Anti-Mage (III)

If Laru was a lunatic, then Quilina was a madwoman through and through.

In her eyes, everything in the world probably fell into only two categories: things she could eat right away, and things she could not eat for the moment.

The Parasitic Demon traveled through the Dense Forest in a straight line. Everything it passed along the way, except the soil, was swallowed by its bottomless maw.

"Hee hee hee hee, Little Darling, faster, faster! I can't wait to see that interesting fellow. What will he taste like?" Quilina said dreamily, absentmindedly biting down on the finger she had put into her mouth.

The Parasitic Demon suddenly raised its body. Scales abruptly grew over its ugly head, rising and falling as it moved. The scales opened and closed, revealing eyeballs growing densely within. Quilina bit her finger open and smeared the flowing purple blood over the demon's head. The countless eyeballs opened at once. The demon threw back its head in a soundless roar, and the shockwave shook down every nearby tree.

"Found you!"

"What is that?"

Adam and Quilina discovered each other at the same time and charged toward one another. More than ten seconds later, they met.

Quilina's eyes grew ever more unfocused. She took a blissful deep breath toward the Abyssal Creature egg and said, "Oh, heavens, what a wonderful scent. You must be delicious, right? Don't resist. Be good and let Older Sister eat you, all right?"

Adam ignored Quilina's mad ramblings. He felt a pressure from the monster before him that far surpassed Laru's. Filled with curiosity, he actually asked Quilina, "What is this?"

Quilina lightly dropped from the Parasitic Demon's head and stroked its body. "Want to know? Then become one with me!" With that, she slapped the demon. It violently smashed into the ground, leaving behind a huge hole before vanishing.

The instant Adam felt the ground tremble, he floated upward. In the next moment, the earth split apart, and the demon appeared beneath his feet. As Adam's body rose into the sky, its mouth, filled with overlapping fangs, opened wide to swallow him whole.

The Parasitic Demon could not fly. It had launched itself into the air using its powerful body and momentum. But Adam could fly freely through the sky, so he easily dodged the attack.

"Is that all? What use is something like this? Any apprentice who has mastered flight magic could toy with it, couldn't they?"

Quilina leaned limply against a tree, still sucking on her own finger. "Why resist? Wouldn't it be nice to let me eat you obediently?"

Just as the demon began to fall, its body contracted. Adam sensed a high-energy reaction inside its mouth, followed by a red glow. Explosive flames shot toward him.

The flames in the demon's mouth were incredibly hot. The slightest contact burned through the telekinetic defense Adam had constructed, and the searing heat made him feel burning pain. An attack casually spat from its mouth could actually reach a power level above fifteen.

Adam was suddenly startled. "Magic? No, it should be bloodline power."

Adam twisted and darted through the air to evade it, but the demon followed close behind, using the recoil from its flames to remain in the air for extended periods. Moments later, Adam held both palms level before him. A thick stream of water appeared out of nowhere and blasted fiercely toward the flames. Water and fire collided in a violent reaction, and dense steam instantly billowed forth.

Using the steam as cover, Adam rushed at Quilina. The demon's massive body represented astonishing vitality; something like that was clearly difficult to kill. He set his sights on its master.

Adam pointed ahead of Quilina, and a high-pressure water line appeared. If Quilina were struck, her fate would be no different from Laru's.

"Naive Little Fellow." Quilina did not move at all, merely leaning against the tree and giggling foolishly.

As her words fell, the Parasitic Demon's enormous body burst from the ground and blocked the high-pressure water line. The water stream, which could easily slice through an apprentice's body, could not even pierce the demon. It merely left a wound. The demon roared in pain, spun around, and bit at Adam.

Quilina hooked her fingers into the wound and tore it open. Purple blood splattered from the demon, carrying intense corrosiveness that ate pits into the ground in every direction. Adam hurriedly cast wind pressure upon himself and shot into the sky on the force of the compression.

"Troublesome." Adam frowned. Quilina was the most troublesome enemy he had encountered so far. The Parasitic Demon did not pose much of a threat to him, but he had no way of threatening the monster in a short time either. He could leave, but Adam was deeply interested in such a creature and could not bear to simply fly away.

Adam flipped and landed on the ground. The demon's body beneath the earth was still moving at high speed. He crouched and pressed both hands to the ground. Earth Elemental Magic—Hardening—activated. With Adam as the center, all soil within a radius of thirty meters transformed into rock under immense pressure.

The demon was trapped underground. The portion of its body above ground writhed madly, trying to break free of its restraints. Adam immediately activated a second spell, Rock Blade. The demon suffered devastating attacks from every direction, constantly spewing all kinds of energy from its mouth and firing wildly around itself.

