Chapter 170

Sometimes, Nick wondered if he was cursed with bad luck. Certainly, receiving the Compass of Interesting Times didn’t help, but he couldn’t place the blame on the artifact, no matter how much he wished otherwise.Blaming Elia would have been easier, but he was mature enough to know he could have steered the girls away if he truly wanted to. No, it was his own damn fault, and as he felt the fabric of reality fray when something too big for the material world tried to break through, he knew he had to get a handle on the situation before it was too late.

“Behind me!” he roared as powerful gusts of wind churned around them. Not that he thought it would do much to stop the demon. And a demon it was, given the similarity to what he’d once felt at the temple.

A rumbling, croaking laugh echoed through the temple as the shadows writhed and converged until a single crimson eye emerged.

Its overwhelming presence made it hard to breathe, and Nick could hear the girls gasping behind him, even though most of its focus was on him.

“To think this little trap of mine would bear fruit a century after I’d given up on it,” the demon spoke, its voice echoing, tumbling off the walls, sounding as if it came from all around them. The once-pristine marble began to corrode in its mere presence, and Nick knew that if he made the mistake of lowering his shield for just a second, all three of them would be engulfed by a cloud of toxins so powerful they wouldn’t even notice before they died.

Given the immense size Nick sensed through the veil, he suspected that sensation was more accurate than it might seem. He quickly suppressed the instinct to open his third eye further. The glimpse he’d gotten was already more than enough for his tastes.

or not, if he gazed at an infernal being without the protections of the material world, he risked much. His mind might be shielded, but demons had many methods at their disposal to affect their victims.

After a moment, the shadows settled, indicating that the demon had brought through the veil as much of itself as possible, but Nick knew better than to trust it.

No, if there was one thing he agreed with Marthas on, it was that such filth had to be eradicated with prejudice.

A creak behind him nearly prompted him to turn around, but he couldn’t afford to divert his attention from the demon for even a moment.

after formed from the great churning whirlwind he had crafted, shooting into the amorphous mass of shadows and toxins.

To his surprise, the spells didn’t immediately fall apart upon contact; instead, they managed to pierce through the demon. However, as soon as they passed, the holes they left behind were patched up, leaving the being no worse for wear.

Of course, Nick hadn’t expected to kill a demon with some insignificant wind magic. No, he would need a powerful ritual if he wanted any hope of chasing it away, much less harming it, but to set it up, he needed to distract it long enough.

“Aaah, yesss. I can smell your desperation as you realize your paltry magic is useless,” the demon hissed, its red eye somehow transmitting sadistic amusement. “It has been too long since I played with young mortals.”

“What are you doing here?!” Elia shouted, having finally managed to gather enough strength to speak. Nick could sense her legs trembling, and even though her second tail shone brightly and her foxfire granted her strength, he knew she couldn’t hope to do anything against the demon.

Still, he didn’t yell for them to pull back. Speaking with a demon was dangerous, but he needed time, and his offensive magic had just proven useless. might do more damage, but it could also cause the temple to crash down on their heads.

A soft, velvety hiss emerged from the writhing shadows. “It seems that today is really my day. To find another little fox that has yet to be tainted. What luck!”

Given that Nick couldn’t sense any significant buildup from it, the demon didn’t seem to be stalling for time. It likely viewed itself as the uncontested predator in this situation. Although Nick wouldn’t be so arrogant as to believe his preparations would go unnoticed until the end, he could only hope they would be considered a futile attempt.

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“How dare you enter Inari’s sacred temple?!” Elia repeated, sounding even angrier. Heat was starting to rise uncomfortably, but Nick didn’t protest. Anything that could keep the demon’s attention away for a moment longer was good.

The air trembled when she invoked the name of her goddess, and for a moment, Nick wondered whether he would witness a second divine intervention within a month, but nothing else happened.

“Aaah, yes. I can feel your wrath. It is such a useful emotion, to cleanse the shadows of fear so quickly. But you foxes should already know that burning so brightly is not wise. A fire in the night attracts many things, little girl, and none of them are good.” The demon replied, seemingly enjoying providing half answers.

Nick continued working on his ritual. He couldn’t exactly carve into the floor, given the damage that the demon’s mere presence inflicted on the surroundings. Wherever the eye landed, the marble warped, corroding and cracking. Rituals were already finicky on their own. If he attempted to cast one amid such interference, he’d be fortunate to die on the spot.

