The bullet from Jack's shotgun struck the fused entity. Violently. With the force of a thundering hammer.
Lead flattened against the skin that looked like polished marble but felt like reinforced steel. The projectile didn't pierce. It fell to the floor. Deformed and useless. Clinking against the stone tiles.
The entity didn't even flinch. It stood there. A towering monument of perverse perfection. Radiating an aphrodisiac aura so thick that it felt like breathing blazing honey.
Jack could hear the sound of bodies hitting the floor behind him. Rhythmic and heavy. The High Priest Mountaine was on his knees. His eyes were glazed. Fixed on the swaying body of the hermaphrodite devil.
Father Lynx and Senior Inquisitor Lantern were strictly trained to by the Church of Justice. Controlling their desire should not be a problem for them. But not this time. They also knelt down weakly. Their eyes were tightly closed. Trying hard to neutralize the effect of the supernatural aura of temptation.
Sister Riverre had collapsed too. Her eyes were closed tight and he face flushed red. Her breathing was ragged. She was muttering verses from Redemption Bible with great difficulty.
The three artists were not that much different. They were even in worse condition.
"Crap! It seems like it will just be us, Love." Jack sighed. His voice was flat. Completely unaffected by the aura. Thanks to his [Mythical Adaptation] passive power.
"Two of us should be enough, Dear." Reina replied. Her voice was also steady. The fused devil's charm couldn't affect her. At all.
The fused devil moved. It didn't walk. It glided. It lunged toward Jack with a speed that defied its muscular bulk.
Jack instantly reacted. He threw his left arm forward. The [Chains of Vengeance] erupted from his left bracer.
The menacing, blackened links hissed through the air. Imbued with the power of infernal flame. They wrapped around the fused devil's torso and limbs.
For a second, the creature was bound. But then, its body flickered. It didn't struggle against the chains. It simply... wasn't there anymore. A pop of displaced air signaled its disappearance. It reappeared ten feet to the left. Laughing with those two discordant voices.
"The physical restraints do noting to us." The entity mocked.
Reina didn't give it a chance to taunt further. She activated [Absolute Blink]. In a blur of displaced space, she appeared directly behind the devil.
Her handguns barked in a rapid-fire sequence. BANG! BANG! She aimed for the base of its skull. The bullets hit. But again, they failed to penetrate. The devil's skin rippled like liquid metal. Absorbing the kinetic energy and redirecting it away.
"Too tough." Reina called out. Blinking back to Jack's side as the devil swung a blazing, clawed hand at her. Ripping through the space she had occupied a microsecond before.
"We need to weaken this thing." Jack muttered. "Let's see if its power can be categorized under eldritch energy or non-orthodox faith energy."
He reached into his Spatial Belt. Taking out a tarot-like card with a painting of a lantern with the background of full moon. It was his spellcard, [Azure Moon Field]. A card he acquired from the [Azure Moon Lantern] during the Sapphire City crisis.
He injected his energy to the spellcard and activated it. The card glowed and broke into pieces like it was made of glass.
A wave of cool, pale blue light exploded from Jack's feet. It swept across the throne hall. Washing over the floors, the pillars, and the combatants.
The oppressive, pinkish heat of the devil's aura was pushed back. The air grew crisp and cold. Within the field, the devil's supernatural influence was dampened.
The heavy, carnal fog that had incapacitated their allies also began to thin. Though they remained too dazed and weakened to join the fray.
Jack wasn't finished. He took a second spellcard and activated it in the same way. However, it was targeted this time. And the target was... Reina.
"There you go." Jack simply said. The card he activated was the [Spatial Armor] spellcard.
A shimmering, translucent blanket of folded space wrapped around Reina like a second skin. It seemed to resonate with a low-frequency vibration.
The fused devil sensed the shift in the battlefield. It roared. The sound was a horrific blend of a woman's screech and a man's guttural growl.
It ignored Reina for a moment. Identifying Jack as the primary threat. The devil charged. Its feet cracked the stone floor as it stomped on it to pounce to Jack. Swinging a fist that held enough power to break his bone.
Jack step aside and backwards several times to evade. But, when the fused devil chased, Jack didn't dodge anymore.
Another spellcard was in his hand. On the card, the painting of a bell with screaming human face could be seem. It was the [Soul Breaking Scream] spellcard. Another acquisition from Sapphire City's fiasco.
"Listen to this, Bastard!" Jack said. Triggering the spellcard.
As the card broke to pieces, a spectral howl erupted. Bypassing the devil's physical toughness. Striking directly at its fused spiritual core.
This wasn't a physical sound. It was a spiritual shockwave. A supernatural sound that targeted soul directly.
The fused demon recoiled. Its eyes rolled back. And the two voices inside it screamed in genuine agony.
The spiritual union of the Prince and the Lady was momentarily destabilized. The entity staggered. Its perfect balance shattered. Its muscles spasmed. And its supernatural aura of carnal temptation flickered like a dying candle.
Jack savagely leveled his steamrune shotgun and pulled the trigger. The blast was a concentrated burst of kinetic energy and enchanted round. And it struck right at the devil's chest.
