A group of demons that lay in the same direction she was moving in.
She tried not to think about that as she trudged along.
Another hundred or two cells passed before a small tremor forced her to stop.
Shalise waited, keeping her feet steady and stable.
The tremor never built up into a full-fledged earthquake. It died out as quickly as it came.
A faint cry of pain echoed through the prison corridor.
“W-what was that?”
We are closing in on our destination. Prepare yourself.
Shalise took a step forward. “F-for what?”
The same faint voice cried out again, this time more in rage than anything else. Another tremble ran up and down the corridor a moment after.
Anything.
Biting her lip, Shalise continued forward at a glacial pace.
Sounds of battle became louder as she walked forward. The occasional loud cries followed by shockwaves interspersed more mundane noises of metal scraping against metal.
It was terrifying.
Shalise could barely keep her legs steady as she moved forward. She’d never been in a fight before. And she didn’t count being eaten by a zombie as a fight.
And yet here she was, marching closer to the noises of an obvious war with a demon in her head and an unconscious girl on her back.
Shalise slugged ever onwards, wishing for the millionth time that hour that she was anywhere else.
Cells along the wall ended abruptly. For a good dozen paces, the walls were nothing more than the black metal. Beyond that, the corridor opened up into a much larger plaza-like area.
A plaza full of demons and what could only be the dolls–half rusted iron and half flesh.
Shalise shuddered. A massive bolt ran through one entire shoulder of something that otherwise looked like a little boy. Hanging off the bolt was a claw that it used to tear into a small imp.
The imp never stood a chance.
Three larger demons turned on the doll and set to tearing it apart.
Shalise looked away.
And promptly met the eyes of a violet-skinned woman. Two red eyes narrowed.
“Humans,” she said. She turned to face Shalise as if the battle raging on did not matter in the slightest. “The ones from earlier? And what’s this, a bonded familiar?”
Shalise took a step backwards. “What do I do?” she hissed to her ever-present companion.
Prax did not immediately respond except to let out a brief wave of anger. An anger that fed into Shalise, making her grit her teeth.
Hello, mother.
Chapter 007
“Mother?” Shalise hissed, hoping she was being quiet enough that the demon couldn’t hear.
On the demon’s side of things, she did nothing but stand there, ignoring the ongoing battle out in the open area of the room. She wore a polite, almost regal smile. Nowhere near as elegant as some she had seen on Ylva. It might pass as an imitation in the right lighting.
Unfortunately, that smile did nothing to calm Shalise down. That wasn’t the kind of smile one greeted a friend with. It was something to wear when one had absolute confidence in her power over whatever was in front of her.
And currently, Shalise was in front of the her.
“I-is her being your mother good or bad?”
Shalise got the distinct impression that Prax was leaning back in a corner of her mind, sulking. Dearest mother did not free me. Maoa left me to rot. What does that tell you?
“That she didn’t know where you were?”
There was a mental scoff somewhere in the back of her head.
“Right,” Shalise muttered. Mentioning Prax wouldn’t help. In fact, it could get her killed.
Shalise swallowed despite her parched mouth.
Prax’s mother crossed her arms beneath her chest. She hefted herself up and down once as she adjusted her positioning. One glowing-violet finger began tapping against her arm.
The universal sign of impatience. Apparently it applied to demons as well.
“I’m sorry, I… um…”
Her lips peeled back to reveal a set of razor-sharp teeth. “And just what is a little human like you doing here?”
The demon took three sultry steps forward.
Shalise tried to take three steps backwards. Halfway through her first step, Juliana’s armor clanked against a wall.
She leaned down, putting her face right next to Shalise’s face. “Must I rend the answer from your mind?”
“It was an accident,” Shalise said as fast as she could. “I didn’t want to be here. Everything has gone wrong and my friend is sick. I just want to go home.”
“Accident?” she said with a frown. Maoa pulled her face away from Shalise, bringing herself back to full height. Her head turned back to the ongoing battle.
Shalise let out a sigh, glad to no longer have the demon’s immediate attention.
How the battle was going was anyone’s guess. Everything was such a mess. Demons torn apart by dolls. Machinery from the dolls lying around everywhere. There were more demons than there were dolls, but for all Shalise knew, the dolls were winning.
One particular doll–at least, Shalise assumed it was a doll. It didn’t have any rusted iron parts that she could see as its clothing covered it almost entirely, but it was fighting the demons. With a sword.
A very effective sword. Shalise winced and turned away from the demon whose waist no longer connected to his legs. She didn’t even see the sword wielder move other than a slight flicker.
At her side, Maoa’s saccharine smile twisted into a glower aimed at the sword woman.
Now that Maoa’s eyes weren’t on her, Shalise took a brief moment to look the demon over.
Like Prax, she had hoofed feet. Unlike Prax, tree bark-like armor covered her legs from her ankles to her mid-thigh. She wore similar gauntlets that ended in glowing violet points. Another bit of bark wrapped around her neck, ending in a glowing gem right on her sternum.
That was about all she wore. There were a few other ‘vines’ of bark almost mimicking a ribcage, but it did nothing to cover the demon’s assets.
A tail that looked like it was made from the same bark swished back and forth behind her. She had two straight horns poking out the top of her head and dark hair hanging down to her shoulders.
As Shalise looked at her, she said something that Shalise did not catch. Even if the demon had been louder, she doubted she would have understood. It sounded more like she was gargling curses under her breath.
Glancing back towards the battlefield, Shalise had a good idea at what.
Sword-doll stood over the pieces of at least four demons. All but one were being dragged down into some portal on the floor, much like the one that had swallowed the incubus Shalise had… killed.
Shalise shook her head. She couldn’t just stand around here.
Prax had been silent since his snipe gripe about being left behind. Shalise could feel him thinking and stewing, though she couldn’t tell what about. Probably his mother.
With all the speed of an extremely careful snail, Shalise inched a foot away from the demon back towards the direction from where they had come.
No! Prax shouted in her head.
Shalise froze as Maoa whipped her head around.
One gauntleted hand flashed out.
Shalise cried out as the nails of her gauntlet scraped against the top of her head.
With a fistful of her hair in hand, Maoa yanked Shalise’s face right up against hers.
In shock, Shalise nearly dropped Juliana. That she did not was thanks only to her fists involuntarily clenching.