Someone Else Is Pulling at the Strings

Chapter 3 Enough!

"I had it under control," they let out once they caught their breath.

"Sure you did," Darius teased them before his tone turned more understanding, "take your time if you need."

Belos was getting ready for another strike when he was suddenly hit with a potion. It created orange smoke around him, making it hard for him to see. He swung his extended arms around to clear the air around him, spotting another glass with a potion heading his way as it was shot out by the house demon. It was too late to dodge it, so Belos' vision ended up limited once again.

Despite this, he shot out one arm forward, not knowing where, while the other one was utilized as a shield. His arm emerged from the smoke so close to Owlbert's staff.

Camila tightened her grip on Eda's shoulders for a second, but quickly grabbed her bat, smacking Belos away. At the impact, an ice glyph activated, freezing the hand.

Raine whistled loudly to knock Lilith's body away from them and into a purple puddle. As Belos tried to get up, the purple goo wrapped around the body, holding him down.

"You haven't learned anything, have you?" Belos asked as he spread through the abomination goop. A groan of agony sounded behind him, half of Darius' body emerging from the puddle. "Our bodies aren't that different. Tell me, Darius, how many palismen did you have to sacrifice to achieve such a form?"

Darius gritted his teeth and dug his fingers into the puddle. At first, it felt like a reflex to deal with the pain, but in reality, he pulled out an abomination sword and with one swift move, he cut Lilith's hair short. The dark locks Belos forced to grow out fell to the ground, causing Belos to chuckle devilishly to himself.

"All that just for the hair?"

"What can I say? You aren't exactly the best barber," Darius mocked him, "or maybe it was just a distraction."

Belos frantically looked around, seeing that everyone else was gone. He reached into a pocket on the dress and pulled out a glyph. Touching it, he summoned a small tornado which pulled Darius' goop in as Belos separated himself from him.

He pulled out more glyphs and slammed one against the floor, sending out a strong gust of wind. He was taken aback at first, he hasn't seen this glyph combination before. During those few months, when she wasn't working on perfecting the elixir Lilith was experimenting with the glyph combos, creating ones not even Belos himself has seen before.

He glanced around in hopes of his enemies slipping up when lightning struck beside him. He jerked around and crashed several pieces of paper in his hand, activating more glyphs and throwing spikes of ice toward the spell's source.

Raine dodged the spikes, revealing themself from the invisibility spell in the process. They played their violin, summoning more lightning around Belos. To counter, he pulled out more ice glyphs, but before he could, flames burst out of nowhere right in his face, but not too close so they'd burn Lilith.

Belos jumped back, seeing Eda and Hooty fly past him on Owlbert. Eda hopped off the staff, landing beside Raine.

"You're holding back, Evelyn, I can tell," he said mockingly, "but what if your efforts aren't enough? What if you can't save your dear sister? Then again, does she even deserve saving after what she's done to you?"

Eda's nails dug into her palm, nearly causing her to bleed, shooting a death glare at him.

"Lily, don't you dare listen to him," she fumed.

"Stop pretending that you care," Belos told her calmly, not phased by her anger in the slightest, "she knows that you hate her." Just that was enough for Eda to charge at him without thinking and she would've run straight into a trap–a lance his goop formed into–if it wasn't for Raine grabbing her arm and stopping her.