Syl-Chapter 236: Inevitable Betrayal

"I thought we had a deal!?" I cried out, feigning outrage.

"The terms have changed, and I cannot, in good faith, allow such a monster to roam freely," Kaspar sneered. "For the good of the world, I’ll have to besmirch my honor. A noble sacrifice."

"What a joke; I can’t believe how far his head is up his own ass," Vee commented disapprovingly.

"He’ll get his comeuppance," I reassured her mentally.

He took the bag from the beak of his bird mount and began stroking it affectionately. He pulled out what seemed to be some form of enchanted reins that connected to his summoned flying steed, which then began to turn away from me.

"Proceed with the deal, demon," Kaspar ordered.

The demon simply nodded. Rather than fly towards me, it merely vanished using its teleportation skill and began tearing into my fake body.

Boom!

The fake bag detonated. Its payload was entirely unobstructed as it went directly into and through the summoner. The demon’s head immediately swiveled upwards to look at what had occurred right as more tendrils grabbed onto it in an attempt to prevent it from teleporting to aid.

The demon snarled as it began tearing slimy tendrils apart, only for more to form and latch onto him. My [Sub-Cores] also started pelting him with various spells, hoping something would finally damage the creature.

Vee also seized the opportunity, lashing out with a makeshift whip of [Rift Thread] into the screeching creature. That was the final straw as it began gathering energy once more. Vee teleported away, and I ensured none of my cores were nearby as, once again, the thousands of tiny blades formed an aura around the demon and sliced anything and everything into non-existence.

Once it was free, it immediately used its [Blink] ability, but I knew I had already secured my victory.

<Human LV 22; Summoner LV 30 defeated. Experience gained.>

I had witnessed his body falling from the sky, his mount destroyed in the resulting blast. No doubt he was burning, dissolving, and freezing. Not to mention the Bloodrot-laced shrapnel. It was a truly horrendous contraption for any living creature.

"No!" the demon bellowed in anger and violently struck the ground near the corpse.

[Soul Sight] showed me that the strange umbilical cord between them was now severed from the summoner and burning like a candle toward the demon.

"I hadn’t finished claiming my meal!" the demon roared again and turned to me. "I shall ensure you suffer for your interference!"

Oh, wonderful. I was hoping it would disappear instantly, but I guess there’s a time limit now.

The demon vanished from the spot and began tearing into any slime it could find. Previously, it had armed only its nails with the cutting imbuement, but now its entire arms were aglow as it attempted to rend through me.

"Vee, stay back, I don’t want you getting hurt," I told her telepathically.

"Really? I can help you," Vee suggested.

"He’s going to fade away, I think. I just need to outlast him, and then we win. I’ve got an ocean of slime between him and me, not to mention a couple of extra lives even if he does get me."

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"Okay... But be safe," Vee warned.

"Got it!" I replied confidently.

The demon continued its rampage against the slime I kept throwing at it. While it was mindlessly destroying, I tried to capitalize as best as I could on the situation and find some better methods of attack. I started cycling between various forms of [Metal Slime] weaponry, hoping to find something to combat the demonic foe.

Obsidianiate and Adamantite didn’t seem notably effective, much to my dismay. However, there appeared to be some minor effects when I produced some piercing and slashing weapons made from Mythril. It still largely ignored my spells, which felt very disheartening.

Demons must be highly magic-resistant. I’ll need to do some research into how to effectively fight them.

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Any minor damage I did to it healed rapidly, although at the cost of the magical umbilical cord burning away faster. That was the primary reason I didn’t want to simply wait it out; I hoped to get further skill or trait experience while I could.

Maybe I’m approaching this wrong. Perhaps I need to find something like how lead-silver worked on Trixie? I could start cycling through other types of metals, even weapons that aren’t generally made of.

Of course, I immediately tried to cut into it with lead-silver weapons. They were slightly effective, more so than my other attempts, so I knew I might have been on the right track.

Pure silver and the Mana-enriched silver worked more effectively, even causing the demon to hiss in anger, but they did not halt its rampage. And so I began trying to mix silver with anything and everything, hoping to create an impromptu alloy that would work against the demon. I told my [Sub-Cores] to join in and experiment with alloys, hoping they would solve my problem.

With its time growing slime and no doubt realizing what I was attempting to work out, it started being far more destructive in its attacks. Rather than creating a radius of destructive energy around itself, it started making some form of magical attack that cut out a cube in space.

When I saw it happen, alarm bells rang in my head, and Vee, who was watching, must have seen something genuinely horrific, as she had even let out a mental screech.

Bastard is destroying my slime! The nerve!

I kept retreating my cores, only keeping one in range to maintain better direct control over the assaulting slime. Thankfully, it seemed like the demon lacked the proper measures to find my core, and blind destruction was its only avenue.

