Universe Tales: Virtual Log of the Fallen One

Chapter 65: Almost

When the demon heard Maria's words, it screeched menacingly at the girl.

"Is that all you can do? Screech like a broken tape recorder?! Why don't you man up and fight me!"

"Mortal, you dare insult me?! Prepare to die!"

"Now that's more like it you greedy little demon!"

"I am not little! Let's see you talk after I've gauged out your innards!"

Greed opened his wings and rushed straight for Maria who was already readying her scythe. Ash however didn't wait for Greed to get closer to his Mistress. He rushed at him and blocked his way forward.

He sent a [Blood Wave] at the demon before rushing ahead and engaged the monster in a melee. Lilah had already placed her debuffs on the demon and Maria also rushed forwards to attack.

Maria sent a [Calamity Cleave] and a [Fire] at the demon without minding whether it hit Ash or not. The vampire was smart enough to lock the demon in place before flashing away right when the attacks were closing in on them.

The attacks struck true and Greed roared out in pain but Maria didn't stop there. She rushed forward, switched her weapon's form and swung out with an [Arc Swing]. She swung down and sent the demon hurdling down to the ground.

She immediately began chanting her spells and sent them down on the demon that was pushed further down by the attacks and eventually slammed heavily into the ground. Maria smirked and activated [Calamity Cleave] once again. Because it was in its axe-form the cooldown of the skill was separate from its scythe-form.

She threw her axe down onto the demon before she started bombarding the fallen demon even further with her [Angel's Rage] and magic spells. Seeing the overly enthusiastic mistress raining hell down on the demon, Ash shivered a little before following suit.

He began casting his Blood spells onto the demon and made sure to cast the ones that could stun only after a similar effect had finished afflicting the demon. Maria didn't know if this was a bug or not, but with the help of Ash, she was able to cycle through her skills and lock the demon down onto the ground.

Whenever it tried to get back up, she would just pull back her Calamity and send forth another [Calamity Cleave] onto Greed who had just finished recovering from the bombardment of spells and skills that she and Ash delivered to him.

Of course, there were times when it was able to evade when there was a slight lull in their chain but Maria would just repeat the actions of sending the demon down to the ground with her Calamity and lock it back down with her skills.

This continued until Greed's HP fell below 25 percent. The demon roared out in anger and sent a dark beam of mana into the sky, blasting through all of Ash and Maria's skills.

The two quickly evaded the beam and tried to continue sending more skills and spells on the demon. However, the black beam of energy began turning towards Maria's direction and she had to stop her chanting to quickly dodge away.

She didn't want to know how it would feel to be struck by that attack. She had a hunch that she would experience 100 percent of the pain generated by the attack if she was struck by it. It felt like an attack that bypassed the system's pain configuration system.

Maria didn't like that so she made sure to be careful and not be struck by it. This resulted in the lower output of damage on her side. Also, there was a barrier that appeared around Greed so Ash couldn't attack him from the air. He had tried to but the barrier nullified all of his attacks. The only way was to head down and attack Greed who was behind the barrier.

"Ash, you go down and attack that stupid monster! He's currently focused on me! I'll be the bait, so you and Lilah go and attack him!"

"Yes, Master!"

"Yes, Mistress!"

The two quickly flew down and passed through the barrier. They met some difficulties when they passed into the barrier. Greed's chains began flying at them, trying to cut them off from being able to reach his body.

The chains weren't as sturdy as before when they were back in the dungeon so Ash was able to strike them down and breakthrough them to reach Greed's body. He and Lilah immediately began their attack and sent their skills at him.

Lilah reapplied her debuffs on the demon while Ash resumed sending his Blood Magic Spells at him. He didn't dare use any spells that would consume too much of his HP since his precious mistress who also doubled as his 'blood bank' was currently up in the skies.

Maria was growing a bit frustrated because she wasn't able to help out and was stuck flying around in the air desperately trying to dodge the demonic beam of black mana that was chasing after her.

"Tsk, this stupid thing...making me use up, so much, effort!" She grumbled while flying away from the beam that was ardently chasing after her.

The only good thing was that she could see Greed's HP slowly falling which means her underling and familiar were doing their jobs. But, as the demon's HP fell, the faster and more furious the deathly beam of energy chased after Maria.

The beam even split apart and started chasing after her. When the smaller beams split apart and got close to her, they exploded and caused Maria to nearly fall from the skies due to the unbelievable pain she felt from the blasts.

"Dammit, I knew those stupid beams would hurt!"

