Chapter 29: Blackrose Red Light District, Night (2)

Around me, the sounds of screaming faded as I crashed onto the street outside. I didn't know whether it was due to the sudden emergence into an open space or the fact that many of those voices were now forcibly silenced.

Already, the stench of blood was thick in my nostrils.

The attack by the Demon King's forces had taken us both unawares and at the worst possible place. Although I had no love for the nobility of this city, I regretted their needless deaths. But I knew already that I wouldn't be reproaching myself for my decision to abandon the fight. The numbers alone had us at a disadvantage. Fighting red caps in a closed environment would have been to fight in our own tombs.

While I could consider that for a better cause, I wouldn't if it involved the loss of the only important person to me in this world.

"Are you hurt?" I said to the girl by my side. "Wait, your magic …"

Iris planted her palms on her knees, steadying her breathing as sweat rolled down her temples.

"I'm fine," she replied tersely. "I'm fine. I can still–"

"No."

I quickly shook my head. She bit her lips and frowned at the ground.

There was no point making this into an argument. We both knew this.

She'd done all she can to delay the goblins as much as possible, even as she ran. The orbs of blinding light she'd tossed behind us as we climbed the stairs allowed a great many more nobles to escape than if she'd merely focused on escaping.

It meant that the stench of blood was nowhere near as vile as it could have been. But it now meant that her magical strength had been significantly drained. This was not her style of combat. Her use of magic had always been targetted and refined, but that was as much due to her limitations as a spell caster as it was her method of fighting.

Now, without either a weapon or sufficient reserves of magical energy, she was almost as defenceless as the nobility continuing to run amok around us.

I grimaced as a sizeable portion of the crowd surged past us. It wasn't all of them, but I still wouldn't be considering a retreating action. Especially now that she'd spent what little magical reserves she had as a swordswoman.

If we had help, I would have adopted a different course. We had both the top of the stairs and the entrance to the house. If we could not safeguard the nobles, we could perhaps safeguard the street from an outpouring of goblins.

But the positional advantage was nothing without the strength to enforce it.

The Blackrose Watch could not appear at the click of a thumb. They would only be roused in sufficient numbers once the call had gone out, and by then, red cap goblins would be swarming the heart of the city.

Even worse, I did not know how many there were. How long could a demonic portal sustain an influx of goblins? What if it never closed?

"Triple shit," I cursed.

This was more than an incursion. The presence of elite soldiery proved as much. It was a siege from within. Perhaps even a full invasion. What would happen if we abandoned this position?

I could feel something anchoring my feet even as I wished to flee. I knew at once that this was more than my own sense of duty and altruism. I was no White Knight. Between Iris and the city, I would choose her. I wanted to choose her.

And yet I did not move.

A weight was atop me. A divine weight. Like the heavens were pushing down on my shoulders.

This feeling could only have come from the Goddess of Love.

"Figures you'd call in your debt now, huh?"

I almost let out a wry smile. The boons granted by the Goddess did not come cheaply. Often, we didn't know the debt at all, other than we would someday have to pay it.

Judging by how even Iris was struggling to move her knees, it seemed that the debt was now being laid out in front of us.

We had to close the portal.

To do our sworn duties as ordained heroes.

But first, we'd have to secure this passage into the Red Light District.

To be honest, I think we were going to die trying.

"Iris, can you move?" I asked her, struggling to take another step away from the decrepit house. "I can't. It's like–"

"Like the Goddess is forcing us to stay. I know. I can feel it, too."

Iris grimaced as she gave up trying to force her legs to move in a direction other than towards the oncoming foes. Then, she glanced around at the windows of the other houses around us.

She knew there were innocents in all of them. As did the Goddess. Our patron wouldn't have us escape, even if the cause was doomed. Although I couldn't help but notice she had little qualms about letting us leave the ballroom instead of covering the fleeing nobles.

It seems that not everyone was as equal as her sacred texts would have us believe.

"What do we do?" asked Iris, her eyes clear and sharp beneath the moonlight. "We could try holding the door until the city watch mobilises, but I only have a small amount of magic left and no sword."

I instantly tossed her my blade. She caught it with unerring grace, as if her hands were always destined to hold a sword.

"Have mine," I said, walking back towards the house. "Pretty sure you're a better hand with it than I'll ever be, anyway."

Iris looked dumbstruck for a moment. Then, she quickly followed after me.

"Wait! If you don't have a sword, how will you protect yourself?"

"Don't worry. I have my ways."

"Don't 'don't worry' me. What ways? You can't use magic!"

"Guess I'll just have to use my natural charms then, huh?"

