The Arrogance of Humility 10

Emmeroloth moved back about 10 meters away from them as he released a mass amount of black liquid azoth from his sleeves. The azoth combined, forming a giant serpent about 10 meters in height. The snake rampaged, blocking their way.

“Asmoday,” Lucy ordered aloud as she ran past the snake, dodging the attacks. “You take care of that thing!”

“Tch!” Asmoday fended off the attacks using the bidents. “You want to hog all the fun yourself, don’t ya?”

“You've got yourself the bigger fun ahead.”

“Well said, dear~.”

Asmoday threw its flaming bident to the snake, but the snake split into two snakes about 5 meters in height to dodge the thrown bident.

“More the merrier,” Asmoday said as it grinned, thrilled as it continued attacking recklessly.

Lucy dashed towards Emmeroloth, but one snake blocked her way and attacked Lucy. Lucy sliced the snake’s head, but smaller snakes appeared from the wound. The flaming snake on Lucy’s left arm attacked the falling snakes before it could harm Lucy.

“There’s no point in defeating them,” Lucy thought as she used extreme-speed enhancing magic on her legs, dodging the snakes easily.

“That magic again!” Emmeroloth thought as he placed sigils surrounding him to anticipate Lucy.

Lucy dashed and disappeared from Emmeroloth’s sight.

“Where—?!” he thought as he looked around, cautious.

Lucy appeared right behind him with her sword ready to pierce his heart from the back. Emmeroloth realized it first and activated a sigil.

“Abyssal Chains!” Emmeroloth uttered, and the sigil behind him summoned black rusted chains appeared, blocking the energy sword, causing it to miss Emmeroloth’s vital spot.

The chains spread to capture Lucy, but she disappeared again, this time appearing in front of Emmeroloth, aiming to pierce his head from the front.

A level 12 sigil appeared in front of Emmeroloth, but another similar sigil appeared, overlaying Emmeroloth’s sigil. Emmereloth’s sigil broke and disappeared along Lucy’s.

“She’s cancelling my magic?!” Emmeroloth thought, surprised as he clenched his teeth. “To think such a genius exists…!”

Lucy pierced Emmeroloth’s head with the energy sword, killing him as the lifeless body fell to the ground. Lucy’s speed magic stopped as she stood, looking at the corpse. The swords in her hands disappeared as she reabsorbed them.

“It’s ov—”

“Master!” Asmoday shouted. “Behind you!”

“W—?!”

The enormous snake almost crushed Lucy with its body, but Lucy rolled left in time, avoiding the snake. Lucy pointed at the snakes and a wide level 25 sigil appeared in front of her finger.

“Great Light Ray of Obliteration!”

The energy ray wiped all the snakes in one go, almost hitting Asmoday too.

“Hey!” Asmoday shouted angrily towards Lucy. “I told you to dodge, but you have no hesitation to obliterate me?!”

“Don’t exaggerate,” Lucy replied. “You don’t have a mortal body here.”

“No respect, huh?” Asmoday sat down. “Sigh, so can I go back now?”

“Wait.”

Lucy felt something off; she defeated Emmeroloth, but why didn’t the snake disappear too? Lucy could also feel the painful black azoth in her blood, burning.

She checked the half destroyed body of the caster and noticed the face of the caster melted, revealing the face of a total stranger.

“Who is he?” Lucy thought as the face of the person differed from before.

Lucy stood and looked around; Mithra, Claudia, and Dyson’s bodies disappeared from their sight.

“Asmoday!” Lucy shouted. “Don’t lower your guard!”

“Hm?”

“The caster is still alive!”

A dimensional rift opened in front of them, and Emmeroloth walked out along with a completely healed Dyson.

“Round two,” Emmeroloth said with a sneer.

“Damn it…” Lucy muttered as she pointed forward.

“Dyson,” Emmeroloth said. “Take care of that demon. I’ll take her down myself.”

Dyson dashed towards Asmoday.

“Here comes the pain,” it thought as it prepared the bidents.

Dyson arrived and delivered a powerful punch, aiming at Asmoday’s face. Asmoday blocked with the flaming bone bident, but because Dyson’s enormous strength, Asmoday’s bidents shattered.

