Chapter 9 - ...you get burned... (part 1)
Sniff…
Laplace tossed in her sleep.
...sniff sniff...
The pony’s eyes bolted open.
Smoke!
Laplace shot up from her tiny cot.
The Lab’s on fire again?
Damnit, we left something running again!
Hurry! Before we lose anything, put it out!
Laplace threw the bedsheets aside and got to work, summoning her magic to vanquish the flames...only to look around and see nothing ablaze. Her eyes widened in horror.
Her lab was not on fire; it was the library.
Hundreds of books, the fruits of bargains, negotiations, and begging… the things that kept her sane now burned.
Laplace rushed to the lab’s doors and tried to push them open.
“Ahh!” she howled. The handle was red hot.
“Bastard door!”
Gripping the double doors with telekinesis, she flung them off their hinges. A hellish backdraft of fire unleashed itself in front of her, fire and smoke invading her nostrils. Behind the wall of flame she saw her nearest bookshelf, burning to cinders.
A crack formed in Laplace’s pupils, a pulsing yellow light radiating behind it.
“You will not take what is MINE!” she challenged the encroaching blaze in front of her. The demon unleashed a wave of purple energy from her horn, the magical shockwave snuffing the nearby flames.
Growing a pair of wings, she took to the air above the bookshelves and into the smoke, her eyes twisting into draconic slits as she surveyed the damage.
“Bastard fire…” she cursed in a twisted voice. If there was someone who did this to her, they would pay. The fire would die first, then whoever started it. Be it experiment, be it pony, it was going to die. “You’re going to pay for this…”
She heard a burst and crackle. In the distance, a tower of flame erupted, consuming more of her precious, beloved books. But, most importantly, the fire now had a source.
It was time to cut the head off the snake.
“Are you sure this is going to draw her attention?” a young voice said.
Talons gripped a torch, and with a spark of magic from the other talon the torch ignited, illuminating the figure. A pony’s face on a griffon’s body, decorated in a light blue armor. The Hippogriff tossed the torch into a nearby bookshelf, the hybrid fading back into darkness.
“I told you, it will. Light another and toss it,” rasped an older voice as the speaker sparked a fire and lit his own torch. He was a terracotta colored earth stallion, decorated in a red military uniform, badges on his jacket, a yellow sash across his chest. His left hind leg was in a metal brace.
“Yes, Sir Fury,” replied the young hippogriff.
“More torches?” scoffed a mare. “C’mon Sanctus! You two are taking forever!”
“What can I say, Zircon, I prefer the old fashioned methods,” replied Sanctus Fury. “They work.”
Zircon laughed. “Old fashioned is old for a reason, Sanctus! As someone who was around when old was new, I can tell you…” An orb of flames gathered around a steel hoof, illuminating a viridian unicorn. Four prosthetic metal limbs glinted in the firelight. She wore nothing but a cloak that draped around her deceptively youthful body. “It’s a new era, Santy, get with the times.”
Zircon shot off her orb of fire, igniting another bookshelf in a gout of flame.
Leery whistled. “Yeeeeeaaaa… I’d say that’s gonna get her attention.”
“Exactly, Leeroy. Now get your ass ready, both of you boys,” Zircon said as she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head. “The bitch is heading our way.”
Draconic wings flapped. Laplace gathered her magic as she landed on the floor, unleashing another shockwave of magical energy, snuffing the flames that surrounded her.
Stop the fire: Check.
Find the source of the fire: Source of the fires found, person not. Sorta-check.
Murder the shit out of whoever’s behind this: check pending.
“Light of Celestia!” boomed a stallion’s voice, “Make the darkness tremble with your mighty awe!”
A rune with the mark of Celestia appeared at Laplace’s feet. A circle of light shot out of it, entrapping the demon in the spell circle.
Laplace chuckled. “Heh-heh-heh… I’d recognize that magic anywhere.”
Her horn lit up, channeling red magic into her hooves as she smashed them into the rune below her.
“Mister Fury… it’s been a long time.”
Red magic spread like a wild vine across the sunburst rune, strangling it.
“Sad to see you haven’t learned any new tricks.”
The sigil of Celestial shattered beneath her. The holy light faded away sending the room back into darkness.
“Out of all the ponies,” Laplace mused, “out of all the bastards to come and fight us, it’s you. Wonderful, just wonderful.”
“So you still remember me, after all these years?” said the old stallion.
