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“Do you see those mountains?” Ashani cried from beside Vir. “How high their peaks soar! And those beasts! What are those called? Look, Vir! Curious. What they—oh! They seem to be mating! Let us take a look.”
Vir rolled his eyes. Ashani had been commenting nonstop since they left Mahādi. While he’d initially wondered whether she could keep up with his full power Leaps, he needn’t have worried. While he’d never had a chance to test the limit of her speed in Mahādi—the city’s buildings prevented rapid travel—Ashani proved more than capable of matching, and even outstripping, his pace.
Moreover, with the obscene amount of prana filling her core, she could maintain that pace for years. Even Vir needed sleep at some point, to say nothing of replenishing his prana from the surroundings.
“Just for a moment, but we really ought to get back. The time flow here isn’t nearly as pronounced in Mahādi, and my tournament is coming up.”
“I promise I’ll only be a minute. These are new beasts, Vir! They don’t exist in Mahādi. It must be done. For science.”
Vir raised a brow. “Science?”
“It’s… Hmm. I think you have something similar? Thaumaturgy, I believe?”
“Ah.”
Ashani bounded away at a pace that honestly frightened Vir. Never in a million years would he want to fight any demon who could move half as fast as her, even given her relative lack of offensive armament.
While Vir might never hope to match the goddess’ speed, he took solace in the fact that Ashani was, in fact, a cutting-edge creation of a race that may as well have been gods, even ignoring superstition. He also took solace in the fact that he was the only living being in the world capable of refilling her cores.
Unfortunately, Ashani’s enthusiasm terrified the mating beasts, who took off the moment the goddess arrived.
She returned with a pout.
“Maybe be a little more stealthy next time?” Vir said with a wry smile. For all her immense intellect and vast capability, when it came to experiencing new things, she possessed the spirit of a child.
“I miscalculated. I shall remember that.”
Ashani’s ooh’s and aah’s grew less and less frequent as they neared Thaman’s Ash Gate, and her wide eyes became narrower and narrower.
Is she already bored with the Ash? Vir wondered. If so, he worried the Demon Realm wouldn’t hold her interest for long at all. Compared to the Imperium, what was even the great colosseum of the Bairans?
Vir glanced at the goddess, who frowned with concern. She wasn’t the only one with concerns, though Vir’s were of a different sort.
“Say, Ashani,” he began. “I don’t really know how to say this, but… You don’t really look like anyone in the realm we’re about to enter. Your platinum hair, for sure. And your blue eyes. And fair skin. Your… incredibly perfect features might be an issue as well.”
The more Vir thought about it, the more hopeless the situation became. To return quickly to Camar Gadin, Vir would have to use Thaman’s large Gate. A Gate which, due to its importance to Clan Baira’s national security, had guards posted round the clock. There would be no hiding Ashani from them.
Had this been the Human Realm, Vir might at least have passed her off as a shockingly gorgeous woman, but in the Demon Realm? Her appearance alone might cause people to prostrate before her, which was something Vir got the distinct impression she wished to avoid.
“Hmm? The Demon Realm?” Ashani said. “Ah, yes. You had once mentioned it was populated with beings who resembled yourself.”
“I wouldn’t say that, exactly. I’m somewhat of a rare type, being a gray-skinned demon. The most common ones have red skin. Red eyes, and black hair, like me, but there are giants, monkey people, and ghaels, too. They look like—!?”
Vir’s body jolted, and thanks to years of training, he Blinked back before his mind had formed a coherent thought.
“A-Ashani!?” he squeaked, half out of embarrassment for having reacted as he did, and half at the goddess’ transformation.
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Ashani had a red-skinned hand over her mouth, and was quietly giggling at Vir’s antics.
“Is it really so shocking?” she asked.
“Um, yes. Very,” Vir replied, walking back to her side. He circled around her, inspecting her from every angle. “It’s not just your hands and face, is it? You’ve changed your whole body’s skin color.”
“But of course! It wouldn’t be much of a disguise, otherwise, would it?”
“Right,” Vir said, chuckling wryly.
Sorry Riyan, but a goddess just casually claimed all of your vast skills in subterfuge amounted to ‘not much’.
Her skin, from head to toe, had turned demonic red. Her eyes were red, and her previously white hair was now jet-black. She’d even altered her one-piece dress to become black armor, and instead of slippers, she wore metal boots. In her hands was a helmet, which she donned.
She looked every bit like a demonic warrior woman. The only thing that hadn’t changed was her white lightning rod, but Vir doubted anyone would question that too much, what with the variety of exotic weapons that were so common among demons.
“I’m speechless, honestly,” Vir admitted. “Do you know how many times I would’ve killed to have a disguise like this? To do in a moment what takes me hours… And for the result to be so incomparably better… This is cheating.”
