Three chickens walked across the battlefield that was now the ballroom. They had white furthers, yellow beaks, and big eyes. They acted like ordinary chickens and they looked like ordinary chickens so long as one ignored the fact that they were almost as tall as a person. While the battle raged on all around them, they ate. Their beaks moved impossibly fast to snatch wasps out of the air. They’d chew the wasp then swallow. That was all they did—catch, chew, swallow.

  Isolde smiled at her rather odd summons as they culled the swarm around them. Their feathers were thick enough to make it difficult for the wasp stingers to sink into flesh and rendered the corrosive tendrils the flying creatures had mostly harmless. Any wasp that managed to land on one of her plus-sized chickens was swiftly eaten by one of the other two. She could keep this up for hours. Sadly the rest of the battle was not nearly as optimistic.

  Many people had been injured in those first few, confusing moments of the attack. Those closest to the doors were hurt quite badly with a couple being pulled screaming toward the Nest Keepers’ devouring jaws. The adventurers rallied quickly but were steadily pushed back. Even if Alden hadn’t brought word to retreat to Brivaria’s strange, defensive circle, Isolde knew they’d have been forced back anyway. The swarm was never-ending and some only realized that after expending far too much mana and stamina trying to kill the nest keepers.

  Thankfully, the angel’s odd circle was a tremendous help. Black light seeped from the earth making men and women alike wary but it only seemed to harm the insects. Between the lamia’s poison and the circle’s strange magic, the wasps were dying. The Nest Keepers had enough intelligence to realize that any kind of delay in their attack let the sorceress’ poison deal enough damage that merely entering the black circle killed them. The result was a mad, nearly suicidal charge from the bugs.

  Tables, chairs, and anything else they had were dumped in the path of the non-flying wasps. The insects were funneled into kill zones where adventurers could easily and efficiently kill them without overexerting themselves. Anything and everything the people could do to slow the steady march to their own doom was done. Even the nobles, some of whom possessed encouragement skills, used their talents in any way they could to support the adventurers. While Count Dancarlo and Baron Felio may have disappeared, Baron Sorenson stood at the front with an ornate spear and jabbed the thing into the steadily growing pile of dead wasps, adding one to the tally with each thrust.

  All of this was background to Brivaria as she, Cordelia Westlake, Dax, Giselle, and Trixie stood before a wall. The angel had thrown several Bolts of Decay at the wall along with Withering Rays. She now projected a beam of Bleak Radiance at the dark stone. It was not enchanted save for a slight ward against mold but the stones were old and they were thick. They cracked and flaked in the face of the angel’s magic but her eerie black light wasn’t enough to do the job. Abruptly, she pulled back and turned to Giselle.

  “Okay Giselle, start slow and work up to a nice, big swing,” the angel commanded. The deer girl nodded and began to grow. Giselle, her green dress, and Rory’s mace all grew in size until she stood half as tall as anyone else present. The angel watched as the mace began to glow. She knew that was Giselle’s Infusion (Strength) skill going to work.

  The first swing was low and slow but still gave a satisfying crack against the stone. Between the infusion and the mace’s own enchantment, it was far more durable than the wall. Brivaria knelt to pet Trixie as everyone watched Giselle beat on the wall with the mace. The deer girl was growing ever more confident with each swing. Those watching stood well to the side ensuring no one was in the path of the mace if or when it bounced back. Chips of stone shattered and ricocheted off the cracking wall until one, final swing caused the area Brivaria had coated in decaying and withering energy to crumble.

  “It worked,” Cordelia said with just a little too much incredulity. “Now what, oh great adventurer?” she asked with a coy smile. Brivaria ignored the teasing tone to look inside the hole. Her light shined into a storeroom of some sort. No wasps or anything moving about the darkness that she could see.

  “Now we evacuate some of the people out there into here.”

  “Just some?” the noblewoman asked.

  “As long as nest keepers have their faces stuffed into this room, their bodies are vulnerable to attack from behind. If we all retreat immediately, they’re just going to go hunting for more prey elsewhere in the castle or, worse, leave the castle. We need to keep them distracted and sitting right where they are,” the angel clarified.

  “I understand,” Cordelia snapped her gaze to Dax. “Dax, go with her. Make sure those things die.”

  “My lady?” Dax asked, a clear note of wariness in his voice.

  “I will be fine here so long as that circle will hold?” At a nod from Brivaria, she continued. “Go with the angel. Find whoever or whatever is behind this and stop them.”

  “As you wish. Can we go?” Dax asked, looking from Cordelia to Brivaria as soon as the order was given. The angel looked back to Nyx and Kseniya holding off the swarm. There was no way the adventurers could hold the room without the sorceress’ poison.

  “Yes. Baroness Westlake, please tell Nyx to help the evacuation. We’ll go take care of the nest keepers,” the angel said. Trixie gave a supportive woof but Giselle looked torn on what to do. The winged girl saw and smiled. “Come on, we’ll need you too.” Giselle’s uncertain expression turned to joy and she nodded.

  They were off, leaving Cordelia to see to the evacuation. The dark room let Brivaria quickly store her dress and don her armor but it didn’t take long to find the exit. Brivaria, Giselle, Dax, and Trixie immediately began running through the castle halls to find the entrance to the ballroom. The bodyguard sprinted well ahead of the group, leaving even Trixie behind though the winged girl suspected the dog was trying to stay with the group. Dax had gotten down the hall and rounded a corner when the trio heard a dull thud.

