I walked a few steps behind the catgirl as she had instructed, following her lead.
She turned occasionally to glance at me with her golden eyes, her movements surprisingly graceful, almost like a dance.
Her skin had a delicate pink hue, her hair a dark red shade, and her fluffy tail was an even darker red with hints of violet. Apart from her head and tail, she didn't appear to be hairy, though most of her skin was covered. A deep cleavage was visible between her rather modest breasts. She wore gray boots matching the color of her fluffy trousers covering her backside, as well as a wide leather belt cinched around her very thin waist.
The corridor we traversed grew narrower, the rocks on both sides shifting to a darker gray. After about a hundred meters, she stopped abruptly and exclaimed, looking at me.
"So, you can talk!?"
It was more of a confirmation than a question. I raised a brow and met her golden gaze directly. I shrugged as if to say, "I still can..."
She appeared flustered, stumbling over her words.
"You're... um... you're my first truly sapient demon. I... I used to work with non-sapient ones... I changed the summoning spell as instructed by Grishaw, and... well..."
I tried to decipher her expression, as her face seemed quite expressive. Was she surprised that I was capable of understanding her?
"Do you understand me? Nod if you can."
I nodded in response.
"Do you have a name?" she inquired.
"You can call me Lores," I replied with some effort. It was my first time speaking her language. Although my words sounded more guttural compared to her melodic meows, she seemed to comprehend me. Was it common for demons to understand and speak foreign languages? It could be quite useful.
I debated whether it was wise to reveal my name, but I had already mentioned it to the red demon. My response seemed to startle her, and she stood there for a moment with her mouth slightly open. Then, she smiled and abruptly raised her hand.
"Meowra!" she announced, and I nearly burst into laughter upon hearing her name. It sounded like a cat meowing. She raised a brow at my reaction but didn't inquire further.
She placed her hand on my shoulder.
“This is how we greet people in my country when we meet... um... when we meet someone...”
How could those word sound so sweet and melodious when spoken by her? I mean, I did hear my voice speaking similar words before and... I couldn't help but notice the contrast.
She nodded toward her shoulder, indicating that I should reciprocate the gesture. Once I did it, she continued: “See, this way you can better sense if I have magic and what kind of magic it is. Can you feel it?”
I nodded. Contact with a caster indeed made it easier to feel their magic, but I had already sensed her magic with my horns. She had a small pool of magic, like a puddle of swirling dark water.
She remained silent for a few moments, then withdrew her hand hesitantly. She looked troubled now.
“Your magic feels pure, dark, and deep... Are you a caster? There seems to be a lot of potential... I... I... I could not see the limits.” - she took a deep breath and tried to smile - “Perhaps demons are different... OK, this is how we greet in my land...”
After a brief pause, she chuckled and continued as if ashamed of herself, “To be honest, I don't know of any other warlock who greets their demon, but I always thought that I would talk with my sapient demons.”
We stood there for a couple of seconds, and then she glanced sideways at me, raised an eyebrow, and asked with an amused expression.
“Excuse me, did I interrupt something?”
I blinked, staring dumbly into her eyes, not understanding her question.
“I mean earlier, when you were... hugging the other demon? I haven't seen demons showing affection before...”
I snorted, realizing what she meant.
“That idiot thought I smelled good. Do you think I smell good or bad?”
The notion that I 'smelled like death magic' haunted me. Judging by her shocked expression and backward step, I realized I might have asked the wrong question.
I shrugged.
“Was that a serious question?” she inquired, then nevertheless answered after taking a quick sniff, not moving closer, her delicate nose wrinkling comically for a moment – “I can smell sweat, blood, piss, and other bodily fluids from those dead ratmen... I wouldn't call that a good smell, but...”
I sighed, waving my hand dismissively.
“No, no, forget it... I thought I'd have to fight him for real,” I tried to explain.
She raised an eyebrow. “Because he said you smell good?”
I snorted. “No, because he was pestering me!”
“Oh!" she nodded, "he did fight my other demons, too. Grishaw and I had to keep an eye on them and separate them...”
She sighed, then changed the subject, pointing at my armor. “I noticed you're wearing that armor, which seems to be rather expensive. Aren't you afraid of losing it? If you die, you might lose it, or do you have a way to link it to you in such cases?”
I huffed. “Hey, I don't plan to die; that's why I put it on! Are you planning to have me killed?” I wondered.
Maybe my tone wasn't very friendly, as she took another step back and waved her hands in front of her.
“No, no, it's not that. Grishaw's demon didn't want to wear anything valuable because he might lose his possessions. He had a couple of armor items that he was allowed to collect, but he asked Grishaw to keep them for him. He only puts them on when the summon ends." she sighed, "We need to clean this area, just the two of us, and I want to send you to attack some ratmen patrols. I'll stay behind; you have to keep them from attacking me. Do you have a problem with that?”
