836 Unorthodox Feint
Albus transford into a blazing-white, blue-tinged flaming spear, flying to the peak of the corpse mountain, toward Julie's filthy blood descending onto the charred 0-01 banner.
But in the blink of an eye, he lost his target, reverting from his fiery state to land beside the corpse where 0-01 should have been embedded.
At the peak, opening his eyes no longer seed an issue, but Albus dici's vision no longer contained the charred banner, Julie's filthy blood, or Celeste.
With his past experience, Albus quickly understood what was happening: This was the mirror world, or a Mirror Maze!
After waiting so long at the peak, Celeste must have made so preparations!
As Albus guessed, this was a Mirror Maze created by multiple mirrors reflecting each other. Celeste stood outside, her gaze pained and distant as she watched the filthy blood race towards the charred flag.
For so reason, the filthy blood slowed its descent, as if repelled by 0-01, but it still sank inexorably, just at a reduced pace.
Albus tried using the crystal necklace coiled around his wrist but found no mirror world to traverse or escape through, confirming he was trapped in the Mirror Maze. He imdiately condensed blazing white, blue-tinged fireballs, sending them in all directions to blast the hidden mirrors forming the maze.
As its na implied, the Mirror Maze was just a maze, not a true barrier with defenses!
Thunderous explosions erupted almost simultaneously, yet Albus still could not break through the Mirror Maze.
Not a single mirror had been damaged!
With a slight narrowing of his eyes, Albus decisively abandoned any further such attempts.
Outside the Mirror Maze, Celeste felt the explosive winds and inwardly scoffed.
In other locations, widespread bombardnt might overwhelm a Mirror Maze ant to trap Hunters. But here at the corpse mountain's peak, the heart of 0-01's seal, it would not be so easy.
As a Demoness of Affliction corrupted by 0-01 to so degree like Julie, Celeste could wield traces of that special mirror world's power!
The Mirror Maze's mirrors were not at the peak itself, but scattered among the corpses and bones below, their reflections then projected around 0-01's vicinity through that special mirror world, forming the Mirror Maze.
Seeing Julie's filthy blood nearing the charred banner, Celeste felt a mix of elation and confusion, underlaid by anguish.
From sowhere, she produced a black teardrop-like ornant and affixed it to between her brows.
Inside the Mirror Maze, Albus calmly lowered his head and half-closed his eyes, preparing to do what would inevitably be required.
He murmured in ancient Hers, "The great God of War, the symbol of iron and blood, the ruler of chaos and strife."
With this three-passage invocation of the honorific na, the iron-black tal flagpole suspending the charred banner shuddered slightly, its drooping flag fully unfurling with a rattling sound despite the stillness, each bloody stain growing vivid.
Julie's filthy bloody halted, hovering a couple ters from 0-01, as if grasped by an unseen hand.
High above, clouds rapidly swirled into an imnse vortex tinged with faint purple firelight, larger than the mountain itself, its far end suggesting so vast entity straining against an invisible barrier.
Cracks spread from the Salinger's Blood Banner with snapping sounds, the special mirror world over the peak shattering.
The Mirror Maze dissipated as its special mirror world projection broke apart.
Albus's head snapped up, his irises now flecked with iron-black, a bloody mark stark on his brow.
His gaze fell on Celeste, now adorned with her own black teardrop ornant, eting her eyes.
Before combat could erupt, Lumian nonchalantly climbed over the peak's edge, a re seven or eight ters from 0-01.
No communication was needed as Albus and Celeste simultaneously attacked Lumian.
Albus casually thrust out a fist expelling a massive blue-tinged fireball, while frost coalesced around Celeste's head into mirrors, each preceding an eerie, smoldering black fla.
But just as Celeste's icy mirrors would have reflected Lumian, his figure faded, vanishing with a mocking smile.
Behind him, an imnse silhouette suddenly lood into Albus and Celeste's view.
Already over five or six ters tall yet still growing, twisting appendages sprouting, it was covered in patches of brown bark and sickening knobs that oozed clear fluid from the gaps.
For now, the monstrosity cradled a blood-stained, vertebrae-trailing head in one hand, its silvery-black empty eyes dead and sunken.
