God of Nothing

Rayse and his group roamed the battlefield, hunting down emissaries. They were intermingled with the harbingers, looking set to begin the invasion in earnest. This posed a huge problem for Kyrios, as most of their defenders were technically noncombatants. 

With the threat of Deceit, the townsfolk had resorted to grouping as close to the gates as possible, everyone bathing in every possible light source to show everyone they weren't demons. That came with the drawback that once the line of firespitters had collapsed, everyone would be wiped out soon after. Of course, the enemy knew this too, so they'd begun to send their mages to swing the tides of battle.

Not if I can help it, Rayse vowed. He stabbed his spear into a harbinger's eye, letting the momentum of his strike vault him over their heads to take a quick look at the surrounding area. It made him a target, but he almost embraced it. Anyone that attacked him would be giving away their location, after all. 

"Hng!" As if on cue, he contorted his body as a trail of blue light narrowly missed him. He threw his spear at the demon before pointing it out to his friends.

"There!" The emissary batted his spear away before attempting to flee, hoping to lose them in the crowd.

"Oh, no you don't! Quagmire!" Rayse casted as he landed. The ground before him quickly grew soft, entrenching the demons in a knee deep swamp. They began to fall over, crawling all over themselves in an attempt to reach the gates, though some had begun to finally target Rayse this time. Those ones were the most unfortunate, as by the time they had reached him, his back up had arrived.

"Valiant charge!" Sonia came barreling through just as Rayse canceled his spell, allowing her to swing her massive battle axe through the crowd to clear a path to their target. In seconds, he found the emissary once again, who had abandoned trying to flee and was instead aiming both hands towards his friend. 

Sharp streaks of energy flowed from the demon's hands, hitting a few of his own men as it flew head first onto Sonia.

"Earth spike!" Someone shouted from behind him, making an earthen ramp between Sonia and the blue energy. She was ready for it, using the ramp to both evade the blast as well as narrow the gap between them. Rayse shielded his eyes as the energy blast destroyed the earth spike, resulting in a shower of dirt and rocks.

"Valiant blow!" He heard Sonia scream, both her body and axe shining brightly as she landed a mighty blow that split the emissary's head in two.

The rest of the battle was quickly taken care of by Luna, who made more earthen spikes float up from the ground to decimate the harbingers around them.

"Whew." Sonia was wiping sweat off of her brow as Rayse and Luna joined her. They fished for the emissary's crystal, divvying up its mana among themselves while Rayse prepared to vault up to search for the next target.

"You shouldn't do that so often, Rayse." Luna warned, pulling him right before he pulled himself off the ground. "What'll you do if all the emissaries just decide to come here? You already got shot at the last time, why try it again?"

"So how will we find them then?" He argued as Luna knelt to the ground.

"Like this. Tremor search." He felt the energy traveling through the ground, presumably to look for any enemies.

"There's a couple on their way to us right now, as well as some movement underground that I can't pin down."

"That's a bit wasteful, no? You should save up your mana for later, miss Luna."

"Save it for what? When we're dead? We're not at liberty to be saving our strength here." She stomped over to him, jabbing his chest with her finger. "Two of our best are effectively out of the fight, and you being lackadaisical could mean you're next. There's a vast ocean between staying calm in the face of danger and acting the fool. I'd rather you be more cowardly than completely disregarding the danger we're in."

Rayse pulled back as if Luna struck him. Have I really been acting that way? He recalled him and Brandon just squaring up against three of a herald's emissary just a few minutes ago. The two of them plus Lacey handily beat one, but he could see why people would call that reckless.

"...I'm sorry." 

"*Sighs* It's fine. You're young and capable. I know you guys think you're not a match for any single non-herald demon on these plains, but it only takes one mistake to kill you."

Rayse simply nodded, trying to get his head back in the game. Luna maintained the tremor search the entire time she was telling him off, impressing him with her vigilance. She did mention enemies closeby, so following her advice, Rayse put his shield up, preparing for a tough battle.

"Heads up, kid. They're here." Luna announced just as he saw a group of harbingers go their way. They were led by a couple of emissaries, who instead of coming in arms blazing had marched in with militaristic discipline. Rayse had long since found harbingers to not be as threatening, but seeing them this way brought back his hesitation of going against them head on. His misgivings grew when the pair of emissaries' claws turned purple, turning the twenty something harbingers they brought with them into berserkers.

"Oh, hell no." Sonia swore. This was gonna be tough.

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Aleph dodged to the side, evading Oblivion's fearsome stomp. He felt the ground give way beneath him, threatening to throw him off balance. He paid it no heed, thrusting his spear at the neck of the massive creature before it could follow up.

Kkking!

He was intercepted by the tail before he could strike, the mandibles on the humanlike head surprisingly tough. He was knocked backwards, again astounded at the beast's strength. It's almost as strong as Agony, he thought. 

He gripped his spear tighter as he charged the enemy once again. Aleph threw his spear at him, drawing his knives to follow up. Oblivion responded with a swipe of his claws, sending the spear flying off. 

Aleph was on him immediately, coating his weapons with deep blue mana as he slashed at the beast's chest.

"Rrrrrrraaahhh!" Oblivion roared, unleashing a massive wave of energy that sent Aleph flying once again. He let himself be carried away, ignoring the little wounds that he received in favor of creating distance between them. The decision instantly paid dividends, as immediately after doing so, multicolored balls of energy came flying his way.