Iris looked aghast as she continued after me.

Far fewer people were streaming out of the house now. There were gaps between the fleeing bodies. And the stench of blood was now almost as harsh as the warlike shrieking coming up the stairs inside. Far more shrieking than could be attributed to a raiding party. It sounded like a warband. And that's if no more goblins joined them.

I braced myself as I allowed a bloodied noble to stumble past me, then went back into the house.

"They're goblins," said Iris, her voice slightly desperate. "I can hold them by myself. I can use the stairs. You don't need to put yourself in harm's way."

I shook my head. We both knew that quantity was very much a quality of its own, and these were red cap goblins besides. They wouldn't duel her one by one. They would swarm her over the backs of their dead compatriots. She only had one sword. They had more.

Meanwhile, I now had none.

"… It's fine. I have a plan."

Iris looked plainly sceptical as she took up position atop the stairs. Nobody else was coming up now. Nobody human, at least.

For a moment, I wondered why the goblins weren't already converging on us. They had no reason to delay. Even with the blinding lights that Iris had dazzled them with, they should have been on the heel of the latest fleeing noble.

Before I had any chance for hope, however, I saw the first pair of red eyes finally appear.

"If you have a plan, please put it into action," said Iris, allowing a sigh to escape before she assumed combat position. My sword, ordinarily so dull in my hands, now glowed with a vibrant light in hers. "I can fend off the first dozen by myself easily enough, but any more will be asking for trouble."

I nodded, then turned towards the door to the house.

Like the rest of the building, it was wooden and decaying. But it was a door, and it would do.

As I heard the first shriek hurtling up the stairs, I lashed out with my boots and smashed the hinges on the door. It took several blows before the metal bent, during which I heard the same shriek now descend back down the stairs at falling speed.

That was one down.

"What are you doing?" asked Iris, a note of curiosity creeping into her voice even as she readied herself to impale another goblin.

I gave a wry smile as my answer, then caught the door as the hinge broke.

Moving back inside with the unwieldy fixture in my hands, I stepped past the clearly confused Iris just as she sent another goblin shrieking back down.

Then, I planted the door down right at the top of the stairs.

"I can't be your sword. But I can be your shield."

"You did not just say such a terrible line."

"Look. The goblins will see the door and jump. Stab them out of the air when they do."

"Stab them out of the air?!"

"Yeah. In the head if possible."

"That's your plan?!"

"Well, I didn't say it was a good one."

Iris let out a small groan. It hurt my pride a little that this plan was so obviously bad that she was letting her thoughts on the matter show.

Even so, she hardened her expression and angled her sword to cover the gap over the door.

"They'll stop jumping once whoever's holding the door doesn't seem to be dead yet," she warned. "Be ready to fall behind me once something sharp tears through it."

I clutched the handle of the door as if it were a shield handle. Heavy. Hard enough to stop unwanted guests. Now to see if it could stop iron.

"It'll have to hold until the Watch gets here. I don't think our magnanimous Goddess will accept any falling back until then."

"It's a door. Not a shield."

"It'll hold because it's a door. It's at least three times thicker than—"

Suddenly, all breath left my lungs as I was swept off my feet.

An explosion of noise, wooden debris and goblin limbs hurtled into the door I was holding, smashing into my chest and carrying Iris behind me along for the ride too.

It was a blast powerful enough to fling us all the way onto the street outside. The explosion originated from somewhere below. Even so, the wave of force sent pieces of the house into every direction, shredding windows and walls like a hail of crossbolts. I felt the door crack as I hurtled through the air, followed by what sounded like a rib as I landed roughly on my back.

"–Than a shield," I finished, although I could not hear my own voice.

A ringing was pounding in my ears, joined by a pain in my chest as I shoved the cracked door away. Then I looked to the side.

Iris let out a cough, shock in her eyes as she immediately sat up. My sword was still tightly gripped in her hand. The door had taken the brunt of the force. And I had taken the brunt of the door.

"What on … What just …"

Iris's shock was interrupted by coughs as she gazed at what had moments ago been a fully standing building. Now there was a large hole in the wall, matched by an equally significant hole where the stairs just were.

I had no doubt in my mind. Had we been caught directly in the blast, we would likely have been on our way to meet the Goddess.

As it was, she would have to wait. But likely not for long.

As Iris and I both steadied ourselves to our feet, we were rocked by a second wave of force.

This time, it wasn't the result of an explosion.

No … it was just from the force of something very large and very deadly landing in front of us.

"Oh, quadruple shit."

Both mine and Iris's jaw dropped as a monster born from the deepest depth of the Hells dropped before us.

