The idea of that catgirl being dragged over the stones and then burned alive haunted me. I just couldn't process that image in my brain; all I got, again and again, was 'error'.

Damn it, I am a cat person! I like cats. I must have spent at least a year of my life looking at cat videos. If I saw somebody harming a cat, I would take it personally.

I took a deep breath. I could try to approach the citadel using my shadowmeld, but would it work? And once inside, then what?

"I can try to get there. I don't know if it would work, but if it does, I have no idea how to get her out," I said.

A small spark lit up his eyes for a moment.

"You think you could? Really? I... I must think of something! Wait! If... If nothing works, I... I have a ring that could make her not feel pain! Could you give it to her? It can dull almost any pain for some time, and it could help her..."

He didn't finish the sentence. Was he already giving up before trying anything?

"Yeah, I can," I replied, a little disappointed. I didn't want to think about a situation where I couldn't do anything to save her.

I reached for the ring, but he kept a tight grip on it. Our eyes met, his filled with tears.

"Tell her to activate it only when they start dragging her down the hill! She shouldn't worry; the ring is invisible to anyone else. Promise me you'll give it to her!" he insisted.

"If I find her, I'll give it to her. Otherwise, I'll return it to you if you don't dismiss the summon before," I replied.

He nodded. "OK, that makes sense!"

I took the ring.

"How close to the citadel do I have to go?" he wondered. "I heard that ordinary demons can't go far from the summoner."

I shrugged. Ordinary demons need a constant stream of mana. That's one limiting factor for summons. The mana link can't be stretched too thin, or it won't feed the demon anymore. I don't need that kind of support; I have my own mana sources. But I still have a thin mana connection to my summoner because of how summons work.

"I'm no ordinary demon. Stay here for the time being; I guess that shouldn't be a problem," I said.

He nodded. "I think I'm starting to understand that, and I understand Meowra, but one thing you should note: you are not allowed to kill anybody!"

I raised a brow. "Are you sure? That would restrict what I can do! Not even to protect Meowra?"

"You should find other ways. A demon shouldn't be allowed to kill on their own!"

I sighed, shaking my head. "You're only making it more difficult, but okay, now turn your back to me!"

I turned my back to him and started to undo my blouse. I heard his voice full of panic.

"What are you doing? Don't try your charms on me, you cannot corrupt me, I'm a paladin! I still won't allow you to kill them! You shouldn't be able to do this?"

It was almost funny to hear his panic. I chuckled.

"I told you to turn your back to me! I don't want to lose my clothes; I have only a limited wardrobe!"

He finally complied.

"So, what's your name, handsome?" I asked, adding 'handsome' spontaneously for effect. Maybe just to play the role they were expecting me to play. Anything to distract my mind from the image of a catgirl being dragged toward a pyre.

"Mehorg, why?"

"To tell your sister, silly..." The last words were a breeze in the wind, as if spoken by the wind itself, as I transformed into a shadow.

I can talk even when I'm a shadow!? That's so cool!

We concluded just in time, as a small procession approached him.

"Where is the demon?" someone from the group asked, even before reaching him.

I recognized the priest, but he was now accompanied by two others who looked older and some four or five persons in dark robes, identifying as acolytes.

Cool, I can use identify when I am a shadow!

The group stopped in front of Mehorg.

He was silently crying but raised his eyes to look at the priest. “I don't know,” he answered with a shrug.

"I can smell her, the decay and the foul magic!" one of the other priests said, but he was looking in the wrong direction, so I didn't get too alarmed.

"What did you think, to desecrate this altar?" the other priest shouted.

I saw Father Dorhog wincing under the accusation, but Mehorg ignored him, just shrugging and looking toward the citadel.

I think that was a wise way to react on Mehorg's side, as he was thus avoiding giving any information and giving me free rein for my actions.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Obviously, their mana manipulation skill was not high enough to see the thin tether of mana binding me to him. A thin connection with no flow of mana, maybe that's why they could not see it.

They started to shout at him and admonish him, but he was too depressed to even answer.

I ignored the hubbub, turned toward the hill, and started moving toward the citadel. Interestingly enough, it seemed that in darkness my shadowmeld form could move much faster. Maybe it was a function of being a shadow, or maybe it was just a feeling, but in less than two minutes I was already up on the hill and inspecting the rooms one by one.

The first result of my investigation was that some dogs started barking like mad.

I always had a bit of a 'dog-barking problem' on Earth. There was this one dog on the street near our house that made a hobby of scaring me whenever I passed by its garden. I mean, there I was, coming back from school or whatever, lost in my thoughts, dreaming of some movie star or something, and bam! Or rather, bark! The damn dog would jump against the metal door, barking like crazy.

Every time, it nearly scared the piss out of me, and then it would smugly wag its tail.

I swear, each time, I planned to buy a bigger horn just to bark back.

Oh well, besides being a cat person, I generally like all animals, including dogs, but I hate those barking dogs that keep annoying me.

Anyway, I inspected the area, but there didn't seem to be anything special there. I guess it was just the dog kennel area, but gosh, did they make a noise!

In the end, I remembered what Mehorg had told me: something about her being held in the black tower. I looked around and indeed, there was a tower on the side of the citadel constructed with darker, almost black stones.

