Lucian formed a hand seal with one hand.
Thousands upon thousands of crimson chains emerged from the space all around him.
But it was not Cyttorak's dimensional energy flowing through them. Lucian's energy had claimed that place first. The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak coiled around the monster one after another, suspending it firmly in midair.
With a thought, he activated Energy Weapon Creation.
But this time, he did not use his own energy.
He poured the Crimson Lord's borrowed power, which had had nowhere to go, into the molds of longswords. Countless flying swords formed around the monster, each wrapped in crimson flames from a higher dimension, filling the sky in overlapping layers.
"Go."
A torrent of blades poured down from the sky.
Ten thousand swords pierced its heart.
The golden light covering the monster still churned desperately, greedily devouring the dimensional energy piercing its body. Even as the wounds were stabbed open, they forcibly healed.
Lucian watched it feed without the slightest regret.
It's not my energy anyway. Go ahead, absorb as much as you can. The bill goes to Cyttorak.
But as the monster kept feeding, the golden light on its body began to change color.
First orange, then red, and finally a deep crimson like blood. Something else appeared in its eyes, something that was not its own consciousness.
An ancient, overbearing will, accompanied by the clashing of chains, was descending into this body through the energy it had absorbed.
The debt-collection program set up by the Crimson Lord had come to collect.
The monster opened its mouth, but its scream came out as two overlapping voices. A higher power dragged its soul out of its body, and even its flesh began to shift toward the Crimson Dimension. It struggled madly, but it had none of Lucian's