"Are you planning to send me on a suicide mission or something?" I asked, voicing my concerns.
I considered ending the summon. The problem was that I wanted to end it successfully. Previously, I had regained some of my power after successfully ending a summon. Perhaps that was the key to getting rid of the debuff that was plaguing me. I had just learned how to avoid further summons, but if I wanted to regain my power, I would have to risk completing some. At least, that was my theory. The risk in this summon seemed manageable. Besides, I was still planning to end the summon if I felt too endangered.
"No," she answered, shaking her head, her red mane waving left and right. After a moment of silence, she continued, "We're in front of a larger ratmen base. Our job is to clear their patrols in the sector. These are small groups, mostly consisting of two ratmen, sometimes three. We should be able to handle them, but none of them should escape and alert the others. If that happens, our mission for today fails, and we need to retreat to at least the point where we are now. Is this okay with you? Do you need anything from me?"
Groups of two to three ratmen, just the two of us? I wasn't sure how much damage she could deal, but it should be doable, especially with me now wearing armor instead of fighting naked as before.
I sighed at the memory, but dwelling on it wouldn't change anything.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"If there are three or more, I'd prefer to fight with sword and shield. For one or two ratmen, I could use two daggers. Do you have anything I could use?" I questioned.
She offered me a selection from her inventory and let me choose what I needed.
She even had some chainmail armor, but it was a bit too large for me. I wondered where she got it from.
"Apologies for earlier," she said. "As I said, the demons I've summoned until now weren't very clever."
I nodded.
"Okay, let's do it!" she said with a wide grin. "Follow me. The path has been cleared and checked for traps up until close to the main cavern."
She turned and started walking further down the winding, labyrinthine corridor.
I followed. We entered a relatively small square room, and she pressed a lever to open the next door. Instead of the door in front of us opening, the huge stone door behind us slid closed, blocking our exit.
"Huh, why did that happen?" she asked, pushing the lever again, but the door didn't open, and the ceiling started to come down on us. All my alarm bells were ringing, and I desperately looked around, but it was too late. There must have been a false ceiling in between, as a lot of small debris fell. Above that, a huge flat stone, as large as the largest monoliths on Earth, filled with metal spikes about half a meter long and a couple of centimeters wide, came crashing down on us.
Instinctively, I said my <
I managed to place my pickax to stand, attempting to slow down the falling slab, but the handle broke like a toothpick.
At least five spikes penetrated my back, and a couple partially skewered my legs. The slab stopped just before completely crushing us, the dark rods deeply embedded in the ground.
Was it by accident or by design that it stopped? I don't know.
In front of my eyes, in the light of the fallen torch, was one of the most claustrophobic scenes I'd ever witnessed: lines of black rods in a narrow space, floating, swirling dust among falling debris, a giant slab of gray stone inches above my head, the flat, brown ground beneath me, and me, pinned down, yelling in pain and unable to move.
My yelling was tempered by the blood invading my mouth.
Dungeons! You never walk like this in dungeons. I stupidly followed the catgirl like a three-year-old behind her nanny despite having much more experience with dungeons. Of course, I should have smelled a trap, but no, I walked confused and trusting, like a newborn idiot demon.
Surprisingly, the catgirl was still alive. I heard her irregular breathing between hauntingly meowed sounds. Due to the dust, I couldn't see clearly and felt the need to cough, which only intensified the excruciating pain in my lungs.
It was difficult to think, and for a moment, I wondered why the game didn't end. Then I realized I wasn't playing. I was dying. Would I respawn in the death node now? Or not... I hadn't thought I'd be testing this respawn theory so fast...
As seconds dragged on and I was still not dead, my brain finally decided to chime in with some wit: 'Why not just interrupt this bloody summon and get it over with?'
It took me some time to focus on the mana vision. Gradually, I began to see the mana around me, but as I concentrated on it, a question arose in my mind: what would I do once I returned to Earth? I'd 'land' there with all my current injuries, and with a sudden realization, I remembered that there was no phone connectivity at the cabin. How could I get help? Would I survive if I returned to Earth?
Cala must have left some sort of cold-bloodedness in my spirit, allowing me to analyze this messy situation like a champ: too many damn supplemental holes in my body, survival chances? Null.
If I broke the summon and returned to Earth, I'd bleed out and die within minutes in Hew's cabin. How could I stop the bleeding? True, I was slowly bleeding out, but the iron bars still inside my body, as painful as they were, did slow the bleeding. Once the rods were removed, I'd lose blood like a fountain.
Even if, through some miracle, I managed to call an ambulance, how long would they take to arrive in the woods, and would they even find Hew's cabin? Even if he were there, what could Hew do?
No, ending the summon would mean dying even faster.
