Page 94 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

“One demon with a piece of the devil might not frighten you, but how about two?” Corson propped himself up with his arms, sapphire eyes glimmering.

I needed to help. Needed to move.

Corson held up a piece of Lilith’s splintered essence, letting the tar drip down his forearm.

“How long I’ve craved this moment.” Corson scoffed, cutting a piercing glare at Lilith, who merely lay on the ground unconscious. “Mother isn’t even aware of such a momentous victory.”

He stuck out his tongue, stretching it nearly a foot in length, and wrapped it around his arm, lapping at the piece of essence he’d taken. A fraction, a tiny molecule of power ingested, but once he gulped that fragmented power, his body surged. Injuries that’d left his body mangled a moment before vanished almost as quickly as he had.

In an instant, Corson sprang out of shadows weaved by Diabolic webs and punched Beelzebub across the jaw, cracking one of the exposed fangs at the end of his snout. It didn’t end there. He swooped back into the shadows and darted out from a different direction, rampaging against Beelzebub.

Satan raced ahead, joining Corson’s futile attacks. They moved in a flurry, swiftly striking Beelzebub. The devil moved his four arms quicker than the demons, blocking their hits, countering their blows, knocking each of them back, and pummeling them until they collapsed.

It didn’t matter what we did.

“Fall back,” Bez said. “Reinforce the barrier.”

“What, no.” I hadn’t even fought yet. Hadn’t moved yet. Hadn’t found the courage to face a devil.

Lilith lunged from her spot, recovered enough from the time we stalled, and furiously bit Beelzebub’s throat. With her fangsset in deep, anchored into his flesh, she wrapped her serpent body tight, coiling around his arms, torso, and right leg.

“I need to help.” I traced incantations in the air, flipping the sigils and inverting signs to make this healing spell adaptable for Diabolics. I couldn’t offer much, but I could mend Bez’s injuries, speed up the recovery of his essence, support those fighting.

Lilith wailed, and the air itself shattered like glass, crumbling away chunks of the dimensional walls. An icy wind blew. I shivered. Such a stark contrast to the scalding heat that radiated off the devils to collide with the frigid chill of the world outside this hidden city. A broken city now. A dying city in a dying world in a dying dimension.

I ground my teeth, grinding out the self-doubt. I needed to focus, to fight, to buy time for Kell.

“Look out.” Bez shoved me, not fast enough.

The shriek a moment before. Beelzebub had broken Lilith into pieces, dropping her to the ground in seconds. Now, he barreled forward, a moment from hitting Bez, who braced in front of me.

“No!” I screamed with as much fear and malice and hatred as Lilith had unleashed a second before.

Unlike her, my energy didn’t wane. The broken walls of the dimension fell like glass shards, yet when the decibels of my Diabolic voice reached them and everything else, time slowed. Froze. Even Beelzebub. An awareness met with a furrowing brow and snarled snout.

Run. I needed to run.

With Bez in my grasp, I dodged Beelzebub. Again. Again. Again. Each time, shouting with my essence to stall the devil’s pursuit until he vanished from my sights altogether.

“Good job, Wally.” Bez shrugged off the stillness, the scream that continued to delay time around us. Living, dead, non-organic, magical or not. All of it seemed affected.

I spun around, searching for Beelzebub.

“Look out.” Bez shoved me away from the approaching darkness.

Beelzebub knocked Bez away, reopening every injury I’d just mended with magic.

“Manipulating the flow of time.” Beelzebub looked down on me. “You’ve learned how to wield my essence well.”

I went to run, but the ground itself encased my hands and feet beneath gravel. Beelzebub leaned close, a clawed hand gripped my face, and his snout pressed against my cheek.

“This is more essence than what was taken.” He sniffed, deep and confirming Lilith’s suspicions about my essence evolving.

His essence.

No. Mine.

Using my tail, I cracked apart the rocky shackles which bound me. Then I balled a fist and decked Beelzebub across the jaw with spiked knuckles.

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