Maria kept away her axe and began focusing her full attention on the beams that were coming at her. She saw at least 10 of the split beams coming at her. She started darting around the sky, falling, rolling, and rushing in all directions so that she would not be caught in any of the beams' attacks.

The first time she was hit, she had already noticed that her flying speed had slowed down so she made sure not to get hit again because if her speed continued to fall, it was only a matter of time before the beams of death overwhelmed her and eventually killed her.

The pain coming from the beams was already so hurtful so thinking about what it would feel like to be hit by multiple beams until her HP zeroed out gave her the motivation and focus to dart around the sky and fly in between the net of beams that continued to assault her.

As time passed, she noticed that the beams seemed to grow more and more complicated in their patterns of attack. Maria was accidentally hit once but she used this moment to drop down from the sky and fall into the barrier surrounding Greed.

"Screw those beams, I don't care what happens, I'm not getting hit by them again!"

When she fell into the barrier, Maria soon saw Ash and Lilah running around and escaping from the grasps of the numerous black chains that were surrounding and protecting the demon, Greed. The HP bar of the monster was already just below 15 percent and it continued to stagnate there because the 2 didn't have any time to send an attack.

"M-Master!"

"Mistress!"

Lilah and Ash immediately exclaimed once they saw her. Maria only responded with a yell, "Don't worry about me! Just don't get caught by those chains!"

"D-did you take care of that black beam from before?!" Ash asked.

"Who cares about that?! Just hurry up and attack that guy!"

"That's the problem, Master, we can't!" Lilah immediately replied.

Maria frowned when she saw how the two were struggling. She still hadn't come into range of those chains so she was still safe for now, however, she did notice that Greed was no longer spewing out that black energy wave from his mouth anymore.

He was instead eyeing her like a piece of meat. This caused a chill to run up her spine. It was like the monster wanted to physically eat her or something.

"Your wings... your abilities... I crave for them..." The demon uttered in a grating tone.

"Hmph, you can crave for them all you want, but it's not like you can get them!"

"Come here, little one. Come here and let me give you a taste of my power!"

"Blergh, why would I go over there, you creep? Why don't you come here?"

"...As you wish."

After his reply, Greed immediately disappeared from his spot and flashed right in front of Maria. This caused the girl to widen her eyes in shock. On reflex, she immediately pulled out her Calamity and swung it at the demon.

Greed frowned when he saw the axe come flying at his face. He backed up a little and barely dodged Maria's swing. The girl immediately signaled for her two companions to take this chance to attack Greed after the monster had voluntarily come into their range.

The two didn't even need her signal. Once they saw Greed appear right in front of their master, Lilah and Ash were already rushing towards her. The vampire had readied his [Blood Wave] and [Red Ray] at this point and only needed to get into range in order to strike down Greed.

The amount of damage he would deal using these two attacks would at least whittle down the demon until it was probably just enough for Maria to finish it off with the 3 strikes for her scythe's [Calamity Cleave].

Maria had also noticed that Ash's HP had depleted until it was below 10 percent and knew that one of his finisher skills was coming. She immediately switched her Calamity into its scythe form and began wildly hacking at the demon, trying her all to keep the damned monster in place.

"It's useless, you cannot hit me."

"I don't need to because he can!"

"?"

Once Ash got into range he immediately sent the two attacks flying at Greed. The monster pulled over his chains and impaled the vampire into the ground while they chased after both of Ash's attacks.

Greed saw that his chains wouldn't make it in time to block the attacks for him so he immediately prepared to dodge, but in the next instant, Maria flew in and attacked him.

"You...are you not afraid of death?!" Greed roared out angrily.

If Maria continued to stay where she was, the attacks would also hit and kill her. The damage output of Ash's [Red Ray] and [Blood Wave] far exceeded Maria's MAX HP. Maria knew this but she only laughed back at Greed and said, "Don't you know who I am? I am Death's Envoy! So why should I fear death?!"

"You insane woman!"

"Worry more about yourself and not about me!" Maria yelled out as she immediately activated [Calamity Cleave] and sent 3 waves of death energy at the demon, firmly locking any way for him to escape.

"Fool! Only you will die today!" Greed roared as he was engulfed in the wave of deadly attacks.

First, the [Blood Wave] hit him, followed by Ash's [Red Ray] and Maria's 3 hits of [Calamity Cleave].

Maria smirked when this happened, but she immediately sighed once she saw Ash's [Red Ray] continue shooting towards her. She couldn't escape because she had just finished using her attack and couldn't get into motion just yet.

She was struck by the attack and all of her HP depleted until it nearly zeroed out. Her HP bar was completely empty besides the fact that only 1 HP was left in it. Maria was puzzled by this so she opened up her [Log] and saw what caused this.

