-=Still Ronnie POV=-

“So, I just realized I never asked but are all the demons gonna be as easy as the last one?”

“No, we got lucky last time. They’re not usually sealed that well.”

“... What are they usually like then?”

“Not sure.”

“Oh for the love of-”

“Calm down, I mean that all demons are different from one another, that’s sort of their thing, it’s impossible to know what the one below here is like, hell, we don’t even know for certain that there is one below here, it could have escaped ages ago, or maybe it was never even caught.”

“And we have no way of finding out but to go down there.”

“Exactly.”

“...Right.”

Having finished our poor attempts at communicating with one another we stop talking and just walk instead.

‘Never realized Lizz could be this quiet before, it’s even half pleasant just walking around with her in the evening now that she’s not talking my ears off.’

Despite not talking we could still pretty easily tell what the other felt like, this was actually caused by another one of Lizz’s spells,

I don’t know the name of the spell however it worked similarly to the spell that Plush used to talk, but instead of the spell reading your mind and broadcasting it for everyone to hear it was limited to those who were also under the same spell, and it was also a lot weaker, it could only send vague emotions whereas Plush’s spell could broadcast what he thought word by word.

‘This tunnel feel longer than the last one, wonder when we’ll get there?’

However just as I thought that we were washed over by another blinding light before finding us in yet another underground dome structure.

‘Think of the devil… Hang on...’

“This place looks pretty empty.” I say, and although Lizz doesn’t say anything I could still feel that she agreed through the spell, I also felt both worry and relief from her.

“We can’t be sure if there really isn’t anyone here yet though, some of these guys are way too good at hiding.”

Lizz strengthens her light spell so that it covers the entire dome and we can look around freely.

‘Yep, still looks empty.’

I looked all around us yet the only things I saw were the decorated walls which told the story of the people who had lived down here.

Seeing nothing else to do I decided I might as well start reading. Or rather try to read, doubt I’d understand any of this ancient language.

‘Let’s see here, giant underground city looking drawing filled with tons of people looking things. Looks like a lively place.’

at the heart of what looked to be a city there was a symbol which looked like an upside down teardrop with a line going through it, and further along the wall there was a huge number of them.

‘I guess this means there were loads of cities then?’

I followed the painting on the wall, but the further I got the more they started to incorporate the color red into the drawings, it made it look like the cities were flooded with blood.

“Find anything yet?” I ask.

Through the spell I can feel that she  still hasn’t seen anything out of the ordinary so I keep looking at the walls.

‘Oh, these must be from when the demons started attacking.’

Past the towns which were filled with blood were more towns, these towns were also colored red, however it was a different kind of red.

‘Fire?’

Going even further the symbols which represented cities were charred black and completely lacked any of the people looking things.

‘Is this the center?’

Just past the burnt down cities there was a drawing of a red creature bound down by chains inside of an ovaloid shape, on the other side of the ovaloid shape the drawings started going in reverse, meaning that no matter where you started in the room, if you followed the trail of destroyed cities you would come to this guy.

‘I guess this means he must have been caught here at some point then at least, though that doesn’t say anything about whether he escaped from here or whether he’s already dead.’

The red skinned demon was bald with two small horns coming off of its forehead, it was neither muscular nor thin, it’s legs looked like those of a goat and it wore a black cloak and-

-the painting blinked.

“Erm, Lizz?”

“Yeah?”

“I think I found the demon…”

Lizz walked up to me and I gestured to the seemingly bound demon.

“Oh no.”

“Oh no? Oh no what!?”

If even Lizz who’s been doing this for god knows how long is worried then it can’t be good.

“You see that cloak he’s wearing? It’s made of something special, it completely blocks magic, I can’t do anything against him.”

“... Has this happened before?”

“Yeah, whenever I find one wearing a cloak like this I’m forced to leave and try to find another way to kill them, they tend not to be very strong on their own.”

“No, I meant the whole ‘sealed in the wall’ thing.”