"Night slash!" Aleph drew a crescent in the air, producing a blue streak of energy that cut the approaching balls in two. 

Boom!

The fierce clash of energies caused a blinding explosion, 

"Arghhhhh!" He heard the creature moaning, still blinded by the explosion. The momentary daylight subsided, revealing Oblivion, whose tail was busily pulling out a spear that stuck out from its side. It was Rayse's spear, the same one that it sent flying at the beginning of their clash.

"Godling!" He bellowed angrily, "Your petty methods grow tiring!" The spear clattered onto the floor before a massive foot descended to snap it into two. Aleph paid it no heed, once again getting into his stance, this time with only a single knife. The other one had crumbled into dust, as was often the case when he imbued them with far too much mana. Still, he thought he had the upper hand.

Bluish green blood flowed on the plains once again, both from the stab wound and the glowing cross shaped wound that Aleph struck it with. 

The force attribute on his knives allowed the wound to slowly widen, wounding Oblivion more and more as time passed. This was partly why Aleph stood his ground instead of attacking once more, perfectly content with his opponent's strength being sapped before they continued. 

"You #&$#@¥! #@$_&#@–"

He silently stood as Oblivion continued its tirade, spitting curses at him even as it moaned over its increasingly grievous wounds. After some time, he began to hear the lion head growling over the humanlike head, as if arguing over something. Eventually–

Chomp!

"?" Aleph grew even more confused as the lion bit off its own tail, spraying such a large amount of acid that Aleph didn't think possible even from its large body.

He had to leap backwards a couple dozen paces in order to evade the ring of destruction, which was so massive that it even hit a few harbingers who were hanging around the edges of their battle.

Shhhhhhhh–

A loud hissing noise ensued as the acid hit the ground, creating steam as it ate away at anything it came into contact with. Aleph kept up his guard, unable to predict what would happen next.

__________________________________

"Scale burst!"

Rayse floated over the berserkers, scattering scales in all directions. The metal blades rent flesh and broke bone, decimating the entire group of enemies. He sailed over their heads, immediately attacking the emissaries before they could create more soldiers.

"Valiant charge!"

Sonia intercepted them first, attacking the pair from the ground just as they were recovering from the scale burst. Sonia struck one with a wide swing of her axe, sending it flying upwards with a trail of blood. Rayse intercepted the ragdolled demon, driving his spear deep into its skull as they clashed in mid air.

Crash!

The emissary's head exploded as the pair landed in the ground, with Rayse hastily pulling out his spear and aiming it at the remaining emissary.

"Roooooar!" It glowed ever brighter as it gathered the berserker's energy it had previously given out, his own body growing threefold.

"Sonia! Get back!" Luna shouted as the ground beneath the demon gave way, dropping it into a pit from the waist down.

"Now!"

Rayse and Sonia attacked in unison, only for the berserker to swipe at both of them with a massive hand, slamming them back into the ground.

"Shit! Cushion!"

Rayse instantly bounced back up, thanks to Luna's spell limiting the damage he would have taken, but it seemed that despite the spell coming on time, Sonia had still taken the brunt of the blow. She laid on the ground dazed, holding her head and trying to shake off the cobwebs. To make matters worse, they were still under the shadow of the demon's palm.

"Siege mode!" Rayse responded, pushing the shield in front to intercept the blow. It stopped the berserker, its hand bouncing back from the force of its own attack. Rayse casted a spell before it could bring its hand back down.

"Return!" He regathered the scales he sent out to deal with the smaller berserkers before, positioning the shield so that the scales would go through the emissary. It resulted in numerous wounds, but not enough to put it down. Heedless of the pain, the demon brought its fist down once again, threatening to crush the pair into a pulp.

"Earth grasp!" Luna shouted from a distance. mounds of earth grabbed the enemy, keeping it in place before it could continue its attack. It stopped the attack momentarily, but Rayse could tell it was only a matter of time before the attack goes through.

"Hurry!" Luna shouted urgently. He turned to look at Sonia, who was still sitting on the floor, looking pretty disoriented. He made an instant decision, mentally aiming his shield at the giant berserker.

"Scale shot!!"

A single scale shot out, piercing the demon through the heart. A purple gleam shone from within the hole he made, and Rayse immediately put his hand out to absorb it. The mana flowed into his body, replenishing his and his weapon's mana. He used it to heal Sonia and his own wounds, topping him off even after the fact.

Luna ran to them, worry evident on her face as she looked over Sonia's condition. 

Rayse was hovering over them, focused  on recovering when suddenly, Luna stood up once again, pointed at the ground and casted a spell.

"Earth shift!"

Rayse stumbled as the ground beneath them moved them to the side, throwing them all off their feet. The reason became clear when three large centipeded erupted from the ground, their mandibles skewering the air where Luna and Sonia used to be.

Rayse prepared for battle, putting up his weapons once again, when he noticed a bright flash on one side of the battlefield. He shielded his eyes, still still trying to keep an eye on the centipedes, who were thankfully not attacking.

One of them convulsed, squirming in a sickening way. 

"Stay back!" Rayse called out to his companions, who were all to happy to stand behind him. The others joined in, flopping down to the ground like they were in excruciating pain.

His mind screamed. Too many things were happening in succession, and he could not keep up. He stabbed his sieging shield into the ground, sheltering his entire team up for whatever the centipedes had in store.

What is it now!?