Threads of the Soul

Chapter 429 - 429: Tactical Backwards Advance

Corvus' bones cracked as they started to snap themselves into place. His broken hand already starting to repair itself. But the fact he broke it in the first place was the concerning part. He started to seriously consider that perhaps Thor was right, and that he was a bit too hasty with growing an ego around a title he didn't truly understand.Nothing better than shattering a dozen different bones to release the error of your ways.

This was a losing battle. One that the enemy had tilted into their terms, but there was also something that was bothering him about it all. However he didn't have time for that. Thor was already starting to clamber to his feet.

However before he could gain his footing, a figure in a maid outfit dropped down onto his back. She slammed her heels into his head in a spectacular drop kick, smashing his face back into the stone.

Thor let out a low growl and held out his hand, his loyal hammer once more heeding his command as it flew into his grasp. The maid's body twisted in impossible ways, as if she had no bones in her body, as she dodged the approaching hammer and danced around Thor's wild, crushing swings once he clambered to his feet.

She slipped past his reach, her fingernails extending into viscious talons that she rapidly stabbed into his bulging stomach dozens of times in a second, before twisting her body to move under his legs.

The Demon maid leapt on his back and clung to it like a baby Koala, repeatedly stabbing her talons into him while he flailed around, trying to get her off. Her head whipped towards Corvus and Astra, her face twisted with desperate determination.

"What are you still doing here?! Leave, now! Fulfil your purpose!"

She pulled a golden bracer from her wrist and tossed it across the room to Corvus, just before Thor snatched hold of her arm and tore her from his back, slamming her into the ground hard enough to smash the stone underneath her to dust. Not that the maid cared, as she quickly twisted her body around and went back to the fight.

Across the room the Valkyrie, from her place on the ground, pressed her horn to her lips once more and let out another bellow of war, causing more Einherjar to pour through the hole in the ceiling. Many of which also held the 'grandiose' title of Celestial.

"You heard the lady, move it people!"

Not wanting to be the newest addition to their ranks, Corvus poured mana into his legs and launched himself across the room. He cast his threads behind them, wrapping them around Woe and yanking the boy towards him.

Throwing Woe over his shoulder, and with Astra flying alongside him, Corvus leap frogged his way out of the arena and back down the twisting corridors of this strange castle. Every step leaving cracks in the ground as he launched dozens of metres forwards, his attempts to turn found him landing on the wall and springing off of them.

The last thing he saw of the demon maid, was her body growing and horns enlarging, as she rapidly transformed into a truly demonic form. Her maid outfit growing with her, making way for the bulging muscles and spikes running down her spine.

He heard the demon shout, in a voice that was like a guttural roar definitely unsuited for the adorable maid outfit she still wore.

"THIS IS FOR KA'LINA YOU BASTARD!"

Her words echoed down the corridor as he ran without looking back, doing his best to ignore the shame such an act brought with it.

The other members of the 'Meeting of Gods' took after his example, racing out of the room behind him and doing their best not to get caught up in the slaughter. Some of them leapt like him, others ran and a chosen few managed to fly.

Even the American gunslinger managed to get a surprising shot on the Mischief God, putting a bullet through his stomach on accident while Loki was invisible, before taking the opportunity to race out of there, using a shotgun he pulled from god knows where. He blasted it behind him, letting the bone shattering recoil launch him across the room, with each new blast speeding him up or redirecting him as well as blasting apart the Einherjar that were following.

As Corvus approached the 'meeting room' which they had first arrived in, he landed on a wall and dug his newly healed fingers into the stone to keep himself from falling. In front of him, a group of Einherjar were systematically slaughtering the Kobolds, who raised their circular shields and filled the corridor upon seeing Corvus.

The wall of undead Vikings blocked the final corridor to the meeting room in an attempt to cut off their escape, as well as slaughtering all of the 'traitors' in the process.

Without hesitating or taking a moment to worry about the strange little lizards that had been slaughtered, Corvus tossed the golden bracer to Astra as she flew up beside him. She had entered her transformed state, reverting her back to the featureless body of a night sky and hair of a nebula.

She snatched the bracer from the air and, without having to consult him, already knew what he was planning. Her body streaked over the Einherjar, leaving only a purple trail in her wake caused by her hair as she flew past faster than they could stop her.

A second later, Corvus churned more mana into his legs and launched himself forwards, shooting head first into the waiting crowd of Einherjar. Just before he collided with their shield wall, Corvus flipped in the air, holding Woe in his chest.

"Woe, give me a bubble. Now."

Corvus' back slammed against the shield wall, but met no resistance as the bubble of magic nullification surrounded him turned the Einherjar into nothing but useless corpses before he hit them.

It was slamming against the meeting room table that caused him to stop, and caused a load crack to come from his lower back in the process.

He let Woe go, telling his brother to go to Astra who was already standing by the door they had first arrived through. Once his powers returned, Corvus quickly cast his threads out and plunged them into the 'useless' corpses before they could dissolve.

Their bodies shuddered before rising to their feet once more, the souls within completely devoured leaving only empty shells that served a new master now.

The shield wall was put up once more, with a small gap in the middle to allow for the other leaders to follow. He ushered them passed the Einherjar puppets, which didn't take very long as their numbers had dwindled to less than 30, before commanding the puppets to take arms against their former comrades.

Astra had transformed back to her regular form and was already on the other side of the door, watching everyone pour into the endless motel corridor, while Woe watched on from beside her. She had her hands clasped together as a miniature sun blazed between her palms.

Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead, while her hair started to stand up on end and dance in a non-existent breeze from the static, as small arcs of electricity coursed between them. She poured as much energy as she could into the sun, putting all of her concentration into filling it to the brim and keeping it contained in a sun the size of a marble.

Mjolnir tore through the lines of Einherjar, both the one's on Thor's side and Corvus' puppets, as the Giant made his appearance at the end of the corridor. His face was torn to shreds, as was his armour, and the cloak made of dragon skin was gone. If his hair wasn't already red, it would have been dyed it with all of the blood that was trickling down his head.

Yet that cocky, self assured smile still stuck itself on his face, even when blood tinted his teeth red.

"Go on, run away! I'll find you soon. All I will have to do is follow the trail of piss, and it will lead me right to you!"

Corvus grit his teeth in irritation, his ego clashing against his common sense in his mind, before he eventually charged towards the door behind him as common sense won out in the end. Thor's condescending laughter followed him as he ran and he could feel his Einherjar puppets being decimated one by one.

He dove into the endless corridor, letting Astra launch her marble. The miniature sun blasted forwards, flying straight towards Thor. His smile finally melted off of his face, twisting into surprise as he stared at the marble sun flying towards him.

That, at least, gave Corvus some sense of morbid satisfaction as he slammed the door closed. A second later the entire endless corridor shuddered, the ends of the door illuminating with a blinding light for a second before the entire door crumbled to dust before their very eyes leaving nothing but a blank wall covered with tacky motel wallpaper.

In the ruined arena, the demon maid lay on the ground. Her outfit completely ruined as her legs and half her torso her smashed to a pulp.

Yet all that mattered to her was the dragon skin cloak she held in her hands. She clutched it to her chest lovingly, a soft smile on her face as the fires of Astra's exploding sun erupted around her and eventually consumed her.