The bat lifted once more into the air, blood running down the bat and slicking Lawrence’s fingers. The sound of the bat whooshing through the air reached my ears.
BANG.
One of the Demon Lord’s eyes was closed as he stared at me, “You’re a good person,” He whispered quietly, his neon-red gaze focused on me. My heart twisted, and my lungs ached, and it felt like I couldn’t breathe, my gasping sobs loud enough to be heard by both the Demon Lord and Lawrence.
BANG.
Lawrence was baring his teeth, nose scrunched in a snarl, eyebrows scrunched in disturbance and determination. He took a few seconds to breathe, gasping for air.
“Can I have the honor of knowing your name?”
I swallowed, “May—“
BANG.
I flinched, voice cutting off as I look at Lawrence. His expression was lax once more, jaw still clenched as he stared at the demon. The Demon Lord chuckled emptily, “Maybe?”
BANG.
No, that was… that… “It’s fine,” The Demon Lord said quietly, “You don’t—“
BANG.
The Demon Lord laughed again, baring his teeth in a grin as he looked at me, one eye closed, blood soaking half his face, “You don’t have to tell me. Just—“
BANG.
“Can you tell me what to call you?” The Demon Lord asked. I hesitated. I wanted to tell him my name, I wanted to say that he got it wrong—that my name was May.
BANG.
But that isn’t what came out of my mouth, “Blood. People call me Blood.”
BANG.
The Demon Lord’s grin faded slightly, eyes hazy, body slumped against the floor, “Blood…”
Lawrence shifted to move behind the Demon Lord for a better angle, the Demon Lord now lying on the tiles on his side, facing me, one of his horns digging into the tile.
Lawrence wiped at his face with a sleeve, getting a streak of blood on his cheek.
BANG!
Blood splattered up onto Lawrence’s face. The tiles beneath the Demon Lord’s horn cracked as his head bounced off the floor, eyelids growing lidded.
“Don’t… feel too bad…”
BANG!
“… Blood…” The Demon Lord continued, voice growing weaker, words slurring.
BANG-CRACK!
The Demon Lord’s head twisted at an unnatural angle as his horn embedded into the ground, his crimson red eyes focused on me, pupils blown wide.
“Maybe…”
BANG.
“… We…”
BANG.
“Shall…”
BANG.
“…”
BANG.
The Demon Lord was silent, though he was still awake, blinking slowly. The crack on his skull was bigger, shards of white following the bat as it lifted up into the air.
BANG.
“… shall…”
BANG.
I stared at him for a long moment as Lawrence heaved for air.
“Meet…” The Demon Lord mumbled quietly.
Lawrence’s shoulders slumped, head hanging for a moment. He released the bat with one of his hands, using his other to wipe the sweat soaking his face, the man's hair dripping with sweat.
“Again…”
BANG.
“In…”
BANG.
“… In…” The Demon Lord’s voice grew weaker.
BANG.
…
BANG.
…
BANG.
…
BANG.
The Demon Lord’s gaze was still on mine, his blood-red gaze growing darker, his eyes remaining lidded.
BANG.
Was he dead?
BANG.
Was this it?
BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG…
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In my mind, deep, violent, and weak, was the Demon Lord’s voice, “Another life…” My breathing hitched, and I started sobbing uncontrollably.
BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG…
The Demon Lord stopped moving, his pupils not moving, his lungs not breathing, his mouth slightly agape. His ruby-red gaze looked dark in the low light, almost appearing brown. His brain was exposed to the air.
BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG…
“He’s dead… stop…” I said, my voice too weak.
BANG… BANG…
“Stop, please,” I said, voice a bit louder, “He’s dead.”
BANG…
“Lawrence,” I struggled to say, my throat torn, my vision blurred, the world nothing but blurs.
BANG…
“LAWRENCE!” I yelled out.
Lawrence hesitated, looking at me. His chest was heaving, and despite the blood soaking his face and front, the look in his eyes was still innocent.
“He’s dead,” I said, voice relaxing.
Lawrence swallowed, looking down.
“If he’s dead, why isn’t he disappearing? Blood, it’s him or humanity. We don’t have a choice,” Lawrence said, looking up.
I looked away as Lawrence reared back, hands planted against my visor.
BANG!
…
“Humanity… for the sake…” I said quietly, looking up, seeing Lawrence reaching down for the loot dropped by the dust, the blood vanishing, my voice too quiet to be heard by anyone except me and my helmet, “If… if anyone’s listening to this. If anyone hears this… if anyone cares… you… you better be fucking worth it. We tortured a poor man—a person, just a normal, bored person—for, for almost a fucking hour for you. If… if I come across a single goddamned person who doesn’t appreciate all that Lawrence and I have done for you, I’m killing you on sight.”
I swallowed, looking down, seeing my blood-soaked hands, my own blood dripping from my fingers, “You don’t have to worry, though. Unlike Lawrence, it’ll only take one hit for me to take care of you.”
“Uh, Blood?” Lawrence asked.
I glanced up, seeing that Lawrence was crouched, one of his hands stretched out resting on the ground, his eyes unfocused on the air in front of him. Did he get cursed with blindness for killing the Demon Lord, or something?
“Yeah, wassup?” I asked, voice a croak.
I swallowed a few times, sniffing once and coughing a few times. The silence didn’t make my ears ring. I almost wished it did. The tiles beneath me were red and black, and, looking around, I saw that the room was empty. Of course it was, all the traps would vanish with the Demon Lord.