“Oh, how could I not?” Small magical flares lit the ruined section of the library. The elder pony was revealed, dressed in his military uniform, his salt and pepper mane slicked back.
“Sir Sanctus Fury of the Solar Guard, patriarch of the Fury clan, right hoof of the Crown, second in command under Captain Light, the self-proclaimed Hammer of Celestia…” Laplace smirked. “Tell me, how much of that is former, now?”
Sanctus Fury’s scowl deepened.
“We mean, after all I did to you, there’s no way you can still be all of those. We did quite a number to you when last we met. Do you remember?” she said with a devilish chuckle. “How is that leg by the way? You know, the one I crunched extra hard?”
Sanctus scoffed. “Nothing a weak pony like yourself can do will ever stop me.”
“Weak? You think I’m weak?! What am I, an old bag of bones? That’s you.” Laplace laughed. “You know, Shining told us that I had broken literally every bone in your body all those years ago. We never got a chance to follow up on that, did we?”
Sanctus just watched, his gaze unflinching.
“Well?”
The stare continued.
“Come on, answer us.”
He did not.
Laplace facehoofed. “Of course. Why did we think this wouldn’t happen.”
“You’re a dick,” she muttered to herself. “You’d never actually answer us.”
“Are you done, weakling?” Sanctus asked.
The demon winced at that word again: ‘weakling.’ He would not get the better of her. She had destroyed him once. He was the weak one, never her. I am not weak. We are strong.
“We suppose we are done. We’ve been hoping we did manage to break every bone in your body… It doesn’t matter, we suppose, because we will this time. And then we’re going to kill you.”
Sanctus chuckled, the sound joined by that from a mare behind Laplace.
“I highly doubt that, kid.”
Zircon stepped out of the shadows, pulling back her hood. Her messy mane spilled down her withers, a shining silver ponytail bound with a gold ring. “Even if you had the power to kill us, you’re too much of a pussy to do it. You’ve always lacked that killer instinct, Laplace.”
“You realize they call me the Demon of Canterlot for a reason, right?” Laplace said as she turned to face the mare.
“Demon of Canterlot my ass. You don’t even remember my ass, do you?”
“What, are we suppose to—” Recognition hit.
“…Didn’t we kill you?” the demon asked. “We distinctly remember driving a metal rod through your eye.”
The snickering witch tapped her left eye, eliciting a hollow clink. “It’s going to take a lot more a metal rod through my head to kill me. Kid, you don't get to be as old as I am by dying. I really ought to thank you. This new eye of mine’s been a real boon for me.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll get your heart next.”
Zircon was overtaken by a laugh. “Heh-heh-heh-heh….Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Laplace scowled. “What’s so funny?!”
“That tells me sooo much! A dragon beat you to that sixty years ago! I told you that last time we met! You’re still free to take his heart,” Zircon gave her chest a pat with a hoof, “but I’ll be snatching yours if you try!”
“Take my heart? I’d like to see you try! Shining Armor’s the only one my heart belongs to.”
Zircon’s mouth twisted into a mocking smile. “Said so well by the mare he’s not rutting every night.”
“Fuck you!” the demon snarled, her eyes and horn both turning yellow.
To match, Zircon lit up her own horn, its aura as black as night. “I’d like to see you try, kid! You couldn’t handle a mare like me. Not in battle, nor in the bed.” Zircon chuckled. “Laplace, demon, or whatever you’re calling yourself this century, you might have a lot of power now, more than a witch like me, but you’ve always been a weak pussy when it comes to using it. You lack that fighting spirit… that’s why we captured you in the first place! Nighty just made the mistake of not destroying you on the spot.”
“It is a mistake we won’t be making twice,” said by a third, youthful voice. “There will be no mercy this time, Laplace.”
Laplace lit up more magical lights around the new voice and illuminated a hippogriff in full. Despite the sword pointed straight at her, she smiled seeing those violet eyes of his. Beneath that sky-blue paladin armor she knew lay a pristine silver coat. But most importantly, she knew he was her oasis between the assholes. “Leeroy! How have you been? It’s been so long since we last saw you! We see your back’s healed. Hopefully you can give your brother Conduct some tips after he wakes up.”
“I ought to hack you to pieces for what you did to my brother!”
