The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 353: Blood and Snow - Healer’s Claws

Chapter 353: Blood and Snow - Healer’s Claws

"No!" Kordia shouted, slamming a shield into place that sent Zazel’s shot deflecting wide of its target.

Neither Halie nor Amarena made any move to escape, which Kordia assumed meant they were incapacitated in some way. At this distance, the most she could tell was that Amarena was moving but Halie was not.

Zazel lifted a fist that raised a spike of molten rock, aimed right for her stomach.

Instinctively she rolled, gathering pure mana by will alone before she opened her mouth and fired it. The silvery bolt struck true, breaking Zazel’s shield but failing to cut through the thick aura of magic that surrounded him. Instead, it split into dozens of smaller beams, arcing away as the silver strands faded.

Two more beams broke exactly the same way, and Zazel’s counterattack launched a dozen stone bullets into Kordia’s shields.

The bullets were infused with mana, such that when they struck, they exploded into body-rending shrapnel. Having learned her defenses from Kir, they failed to penetrate, but she felt the drain on her mana supply sharply.

And to her sight, her opponent’s mana had barely dipped at all.

Is this the difference in our power?

If the demon’s aura was blue, that put him on the same level as an Archon mage or above. An exponential rise from where Kordia was at. And based on his armor, he was in war form.

Even if power alone didn’t always determine victory, it was a major advantage for him, and one that Kordia had no idea how to overcome if she couldn’t match him.

But she did have an option that most people didn’t...

A block of exploding earth caught her off guard as she tried to rise into the air.

The moment she landed, spikes stabbed into her shields, forcing her upward as she put more power into the defending hexes to keep them from shattering.

"You are almost making me resent my Princess for taking the better opponent," Zazel sighed. "But she needs the challenge more than I."

Kordia righted herself within her shields and looked at the General. "If you’re that bored with me, how about we call this a draw and you let me go heal my friends."

"Such a thing seems unsatisfying to us both," he chuckled.

"I take no satisfaction from this." Kordia stored her want and reached inside, into the connection she had to the spirit who had given her the power to heal and -

Fear. Danger. Smoke.

Battle. Fury.

Pain.

"Not now, kit!"

The voice of the spirit boomed in her mind, shoving her out of the connection, but with a surge of power nonetheless. One that filled Kordia, lengthened her tails, and caused her to become shrouded in metallic, silver-blue mana.

She fell forward, growing into the form of a massive fox. A seventh, spectral tail added itself to her six.

"What is th- "

Before he could finish his sentence, Kordia broke through her own shields as she sped forward almost as fast as Kir’s strange aircraft.

She didn’t even feel the impact as she knocked the General directly backward, cratering a small rise with his body before she closed, swiping with her claws.

Each slash carved grooves into the earth, the mana reaching deeper than her physical body.

Deep enough to begin carving into Zazel’s armor, through his protective aura, but not so deep that he grew injured.

Five swipes in, he grabbed her by a single claw and swung, lifting Kodia backward and off of him so that she landed on her back as he rose from the crater.

With a burst of speed he closed, pummeling her chest as she forced mana into her aura at those places on instinct.

Every punch was draining, and so she swiped at him, forcing him to dodge before sending another set of beams lancing out from her fox flames.

Three struck true, searing through his protective aura and scouring his armor with charred lines.

Just as he was about to land, Kordia reached forward with a paw and slammed it onto his tail, which forced him to land on his back.

The moment she tried to crush him beneath the same paw she’s used, the earth rose up in a domed trap, protecting Zazel and catching her wrist. She pulled back, and Zazel appeared measures away, having passed through the earth like it was water, before letting his magic push him back to standing.

"It seems the healer has claws after all."

Kordia tried to reply, but what came out of her throat was a garbled, snarling set of noises.

"It also seems you are unable to speak in that form... A shame, since good banter is hard to come by in battle." A moment later, he bowed. "Now you are worthy of my full attention."

As he rose, Zazel placed his hand over his eyes.

The lines of mana leading outward contracted, pulling back their spectral versions of real eyes. One by one, the four eyes that had been closed began to open, until Zazel was staring at her with all seven.

"I have you where I want you now, Kordia Spirit-Touched... If you do not stand your ground, it will be those behind you who die."

