image [https://i.postimg.cc/P55Lq2t5/ch-87-vol-3.jpg]

Finally, we made it into the castle. I remembered Yamin mentioned it was once a church before being turned into this evil fortress. It was hard to believe the transformation it's undergone. That demon lord must have had a lot of fun redecorating the place to look like Dracula's hideout.

“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! I’ll heal you up as fast as I can!” I cast a healing spell on Indena’s leg so it would heal from its injury.

“Thanks,” she said, cautiously taking a few steps to make sure it was better. “Anybody else…feel kinda...weird?” She started to wobble a little as she moved forward.

-Advisory! Large quantities of nitrous oxide detected in air-

Nitrous oxide…that’s laughing gas, right? Used to make people loopy during surgery.

“Uncle, laughing gas!”

“You sense it too. Good.” He turned up to the scaffolding, waving his hand like someone was up there. “We could use your assistance, if you don’t mind.”

Who was he talking to? When I looked up there, all I saw was a bunch of spooky bats and cobwebs. No, wait! There was that purple cat there too!

The cat leapt down from above and prowled her way toward Uncle. She had a suspicious little witch hat on her head.

“You are perceptive, Elder of the Little One,” The cat said!

Wait, the cat had a virtual name tag above her head. It was Mella! Why was she a cat right now?

“Ayo, I know that dumb voice!” Indena started sounding really loopy, like she was a little drunk. “What are you doin’ there, ay, ya’ stupid cat witch…”

Uncle caught Indena before she completely fell over. Her face was all red and she looked sleepy.

“The gas is already affecting her," Uncle commented.

Mella leapt up and sat across Indena's shoulders. Her fur started to glow and exude violet bubbles.

It seemed like Indena’s condition was instantly improving, so we sat her down on an old couch by the wall while Mella continued to use a recovery spell on her.

“Thanks for helping her out,” Uncle said.

“It seemed you were already aware of my capabilities,” Mella commented.

“Seeing as you are a poison witch, I assumed you’d be capable of dealing with noxious fumes and liquids.”

Mella chuckled. “You were right to place trust in me. I certainly can help her breath easier in this gas. But in this form, I am weaker than normal.”

That brings up a new question… Why did Mella look like a cat?

“Mella, why are you like that?” I asked.

“Oh? I’m a witch.” Her response didn’t really answer the question. “I have other forms, if this one is unpleasant for you.”

She suddenly turned into a spider, then into a bat, then into a viper. All the normally spooky looking animals. Samael hissed at her viper form.

Finally she returned back to her cat form.

“Why don’t you take on your human form?” I asked.

She stretched out her back, sticking her butt up in the air and returning to a laying pose across Indena’s shoulder

“No thank you.”

She looked kinda adorable like this. Would she be okay if I pet her a little?

Oh, she let me scratch behind her ears! So fluffy!

“I hate cats.” Indena grabbed a pillow and hit her with it. “They’ll eat you in your sleep.”

“Ouch,” Mella grunted. “Refrain from such violence.”

“No, stupid cat witch…”

It was hard to tell, but Indena was getting back to her normal self.

Now the next big issue was figuring out how to get to the demon lord. And if fantasy stories have taught me anything, he’d probably be in the highest part of the tallest tower.

Not that this castle was small, but its layout was incredibly simple. There was one set of stairs leading to higher and lower levels, making the way up pretty clear.

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We reached the top after a little while of going up. The tallest of the towers just had some sleeping bowalkers in the window. Nobody special.

*Kick!*

Indena kicked them off the tower, Sparta style.

From up here, you could see all the way around the town. Even with the fog that once confused us, things were extremely visible all the way to the streets.

A table was in the middle of this room, topped with what looked like a chess board and pieces on it. Most pieces looked like blocks, suspiciously similar to the placement of buildings in the town. Then there were little figurines and tokens scattered about.

The tokens had different faces carved in them. Crude depictions of the demons we'd seen on the streets.

The figurines were the more detailed objects. Simple, but accurate depictions of each of us were sitting at what I assumed was the plaza entrance before the castle. Only Uncle, Indena and myself were on display, the others were off to the side.

"This is a war table," Uncle said, digitally scanning over everything with his hand. "Our enemy has been coordinating attacks against us, rather effectively."