The brimstone flame burned Dyson’s fist, but it recovered slowly.

“A close combat fighter, hm?” Asmoday thought as it jumped back, but Dyson followed.

Meanwhile, far from them, Lucy and Emmeroloth faced off.

In front of Lucy’s fingertip, a level 6 sigil appeared.

“Inferno Pyro Blast!” Lucy uttered, and the sigil fired three black fireballs to Emmeroloth.

“Heh,” Emmeroloth thought. “She must be kidding to think that kind of magic would affect me!”

A level 14 sigil appeared behind him, opening a dimensional rift. Emmeroloth jumped into the rift and disappeared, dodging the fireballs.

“Tch!” Lucy pointed at the fireballs and smaller sigils appeared, absorbing the flames. “Dimension magic, hm?”

Lucy thought Emmeroloth had jumped to another dimension, causing Lucy to prepare to switch dimension too, but before Lucy could project a sigil, a rift appeared behind her blind spot, ejecting four white and yellow energy swords Lucy used to immobilize Dyson, and closed in a second.

Lucy realized it too late as she jumped forward; one energy sword pierced her left shoulder.

“Agh!” Lucy thought, unexpecting the attack.

The energy sword was burning her shoulder with an intense, scorching pain. Lucy absorbed two swords (one on her shoulder and one on the ground) and healed the wound. She wielded the rest and looked around.

A rift appeared in front of her, and Lucy threw one energy sword in an instant before it closed.

“There!” she thought, but unknown to her, another rift appeared behind her at the same time.

The moment the sword entered the rift, the rift behind her launched the same sword and closed. Lucy had expected that; there was a sigil on her back to absorb magic on her blind spot.

“Those rifts are connected portals,” she thought. “I thought it was dimension magic, but it was just a mere portal magic, meaning the caster is in this dimension!”

A rift appeared in front of her, but she ignored it and ran around, searching for Emmeroloth. Since the portal magic needed the user to see the desired locations to project the rift, Emmeroloth ought to watch her from afar. But in the open savanna area without trees or rocks, where could he be hiding?

Meanwhile, Dyson and Asmoday reached a stalemate. Dyson couldn’t land a single hit on Asmoday, while Asmoday couldn’t stop Dyson’s regenerative power.

“You’re a tough man,” Asmoday praised with a seductive smile. “I would like to go all night with you~.”

With an unfazed, stoic face, Dyson gave no response as he charged, trying to punch Asmoday down. Asmoday dodged by jumping high and threw a bone bident, but Dyson punched the bident away, sending it back to Asmoday.

Asmoday landed on the ground, dodging the bident. Asmoday noticed the skin from its body started withering, revealing its true form bit by bit.

“Heh,” it thought with a smile. “Looks like I have little time left.”

Asmoday peeled its skin off, showing its terrible demon form.

“Now…” it said with a beastly, insane voice. “Let’s end this!”

Asmoday dashed towards Dyson inhumanely fast, beheading him in a second with its sharp claws.

“Well,” Asmoday said. “That was quick—!”

The head on Asmoday’s hand withered to nothingness as a new head sprouted from Dyson’s neck. Dyson caught Asmoday from behind and attempted to crush its body with a powerful grip.

“Agh!” Asmoday couldn’t release the grapple as it even tried to cover itself with fire and brimstones, but Dyson could withstand that with little to no problem. Asmoday smirked as it ceased fighting back, letting itself get destroyed.

“Sijn Al-Sakhra,” it muttered before its body got destroyed flat, spewing burning blood everywhere, drenching Dyson. Dyson’s body healed from the burning blood, but he noticed his body became heavier.

“Hm?!” Dyson looked at his arms; the skin turned like a rock as he couldn’t even move his hand anymore. He tore his right arm, but instead of regenerating, rocks covered the open wound.

Dyson noticed the cause was from Asmoday’s cursed blood; it let itself get destroyed so the blood would damage Dyson’s skin and mix with his blood. After mixing, the blood would harden, turning into rock. Dyson accepted his fate as he stopped moving, turning into a rock statue.

