Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2284: Fire Dragon vs. Black Percher

Sensing her connection with Wesser and Ratten weaken, the Leader of Grimm Grimoire Hamlin, Black Percher's face formed into a pout.

"This must be the result of the Sage Dragon Emperor's influence…how troublesome…"

Despite her words, the pout of Black Percher's face formed into a fierce smile as she raised her hands to her sides, the fabric of her inordinately oversized sleeves dangling well past her hands as she said, "No matter. Once the pestilence takes hold, not even the Sage Dragon Emperor will be able to prevent us from accumulating allies."

By the time Black Percher was finished speaking, a large volume of black mist had started to flow from the ends of her sleeves. At the same time, the 14m tall, vaguely ghost-like golem she was standing atop raised its arms and began releasing tempestuous winds from the holes adorning its body.

"Let's see how quickly you come begging me for a solution…!"

Propelled by the winds of the golem, a type of Intermediate Wind Spirit known as Strom, Black Percher's black mist began to spread through the city. To make matters exponentially worse, at least for the inhabitants of Kouen City, several other Stroms, encircling the city, raised their arms to generate massive storm clouds overhead. Their purpose was to create a localized natural disaster and strain the Salamandra Community's ability to respond to and treat the plague that was secretly spreading as a result of Black Percher's mist.

So long as they could make the residents of Kouen City lose hope, the ranks of Grimm Grimoire Hamlin would steadily increase until they were able to subsume the entire Gate. At least, that's what Black Percher, the Demon Lord of the Black Plague, was hoping would happen…

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Seeing the clouds gathering overhead, Sandora's expression darkened nearly as much as the sky as she muttered, "There is a foul stench in the air…"

Though she wasn't entirely sure what the enemy was planning, Sandora had always possessed a remarkable intuition. The Gift Game prevented her from using her power and Authority as a Floor Master, but she could still sense 'something' dangerous to the West.

"Mandra, brother, take charge here. I will go and confront the enemy directly."

Hearing his sister's remark, Mandra wanted to argue, but Sandora had already taken to the sky like a bright orange meteor. Since he could not fly without the aid of a Flying Drake or Wyvern, he could only furrow his pronounced brows in concern, whispering, "Please keep my sister safe…" before continuing to direct the evacuation…

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"Hmmm…?"

Though Mandra hadn't invoked his name, the sincerity of his request allowed it to reach Vahn's ears. He immediately shifted his attention to Sandora and the group plotting to steal her regalia, but the latter hadn't made a move.

Realizing the true motivation for Mandra's request, a moderately amused smile developed across Vahn's face as he whispered, "I suppose an older brother must worry about his younger sister…"

Hearing Vahn's remark, Shiroyasha responded with a soft, "Nn…" without opening her eyes or liberating herself from his embrace. She was keeping tabs on everything, just as Vahn was, so she knew that Sandora wasn't in any immediate danger. Rather, due to the ring adorning her finger and the crown atop her head, there was very little her current opponent could do against her.

Vahn may not have planned for the Demon Lord's attack, but his concern for his loved ones gave them an absolute advantage against anyone that relied on poisons, diseases, and things like mind control…

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Reaching her destination in seconds, Sandora immediately noticed Black Percher standing atop one of her Stroms, asking, "Are you the one behind this?"

Instead of answering Sandora's inquiry, Black Percher squinted her eyes and said, "Sandora Doltdrake…Leader of Salamandra and Floor Master of the North. You are brave to approach me on your own…brave, yet foolish."

Punctuating her words, Black Percher raised her hand and sent a column of black mist towards Sandora. The latter was going to scatter it with her flames, but this ultimately proved unnecessary as the mist dispersed into motes of pure white light the moment it trespassed within 5m of her.

"…"

"…"

Following a brief pause, Sandora smiled as she held up her left hand to reveal her glowing engagement ring, teasing, "Sorry, Miss Demon Lord, but the power of love protects me."

Visibly cringing, Black Percher's expression formed into one of disgust as she raised both arms and shouted, "Then you'll have someone to mourn you…!"

Instead of a hazy black mist, two dark-purple 'beams' erupted from Black Percher's sleeves. It was basically the same attack, but this time she had empowered it with her Spirit Energy.

Though she believed in the power of Vahn's love, Sandora's instincts were telling her to dodge. Her ring may be able to purify the miasma, but it had absolutely no effect on the kinetic energy contained within the blast.

Demonstrating her quick reaction speed and her extraordinary flexibility, Sandora practically pirouetted around the beams of purple energy as she brought her fore and index fingers to her lips. When she opened her eyes, Black Percher could see they had formed into thin slits as Sandora's lungs filled with a phenomenal amount of Fire Elemental and Spirit Energy.

Realizing the danger she was in, Black Percher promptly abandoned the Strom, her figure appearing to flicker out of existence just as a veritable tidal wave of bright orange flames enveloped her previous position. This may sound like an exaggeration, but it was a very apt description as the flames didn't immediately disperse. Instead, they washed over the wall and spread along its surface like napalm as Sandora swept her breath in the direction Black Percher had dodged.

"Damn brat…!"

