The other creatures sprang up from their seats, messing up the arrangement of the chairs and tables inside the inn. Broken glasses and spilled alcohol occupied the floor, slowly mixing in with the emerald fluid that was coming out from the dead alien soldier's body.
These creatures came from a planet that took advantage of another's fall.
In other words, they were nothing but scavengers — which means Nevigne could mercilessly kill them.
One scavenger spread its wings and another pair of arms unfolded from its shell-like, onyx armor. Nevigne raised her staff to cast another spell.
With blinding speed, the creature lunged at Nevigne only to crash against a figure that looked exactly like it, moving precisely the opposite direction like a living reflection. It was a spell that let the target receive and suffer its own attack.
As soon as this living reflection of the insectoid vanished, a blurry afterimage of a dark-haired man passed Nevigne's peripheral vision. Faster than she could cast another spell, Fidelis dashed forward and cleaved the scavenger in two with a dull blade.
He looked back at her with a smirk. "This one never pays for their drinks."
His offhand remark made Nevigne notice her pounding heart. It turned out, she was still nervous about fighting compared to someone like him. Rightfully so, the angel of punishment was born for the sole purpose of combat.
'I better pay for that drink sometime,' she thought to herself.
Within seconds the creatures underwent a transformation. The grooves lining their shell-like armor emitted a deep green glow. Antennae grew from their heads and brush razors appeared all around their limbs.
Their helmets unfurled, revealing mandibles with countless tentacles, designed for rapid consumption. The pair of large, glowing green circles beneath the visor were now fully visible. They were a module of a thousand eyes on each. At the edges of their limbs, glowing blades protruded, burning the air around them. These advanced blades were said to be as hot as the surface of the sun, and Nevigne had confirmed that as fact just years ago.
The scavengers were "opening up."
Fidelis kicked the table in front of him, causing the scavenger behind it to be momentarily distracted. In that small amount of time, Fidelis had already leaped forward and stabbed all of its vital points. He ducked under another's glowing blade and passed behind its back to bury his sword on its nape, down to its spine.
He turned to Nevigne. "Considering you declared war against these guys, I'm assuming you have a plan to not let us die?" he said before beheading a charging attacker without looking.
"Does this mean you agree to come with me?" she asked.
While slaughtering more enemies, Fidelis spoke. "Do you think I'll get to continue doing business after all this? Hurry up!"
Nevigne acted quickly. She raised her staff in the air and made the universe bend to her will. Suddenly, she wasn't inside the inn, but above the building, floating several meters over it.
Fidelis was also teleported and, with Nevigne's power, remained levitating right beside her. With a surprised expression, he watched how the elf in the sky summoned a small wisp that quickly expanded into a miniature sun.
From under the shattered buildings, the dark crevices, and rubble, countless scavengers emerged. It wasn't only the inn that contained these savage creatures. They were hiding all over the dead kingdom like overgrown cockroaches.
The massive ball of energy illuminated the misty land, shedding light on the fleeing insectoids.
Then, when the spell was ready, Nevigne cast down the raw power of an unborn star. It kissed the earth and the entire place turned white, not even the fallen angel could see a thing. Fidelis expected to hear a loud bang but only the ringing in his ears occupied the silence.
When the explosion subsided, and the angel and the elf could see again, what remained in the dead kingdom was a giant hole of ash, fire, and charred limbs of hundreds of alien scavengers.
Fidelis couldn't help but fall silent.
Then out of nowhere, when Nevigne believed the scavengers to have been wiped out, a high-pitched sound of an engine filled the air. It was unseen. With the use of advanced technology and Edenian magic, the aliens made their ships able to let light pass through its surface, concealing them from the world.
The ship was beginning to take off, accelerating at an abnormal rate. But before the translucent flying vehicle could even rise higher than a tree's height, Fidelis launched the dull blade in its direction. The dull blade penetrated the vulnerable point of the invisible ship — the cockpit, faintly revealing its position in the distance. It had a pointed front, a pair of sharp wings and large tubes under and behind it, blowing out high amounts of energy to push the ship up from the ground.
Now that Nevigne was able to determine where it was, a massive ring of sharp teeth emerged from the ground. The worm-like giant had grey skin, no eyes and a wide, circular maw full of deadly spikes for teeth. It devoured the metal sky-farer before it could get away, causing sparks of fire and smoke to fly off from the crushed spaceship.
With a wave of Nevigne's staff, the giant eyeless worm returned beneath the earth with a broken alien ship in its maw.
Once again, as the final traces of the devourer sought refuge underground, dead silence returned in the dark lands.
Nevigne and Fidelis slowly descended to the ground not far from the crater of magma and alien corpses. Both of them momentarily lingered, as though mesmerized by the destruction before them.
"You put me out of business, Nevigne," Fidelis remarked to which the elf chuckled.
The elf glanced at him with a weary smile.
"We don't have time to sell wine anyway," she replied.
At that moment, Fidelis realized how arduous their journey would have to be for a being like Nevigne, a person who only had time in abundance, to say they were short of it.