A hollow feeling entered my heart, a cool feeling engulfing me and numbing my hurts. My chest was sore. My heart hurt, my lungs hurt, my throat hurt, my face hurt. My entire body ached.
“I… uh, I have this screen thing in front of me—like the user interface in a video game,” Lawrence said, eyes still unfocused on the air in front of him, brown eyes trailing from side to side, “I-I think I’ve heard of this online, somewhere?”
A screen… from a video game…? … Right. My shoulders slumped as I relaxed back, metal clattering against the tile as my head thunked back against the ground. Right, they were just magical constructs. Like AI. My hand reached up, and I rested my palm on the top of my visor, near where my forehead was. I felt… overheated.
“Uh, right…” I agreed, exhausted, “Can you draw it out for me, just so I know what you’re talking about?”
“Yes, sure!” Lawrence agreed, voice loud and cheerful.
I stared up at the stone brick ceiling with archways and a peaked ceiling with wooden beams all across the top. Magical constructs… just like a video game. I closed my eyes, listening to Lawrence shuffle around. The zip of the backpack, the shuffle of paper, the click of a pen, the pop of a cap being pulled off. The sound of pen sliding against paper.
… When did my music die out? I pulled out my phone, looking at it. The screen wouldn’t turn on. Oh, it was dead. Sighing, I rested like a starfish on the ground, staring up at the ceiling.
In the back of my mind, I still heard the sound of the metal bat slamming into the Demon Lord’s skull. The meaty thwap, the thudding as he grimaced. The pain in his gaze. His lifeless stare, forever unseeing.
Soon, Lawrence appeared in my vision. I groaned as I sat up, pushing myself to a sitting position. Lawrence hesitated as he handed me the paper.
“Right, you’re still injured,” Lawrence realized, “Are you okay?”
I swallowed, ignoring the question. Was I okay? What sort of question was that? No, I just watched my partner torture a guy for an hour with a baseball bat. I could imagine how it must have felt, too. The slow bruising. The constant pressure. Like hitting yourself in the shin with a scooter, but in the temple, and again, and again, and again, and again until you fucking died.
I shivered, shaking my head, “Fine,” I said as I read through what he’d written, eyes struggling to focus.
[Lawrence S. Brown LV 1]
[Class: Magus]
[Form: 10 Magic: 500]
[Skills:
Infinite Creation LV {NULL}, Arcane Enchanting LV 1
Spellcasting LV 1, Runic Scripting LV 1
]
“Is this exactly how it looks?” I wondered, glancing up.
Lawrence was digging through the backpack when I started speaking, looking discontent. Our healing potions were all destroyed when he took a spiked cannonball to the chest, I knew. He looked up as I spoke, though, his expression relaxing as he nodded.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what it looks like, but it’s white text floating in the air, looking about an arms’ length away,” Lawrence explained, “Except the Null, which I used red sharpie for.”
I glanced back at the paper, seeing that he had, in fact, written {NULL} in red sharpie. I blinked, the letters twisting on the page.
“Uh, right, guess you have magic and superpowers now,” I said, handing the notebook back to Lawrence, “Congratulations! I’m proud of you. You’re probably a lot stronger, now, right? And if, um,” I thought, mind hazy, “If… Arcane Enchanting and Runic Scripting do what I think they do, then you can boost the defensive capabilities of my armor and the offensive abilities of my bat, right? As well as making them, like, self-healing or more durable or something?”
Lawrence hesitated, eyes widening, leaping to his feet, grinning, “You’re right! I can! I have magic, now!” Lawrence laughed as he pulled me to my feet, and I groaned as I was thrown into the air, Lawrence crying out as he caught me. His eyes were wide as he looked at me.
“Whoa, that’s… I’m stronger now!” Lawrence realized. I swallowed, head dipping as I rested my helmet on his shoulder.
“You can let go, now,” I said quietly.
“Oh! Sorry!” Lawrence cried out, dropping me like I was on fire.
I staggered, barely able to stay on my feet. I shook my head, dazed. I felt like I was suffocating… I wanted to leave and run. Just go somewhere else, anywhere else, and not be Blood for a bit.
“Uh, come on. I’ll give you my gear to go and enchant or whatever, you can text me when it’s done or something,” I said tiredly, turning and walking off, “Then we can go through and finish California, since the riots there are getting out of hand.”
The floor reminded me of the several days of chess I’d played with the Demon Lord, and I wondered if I’d ever sleep again. It wasn’t long before we’d left the mansion, our trek quiet.
The moment Lawrence paid for a hotel for us, I took all of my gear off, plugged in my phone, and hopped in the shower. Lawrence came in to gather my items, leaving soon after while I was still in the shower cleaning several months of disgusting grime off of me.
My vision still didn’t focus as I stumbled out of the shower, pulling on clean clothes I’d gotten but never put on. My clothes were leggings and a tank-top, my bra and underwear also on. Soon, I was in my combat boots, leaving the hotel room with only my keycard.
Once I staggered out of the golden purgatory that the hotel hallways were, I looked up and around. Had it been night when we’d left the dungeon? What time was it? What was the date?
Shaking my head, I turned, sprinting as fast as I could, running as fast and as far as I could. Soon, I was in some dark street on my hands and knees, gasping for air. Shifting, I stood up straight, looking up at the sky.
The moon was a pale crescent, the stars glittering beautifully in the sky. The gaseous clouds making up the milky way were visible, in this area. I stared up at the stars.
I wondered if the Demon Lord would hate the view since the sky was dark blue…?
…
I spent several hours doing nothing but staring blankly upwards, eyes unfocused and mind shut off.