She gave a childish harumph turning away from him, giving her tail a wave, knowing Leeroy’s eyes wouldn’t leave her. “Condi deserved what we did to him.” She smirked. “We would have done to him what we did to you, but he decided to be a jerk. You’re such a nice pony, so much unlike your brother. Honestly, Leeroy, how could both of you come from the same mother, that we’ll never understand.”
With a flap of wings he jumped off the bookshelf, the three now surrounding the demonic mare.
“Demon, we give you one chance to surrender,” Leeroy demanded. “Submit and release your hostages to us, and your life and home shall be spared. If you wish to keep your magic, your library, and your life, do as we say and surrender.”
Laplace and Zircon both snickered.
“And here I thought you wanted a piece of her too, Leeroy,” the viridian witch said. “You can drop the formalities, kiddo, we’re not here to make a deal with her, heaven and hell knows that’s not gonna happen. We all know why we’re here.”
Leeroy stomped in frustration. “That is not the way Canterlot operates. We don’t just go execute our enemies, e-even if...” He looked at the demon, then to the witch. “We are the good guys. We have a code, and we stick to it.” One that seems to be falling on deaf ears right now…
“You sound like Nighty,” replied Zircon. “Keep sounding like that and you’re gonna die like he did.”
“If she’s going to surrender, like she did before, she will be spared, again.” Leeroy glared at the witch, thinking. Zircon, you know what Shining Armor told us to do. I want my revenge too, for me and my brother, but I will not let my emotions taint my mission. Stop tempting me.
To all this, Zircon gave a raised eyebrow. “Hmmm. I suppose that’s the difference between us, then: you work for the government, I’m paid by the government. I would say I really don’t care if she lives or dies, but this pain in the ass has had this coming for a long time.”
Sanctus stomped, getting the attention of the others. Laplace’s white lights around him flickered. “That’s enough talking! There is no more debate. This weakling wants a fight, and deserves worse. We shall give her both.”
“You three really think you can take me out?” Laplace said, taunting. “Is all that Shiny sends at me? A hot little hippogriff, half of a witch, and a bag of old bones?”
The trio readied themselves. Leeroy’s claws tightened around his saber, Zircon’s black aura seethed through her prostheses, and sparks of electricity rippled across Sanctus’ coat.
“Then bring it!” Laplace stomped on the ground, a purple and red aura circling around her horn, the mare’s eyes beaming yellow like the sun. “All of you! Bring it on!”
At the unspoken signal, it began.
The mare and the hippogriff charged Laplace and closed the gap between them. When the armed pair were a limb’s length away, Sanctus slung a bolt of lightning towards Laplace, forcing her to dodge, jumping into the air as the bolt scorched where she had been standing.
Leeroy immediately gave chase, his wings launching him after her, his sword ready to strike.
Laplace saw the glint of Leeroy’s blade closing in. The blade barely grazed her head as it swept under. Without missing a beat, Leeroy changed his angle and swung again, determined not to miss.
As his steel came down, Laplace’s horn flashed, creating a ward that blocked the impact, the blade bouncing off the impromptu-shield. With the paladin over-extended, the demon gave a wicked grin as she lit her horn and blasted the hippogriff, Leeroy crashing back from whence he came.
Before Laplace had any time to pat her own back, another bolt of lightning tore through the air towards her. She plunged beneath the lightning blast, right into the path of Zircon.
Touching the floor as the half-mechanical Zircon charged in swinging her magically charged metal hoof, Laplace did not land but dove right into the ground below. Laplace let her body sink into the floor, the punch hitting nothing but air as Laplace vanished completely into the ground. Before Zircon could regain her balance, black hooves popped up from the floor, wrapped around Zircon’s neck, and pulled, slamming her head right into the hard floor.
Laplace sprung out of the ground, leaving the shadow to hold Zircon in place. Laplace raised a single hoof charged with her own magical energy.
“GRAVITY!” Laplace shouted.
The charged purple fist come down on her skull.
At the moment of impact, Zircon’s body felt like it gained ten thousand pounds. She felt her whole body being crushed into the hard floor by the invisible magic of the spell. Zircon summoned as much strength as she could into her own horn, trying to break the spell before the spell broke her.
The demon stood over the viridian witch who grunted in her struggles. Confident, the demon set her yellow eyes against the elder stallion and smiled. “You’re sure you want to do this, old bones?”
Sanctus simply growled, gathering more energy around himself.
Laplace chuckled. “Good. Let’s break you all over again.”
“Fulgur!”
