Chapter 1257 Cap 1255: The insect war begins part 9   

Pov Ibuki's:

When we left the teleportation portal we were in a white land completely covered in ice and snow.

When we left the gate we were already surrounded by enemies, dozens of giants appearing to be made from insect parts, we could also feel traces of the Auras of some Insect Empresses.

"Erica, now!" (Kira)

"< Spatial Expansion: Demon Territory >" (Érica)

Érica throws the crystal into the air as the plan required at the same time that her staff hits the ground repeatedly in rhythm with a person's steps.

Each hit of Érica's staff on the ground made the space of a few meters between the 3 of us and the enemies grew tens of meters with the area around us changing from the ice terrain to a desert area full of purple sand, clouds of miasma overhead.

Érica's limit is until she reaches 12 kilometers, this area has a Curse with Érica as the center to corrupt a target area, as long as she is here this area will not disappear and as long as she does not deactivate this Curse, Érica will also be trapped here.

But thanks to this the enemies are miles away buying precious minutes to prepare us, this space was not just corrupted by the Curse, this place itself is a sealed area within Érica's staff that she forces into the world using the staff.

"How long until it's ready?" (I)

"I'm already." (Kira)

"< Spiritual Awakening: Byakko >" (Kira)

Thunder descends from the skies transforming into Byakko, a large white Tiger with black stripes and two tails, his mere presence charges the area with energy before his body merges with Kira.

Hers grows twice as big as she becomes more and more like a female Tiger, behind her an illusion of Byakko roaring into the heavens.

"< Storm Hammer >" (Kira)

The thunder overhead forms into a column of light that falls on top of two faster Giants approaching us, their bodies falling to the ground before being swept away by the tornado of blood where the Eclipse Titan is forming.

"We're going to need a lot more sacrifices." (Érica)

"I know, I'm waiting for them to get closer to us." (I)

I was the only one who didn't move, but that was because it wasn't necessary, Érica was securing an area for us to fight while Kira was in charge of taking the big enemies with raw power as quickly as possible, in the meantime I would take care of the weaker enemies.Since Érica started creating this desert area I have been expanding my shadow together, unlike Érica I can take my shadow much further and I tried to do that, but I felt a presence growing under the ice outside the area that Érica created, so I chose to keep my shadow just here.

I could feel the Bugs and the giants approaching, two of the other giants stopped next to the 2 large bodies that Kira destroyed, soon they opened in a distorted way large vertical mouths up to the chest area consuming two corpses burned by the thunder, their bodies begin growing larger and larger the more they consume, they stopped the bodies from continuing to be dragged into the tornado of blood above us.

"That could be a problem." (Érica)

"Leave it to me." (I)

"< Blade of Shadows >" (I)

I take two swords in my hands as I send dozens of attacks per second towards the ground entering my shadow before these attacks come out from under the giants pushing the two corpses into the air where it was carried away by the blood tornado while seriously injuring the other giants.

I saw Kira become a flash of light around those two making their bodies in pieces, or was that supposed to happen if it wasn't for hundreds of Runes appearing on the carapace that these giants have in place of skin, these Runes sent Kira flying which makes her spin lullaby before landing on her feet.

"Are those magical defenses?" (Érica)

"I don't know, I only studied enough to kill things." (I)

"Use physical attacks against them." (Érica)

"I think she's already trying that." (I)

Suddenly a metal spear appears in Kira's hand while her other hand is extended forward, creating dozens of identical Runes in front of each other, then she throws her spear with all her strength, making it pass through all the Runes she created, with each Rune the speed of the spear increased until I could no longer see.

All I saw afterwards was a big hole in the head of one of the giants, without wasting time controlling the shadow below it casting it high up where it was also sucked into the tornado of blood.

"This is taking too long." (I)

"Wait, they're still hiding." (Érica)

"..." (I)

I close my eyes trying to see through my shadow and notice the Insect Empresses outside the area that Erica created, all of her insects have already been sent in our direction.

