Larek’s mind and body reeled at the sheer amount of power emanating from the Diregate, and it didn’t help that he was already a bit exhausted after what he’d done to cut off the Primal Essence feeding it. Although he had told Nedira that he had reversed the flow of Essence, it was a bit more complicated – and draining – than that simple explanation. In truth, he had used his ability to manipulate energy and pulled a large amount of Primal Essence under his control together, before feeding it through his internal core to essentially harmonize it with his intent. While it wasn’t exactly the same as creating a Fusion with his Effect intents keeping it together, the blast of Primal Essence that had essentially coated the outside of the enormous Diregate was similar enough that he equated it to being a Fusion without a formation.

  He actually got the idea after seeing what the Gergasi had done with the Calamity and the interior barrier of Primal Essence there. After taking the time while Nedira and the other transports fought the All-seeing Parademons to observe how the incoming Primal Essence was absorbed and converted into the necessary energy to spawn countless numbers of monsters, he adapted what he’d seen at the Calamity and put his own twist on it.

  Of course, that much energy passing through his internal core all at once strained his pattern a bit, but it was already being repaired by his Pattern Restoration Skill; even with the Skill at work, the damage that was done to him was still exhausting. And now he wasn’t sure if putting a layer of intent-infused Primal Essence around the Diregate like a big bubble – which was designed to cut the connection between it and the source of the energy keeping it powered, as well as to rebound the incoming Primal Essence back to its source – was even worth it.

  Because out of the enormous portal came the result of the backlash his method had apparently produced. He hadn’t expected that the Diregate was actually a bit of an energy storage object, and it had been storing a lot of the energy it needed to keep producing monsters. When the flow of additional Primal Essence was cut off, it seemed as though some innate property of the Diregate had taken what it had been reserving and used it – though not on waves and waves of smaller monsters. Instead, it appeared to have invested all that energy into a single monster – which was just barely able to fit through the 500-foot-wide circular opening of the Diregate.

  “Larek? Please tell me you can kill that,” his old roommate said in the silence that befell The Hopper.

  The Divine Fusionist wasn’t actually sure if he could. Unlike what he might have expected to see come out of the Diregate that was almost too large to squeeze through, the monster didn’t fit into any of his expectations. But now I think I know why those Parademons seemed to be waiting us. Either they knew this thing was coming, or they were simply acting on some sort of instinct. Perhaps their “All-seeing” quality also extended to seeing the future?

  Regardless of the thoughts of the Parademons that were now dead, what mattered now was the monster that faced them. Though, “demon” was probably a better word for what came out of the portal; it wasn’t any demon that he’d ever heard of or seen before, however, as this one was very obviously female. With black wings on her back that extended nearly the width of the entire cavern, the disarming visage of the pale-skinned demon was topped by a crown of scorched bones, woven together in a macabre display of death, with black gemstones that appeared to have the souls of the damned trapped inside, crying out in pain to be released. Twin curled horns kept the crown in place, while midnight black hair spilled down her back and to her knees.

  The Demon Queen – which was what he immediately dubbed the monster, as it seemed fairly accurate – wore what appeared to be a skin-tight, dark red dress that was slit up the front and back for movement. When he looked closer, he realized that the dress was made of stitched-together flayed skin that had been dyed with blood, giving it a grotesque horror vibe – but that wasn’t even the scariest thing about the Queen.

  It was the sword that she carried, which was nearly half her height in size, and which resonated with an energy that he immediately recognized. The dark nothingness that had somehow been encapsulated in weapon form was undoubtedly a weaponized form of the void, and it was probably the most frightening thing he’d ever seen. Every split-second that he observed it, he kept expecting it to suddenly lose form and swallow up everything in the world, but somehow it was kept intact, either through a particular ability of the weapon itself or through the efforts of the Demon Queen. Regardless of how it was staying in that shape, Larek was immediately reminded of his time stuck in the void, where he lost years of time being transported halfway around the world – and he knew that he didn’t want to be struck by that weapon if he wanted to keep his sanity.

  The reason he wasn’t sure if he could kill the Demon Queen was the sheer strength he felt from the monster; it dwarfed his own by a significant magnitude, and he could only assume that it was also quite durable – even more so than himself when he was boosted by his Fusion. He couldn’t tell if she was faster than him, but from the few movements she made as she emerged from the Diregate, he didn’t think she had an advantage in that respect.

  Given that she immediately formed a black flame in her off hand, which was large enough to potentially swallow up his old village of Rushwood, she likely had enough magical prowess and defenses to negate most of his own Fusions. As if that wasn’t enough, the Demon Queen also radiated an oppressive aura that didn’t necessarily push down on him like some sort of dominating pressure, but was more like a feeling of complete and utter inadequacy. Fortunately, he and the others inside The Hopper were immune to the feeling of being entirely outmatched by the Queen, and they did not fall prey to the notion that they should simply lay down their arms and submit to their fate. The other transports weren’t so lucky, unfortunately, and Larek could already perceive that such a scenario was happening with at least some of the weaker-willed individuals in those vessels.