“Oh, that. Yeah, normally this is actually how the sealing process went, some couldn’t be trapped this way so they had to find another though. Like with the last one.”

“...Oh. But if this guy is trapped like this it means he can’t get out and hurt anyone right?”

“Yes, however the seal isn’t can’t hold him forever and we will need to find a way to kill him.”

“Can’t hold him for forever? How long do we have left?”

Lizz looks around at the drawings on the walls.

“A minute or so maybe.”

“What!?”

*crack*

I look at the wall and see cracks forming along the painted chains.

“... Or a few seconds.”

“Fuck! You said that cloak blocked all magic right!? Does that mean that the blue flame won’t work either!?”

“Yup.”

*crumble*

“The what the fu-”

*CRACK*

I look over at the demon on the wall-

*thud*

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-and see him fall out of the wall and onto the ground.

“Haaaa…”

The demon was currently standing up with with his legs far apart, leaning forwards with his arms hanging straight down.

“... Haa… Haa… Haa-ha-ha-HA!”

Seeing the demon suddenly regain its vigor I take a stance and start paying more attention to what it does.

“Heh… How cute, the beast thinks it has a chance.”

The demon looks at me with its yellow glowing eye and starts giving off a really eerie chuckle.

“If the beast would kindly look behind it I’m certain it would agree.”

‘Shit! Lizz!’

I quickly turn around, worried that the demon somehow did something against Lizz.

“Ronnie no! He’s running away!”

“What!?”

I turn back to the demon and see that it had already ran a great distance into one of the four connecting tunnels.

“You fucking idiots! Not only do you look like a beast but you have the brain of one too! Gahaha!”

“GRAAH! Get back here cunt!” I scream and start chasing after him.

“Ronnie! The ar-”

“CRAYON!” I shout back and interrupt Lizz, though I’m pretty sure I understood what she wanted to say, though I wait with actually doing it to make sure I don’t fuck up trying to do it while running.

The demon turns around while sneering however when he sees how fast my longer-than-his legs are letting me catch up with him his eyes fill with panic.

“Fuck off!”

The demon stretches out his arm back towards me while continuing to run and start firing off  large spray of small fireballs towards me

“Like hell I will! Fuck you!”

I start bobbing and weaving through the onslaught of fireballs without slowing down and keep getting closer.

“Just fuck off!” Screams the demon and throws his black cape at me.

I grab the cape with my injured arm and pull it to the side.

“Idiot!” Shouts the demon as when I stop the cape from covering my field of view all I see is a giant fireball which covers the entire tunnel we’re in.

Without being able to stop myself I run straight into the fireball-

“How the fuck!”

-and right out the other side.

“You fucking dumbass! You literally gave me an anti-magic cape! How would I not be able to get through!”

The demon starts focusing solely on running away as it realizes what it just did and that it can’t even stop me with its fireballs no matter what anymore.

“You’re not getting away you fucking cunt!”

I finally reach the demon, take the magic crayon out of the cloth which tied it onto my foot and punch it straight into the back of the demon which then screams and falls down while turning into a blue raging inferno.

While waiting for the inferno to condense into the blue glowing whatever-it-was I look at the cloak which remained after the demon.

‘I was a bit worried at first but this thing really does work huh.’

If I hadn’t been so angry from being played by a cowards like this I would have never tried this without making sure that it worked first, but I guess my adrenaline made me unable to think properly.

Once the fire had been put out I grab the what’s-it and start walking back to the dome where Lizz was.

*            *            *            *

“And that’s what happened.”

“Really? What a fucking idiot.”

“Right?”

I was back in the center and had just explained to Lizz what had happened after I ran after the demon.

“I’ve never heard of a demon leaving things behind when they die before though.”

“Maybe it had something to do with him having thrown it away? I dunno but what if it had to do with those blue flames spreading to the things if the demon was holding them.”

“Maybe.”

“... Can I keep it?”

“Sure.”

“Yes! Ah, here’s the other whatchamacallit.”

“The piece of the artefact.”

“The what’s-it.”