Bolts of lightning shot from his hooves, Laplace tilted to the left, to the right, dodging both bolts as she summoned the magic from her horn and unleashed her counter-attack.
“Lancea!” she shouted, as a lance of light formed just in time to shatter against Sanctus’ incoming thunderbolt. Several more vollies of electricity were hurled, each countered the same way, matching Sanctus move for move.
Light from the corner of Laplace’s vision caught her attention. The shadow rose from her back, catching the last seconds of Leeroy swinging his sword and unleashing a large blue shockwave at her.
A purple light from the shadow’s horn lit, forming a ward of defensive magic as the wave made impact. Soon, a second, then a third shockwave stacked against the shield spell, compounding and cracking, but not destroying the spell as the they exhausted themselves. With the shadow sustaining the defensive shield and the demon occupied with hurling her lances, it wasn’t long before the witch Laplace was standing on broke her gravity spell.
Without missing a beat, Laplace snatched Zircon’s tail with her telekinesis, lifted her off the ground and threw her into Leeroy just as he was about to unleash another sword wave.
“Magna fulgur!”
Laplace’s attention snapped back to the elder paladin. Violet lighting, far greater than what he had previous cast, was coming right at her. Laplace crafted another ward of magic to protect herself, the magic clashing against the magical bolt and cracking her new shield.
By the time she opened her eyes and dissolved the ward, it was too late to see the magic wall speeding her way. Laplace felt ribs crack as the wall smashed into her, shoving her towards Leeroy and Zircon, both whom were already running towards her.
We have to stop it! Laplace gathered her strength and smashed her hoof into the wall, sending her own magic into it, seeping inside becoming wedge against the magic that held it together. She punched the wall again and shattered it into nothing.
Laplace hit the floor rolling. On instinct, the demon rolled to the right, just in time to miss the massive shockwave Leeroy sent her way. She immediately reversed her roll to the left, dodging Zircon’s crushing hoof.
She hopped back up on her hooves, turned, and raised her forehooves to catch Zircon’s incoming hooves. The impact, powered by Zircon’s magic, pushed against Laplace, but the demon managed to hold her ground. With the two hooflocked, Leeroy and Sanctus approached from her sides.
Laplace’s eyes glowed yellow and power instantly filled the demon’s horn, unleashed as a yellow shockwave of magic.
It was Zircon’s turn to hold her ground, her black magic fighting against the blast. Lacking such recourse, Leeroy was sent flying into the air and Sanctus was sent crashing into a bookshelf.
Laplace raised an eyebrow, surprised that Zircon remained unmoved. “Impressive trick,.”
Zircon smirked. “Here’s a better one.”
Zircon’s metal hooves changed. Three iron claws extended out from the sides of her hooves and turned inwards to tear into Laplace’s flesh.
Laplace’s eyes went wide with pain.
“Now let me top that.”
With impossible strength, she pulled back onto her hind legs and lifted Laplace right off her hooves, spinning her like a discus. The gears inside Zircon’s metal limbs shifted and a chain released. Laplace, with Zircon’s hooves still embedded in her, flew. The chain turned the demon into a pony-like flail, crashing her into the bookshelves that surrounded them, finally stopping inside the third bookshelf, its books all falling on top of the demon.
Before Laplace could pull herself out of the books, she felt Zircon’s metals claws pull. The chains attached to Zircon’s hooves retracted, yanking the demon off her knees and towards her.
“LEEROY! SWORD! NOW!”
Zircon stood tall on her hind legs, black magic pouring into them. Zircon’s claws let go of Laplace as she jumped like an ape into the path of the incoming demon, and drop-kicked her right in the head. Laplace’s cranium caved in and her horn shattered as the enchanted steel crushed her skull, sending the demon flying away.
Laplace tried to regain her bearings as she flew, but it was too late. Leeroy was directly in her path. His blade was blazing with energy, and all of it now swung at her.
“Take this!”
Sputtering magic from a broken horn was the only thing keeping Laplace from being cut in twain. The sword cut into the demon’s hide, its blazing magic sawing into Laplace’s gut, clashing with her magic desperately trying to keep her body whole.
Her torn body slid free of Leeroy’s blade, crashing into the ground behind him, leaving a bloody trail as she skidded to a stop on the carpet below. Leeroy readied his blade to swing again, and turned to meet a blast of yellow magic in his face that sent him flying right past Sanctus and Zircon, narrowly hitting the pair.
