Chapter 105: Quickened Run to the Capitol
Bie's hurried footsteps brought him a couple kilometers away from the capitol, auric feathers falling as they escaped the grasp of the yellowish white energy surging from his feet and lower leg. To move even faster, he alternated his weight between lighter and heavier as he stepped, the momentum carrying him forward faster than what he felt he could do naturally.
He shifted the weight of his unconscious party as he glided along, being careful not to drop them or jostle them too much. This was quite frustrating to the young Guide, however, because it wasn't like all the demons in Morris suddenly decided to leave him alone.
He wielded his suppressive force with wild abandon, flattening weaker demons like pancakes and throwing them into the mouths of stronger opponents. Hopping on their backs or heads with crushing weight, he dug his feet deep into their poor bodies as he used them as a leaping post, clicking his tongue as most of them didn't even die from the impact.
Minutes blurred by as fast as the desolate ground, and only the bleak light could follow after him. Concern from the words of Pan's Butcher permeated Bie's thoughts, the boy in question clicking his tongue as he bit his lips in frustration.
'I hope I can do something with those Remnants, soon. It's frustrating…'
Thoughts lingering about the Remnant he seized from Pan's Butcher, he wondered if he could've gleaned a little bit information from it. Anything at this point would be better than the mindless running he did now.
"Outta my way!" With a swift kick, a Gania Dog flew up high into the sky, becoming a thin speck to any viewers at ground level. Feathers surged outwards as Bie jumped up in the air, and he kicked off some of the falling feathers in order to carry himself even further as he utilized Mountain's Step to lessen his weight.
At times, he would throw out weapons from his Inner World and lob his right hand at it, Ariadne's Thread swinging as he hung half a meter below his string attached hand and gained more momentum. When he felt like he was getting too close to the ground, he decisively heightened his weight and aimed his feet towards the nearest demon, legs like a falling anvil as he formed craters in the stony terrain.
"Whatcha moving so fast for, kiddo?" Shockingly, Lah suddenly appeared beside him when he was only a kilometer away from Morris Capitol. Caught off guard, Bie backflipped in the air a couple times before the mutated demon hunter righted him.
The two met on the ground not a moment later, Bie finally letting down the pack as he confidently made his way forward with a blank face. Though the woman could tell there was a worried glint in his yellow topaz eyes, so she hunched over and met him at eye level.
"Did anything happen at the capitol???" Bie's face was met by the green eye shaped glow beneath the burrowing owl mask. Lah took a second to think about something, tapping her finger against the "cheek" of her mask as she deliberated on telling the boy before her anything.
"First, you look like you've been through the ringer. That snoring is from your teammates in the bag, right?"
"Yes to both. The reason why I'm like this is because there's something urgent."
"Must be. Have you ever heard of the children of Gant?" Bie turned his head as his irises slid over, a leer portraying his comfortable wariness. Lah moved her hand and returned Bie's face to be directly meeting her eyes, and the two shared a mischievous smile at the same time.
"How long have you known?"
"Heehee…I wonder?"
"You're pretty good at acting?"
"Your friends gave you away. I might've fallen for it if it was you alone…"
"Just goes to show that you gotta do everything yourself, hm?"
"Oh, don't be like that~ it's so mean! They'll come in useful one day you know…besides…don't you like all but one of them?"
"Accurate. Now will you stop beating around the bush and tell me what you know?"
Bie's hand slipped beneath the mask and grasped her chin as well, the two cackling conspiratorially after a moment. As Lah wiped the tears from her eyes, she immediately got serious when her face was completely dry.
"You're lucky I like you, kid. Have you ever heard of The Scrawled Text?" The two continued forward, each carrying half of the sleeping demon hunters as they sallied forth. Bie shook his head with a solemn expression, and Lah nodded as if she expected it.
"It was a fearsome child of Gant. One so difficult that it escaped the pursuit of several Red Angels that swore up and down they killed it. But as you know…" A red tint flashed from her body as she clutched onto a flask with amber liquid, pulling off her mask for the first time since they had met.
A beautiful woman with dark lime hair and light cherry horns wrapped with twisted dark red wings made itself known to the world once again. Although her skin was a sickening shade of pale white, her eyes shone with green infused vigor, the color only a few shades lighter than her similarly green lips. Her luscious hair fell to the nape of her neck before defiantly curling upwards, and two distinctive locks swept over her ears, revealing a half cute, half mature vibe.
"…those Red Angels don't do shit right. They can't even add to their ranks, ey?" The angelic energy fluctuation elicited an energy fluctuation from Bie in turn, and they felt a somewhat weak connection. As if they were intrinsically linked in some small manner, they could slightly feel the presence of each other.
"You won't be able to track me with this, yeah?"
"Yep. It's pure coincidence that we met here! I think the range would only be a meter or so…? Anyways." Putting her mask back on, she took a deep breath as she drank some of the amber liquid within the flask.
"I don't know how much time it'll take, but that creature will appear today. And as you can tell, they have counters to the average angelic energy. Only people like us outcasts, demon hunters, and otherworlders will be able to counteract the invasion."
"Then shouldn't we move faster?"
"Not really. You need time to heal, and once we get there, we'll have to search the slums to find out how many Cultists of the Morgue took their place. Then we need to find that stupid Hospitality Home, and I doubt it'll be able to elude us for long…"
"Hunter Balir, what is he doing?"
"Beating the shit out of demons surging towards the capitol? Only the stronger ones can tell that something is about to go down, and I figured I should search for some of the only people that can confront them. Which is why I'm out here instead of inside of my beloved reception room~"
Bie shook his head in annoyance, feeling as if he should force himself to go faster. But the more logical side of him knew that Lah's words had some sense to them, so he merely mirrored her speed.