Pyramid-like barrier collapsing under the pressure of the Hellfire coating her fingernails, Rachel’s vision penetrated the veil hiding spiritual forces, giving her an unfiltered look at the hundreds of threads the Priestess used to transfer any damage done to another party.

  “Rachel, can we talk about this?!”

  Dozens of occult-like playing cards flew toward Relica’s outstretched hand, the panicking woman falling in slow motion as Yomi’s energy burned through her White Lunar Pool. This was more than [Rapid Mode]’s usual effect—the power of a Baroness of Hell now flooded and twisted her system.

  “Talk about what?”

  With her intense red pupils and shimmering, obsidian clover eyes opened to all the phenomena typically hidden from mortal view, Rachel saw Relica in a new light. She was certainly prepared to deal with just about anything with her precast spell deck and the weird occult symbol floating above her head, which wasn’t her own power. Although, that ‘anything’ didn’t include a Baroness from Hell.

  Scarlet locked up as Rachel spun into action, moving out of reach in the blink of an eye as her giant hammer swung off her shoulders, Hellfire sparking across its surface.

  “Rachel, the hostages!”

  The flat, multiple-spiked end of her hammer passed right through Relica’s chest just as the shaky-eyed terrorist became a flickering shadow, teleporting away in fright. The hostages didn’t matter; Yomi’s corrupting force severed every link Relica had made.

  “Are all free,” she answered, twisting the hammer to her shoulders again as she turned to stare at the bewildered vamp girl. “She used a shadow double to escape three floors above us…which happens to be on fire for some particular reason. Your work?”

  “Fiona’s…”

  “Ah. That reminds me. Here you go…”

  Taking the unconscious little woman out of her pocket and handing her to the stunned girl, Rachel’s vision narrowed upon seeing the controlling nature of the black collar around her throat. Its internal magical circuits were totally fried, rendering it useless, but it wasn’t hard to see Relica’s plan.

  Corrupted Nia was gleefully informing the half-dead unicorn that she’d freed all the hostages. Now, Relica was defenseless, and the hounds were closing in from all sides as Selvaria jumped into the sea to go after their submarine; its decoy tricks would be less likely to work against the leviathan.

  Scarlet looked winded as she took Fiona, cradling her in her hands. “What do I do?”

  “Hmm.” Rachel’s gaze lifted to the ceiling, smelling and hearing the smoke from the fairy’s rampage; it had a magical scent she hadn’t experienced before, thanks to her many Baroness abilities. “Help Maria evacuate the building before the fire spreads here. I have some personal business to handle.”

  The cruel stigma of allowing one’s prey a moment’s rest before shattering that sense of security tugged at Rachel’s chest as she reached up to crush Scarlet’s choker. A desperate victim was the easiest to exploit secrets from, and it seemed she did have some connections to the UK.

  She chuckled upon listening to the woman make contact with a rather interesting party through her deck of spells.

  [20 Seconds Remaining]

  [Hell Step: Activated]

  [Hellfire Cloak: Activated]

  “Ack—extract!” Relica coughed through the smoke, stumbling to the window while sending a pulse of dark magic to shatter the glass and allow the suffocating clouds an exit. “You wanted information on the Scarlet Hand? Then get me out—Rachel?! Wait!”

  A flash of crimson lightning and black flames brought her to the center of the blazing inferno, a distance away from the Priestess to further instill fear.

  Striding forward, she twirled her weightless hammer around her hand as Relica stumbled against the window, throwing out spell after spell that was effortlessly absorbed by Yomi’s cloak.

  [14 Seconds Remaining]

  “You really have no loyalties, do you?” Rachel mused, dozens of the occult cards burning away as she strolled through the natural fire, blood magic spells, and seals the woman threw at her. “Have you exhausted all of your options?”

  “I know the truth about Scarlet now!” Relica screamed, face blanching as the spiritual binding threads she sent burned away before even touching her skin. “It’s a lie! It’s all been a lie!”

  [9 Seconds Remaining]

  “Oh…” The familiar popping sound Daran made when teleporting pricked her ears as magic words, spoken with an English accent, brought Relica’s literal knights in shining armor. “The British are coming? How ironic.”

  Rachel’s grin fell as Scarlet’s voice burned a reality into her mind, and three shimmering knights with a robbed elderly man came between them.

  “Wait, Rachel,” Scarlet cried from three floors below, the crackling of flames between them raising the hair on her tail. “Relica tried to kill you when you were nine!”

  The night of the car accident flooded Rachel’s tainted thoughts, a cruel twist of fate that had changed the course of her entire life condensed into a single face. The emotional torture her mother suffered, the division between her dad and uncle, and the anger that had fueled her until now all merged into one answer: the insane, dark-haired terrorist in front of her had damaged her entire family.

  To her, time came to almost a standstill as [Accelerated Mind] activated.