  After the enormous Demon Queen fully emerged, the Diregate dimmed to the point where it barely illuminated anything around it, but it still acted as a backdrop to the monster that simply stood in the middle of the cavern and looked around with clear disdain on her face. She barely even looked at the exit leading to the wider world, and he realized that she probably didn’t need to concern herself with it.

  The Demon Queen couldn’t fit through the comparatively small hole in the mountain, after all. She was strong enough to simply destroy the mountain and make her own exit.

  Even as Larek stood in The Hopper, watching as the Demon Queen seemed to acclimate herself to her new location, he was also forming and quickly discarding a number of different ideas about how to defeat this monster, which topped all monsters he’d seen before. He immediately concluded that most of the Fusions he had at his disposal were either too weak or would be ineffective against the Queen, as he was fairly certain she was stronger even than the Hydragon that he encountered back in the undead Calamity. In fact, he doubted that the powerful demon would even be significantly harmed by a similar explosion that Larek had left in his wake.

  Before he could come up with any type of plan that might work, the Demon Queen suddenly seemed to sniff the air for a few seconds, before her eyes drifted to and locked onto The Hopper. But the Divine Fusionist could feel that it wasn’t the vessel that she was looking at, but himself, as he felt her eyes boring right into his own.

  To his surprise, she began to speak with a dark, smoky voice, just on the wrong side of being pleasant to listen to. “Ahh, a little Godling, I see,” she said as a smile stretched across her face, revealing a set of dark red, sharpened teeth in her mouth that seemed to glisten with fresh blood. “It’s been entirely too long since I’ve had the privilege of encountering one of your kind. And when I rip the flesh off your still-living body and chew on it slowly, ensuring that you watch while I consume every last part of you, I’m sure the taste of it will be simply… divine.”

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  Larek shivered, as the description of the Demon Queen eating him alive while he watched was vivid enough that he believed her when she said she would do it.

  “But first, I want you all to myself; I can get a bit jealous just thinking that I’d have to share you with anyone.”

  Over the course of a few seconds, the enormous Demon Queen shot forward from where she had been near the Diregate, even as she shrunk down in size – similarly to how Larek had shrunk his internal Pattern to the point where he wasn’t much taller than the average citizen of the Kingdom. The biggest difference was that she went from being almost 500 feet tall to approximately a fifth of that, around 100 feet tall, without showing any signs of it being a struggle. The sword she was wielding, her crown, and even her dress shrank along with her, which he struggled to understand how that was possible, but he couldn’t deny what his eyes and senses told him.

  The reason for the shrinkage made itself known quickly enough, as she was now easily able to maneuver within the cavern, which had been a bit of a tight fit before. Even as those few brave Volunteers and former SIC members inside the transports began to fire their Fusions at her as she got close, their attacks were futile as the Queen was too fast. Still at 40 feet long and at least 8 feet wide, her void sword flashed out and swallowed the attacks sent her way, before striking out at the vessels themselves. As her weapon sheared through each one, the swipes bisecting the transports lengthwise as if cutting open a loaf of bread, Larek could feel the lives within them snuffed out as most of the people within were sliced in half, a good portion of their bodies simply ceasing to exist as the blade passed through them.

  Larek was already running to the top deck as the first transport fell, cut nearly in half, but even before he reached the top of the stairs, a second and a third vessel were destroyed in less than a second. “NO!” he shouted as he threw himself off The Hopper, forming a Pattern platform under his feet to launch himself at the monster as the remaining transports attempted to flee. Before he could reach her, 4 more transports fell, void sword attacks swallowing up the Fusions keeping them aloft; they weren’t destroyed, as they didn’t explode – it was as if they simply ceased to exist.

  “STOP! FIGHT ME!” he shouted, desperate to halt the killing, but the Demon Queen completely ignored him. As he got close, he pulled out his halberd and attempted to swipe at her, hoping to distract her, but all she did was chuckle with amusement as she moved so fast that she was a blur even to him, appearing on the other side of another transport, which was promptly bisected as easily as the rest she had destroyed.

  He attempted to hit her with any of his Effects infused into his All-Purpose Arsenal, but every time he aimed at her, she would shift so quickly that he couldn’t hit her and was instead left targeting one of the transports. He even attempted to use one of the Mass Energy Absorption Fusions, hoping that they would slow her down or destroy her sword, but she was too quick to be caught by one fully; and even the one time that the sword had passed through one of their areas of effect, it did nothing. Even using Battle Arts, boosting his Agility to incredible heights, he quickly discovered that she was still faster than him, moving just as blindingly quick as before.

  With a savage grin on her face, he suddenly realized that she had been using only a fraction of her actual speed this entire time, and that she could’ve killed everyone within seconds, if not in an even shorter amount of time. The Demon Queen was obviously playing with him, if only for the purpose of enjoying his desperation as she slaughtered those who had come with him.

