"Uughhh…" Kalika slowly opened her eyes. There was a putrid smell in the air. It was a smell long forgotten that she couldn't mistake. She saw that she was on a rough stone floor inside another prison cell.

There was a torch just outside her prison , and just by a glance, Kalika could tell that she was in a cave. Kalika glanced then at a faintly glowing red crystal just outside her cell. "Are we inside a crystal cave?"

"Hey Harry! The girls back up!"

Kalika jumped as she heard the loud voice of an old man. The old man seemed to be another ruffian. His gray hair was practically sticking out everywhere from being unkempt, and his teeth were practically falling out. It certainly didn't help that the man's wrinkles became more visible as he smiled at Kalika with a lecherous gaze.

Kalika could hear the footsteps of the person the old man called. A tan-looking man emerged from a rocky tunnel with a grin curled on his face. His face was battered, and his nose was practically missing. It was a face only a mother could love.

"Go on an' get." The man told the elder. The freaky-looking old man took his leave, leaving Kalika and the severely scarred man alone together.

Kalika quickly returned to examining the room and then the scarred man. "I don't like this, but this might be my only chance to find out what's happening…"

"Shit. I'm surprised my guy didn't kill ya. You must get a strong neck on ya lady."

Kalika was disgusted by the man's mere look. He took notice but didn't mind.

"Oh this. Yeah got this by those red buggers. A damn big one clubbed my face while I was in the infantry. Surprised I'm alive myself."

The man looked right back at Kalika. "An' in case you're wondering, I'm the leader of this band of rogues, but you can call me Harry."

Kalika shivered a little as the man licked his lips a little.

"So, tell me, little lady. Where'd you come from? An' where are your friends? Actually, where's your master?"

The wretched looking man, Harry, looked up and down at Kalika, taking notice that she was wearing loose prisoner's clothes that were torn. Kalika could tell what this man meant and took offense.

"I-I'm not a slave! And I'm not traveling with anyone."

"I see… and yet you were still lookin' to escape somethin'. Yeah?" The Leader hit the nail on the head so Kalika couldn't retort.

"H-Harry…? What happened to the village? No. what happened to Dahlia." Harry laughed hardily.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" he laughed.

"I haven't been outside in years, so I don't know what happened. If you tell me that, I'll tell you where I came from. T-that's a fair deal, right?"

Harry continued to chuckle a little and stroked his chin. "An itch for an itch huh… Sure, I'll bite. A young-lookin' lady like you oughta know the way of the world now."

Kalika looked a little serious, since she needed to know what happened so she could find the best sanctuary. She wasn't planning on staying with these people after all.

Harry pulled a chair from the side to sit on it. "Ya see 'bout seven or eight years ago the Demon King's army attacked the capital not far from here. Invaded with those ugly little horned spawns to all the nearby villages and settlements. They went on to march their armies south to capture any big ole city they came across like one I was defendin' at the time."

He leaned his face closer to the cell bars for Kalika to get a better look at his face. "Heh. Like I said, I was part of the infantry tasked to defend the city of Nirenberg. I was as good as dead, but by some miracle, I lived."

Harry leaned back in his chair. "The last thing I heard was that five of the biggest well-known generals established their own separate city-states. The entire country's been in disarray ever since. It's damn dumb too, since all these generals callin' themselves Lords fighting over land and the Demon King's army. It's been a hilarious mess through and through," Harry chuckled at the last few words.

"Why were they fighting!?"

Harry looked back at Kalika. "Like the hell I know." Harry paused for a moment thinking. "But if I had to take a gander though, might had somethin' to do with the line of succession. Since they had no true heir since the death of the royal family at the capital. Probably wanted to put their kids on the throne or somethin'."

Kalika thought to herself very carefully, running through all the information that she'd just learned.

"This is worse than I ever imagined. If all of Father's generals established their own boundaries for the bid of power… then the territory for the demon army would be double the size of any boundaries set by any individual general since they now have control of Nirenberg."

Kalika found herself biting her finger. No matter how Kalika thought about it, if the generals kept fighting back in this manner… They were all bound to perish by the demon army.

"They're all damn fools!" Kalika muttered to herself.

"So…" Harry interrupted. Kalika almost forgot about the leader of the rogues.

"Ya gonna tell me where you came from or not?" Harry was starting to get a little impatient.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Kalika paused for a few moments before telling the truth. "I… I came from the capital's castle dungeon. I escaped there after years of being tortured-."

"Bullshit." Harry interrupted.

Kalika glared back at the man. "You said you wanted to know. So, I'm telling you."

"No. What your tellin' me is some malarkey. There's no way you came from the demon capital. Settin' a foot there lands you an arrow in the head if you're human. And you're telling me that a pristine little girl like you was tortured? Hah!" The man wasn't convinced one bit.

"T-there's a reason for that!" Kalika tried to retort.

"Shut it! Unless you're gonna tell me where you came-" Harry stopped himself. "Y'know what, I don't wanna hear it. It doesn't even matter where you came from."

Harry started to open the cell door. Instinctively, Kalika backed away as the man entered.

"I'm damn tired of all this waitin' an' hiding'." Harry gave a lecherous smile to Kalika. "I scratched your itch, so I think it fair you did the same for me." fear crept into Kalika's heart as she immediately understood his intentions.

"Stay away!" she screamed.

The man started to hold down Kalika to the wall. "D-do you know who I am!! Stop-!!"

Harry immediately placed his hand on her mouth to stop her from talking. "Oh, none of that matters now. Don't worry, I'll be making sure you squeal by the time I'm done with you."

Kalika looked down and found that one of her legs was in direct line with his weak point. Without hesitation she struck his family jewels as hard as she could. The man was completely stunned and incapacitated by this critical hit.

