Eva turned just in time to watch the shell snap clean off the beetle’s back. It spun through the air, end over end like some sort of oblong saw blade.
The spin carried it straight through the pillar holding up the second floor and embedded it into the far wall.
For a moment, there was nothing but silence.
A loud creak echoed through the building. The creak turned to a groan.
Starting at the pillar, the entire second floor collapsed along with a full half of the roof.
The bug screamed out its multitonal wail again. Its pincers swept through the building, pulping the one bear that had been brave enough to approach.
Eva shouted with it, stepping again. This time, her powerful legs punctured straight through the softer carapace beneath the wing cover. Eva dug into its carapace with her claws and other leg for dear life.
The beetle had started bucking, trying to get her off of its back.
It charged through a wall. Eva pressed herself against its carapace. Wood still scraped along her back.
Running out of time, a thought popped into Eva’s head.
She tried something she had never attempted before.
Eva had always used her hands the primary connection between her magic and the world. But she did not use a focus. Her entire body was a focus thanks to the demonic blood coursing through her veins. So what, exactly, was the difference between hands and feet?
Absolutely nothing.
The creature started thrashing wildly, more so than before. Its multitonal screech hit a crescendo as Eva felt her leg starting to heat up.
It was hard without having it right in front of her face. At the same time, it wasn’t all that different. Eva ignored the scrapes against her back, concentrating on building up the flames deep within the beetle’s back. She compressed them, again turning her fire into a thaumaturgical bomb.
After twice as long as she had spent building up either of her other bombs, Eva decided it was time. She stepped straight out of the beetle’s back to mid-air–she didn’t want to take the risk of teleporting into some debris–landing in an awkward position on top of the rubble of the burnt out house.
If exploding bugs could be considered art, this would win an award.
Viscera splattered against the walls. The entire room was painted over in a rust red. Bits of armor plating cut into the walls and debris, sending even more flying around.
Eva shielded her head with her forearms, letting the tough chitin take the hits rather than her skull. Thankfully, none of it was anything giant. Mostly just small shards. She’d be picking bits out of her arms for weeks, but at least she wouldn’t be picking it out of her brain.
The slopping noises slowly ceased as the last pieces of meat settled.
Eva slowly stood up, wincing. Her back felt like it had gone through a few cheese graters. The small cuts could be healed away, but the larger ones, especially those around her preexisting wound, were more problematic.
Looking around, Eva frowned. There was nothing left. Her last surviving dullahan-bear was nowhere in sight. It was probably among the beetle’s viscera. The acid-wounded vampire had been on the second floor. He was now buried under the rubble Eva was standing upon.
Eva hadn’t seen the vampire that had been in charge of the goblins since she initially took the goblins away. So she was probably dead or perhaps off fleeing.
Given that everyone else was dead, fleeing was probably the wise decision.
“Arachne,” Eva shouted at nowhere in particular. She raised a fist, shaking it at the empty sky. “You’ll pay for wha–”
Eva blinked.
Getting carried away?
“Yeah,” Eva mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. That damn theater-demon. I got all caught up in his nonsense.
Are the others all caught up in that nonsense too?
It doesn’t– Eva shook her head side to side. Get out of my head.
Silence answered her.
Eva looked out to the streets. She needed to get out of this domain. With Arachne, Juliana, and Genoa. If they were all caught up in the theater-demon’s act, she needed to slap them out of it.
Stepping up to a nearby roof, Eva looked around.
First, she needed to find them.
Chapter 022
Zoe’s chest heaved as she took a deep breath of the crisp air within Ylva’s domain. She turned to Wayne, letting all the air out in one long sigh.
She gave off a half-smile, full of nervousness and worry. “Are we really doing this?”
Wayne gave a short grunt. “I’ve done a lot of crazy things in my life. Jumping head first into Hell will be a new one.”
“You don’t have to come with me.”
Wayne frowned. He opened his mouth, ready to berate her for saying that. After a moment of silence, he shook his head. “I’ve had a long life. You should be the one staying here.”
A flicker of movement caught Wayne’s eye. Zoe was idly rubbing the dark band around her ring finger. Again. Just her thumb reached under her fingers to caress the ring.
“Eva and Genoa are already there–”
Idiots, Wayne thought.
“–and I can’t just leave them on their own. Shalise is on her own and shouldn’t be difficult to escape with.”
Wayne scoffed. “Minus the possibility of invisible enemies or the high likelihood of her being possessed.”
Zoe nodded. “I’ll be following Ylva’s advice and start with taking her to Eva’s domain.” The professor shook her head. “I still can’t believe… that despicable man.”
“He said it was willing,” Wayne said with a shrug.
“She was a child. She still is a child.”
“Still wasn’t complaining, last I heard. I imagine she would object if you intervened in her ‘treatments.'”
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Zoe shut her eyes. “You know, when I first learned about Eva’s involvement with demons, I assumed it was mostly Foster’s doing.”
Wayne did not miss her usage of the demonologist’s last name. Prior to their little briefing, Zoe had tended to use his first name.
“I figured that I could wean her away from diablery. Then I find out about her haemomancy and Arachne. Somehow she gets me reading books. I’m talking to demons on a daily basis. Living with them, even. Now we find out about this? And so off-handedly too. ‘Use Eva’s domain as a safe spot. Oh yeah,'” Zoe said, mimicking Foster’s more guttural voice, “‘did I mention she’s turning into a demon?”
Wayne stood still, trying to ignore the demon water seeping into his suit. He’d have to remember to burn it later. The liquid alone would ruin it, but that it was Hell water only made it that much worse.
As for Zoe…
He let out a sigh of his own. Situations like these were not his forte. One part of him wanted to place a hand on her shoulder and offer some consolatory words. What, exactly, those words were, he hadn’t the faintest clue.
But honesty was important. Words of comfort would end up being lies of one sort or another.
“She was a lost cause from the start,” Wayne said, trying to keep the ‘I told you so’ out of his voice. “Not something to beat yourself up over.”
Zoe laughed. The sound was mirthless and hollow. After a moment of silence, she spoke. “You know the worst part?”
Wayne shook his head.
“It is fascinating. It is fun.”
Quirking an eyebrow, Wayne prompted her to continue with a clipped grunt.
“Not right now, obviously,” she added quickly. “But when we get Shalise and Juliana home safe, and things calm down… I have so many notebooks filled up and so many more to fill up. Thaumaturgy feels so limited compared to the things I experience in my everyday life now-a-days.”
She pointedly glanced around the black ocean of water, sweeping an arm along with her gaze. “Would it be wrong to say that I am actually excited?”