Demons Run
-.
-.
/"Those certainly sounds like crystal cricket shenanigans,"/ Monika whispered.
I clapped my hands. "All right. Enough posturing. We're all friends here. As a duly deputized official of the Crown of Belfast, and an accredited Healer of the same," through royal patronage and much bribery of the Healer's Guild "why don't we take this inside where I can take a look at your friends?"
-.
Oh they did not look good. They did not look good at all.
The only parts of them spared were their face. Bruises were all over their bodies, not even their breasts were spared. There was no room for modesty when it was vital to heal in preparation for war. And in the exposed areas of flesh when wearing armor…
"Are these claw marks?" Skin had been gouged out, and on their arms and legs were broad puncture wounds that hinted of a careless grip pushing deep into flesh.
The worst was a puncture wound into Cynthia's side, going straight into her kidneys. Sarah Lanyard, and the other women didn't even bother to heal their superficial injuries, no matter how painful and swelling were their still torn muscles, just to save her magic power to keep Cynthia's wound from going septic. The debauched fencer was still unconscious and feverish.
Lying still on a cot on the floor like this, pale and delicate, only might even be fooled into thinking she was a proper young lady.
Mylah's body was in the morgue, under ice. At least they didn't have to spend magic power yet in maintaining refrigeration.
"If I could just cast [Great Heal] again…" Sarah mumbled. But doing so in her condition would kill her. Magic did not cast from willpower, but stamina. This was why Healers were so respected, because asking from them too much would also harm them. Magic Stones were amplifiers for [Light] magic, but magic has to come from somewhere.
From our research, it was perfectly valid to call [Magic] as a [Force]. Everything that lived possessed magic; it surrounds us, binds us, holds the universe together.
Elze was already running healing magic over Sarah, and slowly the signs of being beaten nearly to death faded. "Did you fight something that looked like a giant crystal cricket?" she asked.
"No… it was a demon. It was a demon that did this!"
What what. What? Is that a thing now?
"It had the face of a goat, the upper body of a man, and the hind legs of an ox." Lydia sighed softly. "It was no mere demon. It was a Demon Lord."
Demon Lo- what sort of dragon quest is this?!
Elze sucked in her breath. "Seriously? That's… that's not just a story, right?"
"There could be no mistaking that might. That terror… There was just nothing we could do." Lydia cradled her face in her palms, despondent. "That fearful aura… we were ready to give our lives, but it just didn't matter. That creature was just too strong. And its summoner, somehow… he too was immune to all magic. Neither blade nor wand had any efficacy… and then, all too quickly, we were brought down."
"That's bad! That's seriously bad!" Elze squeaked. "Is it a demon invasion like in the legends?!"
"No… it's unlikely. That Demon Lord was taking orders. Belfast is too far away from Demon country, regardless."
I looked up sharply. "Wait, hang on. I know there's undead. They just appear out of nowhere where there's strong lingering emotion. Now there are demons. But are there vampires also?"
"Um. Yes? Of course?" Linze answered. "There are monster beasts, and then there are monster beings."
THIS COMPLICATES THINGS MASSIVELY MONIKA.
Monika's bland expression through the augmented reality overlay to my vision was just /'Why?'/
/"Is it because you are Catholic?"/ She put her fingers together into a cross shape. /"Since when has that ever been a problem? The Roman Catholic Church has always been the go-to reference for anti-demon warfare. Legend has it that King Solomon could trap and control demons. Pope Honorius II was reputed to summon demons in the night and then beat them up as his stress relief.
/"And contrary to expectations, the Church's exorcism training tends to allay first mental and physical ailments before jumping to the conclusion it's demon possession, and their measures are much much gentler than the actions of civilians. Section XIII Iscariot is still the standard against which all vampire hunters are measured. What is the problem here?"/
Because I can't decide how to take this now. Id or Blizzard?
Monika sighed and palmed her face. /"Truly, you are a Dark Soul."/
Look at this, Monika. Look at their faces. They are beaten, not in body, but in the soul. They would throw their lives away just for the slightest chance of saving their lady, the person who gave their lives meaning. Without her… what is the point in living?
