Deirdee’s first impulse upon seeing Zvirvil fly over the edge was to follow him into the cold embrace of death. She got a good enough glimpse of his ruined chest to know there was no saving him. She was no healer, anyway, and, unfortunately, she still had their orders to carry out. Abandoning them would be the ultimate dishonouring of her bond brother’s sacrifice. She would open the portal to where Laachersain was, and then, once given the leave to do so, she would hunt down the one responsible. Deirdee could already feel her blood boiling, so she prayed to the Crimson God that she would be unleashed soon.
Once she regained her composure, under the Behemoth’s silent gaze she set up the portal prisms and channelled mana through them. The task was much easier to do when more than one person was doing it, but it was manageable. It took her fifteen minutes to figure it out, but eventually, a shimmering blue hole in reality opened. Four higher Sanguine stepped through it surrounded by a retinue of twelve Hunters. Leading the way was Laachersain, armoured in a bottle green breastplate with golden filigree ornaments. Below it, he wore a simple white cotton shirt, while on his legs he had a pair of dark blue denim trousers and black leather boots on his feet. His neck-long crimson hair was neatly combed, and each of his five horns was painted in a different colour - orange, blue, green, purple and yellow. Deirdee envied him for those. She, like other Serrated Blades, was born without horns to help them better blend in the societies of lower life forms. On his back, Laachersain carried his famed black iron longsword “Demon’s Bane”. He was flanked by two three-horned men clad from top to bottom in suits of boiled leather armour. They carried arming swords on their hips and shields on their backs. Behind them walked a man with four horns in an unadorned blue robe, and holding a gnarled sunless wood staff.
Somewhat unwillingly, Deirdee knelt before Laachersain on her right knee.
‘Master,’ she said.
‘Report,’ he responded curtly. ‘Where is Zvirvil,’
‘Dead,’ Deirdee answered, holding back tears. ‘The intruders escaped into the pillar. Caeileera was with them.’
‘So the bitch is a traitor!’ one of the men behind Laachersain spat.
‘She… will get what is coming to her,’ their leader said, with a surprising amount of uncertainty in his voice.
He will need to be watched, Deirdee decided.
Her masters, the real ones in the House of Blades that is, told her that he was already on thin ice, as this project of his was turning into a major resource drain without producing any results. This latest disaster was the best proof of it. She was authorised to handle the issue if need be, but for now, she had to avenge Zvirvil, and to her great pleasure Laachersain gave her the leave to follow them. She hurried towards the entrance to the pillar and disappeared down it.
As she did that, Laachersain turned towards the Behemoth and pointed at the middle of the pillar:
‘Make us an entrance!’
‘Soo… Caei,’ I said, desperately trying to change the subject, as we descended down the staircase. ‘I’m not sure why it never occurred to me to ask about this before, but who else can we expect to drop on us? Like, when we met it sounded like it was just you and Laachersain.’
She sighed.
‘Because it was. He must have called in a lot of favours and probably promised more than he can realistically deliver. Gaar'rinver was likely enticed with Löwe’s lab. The Serrated Blades are not cheap to hire. And that Behemoth? No way, a small fry like him would be allowed to use it without someone powerful being involved. Even the Lesser one that guarded Löwe was a loaner, I think. Believe it or not, but you actually went through most of our forces by the time you killed Löwe.’
‘So, that's why you wanted to join us!’ Aki exclaimed, with some anger in her voice. ‘You…
I quickly interrupted her to prevent another argument.
‘I understand. You wouldn't want to throw your lot in with people you didn't have a good chance of winning.’
‘Why are you on her side in this?’ Aki huffed in disbelief. ‘She’s using us to save her hide!’
‘That’s what she told us.’ I shrugged. ‘We were probably her best bet to break away from the Sanguine.’
‘But who is to say she won’t do that again?’
That was a valid point, and I sensed Caeileera tensing. So much for defusing the situation.
‘She got rid of her mask, remember?’ I asked, also getting somewhat mad at Aki.
‘Who’s to say it was her real one?’
‘Why would she destroy a fake mask before someone who wouldn't understand the gesture?’
Aki didn't have an answer to that. Instead, she huffed in anger, went up a couple of stairs and disappeared into the dark floor.
‘Oh, for fucks sake!’ I shouted after gathering my jaw from the floor and followed after her.
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I heard Caeileera slowly breathe out in quiet indignation, but soon I heard her footsteps following behind me.
Aki wandered around the dark corridors in almost complete darkness. They didn't explore this floor during either of their passes through the building, but it was similar enough to all the other ones. Aki decreased the size of her Abyssal Spark so it hardly gave out any light. It was just large enough so that Aki could see what was directly in front of her. She wasn’t hopeful it would hide it from Caeileera and Lilyth who both had Darksight, anyway, but maybe they’d have a harder time finding her. Suddenly, Aki heard their voices in the distance so she extinguished the spark and ducked into one of the “conference rooms”, as Lilyth called them. To be sure she would be harder to find, the demonborn chose not the chamber next to her, but the one slightly past it. Aki crouched in the corner by the door, and noticed that there was a strange, slightly pungent smell to the room, but she decided that she would investigate the source after her former companions had moved past her hiding place.