Quilina revealed a pained expression and murmured, "Does it hurt, my darling? Don't be afraid. I'll help you." She took out a small knife covered in rust and, without hesitation, plunged it into her own arm. Then she dragged it down viciously, slicing the entire arm open until flesh and skin were torn apart. Next, she softly began chanting. Her arm changed along with the chant, eventually exploding and flying toward the demon.

At the same time, the demon divided into two. The body underground was completely abandoned. The demon let out a wailing roar, and the intense soundwaves formed a terrifying attack. Adam condensed five layers of Telekinesis Barrier in succession before finally withstanding the soundwave assault. Then, an astonishing sight appeared before his eyes.

Quilina's severed arm was swallowed in one bite by the demon. Then, new Body Tissue rapidly grew from the severed section, and the demon instantly became completely whole again.

"What kind of magic is this?" Adam was truly shocked. With his current knowledge, he could not comprehend the principles behind this magic at all. Enhancing the demon by sacrificing herself? But how could such a tiny arm, compared to the demon's body, provide such enormous nourishment?

Quilina covered her wound and slowly crouched down, softly murmuring, "Darling, it hurts so much." Her voice gradually became hysterical. "It hurts! It really hurts!" She plunged the small knife into the ground. The rust suddenly broke apart, and the knife blossomed with black-red radiance. At the same time, purple blood began to surge up from the ground. A fishy, nauseating stench spread through the surroundings, followed by minced meat seeping from the earth. Every shred of flesh carried astonishing aggression, devouring one another and constantly growing larger.

"Kill him, eat him, avenge me!" Quilina screamed.

Then something else Adam could not understand happened. Those clumps of flesh became "life" in an instant. They looked like miniature versions of the Parasitic Demon, densely wriggling across the ground as they flooded toward Adam.

Words could not describe how terrifying the scene was. Miniature Parasitic Demons surged in from the ground, the sky, and every corner within sight, blotting out heaven and earth. Countless tiny shrieks gathered into a noise that seemed to shatter the mind, while countless weak elements converged into astonishing "magic."

The Parasitic Demon's main body slid across its clones, using them to achieve the effect of flight. Adam was completely surrounded, with nowhere to flee and nowhere to dodge.

A powerful sense of crisis struck him. Adam no longer dared to underestimate his opponent. His strength held no overwhelming advantage over Quilina. Under such circumstances, capturing her alive and taking her back for research was no longer possible. He could only kill her.

"What a pity." Adam sighed unwillingly.

Quilina continuously cut off parts of her body other than the arm from which the Parasitic Demon had emerged, sacrificing them to the demon through bizarre means. The evil aura around the demon grew increasingly intense. Quilina seemed entirely unafraid that this would kill her, and she let out piercing laughter. "Hee hee, hahaha, yes, what a pity. You're going to die here."

Adam shook his head. "I mean it's a pity that such an excellent test subject is about to be destroyed."

The moment his words fell, fierce wind pressure blew the demons away. Falling Fire appeared, covering the sky and blotting out the sun. Adam used most of his threads to repeatedly construct the rune array for Falling Fire, raising this apprentice-level Advanced Magic of the fire element to astonishing power. Under temperatures of several thousand degrees, the tiny demons instantly became cooked meat, while the Parasitic Demon's main body tried fearfully to escape the heat.

Falling Fire crashed down like meteors, blanketing the world. But it was not over yet. Adam pointed at the sky with one hand, and lightning gathered overhead. Some bolts fell, while others clung to the Falling Fire like ball lightning.

The demon clones turned to ash in swathes. The demon's main body was battered black and blue by the magic, vast portions of its Body Tissue vanishing. It no longer possessed its earlier ferocity.

A mysterious connection existed between Quilina and the demon. The demon's losses brought her tremendous pain. Yet she was stronger than Laru. Even as her body continually collapsed, she did not wail or howl. Purple tears of blood merely flowed from her eyes. "My child, my child..."

Adam swept one hand forward, and a high-pressure water stream shot out. The energies collided and exploded. Dazzling light flashed, forcing Adam to fly out of range. When the light faded, Adam looked down from the sky and saw a massive crater in the Dense Forest. Quilina and the Parasitic Demon had both vanished into smoke and nothingness.

Even Adam, the one responsible for the crater, was stunned at the sight. He had not expected the layering of just several apprentice spells to produce power close to five hundred kilograms of TNT explosives!

Adam landed on the ground. The remnants of Energy Aura were still violent, tearing at the Telekinesis Barrier. Adam walked to where Quilina had stood earlier and found that the small knife's glow had faded. It had returned to its rust-covered appearance, lying silently where it was.