My Servant System

"It is pitiful, witnessing the hubris of mortals on full display. No matter the lineage, no matter the talent, none of you can compare to us Fiends. We who are born of the fabric of this world directly, a gift to creation and a display of perfection made flesh. You can never

Compare to us, so why do you struggle so?"

The boulders began to crash against the earth around us as the Fiend opted for a different strategy, letting the sand inside of them burst free with a vengeance as it pointed its scepter straight at each of us, directing a barrage of spinning pillars of sands to crash down on us in an attempt to break through our defenses.

"I am born of this world, blessed by this world; it has given me life anew and provided me with powers beyond your pitiful mortal imagination. The ability to make this scorching, lifeless waste into a bustling utopia of greenery! To turn this expanse of useless sand into a sprawling oasis meant for all who accept my rule! Why must you struggle against the natural order of the world?"

All Fiends seemed to love to hear their own voice, constantly preaching something or other to us as they attacked, leaving us to do as we pleased as they contributed to the talking and wasting of air.

The mixture of the magic we knew of today and the magic of the past was surprisingly easy to figure out as we were bombarded by it, the Fiend’s affinity for both Earth Magic and Sand Magic on full display as they worked in tandem to bash against our defenses; the shrapnel of stone crashed against whatever it could touch, tearing large chunks of mana away and allowing the smaller, deadlier grains of sand to worm their way deeper into the barriers and create instabilities throughout our spells, disrupting the flow of mana and gradually cracking the domes around us open.

When the ground beneath me began to tremble and quake, I was forced to abandon my position as I realized that despite being surrounded in a dome of Light Mana, there was a single spot that I had been missing in my coverage, something that we all noticed instantly; something that was honestly rather obvious considering the affinities shown so far.

Beneath our feet, there rested hundreds upon thousands of grains of sand, and with no barriers sinking into the ground beneath us, the sand that had previously crashed against us wormed its way under the barrier and instead shot up towards our bodies, hoping to catch us off guard as another volley of boulders was sent hurtling towards us even quicker than before.

Ignoring the projectiles, I collapsed my barrier and focused on myself for now, my senses catching on all three of my wives as I took note of where they were and how they were already protecting themselves easily against this surprise attack, giving me the freedom of mind to act as I felt I needed.

My Light Mana returned to my body and coated my skin in a superior armor to what I wore, and it protected me from the myriad sand spears that tried to pierce my flesh and drag me down into the sea of golden grains as I bunched up my leg muscles and launched myself upwards, into the air.

All of my ranged spells were either single target spells that were easily able to be dodged by someone with a fine tuned mana sense - like a Fiend - or far too long to charge up, leaving me with the old reliable fighting style that I was far more comfortable with; blitzing towards my opponent and making liberal use of my superior strength to beat whatever stood in front of me down into a paste.

Comparatively, the orange glow that flickered into being behind me let me know that Leone was taking the opposite approach, the Vampire likely resting comfortably in the air as she began to channel her vast reserves of mana and battle magic with magic, while Anput smoothly slipped into a supporting role as she began to counter this Fiend’s sand attacks with her metal.

Various weapons flew past me and sank into a curtain of sand that the Fiend raised in front of itself, the clicking of its tongue as it blocked the wall of hastily made weapons further cementing its opinion of us as it dryly asked "Must you belittle me like that, dog? Scrap metal tossed with that paltry strength? Truly pathetic. And you, Demoness. Perhaps you should try building some more muscle between your ears instead of on your arms and legs to supplement the peanut you have now..."

That curtain repurposed Anput’s weaponry for the Fiend’s own purpose as it launched them back at us, trying to catch me as I landed back on the ground for only a moment, each spear, lance, halberd, mace and more sinking back into sand as they peppered the area around me, with one of Anput’s halberd’s shattering against my great sword as I parried the sloppy return attack.

"Such a shame that a Demoness like yourself was granted magic as unique and potent as Light Magic... you have a gift there, you little blue skinned brat, and yet you spit on it with this... this... horrendous display of combat prowess. Truly representing your lineage well, aren’t you? Just a bunch of mindless brutes incapable of anything complex."

The disdain that dripped from the Fiend’s voice was of little interest to me at all, my focus instead placed on the three pillars of rock that erupted right out of the desert in front of me, each one stabbing towards my stomach in an attempt to skewer me in place and leave me susceptible to the sand swelling up behind me.

Fighting three separate battles against Anput, Leone and I, the Fiend ignored the idle Death Jackal in the back who was watching us fighting with a slightly tensed posture, and for a moment my eyes widened briefly before I masked my expression again and focused instead on the stone flying towards me, bouncing back into the air and letting each of the three pillars crash into one another, exploding into a small cloud of shrapnel that shot straight towards me again.

The sandstorm around us buffeted us with unnatural winds and a sharpness that threatened to cut into our skin if we weakened the Mana Cloaks that had become so indispensable to our arsenals, and because of these incredible winds I could feel my body being pushed around slightly as I tilted in the air, pulling away my focus from entirely offensive maneuvers and instead forcing me to think of ways to avoid messing up what I was doing.

Since the winds wanted to turn me, I moved with them and swung my blade towards the spiral of thousands of grains of sand, meeting the sharpened drill with my Light Mana and redirecting it to the side, where it crashed into the ground and joined the rest of the desert

Once again.

"Why do you fight against change, little Demoness? Why fight against the inevitable? Why fight against the world itself? You only reaffirm my pity for you with this feeble attempt to live a little longer... after all, this desert is a monument of whittling down anything that dares to stand too tall."

"Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself speak? No one cares, birdbrain. And shouldn’t you despise this ’monument’ that you are so clearly drawing power from? Doesn’t it stand against everything that you want?"

My feet barely touched the ground before I was jumping back into the air, avoiding the Fiend’s playground entirely and instead making use of it’s fascination with me to keep it focused primarily on me, so I used my blade to send more than just a few words its way.

The glittering arcs of Light Mana flew harmlessly into the sky behind the Fiend as it stepped aside, its feathered head tilting slightly as it watched them even as it replied "It does, to a degree. On one hand, it stifles change and progress, but on the other... it is a harbinger of change. Everything placed within its confines is beaten down by the sands and weathered by the winds. Nothing lasts here, requiring changes to be made... it’s wonderful, and yet it can be better. I can make it better."

Looking back at me, the Fiend raised that golden scepter and traced out a single rune, this one glowing not brown, nor a goldish brown, but instead an iridescent blue that made me shiver as it began to warp the space in front of itself, solidifying the air and creating a mirror that showed a reflection of... me, but not actually me.

I was still armored, still clad in golden light, but instead of my current features, the me that was shown was scarred and showing no emotion at all, her golden eyes focused straight onto mine as she threw herself towards the mirror, those orbs ablaze with emotions I haven’t felt

Yet.

It gave me pause as I stared into that mirror for a second or two, before I wrenched my gaze free and looked at the Fiend who had summoned it, wondering what trickery was afoot with a spell like that; something using the mana that originated with the Fiends themselves was never going to be simple, but I just couldn’t understand what was being shown to me...

Not that it mattered, since the likely reason it had done so was to buy that second or two to send a barrage of rock needles straight at my chest, pushing me back into a pillar of sand that crashed into the ground around me, trapping me inside the desert’s embrace.

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