Unmasked, the party left behind at the castle door had finally isolated the monsters within the castle walls. Terminating the imps with ease and still keeping their distance from the greater monsters, Amedith, Liliyana, Regalia, Aria, and Erika kept close to the exit to keep it secure for a swift exit.
Securing the windows with runes, Erika had just returned from outside of a window before sealing it from indoors. Having sealed the rest from the outside, she ensured nobody could escape without being thrown back in through a looping portal. Asmodia's powers helped a lot, but even then, using magic in the hell was draining her more than anyone else.
"It feels like I've lost my strength…" She whispered while slipping into a dark corner along with the rest of her group. Looking at her hands, the priestess was sure that her holy magic was being heavily affected by the fact that her good deeds and her service to Athenia had been scrubbed clean the moment she'd entered hell.
'If we die here, we're gonna end up in hell.' Looking at her companions with a deep gulp, she thought of speaking out but decided to keep the realization to herself. 'It's better they don't know for now, none of us is gonna anyway, I'm sure!'
Her confidence was brittle, but being a priestess, her faith was much stronger. Through faith alone, she calmed herself, and in a few more minutes, her mind was free of doubts.
'My goddess won't abandon me, I must have faith. I must persist.' Even though she couldn't feel her goddess' presence nor hear her words, Erika kept on praying, and for her, that was the call of her human spirit. Weaker than most other races, and yet hoped bloomed in her heart even in the darkest of places.
But hope, it was a poison in hell. A poison so sweet that it pervaded the nostrils of the greater monsters in an instant. The very same horned beasts that had let Raven and the other slip began chasing after this scent, knowing full well that at the end of it was someone who wasn't supposed to be there.
"What's that sound?" Feeling the charging footsteps rattling the very ground they stood on, Amedith raised his shield and got in front of the group. Holding the shield firm against the opposite side of the castle's entrance, he kept his eyes glued to the front, already expecting their ruse to have been broken.
"Should we put on the mask again?" Regalia asked.
"No use if they're running to get here, I doubt they don't already know that we're here," Liliyana responded.
"Those masks damp our powers, sooo…" Walking up beside Amedith, Aria raised her dragon-scale gloves. "I'd rather face them head-on than having to waddle between whether they know or not."
Walking past Regalia, Erika closed her eyes for a moment and let Asmodia take over. As her eyes opened again, they were burning a crimson rage. A named devil of the past who could've become primordial, stolen of her valor, well, of course, she'd been hoping to let out some steam.
"Try to keep up, ladies~ Because I'm gonna fist their imagination," wearing a deep-furrowed scowl, Asmodia's crimson aura bled through Erika's body like smoke from a flame. Flooding the room in an instant, the true magic of an ancient weighed heavy on everyone's shoulders. Palpable, her bloodlust, she'd completely undone her restraints. "On the Creator's name, we're taking over this fucking place!"
Like the burning sun, her back and her eyes erupted in golden flames. Their eyes burning in awe of such power, everyone but Amedith decided to let her take centre stage. Walking up beside the warrior with a smirk, she nudged him on the shoulder and whispered.
"Repeat with me if you wanna free your slumbering potential," glancing sideways at her, his face riddled with sweat from Asmodia's body heat, Amedith could feel his heart pounding between the rushing steps and the devil's immense bloodlust.
"Quite the time to reveal that you could, why didn't you do it sooner?" He asked, huffing and puffing from the sheer angst his body was going through.
Smiling, the devil replied.
"Because I love the taste of fear, adventure and life-threatening angst," chuckling to herself despite the severity of the situation, Asmodia offered Amedith. "So what would it be, young Magus? Wanna know what it feels like to be an equal to a god?"
Although her smirk felt unsettling, Amedith had no choice but to offer her his hand. Squeezing it tight, the devil turned her attention to the front, and the moment she did, a tall minotaurian devil with burning skin emerged at the end of the hall.
"Kelesh' Usta, Eternum…" She said, and Amedith repeated.
The monster charged closer as they recited the old magic incantation. Holding her hand forward, she urged him to do the same. As he did, she recited.
"Atle'o Deus, nil vultei…" And with that, a smirk appeared on her lips, but before he could notice, Amedith recited that as well. "Great now, close your eyes and check your skills."
"Right now?!" He screamed, looking between the charging minotaur and her.
However, when she didn't respond, Amedith had to do what she had to say. And as he did, as if a vault had been opened from the bottom of his soul, power surged through him, and amongst the list of his skills were now every skill ever spell that he'd ever heard of, fought against, or just like it was theoretically possible.
"Now wake up," getting spanked in the butt, his trance was broken as he was sent head first into the charging minotaur. Opening his eyes, Amedith found himself inches from the creature's charging horns, but instead of freaking out, he instinctively reached to the side and borrowed from Helga's dimensional pocket one of her many frost spears.
'What in the world happened there?' Wondered Regalia as Amedith slammed the spear into the creature's head, and the monster fell to the ground with its body slowly freezing over. Needless to say, with his potential unlocked and Asmodia unrestrained, the flurry of monsters was nothing more than practice for their unlocked potential.