Because its spiritual defenses were broken by the scream, the shot finally damaged it. The bullet tore into the entity's chest. Shredding the marble-like skin and tough flesh of its breasts. Drawing thick, dark violet blood.
As the wound opened, Jack didn't let up. He took another spellcard and activated it. It was the [Bleeding Curse] card.
As the card disappeared, a red glow appeared on the devil's body. The dark, violet blood that sprayed from the devil's breasts didn't clot. Instead, the wound began to bleed uncontrollably.
The curse took hold. Forcing the devil's own supernatural vitality to pump its life essence out of its body. The creature tried to clasp its hands over the ragged hole in its breasts. But the blood hissed and bubbled. Refusing to stop.
Reina saw the opening. She didn't need instructions. She moved with surgical precision. Using her [Absolute Blink] several times to reposition herself at various angles.
She rained a barrage of shots. Focusing her fire power entirely on the open wound Jack had created. Bullet after bullet hammered into the exposed flesh and bone. Pieces of the devil's 'perfect' anatomy were blown away. Littering the floor in a gruesome display.
The devil was panicking now. Its movements were no longer graceful. It flailed, trying to grab Reina. But the [Spatial Armor] Jack had placed on her made it impossible. Its claws simply slid off the folded dimensions. Unable to touch her physical form.
Desperate, the entity tried to focus its willpower to heal itself. Its hands were glowing with a foul, pink light.
"Not so easy. Focus on this instead!" Jack calmly said. Drawing another spellcard and activated it. It was the [Itch Curse] card.
It seemed like a spell for harmless prank. But this was a cruel, distracting spell. Fatal in situation like what the devil was experiencing.
Grey glow appeared from the disappearing card and struck the fused devil. Suddenly, every inch of the devil's skin erupted in an agonizing, maddening itch. Both inside and outside.
It was a sensation that ignored pain and bypassed endurance. It was a primal irritation that demanded every ounce of the victim's attention.
The hermaphrodite devil's concentration broke instantly. Its hands had been glowing with healing energy. But now, they flew to its own body instead. Scratching and tearing at its skin in a frenzied attempt to find relief.
It howled. A sound of pure frustration and madness. It was no longer a beautiful union of desires. It was a pathetic, bleeding wreck of a monster.
"Finish it, Dear!" Reina said. Stepping back and reloading her guns.
Jack nodded. He gripped the fore-end of his steamrune shotgun and twisted it. A series of internal gears shifted with a rhythmic mechanism.
The muzzle of the shotgun retracted. Then expanded. A series of vents opened along the barrel. The air around it began to shimmer with intense heat. The visible lines of runes on the weapon shifted to a violent, searing white.
"Let's see how you fare against this." Jack commented.
He pulled the trigger. The shotgun had now been transformed into a steamrune flamethrower. Instead of a blast of gun shot, a torrent of white-hot, pressurized flame erupted from the nozzle.
This wasn't ordinary fire. It was his upgraded steamrune-compressed arcane fire. Fueled by [Spatial Amber], [Arcane Firestone] and [Holy Water]. The plume of flame engulfed the fused devil. Wrapping around its bleeding, itching form like a shroud of sun-matter.
The scream that followed was mercifully short. The devil's high-density flesh had been severely weakened. It couldn't withstand the sustained mystical, thermal output of the flamethrower.
The creature didn't just burn. It began to vaporize. The white flames was searing hot. Turning the air around them into an oven.
Within seconds, the silhouette of the hermaphrodite devil collapsed. It fell to its knees. Then prone. Before finally dissolving into a mass of charred remains that quickly turned to ash.
As the life force of the devil vanished, the entity didn't leave a corpse. It exploded into a massive, swirling vortex of pink mist.
The mist filled almost the entire throne hall. Thick and fragrant. It was the concentrated essence of the two devils. Their power, their desires, and their stolen vitality.
The mist acted like a vacuum. It sought out the living beings in the room. The acolytes, Barnaby, Mirella, and Riff all gasped as the pink vapor was drawn into their lungs and pores. It acted as a potent restorative. Washing away their fatigue and the lingering effects of the charm.
However, the bulk of the mist... the densest and most potent part of the vortex... swirled toward Jack and Reina. The two people who had actually done the killing.
The pair seemed to stand in the center of the storm. The pink mist coiled around them like affectionate serpents. Before sinking into their skin.
Jack felt a surge of heat. It wasn't the burning heat of his flamethrower. But a deep, primal thrumming that resonated through his soul and his physical form.
He felt his muscles knit tighter, his senses sharpen, and his vigor soar much higher.
Beside him, Reina let out a soft sigh. Her eyes glowed with a faint pink light as her own powers over illusion absorbed the devilish essence.
The room fell silent as the last of the mist disappeared. The acolytes and artists were beginning to stand up. Looking confused and ashamed. Rubbing their eyes as if waking from a fever dream.
Rune, the fairy guide, floated down from the ceiling where she had been observing. She pulsed with a steady, approving green light.