Chapter 452: The Attack

The demons shrieked and died.

More kept coming.

They were endless. A tide of demonic flesh and malice that just kept pouring onto estate grounds.

"Where are they coming from?!" Lucian....Zev...howled.

"Portal!" someone shouted. "They’re using a portal on the eastern border!"

Of course. Demons could not manifest in the mortal realm without magical assistance. Someone was opening a gate for them. Feeding them through from whatever hell dimension they originated in.

"We need to close the portal!" Sebastian shouted. "Lilith....can you...."

"I don’t know!" Lilith said. "I’ve never closed a demonic portal before!"

"Figure it out!" Sebastian said. "Because if we don’t stop the source, they’ll just keep coming!"

A demon the size of a car crashed through a section of estate wall. Bigger than the others. Covered in black scales. Eyes glowing red.

It roared and charged directly at Lilith.

Sebastian intercepted it. Claws meeting scales. The impact sending both of them crashing into the ground.

Lilith raised her hands to help....

And a smaller demon hit her from the side. Claws raking across her ribs. Pain exploding through her body.

Lilith screamed and blasted it with death magic. Point blank. The demon’s head simply dissolved.

But more were coming. Always more.

Lilith could feel her magical reserves depleting. The constant output draining her faster than she could recover.

She needed to end this. Needed to close the portal.

But where was it?

Lilith closed her eyes for just a second. Reached out with her magical senses. Searching for the source of demonic energy.

There.

Eastern border. About two hundred yards from the main estate. A tear in reality pulsing with dark power.

"I found it!" Lilith shouted. "The portal! Eastern border!"

"Go!" Lucian....Zev....snarled. "We’ll hold them here!"

Lilith ran.

Through the battle. Dodging demons and pack warriors locked in combat. Her feet barely touching the ground.

She reached the eastern border and saw it.

A swirling vortex of red and black energy. Roughly ten feet in diameter. Suspended in mid-air. Demons pouring through it in a constant stream.

And standing beside it....

A witch.

Female. Middle-aged. Wearing dark robes covered in demonic symbols. Her hands glowing with corrupted magic as she maintained the portal.

She looked up when Lilith approached and smiled. "The girl who returned from the Veil. They said you were powerful. Let’s see if it’s true."

She raised her hand and sent a bolt of dark energy at Lilith.

Lilith dodged and countered with death magic.

The two forces collided in mid-air. Exploding. The shockwave knocking both of them backward.

The witch recovered first and launched another attack.

This time Lilith blocked with life magic. Green light forming a barrier that absorbed the dark energy.

"Impressive," the witch said. "But you’re untrained. Sloppy. I’ve been wielding dark magic for forty years. You’re a child playing with forces you don’t understand."

She was right.

Lilith could feel it. Her magic was raw. Powerful but unrefined. She was just throwing energy around and hoping it hit something.

The witch was precise. Controlled. Every spell calculated for maximum effect.

Another bolt of dark energy. This one curved around Lilith’s barrier and hit her shoulder.

Pain. Burning. Like acid eating through flesh.

Lilith screamed and fell to one knee.

The witch advanced. "The broker who hired me said to bring you back alive if possible. But dead works too. Either way, I get paid."

She raised her hand for a killing blow....

And Lilith’s vision went grey.

Not unconsciousness. Something else.

The world around her faded. The battle. The witch. The estate.

Replaced by grey nothing.

The Veil.

Lilith was standing in the space between life and death while her body remained in the mortal realm.

How....?

She looked down and saw herself. Translucent. Ghostly. Her consciousness separated from her physical form.

And in the grey nothing....

Nicholas.

He stood twenty feet away. Looking exactly as he had in the dream. Solid. Real. More present here than he had been when reaching through the bonds.

"Nicholas?" Lilith whispered.

"You’re pulling too hard on the Veil essence," Nicholas said. His voice echoed strangely in the nothing. "When you use both life and death magic simultaneously.....when you pull on the full power.....you’re accessing the Veil itself. And if you’re not careful, it will pull you in completely."

"I don’t know how to be careful," Lilith said. "I’m just trying to survive."

"I know," Nicholas said. "But Lilith....you need to go back. Right now. That witch is about to kill your body. And if she does while your consciousness is here....you’ll be trapped. Permanently."

Lilith looked at Nicholas. At the man she loved who had died to save her.

"Come with me," Lilith said desperately. "Come back. Please. I need you. Sebastian and Lucian need you. We’re falling apart without you."

Nicholas smiled sadly. "I can’t. My body is gone. There’s nothing for my consciousness to return to. I exist here now. In the space between. And Lilith....that’s okay. I’m okay. But you’re not okay yet. You still have work to do. So go back. Fight. Survive. And when it’s truly your time, when you’ve lived a full life and you’re ready, I’ll be here waiting."

"Nicholas..."

"Go back," Nicholas said firmly. "NOW."

The grey nothing dissolved.

Lilith’s consciousness slammed back into her body just as the witch’s killing spell was about to hit.

But something was different.

Lilith could still feel the Veil. Could still access that space even while fully present in her body.

The door was open. And she could use it.

Lilith raised both hands and pulled on the Veil essence directly.

Not just life magic. Not just death magic.

The fundamental power of the space between. The origin force that existed before gods shaped the world.

Grey energy poured from her palms. Not green or black. Just....grey. The color of nothing and everything simultaneously.

It hit the witch like a tsunami.

The woman screamed. Her corrupted magic simply dissolving under the onslaught of Veil power. Her body aging rapidly. Flesh withering. Bones crumbling.

Within seconds, she was dust.