My thoughts ran wild as I imagined the boys finding my dead body and the mess it would create. I almost laughed at their future predicament.
I tried to shake off these useless thoughts and focus on what to do. Die quickly or die slowly? I was still seeing the mana connection and could see the mana surrounding everything, including the catgirl, myself, the spikes, and the entire room. The pain was somehow reduced in this mana-filled state.
If I didn't break the link, I'd live for a couple of minutes longer. But then what? Any second was another one lost from my life.
Did I still have minutes or only seconds? I thought that I'd see my whole life in front of my eyes when I'd die, but all I saw was mana strands warping around me, forming runes... Forming runes... if I only could transcend in that shadowmeld status as the red demon did...
I heard the heartbeats in my ears, as if counting my last seconds of life.
The shadowmeld runes! I knew the spell. I mean, White Flower knew the spell! She did not really knew shadowmeld as such, but it was this status that she reached before taking possession of others. That's why the runes did look familiar to me. That's why I thought I understood the spell. Because she knew it!
And as the drumbeat of my heart in my ears grew only louder, I saw the 'runes' already around me, even before I decided to do it. Exactly as I've seen them around the red demon. Exactly as I knew them from White Flower's spell to start possession. And suddenly, there was no pressure on me anymore. Suddenly, I could move. And suddenly, there was silence; there were no more heartbeats.
I was still badly wounded and would still bleed out once I took material form, but for the moment, I felt free. I was free. I could stay like that as long as I had mana, and the bleeding was suspended, but once I'd got out of mana I would again materialize here between these iron rods and die, unless I got out of there.
Another pained meow reminded me of the catgirl. Could I do something for her? I approached her and saw her body brutally pinned by those iron spikes. She was losing much blood and was barely conscious. Could I free her, too?
I hesitated. I was eager to escape from that place as quickly as possible! Every moment spent in the narrow gap between the giant slab and the ground was fraying my nerves. I yearned to be free from the confines of that space! What if I lost control of my spell? What if the slab came further down? A mere couple of centimeters more, and the space would be too narrow for my physical form. It took a tremendous mental effort to remain composed and focus on devising a plan to save her.
Wouldn't I try to save her even without the contract, if she wouldn't be my summoner?
I hope I still would, but what options did I have? Could I use the same spell for her?
I attempted to visualize the same runes surrounding her body, envisioning them entering and enveloping her, but to my horror, parts of me began to materialize. Shit! Was it too much for me? Was it a problem with the spell, or was it due to my limited knowledge?
It didn't work, and after a few attempts, in which I did further hurt me, I had to give up.
Damn, what was I supposed to do?
"Wait a minute," I said to myself, "if she dies, the summon ends, and then I'll need to find a way to survive on Earth. But before that happens, maybe I could figure out a way to get her out of there and save us both. She must have some healing potions with her. There should be a reset mechanism for that damn trap!"
Navigating as some kind of cloud felt strange. All I could perceive was through my mana vision. Initially, I moved slowly, but I gradually improved. However, I could only go where my mana was present, and I soon discovered that I couldn't pass through solid objects. I reached the door, able to see the other side as my mana was there, but a part of me couldn't pass through.
I had a moment of panic, stuck there in front of the door, until I noticed a small crack between the door and the wall above. I wondered if I could squeeze myself through such a tiny gap. Surprisingly, it worked. It wasn't fast, but I managed to slowly wind myself through the crack. Being a cloud of vapors was an eerie experience!
As I was still transferring through the crack, below me, behind the door, I saw two wieselmen talking to each other. One of them seemed to sense something, as I watched his head swivel back and forth. Perhaps he had detected my mana, but he didn't look up.
"Shouldn't we raise the slab now? They must be already dead," one of them said.
That sent a shiver down my spine. This wasn't just a dungeon accident?
The other wieselman, the one who had sensed something, shook his head.
"We wait until Irowics comes. You never know with these warlocks and demons."
"Do you think he might have problems?"
"No. He just needs to hit Grishaw with an arrow through the head. He's a master archer, he'll manage, then Grishaw's demon is gone too."
"But what if he misses? I hate these warlocks!"
"One explosive arrow through the head and it's done, warlock or not. He won't miss. Just think of the spoils we'll get—Grishaw's robe and Meowra's amulet are worth gold. And have you seen the armor that demon has? Plus, we'll get a prize from the Church of Light for getting rid of two demon-summoning warlocks!"
Suddenly, I became much more aware of my vulnerable state in this gaseous form. I moved slowly along the shadows to position myself behind them, afraid they'd look up and see me. Could they see me in this state? I was not sure, but if I had been able to follow up the demon's movement, they might also be able to see something. Damn! Should I try to run away and forget about the catgirl? And then what? In any case, I needed to act fast—my mana was slowly depleting.
I decided to take action and materialized behind the two.