. He gritted his teeth, not feeling a mental headache but a physical one for the first time.
The glowing red blood leaked from his nostrils and mouth, falling down towards the distant ground.
Feeling wobbly, the dragon dived down towards the demon with a wide open mouth full of sharp teeth. Powerful winds pushed him downwards, the spinning world around him turning blurry, his eyes filled with rage, blood slowly leaking from them.
The bent scales on his head healed at a visible rate, their surface straightening and their shine returning with cracks closing.
The dragon was closing towards the falling demon. His wings pointed backwards in a sharp triangular shape as he dived head-on towards the ground, leaving behind a tall pillar of black smoke and white steam mixing together.
The sharp teeth glittered in his mouth as the dragon’s mouth widely opened. They closed over the demon, the teeth crushing their body made of shadow.
[+1290XP]
[You have successfully spread your faith, +10 FAI]
[You have successfully spread your faith, +5 FAI]
[You have successfully spread your faith, +2 FAI]
[You have successfully spread your faith, +3 FAI]
The dragon gulped down the crushed demon, and a feeling akin to eating spicy food with lots of chilly spread through his body. His mana immediately jumped up, almost fully recovering.
‘Huh, that is the same as when I ate that elemental… So I can eat some highly magic-containing stuff to recover my mana? I need better storage items that way. I should be able to carry some dead demons as snacks.’
[You have successfully spread your faith, +3 FAI]
‘What is going on?’ The dragon looked down towards the town. His vision was rapidly rotating and blurry, making it hard to see.
POV Soldier Pete:
The priest standing on top of the wall raised his staff, and shackles of pure white light launched out, knocking the sword from the soldier’s hand and wrapping around both him and Pete.
“They are both heretics! But they deserve a fair trial. We shall throw them to the demons. If they are truly innocent, god will save them!”
The people around them looked with disapproval, except a few who shouted excitedly at the priest’s speech. However, no one dared to step forwards to protect them.
“Haha, priest, then jump down from the walls yourself. By your logic, you should be safe!”
A figure covered in a black mantle wearing a shiny dragon-shaped iron mask with sliver scales all over its surface appeared from the shadows on the street under the wall.
“It’s one of them! Spy of the evil wyrm, catch them and kill them!”
Pete ignored it all, watching the fight between the evil demon and the angel in the sky. Red and yellow lights were flashing above him. He couldn’t see any details through the heavy rain and clouds.
Suddenly, a loud thunderclap interrupted the priest’s bickering, everyone looking up towards the sky. A high-pitched shriek followed and sent chills down Pete’s spine. The whole crowd immediately quieted down, their bodies frozen in fear.
The masked figure immediately used that silence, “Don’t listen to that priest. His god abandoned you. They let you to be slain and tortured by the demons! Only the dragon god sent their holy messenger to save you!”
Few people in the crowds quietly nodded in approval, but no one dared to say it loudly, their eyes fearfully looking at the priest in white.
Another loud bang echoed through the town, and a few small glittering red and black dots quickly descended from the sky. Pete watched them as they glittered in red light, shining like small glowing gems.
Suddenly a wind gushed, taking two of the droplets with it. The two droplets split, one of them falling straight towards Pete, his eyes growing wide and his mouth gaping wide open as the tiny glowing red droplet fell into his mouth.
A shocking pain as if his whole body was on fire flared up, his visions fading. The last thing he saw was the priest trashing on the ground and the angel opening their mouth filled with huge teeth and yellow light, ready to swallow the evil demon.
Loud cheers erupted around him, mixing with loud distorted shrieks of the demons. However, his mind was too tattered to even realise what was happening.