Again, another cube removed rock and slime from existence—a terrible display of power. While I was celebrating his lack of better sensory traits or his destruction being limited in range, I was interrupted by a strange notification.

<[Truesilver] alloy discovered. [Metal Slime] updated.>

Truesilver? I pondered and realized either one of my [Sub-Cores] or I had mixed Mythril and Silver together in what must have been the proper ratios.

Mythril and silver had both affected the demon, so I formed a fresh batch of bladed weapons, including a particularly awe-inspiring rapier, and assaulted the demon.

Blades cut and pierced the demon’s flesh with a newfound strength. The demon’s attitude instantly flipped, and he went from blind destruction to desperately protecting himself. No more cubes of destruction and no more seeking my death; now, it was purely focused on slicing incoming tendrils with its clawed hands or forming that aura attack as a last-ditch effort.

I guess hoping I could kill it on the spot is too much. I thought bitterly as I watched the last remnants of its tie to the world burn away more rapidly.

Tendrils of Truesilver were very effective as I tried to shackle the demon, forcing it to use its ultimate move to free itself. More and more of its lifeline burned away, and when only an inch was left, it let out a bellow.

"Enough! You may have won this time, little slime, but tread carefully! Us demons hold their grudges for eternity!"

And then, before I could retort, attack, or do anything else, it vanished. In a somewhat gruesome display, the demon turned itself inwards and fled into a black and red extradimensional hole that popped like a blood boil when the last bits of its form fled.

<Demon banished. Partial experience gained.>

"Holy shit... We did it?" Vee spoke up first.

"Looks like it..." I said cautiously and began recollecting myself.

"Congrats!" Trixie said, suddenly appearing.

"A lot of help you were," Vee grumbled.

"Hey, I kept any outside witnesses!" Trixie said.

I nodded; it’s probably what I cared about the most.

Vee, however, was still not satisfied. "I still think you should have been duking it out with us, fighting together as a group."

"I’m not really the fighting type... More the mischievous and playful companion," Trixie reported.

"Okay. Sure. Then why didn’t you make Syl’s tentacles invisible, the spells, the bombs, or something?" Vee pressed.

"Um..." Trixie hesitated. "Well. I could have. But if I did, then the demon could have been less restricted."

"I’m not buying it," Vee declared.

"It’s fine, Vee, don’t worry about it," I tried to reason with her.

"It’s not fine," Vee continued. "Sure, we got out of it this time, but what about the next time?"

"I’m sure Trixie would help us if we really needed it, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, if I could, I would," Trixie replied, although I felt like she was still dodging directly answering.

Vee didn’t bother responding to that, although I could still sense her emotions in quite a turmoil from our bond. Unfortunately, I could sympathize with both their points of view.

I’d never really expected Trixie to ever come into the thick of it with fights, as I’d never needed it before, and I was happy to have her as a supporting role and some companionship. It was more experience for me, with the occasional helping hand and some companionship.

On the other hand, Vee was more worried about survival than growth opportunities. While she seemed to enjoy developing her power, it was more for the safety of additional levels. Meanwhile, I was happy to take more risks, as I could usually take them without any significant consequences.

I guess I’m the weird one here... Maybe I need to find Vee some more safety-related traits? I could also get some levels in a [Bonded Companion] related class. If I got a skill or upgrade that ensured her survival, then she might be willing to take more risks or overlook Trixie’s shenanigans.

Once I had regathered myself, we moved to claim our spoils from the battle. I gathered the remains of the summoner’s corpse without issue, but we ran into a problem when we looked at the area that contained the others.

"The area is unhallowed," Trixie grumbled, looking particularly unhappy.

"Anything we can do about it?" I asked.

Trixie sighed, "Unless you have some [Holy Magic] hidden away, I don’t think so."

"Great... So we must risk some soul damage to get our spoils?" Vee whined.

"It’s not that big of a deal," I replied.

"No, it is; your soul is not looking good, Syl," Trixie informed me.

"Then you should fetch them for us," Vee said.

"Ugh. Fine!" Trixie whined as she fluttered into the infernal area.

"So, what’s our next plan? Cause I can tell we are both annoyed as hell by these attacks," Vee asked me.

"I’m going directly to the embassy and shoving this bag in his face, and then we leave," I answered. "Then I guess I give the elf disguise a break. Maybe we can just do some wondering on the surface."

"Oh yeah, we can go see the beach!" Vee said excitedly.

"Anything to get away from these annoying attacks for something I’m not even related to. Now I’ve got a demon grudge; how bad is that?"

"Probably bad," Vee sighed.

Well, at least I have a Truesilver against the next demon I encounter. I tried to think positively.