The demon clutched her open gut with a hoof, desperately trying to keep her insides from spilling out onto the bloody, tattered carpet. She attempted to flee, sinking her demonic form into the ground.
“You are not getting away from me!” shouted Sanctus. Magic channeled into the old soldier’s left forehoof and he slammed it into the ground, A white shockwave spread out and traveled across the floor. The holy magic shoved Laplace out of the floor, her broken body flopping against the ground like a bloody fish. She landed with a wet thud as her half-healed gut was smeared across the carpet.
Zircon took aim. A small circle in the center of her hoof opened up and fired a trio of large black magic bullets, two striking the demon in the back until a red barrier blocked the last shot.
An instant later, a magical lance embedded itself into the barrier, stopping a mere inch away from Laplace’s head. She scowled and flicked the pierced barrier and lance in the air, shattering both into pieces.
"Nice try... old bones!"
She noticed Sanctus' hoof was still stretched outright. Looking up, she saw the fragments of the lance had not fallen to the ground, but instead scattered all around her, holding their position.
"Sparget Lancea!"
Before Laplace could react, each of the broken fragments of the magical lance formed into lances in their own right and rocketed downward, skewering the demon.
Zircon winced at the impact. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.
Holy lances perforated the demon, jutting out of her in virtually every direction.
For Zircon, pondering if she was down or not, a low gurgle emanating from Laplace was answer enough.
Blood dripped from the lances as Laplace’s eyes continued to glow yellow. "That's… that's not going to stop me..." the demon hacked up blood. “You… can’t stop me.”
"How about this, then?" Sanctus retorted. He brought his hoof down. On cue, each of the lances inside Laplace began to glow.
"Aww fu—" The lances exploded, consuming the demon in a ball of fire and magic.
"Did you get her?" Leeroy asked, finally rejoining the other two.
Zircon snorted. "Of course not."
"What? You blew her up? At least that would knock her—"
All three froze as a magical light surged inside the cloud and knew exactly who it belonged to.
"THAT'S IT!" it roared.
The cloud dispersed to reveal a demonic unicorn, feral with rage. She stomped the ground with blood-red cloven hooves, whipping her lionesque tail. A long twisted horn on her brow shone yellow, the magic encasing her whole form, intact once again.
Cracked yellow draconic eyes narrowed. A pair of leathery wings sprouted from her back, propelling her like a lighting bolt into the trio.
“I’VE HAD IT!”
Zircon jumped to the left, Leeroy jumped to the right. The slowest to respond, Sanctus was snared mid-jump by draconic claws. A glance back revealed a shadowy mare form, eyes burning purple above a broad, cruel smile.
“WITH!”
The demon leapt forward, colliding with Sanctus. Wings wrapped around him as the demon spun upwards, her prey in her clutches. Yellow magic sunk into Sanctus’ struggling form.
“YOU!”
Reaching the apex of her rise, Laplace shot Sanctus out like a bullet at the witch.
Zircon rose to her hind legs, her metal foreclaws catching a petrified Sanctus, the sheer momentum sending her skidding backwards. When she stopped, she placed Sanctus’ petrified body on the ground.
“CAPTAIN!” Leeroy shouted. He tried to rush over to them, but the demon descended and blocked his path.
“Don’t worry, kid, I got him!” Zircon shouted back to him. “He’s just having a hard time right now. Buy me a minute, ok?”
Leery didn’t hesitate to follow the order, turning to attack the demon with his sword raised. Laplace was forced to dodge strike after strike, always away from the witch. It was enough for Zircon.
The mare focused magic into her horn, black magic bubbled around her horn, until a single ball of energy formed on the tip of her horn, which she took with her claws and placed it on Sanctus’ head. Upon touching his muzzle, the stone cracked.
“Ahhh, you always tell me how terrible it is that I like to get stoned, and here you are, even more stoned than me.” The witch giggled. With a second flash of black magic from her horn, dark crystals rose and formed a shield encasing Sanctus.
“Take a breather, Sancty. I’ll have this wrapped up before you’re even free.” She turned to rejoin the fight, now much farther away. “Dang it, why do you two kids have to go so far away from me. Oh well.”
She paused to cast a final glance back to the crystal barrier holding Sanctus. “Well, she’ll be mostly dead by the time you get free...”
Leeroy slashed at the demon, hitting nothing but air. Again.
