She stared at Bonesword for a while, before suddenly snapping her fingers and turning away from him, he would find he had control over his body once more as she began to speak again.
"You're much more respectful than most Demons who reside in the Nexus, that's smart. But," The woman suddenly flicked Bonesword's skull, a dull pain echoing through his entire body as he suddenly felt his connection to Charlie being cut.
"You will refer to me as Mistress Indra from now on. A Vassal such as myself deserves the utmost respect, especially from a pitiful skeleton like yourself." If Bonesword attempted to use any of his plant based powers he would find it impossible, anything he attempted to summon would immediately die.
Xirphi's comment was not lost on Indra as she turned to the lizard Demon, her sultry grin morphing into a scowl as she looked down on the lizard.
"Now then skeleton, we have an unwanted visitor. Get rid of the pitiful flesh sack, her presence annoys me." A throne of bones suddenly erupted from the ground, Indra sitting down gracefully as she looked upon the two Demons. A vague shooing motion was sent in the general direction of Charlie, the implication clear.
The lizard gaze a feigned look of hurt by the comment from the 'Vassal', looking at the woman before commenting in a sarcastic tone,
"You wound me. I am not annoying, I'm just an asshole." Her expression shifted into something that showed amusement before her eyes shifted to the skeleton, unknowing of what he would do in the situation, her guess would be to obey the whim of this being and attack her. Xirphi let out a sigh before her tone went to something more serious,
"Miss... Indra, right? I am really hungry, like hungry to a point where I;m starting to believe that fighting would seem like a chore more than anything. Maybe we could, like, schedule this another time?" A whip lashed out at the ground near Xirphi's feet, the ground blackening and cracking as Indra toyed with her whip.
"You're lucky I give you a chance to live at all after your callous disrespect towards me. Now silence yourself before I change my mind." There was not even a hint of amusement in her tone, it was very clear that the next strike would be Xirphi's last.
Looking down at the blackened ground and hearing the words of Indra sent a shiver up her spine, not many things did that to her and Xirphi was sure it was just the ungodly aura that was emanating from the Vassal. Xirphi gave a look of fear before stepping back, however, she did not even try to run as the odds of her making it far were slim to none in her mind. She kept her mouth closed this time, no snarky reply or witty comment to downplay the situation. Her eyes flicked back over to the one who called himself 'Bonesword', waiting for the skeleton to do something that would warrant her needing to A) run or B) plea for her life though some unknown way. She hoped that she would not have to fight the traitor demon, not wanting to waste any of the power from her snack of scorpions that she had earlier.
Bonesword stood staring at the newly arrived demon, a slight headache ringing through his skull. The skeleton began to speak, pausing slightly to give a quick thought to the situation before speaking again.
"Mistress, if you are truly of Death, then answer me a single question..." Bonesword drew the Shroomblade as he took a fighting stance, aiming his sword directly at the foe that stood before him, his foe responding in kind by splitting her mouth open and allowing her tongues to take position.
"Am I allowed the use of necromancy?" He knew how to do it, but it was generally frowned upon in Hyperion and everywhere else to practice the unclean magic that he knew and mastered.
Indra's merely nodded, her scowl turning back into a content smirk as she listened to the skeleton. While his phrasing of the question was lacking in respect, she would allow it to pass this once. There was something interesting she saw in the skeleton, perhaps Gattica was onto something after all... of course if she was there was no way she could let her get her stupid green hands on it, this one lied in her domain after all.
"If you don't get to killing the fleshsack soon I will kill both of you. Just a friendly warning." Bonesword's glance narrowed at the beast as he began running up to it, his right hand open and emanating some form of darkened magic. Xirphi would be surprised to find that a singular arm shot out of the ground towards her head as the skeleton leaped to the side, trying to keep his movements unpredictable so he could land every blow possible. Beneath the two fighters, the sands of the arena began to shift as the bones of scorpions and humans arose from the sands, seemingly hostile towards Xirphi and with intent to kill. Hell, even the husks of some of the scorpions Xirphi ate would rise, wanting to seek vengeance on the Devourer for their untimely demise.