Seeing Sandora's flames sweeping towards her, Black Percher waved her hand to create a wall of luminescent, brackish-purple mist. It managed to prevent the breath from washing over and consuming her; but, due to the inherent purification properties of flames, the wall was quickly dissolving away as a loud, hissing sound emanated through the area.

Putting even greater pressure on Black Percher, Sandora's expression became severe as she increased the amount of Spirit Energy she was channeling into her breath. The plume of flames erupting from her lips began to contract until, less than a second later, a high-pitched whirring echoed across the entire city as her breath condensed into a laser-like beam of light.

Though she dodged at the last moment, Black Percher's expression paled as Sandora's breath cut through the protective membrane of miasma and pierced her side in an instant. The wound healed almost instantaneously, but the pain was comparable to having a white-hot skewer stabbed into her abdomen.

Evading the subsequent sweeping of Sandora's laser-like breath, Black Percher's thought process briefly stalled when she noticed the orange-haired Dragoness wasn't aiming at her. Instead, her breath was cutting through the Stroms that had encircled the city like an unreasonably hot knife through butter.

Feeling something 'snap' inside of her, Black Percher charged towards Sandora rather than producing her trademarked black mist. Her actions were so unexpected, at least from the perspective of Sandora, that the latter's breath practically exploded in her face as she narrowly evaded a sweep from oversized metallic claws that had emerged from within Black Percher's sleeves.

Demonstrating she wasn't just a long-range combatant, Black Percher's body blurred as she quickly entered within Sandora's range, her forehead striking the startled Princess in the nose.

Intending to take advantage of the moment when Sandora instinctually grabbed at her face, it was Black Percher's turn to be surprised when the former grabbed her wrists and returned a headbutt of her own.

Despite her delicate appearance, Sandora was still a Dragon. She had also accumulated a tremendous amount of experience training with Vahn and fighting to save the world, so it would take a lot more than a headbutt to disorient her.

A stark contrast to Sandora, Black Percher had just recently manifested in the Divine Realm. This was the first fight she had ever been in, so, despite knowing she shouldn't, she ended up covering her face and nose as tears built in the corners of her eyes.

Thinking her opponent was trying to mislead her into lowering her guard, Sandora ignored Black Percher's tears and planted an explosive fist into the petite Demoness's gut. Black Percher's durability was nothing to scoff at, but she ended up being blasted back hundreds of meters and through numerous buildings. When she subsequently charged out of the cloud of dust and debris caused by her union with the ground, a part of her gothic-style dress had been burned away, revealing a charred yet rapidly healing cavity in her stomach.

"You're going to pay for that…!"

Surprised by her opponent's shrill and indignant scream, Sandora was nearly grazed by the tip of the skyscraper-sized black spear that had erupted from Black Percher's sleeve. In the very next moment, however, she grabbed the shaft of the spear, her fingers sinking into its surface as she spun around and swung both it and Black Percher into the city wall.

"Gwak…!"

Impacting the wall at a bad angle, the air was forced from Black Percher's lungs as her back and body contorted in a way that would cause anyone who looked upon her to inhale sharply. Her nature as an amalgamation of more than 80 million Spirits made her practically immortal, but it was still a frightful sight to behold.

Accompanied by the unbearable sounds of bones popping and breaking, Black Percher quickly reverted to her original form. Her complexion was ghastly, and a few beads of sweat could be seen beneath her brow, but her fighting spirit hadn't waned in the slightest.

"Just you wait…every ounce of pain you inflict on to me…I will return it to you a billion-fold…"

Flaring her hands outward, Black Percher manifested a pair of pitch-black wings formed of purple-black miasma. At the same time, matching black katana blades erupted from her sleeves as she charged towards Sandora like a beam of eerie black light.

Compelled by her instincts, Sandora teleported away from the trajectory of Black Percher's attack just as the enraged Demoness carved two 30m long rifts in the void. Her speed and power had drastically increased, so much so that Sandora could feel goose pimples breaking out across her body as she muttered, "You're not a Demon Lord…you're a Divine Spirit!"

Instead of responding to Sandora's outburst, Black Percher adopted a malicious smile as she generated a massive scythe and sliced it toward the befuddled Dragoness. Sandora responded by manifesting an ornate golden trident, but she was still sent crashing into the ground like a tiny, Princess-shaped bullet…

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"Hmmm…I expected the Floor Master of the North to be a little stronger. Could she be holding back for the sake of the city…?"

Responding to the golden-haired beauty's words, a masked female knight with long, pure white hair tied together by a black ribbon asked, "Forgive me for speaking out of turn, my Queen. But shouldn't we be helping out?"

Dismissively waving her hand, the golden-haired beauty, more famously known as Queen Halloween, answered, "No. According to our agreement with the Demon of the White Night, we will not intrude unless the Demon God awakens and proves too much for the Sage Dragon God to handle. If that happens, I'll be relying on you to help protect the civilians."

Though she didn't like the idea of just standing around, the masked knight nodded her head in response to her Master's words. Fortunately, Sandora still had a lot of fight left to give. In fact, much like Black Percher, she was just getting warmed up…

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Black Death? More like Body Odor…!','Fun Fact: All of the Demon Lords that appear in the Mondaiji Anime are Lolis…','Sandora emerges from the rubble, blood trickling from beneath as she points her trident at Black Percher and shouts, "Ban…kai…!"')