A pentagram sigil appeared under Asmoday’s remains, and the remains burned along with the sigil, turning into nothingness.

At Lucy’s side, Lucy looked around and up; she noticed someone was overseeing the battle 30 meters up in the night sky. It was Emmeroloth using a levitation magic.

“Damn,” Emmeroloth thought. “She’s aware of—!”

Lucy used her extreme speed enhancement on her legs and jumped high, appearing in front of Emmeroloth in two seconds, but the moment Emmeroloth saw Lucy disappeared from the ground, a rift opened and took Emmeroloth away, teleporting him to the ground and closed before Lucy could hit him.

Emmeroloth thought he was safe, but a similar rift appeared behind him, teleporting Lucy. She pierced the unaware Emmeroloth in the heart with both of the energy swords.

“Agh!” Emmeroloth coughed blood, surprised as he looked back. “How—?!”

The rift behind Lucy closed; Emmeroloth realized Lucy copied his portal magic sigil perfectly to pursue him.

“Damn it…” Emmeroloth muttered as he fell to the ground, lifeless.

Lucy checked the corpse and just like before, the face of Emmeroloth’s corpse melted, revealing another person’s face.

“Again,” she thought as she took the swords from the corpse.

After Lucy noticed Emmeroloth’s corpse changed, she got away from that area. She constantly glanced back and forth in the empty savanna. She noticed the petrified Dyson and felt Asmoday’s contract fulfilled shown by the rapid decrease of Lucy’s energy.

“Asmoday took that hulk of a man down with it, hm?” Lucy thought as she looked at Dyson.

Far in front of her, a warp sigil activated, bringing Emmeroloth out.

“Round 3,” Emmeroloth said as two level 7 sigils appeared in his hands.

Lucy noticed the pattern of the sigils; it was the same as her magic.

“Those sigil patterns…” she thought, recognizing them. “He copied my Light Obliteration Swords.”

The sigil summoned the swords, and he dashed to her, swinging the swords. Before their swords clashed, Lucy placed magic absorption sigils on his swords, but the same sigils appeared on hers too, placed by Emmeroloth.

“Mimicry?” she thought, surprised.

Emmeroloth launched a punch, hitting the dazed Lucy’s face before she could block. The punch dropped Lucy down, breaking her nose.

“Damn,” she thought as she rolled and jumped back with two level 1 sigils on her hands. She touched the ground, and two rock swords bound by sigils appeared.

“Titan swords,” she muttered.

Again, Emmeroloth perfectly mimicked her magic, summoning the swords on his own. Lucy tried to lift the swords, but she realized her strength was not enough to lift both heavy swords because of her dwindling energy from the battles before, while Emmeroloth could wield both.

“I’m a fool!” she thought as she ran with only one sword. “I totally shouldn’t have done that!”

The tiredness and the damages from the previous battles took a toll on Lucy’s body as she panted and slowed while Emmeroloth’s condition was, somehow, still in the prime.

Emmeroloth caught up with her and swung the rock swords. Lucy blocked with only one, causing both of their swords to crumble. Emmeroloth swung another sword, forcing Lucy to block using her arms.

The rock sword wasn’t sharp, but it was surely heavy enough to damage her with blunt force trauma. Lucy’s forearms bones cracked as she got pushed back. The rosary’s chains on her right arm broke and fell to the ground.

“Agh!” She felt the pain as her forearms swelled, sending throbbing pain all over her arms.

Being a level one magic, the sword crumbled after a single hit.

Lucy fell sitting down, and Emmeroloth choke-lifted her with his right arm while he took the colorless stone from his pocket.

“You are your own worst enemy,” Emmeroloth taunted with a smug sneer.

Lucy tried to pull his fingers from her neck using her left hand only, but the pain from the cracked bones and the black azoth inside her veins weakened her. Lucy looked at the mysterious colorless stone, knowing the thing must be dangerous.

A level 1 sigil appeared on her left palm, but Emmeroloth projected the same sigil on Lucy’s neck.

“Tch,” Emmeroloth tightened his grip, causing Lucy to choke. “Defiant till the end, eh? Don’t worry, you will feel nothing after this!”