  Helpless, he could only watch with mounting despair as each of the transports were destroyed, one after another, with their demise being so quick that none of them even saw it coming, let alone had the chance to fight back or flee. When the final transport was attacked, one on which he felt General Auran was on board, he attempted to wrench the void weapon from her hand with Portable Lifter, as that was the last thing he hadn’t tried yet, but there wasn’t even the slightest shift in her attack.

  Nedira had taken The Hopper back a little as the Demon Queen had attacked, so she wasn’t quite in the same place as the other transports, but his vessel was still close enough to be in danger. When the demonic monster set her sights on the last remaining vessel near the Diregate, she said with vicious glee, “Only one more left until I can enjoy my meal. And this one, I can sense, is going to make it so much better, as there isn’t anything that can season Divine flesh like the agony of despair and the grief at the loss of loved-ones. I’m looking forward to—huh, what’s this? It appears as though a few more victims have decided to interrupt my meal.”

  The Demon Queen’s distraction was enough for Larek to interpose himself between her and The Hopper. He wasn’t sure what he could do to stop her at this point, as she’d proven too strong and fast for anything he had available to even touch her, but he was willing to do just about anything. As he had that thought, he suddenly remembered that he hadn’t tried everything in his repertoire. It wasn’t necessarily something that would kill her by itself, but if it worked the way he hoped, then it might give him a chance to get out of this situation alive – and not as the meal for the Demon Queen.

  He was about to pull out his final option, a Fusion that he hadn’t had the chance to test yet, but the reason for her delay in attacking The Hopper made itself known to Larek, as well.

  The Gergasi were coming.

  They had been a distant feeling for the entire time they had been assaulting the Diregate, but now Larek could sense that many of them, numbering around 35 to 40, were on a straight course for his exact location. The Divine Fusionist was tempted to attack the Demon Queen while she was distracted by their impending arrival, but he held off for now; she had already proven that she would likely dodge anything he might attack her with, and his final Fusion wasn’t necessarily offense-based and wouldn’t help with what would inevitably be a futile assault.

  The Hopper continued to back off toward the wall, moving downward slightly as it appeared to be looking for a chance to escape. Larek floated himself down with them, largely staying in the same place but keeping his body in between the Demon Queen and the vessel – for whatever good that actually did. For her part, the Queen appeared unconcerned with him trying to flee and had her attention fixed on the entrance, as if knowing that he wouldn’t leave unless the last vessel was with him.

  It took another 30 seconds for the Gergasi to arrive, and he watched as three dozen of them flew through the entrance, using whatever spell allowed them to travel like that. Larek’s anger began to rise as they ascended up to the level where Larek and the Demon Queen waited for them, assembling in 3 ranks of 12 that formed a floating wall of powerful figures. They were in an assortment of different armors and robes, along with carrying a variety of weapons, but Larek’s attention was on only one of them.

  Vilnesh. His father.

  Vilnesh was wearing the same thing he had been when Larek saw him back at Copperleaf, and the memory of what he had done there both haunted him and added fuel to his already mounting anger. Just seeing him and knowing that the Gergasi had stolen his family away from him made him nearly forget the danger of the Demon Queen – at least until she suddenly spoke.

  “What are you doing here? Leave me to my meal in peace, or I’ll be forced to remove you – permanently.”

  Vilnesh took the lead, which was what Larek somewhat expected. “We’re just here to ensure that this one doesn’t survive the encounter. After that, you can consider your contract with the Grand One fulfilled.”

  Contract? What the—? It only took Larek a split-second to put it all together. The Gergasi planned all this. They deliberately caused the Diregate to produce the Demon Queen – but how did this Grand One contract this particular monster? He deduced that there was an important piece of information that he was missing.

  “That isn’t necessary,” the Queen responded shortly. “Besides, after discovering what my target is, I’d fulfil my contract despite what your ‘Grand One’ promised me upon completion.”

  “Don’t you mean who, not what?” Larek’s biological father asked, confused.

  With a shake of her head, the Demon Queen chuckled. “You don’t even know, do you? He is your son, and you have no idea what he has become. That is so ridiculous that I find that hard to believe.”

  For the first time, Vilnesh seemed a bit flustered. “What do you mean?”

  Instead of answering his question, she just said, “Watch and learn,” before she turned her gaze on Larek, the intent to attack him clear on her face.

  But the Divine Fusionist hadn’t been idle while they were waiting for the Gergasi to arrive, nor during their conversation. While it had been enlightening to know that this whole thing had been planned, it didn’t change what he was about to do.

  Therefore, before the Demon Queen could attack him, he pulled the Fusion he had activated a while ago from behind his back and displayed it to everyone with a flourish. At the same time, Larek turned his attention away from the monster bearing down on him, and instead stared at his cruel father.

  Then he smiled.

  This worked out better than I could’ve imagined.