Building A Carnal Empire In The Fantasy World-Chapter 37: "Sorry I’m Late."

The crimson tentacles moved like living whips, faster than anything natural should be able to move.

Madam Vex threw herself sideways, feeling the shadow-stuff whistle past her ear. Where it touched the ground, the grass withered and died instantly.

Velara wasn’t fast enough.

Three tentacles wrapped around her legs and waist, lifting her into the air like a rag doll. She screamed as the blood magic began to drain her life force and power through direct contact. Her skin grew pale, then gray, as the Sanguine Court member fed on her essence.

"Delicious," Cole purred, his red eyes glowing brighter as he absorbed her energy. "The taste of earth magic is particularly rich. Like aged wine with hints of stone and soil."

Madam Vex rolled to her feet and charged, her enchanted dagger blazing with blue light. She slashed at the tentacles holding Velara, and the consecrated steel cut through the shadow-stuff like it was made of smoke.

Velara dropped to the ground, gasping and shaking. The brief contact with Cole’s blood magic had aged her visibly, lines appeared around her eyes, and streaks of gray now ran through her dark hair.

"Good blade," Cole observed, new tentacles already forming to replace the severed ones. "Church-blessed steel, I assume. How delightfully ironic that you’re using their weapons against one of their own soldiers."

"You’re not one of their soldiers," Madam Vex snarled, keeping herself between Cole and the weakened Velara. "You’re a parasite wearing their uniform."

Cole’s laugh echoed across the ruined lakeshore. "Oh, but I am. I’ve served faithfully for over thirty years. I’ve killed heretics, burned witches, executed criminals. All in the name of the sacred flame."

More tentacles lashed out, forcing Madam Vex to dance backward. Her dagger carved through the air, but for every shadow-limb she destroyed, two more took its place.

"The difference," Cole continued, advancing slowly as his blood magic pressed the attack, "is that I chose my victims more carefully. Why drain random mortal peasants when you can feast on the life force of actual cultivating criminals? Every execution made me stronger while serving the Church’s goals."

Velara struggled to her knees, earth magic flickering weakly around her hands. The brief draining had cost her dearly, but she wasn’t finished yet. She pressed her palms to the muddy ground and sent a pulse of power deep into the earth.

Nothing visible happened, but Cole raised an eyebrow. "Underground preparation? How quaint. But you’re too weak now to manage anything truly dangerous."

He was right, and all three of them knew it. Velara’s face was drawn with exhaustion and premature aging. Whatever she was trying to accomplish beneath the surface was taking most of her remaining strength.

Madam Vex pressed her attack, using her superior speed to stay just ahead of the reaching tentacles. Her enchanted dagger left trails of blue light in the air as she carved through shadow after shadow.

But she was fighting a losing battle. Cole’s blood magic was virtually unlimited as every time she cut away one tentacle, he simply formed more from the darkness around him.

Meanwhile, she was still wounded from the earlier fight, still operating on the borrowed energy of the recovery elixir.

A crimson whip caught her across the back, tearing through fabric and flesh. She stumbled forward, blood running down her spine. Another tentacle wrapped around her ankle and yanked, sending her crashing face-first into the mud.

"There we are," Cole said with satisfaction. "Much better."

He began to lift her into the air, just as he had with Velara. But as soon as the blood magic made contact with her skin, he jerked back with a hiss of pain.

"What?" he snarled, staring at his smoking tentacle.

Madam Vex smiled through her pain and exhaustion. "Blessed oil," she said, showing him the small vial she’d crushed in her palm. "Sacred flame anointing oil. I always keep some for emergencies."

The holy oil coating her skin burned Cole’s blood magic like acid. His tentacles recoiled, unable to maintain contact long enough to drain her life force. The Blessed Oil was filled with light elemental energy, bane of the dark elemental energy that the Sanguine Court was known for.

"Resourceful," he admitted. "But that won’t last long. And you only had one vial, didn’t you?"