"I'll leave the smaller ones to you and the bigger ones to Kira, I'll go after the Insect Empresses." (I)

"< Path of Shadows >" (I)

I say this already sinking into the shadows, I feel my body flowing as if it were being carried by a current before leaving the shadow at the border of the area created by Érica.

I leapt from the shadow of the desert area onto the terrain of ice and snow once again, the shadow I cast on the desert area disappearing as I left the area as it came to me in one fell swoop.I was facing 8 Bug Empresses, all of them had unique features from antennae to body with some looking more Human while others looking monstrous.

"< Awakening of the Demon Dragon >" (I)

My body was covered in ethereal black scales as my horns glowed red and my hair became wisps of shadows, my tail grows as wings of shadows appear on my back.

My transformation wasn't that of a complete Dragon like Zenos, that's because I was more of a Demon than a Dragon.

The swords in my hands changed color as the blood of Zenos from which they were made awakened, letting my power flow more easily as I charged at the enemies in front of me.

On my third step I sank into the shadow of one of them in time to deflect an attack from the side, I came out on the side of one of them attacking with my swords in two different directions that it defends before my tail crossed its neck from behind, even so it didn't die as his wing moved strangely cutting off my tail before I sank into the shadow once more to deflect 5 attacks where I was before.

But this time there was another person inside the shadow ready to attack when I entered, I used my arm to defend and it still went through my arm and reached my shoulder before I used my other hand to grab the attacker's neck, crushing it with my hand just to get away crumble into shadows, nothing of the body remains.

What crossed my arm and shoulder before was a tail that had also dissolved into shadows, but soon the same tail appears, wrapping itself around me, pulling it out, when I left there were already 7 attacks directed at me, which I smiled when I understood the hand.

"< Dark Reflection >" (I)

The shadows wrap around me, absorbing the attacks that come out of the shadows of each of them, causing them to be surprised by their own attacks, I take advantage of this moment to cut the neck of the one I attacked first while using one of my wings as a scythe, cutting it in half the owner of the tail that pulled me out of the shadows.

"(2 down, now only 6 left...)" (I)

I sink into the shadow once again and this time I grabbed one of them taking it with me only to forcibly close the shadow passage separating the head from the rest of the body as I killed another one.

"< Shadow Beast > ×5" (I)

From the remaining 5 shadows come Dragon heads made of shadows attacking, something everyone should be expecting since they have noticed my powers being based on shadows so many times so far.

I was ready for this when I came out from within the jaws of one of these Dragons already slashing with my swords, once again it tried to defend but my first sword attack sliced through its half formed barrier before my second sword attack sliced diagonally across its head.

"(4 left now...)" (I)

Of course, they wouldn't just continue receiving my attacks, the time I wasted killing this last one left my body exposed and I made a shadow tentacle pull my foot back dodging 3 attacks while forced to defend a poison breath attack.

I just smiled as I opened my mouth sucking out all the poison holding in my stomach.

In the next few minutes I continued fighting these 4 Insect Empresses while my Aura and Authority refined the poison it held, I also used Demonic energy to create the deadliest attack possible.

In those few minutes, I managed to kill one more when I felt other enemies approaching and I decided to put an end to it before more enemies arrived.

"< Wave of Shadows >" (I)

I use an attack to gather the last 3 in one place, before releasing the refining poison within me, the ancient green poison cloud now seemed to burn in dark red flames moving almost like a creature as it latched onto the 3 Empresses Insect while their bodies were decomposing rapidly as if they were rotting while still alive.

"(Now there are none left.)" (I)

Suddenly I feel the pressure I felt earlier beneath the ice rise at the same time as an Aura explodes and I turn only to see in the distance the Eclipse Titan's body forming, his Aura and this horrible presence collide against each other as I resolve return to where Érica was waiting with Kira.