  Turning the corner, they found Dax staggering back from a person-shaped imprint on a brown wall that had definitely not been there yesterday. The warrior/bodyguard was cursing under his breath. He pulled a dagger from somewhere beneath his gray jacket and hacked into the “wall.” The blade dug in and showed layers of some kind of strange material.

  “What the hell is this?” Dax asked in consternation.

  “Envelope. The wasps make it. They can use mana to produce a frightful amount of the stuff,” while she spoke, she looked from the hole the man had made to the blocked corridor as a whole. “This is probably why none of the guards have come to assist us. I’d bet a dozen corridors are filled with this stuff.”

  “Damn it,” Dax swore while cutting into the thick wasp envelope with another strike.

  “We need to force our way through. Giselle and I can do this,” the winged girl said even as she transformed. Her wings turned from white to black and her feathers shifted into the bat-like membrane of her demonic wings. The black, bull-like horns sprouted from her head and curled to face forward while the sclera of her eyes darkened leaving sapphire irises in a sea of darkness. Black claws grew from her fingertips and were subsequently illuminated with one hand infused with decay and the other withering. A System notification flashed before the winged girl’s eyes.

  Gained Traits (Demon).

  Traits (Demon) includes Demon Hide, Infernal Immortality, and Sadistic Glee.

  Demon Hide (Passive)

  Your body is naturally resistant to all injuries.

  Infernal Immortality (Passive)

  You do not age. You will revive in your home plane if you die outside of it. Once revival takes place some time must pass before it may activate again.

  Sadistic Glee (Passive)

  Killing a creature restores a small amount of health, mana, and stamina.

  Brivaria had considered not using her Alternative Form but the potential advantage from Sadistic Glee was too great to ignore. As soon as she saw her mana begin to refill, she smiled. Every wasp that died in the ballroom while inside her Luminous Desecration spell fed a portion of its essence back to her now. Granted, each individual wasp offered the angel-turned-demon nearly nothing in value but more than enough were dying for her to see a slow uptick in her mana reserve.

  “Let’s tear this apart,” the winged girl said even as her wings began to shine with Bleak Radiance. The envelope immediately softened. Dax cut into it and his knife now passed through it meeting little resistance. To the man’s credit, he took Brivaria’s demon transformation in stride. Trixie and Giselle had seen it before or a version of it before she’d begun working on the wings. They were less put off although Trixie did sniff her curiously before letting her pink tongue hang out and wagging her tail. Angel or demon, Brivaria smelled like Brivaria it seemed.

  Giselle’s mace tore away whole sections of the thick, brown paper-like substance while the winged girl’s claws ripped large holes in it. The envelope softened to tissue paper wherever her decaying claw touched and disintegrated wherever the wither claw touched. Working in tandem, the three warriors made steady progress through the hall. Trixie took on the important role of supervising their progress and giving barks of encouragement as they went.

  Progress through walls of envelope was fairly quick but there were many layers of the stuff. The group even found a few wasps trapped in the space between, somehow sealed in during the creation. Brivaria and Giselle barely had time to react each time they encountered a live wasp as Dax was quick to put a dagger through them. He would gather his blade from the dead insect while the girls kept cutting through the envelope.

  “Wait, they’re on the other side,” Brivaria called out just before Giselle could bring her mace down to tear through another wall. Brivaria’s demonic eyes and their bizarre prey sensing ability were telling her the bugs were on the other side. Once they stopped hacking, all three could hear the steady buzzing as well.

  “Alright, my turn to cut a path,” Dax said while trading his throwing knives for short swords. He drew them from within his great coat and the winged girl had to wonder just how many assorted weapons the man carried. “Open it up and I’ll go first. Shine that light on them and I’ll thin the swarm.”

  Dax got his wish as Giselle raised her mace and brought it down against the last sheet of envelope blocking the corridor. Before them lay another dozen brown walls in states of partial construction. Aether Wasps looked up from their work to see the intruders. The swarm instantly grew agitated and they moved toward the adventurers even as Dax leaped through the hole toward them.

  Brivaria had seen master swordsmen in action. She had been impressed by those who dedicated themselves to the craft. There were always trade-offs one made regardless of what path they took in the System and, while a master of arms had a great many downsides, it could be fantastically effective. Dax’s arms were a blur as his blades spun and sliced. Each wasp that came near the man was efficiently cut apart.

  Brivaria had suspected the man to be warrior, rogue, or some mixture of the two. While there may have been some rogue classes or features in his skill set somewhere, what she was seeing now was all warrior. Cordelia introduced him as a problem-solver and the dark-haired, battle-scarred man seemed capable of solving a great many problems judging by what she, Giselle, and Trixie were witnessing in this moment.

  The two girls and dog were not standing idle while Dax fought, however, and each was doing their part. Trixie barked as she always did. Wasps changed course from Dax to the hole in the envelope where the girls stood. Giselle calmly swatted wasp after wasp as they flew toward the dog. Meanwhile Brivaria pointed a single black claw toward the swarm and activated Withering Ray. She did it again and again letting the dying bugs replenish her mana so she could fire endlessly. While normally a waste of mana, she had no need to concern herself with such trivialities. The torrent of black beams killed the bugs on contact then began disintegrating them where they landed on the ground.

  Dax’s blades slowed as the buzzing of the swarm faded. The beams pouring from Brivaria’s slender claw did not. The wasps who flew about were caught by the deadly rays but then her prey sense showed her those that lived, that crawled among the dead, and her beams soon found them as well. Brivaria’s lips curled back into a fanged smile as every last member of the swarm was culled by her magic. All the while Dax regarded her, expression unreadable.