He was right. The blessed oil would absorb into her skin or wear off within minutes. It was a temporary reprieve, nothing more.

But sometimes, temporary was enough.

Velara’s underground preparation finally paid off. The earth beneath Cole’s feet suddenly erupted in a geyser of superheated steam.

She’d been channeling her remaining power into the underground hot springs that fed the ornamental lake, building pressure until they had no choice but explode upward.

Cole leaped backward, but not fast enough to avoid the scalding blast entirely. Steam burned his exposed skin, and his expensive Church armor began to steam and smoke from the intense heat.

"Clever girls," he hissed, his perfect pale skin now mottled with red burns. "But you’re only delaying the inevitable."

The burns began to heal even as they watched, his stolen life force regenerating the damage at visible speed. Within seconds, his skin was perfect again.

"The advantage of feeding on so many victims over the years," he explained conversationally. "I have decades of stored life energy to draw upon. You could burn me to ash, and I’d simply regenerate from a single drop of blood."

Madam Vex used the distraction to help Velara to her feet. The other woman was barely standing, her face gaunt with exhaustion, but her eyes still burned with determination.

"Can you manage one more spell?" Madam Vex whispered.

"Maybe," Velara gasped. "But it would have to be the right spell. Something he can’t just regenerate from."

Cole’s enhanced hearing caught their whispered conversation. "Planning strategy? How adorable. But there’s nothing you can do that I can’t counter. I’ve had centuries to perfect my art."

He raised his hands again, and this time the darkness that flowed from his fingers was different. Instead of tentacles, he began weaving complex patterns in the air. Blood magic symbols that hurt to look at directly.

"Let me show you what real power looks like," he said.

The temperature around them plummeted to a frightening degree. Frost began to form on the grass and stones. The remaining water in the lake started to ice over with cracking sounds like breaking bones.

But it wasn’t just cold, it was the absence of life itself. The grass didn’t just freeze, it died. The insects in the air dropped like stones. Even the bacteria in the soil stopped moving as Cole’s magic drained the life from everything in a twenty-foot radius.

"Entropy magic," Velara breathed in horror. "He’s not just draining life force. He’s accelerating decay itself."

Madam Vex felt her hair beginning to gray at the temples. Her skin grew tight and dry as years were stolen from her life with every second she remained in Cole’s area of influence.

They had to get out of the death circle, but Cole was blocking the only exit. And with every step they took toward the edge, he moved to intercept them.

"You feel it, don’t you?" Cole asked, his red eyes gleaming with sadistic pleasure. "Time slipping away like sand through an hourglass. Every moment you spend fighting me ages you years."

Madam Vex’s enchanted dagger was growing heavier in her hand as her muscles weakened. The blessed oil on her skin was already fading, absorbed or evaporated by the unnatural cold.

Velara was in even worse shape. The brief draining earlier, combined with her massive spell expenditures, left her with almost nothing in reserve. The entropy magic was eating away at what little life force remained.

"Please," she gasped, falling to one knee. "Just make it quick."

"Oh, but where’s the fun in that?" Cole replied. "I want to savor this. It’s been so long since I had such interesting prey."

He gestured, and new tentacles began to form from the shadows. But these were different—instead of the smooth crimson whips from before, these had barbed hooks and razor edges. Tools of torture rather than simple restraint.

"I’m going to peel the skin from your bones," he promised. "Layer by layer, while keeping you alive to feel every cut. And with each strip of flesh, I’ll drain a little more of your life force. You’ll die by inches, over hours or perhaps days."

The barbed tentacles reached for them like grasping claws.

But before they could make contact, something unexpected happened.

A sudden bolt of lightning sprouted from Cole’s shoulder, spinning him around. The entropy magic faltered as his concentration broke.

"What—" he started to say.

A second bolt punched through his thigh, sending him stumbling backward. A third caught him in the stomach, doubling him over with pain.

From the darkness beyond the lake came a youthful voice that made all three of them freeze, showing varying reactions.

"Sorry I’m late."