We grin at each other as we walk out through the tunnel which e had entered through and back to the surface to vent some more steam by beating up criminals.

I mean, sure, we did kill the demon, but I only hit it once you know? No way that’s enough.

And thus we spent a large part of the evening spying on people in alleyways to find criminals which we then proceeded to follow and catch red-handed before beating them up.

But unlike last time we made sure not to be followed to the inn when we decided to stop.

Also it turns out the cloak was made of some freaky fabric that could be folded almost endlessly without getting any thicker, in other words it was really easy to just store it in the cuffs of my uniform before entering the inn.

The night was then spent dreaming away about what we might do once we get to Logholm by the end of tomorrow.

*            *            *            *

-=The next day, Shiona POV=-

*sniff sniff*

*growl*

*sniff sniff*

‘This is… !‘

“Waffles!”

“Good morning Shiona.”

“Morning Plush!” I answer while smiling back.

“Mh… Morning… Plush… Master…”

“Morning Ronnie.”

*yawn*

“Good morning to you to Lizz”

“Uhm… Master…? Is it just… My imagination *yawn* or are you more upbeat than normal?”

“Of course I am! It’s waffles!”

“Waffles?” x2

“This.” Says plush and points to a small table with five plates, one for each of us and one for all the waffles to be stacked on top of.

I excitedly get out of bed and go sit down at the table while the other two follow me like zombies while staring at the waffles like ravenous beasts.

*            *            *            *

“Phew...That was really good…” I say and lean back in my chair.

“Are you sure you should be eating so much? I’m getting kind of worried for you.”

Both Ronnie and Lizz gasp at what Plush said, though I don’t understand why.

“Don’t worry about it, I exercise enough by flying all the time.”

“Well if you say so…”

Since we all finished eating I start helping Plush put everything inside the book while Ronnie is tidying up the beds before we all head downstairs and leave the inn.

“Oh yeah master, I still need to head by the guild to finish the delivery quests.” Says Ronnie.

“That’s fine, I was actually thinking we might accept some more quests as well to have you raise your rank.”

“Thanks master.”

We carry on walking until we reach the Uphalla branch of the adventurer guild, stopping a few times along the way for to buy a few things, like foodstuffs and magic jellies, before entering and approaching the receptionist.

“Hello.” Says Ronnie.

“Good day.” Responds the receptionist.

“I would like to hand in some quests.”

“Very well, could I see the signed quest notes please?”

“Yeah, here you are.” Says Ronnie and hands the receptionist three quest notes with some black text on them.

“Hmm… This one’s good… This one’s good… And this one’s also good. Thanks for your good work.”

The receptionist starts filing away the papers.

“And since you’ve already completed all the other preliminary quests that means you’ll be a certified adventurer as soon as the paperwork finishes.”

“Alright! Thanks, and have a good day.”

“You too.” Says the receptionist.

All of us then walk away from the receptionist and to the quest board, all the while Ronnie is staring happily at her guild card even though it’s still just the temporary one rather than the official one.

“Here it is, see anything interesting Ronnie?” I say while gesturing to all four of the quest boards.

Ronnie immediately homes in on the subjugation board while ignoring the other three.

“Ehm, Ronnie? Are you sure you don’t want to look at any of the other boards?”

“Yeah, this is what I’m best at so I might as well start with it.”

She looks at the board for a while before she starts talking aloud to herself.

“Goblins, slimes, treants, orcs, snakes, giant spiders-”

“Nope!”

“...Ronnie.” I say with a serious expression.

“Yes?” Responds Ronnie with an equally serious expression.

“Giant spiders.”

“No!” Interrupts Plush.

“Yes.”Answers Ronnie.

Ronnie then continues to look for more things while Plush is wallowing in self pity.

“... Let’s try to find some tree snakes and giant mantises as well.”

“Alright.”

And we all depart from the  quest boards, from the guild and from the town as we decided we’d finished what we needed to do in Uphalla and started to make our way to Logholm where we would hand in the delivery from Krull and meet the elves again.