After that, she’d get back to the staircase, hide on one of the higher floors from the rest of the Sanguine, and then escape the pillar and find the route to the surface. Screw this Laachersain business. Yes. She’d have a better time on her own. Alone…
She felt hot tears running down her cheeks and wanted to sob.
Why did Lilyth have to defend Caeileera? Didn't she see that the Sanguine bitch would go back to her own kind the moment the tide turned? How could she be so blind? Did Caeileera really wrap Lilyth around her finger so easily? How could she be so wrong about the slimeling? How…
‘Stay your ire, my child,’ a somewhat familiar and gentle voice sounded in her head. ‘The Sanguine Priestess and the Slimeling are not your enemies here.’
Didn't I hear it during the fight with Löwe?
‘Yes,’ the voice responded. ‘That was me. My name is Zekuthran, and I am your grandfather. At least, I’d like you to see me that way one day. I am contacting you through the link our shared blood grants us, though it is a very limited option. Go to Ror-Bhyk and find a merchant named Naevud. He will guide you further.’
The voice went silent.
Zekuthran? Grandfather?
There was no response.
Could she trust him though? Believing strange voices in her head struck her like a bad idea. Then a quest notification popped up.
Quest: The Legacy of Hellfire
Type: Racial - Personal
Difficulty: Easy
Description: You were contacted by your grandfather - Archpraetor Zekuthran. He has provided you with guidance on how to establish more permanent contact with him.
Objectives:
* Contact Naevud in Ror-Bhyk
Rewards:
* ???
Archpraetor? He didn't mention that…
So… was it true? Was this Zekuthran actually her grandfather?
Hope started blooming in Aki’s heart, but then it was replaced by fear, as, suddenly, something loudly squelched and cracked behind her. The smell got stronger, too.
It was so overpowering that Aki had to fight her gagging reflex. She lit her Abyssal Spark, all her anger at Lilyth and Caeileera forgotten, and looked for the source of the disturbance. She gasped when she saw a massive cocoon-like structure attached by some sort of slime to the walls and the ceiling in the opposite corner.
Frozen in terror she saw a wrinkly thin night-blue arm shoot out from a crack in the side of the monstrous thing. Its sharp talons quested for an armhold and when they found it another arm shot out and grabbed something on the other side of the cocoon. The wiry muscles of the arms tensed and soon a head emerged from the crack. It was roughly oval in shape. Instead of a normal-looking mouth, there was a toothy x-shaped that took most of the lower half of the creature’s face. On the upper half, there were two bug-like clusters of nine humanoid eyes each, between which there were two nose slits.
All eighteen eyes focused on Aki. There was intelligence in them. The creature let out a haunting howl of anticipation. With surprising alacrity, it sprung out of the cocoon and dove towards the girl. She got the briefest impressions of a thin body and a pair of bat-like wings before the monsters tackled her to the ground. Before Aki could react the creature was holding her by her wrists and its bony feet were pinning her legs down.
Shit! She thought. Shit! Shit!
Then the creature’s head started getting closer to her face, its lips unfurling like a flower revealing an inner mouth with mandibles to its sides. The creature’s hot rot-smelling breath blew over Aki. So she did the only thing she could think of. Praying her friends were near, she screamed:
‘LILYTH!’
Just as she was giving in to despair and the creature's tooth-covered mouth flaps started closing on her head, she heard loud footsteps approaching very quickly. This distracted the monster briefly and it looked back to investigate the distraction. Aki used this momentary relief to headbutt the creature, her horns piercing some of its eyes. As the girl was sprayed with slime and viscera, the creature howled in pain. Its grip on her wrists painfully tightened but then the creature's weight was lifted off her body as Lilyth and Caeileera grabbed it by the wings and threw it off her. There was a flash of metal and the Sanguine pierced the monster through its chest with her glaive, pinning it to the floor. Then, a long red spike appeared in Lilyth’s hand, and she didn’t even bother throwing it. She just double-gripped it and rammed it into the monster’s head.
Level 5 ??? has been slain.
You have earned 166 experience points (2482/3000 total experience points progress to level 6)
Lilyth’s arms wrapped around Aki and held her tightly.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
Aki felt tears gathering in her eyes.
‘Y-yes,’ she sobbed. ‘I’m s-so sorry. I didn’t…’
‘Don’t worry, kiddo,’ Lilyth reassured her. ‘It’s all right. I understand how you feel. It’s going to be alright.’
Suddenly, a series of loud crashes came from above, followed by a single one far below them. More of these haunting howls sounded throughout the building, including some on the floor they were on.
‘I wouldn’t be so sure…’ Caeileera said grimly.
And for once, Aki fully agreed with her.