Lucy activated the sigil on her left palm; it was a fire magic, but Emmeroloth activated the fire magic on Lucy’s neck too.

“Useless. You’re hurting yourself too!” He smirked as the flame appeared on his right hand and neck. Emmeroloth pushed the stone close to Lucy, and the stone shone, but a dimensional rift appeared behind Lucy.

“What?!” Emmeroloth muttered, surprised. The flame burned Emmeroloth right’s hand, causing him to let go of Lucy. Lucy pulled Emmeroloth’s right arm along with her, but before Emmeroloth got pulled along with her, the dimensional rift rapidly was closing.

“No!!!” Emmeroloth screamed in terror, but the rift closed, severing his right arm clean. With only an insignificant burn mark on Lucy’s neck, Lucy appeared far from him, holding his severed right arm.

Emmeroloth’s blood gushed out wildly, causing him to scream with tears full of pain. He fell on the ground, desperately trying to stop the bleeding manually.

“AHHH!!! My… My arm!!!”

When Emmeroloth was too focused on the sigil from Lucy’s left hand, Lucy activated the portal magic sigil on her back, slowly projecting to avoid him knowing. When the distraction was complete, Lucy activated the portal magic fully.

“My deduction is correct,” Lucy thought. “To mimic my magic, he has to see the sigil.”

Emmeroloth just screamed in pain, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. Being a magus, he should have just used a simple vitae to stop it, but somehow he didn’t.

“Don’t tell me he could only use the magic he copied.”

After a minute, Emmeroloth passed out from the blood loss and shock. Lucy didn’t get close to the body, thinking Emmeroloth’s body would be another decoy, just like before.

“The first had Malus’ ability, the second had portal magic, and now the third had complete mimicry with the same activation times…” Lucy muttered as she watched from afar.

“What would the fourth be?” the voice of Emmeroloth suddenly spoke behind her, surprising her.

Lucy jumped forward, but black azoth spikes pierced her legs first before she could get away safely..

“Again…?” Lucy thought.

There was a dimensional rift behind her, and Emmeroloth appeared.

“You’ve messed my clones bad enough,” he said with a smug smirk.

“Agh…” Lucy looked at him. “W-Who are you…?!”

“You’ve killed me thrice and only now you ask? Anyway, I’m Emmeroloth Celzan.”

“Celzan…?” Lucy thought, trying to remember the family name. “One of the four exiled families who stepped into the dark arts? I thought they all went extinct already.”

“What do you want?!” Lucy asked as she tried to hold the pain from her wounded legs.

“I just need to take something important from you.” He ambled to her as he took the stone from his pocket.

“Anything that is…” Lucy thought as she tried to move. “It must be up for nothing good!”

Lucy stood, trying her best to hold the pain all over her body.

“Her willpower is impressive,” Emmeroloth thought as he got closer.

Lucy created one light energy sword on her left hand, but Emmeroloth created two from mimicking Lucy’s sigil.

“Mimicry, Malus’ ability, and Portal magic,” Lucy thought. “This time, how could I defeat him?”

Lucy had 1/4 of her energy left; both of her forearms bones shattered; black azoth flowed inside her blood; her legs were in no condition to run; her right arm couldn’t move.

“Should I risk it?” she thought.

Emmeroloth wasted no time as he dashed, charging with two light energy swords ready. Lucy sealed the wounds on her legs first and dashed back, trying to buy some time to heal her left arm’s bones.

Emmeroloth used the portal to teleport behind Lucy in an instant. Lucy absorbed his energy swords before they reached her. Emmeroloth did the same to Lucy’s, and black azoth spikes appeared from his sleeves.

Lucy dodged using dimension rift, appearing with her back behind him. In the split second before Emmeroloth could turn back, Lucy created a light energy sword, attempting to attack him. Emmeroloth moved forward and turned back, turning the spikes into swords.

“Gaap,” he muttered, and the swords floated, speeding towards Lucy. Lucy sliced the swords in a single slash and ran towards him.

The broken swords turned into serpents as soon as Emmeroloth muttered, “Aamon.”