The acid Xirphi built up shot from her mouth as the skeletal arm moved towards her, near instantly dissolving it before the skeleton summoned his little minions to attempt to do his dirty work for him. Seeing dead things come back made her believe that souls were being manipulated somehow and the thought of souls made her hungry, her aura flared out and even Bonesword, a being who had no need for a stomach, would find his non-existent stomach growling. The small lizard propelled herself upwards, using her tongues to launch her into the air to avoid the minions. As she came back down, her tongues began to rip through the corpses, searching for souls to drag back to the devourer and where they found none they moved on to the next, leaving only pieces in their wake.
"Ah-ah-ahhh..." Bonesword spoke as his blade channeled the energy of his honor into the legendary Honor Strike, sending it flying towards Xirphi's tongues with intent to cut them off.
"Let's play fair here, eh?" Behind the skeleton rose a massive scorpion, clearly bigger than the rest, and constructed entirely out of bones. Climbing atop it's back, the skeleton began clenched his fist as the souls Xirphi was eating halted completely, their metaphysical movement being stunted and immovable and leaving the poor wretch to have to move with her mouth open. Additionally, as every raised dead crumbled under Xirphi's attack, two more took the place of the deceased. This battlefield was ripe for souls, and Bonesword was thankful for that.
The minions were starting to get annoying, and the skeleton stopping the movement of their souls made her angry as she was being denied her snacks. Xirphi felt her feet hit the ground and instantly a wave of heat seemed to launch itself off of her as she used some of the souls she devoured to generate the wave strong enough to set the parts of the ground on fire. Needless to say, the sheer amount of heat coming off of her would likely cause a man to die within moments from burns.
"You speak of fighting fair necromancer?! Then fight me yourself and stop sending your minions to do your dirty work!," she roared as she began to run about the battlefield, ripping minions into pieces and visibly moving to catch their souls in her mouth to sustain herself.
Bonesword leaped into the air as the ground below him turned ablaze, the sheer temperature of it enough to turn the sands into coarse and grainy glass. Staring down at the battle field, Bonesword took a quick once-over before deciding his next move. Landing down on the heated glass, Bonesword ran towards his foe with the Shroomblade drawn, intending to end this fight sooner rather than later. While he was doing that, a series of hands shot up from the ground under Xirphi as they tried grabbing her ankles. If she couldn't move, she would have trouble dodging the skeleton's attacks. Behind the two fighters, the sands began to fall down and down as a deep ring formed around the arena, with the ring getting deeper and deeper with every second that passed. Bonesword had an idea, and he was going through with it.
The devourer's eyes were focused on the minions before she felt skeletal hands wrap around her ankles, turning just in time to see the skeleton charging her with a sword. Xirphi took the chance of having her tongues cut off by once again launching herself upwards with her tongues. The hands were ripped from the ground as she was moving upwards. Trapping the likes of Xirphi would prove far more difficult than Bonesword would believe.
Bonesword launched after Xirphi, bringing his sword up for a skyward slash as the hands beneath him propelled him further up into the air. The second Honor Strike channeled in Bonesword's blade as he rechecked his calculations. The hit had to be guaranteed, he was sure of that, but how well the Demon would respond to the hit was up in the air. Around the arena, the ring of deepening sands began to widen out and began to encompass the arena more. The fighters had time, but how much time that was in actuality was hard to say. A minute? Ten seconds? Bonesword knew, but he wouldn't tell easily.
At the bottom of the forming sinkhole, it was revealed that a large mass of skeletons of varying sizes, shapes, and backgrounds were all digging away at the sands, continuing them farther down and continuing them on the innermost circumference of the arena. The fall was a mighty one and would definitely hurt, but so would the skeletons tearing away at your skin once you were down there.
Xirphi knew there was going to be no way for her to avoid this attack, however, there was one way thing she could do that would allow her to live through this battle. The demon pointed her mouth towards the skeleton and retracting her tongues. In the next instant a large, pure white beam shot from her mouth at the skeleton, with the power of every soul Xirphi had eaten up until that point and much of her own energy the beam pierced its way through to Bonesword. This was her trump card, she knew it would render her out of the fight but it was a chance that she was willing to take.
The digitized sounds of Bonesword's shield depleting rang through the area as Bonesword took the attack. He was a necromancer, and feeling the flurry of souls into his body only made his aim stronger. That wasn't all, as the attack was fired from a Demon. It didn't exactly do much against another demon, but against the Machina's tools it did more than expected. This resulted in the depletion of the Shooting Star Shield, allowing Bonesword's next attack to have what it's effect intended. A golden, shimmering star flew down from the sky as Bonesword's attack contacted Xirphi's body. Combining the power of the star, the Honor Strike, and the Shroomblade's potency against those of a demonic nature, the damage output would easily be enough to completely end this fight.
