The Battle Rages--Elma and Dehlia

<Training Range>--

Dehlia had just fired a stream of water. "Hmm... yeah, this blessing doesn't work as well with my own magic... Melee it is." She clawed an oncoming demon with her glowing hand. The demon, its head now torn apart, crumpled, and faded away.

"Just one second!" Elma said as she fiddled with the Range's terminal. "Almost there!"

Elma executed the commands, and hundreds of targets and training dummies appeared in the Range's field. Many of the circling demons started crashing into the targets, and when they did, brilliant light erupted from the targets. That light was the congratulations-for-hitting-the-target light.

Elma pumped her fists as she watched the lesser demons wince with every burst of light. Her gamble had paid off. She had correctly figured out that she could customize the targets to give off the Svilran light effects whenever they broke. It wasn't enough to hurt them, but it was bright enough to stun and scare them.

With those seconds the targets were affording them, Dehlia and Elma systematically attacked the demons with their blessed weapons, striking them down with the help of the divine aura Svilran lent them.

"If you're quick on your feet, you can use the targets as footholds!" Elma said as she practically danced across the air, leaping from one target to the other as she slashed through demon after demon.

Dehlia chuckled, content to hide behind the straw training dummies and strike back as soon as the opportunity presented itself. "Now, now, don't go thinking this old woman could be so nimble."

"Says the person who was practically skating through the sky back on Nemo!"

 

Downstairs, Narlivs chuckled and showed a gentle smile. "How very clever, Elma. That's very right. Svilran's divine factor is what further protects our facilities."

"You mean stuff like that fountain's barrier exists because of Svilran?" Inverse Fainn asked.

"Because of Svilran AND the Hero Hub. All barriers are powered by the aether the Hero Hub absorbs, but all that aether passes through Svilran first, strangely enough. When it does, she converts it to Divine Aether. That is what it means to be integrated into the Hero Hub. If we wanted to give her a technical name, she serves a function as the Hero Hub's Aether-Element Converter. So what Elma did was realize that Svilran's Divine modifier element was accessible--though limited."

"Hmm... And she was able to weaponize it... I think... after this fight, I want to look into installing some kind of security fixtures. Do you think we can do that? Things like turrets and so on?"

"I see no reason why those wouldn't be things we could build."

"Yeah... These demons are a little more annoying than I expected..." Fainn said as he looked up at the Inverse's sky.

Narlivs nodded. "Please be careful, Fainn."

Fainn furrowed his brows. "If I don't take this shot now, I might not get the chance later."

***

The Battle Rages--Dominguez's side

Dominguez had observed all the combatants, magic circles floating in front of his one good eye.

"The nun--at first I thought she may have been infused with the Holy element due to her earthly attire, but no, she is making use of something else entirely. So there's something other than Divinity, Holiness, and Vitality that can harm demons?" He shifted his eye over to Svilran. "And that one... She wields the Divine element, but... her divinity doesn't match the profile of the other Imaginal deities I've observed... She looks more like a lesser deity from Earth..." He then shifted his gaze to the <Mess Hall>. "And the one in there--she's making use of the Holy element, but that was to be expected, given previous observations. I certainly can't approach her carelessly. Angels typically can't unleash so much power in such big bursts, but in this case, the Imaginal's powers are multiplying and expanding the elemental factor... What a bother." He then looked over toward the <Training Range>, neglecting Fainn. "The young man being swarmed is hard to get a read on, but the demons will most likely wear him down. And then those two... They are by far the weakest... And..."

The veins around his eye cavity bulged as his damaged eye cavity throbbed as he caught sight of Elma.

"I have a bone to pick with you two. Forget just watching. I can remove you two from this battle."

He held out his hand, and the air around him suddenly dropped many degrees. Black ice began forming around Dominguez at the call of his malice.

"You all aren't very good at attacking from a distance, but I can--"

He stopped, his blood running cold, and he turned around. He fired a blast of black flames into empty space. His one good eye was darting around in all directions.

"What are you?!" he yelled.

To anyone else, it would look like Dominguez had just yelled at empty space, but Dominguez himself--he knew he was in the presence of something strange.

He heard a giggle--one that shook him to the core.

"Where! Don't mock me--"

Then, Fainn appeared behind him, having flown out of the swarming mess of demons. Dominguez still had his eyes fixed on the empty space ahead of him, desperately searching for the presence that was most certainly there.

Fainn's dome expanded over Dominguez, and only because of that fact, was Dominguez able to realize how close he was to danger. He turned and bent his body backward, narrowly dodging Fainn's horizontal slash.

What was that!? Dominguez wondered, having felt +Nightmares ARE Fiction's+ field of influence for the first time. He flew backward, hitting Fainn with black flames as he did.

Fainn took the hit, wincing from the strange, deep pain he was feeling, but then the halo behind his head flashed, extinguishing the flames.

"What the?!" Dominguez yelped as he kept flying backward. "Holy?! But no--that can't be. I'd sense it--Gah!"

He yelped upon hitting the nightmare dome's boundary and looked up. "What the? A barrier?" His senses flared, and he looked forward in time to see Fainn coming for him. With a pitiful look on his face, he flew up, dodging Fainn yet again. He released more black flames, and Fainn cut through them with the brilliant blade.