The serpents chased after Lucy, but sigils appeared on Lucy’s legs as she ran towards him sluggishly.

“That must be the speed-enhancing sigils,” Emmeroloth thought as the same sigils appeared on his legs.

Before the snakes caught up with her, Lucy jumped towards Emmeroloth and activated the sigils on their legs.

“I just need to move,” Emmeroloth thought as he smirked. “And I’ll be—!” Emmeroloth tried to move, but he felt his legs numb instead of moving lightning fast, surprising him. “What the—?!”

Lucy pierced his chest with the light energy sword and activated level 6 magic behind her (and Emmeroloth), summoning brimstone fire, burning the black azoth snakes. The wound wasn’t fatal as Emmeroloth leaned to the side in a second before the sword touched him, causing Lucy to miss his heart.

“This wench…!” Emmeroloth thought as blood appeared from his mouth. “I fell into her trap!” Emmeroloth smirked as he poured more black azoth from his sleeve. “But I caught her! She couldn’t move either!”

Emmeroloth tried to seal off the wound in his chest with black azoth. He quickly reached his hand for his pocket, but before he could pull it out, a level 7 sigil appeared on Lucy’s sword.

“Abaddon’s Tongue!” Lucy uttered as the sword turned into black and red akin to brimstone.

“Hellfire enhancement…” Emmeroloth thought, frightened. “Impossible… Only Those who had learned the infernal languages from demons could use this kind of Maleficium… To think she could—!”

The black azoth rapidly melted around the wound, causing blood to gush out wildly.

“No…!” Emmeroloth muttered in fear and pain as his face was full of worried sweats. “Don’t—!”

Emmeroloth called a dimensional rift in desperation, but Lucy cancelled it with her inverse sigil.

“I guess this is your real body,” she said as she sliced diagonally, letting more blood out. Lucy stopped her magic on their legs as she prepared to execute him. Emmeroloth fell back as he screamed in agony and terror.

“No! No! NO! NO!!! NOOO—!!!” Emmeroloth’s face went pale as tears fell from his eyes as he desperately moved back, crawling.

“This is for Gina!”

“NO—!!!”

Lucy heartlessly beheaded and stomped the head. This time, the face didn’t melt. Lucy’s sword vanished as she fell on the ground, tired.

“I won…” she thought. “I… won.”

The dimension crumbled as a giant sigil covered the entire savanna, transporting them to the real world. They were on the rooftops, still night time.

Lucy stood and noticed, far in front of her, the still-recovering Claudia and Mithra stood. She noticed a force-field surrounded the roof, trapping them all inside.

“Impossible…” Claudia muttered, surprised as she looked on the petrified Dyson and dead Emmeroloth along with his clones. “How could he lose?!”

The moment Mithra saw Lucy, he hid behind Claudia while trembling in fear; he was afraid of Lucy.

“Can… Can we defeat her together?” Mithra asked.

“She defeated you in a heartbeat effortlessly and killed both of them, and you foolishly think we could defeat her with our current condition?!”

Lucy noticed Gina’s body was nowhere as she glanced around, panicking.

“Looking for her?” Claudia said with a smug, vicious smirk.

“W-Where…” Lucy muttered in rage. “Where’s Gina?!”

“Bring her here, Mithra!”

“Okie!”

A teleportation sigil appeared in front of them, materializing the unconscious Gina.

“Gina—!”

“Don’t you dare to move!” Claudia threatened as she moved her fingers, coiled with the translucent wires, causing Gina’s thumb to snap, broken.

“Damn you…” Lucy muttered, furious as she stopped.

“Mithra!” Claudia ordered. “Dispel Dyson’s curse!”

Mithra walked, taking the route as far as he could from Lucy. He stood in front of Dyson and dispelled his curse.

Dyson’s body gradually returned to normal as he could move again, but he couldn’t grow his lost right arm anymore. The scar he received from Asmoday was permanent.

“Dyson!” Claudia said aloud. “Revive Emmeroloth and don’t harm that girl!”

Mithra ran and hid behind Claudia while Dyson connected Emmeroloth’s separated head using his regenerative power. Emmeroloth’s body rejuvenated as he regained his consciousness and stood, but his body was weak as he lost too much blood.