[Pact Ability activated [Shared Life]: Your HP bar is shared with your Champion]

She tapped on the ability and read up on what it did.

[Shared Life

(Pact Exclusive Active Skill)

The link between the two individuals of a Pact indicates that their lives are intertwined. Shares the HP between the parties of a pact, once one side's HP lowers down to 1, the other side will take damage in their stead until both individual's HP is lowered down to 1.

If both individuals of the pact die, 1 Level will be deducted from the Master and 2 Levels will be deducted from the Champion.

Cooldown: 6:23:59:40

Note: This skill can be activated from both sides of the Pact]

Maria looked over at Ash and saw that his HP only had around 1-2 percent left. Since she didn't know anything about the skill, the only conclusion was that Ash had activated the skill, knowing that once his [Blood Wave] skill hit his Mistress, the little bit of HP his Mistress had along with the remaining HP he himself had after using 2 of his ultimate skills was enough to let her tank out all of the damage without either of them dying.

Maria immediately heaved a sigh of relief and plopped down onto the ground. She was just about to close her [Log] before she noticed that she hadn't received the notification for slaying Greed. She hurriedly got to her feet but before she could do anything, a chain flew out from the smoke caused by the aftermath of their attacks and struck her right in the face.

The attack sent her flying up into the air and she screamed out painfully before landing on her back. Her HP remained at 1 HP but Ash's HP depleted until it was nearly empty. If either of them took another attack, both of them would die.

Maria immediately took out a potion and downed the entire vial. She also started casting [Cure] and sent it over in Ash's direction. It was then that she heard the demon's appalling and grating voice.

"I told you it was futile. Only you will be the one dying today!" Greed roared as he stepped out of the dust and smoke.

Maria soon saw how wretched his body had become after taking all of their attacks. Just a little bit more would be enough to send the demon back into hell so she immediately picked up her scythe and was just about to rush forward to attack the demon but multiple chains burrowed out of the ground and wrapped themselves around her body.

"W-what?!"

The chains rose up and suspended her in the air. Her arms and legs were firmly locked and spread apart. They pulled on her appendages tightly and she felt like they were threatening to be pulled out of their sockets.

"AAAHHHH!!!"

"GRAHAHAHAH! FOOLISH WOMAN! I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WOULD BE THE ONE TO DIE!"

The chains continued to pull on Maria and she let out a pained groan.

"Come on, SCREAM FOR ME!"

"Grrh...."

"You did not take my offer, now, you will die!"

Greed raised his arm and was just about to slash down on Maria's body but a cute scream immediately stopped him.

"Get your filthy chains off my Master!"

Lilah, who had come together with Ash but was late for the party, had finally arrived and she immediately kicked Greed right on his head.

The pitiful little kick only caused Maria to blank out for a moment but Greed had a different reaction. Lilah's kick had depleted the small speck of color in his HP bar and he immediately roared out in pain.

"NOOOO"

His shout was cut short because he soon began to disintegrate into dust. The chains that were binding Maria lost their power and immediately fell to the ground, along with her.

"Ouch!"

Maria landed hard on the ground and she rubbed her butt in pain. Lilah immediately came over and she worriedly asked, "M-Master! Are you okay?!"

"I-I'm fine, Lilah...good work, thanks to you, that evil demon died!"

"Ehehehe~ don't mention it, Master," Lilah replied bashfully. The little fairy immediately began blushing and dancing around in the air happily at her Master's praise.

"I think we should go check up on Ash, Master."

"Hm? Oh, don't worry about him. He's fine."

"Urgh..." Ash let out a painful groan from where he was lying down at, indicating that he was clearly, not okay.

"See, told you he's fine," Maria immediately said after she heard her champion let out a voice signaling to her that he was still alive. Maria cast a few [Cures] on herself and brought her HP back to full. She then went over to Ash and began healing him as well.

"Good job Ash, although you did flop on the last part, you did well!"

"..."

"Awww, what's with that sad look? I'm praising you aren't I?"

"Y-yes...of course, my Mistress."

"Haha, I'm joking with you, Ash! I'll let you suck my blood later as a reward, okay? First, let's go look at our loot and get out of here!"

Ash nodded, his countenance having visibly brightened after he heard that his Mistress was going to reward him with her delicious blood.

Maria hadn't closed her log yet so she soon saw that she had leveled up 5 times after defeating Greed. This brought her level all the way up to 50 and she was beyond ecstatic to see this.

"Alright, I finally got to level 50!"