The ground floor of the tower seemed to be dedicated to troops, so I avoided that and went directly to the next level.

Outside, torches provided the light, but inside the tower, it was illuminated by so-called pseudo-mana crystals. That was an unusual choice for illumination. While not really cheap, they could be harvested in dungeons and provided a decent, pleasant light. However, the problem was that exposing them to natural light rendered them useless. In direct sunlight, a couple of minutes were enough to practically burn such a crystal, while in shadow, depending on how much light they got, they survived for minutes or even hours. This is why they needed to be covered and kept in complete darkness sometime before sunrise and taken out only after sunset when it was dark again.

As I entered the first floor, a shiver ran down my ethereal spine. Along the stone walls were cells separated by iron bars where, sometimes bound to the walls with chains, sometimes free within those confines, dwelt half-naked, mostly humans, but also various beastmen. All were low-level, about, or under level ten. Their hungry, sunken eyes mostly stared into space, and now and then, a tortured moan echoed through the air.

The air stung with the strong smell of feces, sweat, urine, and blood, with some decaying food remnants mixed in. Yes, some food remains had been thrown into a couple of the cells where people were bound to the walls and left there to rot.

After exploring all the higher levels of this grim tower, I had to return to the entry, disappointed at not finding her. Just as I was thinking of flying back to check with the beastman, I realized that I hadn't searched the underground levels. I returned to the tower.

The ground floor was occupied by troops, a group of about twenty ruffians, some sleeping in a room with double-stacked beds, some playing cards or dice in a larger room that probably doubled as a dining room, full of long wooden tables and benches.

I had to carefully explore the area to avoid detection, but soon I found that my fears were unfounded. Those with the highest level among them were around level twenty, and there was only one caster in the group, a fire mage at level sixteen.

Soon, I discovered the stairs leading to the basement, and my impression of their level of civilization sank even lower. The cells here were in an even worse state than above. There were torture rooms, some with people tied to devices. I thought about freeing them, but then I decided to check for the catgirl first.

As I descended to an even lower floor, I suddenly had to materialize. Luckily, there were no guards around to see me, just one crazy guy in a cell. He grinned at me, making strange sounds.

He was trembling violently, and I noticed with horror that he had additional holes in his collarbones, through which thin wires had been threaded, tying him and his hands to the iron bars of the cell.

He was a zombie! Well, many here looked like zombies, but he identified as one. Who in their right mind would keep a zombie in their basement?

Looking around, and using identify, I saw that he wasn't the only one. A couple of other detainees were zombies. What was going on here?

I tried to shadowmeld again but was forced to materialize once more, and the zombie made some noise, almost like he was laughing at me. Snorting in annoyance, I looked at him, and then I noticed he was pointing towards the opposite wall. He had contorted his hand in an impossible way to indicate some runes on the wall.

I took a knife from my inventory and scratched those runes, breaking their mana flow. After that, I tried to shadowmeld again, and it worked.

Zombie or not, he had given me the right tip! I materialized back, went to the zombie, and cut his bindings. He nodded feverishly, tried to sit, but fell on his butt, still nodding happily. A clever zombie! I took my chance with him, asking him, "Meowra?"

He nodded again feverishly, pointing down. Did he understand me? It looked like he did.

I thanked him, shadowmelded again, and left, only to be stopped by another rune about ten meters further. About twenty-five runes later, I was several floors lower, still not having found her, but encountering more and more zombies.

A couple of guards passed by me. They were moving nervously, but that was no wonder; the whole level was bathed in some kind of alien magic. Death magic, but of a different kind, not demonic magic. I encountered some other runes that I removed just to be sure and arrived in front of a heavy stone door.

Damn, this kind of security was starting to make me nervous. I was still lucky that they hadn't yet seen the broken runes, but this may only be a matter of time.

Just as I was studying the heavy door, I vaguely heard an alarm ringing. Horns started blowing and bells rang. It sounded far away, and I wasn't sure what I heard, but maybe they had found the chipped runes.

I sighed and looked back at the heavy door, which was protected with another set of runes. What should I do? Should I stop and wait to see what this was about or try to explore further?

If they really found the broken runes, I might soon be in trouble, but this seemed like the end floor and I had a feeling I was getting close to getting my answers.

I hesitated for a couple of seconds then decided to still try to get through. I attempted to remove the runes, but they weren't so easy to break with a knife. Not even with an axe.

I decided to go all in and took out of my inventory the circular saw that I had used to cut my horns. Infusing it with my mana, the industrial diamond saw cut through the runes like butter, but it made a terrible noise, sending sparks all over the place.

Well, that didn't go unnoticed. As I heard footsteps running in my direction, I quickly stowed my tools in my inventory and shadowmelded.

If I could only place the catgirl in my inventory, I might be able to take her out. The problem was that I would probably kill her to save her, but maybe if I did that for only one minute, it could work?

Just as I was about to enter, the doors exploded outwards and somebody appeared in the doorframe. At first, I thought it was her, as the person in front of me had hair of similar length and color, but the rest differed: It was a lich.

The lich looked straight at my shadowmelded form and nodded, “Thank you, friend! Free at last!” he exclaimed and teleported away the next moment.