The four of them stood far from Lucy, holding Gina hostage with each side, exhausted or injured. They knew Lucy could still defeat them all, but she couldn’t fight back with Gina being held hostage.

“Listen!” Emmeroloth said aloud. “I’ll guarantee her safety if you do what I say!”

Dyson lifted the unconscious Gina by the head, using his left hand’s strength alone.

“Gina!!!” Lucy ran, causing Claudia to break all of Gina’s fingers, stopping Lucy.

“I said don’t move or next, I’ll snap her neck!” Claudia threatened aloud.

“Don’t bother calling for help,” Mithra said. “None could hear—!” Lucy’s sharp and cold eyes intimidated Mithra as he ran and hid behind Dyson.

“We have little time left,” Emmeroloth said. “Do what I say now, and she would be in one piece!”

Emmeroloth moved until he was three steps away from Lucy, He took the stone from his pocket and held it in his right hand.

“Touch this stone!” Emmeroloth ordered.

“What does this—?”

Dyson’s left hand glowed, trying to absorb Gina, causing Lucy to panic and obey as she touched the stone with no question.

As soon as Lucy touched the stone, the stone glowed brightly with blinding light. Lucy felt something was being drawn from her as she rapidly lost her strength.

Her appearance changed; her beautiful blonde hair gradually whitened, becoming as white as snow, and her pale-ivory skin became pale white while the colorless stone now gained color, becoming bright yellow and white.

Lucy’s consciousness dwindled as she couldn’t even move anymore. Her heartbeat weakened while her eyes became blank.

“Here it is!” Emmeroloth said aloud, excited. “The ultimate piece!”

“Am I dying?” Lucy thought as she could do nothing in her current state. “Gina… Please be safe…”

Before the stone could drain Lucy completely, and teleportation magic appeared next to Lucy, causing Emmeroloth to stop as he withdrew the stone.

“Who?!” Emmeroloth thought as he jumped back, standing with the other three.

“No way!” Mithra said, surprised. “No one could see or hear anything inside here!”

The sigil manifested Professor Vennefer Harvey, Lucy’s foster father. Vennefer’s face was cold, like when Lucy arrived to save Gina.

“Tch! Kill him!” Emmeroloth said aloud as he put the pocket back before it could completely drain Lucy’s life.

Dyson put the unconscious Gina away as he charged towards Professor Vennefer. But a black aura surrounded him, powerful enough to knock a juggernaut like Dyson back.

“Rage on, Belial,” Vennefer muttered as an ominous black fog appeared, filling the force-field and limiting everyone’s sight.

“Belial,” Emmeroloth thought as he bit his lower lip in fear. “The embodiment of darkness… Vennefer also had the stone… The perfect one!”

“Mithra!!!” he shouted aloud, panicking. “Send us away, NOW!!!”

Mithra prepared the teleportation sigil, and Emmeroloth summoned countless black azoth swords to Vennefer.

Before even touching Vennefer, something launched on the swords, deflecting them all.

“Deus: Diabolos Amartias,” Vennefer muttered calmly as level 50 sigil appeared on each of them, marking the four with a painful scorching mark on their bodies. The sigils on their body turned black as soon as Vennefer’s stone intensified the ominous aura.

“You all could never escape,” Vennefer threatened. “As soon as you all draw breath, death pursues.”

They all teleported away, and the force-field disappeared. The ominous aura disappeared as the stone reabsorbed them.

Vennefer checked Gina’s condition first; she was still breathing, but heavy wounds covered her body and limbs.

“Master,” Belial said. “Luxianne is—”

“I know.” Vennefer stood next to her.

Lucy was still alive, but the changes in her body alerted Belial.

“You know what happens if her original memory resurfaces, don’t you?” Belial asked.

“I know… I’m ready to kill her myself if that happens…”

Vennefer’s body was trembling in anxiety as he couldn’t hold his tears.

“It must be difficult, no?” Belial asked. “To kill your lover and your daughter…”

“Let’s hope she still has her humanity left,” Vennefer said as he cried and hugged his daughter tight. “Let’s hope…”