"What is going on?!" Dominguez yelled as he flew away. He kept sneaking glances back at Fainn while releasing darts of black flame at the man. "What's with that appearance?" Dominguez muttered. "Black wings and white wings? Fallen Angel and Pious Angel? But no--he doesn't feel like them. His signatures are off!" Dominguez muttered to himself."Wait--"

Dominguez realized something at that moment. He hadn't properly analyzed that opponent.

When the battle had begun, that young man had gotten himself surrounded by the lesser demons after making some strange bubble appear. Then, Dominguez's passive awareness told him the young man was nothing special. But now, he realized how nonsensical that idea was.

"This strange place has a deity, a nun with a strange element, someone infused with the power of an angel, and a woman that should be dead... How could the young man be nothing special? No! It's stranger that he doesn't have something strange about him!"

Dominguez adjusted his orientation so that he was still flying away from Fainn, but facing him. Many violet spell circles appeared behind him, and he released purple bolts of lightning at Fainn.

"Who are you?!" Dominguez yelled as spells circles appeared in front of his eyes.

Fainn, meanwhile, tried to dodge the bolts but was struck many times. It didn't amount to much, however. The damage was nullified, and he continued his flight toward Dominguez, swords ready.

Dominguez gritted his teeth as he processed the information his magic was presenting him. "A reality-warper? The elements he wields are fakes, but their effects are just as real as the true elements... And... hold on--"

Balls of blue and golden flames cut through the sky and hit Dominguez, taking him by surprise.

"Pain!" he screamed as his body recoiled from the sting of holiness. He glanced down and saw Kanae standing on the nightmare sphere's surface and over many exhausted demons.

She came into this cage to attack me? But...

Dominguez was puzzled as he sensed the damage fading. The sting of the element was still there, but the damage--burnt flesh and so on--had been negated.

I'm being affected by this sphere's strange rules too? But why? What's the point?

Dominguez did not know he was mere moments from his answer. He let out a pitiful squeal when Fainn flew by and separated his torso from his waist.

Fainn adjusted his trajectory as Dominguez screamed and turned, grabbing Dominguez by his head and running the white sword through his back and out his chest.

"Y-you," Dominguez struggled to say. He had seen the factors within the stream of information the magic in front of his eyes were receiving. "You--you're human. An Earth Human!"

"So what if I am?" Fainn asked as his body began to transform.

Dominguez roared, and ominous purple light leaked out from the wound in his chest, the bottom of his torso, his mouth, and his eyes. In the next moment, as his yell reached its apex, he self-destructed, releasing waves of black flames and force out in all directions.

Fainn was blown back, his wings protecting him. Moments later, Dominguez regained his form, panting and sweating. "So, you negate all consequences within this dome..." he tried to put on a smile, but his body seemed to resist that smile.

Dominguez had not noticed, but his eyes were fixed on the young man shielding himself with his wings. Fear had settled into his heart. Proving that fear, he gulped when the wings started moving.

The wings spread apart all at once, and Dominguez's blood ran cold. "N-No!"

Fainn was before him, but he had changed once more. A sharp horn had grown out from the left side of his head, and a cackling skull sat on top of the ominous halo. A pair of skeletal arms had sprouted from his back and landed in front of Fainn like they were claws ready to grab and restrain an unlucky victim. One of his eyes had disappeared, leaving nothing but swirling darkness in his place. Finally, a large section of white wall floated a few inches from his right side, surrounding the right side of Fainn's body like a floating shield. The wall had a distinct cross cut into it.

Fainn didn't know what it was that Dominguez saw in him, but he knew the emotion Dominguez was wearing--terror.

Dominguez released a wild flurry of fireballs at Fainn as the young man approached.

"What are you--no!" Dominguez screamed. He screamed and conjured up the head of a flaming snake in front of his body. The snake shot out toward Fainn, who simply moved the shield-like wall segment in front of him.

Fainn rushed into the flames and came out the other side, driving both swords into Dominguez's body. The skeletal hands fingered Dominguez's orifices and his face started to decay.

"Noooooo!" Dominguez screamed as black smoke exploded out of his mouth, and Fainn took him toward the floor of his nightmare sphere.

"Kanae! Are you ready?" Fainn yelled.

"Yes!" Kanae replied, many balls of golden fire ready to fly. The nightmare sphere shattered, and everyone who was held up in the sky began to fall. Fainn lost his nightmarish form and pushed himself away from the almost unconscious Dominguez.

"Goodbye, Demon! This one is for Dehlia!" Kanae yelled as pillars of blue-golden flames shot out from her branches. They consumed Dominguez, incinerating him while he was still consumed by his terror.

"Kanae! All the other lesser demons!" Fainn called, pointing her toward all the demons he had exhausted.

"Got it!" she yelled back as she sent her fireballs flying in all directions. With her control over her flame on full display, she burned the bodies of the demons without pause, the Holy element making jokes of these shriekers.

A platform made of light appeared below Fainn, stopping his fall before he gained any more speed.

"Svil! Thank you!" Fainn yelled.

"No problem!" Svilran called back.

Kanae, too, was caught by a platform. Dominguez confirmed incinerated so thoroughly that Narlivs could no longer sense him, Fainn and Kanae leaped back to the ground, where Kanae sent out more of her flames to further exterminate the remaining lesser demons.