Jaid and Kada stared at the ramshackle prison walls. They didn’t delay any longer after a brief trip back to the hotel to change since Jaid hadn’t wanted to eat in full armor. It was something she was used to, but it still drew a lot of unwanted attention. And with everything that had just happened, her name being broadcasted to everyone’s minds, she wanted to be as unrecognizable as possible.
The Paladin also wasn’t sure what action the Central Peace would take regarding her departure—whether they’d keep it all under wraps or put her on blast for her acts of treason. Would they tell everyone that it was her that broke the Greaters out of prison? Perhaps not since that would be admitting to the world that it was an act worthy of ascension. She didn’t know if any of it had even been mentioned in the news yet, and she was a bit too afraid to look.
But dealing with the aftermath could come later, since she wasn’t done making good on her debts just yet. Directly attacking Humanity would just add to her list of crimes that the government would want her to atone for. But hopefully one day, history would remember it was a noble act instead of damning it as racial violence. That and the request she’d made to the Fiends For Hire. She had to hold onto the hope that betting on the Drazahs helped put her on the right side of things.
For now, she had to accept that she’d be labeled as a criminal along with the others—something she’d been desperately trying to avoid since becoming a Fiend. But it seemed it was their fate all along, so she’d need to give up trying to resist, embrace the actions necessary to achieve her goals.
“Okay, I’ll start there,” the knight pointed towards one of the watch towers where a sniper was scanning the area—half-hearted and bored. Jaid focused on what it felt like when her now-departed clone had jumped out of her. She imagined a new clone appearing up in that watchtower, and then it happened.
A clone suddenly popped up behind the sniper. After a slight pause to process that it had actually worked, the clone cut down the foe in front of them. Both Jaid’s then needed to take another second to breathe and adjust to the reality. While the original couldn’t see out of the clone's eyes, she was still relayed the knowledge the clone obtained: where things were, counts of soldiers, a better layout of the building from a bird’s eye view.
She’d always had an extended range of vision and boosted senses with her attached clones, but this was on an entirely different level—a completely separate range of consciousness streaming into her own. It was kind of like synchronizing with Tize, but less invasive.
Jaid recalled the clone and sent another to the next watch tower. But this time, after the dirty deed had been done, she didn’t unsummon the clone, but rather herself. Jaid’s main consciousness transferred over to the clone up in the tower. It wasn’t too far-fetched of a concept based on what she could already do, but it still left her astonished. The woman had essentially achieved short-range teleportation.
She tried once more, looking at the prison wall, but found herself unable to spawn a clone on the other side. It seemed her power was limited to what she could see, and that was probably for the best. Who knew what she’d be jumping into on the other side, and she still couldn’t put any clones at risk. There was a window she could partially see through, and briefly thought about trying to spawn a clone past it, but decided it’d be best to wait for a safer environment.
For now, Jaid spawned a clone in each remaining watch tower, taking out their guards one by one. Each new clone was able to make more clones based on their line of sight, but with each new one, she felt a bit woozier from all the different perspectives. But the small number was an amount the knight could handle. So she then made a network of observation, clearly able to see the entire prison, or the exterior at least. Once she was finished scouting, she returned to Kada, removing all trace of her presence behind her.
“Okay, that is pretty cool,” Kada had to admit. “Another power for the wish-I-had list, which is basically all of them. We need to make a machine that lets us swap Curses for a day or something. Wouldn’t that be fun?! But I wouldn’t do that whole teleporting thing in front of Phon for a while. She gets annoyed when people copy her unique traits.”
“But anyways, any sign of Dura?”
“Not that I could see, no,” Jaid reported. “Just Humanity soldiers walking around the outside. I doubt we’ll learn much until we’re in the building itself.”
“Ooo, should I just melt the whole building then?!” The Mermaid suggested, excited by the prospect. “Spotting him should be real easy if there’s no walls!”
“While I appreciate the enthusiasm, I’d rather not reveal ourselves just yet,” the knight shot down the idea. “At least not until we know Dura is safe. You’ve been asleep, so you don’t know much about Humanity. But they really and truly hate Fiends, to the point that they see them as subhuman animals. I wouldn’t put it past them to execute Dura on the spot if they saw us, even in lieu of saving themselves. So we need to guarantee his safety first.”
“Alright, I get it,” Kada calmed herself down. “But uehhhhhh, stealth isn’t really my thing. If we gotta, though, we gotta. How long can you hold your breath?”
◆◆◆
Jaid and Kada’s faces protruded slightly out of the partially melted ceiling of the mental asylum. The ladies stared down at the barren hallway with no signs of life, though they had to hold back their gasps when a guard suddenly passed by right beneath them. They repeated this a few more times as they scoured around the hospital. Fortunately, moving around in the ductwork was barely an inconvenience thanks to Kada just melting right through any obstacles.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
And eventually, they found where the prisoners were kept: a single hallway of padded rooms. Only a handful of cells actually had occupants, but the fact that there was more than just Dura made it that much more complicated. “If it was just the two of you, I could drag you both underwater and swim out. But that’s too many for me,” Kada explained. “And if they find out Dura’s escaped, they might do some bad stuff to the others like you said earlier.”
“Yes, we need to save them all,” Jaid agreed. They poked their faces into each cell before alerting any of them, not wanting to cause a ruckus until they had all the information they’d need. And in the last cell, in far worse condition than all the others, they found Dura.