Though she realized what he meant, Kordia still turned, her eyes briefly catching sight of the still-unmoving Halie and a writhing, twisting Amarena before she looked back at her opponent, gathering mana to resist his attack.

Arcing backward, seven points of light appeared before his eyes, combining into one massive beam as he let loose a blast of pure mana.

Without the time to cohere a shield, the only thing Kordia could do was stand in the beam’s way as she took the beam in the body, keening in pain as she forced herself to heal and heal.

The indescribable, searing blast whittled away the power she’d gained from her brief contact with the silver fox. Without that contact to regenerate it, she fell out of that form, shrinking back to her original state as the beam began to lessen.

When Zazel approached, it was to find her lying on the ground, utterly naked and panting as the burns on her flesh healed.

His aura had fallen, from blue all the way to yellow, but Kordia sensed her own mana had grown far, far weaker than that.

Zazel paused his steps when he was near enough to Kordia to crouch, staring into her eyes as they regrew.

"Healer, tend thy own wounds," he quoted, with a sadistic chuckle. "I suppose I should keep you alive... in case Kainur falls."

Kordia grabbed him by the wrist as he reached out.

"Is there fight in you yet?"

"Gods curse me for doing this..." Kordia ground through her teeth.

"Doing whafmph!"

Zazel jerked his wrist free as he pulled back, his fingers rising to his mouth, which had begun to seal around his razor teeth. He tried to pull at the flesh. To move his chin, and some of the teeth stuck through in sprays of crimson blood.

But then the cuts healed themselves. And those were not the only gaps that filled.

His eyes began to heal over. And while he was able to cast out another beam of mana in the same way, it went wide, fired off wildly as he lost sight.

Kordia knew what was happening to him. She’d commanded his body to heal, pouring her mana into those places that were open to the world. His eyes. His ears. His nostrils and mouth. Every orifice and pore.

And because the first thing healers learned was how to bypass internal mana to get to the body, there was nothing he could do to stop it. Not without turning his mana inward, which took time that battle did not afford.

She forced herself to watch as he suffocated. Writhing and tearing at his own mouth for every string of air. Raising a hand, she blasted him with weaker spells, giving him no time to concentrate. Watching as his power dipped lower and lower in color.

Given time or experience, he might have known to push out her mana with his own. As far as Kordia knew, only she had worked out how to willfully resist the use of healing magic applied thusly. Having worked backward from Kir’s morbid suggestions in order to figure out how to defeat the magic of one who would dare corrupt the art of healing.

After a minute his body collapsed out of war form, perhaps a final, desperate idea to halt what was happening. But it didn’t work. It made the flesh grown over his mouth into a gross, veined bubble. One distended by the breath he couldn’t release.

She waited and waited, until his mana dipped below red, to finally surge forward and withdraw the commands she’d put into her body. Reaching into her storage, she pulled out a knife and cut past the flesh on his lips, before placing her hands on his chest and forcing his lungs to pump. His heart to start breathing.

A gasp burst out of him as he sputtered and coughed.

"Don’t move. Don’t speak."

"I was... defeated..."

Kordia slapped him upside the head. "I said don’t speak, Zazel. I told you I don’t kill if I can help it and I meant it."

"As the victor commands," he acknowledged, relaxing as he lay back.

She smacked him on the head again. "I’ll fix you after this is over."

Standing, she turned and started to walk away, shuddering in the cold wind as she approached Amarena.

Her friend and lover, even if they weren’t quite in love with each other more than Kir, had stopped moving.

She was on her hands and knees, and when Kordia had almost finished her approach, Amarena pushed off of the ground with her hands as she stood.

She seemed taller.

But that also might have been the spike of purple soulstone growing out of her forehead.

"Rena... are you alright?" She looked different, but still recognizable. Sleeker. With snow-white hair that stood out starkly from her purple skin. And her aura was green on the cusp of blue.

Kordia didn’t even see Rena move before the woman was in front of her. Just a slight blur.

"Kordia, please look after Halie. I have to go." She lowered herself and kissed Kordia on the forehead. "Thank you."

"Where are you going?" Kordia asked.

"To stop this battle."

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