  [4 Seconds Remaining]

  [2 Seconds Remaining]

  Standing utterly still, Rachel allowed the information to seep through her with the miasma of Yomi squeezing the air from her lungs; the memory of her bloodied cousin in the seat next to her, the tears and cries of her mother and aunt, the sirens that eventually came.

  Pressure welled up and compressed her chest as all enjoyment and amusement in seeing Relica squirm evaporated. She’d suspected as much, but it was another thing entirely to have it said aloud.

  Free hand rising to press against her breast, Rachel’s heartless eyes met the fully armored men directly between her and her enemy. Every pounding drum against her ribcage brought reality closer to her chilling heart, prickles cascading down her arms. As it turned out, she wasn’t satisfied with a swift ending.

  Nia…

  [1 Second Remaining]

  Her little rabbit’s malicious giggles echoed through their shared connection, and more Hell Force flooded her veins, bringing with it a pain and backlash Eostre said would come in the form of harsh spiritual fatigue, but she didn’t have time for that.

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  [Lunar Spike - Hell Moon - Yomi: Activated]

  [31 Seconds Remaining]

  Breathing out a long stream of air, time still crawling to her focused mind, Rachel met the blue-gray eyes of the holy knight’s leader as he set himself against her. A purifying aura surrounded him, a cross on his colorful armaments that made Rachel’s skin tingle, but it was pitiful compared to the power of the Hell Moon.

  She didn’t glance at the two knights beside him, wearing similar gear although far less potent, and the wizard in the back was possibly stronger than Relica herself as he lifted a staff bathed in magical energy to repel her. Yet, at this moment, none of it meant anything to her.

  “May the shield of Avalon protect us!”

  Pain shot through Rachel’s soul, and she ignored it. All sound died as the blue pulse was met by her own shockwave of spirit-disrupting forces that rippled through space, penetrating the shell in an instant as she took a step forward, turning the fire around her black and spreading Yomi’s pollution throughout the room.

  [Hell Pulse: Yomi]

  “M, she’s too powerful! Dammit, I knew dealing with this witch was a mistake we’d regret. K, V, pull yourselves together! Stand strong!” the silver-armored knight shouted as his fellow defenders crumpled to the ground under Yomi’s waves. “Take them and go!”

  The elder winced, barely able to keep himself from falling unconscious as Relica’s panicked eyes rolled into the back of her head. She crumpled to the ground under the pressure of the red electricity that overpowered the wizard’s ward.

  “You have to buy me time! We have our orders. Augmentanium antel—what?!”

  [Spiritual Lock: Yomi]

  “I’ll handle it!” The man jumped forward to meet her, using a Divine Energy so pitiful compared to the deities she’d just been in the presence of. His spiritual layers were bolstered with defensive walls to contend with her, but Rachel was done playing with her food, and they would not escape. “We need that inf—what happened?!”

  The wizard’s wide eyes lifted to her in shock as his staff’s life flickered and dimmed. Yomi’s tainting touch twisted the floorboards and ignited the air with toxic pollutants as she cut them off in a sealed space, making the wizard and knight falter against the harsh presence she emitted.

  “You’re not leaving,” Rachel dispassionately stated, flickering to the knight’s side. “And you need to get out of my way…”

  He choked, dropping his sword to put all his power behind his rising shield, radiating light as her heavy hammer met the aegis. The black flame-wreathed maul melted through the Divine Force, slamming into the man’s breastplate to erupt in a pulse of Hellfire on impact.

  A concussive burst of foul air whipped the black flames into a frenzy as the savaged holy man was thrown four buildings to tumble across a park, mythical armor breaking away with the corruption bathing him.

  “Galahad!” the wizard screamed as the foul air whipped the blaze into a frenzy, and he held up his flickering staff to create a protective blue shell by channeling all of his mana into it. His shaky gaze was upon the massive hole of black flames showing Galahad’s path through the disintegrated concrete and steel. “Such potent evil… You are a real devil.”

  His shell bent inward as she stepped through it to leer down at him, the other two knights only just barely kept safe by the ward the wizard was maintaining.

  “Glad you took notice,” Rachel whispered, her anti-spiritual wave swiftly draining the legend’s reserves as Yomi’s pollution began to set into his staff. “Why make an attack on the US?”

  She wanted to drag the woman’s soul into Hell itself, yet that wasn’t an option without its severe consequences, and Rachel was certain the Priestess would end up there anyway if she twisted and burned the witch’s soul with its corrupting flames.

  “No, I don’t care why the UK wants—”

  Rachel paused as the old man glanced between the two faltering knights and the hole where Galahad had been thrown through, gritting his teeth as Nia crawled through the floor like the devilish imp she was to grin at the shaking men.

  “Take the bitch…” he snarled, throwing Relica outside of the shield with surprising strength. “She has vital intel, but starting trouble with the US military and devils wasn’t in the immunity agreement.”

