Chapter 132: Saving Elizabeth (II)
To Ethan’s side, was Nina, who he had summoned around the same moment in time. Her long broadsword was stabbed into ground floor, and in her other hand, she held the golden Shield of Pythos at the ready.
She stared at them with such focus, waiting for her liege to simply give the go ahead.
"Go now! Join the others" Ethan mentally commanded his Sniper Summon.
He sent the sniper summon away because in truth, the real objective which was rescuing Bettie had been completed.
The other reason being that Joe’s bullets could not possibly bring harm to Casper. The summon had confirmed this to Ethan much earlier during the planning phase.
Morever, the real work set out for the sniper summon was not here, but at the main hideout where the others would soon be closing in on.
Joe then stood from his sniping angle, ran sideways and dropped from the edge of the build. It looked like he had disappeared for a second until a grappling line attached itself to the next building and pulled him forward.
There was no smile on Casper’s face any longer. And strangely enough, he seemed to be staring downward instead of at the opponents standing before him.
However, a cold and solemn voice came forth from beside him.
"Bierzim."
And Ethan’s eyes widened in shock...
——
The shadowy mass had by now moved several meters away from the area where battle brewed.
It slid across the factory floor from one darkened corner to another. It traveled along old machinery and broken equipment until it reached what looked like an elevated metal staircase leading up to a second-floor.
The stairs themselves were rusted and missing a few steps, but the platform they led to was still intact enough to provide solid footing.
From that shadowy mass, two figures reappeared.
Isabella and Bettie materialized together as the darkness peeled away just enough to reveal them both.
Most of the darkness still clung to Isabella. Aside from her face and neck, which remained visible, most of her body looked like it was encased in an ethereal suit of black shadow that shifted and moved with her every breath.
The armor seemed alive, with tendrils of darkness occasionally drifting off her form before being pulled back in.
She cradled Bettie’s head gently in her left palm while lowering herself into a kneeling position on the metal platform.
Isabella raised her right palm over Bettie’s face, and a magic circle appeared above it as she began casting the Tier 5 Greater Healing spell.
This was a much more powerful version of Ethan’s Lesser Heal spell. It could heal more wounds and worked alot faster.
But there was a problem.
It wasn’t having any sort of effect at all. Bettie’s breathing remained shallow and irregular, with her skin still pale, and not reacting to the magic touching her.
Isabella stared down at her with much more concern now on her face. Something was wrong here beyond unconsciousness.
She let go of the healing spell, then let a mass of darkness wrap around Bettie’s entire body for just a second as Isbella closed her eyes and focused intently.
She was attempting to see into the inner workings of Bettie’s body with the darkness itself, using it like an extension of her senses to probe deeper.
Then suddenly, Bella’s eyes opened up in shock.
Elizabeth had been injected with something.
Whatever it was, it was making her body shut down, forcing her into a medically induced comatose state.
And if this wasn’t reversed soon, or if Isabella didn’t act fast enough to extract whatever toxin or chemical they had put inside her, the damages might become permanent.
Or at the very least, become exponentially harder to heal even with high-tier magic.
"Shit..." Bella whispered.
Now she was caught between two choices: returning to help her lover, which was the entire reason she had come here in the first place, or staying here to save Elizabeth from a situation that could very accurately be described as fatal.
She sighed, gave it a thought for maybe a secon, then made the decision quickly.
Ethan would survive longer than Elizabeth could afford to wait right now. He had his summons, at the least.
With that choice made, Isabella stretched her palm once again over Bettie’s prone form.
Some of the living darkness peeled away from Isabella’s body, and moved slowly, slipping past Bettie’s parted lips and traveling down into her mouth.
The tendrils of shadow continued moving deeper inside her body, spreading through her throat and into her bloodstream with precise control.
The Princess was going to extract whatever that strange liquid was with her power of darkness.
——
On Ethan’s side...
"So you are part of them," Ethan said as he stared at the demonic spirit summon, then shifted his gaze to Dante, who had now pulled off his mask to reveal his face.
Dante said nothing in response.
Ethan thought to himself that perhaps this was why Dante had suddenly gone crazy at the campsite that day.
Bierzim roared out once more, rattling loose metal panels on the walls.
But unlike their first encounter when Ethan had been taken completely by surprise, this did not shake him any longer.
Nina also remained in her position as she stared directly at the opposing summon without flinching or showing any sign of fear.
However, Casper then raised his head slowly from the ground he had been staring at
He began speaking, "Just now... those bullets..."
He turned again, looking in the direction those bullets had come from earlier. Then he turned back toward Ethan.
"Can I ask you," Casper said with genuine interest, "who shot them?"
There was only one person he knew who was able to shoot from such a distance that even he couldn’t see clearly.
Only one person whose presence he had felt lingering in the air. And right now, there were things he couldn’t make sense of.
But Ethan gave him no answer. At the back of his mind, he wondered why the Princess hadn’t returned yet.
Perhaps it had to do with Bettie still. Which meant he was going to have to fight them both and win, or at the very least hold out as long as possible until Isabella could rejoin the battle.
"Oh? You won’t give me an answer then?" Casper said, with no particular expression. "Ah then, very well."
Then he turned his head toward Dante and said in a vastly different tone from what he was normally known for.
"You and your summon should not interfere."
Casper had only taken two steps forward, when suddenly—
"I don’t take orders from you!" Dante snapped.
Casper stopped in his tracks, then he slowly turned his head back to Dante with a dangerous glare burning in his eyes.
Dante said nothing more after that except grit his teeth in annoyance as he took a step back. "Tch..."
Casper began walking forward again.
As he did, his aura began erupting from his body in waves of purple energy that distorted the air around him.
Each step he took cracks on the ground, and it was at this point that Nina registered enough danger to finally react.
She yanked her broadsword free from where it had been planted and took a proper combat stance, pointing the blade directly at Casper as flames began emanating along its edge.
Ethan readied himself as well. The aura coming out of that madman suggested this was definitely going to be a pain to deal with.
Right then, without warning, Casper blitzed toward Ethan and Nina in a burst of explosive speed.
The movement was so sudden that his wide-brimmed hat remained suspended in midair for a brief moment where his head had been less than a second earlier.
Leaving one huge ass crater in the same spot.