No, Nick was reduced to casting internally—something any decent Occultist would know was foolish. Even more foolish to do so while using other spells at the same time, but Nick had no other choice.

His second trait, , wasn’t something he thought about much. It certainly wasn’t as flashy as , but it granted him incredible levels of control, and that, coupled with his , meant that Nick was somehow balancing his defensive spells, the occasional attack, and the sacrificial ritual he was preparing.

Fortunately, the owl was in his jacket pocket, as he hadn’t put it away after their encounter with the ooze guardian. This let him subtly angle his hand until it came into contact with it.

That was all he really needed to make the ritual work. He was assuming that the demon had not been summoned but was instead imposing itself upon reality, a feat that could only be accomplished with great effort and for a short time, particularly for the more powerful ones.

And Nick was pretty sure this thing was so far beyond his ability to face that it wasn’t even funny. Its true form was hidden from his senses, and he didn’t dare look for it, but his instincts told him it was significantly more powerful than even a Prestige being.

Still, he didn’t need to defeat it; he just had to help reality fight back. And he knew just the thing that would do it.

Reciting the Bornless Ritual from memory and in silence wasn’t easy, but Nick’s mental stats had long since increased enough to render such a task trivial.

The more challenging aspect was maintaining the appearance of stillness while the ritual’s mana churned within his coils. Nick was certain that if he had not developed , he might have failed then and there. There was simply no other space for him to contain the wild power within his body.

Grasping the owl, he prepared to bind its spirit to the ritual and use it to feed the exorcism, but surprisingly, he found it willing and ready.

That changed everything. If the false angel—or what little remained of it—was going to lend its aid… Yes, maybe he could actually do it. He just needed a few more seconds to adjust the structure to create a space for it to take over.

“You will pay for this!” Elia shouted, swinging her clawed hand and sending a wave of fire at the demon. The shadows writhed upon contact, but the eye made no motion to dodge, and when the flames got close, they simply winked out of existence, overwhelmed.

Pressure increased tenfold upon them, and Nick felt his knees buckle from the sheer amount of mana it emitted. It wasn’t even the intent carried within that caused him problems. He could ignore that all day, thanks to , but the overwhelming power flooding into the temple had consequences, and he sensed reality buckle even further as cracks appeared in the air.

He realized with horror. He’d never heard of a demon forcing its way into the material plane without help, but that didn’t seem to be slowing the one facing them down.

The shadows it was made of expanded in size, gaining a purple hint, and Nick felt the gases comprising the air become overwhelmed by the concentration of noxious fumes emitted by the demon. A single breath would be enough to kill an elephant.

Another crack echoed, this time loud enough for the demon to hear it as well. “Hmm, what’s this? Oh, it seems that the Great Trickster is trying to help you. One last game is fine with me.”

It didn’t seem worried, which only made Elia’s wrath greater. “You stand within the temple of Inari-Okami, Mother of the Harvest, Health, and Courage! You will BURN!”

All at once, several things happened.

Nick realized he wasn’t the only one preparing to unleash his trap. The shadows that comprised the demon’s body bulged as an even greater force emanated from the immaterial, causing visible fractures in the fabric of reality.

He completed his ritual, having adjusted the matrix to account for the owl guardian. He clapped his hands, unleashing the churning power all at once and causing a pulse of pure white mana to explode from him.

And finally, a much louder crack echoed through the temple as the crystal shrine around the rotten hand broke apart. Silver power spilled from the severed limb, giving Nick the sensation of healing magic, if only in concentrations high enough to become more harmful.

The hand then pointed toward Elia, whose flames had reached a crescendo. Where they had previously roared with white and blue power, they transformed into silver, and her eyes started glowing.

The demon roared, exploding into a wave of shadows and trying to swallow them all. Nick felt the owl’s presence in his mind urging him to let go of the wind, as it could not help.

With only a moment of hesitation, he complied and channeled all his mana into the ritual.

A dozen spiraling circles of light appeared all around them, creating a shield of light so powerful that the shadows broke against it. At the same time, Elia, wreathed in flames so hot that Nick could feel his skin burn from their mere presence, leaped out of his protection and into the gaping darkness.