The skeletons digging the sand pit ceased doing so as the attack landed, no need to continue such an act when the target of it was finally hit.
Xirphi felt the blade strike true, the blade impacting with her abdomen before tearing through her scales. While the blade did not completely cleave her in two it did cut deep into her and launch her out of the pit. The demon landed in the sand with a thud, her blood spilling from her as she stare into the sky.
"My attack... failed?," she whispered weakly to herself as her hand went to her wound. She could barely keep consciousness, let alone move, so the process of moving her hand to the wound wads slow.
"How?" she continued to ask herself.
"You lost because you're a pathetic fleshsack. That's all there is to it." Indra spoke up finally as Xirphi lay on the ground, slowly dying.
"You were fated to lose the moment you tried to fight an obviously superior being. Living flesh can't compare to the beauty of Death!" Indra covered her mouth to hide a small giggle, she squirmed in her seat as she observed Xirphi's dying breaths.
"Now then skeleton. Get rid of this sorry sack of flesh, every second she lives is an insult to me."Bonesword landed as he went to his Shroomblade, grabbing the pommel of the blade and unscrewing it from the blade itself. He stared at the demon in front of him and prepared his execution of the demon. For a moment, Bonesword had an expression of apology on his face, but it was quickly blackened out as the skeleton threw his pommel at Xirphi, the pommel colliding with her head as the Shroomblade quickly followed up, the blade jamming right through her neck and out on the other side. Blood sputtered over the skeleton's blade, a little onto his boots, but Xirphi would at least have a quick death.
Bonesword turned to Indra as he pulled his blade out of the Devourer's neck.
"It has been done. She was ended rightly, Mistress Indra.""Indeed she has, one less fleshsack on my beautiful Shattered world of Death." A sigh of contentment escaped from her mouth as she said this, if one looked closely they would even see a small flush to her cheeks as she stared at Xirphi's corpse.
"I think I'm going to keep an eye on you skeleton. You interest me." If Bonesword checked he would realize his connection to Charlie had reestablished itself, along with his ability to use chloromancy.
"You may go. I've been sufficiently entertained for now, make sure to kill more fleshsacks in my name." And with that Bonesword was dismissed.
"Mistress Indra, may I ask one more question to you?" Bonesword asked as he retrieved the pommel stone of his signature blade.
The amusement that had been present in her gaze quickly vanished as she stared at Bonesword impassively, seconds of pure silence passed as she considered her next action.
"Why had you come and spared my soul? I had evaded your grasp for so long, why give me mercy now, Mistress?" Bonesword began to screw his pommel back into his blade as Charlie readied for the continuation to the Pyramid. Hopefully the pair had enough time to actually make it there before more trouble showed up. Though, the necromantic potential here was as ripe as any soil he had stood on.
"...hmm." Indra stared at Bonesword as he finished his question and prepared to leave, smirking as she came to a satisfactory conclusion.
"Awfully brave of you to ask something like that. What if I decided to change my mind and take your soul just for asking?" She let another long silence pass before laughing out loud, waving her hand to clear any panic the skeleton would feel.
"The answer is because I'm bored and you were amusing. That's all there is to it." With that being said Indra stood up from her throne, letting it stand there as she opened a dark portal to her next destination.
"Don't rest on your laurels though. I could still change my mind if I ever start to find you boring." And with that last chilling statement she was gone.
Bonesword watched as Indra left the scene, and he was alone once more in the vicinity. He was... unsure of what happened. He had his first true interaction with a Vassal just now, that was certain, but what was really going on in the grand scheme of things? Was this some kind of test of his worth? The way Indra acted... it seemed spiteful at best. He was unsure of exactly what just happened, but he wasn't afraid at the same time. Maybe he could go and talk to Roma about this later, since she was a Vassal. Hell, Eos might even know something.
Regardless, Bonesword climbed back onto Charlie and rode off towards the Pyramid in the distance, his Vulcan Yew miniguns ready to fire yet again.
Even as he left the scene, a lingering thought was left in Bonesword's mind.
He'd meet Indra again. Whether that was a good thing or bad thing was left up to him to decide.