A hollow existence like that… I know it well.
It was like their fires were beaten right out of them. What would it take to ignite their confidence again?
I don't need some game overlay popup to know my quest here. A demon is an out-of-context problem that breaks the long balance between powers. Sometimes I felt like the reason I was here was to be another out-of-context problem to balance out everyone else's cheatery and general moral shittery.
Demons run when a good man goes to war.
/"But we are not good people, Player."/
So let's pretend.
Monika in her virtual world posed like she was a Sailor Senshi or something. /"Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice!"/
You are not docking any Monika points from me, I recognized that reference.
/"Aren't you being overconfident though? We simply might not be that strong compared to demons."/
If demons were capable of eating magic, then that's why we get to test the anti-antimagic methods we worked up in case we meet up with another ancient magic-eating crystal creature.
"Summoning, huh." We should really have looked more into that magic. It really just didn't interest me because I was not a Disney Princess.
I didn't need magic beasts to do my bidding, and summoning sapient creatures felt a little too much like slavery. Yes, a summoner and a summonee need to agree first, but if it were me I would be *absolutely pissed* if some random Dark Mage summoned me while I was relaxing at home with my family.
"So, you do you have any idea who was the master of this demon?"
Lydia sat with her fingers laced together in a Gendo pose. "It was General Bazoar of Regulus."
"Wah, so fast! Are you sure?"
"He was here." Lydia swept her arm around the room. The receiving room of Castle Zeno, with its throne-like high chair broken in two. The thick stone walls were pitted with cracks and scorch marks, but few were recent. Many a scion of House Zeno died fighting to the last in this room. "He made sure we knew who dared trespass. These halls… have been disrespected. No one just playing a part would have enjoyed it that much."
The two broken long tables that reminded me of Hogwarts dining tables, that was a recent damage. As if someone had picked them up and thrown them at a boastful invader.
"Is… is he some sort of moron? A master of [Earth] magic is all the more dangerous the more enclosed the space."
"If you mean that we should have attacked the summoner while some of us kept the Demon Lord distracted, of course we did. He too was completely invulnerable. Blades couldn't even cut his clothes." Lydia's hollow expression only deepened. "A demon is fearsome, even a dragon would think twice. But a human bound to a demon… there can be nothing so vile."
Sarah crossed her arms protectively over her bountiful chest and began sniffling. "We… we couldn't do anything. We were so weak. We need to get the Lady back… we need to get her back right now!"
I stared at Lydia's face, drawn and gaunt, but with her high cheekbones and full red lips she looked much closer to a classy lady than Zorah as a cakeface. Cynthia was arrestingly beautiful in that androgynous way that she could tempt married women into her bed. Sarah had that bouncy body with a deceptively young face, enough that a noble would murder her family just to possess her.
The mere fact that they were in a hurry, and could only carry one person, thus the reason that a general of Regulus could only indulge himself with sowing pain instead of other lusts.
I sighed. Why is this world so full of scumbags, really?
Every little bit of power you could use to lord over someone else, everything that allows you to get away with hurting others. It's like I was in a world full of spoiled manchildren who never had anyone to knock some sense into them.
Or basically exactly like 16th Century Europe but without the religious motivation for war I guess. Nobility's delusions of superiority have yet to be broken in the trenches and the mud and the machine guns.
Did that magic-eating crystal cricket that wiped out the former capital of Belfast a thousand years ago and the magic immunity of Demon Lords have something to do with each other?
/"Magic immunity in a civilization based entirely upon magic is quite the strong hindrance, Player. Maybe we have become too secure and egotistical in our advantage with our unlimited well of power. You shouldn't let your mouth write checks that your body can't cash."/ She outlined the girls in my HUD. /"You... are not the only one in danger here."/
I pulled up a chair and sat facing Lydia. I imitated her pose, resting my elbows over my knees and lacing my finger together. I leaned forward, darkly looming. "Tell me everything you know, so that we can soonest start to figure out how to fight this thing."
Lydia clenched her jaw in a half-snarl. "The demon is not the more dangerous - it is the man! You must kill that beast!"
-.
-.