On either shoulder was a fleshy, head-sized bulge, the surface rippling with so contained liquid.
The next second, the monster leaped to the peak, shedding puddles of wriggling maggot-flesh.
Countless black gaseous tendrils dragged at it from behind, trying to pull it back into the sleek, iron-black breastplate mirror.
The re sight catalyzed a visceral sensation of corruption in Albus and Celeste.
Celeste's hair billowed outward, rapidly thickening and coarsening, while Albus's face beca mapped with protruding black veins.
Boom!
Albus's imnse blue-tinged fireball with white remnants exploded against the monstrosity as Celeste's flickering array of frost-mirrors reflected its figure, engulfing it in roiling black flas.
Crack!
The monster shattered mirror-like, its silhouette imdiately reappearing beside 0-01, making Albus and Celeste's scalps prickle-it could use Mirror Substitution too.
Raising its severed head, the monstrosity emitted a sound like it ca from another world.
Celeste felt herself plunged into cloying, frozen blackness, constrained on all sides in inescapable oppression.
Albus likewise found himself surrounded by stifling darkness.
This was a mystic technique inspired by the Mirror Person's state of being.
At that mont, Lumian, having teleported away to avoid the earlier clash, reappeared at the corpse peak's base.
His silhouette flickered behind Albus in the darkness, mouth opening to harrumph, sending a pale-yellow gaseous breath that washed over him.
For an instant, Albus's eyes went blank, his body swaying before he recovered his senses.
The Red Angel had helped him resist part of the Spell of Harrumph's effects.
Seizing Albus's montary disorientation, Lumian's left fist blazed with white flas as he struck at his vulnerable point-the neck connecting head and body.
Cull!
As Lumian's fist neared Albus's neck, the mber of the dici family transford into a humanoid blaze of white, blue-tinged fire.
Not the rger with a flaming spear, but transmutation into living fla itself.
In this fiery state, his neck was no longer a weakness!
Bang!
Lumian's punch only made the flaming figure waver and dim slightly.
In the next instant, Albus beca a roaring blue-tinged flaming spear, bursting through the black icy shackles into the air.
Wheeling about like a javelin cast from the high vortex's hidden depths, he unleashed dozens of blue-streaked white fireballs in a thunderous barrage toward the peak.
Boom! Rumble! Boom boom!
Horrific explosions engulfed the area in relentless succession.
The indescribable monstrosity repeatedly used Mirror Substitution yet could not escape the bombardnt's range.
anwhile, Lumian had teleported pre-emptively back to the mountain's base.
Still teleporting? Hand Bro isn't dead yet? As a chill ran down Lumian's back, he saw Celeste's face reflected in a nearby corpse's smooth breastplate.
The Demoness had not t Albus's assault with Mirror Substitution, instead deploying a mirror to swiftly traverse the mirror world to the wasteland-one of Lumian's backup plans.
Seeing she did not imdiately attack him, Lumian turned his gaze back toward the peak.
He did not regret missing the opportunity to eliminate Albus earlier, as that was the outco he wanted.
If he had intended to kill Albus with that strike, he would not have used only his Cull ability-he would have surely drawn the Sword of Courage or attacked in his Desire Incarnation form instead.
If I killed Albus now, who would help deal with Celeste and that monster? Just alone? Lumian inwardly muttered with obvious malice.
His earlier attack had a hidden purpose: to deceive Albus into thinking his defenses were ineffective against Lumian, to make him believe the pitch-black bone ring on his hand could not target him.
Then, at the crucial mont, he could "surprise" Albus by exploiting this misconception!
The thunderous explosions finally subsided. The corpses and bones atop the peak had suffered severe damage, and Julie's filthy blood had dissipated sowhat.
The indescribable monster no longer had Mirror Substitution, its surface charred and tattered.
Albus reappeared, his iron-black eyes lifting his right hand to push forward.
A spiraling storm of white-blue Fire Ravens flocked relentlessly toward the monster's exposed abdon in overwhelming numbers.
Rumble!
Its weak point battered, the staggering monster collapsed into fragnts.
Seeing this, Lumian instantly drew a straight sword resembling the Sword of Courage and teleported to the peak, while Celeste also raced toward it.
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