As Darius’ humane appearance and figure mutated into a dastardly twisted semblance of a demon, Erin’s blade was already inches away from cleaving into his head. Thin layers of translucent barriers manifested around Darius, glowing with a dark sheen.

Erin frowned at the results of her Appraisal. “Rot Magic?” she muttered inwardly. The barriers had the ability to corrode anything they touched.

“Your sword will be no more the moment the blade touches my barrier!” Darius sneered with a chuckle. Horns were sprouting from his head while spikes protruded from his back as he awaited Erin’s miserable fate.

However, Darius’ wicked expectations were not met. Instead, Erin’s cyan-glowing blade sliced through the barriers like they were nothing but papers. Erin’s blade was not showing any signs of corrosion.

Darius uttered a muddled curse before leaping out of the blade’s way. He tumbled to his feet just as Erin brought her sword around and swung it down towards him. A large piece of bone extended out from his palm which he then used as a blade to parry Erin’s sword. But to his astonishment, even that bone of a blade was easily sliced through.

Darius hopped back to avoid being sliced along with his bone blade. He coated himself in black lightning and threw bolts of dark thunder at the nimble Fox-kin.

Erin clad herself in lightning too and dodged all of the black lightning bolts. Her figure streaked erratically in Darius’ sight, leaving behind faint crackling of thunder. He struggled to follow her movements with his eyes but his instincts as a Demoid assisted him in his plight.

Darius spun around and unleashed a flurry of lightning spears at the spot where Erin arrived.

“Die!” Darius snarled.

The lightning spears crashed and exploded one after another in their relentless assault.

It was only after the sixth explosion that Darius came to his senses. “Ah… bollocks…” he stammered with a pale face in spite of his copper skin that was darkened by his Demoid transformation. “I killed… her? N-no… Oh, no…. I killed her…”

“You wish,” came Erin’s voice from the clouds of dust and smoke.

Her voice brought Darius some comfort, ironically and unironically. A Fae’s death would mean grave consequences. Before relief could fully set in, slices of Aura Blades shot towards him in a burst. With a wave of his hand, he deflected the Aura Blades with his black lightning.

Erin darted out of the smoke and flew at Darius like an arrow, her sword raised.

“Foolish fox,” he scoffed. “Do you not— uh?” His words were cut off as he laid eyes on the flourishing tails of Erin that seemed to entrap his attention and mind. He didn’t know why but he found it hard to look away as glitters of cyan light sparkled around those bundles of fluff.

Erin offered no final words and slashed at Darius.

But her blade was stopped by the black lightning covering Darius’ entire body. Erin arched an eyebrow. This method of defending against her Mystic Blade was extremely familiar. It was the same as the Knight Demoid he fought in the cave where his armour also stopped her blade in the same fashion.

Erin was annoyed by the Covenant’s ever-increasing arsenal against her but she also felt honoured they tailored her opponents specifically to her. They acknowledged her ability and prowess. As a duelist and someone with a liking for duels, she couldn’t help but take it as a commendation.

Darius snapped out of her stupor then. “Fucking bitch!” he spat and thrust his hand at Erin, which were now claws as big as his own head.

Erin flipped backwards and leapt away from Darius.

“What kind of Fae are you to be fighting with such deceitful methods?”

“The kind that’s fighting against a deceitful and unsavoury bunch of individuals.”

Darius snorted and produced a set of chains out of the black lightning crackling around him. “I can’t kill you but don’t think the advantage is all yours just because of that.”

“I don’t presume I have all the advantages but I certainly have most of them.”

“What are you—” Darius did not finish forming his question before he moved out of the way of an oversized sword that cleaved deep into the ground where he had just been standing.

“And here I thought you forgot about me,” Amyra scoffed as she reined in her cleaver-sword.

Rigetta was just beside Amyra with her bloodstained Karak in hand. “To think you would sink to this depth of depravity just to keep your youth. How sad.”

“As if Dwarrows and the others of your ilks would know the plights of humans. We humans have nothing but numbers to our advantage. We don’t have any innate aptitude for Magic Arts and our lives are short in comparison to all the other races out there. This is the only way we could thrive and be better than the likes of you.”

“You think becoming a Demoid makes you better?” Rigetta snorted. “Better at being worse, if that’s your intent, then you are absolutely correct.”

Darius’ face curled with contempt. “Enough talking. I’ll see the two of you dead.” The black lightning around him began to grow, burning rampantly like wildfire.

“Even if the surrounding and nearby city guards are being paid off, you will still attract a lot of attention this way,” Erin said. “Do you not fear your exposure means the exposure of your… true employer?”

“Worry about your enemy now, vixen?” Darius laughed. “You need not worry. After I’m finished with all of you here, the exposure will not matter.”

Erin frowned with her gaze narrowed. “I see.”

The skies were darkening as Darius’ black lightning continued to grow. Darius waved his hand down and a streak of thunder descended from the clouds.

“Whoa!” Amyra exclaimed as she dove away from the lightning strike.

Rigetta did not move but the lightning strike did not harm her. The lightning struck her Karak instead and the queer-shaped blade absorbed all of the lightning. “Garish and tasteless,” she remarked. “You truly don’t care if you’re exposed, huh?”

“Worry about yourself first, Guild Master!” Darius roared and pounced at Rigetta. The black lightning glazed Darius' claws as he took a swipe.

Rigetta dodged low and returned the lightning strike in her Karak back to Darius, but the results were to be expected. The lightning merely melded into one with the black lightning sputtering around Darius. Rigetta tutted and flipped away from him.