Smashing away the part of the street where its hooves landed, it cratered the cobblestone as much as what was formerly the entrance to the private auction estate. Dust and debris flew in every direction as a pair of webbed wings sent all the remnants of the former house hurtling dangerously past our ears. Glass and chipped stonework nicked my cheek where the door had previously protected me.

And yet I almost didn't notice.

My attention was drawn entirely to this beast from the depths.

Atop its huge, scaly frame, was not one, but three heads.

Yet this was no hydra, a monster that would have tested even the heroes of old to their limits.

This beast, with the hooves of a minotaur, the wings of a gryphon and the scales of a dragon, possessed the heads of all three. It was something else entirely. Something so powerful and unnatural that only the Demon King himself could have created such a monstrosity.

It was a Demon.

A Demon of Greed.

"… Run!"

I grabbed Iris's arm and pulled her along as she stared in horror at the sudden appearance of one of the Demon King's high officers. Whether or not the Goddess allowed our escape did not matter. We weren't ready.

Here was a monster so powerful that it had created devastation simply by exiting the underground ballroom. It had taken us weeks of planning and huge reserves of coin to barely defeat a Demon of Lust, a lesser combatant among the Demon King's upper ranks.

Now I had no sword and Iris had no magic. This was so beyond our current abilities to fight that anything other than fleeing was suicide.

Holding tightly onto Iris's arm, I pulled her along behind me. Whatever anchor the Goddess had placed on us had vanished, her direct intervention on her champions coming only in brief intervals. But no sooner had I pulled Iris behind me that I was again swept off my feet.

With a single, powerful thrust of its wings, the Demon of Greed had sent a gust of air so powerful that my ankles were shredded with pain. Behind me, Iris tripped but found her footing. She wore a look of grim understanding as she recognised the situation for what it was.

Out in the open, with nothing between us and the Demon of Greed. There was no hope of flight. Not unless the creature itself offered us a ride.

"We can't run," said Iris, glancing at the narrow paths connecting to this section of the Red Light District. "Not through the streets. We have to use the buildings for cover. Or we have to fight."

As though in answer, the Demon of Greed reared up on its hooves and spread its wings. Its shadow enveloped us like the tide.

A moment later, all I saw were three pairs of heads diving towards us. Within each of them, I saw a new way to die. Crushed, stabbed or set alight. They would compete to see which could reach us first.

Iris raised her borrowed sword. She infused it with light. Already, I could see her forming a precise counter. Although I wasn't quite sure which sets of teeth she was planning on fighting.

For my part, I did the only thing I could.

I got up and raised my fist.

And then–

Nothing.

Three heads approached. And three heads collapsed.

Without Iris's counter-attack, and without my useless fists, the Demon of Greed fell on its many faces. The body of the creature crashed haphazardly, pulled forwards by its own momentum as it skidded into the already broken street. A cloud of dust went up, followed by a hateful hiss.

For the briefest of moments, several pairs of eyes rolled up at me almost accusingly. And then the lights faded one by one.

Shocked, I looked up at the carcass of the creature and saw what was sticking out from it.

A golden spear, radiant with light, its sharp wings as deeply impaled into the back of the creature as its spear tip. A thunderous hue was being emitted around the wound, as if lightning itself was being channelled into the heart of the monster.

"Yo guys. Guess what?"

Then, Magnus appeared.

It had to be the biggest shock of all.

Wearing a proud grin, he stepped confidently onto the fresh corpse of the Demon of Greed, then patted the butt of the spear.

He looked none the worse for wear, other than a few bits of dust on his adventurer's clothing.

In fact, the biggest stains to his person appeared to be the marks of many different shades of lipstick all over his face and neck.

"Holy spear's the real thing," he said casually, before kicking a piece of rubble off the back of the corpse. "Just checked."

I looked dumbfounded at the man.

Beside me, Iris was sharing the same expression.

"What?" he continued, clearly enjoying every moment of this. "Wondering when I was finally going to show up? Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. I just had business to finish first. Still got some left to do, if you get what I mean. Probably still waiting for me inside."

I turned to Iris.

"I actually forgot about him. You?"

She blinked away her confusion, then settled onto a frown aimed towards Magnus's smirk. It seemed that there was either something in his attitude or his words that had immediately set off her displeasure.

"Please give me tips," she replied. "I want to forget about him, too."

I let out a wry smile, accepting it as a joke.

And yet I couldn't help but notice, that despite the absurdity of the situation, Iris was looking every bit like a jealous maiden as she folded her arms.

I doubted if that jealousy was aimed towards the spear.