  [21 Seconds Remaining]

  Rachel grinned, fire flicking off her black fingernails as she moved to snatch the woman by the throat, yet the moment she closed off the woman’s airway, Relica’s eyes flew open, radiating a malevolent force that matched her own.

  Gut tightening, she squeezed tighter as spikes of blood cut through her [Hell Cloak], drilling into her veins, and a smirk twisted the woman’s lips, whispering, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Rachel. I’ve heard so much…”

  She didn’t need to ask the entity controlling Relica who she was—the blood had been a dead giveaway. “Veronica.”

  “Hmm-hmm-hmm.”

  A cyclone of crimson liquid encircled them, and Relica faded away, leaving her on a flat pool of reflective blood in a black abyss overhead. She’d now entered a mental battle with the stalker cultist.

  Her lips twitched at the interference, intense gaze drifting to the bright-eyed, curly blonde-haired girl that rose out of the sea, holding her elbow behind her back. “Piss off.”

  “Sorry, Rachel!” she chirped, doing surprisingly well at countering Yomi’s taint to break the mental attack. “I still need Relica, so you’ll have to wait a little while longer before getting your vengeance. I’m super impressed at how strong you got, though! She was right… You are a problem.”

  Flexing her fingers, Rachel streamed out a heavy puff of air with a humorless chuckle; whenever she’d simulated combat with this girl, she’d always lost when in Scarlet’s body. Relica wasn’t Scarlet, though.

  “You are awfully confident. You can’t beat me like this, Little Leech…” she stated, fighting through her screaming muscles, spirit, and exhausted mind to force her way toward the giggling girl. “How did you even end up in Relica?”

  A shiver ran down the blonde’s frame, nose twisting with hate. “Leech… I’m not a leech or a stalker. You’re the one that siphons off everyone’s luck here, Little Bunny.”

  Rachel tried not to show her frustration at the girl’s intrusion and taunts. “Funny. So, who are you again?”

  “I am Scarlet’s true friend.” A dagger of shared disdain passed between them. “I have been groomed since I was born for this role. I’m the only one that can save her. Who are you? You’re only using her. The moment things get rough, you’ll abandon her like everyone else. It’s your fault that everything fell apart in the first place.”

  Figuring she could get some answers from the cultist by her attitude, Rachel put a hand on her hip and laughed. “Ah, yes, I’m the biggest bad there is in this story, Little Stalking Leech who could never take a hint. Face it, you creep Scarlet out. She’s never going to like you or see you as a friend because you took everything away from her. Give it up! You’re the villain living inside of her.”

  Veronica’s rainbow-painted fingernails tightened into her palm, but her tight red eyes wore a smirk. “Me? No. Hehehe. You are so much worse than someone like me, and you don’t even see the ripple effect of your existence.”

  Now utterly thrown for a loop, Rachel’s eyebrows came together as she searched her memory. “Okay. Enlighten me. Wait… I get it,” she snickered at the blonde, Yomi’s taint and misfortune’s threads spinning in her fingers as a cruel tilt came to her mouth. There were vulnerabilities in this girl she was trying to hide. “If you can’t become friends with Scarlet…”

  “You don’t know anything about me. You’re the White Hare of Misfortune, so I wouldn’t talk.”

  Rachel shrugged helplessly. “I mean, I felt discriminated against before, but damn, am I feeling some hare hate recently. It’s not hard to see your whole life is meaningless, and you don’t have a place in this world without Scarlet. Talk about pathetic. You’re just a useless…mmgm.”

  Rachel winced as her vision blurred, and she felt her consciousness giving away.

  “Hah-haha… Say what you want…you still lose,” she whispered with a tight twist of anger touching her nose. “Until next time.”

  [1 Second Remaining]

  “No… Nia!”

  Dropping to her knee, eyes drooping, the world returned to normal, yet Nia didn’t respond; at some point, when Veronica was distracting her, she’d lost consciousness. Somehow, Veronica must have convinced the UK wizard to complete the extraction. All the blonde needed to do was buy enough time for everything to run its course.

  “Dammit… I’ll find you,” she growled, cursing The System as her spirit completed the final expansion from the Legend Quest. She couldn’t hold out any longer.

  [Level Up - Level 11]

  [1 Stat Point Added; 1 Available]

  [Level Up - Level 12]

  [1 Stat Point Added; 2 Available]

  [1 New Equipable Feat Added; 1 Available]

  [1 Feat Extension Added; 1 Available]

  Her Hellfire cloak sputtered as she saw the wizard in the corner, a knocked-out Relica and two of his knights with him; in a flash of blue light, they vanished, and the combined fatigue of the Legend Quest pulled her into a deep abyss.

  The last thing she saw was Scarlet, appearing out of the shadows. “Rachel! Rachel, what happened?! You were winning when I—Rachel?!”

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