“You can’t run!” Darius shouted and gave chase but Amyra cut in, literally, with her cleaver-sword. He stopped just a step before the path of Amyra’s swing. He blasted the Augur with a bolt of lightning but Amyra battered the magic projectile away with a strong wave of her cleaver-sword.

“Amateur,” Amyra mocked and unleashed an Aura Blade towards Darius.

He cut the Aura Blade down with his lightning-laced claws but another Aura Blade was already coming his way. He cut that Aura Blade down too and before he could catch his breath, two more Aura Blades were flying towards him. “Impossible,” he groaned as he witnessed Amyra swinging her cleaver-sword as if it weighed nothing, throwing a barrage of Aura Blades.

“You deny what’s laid bare and true before you,” Amyra sneered. “How narrow of a mind you have, fallen human.”

“Silence, you portly wench!” Darius threw himself at Amyra with his claws bared.

Amyra swiftly evaded his claws but she did not account for his headbutt. She blocked his ram with the flat side of her sword but the force behind his charge sent her tumbling head over heels. In her tumble, she pushed off the ground and flipped to her feet. She raised her sword in anticipation of his continuous assault but found him being intercepted by Erin.

“Don’t tell me you have already forgotten about me,” Erin jibed while locking her blade with Darius’ claws. She was not directly clashing with him or else his claws would have been cut through cleanly. The black lightning was keeping her blade at bay without touching the edge.

“Don’t be hasty now, Vixen. Your time will come soon enough.” Darius smirked. “In fact, it’s nearer than you think.”

Erin widened her eyes.

Darius widened his smirk as he brandished the chains moulded of lightning.

Erin swung at the chains but it avoided her blade as if it had a mind of its own and coiled around her hand. Before the chains could tighten, Erin used Warp— or she intended to but she found her vision blurring but she stayed where she was. And the chains tightened around her arm.

“Your Spatial Magic is known. In the presence of this black lightning, your precious Magic Art of the space domain is useless.”

And then, her spell sword disappeared too.

“Of course, your Unique Talent is rendered null too.”

The grasp of the chains continued in its spread. It looped around her arm until it reached her shoulder. Erin tried to focus and conjure her sword but no blade formed in her hand. She shot a Lightning Bolt at Darius’ face but he was unfazed.

Darius chuckled. “My flesh is lightning. My blood is thunder. You are nothing before me, vixen!”

“Lady Erin!” Rigetta cried as she lunged. She threw her Karak but Darius blasted her away with a heavy pulse of lightning that she didn’t even see coming.

“Let her ladyship go!” Amyra screamed and slashed down at Darius with Arcane Edge.

The black lightning aura morphed into a large hand which then grabbed Amyra’s blade. He swung her around by the blade before tossing her to the side along with her cleaver-sword. The black lightning hand returned to its former state, a fierce aura swirling and dancing rampantly around Darius around.

“Do you take me for just another disposable pawn like all the others you met and fought?”

Erin rolled her eyes. “Do you people have nothing else to say or is it a tradition at this point?” she mocked. “Or are all of your egos the same stroke of the same brush?”

Darius glared at Erin and tightened the chains further.

“F-fuck…!” Erin groaned.

“Keep yapping, vixen. It only gets better from here.”

“If it means you would shut up, I would gladly welcome the pain.”

“As you wish, vixen,” Darius said and summoned more chains with his black lightning. They coiled around Erin’s body like pythons and vipers.

Giving in to the weight of the chains, Erin dropped to her knees. Her hands were preventing her from dropping her face straight to the ground.

Darius guffawed. “I have done it… I have apprehended the great Erynthea! I have done what no one else has. I caught you, vixen!”

“Keep dallying in your dreams…”

“But this is no dream, m’lady. This is real. This is the end for you. Lord Grid shall be very happy with this.”

“Lord Grid…? Rylan Grid? The viceroy.”

“Who else?”

“...You don’t work for the Covenant.”

“You are under a misconception, Lady Erynthea. I don't work for anyone. I work for myself. I work with others for my own benefit. I’m no one’s pet or henchman. No one slaves me around.”

“Internal strife… I see,” Erin surmised. “Of course.”

“Mumble all you want, vixen. It’s over. Your friends are no match for me.” Darius snickered. “You are no match for me.”

Erin sighed inwardly. “Amyra!” she shouted.

Darius glanced at Erin with a frown. “What are you playing at now?”

“Yes, m’lady?” Amyra responded, who was back on her feet and looking for an opportunity to strike

“Burn them all.”

Amyra furrowed her brows. “Burn what, m’lady?”

“Raze this whole place to the ground. Transform it into a pyre.”

“Lady Erin, wouldn’t that—”

“Exactly,” Erin answered before the question fully left Rigetta’s lips.

“Ah.” Amyra curled her lips into a wide grin. “Understood, m’lady,” she said and a large blaze was set alight on her cleaver-sword.

Darius snapped his gaze to Amyra. His eyes locked on her blazing cleaver-sword. “No…” he gasped. “Don’t you dare!” he roared and shot towards Amyra.

“Too late!” Amyra swung her cleaver sword around, grazing the ground while leaving sparks of the blaze in its wake. The withered woods caught the flames quickly and the flames spread throughout the dead grove rapidly.

Screams and shouts erupted from the outside of the burning woods in which the four were trapped in.

“What have you done!?” Darius bellowed.

“Exposing you, Demon,” Erin answered with a grin.