Jaid’s heart melted. She had never seen him like this. He was bound and crumpled, restrained in Fiend-draining cuffs that Humanity had hooked up to a generator. His clothes hadn’t been changed, and he’d clearly never been washed since his incarceration. There was uneaten food in front of him, and a stinking waste bucket in the corner.
The man looked so devoid of life, just like Drim who she’d seen in a similar state only the night before. It was more than she could take. But she had to have some hope. If anyone could suffer through this hell, it was Dura. His past life as a monk had seen him through similar hardships and taught him extreme patience. So she just needed to believe that he’d be fine on the other side.
“Dura!” Jaid loudly whispered after Kada slipped them through the ceiling. There was no response, causing the knight to panic for just a second. She pushed back The Monk’s forehead and checked his breathing. It was faint, but steady and rhythmic. That was when she realized that he wasn’t sleeping, but meditating.
The Paladin tried snapping in front of his eyes, shaking him a bit, but nothing worked to snap him out of it. “Allow me,” Kada insisted. She melted the floor beneath the man and he sunk into it, up to his waist. That jolted him back to consciousness real quick, flailing as if he was drowning.
“Oh, Captain! It’s you, good to see you!” Dura went for a hug, moving his arms forward, forgetting that he was chained up. “Don’t tell me you’ve been imprisoned too! Oh no, are we sharing a cell? Guess it’s best to keep all the Fiends in one place, but it will be cramped with the three of us. Nice to have roomies again, though. This will be my corner, and Captain can have that one, and—”
Jaid cut off his rambling, delighted to see him as his old crazy self. She jumped in for a proper hug. “It’s good to see you, Dura. I’m no longer your Captain, but I am here to save you.”
“Ah, that is better,” Dura got a bit more excited. “While I am happy to share my space, and feel I can share anything with my friends, I did not want to share my defecation experience. Sometimes boundaries are a good thing. I know, I know, much irony from me.”
“I’m kinda surprised they didn’t tape up his mouth kinda like what they did with Drim,” Kada pointed out the glaring inconsistency. “Feels like that was the first thing they’d do.”
“No, I had nothing to say to them,” Dura’s mouth wrinkled in annoyance at the mere mention of Humanity. “They are bad listeners. Their heads are already filled with too many walls and someone else’s thoughts. No matter what you say, nothing will get through, unless it’s something they already want to hear.”
“A pretty good summation,” Jaid was impressed by The Monk’s wise words. It was something he was blessed with on occasion, but most of the time it was still just drivel.
“Well let me get these things off of you, and then we’ll get the others and get out of here,” Kada went over to the cuffs. She was careful not to touch them directly, afraid of having her own strength drained. So instead, The Mermaid melted part of the floor again and then used that liquid to melt away the metal.
Kada then poked her head outside the room again, checking that it was all clear before melting away the barred door. Once the three were outside, Jaid stood guard as Kada freed the remaining prisoners, and Dura worked on getting his strength and mojo back. He also went ahead and topped up the durability on Jaid’s armor and clothes, since they had been depleted long ago.
Because the rest of the prisoner’s were Lessers, however, they didn’t even have the strength to stand—malnourished with their energy constantly sapped. Jaid made a clone for each of them, lifting them up and draping their arms around her shoulders. Having so many active, free-standing clones at once was a bit draining, but she could manage it.
“Alright, I’ll take it from here!” Kada stood tall and proud. “We won’t just bust out the walls because there’s definitely guard’s waiting, but you guys just escort them to the front exit. I’ll take care of everything. Keep moving forward no matter what you see. I promise not to destroy the building with you all still in it.” The Mermaid sank into the floor and vanished entirely.
Jaid did as instructed, dragging the prisoners towards the front entrance. She had a good idea where that would be thanks to her earlier scouting, but even without that, there were rather faded, but still useful, lines directing her etched on the floor. It wasn’t long before they reached the first obstacle: the very next room.
Guards leapt to their feet, grabbing their guns as soon as the first Jaid in the line pushed through the double doors. The knight prepared to make more clones to fight them, but there was no need. One of the sidewalls melted away, and a tidal wave swept across the room, washing away all their enemies and out the other wall, clearing the path.
And then a bit further down the next hall, two humans suddenly busted out of a side room to see what the commotion was. They grabbed their knives and dove at two of the prisoners Jaid was carrying. But the knight barely even needed to look at them. Her instincts flared, and two more clones spawned and dispatched their assaulters effortlessly.
From there, no more incidents happened until they reached the exit. But a Jaid did look out one of the windows at some point. She saw several of Humanity’s forces scrambling around outside, panicking. One by one, a muddy hand spouted from the ground, grabbing them, and pulling them under, deep into the dirt.
Most of the prisoner’s groaned when the group reached the outside, properly seeing the sun for the first time in months. Jaid kept pushing them forward until they were firmly past the barricades that Kada had already melted a hole through for them to escape. And when they all turned around, now that they were clear, the entire prison melted away, sucked up into a giant whirlpool until there was nothing left.
The Paladin found it difficult to empathize with what the prisoners must have been feeling, seeing their source of oppression fall to ruin and their captors face justice. But she imagined it must have felt rather liberating. And what she could feel, though, was a sense of accomplishment. She and Kada had just achieved more in a few minutes than Jaid had in a year fighting against bureaucracy and the schemes of others. This only cemented her ideals—that she was on the right path.