“Come on, Leeroy,” the demon jeered. “We thought you liked being close to—”
Laplace ducked, Leeroy’s sword almost cleaving off her head. Some of her mane were not as fortunate as the rest of her.
Ok, less taunting, more keeping your head.
Decapitation hurts, please dodge.
Laplace saw an opening. She turned around, reeled in her hooves and bucked Leeroy in the chest and sent him speeding towards the ground, skidding into the nearby wall.
Or that… that works too.
“Shit…” Leeroy muttered, pulled himself back up, only to find Laplace’s hooves firing a massive ball of fire.
“Crystal clod!” shouted a new voice.
A crystal hand emerged from the floor, shielding Leeroy from the fiery blast. Laplace looked to in search of the new voice but found the giant hand opening up as if to grab her.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
Slow enough to be insulting, it stretched out towards her with all the searing rapidity of poured molasses.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” Laplace said with a laugh. “That’s just pathet—”
Laplace felt her spine crack as a familiar pair of metal hooves drop-kicked her right into the giant crystal hand, which closed on her like a vice. Its five fingers held her tight, her head the only free part of her.
The witch floated near, landing on the clenched fist holding the demon.
“You were saying?” Zircon’s smile was a mile wide.
A shadow tried to jump out of Laplace’s body but, no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t, and fell back into the demon’s body.
“Those crystals are anti-magic. Good luck trying to phase through that.” Zircon rose to a bipedal stance. Her metal foreclaws began to shine for a moment before black magic consumed them. Laplace could feel the crystal hand holding her, growing in it’s power and beginning to drain her own.
Laplace struggled, the shadow trying once again to jump out of her. The shadow’s horn lit up purple, then red, then yellow trying to separate itself, but it was to no avail. It was at that point that Laplace realized she was in a bind.
“Yeah, good luck trying to break anti-magic with magic, kid,” said Zircon. “My hand won’t let you cast anything.”
And we can’t Break free!
We need something to pry us free.
Yes yes, let’s just ask them for a crobar. It’s not like we have something that…
Wait!
The mare’s horn lit up yellow, a surge of magic fading out as soon as the spell began.
Yes! Lazy! Thank you! It’s still there! we didn’t clean it up!
Let’s make good use of it!
The shadow tried to jump out of Laplace’s body once again, casting a surge of yellow magic before the hand’s anti-magic snuffed out her spell.
Zircon just laughed. “You’re gonna have to try better than that to get out of that—”
A white, magical claymore impaled Zircon from behind. Zircon felt her heart split in two as the she saw the bloody white construct through her chest. “...shit…”
“You were saying?” the demon said, smirking.
The sword, held in the demon’s telekinetic grip, pulled out of the witch. A single slash sent the heartless witch off the crystal hand and into a bookshelf. The bloody books fell out, tumbling over her. She did not climb out.
Without its master, the crystal fist crumbled, each shard of crystal breaking off to dissolve into raw magic as they hit the floor.
“YOU BASTARD!” Leroy shouted.
Freed from the crystal hand, Laplace took the the air once again, Sterling Conduct’s sword held in her telekinesis. “We really ought thank your brother… he dropped his sword,” she said, tracing a hoof along the Paladin’s blade. “Quite a life-saver… Or should I say, life-taker? Heh-heh—”
Once again, Laplace’s voice was cut short. She registered a sudden cold numbness in her left wing as the world began to pitch sideways. She fell down to to the earth, Conduct’s sword forgotten, transfixed by the bloody stump where her wing used to be. Only then did pain find her.
She turned and looked to where she had been and saw Leeroy holding a radiating sword, covered in her blood and burning with his magic.
The air was burning. Everything was around the paladin was burning. A bloodthirsty, vermillion aura encased the hippogriff.
Leeroy was out for blood.
Hers.
“I’ll KILL YOU!”
With a mighty flap, the enraged paladin dropped like a meteor. Leeroy brought his blazing sword down into her gut, crashing the two of them into the ground below. A shockwave of air bellowed out as they slammed into the floor.
Leeroy pulled the sword out of Laplace’s gut, and then raging beast began hacking away at the demon. Every slash chopped off another piece of Laplace, tore another wound open, or broke another part of her being. The magic to repair herself lost under the onslaught as she torn apart alive. A trio of vicious hacks cut her head free, which, despite lacking of lungs or vocal cords, howled in coherently as it fell.
Leeroy raised his bloody blade to the sky, the aura beaming off his sword igniting into a smoldering blaze growing more intense every second.
