33. The “Invited” Demons

The “Invited” Demons

She had watched Cheng Rui go to and from the shopping mall, and she had been keeping track of him throughout the earlier battle as well, just as she had the day before, and the day before that.

The idiot had nearly gotten himself killed when he insisted on entering the tunnel with her, simply because his armor could not move properly in such a cramped space. Ever since then, Chi Li had sworn she would never leave him behind again.

He was the first person with whom she had established a telepathic link, her first step toward what Liya called becoming a “magical commander.”

I would be the second, because sometimes I did stupid and reckless things.

Knowing when to arrive with support. Never losing contact with her friends. Being able to keep communicating even in a world where some bastard’s invasion could make phones fail at any moment.

Those were exactly the qualities that had drawn her to that branch of magic.

So even without turning to look, she could feel Cheng Rui charging into the battlefield with his weapon.

She could track both Cheng Rui and me, watching as we cut down enemies by the hundreds while she focused on the greater threats.

She disrupted the enemy’s coordination with quick, clever attacks, while carefully avoiding drawing the attention of their master, because she had no desire to be crushed like an insect.

For now, she could match the firepower of two of the enemy’s elite units.

But the mage behind the invasion, given enough time and effort, could alter the weather over hundreds of square miles, or summon and command an army of tens of thousands.

She also could not see directly into her friends’ thoughts, nor could she understand their plans unless they told her clearly.

In only a few seconds, Cheng Rui dealt with a suicidal magical effect that had been trying to blow up them and half the park along with itself. Then he turned his many newly improved laser weapons on the demons.

“No!”

Of course, it was already too late.

She had expected the two of them to bring down the towers themselves, not shoot the demons sitting on top of them. Trying to kill fire demons with fire, heat, or anything similar was not completely pointless, but it came close.

The demons endured the attacks almost unharmed.

The metal chains binding them to the towers did not.

She was not sure what would happen if the creatures were released before the magic that had forcibly summoned them into this world was broken, but it probably would not be good.

Chi Li’s fears were confirmed almost immediately, and the reality was far worse than she had imagined.

The instant the great demons were freed, the powerful magic on the towers vanished.

And the two monsters clearly became stronger.

Their once midnight-blue skin turned the deep red of overheated iron. Their claws lengthened, sheathed in emerald flame. The magical weight they carried doubled.

One of the creatures lunged, struck me out of the air, and sent me smashing down, which was proof enough that their physical abilities had increased just as dramatically.

Several threads of thought in the young mage’s mind snapped together with her magical knowledge, and she finally understood what had just happened.

The chains had been a trap.

As beings foreign to this reality, and ones forcibly summoned into it, magical creatures were naturally weaker than they should have been.

To a certain extent, that was why the zombies that came through the earliest portals were much weaker than the newer ones.

But what if a summoned creature had been “invited” in?

And what could look more like an invitation from this world than releasing a creature’s restraints, both magical and physical, and allowing it to act freely?

Whether the enemy had done this deliberately or by accident, it had worked.

Now they faced a problem far larger than this single battle.

Because Chi Li suspected the enemy had far more than two chained demons.

And the fog was still thinning.

Who knew what the enemy was truly preparing?

I was slammed into the ground by something immense, uglier and larger than any monster I had faced before.

The thing stood more than twelve meters tall, all knotted muscle and skin like heated iron, covered in countless little bumps. Its claws and teeth burned with eerie green fire.

The fact that it had managed to catch me precisely in midair was extremely bad.

Its body temperature climbed sharply. In the blink of an eye the ground began to smoke, and my face grew painfully dry under the heat. That was not even mentioning its total disregard for personal space, or its nauseatingly foul breath.

The beams from Cheng Rui’s guns and cannons screamed through the air, striking the ugly creature’s hide with enough power to melt a tank.

The beast did not so much as flinch.

Its weight pinned me down, heavier than its size should have allowed. I tried several times to fly free, fast, but failed every time.

Its enormous hands clamped around mine hard enough to bruise, making it brutally difficult to tear myself loose.

For the second time since the invasion began, I had encountered a monster that understood how to use leverage to its advantage.

Then a deafening metallic crash came from Cheng Rui’s direction, and the laser fire aimed at my opponent abruptly stopped.

All right.

This crafty monster was almost as strong as I was, and apparently immune to fire.

But I could not help wondering whether it was also immune to being sliced into pieces.

That was something I needed to test.

With Forcefield Creation at level two, I could create one large, complex geometric shape, or two smaller and simpler ones, and use my other abilities within them.

Out of habit, I started from my eyes, forming two narrow cylinders.

They were only one centimeter wide, the narrowest I could make them. Since each occupied one cubic yard of space, they stretched roughly a mile. That turned Proximal Manipulation into a beam weapon that could pass straight through a target.

I acted on the assumption that, against a great demon, things it could not see might hurt it more.

So I adjusted Proximal Manipulation to affect only the enemy, not the air between us.

Then I glared at the enormous ugly bastard.

Dozens of tons of force slammed into two thumb-sized spots on its horned head.

I tried to remove this disgusting obstacle from existence, and in the process lived the dream of every girl everywhere who had ever wished for a truly lethal glare.

Unfortunately, the ten-meter behemoth merely rocked back a little.

Apparently, either it was far tougher than it looked, or something strange was quietly going on.

So I attacked again and again, abandoning its massive forehead for softer targets.

I tried to tear out its heart, but after cutting only a centimeter into its barrel-like chest, the attack stalled.

A strike to its throat, however, made it cough up a spray of red-black blood.

Another hit one of its eyes.

The glowing eyeball burst like an oversized pus-filled pimple, green fire spilling out from inside.

At the same time, a thick stench spread through the air, a sickening mixture of rotten eggs, old unwashed socks, and putrefying garbage.