15 - THE FIRE THAT CONSUMES!

Eve picked up a mushroom from the floor of the cave. the Plant was giving off a heavy scent similar to mint only much stronger. From the smell of the plant gave Eve a chill. There seemed to be a cold poison emitted from its spores. Eve was surprised that it would even make her feel cold even with her increased resilience from improving her aura. Eve took a mushroom and pocketed it in a spare cloth and put it in her pocket. Eve was about to leave for the surface when she heard voices from a crack in the floor and moved to give it a look.

Eve crawled closer and gave a glance over the edge. In the center of the cavern there stood several 'demons' around a fat creature that was birthing eggs. After looking around for a bit, Eve noticed that from a few of the eggs emerged small imps.

(Eve: "... So they are like bees or ants with a queen?")

Eve made an attempt to listen to what the demons were saying but she quickly realized that she does not understand their language.

(Eve: "I suppose that makes sense... I forgot I'm not in a web novel where I am given a language cheat... I'll have to see if I can find one sleeping or something.) ((Softserve: Right Eve! you're not in a web novel? what do you call this? *sigh*))

Noticing a chance when a few demons moved to different parts of the room Eve dropped to the floor below landing without a sound. She then darted in and out of shadows and cover at convenient times however stealth had always made Eve nervous.

(Eve: "I was always bad at stealth games... Fortunately I have that ability even though I could never use it in games!")

In Eve's past life along with her meditation and attempting to gain superpowers Eve always practiced a few other abilities. One such ability was presence sensing. Eve remembered practicing in weird places and times like the line grocery stores where she would combine visualization with the feeling of air to her skin. Always matching her eyesight then closing her eyes as the feeling gradually built up over the years. Eventually she could walk and avoid running into other people even with her eyes closed. This gave her the ability to notice people around corners and never ran into anyone as she improved at and always knew they were there. Eventually Eve could feel any presence around her simply by the feeling of the air to her skin within a 10-foot radius which was very handy when avoiding others trying to sneak up and surprise her. Now that her body has changed with having her fur, this ability has increased to 100 feet around herself.

Using Her ability to always know where the demons were she made her way around the clutter around the makeshift rooms made of stacked stones in a hedge maze style, Eve sensed her target by the feeling in the air.

(Eve: "There seems to be 4 of those demons in the room up ahead, seem to be lying down sleeping? This should be a good chance to learn the language without revealing myself.")

Eve swiftly entered the room as quietly as she could and approached her targets... however what she saw caused her blood to run cold. In the room the demons she saw were not sleeping, instead the 4 demon girls huddled around each other, unresponsive to the world around them.

((Softserve: "The following contains depictions of cruelty, Please skip if you don't want to read this! you have been warned!"))

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The 4 lifeless children sat huddled together, their legs had been cut off so that they may not run. Scars ran all across their bodies and even their horns were chipped and broken from the rough treatment they have seemed to live through their life. there was clearly a bulge on each of their stomachs. just seeing this made Eve sick to her stomach. As tears began to slowly break from Eve's eyes, eve approached the nearest one and touched her hand to her head.

The Child's memories were no better, she had always lived this kind of life. While living a life inside cages with her sisters, even though they did not know how to speak the language they had shared love all the same. The 4 had truly cared for each other and protected each other from a situation they did not understand. They all had beautiful faces and horns, Eve could hardly recognize them from how they looked now. The 4 would always find time to play games with each other when no one was looking and find a bit of joy in their lives. The 4 had hid their laughter and joy from their captors. They had managed to get by... until they were old enough to carry children, that was the moment their life changed to the worst.

((Softserve: Ok! You are free to look now! The monsters under the bed are gone!))

Eve having looked into these children's cruel memories opened her tear-stained eyes as a deep look of anger took over them! Eve had often struggled with her anger with her Irish blood but she had always preferred to take a step back. If Ever described anger she felt it was like combating scarlet red flames... Now her flames were not red but a scorching white.

Eve dashed out of the room with her claws out and was immediately behind a demon as its head flew from its shoulder! 2 others to both sides the demon turned to notice Eve and were going to shout in alarm but Eve had already sent out her hands to rip out their tongues before slitting their throats. Eve hopped on top of the walls that resemble a hedge maze made of limestone and leaped down killing another 2 demons before tossing something from her pocket killing the other in the room. The demon did not even get a chance to see the bone made fish hook before it penetrated his head.

Eve leaped to the roof again and headed to the area with imps. Pulling out her resin-coated fishing wire she made from thread she snagged an imp while using the wire as a garret. Eve searched the imps mind to find what she was looking for. Eve had seen them create fire from their hands to throw and she really felt like she could use it as well. Having gotten what she needed Eve twisted the neck of the imp killing it and focused on analyzing the skill.

Their fire bore several resemblances to her aura, After focusing enough Eve managed to convert her aura into a fire in her hand that burned white and yellow. The Heat that the fire gave off was enough to warp the limestone around her drawing the attention of the demons below. Eve clenched the fire in her hand as her aura washed over her covering her with flames as she leaped from the wall smashing into the center of the room with the Imp queen causing a shockwave of fire to erupt burning all the demons, eggs and imp queen to ash and cinders and causing the limestone around the room to crystalize.

Eve had let her fire cool off. It was never a good feeling to Eve when she let her anger take over, not now and not before. It had always left her with a bitter aftertaste. She felt her reserves of aura had plummeted, she only had about another hour or so and it was no longer wise to remain in the caverns where the light did not reach. Eve took off back into the shadows as more demons came running to the room.

Eve returned to the room where the 4 girls lay and gave them a hug as her tears threatened to break free again. Eve reached for the girls head following an instinct she did not know she had pulled something silky and white from the girl as it drifted to her aura vessel and entered her mana cavern before burning the girl's body and repeating this for the other 3 girls. Eve felt her aura cleaning and purifying the 4 girl's souls.

Eve then found a demon and captured it with her fishing string similar to the imp. She took the memories of the language and learned where they came from. It seems the Demons had come from across the seas to the south.

(Eve: "I'll have to visit them someday, This should never happen anymore!")

Eve made such a promise to herself as she leaped from the walls back the upper cave floors and out of the caverns.