“IMMOLATION!”
Leeroy slammed his sword down on the dismembered demon. Fire magic erupted like a volcano, consuming Laplace inside the blaze.
A mess of a blazing body parts only visible as burning silhouettes flew into a stone wall.
Leeroy fell to his knees, the heat taking its toll on his body. He forced himself back to standing. No! Not yet! Lay down and you’re done! I have to finish her!
He couldn’t rest, he wouldn’t rest. He had to keep pushing himself with whatever strength he had left. But he couldn’t keep this level of power going forever. This had to end, now.
He turned to his target, and his heart sank. Laplace’s silhouette shown through the pyre. She was not a collection of severed limbs as she had been a moment ago, but was whole once again.
She’s already healing? How is she back in one piece so quickly? Damn it! That power has to be coming from somewhere...
From within the flaming body struggling to stand and heal itself, Leeroy saw a bright, purple light emanating from the demon.
There! Her forehead! That’s the spot!
He pulled his sword back, taking aim at the demon’s forehead. All of his strength, his power, and magic became focused in his sword. He had only one chance to make this work. His sword ablaze, he charged.
A burst of magic snuffed out the fire consuming Laplace, revealing her as she struggled to stand. Her body was pristine, except for a small purple crystal lodged soundly in her skull which bled freely. Her eyes beamed a sickly yellow as purple magic swirled around her horn.
Her yellow eyes caught the flash of his blade aimed right for the shining crystal. The blade hit dead on.
The impact’s shockwave blew out the surviving flames. Leeroy lost the grip of his sword as both were sent flying back.
Leeroy tumbled backwards, landing on his chest. His strength started to leave him, exhaustion telling him to rest. His gut told him to act; to move. He had to know if his final gambit had paid off. Push… get up, Leeroy. Do at least enough… to...
Leeroy saw his sword… at least, what was left of it, scattered around him in smouldering fragments. “No…”
The demon, Laplace, pulled herself to standing.
He had failed. He slumped to the ground, spirit and strength utterly spent.
“You…”
The shattered fragments of his sword begin to glow a sickly yellow, floating off the ground and surrounding him.
He knew what came next.
Every broken shard turned on their master. The shrapnel mauled Leeroy.
“You Bastard!”
Leeroy used his forelegs as shields against the shrapnel, saving his life, he knew, for at most another minute. He collapsed in a pool of his own blood.
The demon, however, was unsatisfied with her victory; she needed more . Her yellow magic lifted him off the blood-soaked floor.
“YOU DARE HURT US!”
A twisted horn of purple and white, bathed in yellow magic, pulled Leeroy towards the demon’s face. Leeroy saw her eyes: her eyes were completely consumed by a yellow light, the shard embedded in her forehead beaming with magic.
“WE WERE TOO MERCIFUL ON YOU!”
She threw the beaten paladin into a bookshelf. It toppled over on top of him and his world fell into darkness. He teetered on the brink of unconsciousness, hurt, bleeding, and barely able to think; victory or even escape was beyond impossible.
The weight compounded as a pair of hooves began pressing down. He knew Laplace was gathering her magic: he could see a yellow shine from beyond the bookcase.
He closed his eyes.
“GRAVITY!!”
A loud, sick combination of wood and bone crunched under Laplace’s hooves.
She had won.
The adrenaline slowly drained from Laplace’s body, She stood on top of the broken bookshelf, breathing deeply as her rage diminished. In and out, she breathed… in and out, and her body began to calm.
Leather wings vanished. A beast’s tail became a pony’s once again. Cloven trotters closed into a solid hoof. All the red from Laplace’s mane turned white. She turned away from the bookshelf, her forehead showed no scars from the now-vanished crystal.
“I didn’t wanna do that to you. You were the nice one… you shouldn’t have gotten me angry. I wonder if they’ll save you in time…. maybe we should turn you into stone. You’ll stay alive longer that way…”
“Oh, forget him—he tried to kill us. This is what he deserves. ”
Mad eyes flashed yellow.
“Yea, forget him. He wronged us. He needs to pay. We should, in fact, kill his brother. Then we’d be even.”
“Yes… then we’d be done.”
Chains rustled. A metal claw shot out of the darkness and latched itself to the back of Laplace’s head.
“LAPLACE! WE ARE FAR FROM DONE!”
Chapter 9 - … you get burned (part 1) - end