"Pfft…" Indena shrugged. "No way. We got into their castle. That means we're doing way better than them. We've totally been kicking ass."

"We came into this city with five people, and have been reduced to three very exhausted warriors and a cat witch. Not to mention our injured ace in the hole." Uncle gestured to me, likely referencing my wing damage. "That isn't even to mention how they've stalled us several times."

When he put it like that, the glass was half empty. We'd been struggling a lot, even though getting this far was a good thing.

Our skills were incredible compared to the average human, and we were at our best when fighting demons. It was inevitable that we'd get to the castle, and I'm sure that the demon lord knew that. But he'd given us the business all the while.

Like Uncle said, we'd had casualties and were tired. Even with Mella reinforcing us, if we had to go up against the full power of a demon lord, would we be able to manage? What powers would he use against us?

"This whole battle they've been buying time. I wouldn't be surprised if they were powering up an ace of their own," Uncle figured.

"So what?" Indena remarked. "It's not like we had any other choice."

"Exactly what they were planning." Uncle picked up the small figurine of Indena, which had little fire details at the base. "They've also been watching what we can do, all by throwing grunts at us."

Dang…this was bad. The demon lord was a lot smarter than we thought!

"Truly, you may have used many of your powers, but are all your options exhausted?" Mella questioned. "The Little One of Hyem is far more resourceful, combining abilities in creative ways. Don't understand the imagination of a child."

I had to think about what Mella was saying for a minute. I think I understood…

Mella was saying, at least I think, that I could combine different powers to make new things happen, like a while back when I enhanced my radio abilities with the electromagnetic decay of stardust.

Even though I'd used most of my bigger powers in some way, who says combining them wouldn't cause new effects?

"But Mella, we're all still really tired," I said.

Even getting up to the top of the castle was a pain with all the stairs.

"I have some stamina potions that can rejuvenate you a bit, but I only have three left with me."

Those would be very helpful. Uncle told her to hold onto them until we were in a real pinch.

In the interest of time that we probably didn’t have, our focus shifted onto locating the demon lord. Since he wasn’t at the top of the tower, that meant he was probably in the dungeons. And I bet Yamin was there too. So that meant it was back to the stairs. This place needed an elevator.

-☆☆☆-

The deeper down we went on these seemingly endless stairs, the more of that horrible black webbing appeared all over the walls, pulsing with red light at its center. It was disgusting, and it looked like it was really starting to get pretty dense.

“Should we be worried about this crap?” Indena said, avoiding a mass of it that was on one of the steps.

*FWOOSH!*

She tried to burn it, but it was impervious to her flames.

I shined some stardust light, and that seemed to reduce its size.

“For now, just avoid it,” Uncle told her.

“These awful things are filled with mana,” Mella told us. “But the mana is corrupted… Very wicked indeed.”

So these webs of plaque were like pipes, letting corrupted mana flow through them. Where was it all coming from, and where was it going?

-☆☆☆-

Finally we reached the castle dungeon, and it smelled really bad here. Like rotten eggs mixed with stinky gym clothes, only a hundred times worse. My olfactory sensors were not having a good time here.

This place was creepily lit up by the blood red glow of the plaque on the walls. If ever there was a time I felt like my life was a horror movie, this was it.

“Uncle…” I clung close to him. “I’m scared.”

He rubbed my hair for comfort.

“Why don't you light things up for us?”

Oh! Wait, I can do that!

-Eye spotlights active!-

“Let there be light!”

Bright lights shot out of my eyes, lighting things up a lot more. To also help with the spookiness, I let my hair glow with stardust energy.

A few corridors lead us to a big door. All that evil plaque was concentrating into the room beyond it.

Uncle parted the two halves of the door with all his might. Slowly they grinded against the dusty marble floors behind them.

A chamber was revealed with big stained glass windows, five to our left and right, and one big decorative one high up at the other end. The plaque webbing was all gathering into one big mass of darkness just under that central window, pulsing all the red mana energy into that one location.

Where an altar might once have been, now laid an open coffin, filled by a girl dressed in a beautiful black wedding dress. She laid still and steady, like her life had been cut short.

That woman was Yamin…but…she couldn’t be…

Were we too late to save her?

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