“Why, thank you,” Ashani replied with a curtsy, which she somehow pulled off, even in heavy plate armor.
Vir rolled his eyes. “Just… Is there anything you can do about your face?”
Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “Are you implying that I’m not pretty? Because in my society, that is quite a rude thing to say to a woman, you know?”
“No, actually,” Vir said, scratching his nose and averting his eyes. “The problem is you’re too pretty. Drop-dead gorgeous, actually. You’ll have no end of suitors. Is there any way to make yourself, um… less attractive?”
Ashani gave Vir a deadpan look, her hands on her hips. “I’m afraid not,” was her perfectly even-toned reply.
“Right, then,” Vir said, quickly realizing this was one matter he’d be better off not pursuing. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Vir wondered when he’d become so scared of that voice. It was a recent thing. After he’d grown intimate with Maiya.
He shuddered. Angry Maiya was a terrifying thing.
It wasn’t until they actually arrived at the enormous Gate that Vir understood how wrong he was about Ashani’s reticence.
Ashani wasn’t bored. She was anxious. Here was a being who could put down most living beings on her own. Who possessed the knowledge of long-dead gods. And who fretted over taking a single step across a stable Ash Gate.
“The Ashen Realm is one thing,” she muttered, barely more than a whisper. “For millennia, I have spied upon it. Its lands, while I had never set foot in it until today, were at least somewhat known to me. This…” She gazed deeply into the portal, regarding the deeply crimson land on the other side as if it were poison. “This is neither the world I once knew, nor the one I have come to know. It is new.”
Vir stepped across the barrier and, with a comforting smile, extended his hand back to Ashani. “I’ll be here every step of the way. This, I promise you. I am not abandoning you ever again.”
As if in support, Shan circled Ashani, then jumped through the Gate and looked back. He was soon joined by his pack of wolf friends, who spread out on the other side, as if establishing a perimeter.
Once satisfied, they howled back at Ashani, telling her all was safe.
“I know,” she whispered, slowly extending her hand. “I know this. It just feels a little unreal, if you know what I mean.”
Vir smiled warmly. “As unreal as stumbling into a City made by gods? As unreal as,” he lowered his voice, “as meeting a living, breathing goddess?”
“Well, I don’t really breathe.”
Vir rolled his eyes, hand still extended. “Come along, Ashani. I have so much to show you.”
Ashani took a deep breath, then clasped Vir’s hand and stepped through.
For the first time in her life of four thousand years, a being from the Age of Gods had stepped foot in the world that came after.
----------------------------------------
They are definitely not ready for her, Vir thought, groaning inwardly.
He’d thought her incredible disguise would be sufficient. Sure, returning from the Ash with a woman in tow would cause some rumors, but there were already so many around him. What was one more?
He’d just never expected the first Bairan to lay eyes on her to propose to her…
“Clan Baira, nay—my progeny—will benefit immensely when their mother is such an esteemed Warrior. Please, fair maiden, take my hand in marriage!”
The Bairan—who ought to have been guarding the Ash Gate, not making proposals—was on one knee, and Vir felt the man would have prostrated if Ashani asked him to.
As it was, the goddess stood stock still, though whether she was surprised at his proposal or his size, Vir couldn’t be sure.
“Ah, come on,” another Bairan guard said, smashing his oversized poleax into the ground. “At least be honest. Warrior, yes, but have you sorry lads ever laid eyes on such a beauty?”
This one appeared to be the leader, and thankfully, he stopped short of making a proposal, though the same couldn’t be said for another two or three guards who joined the first.
Vir met Ashani’s eyes with an ‘I told you so’ look. She glanced away, blushing.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Vir said. “Lady Ashani isn’t accepting suitors at the moment, so if you’ll let us be, we’ll be on our way.”
The kneeling demon threw Vir a look of pure wrath, and Vir knew what would come next. He’d see Vir as a threat and might even challenge him to a duel.
“How dare you—”
“Sorry, but I have no time for this.” Vir scooped Ashani up in his arms, flowing prana through his body when he remembered just how heavy the Automaton was, and Blinked away.
“Won’t that cause problems for you?” Ashani asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Let them talk,” Vir replied. “I have more important things to do right now than to appease random demons who propose to strangers on first sight.”
“Oho? Such as?”
Vir grinned. “Such as beating the pulp out of a monkey.”
When he’d entered the Ash, Vir had fretted over his upcoming match. Now? Now, he tired of hiding his potential in the hopes of making his opponents lower their guard.
Good thing he no longer had to. Should he defeat Annas, his next opponent was Cirayus.
It was time to let loose. It was time to utterly destroy this kothi.
How could he put forth anything less in front of a goddess?