Without missing a beat, Kalika ran out from the open cell and then snapped a couple of pieces of the red crystal. She wasted no further time as she took off running down the cavern's passageway.

"Everyone! The prisoner escaped!" Harry's scream echoed throughout the cave system the Kalika found herself in.

More men started to show up through the passageways behind her, likely from all the other passageways she'd passed.

Even more men showed up In front, forcing them to take a turn into another passageway. "Don't let her get away!" a man shouted.

Kalika, practically feeling them breathe down her neck, starts channeling the first red crystal. She uses her other hand to spit out a fireball, to the men's surprise.

"The damn bitch is a magic user!"

"Stop your whining! Don't let her get away!"

The chase continued. Kalika was starting to feel the adrenaline pumping as she looked around quickly in the small roomy cavern passageway, looking for a possible exit. There was a sign indicating the direction of the exit, so she bolted in that direction.

Up ahead, Kalika could see some more of those magical crystals. She didn't want to waste time, so she simply snapped a thin green crystal without stopping.

She was now approaching another intersection. Channeling the green crystal, she hoped she wouldn't have to use it. Unfortunately, three more men came out to ambush her.

"O-out my way!" Kalika was frightened by the idea of these men capturing her.

She blasted a pump of wind magic , sending the men back, scurrying past them and other men that came from the same direction. The breeze she felt told her she was getting closer to the exit.

Kalika then glanced behind her to find more men on her trail now not too far behind. There must've been fifteen of them! Seeing this her breathing started to become much heavier.

But she knew she couldn't think about that now. "Don't let her escape!" one of the men shouted.

"I'm almost there! Just a little further!!" Kalika ran even harder than ever. The exit was right there.

Before Kalika realized it, she felt a sharp pain in her leg. A knife was thrown at her leg! She started to tumble to the ground in front of what looked like a constructed door the size of the hole in the cave. This was the exit Kalika was looking for.

"N-no! I have to get out of here!"

Kalika tried to get up but was suddenly grabbed by a man. She started to flail around to shake him off. Instead, she ended up flipping to her back with the man now sitting on her stomach with his knife to her throat.

It was the same man she had met in the forest with a scar on his left eye. Despite this man's provocation she didn't care that the knife was right on top of her throat. She continued to fight as she readied her hand to channel the second red crystal's magic.

"She's fuckin' crazy! Grab the bitch!" One of the men ordered.

Some of the men behind her started to retrain her arm. This caused the fire magic she channeled to miss its mark completely "D-damn it!" Kalika was aggravated.

"That was my last crystal!" Kalika was starting to panic.

"That was damn close. I thought you were gonna blow us both up, heheheh." The man kept his dagger to Kalika's throat not wanting to take any chances. "Hey. Bossman. Do you still want her to yourself?"

Harry, their leader, showed up in front of Kalika, who was still flailing around.

"Nah. You guys can keep her to yourselves. Fuckin hell." Harry was obviously feeling the pain from earlier. Harry, their leader, went on to leave the cave. He turned back one last time.

"Heh. Have fun, boys."

"You heard the man!" all the men were starting to grin from ear to ear.

Kalika could see that the men were starting to get excited. It was starting to become a nightmare for her. "Damn it. N-not like this! Please!"

Some of the men were starting to strip Kalika. She tried to retaliate but she was powerless.

"No! Please! Someone! Anyone! Help me!" She was starting to get emotional, and the situation looked hopeless... until…

BOOM!! CRASH!!

Noise could be heard from outside the cave's entrance. It wasn't long until the doorway was completely blown open. Some of the men released Kalika trying to gain distance from whatever was outside of the door.

Smoke was starting to dissipate revealing a red-skinned demon of very large stature, barely fitting through the cave entrance. His horns curled up, pointing to the skies. He also had red eyes, long gray hair and two bottom teeth that point from his mouth. As it turned out, this big demon used the leader, Harry, as a battering ram and now held him by his head.

The big red demon threw Harry's corpse a little past Kalika. It looked at the bandits and then at Kalika, seemingly a little surprised.

"I only came here to rectify a mistake… but it seems I've found the queen's toy too…" The demon's voice was scarily deep.

"The entire castle has been in chaos since you left. So, you will be coming with me."

Kalika was shaking and frightened as she lay on the ground. She didn't know if she was being saved or royally screwed just by pure chance.

"I…I-" Kalika couldn't find any words to say to the frightening demon. "I will not be repeating myself again."

"So, in the end, my plan was an utter failure…" Kalika started to weep a little, still shaking. "I-I can't… move," Kalika uttered.

Realizing Kalika was telling the truth, the big demon sighed. He went up and helped Kalika with her clothes and then grabbed her by the hips to put her on his shoulder. Kalika's position was not comfortable for her, but decided not to complain.

They started to leave until it seemed the demon remembered something. "Oh. Before I forget."

The big demon posed his hands pointing it at the terrified bandits that kept quiet the entire time. He then shot a huge torrent of fire from his hands. The bandits attempted to scurry away, but it was far too late. The entire cavern of magic crystal was engulfed in fire burning everything asunder.

"I prefer to keep my enemies dead."

Kalika watching this is stumped. This big demon's fire magic made the Head Priest's fire magic look like fire from a candle stick.

With the rogues taken care of, the big demon started to leave the camp, making its way back to the castle. The big demon ran blindingly fast through the dreary forest. Kalika couldn't fathom how humans could even fight against beasts as powerful as this.

Kalika couldn't help but feel a little grateful. But still… The same line about being "the queen's toy" echoed through Kalika's head.

"It couldn't be… Is my sister now… the Demon Queen??"