The Runaways

"Thank you, Hunter," Zoe said, tears already threatening to break out of her eyes. "Thank you for being my friend and thank you for inviting me to that lunch," she said. The sprite was holding the fiend but she had a soft grip on his hand so it was easy for him to remove his hand from hers.

"I'll invite you to as many lunches as you want," he said as he got to his feet and picked up the longsword and shield. "We won't die today."

The fiend watched in awe as Hunter walked towards the still-emerging pure demon. The Adversary was huge and tall, north of fifteen meters but that wasn't going to stop the sprite, he had no intention of just sitting and waiting to die, especially not in this godforsaken place.

A crow landed next to the sprite but he barely acknowledged it, continuing what was certain to be a march of death.

However, as the dark-haired boy marches on, he sees a flash of light and finds himself in a different location.

"What the ... Was I hallucinating again?"

[No, that was very real. Move forward]

Hunter did as the demon instructed, walking forward until he began to see a figure. The closer he got, the more the figure got clearer and the sprite could tell it was a female and then she spoke. "Apologies."

The woman before him was gorgeous, utterly without flaws to his eyes, and the sprite's tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth as he struggled to speak.

Her silver eyes turned maroon and they flashed with wit and intelligence and gazed upon the dark-haired boy with a warmth and welcome that was comforting.

Her skin was extremely pale as was her hair; silver with multi-colored streaks. Hunter could tell exactly who she was before she introduced herself.

The elegant woman was wearing a full-length dress that hugged her form like a second skin. All while her body drew his eyes like a lodestone. She had a narrow waist and a flat stomach, with wide hips and a perfectly plump behind.

Her most arresting feature, besides her noble and flawless face, was her ample bust, barely contained within her dress. The neckline of the dress plunged just deep enough to offer the tantalizing view of soft pale skin and the deep shadow between them.

Hunter was stunned and speechless and his eyes wandered over her body mindlessly. The queen of Hel seems to have caught his wandering eyes and a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Though whether it was in annoyance or pleasure, the sprite couldn't tell.

"It's no problem," he finally manage to get out, internally cursing himself for his croaking voice. "You're Lilith, right?" He asked finally getting some moisture in his mouth.

"Indeed I am. It's good to finally meet you outside of the council hall." Her voice was soft and caressing as she said it, she turned and motioned to a seat not far from the sprite.

"I'm sure you're wondering as to why you are here."

"Not really, you want to make a deal with me, no?" He said.

"Correct."

"Really? Because I was only joking ... You don't have to make a deal with me if you don't want to."

Her lips curl upward as she spoke. "I do want to make a deal with you," she said.

"Right, right. So who you got? I mean ... What are we doing? ... No! What deal are we making?"

She laughed softly as she turned on her heels and walked towards a table that appeared out of nowhere and leaned her back to it. "Relax, Hunter. I promise you're not in trouble," said the silver-haired woman. "Perhaps some tea to calm yourself a bit."

[Refuse]

"Hahaha. It's fine ... I'm fine," Hunter said internally facepalming himself.

"Okay. Let's get down to business then; A war is coming and at the end of it, your faction triumphs," she stated.

"A war? What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Like most influential pure demons, I possess the knowledge of the future; precognition," she stated.

"And you saw a war break out in the future? But that doesn't mean it is certainly happening, right?" He asked. "What you saw isn't set in stone and chances are no war comes to pass," he continued.

"That is true," Lilith agreed. "But wouldn't you agree that it's better to be ahead of the curve than end up being killed by it?"

"I wouldn't disagree with you."

"Excellent. So here's the deal: I would take you and your friends back to your home realm and in return you'll never bring harm upon me," she proposed.

"Hm ... Even if I agree, can't someone else from my faction harm you?"

"Not at all. Contracts and deals agreed by the leaders of a group extend to their followers; it's how agreements like the Meridional Accord and the treaty of 1592 were reached," the silver-haired demon explained.

"Wow ... I didn't know that! Oh, also, my friend can't go back to Nym'Roal yet; she was sacrificed here or something."

"I know, I can fix that."

"Great! So the proposed deal is that you'll heal my friend and immediately transport us back to Nym'Roal ..."

"Yes."

"And in return --"

[Choose your wording carefully]

"-- I will not bring any harm to you so long as you don't bring any harm to me."

The ruler of Hel smiles. "Splendid. Now you walk through that door so I can fulfill my end of the deal," she instructed.

"Alright ... I'll uh ... I'll see you later ... I guess." The sprite waved and began in the direction where the pure demon had pointed, he couldn't wait to leave Hel and all its maliciousness behind.

[That was the most embarrassing thing I've ever been a part of. You were short-circuiting throughout the conversation]

'Can you blame me? That woman has such a large presence and personality about her!'

[Now you decide to be eloquent]

'Screw you! Also, isn't it funny that Naamah was belittling Lilith but said healing Zoe would take weeks and yet Lilith just said she'd handle it like it was nothing?'

[Naamah has no idea what she's talking about; Lilith is the strongest demon in all the realms ... Well, second strongest]

'Whoa?'

Hunter walked through the door and found himself in front of the Metropolitan School of Mysticism building along with Ishani, Zoe, and Naamah who was no longer in the form of a pure energy ball.

The pure demon takes in her surroundings and checks on Zoe to find that there's no black spot on her back. She turned to Hunter, her face painted with a puzzled expression. "How?"

Hunter raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean how?"

"It's because of your deal with Vali right? He's the one that helped you escape from Hel and saved your friend," she said.

[Ah, Naamah. As speculative as ever]

"I wonder what deal you made with him. While we're on the topic, you should handle that piece of paper he gave to you with care; if it destroys so would our deal," she stated.

"What do you mean? I'm pretty sure that's not how contracts work," said Hunter.

"It's not but Vali likes to display the contracts he's signed over the years and hence manifests what would otherwise be a mouth-to-mouth agreement in a physical form," she explained. "Moving on, since we are already on Nym'Roal, can you take me to my brother?"

.

.

.

As Hunter walks back to his room, a black car pulls up next to him and Jade steps out of it. "Look who it is! Here to drag me to my well-deserved welcome home party?"

"Thankfully no but I am glad to see your smile hasn't faltered following your short stay away," said the vampire.

"What can I say? Hel was mostly kind to me. Looking back, I think we didn't go through the horrors most talk about because I had a patron pulling some strings behind the scenes," the sprite stated.

"Hm. So where's the girl you risked your life to rescue or did you forget her back there?"

"Wouldn't that be something? I'm actually from her apartment, I also dropped off Ishani at her dorm room and reunited Naamah with her brother."

"Naamah? Please tell me you didn't bring that piece of crap back here."

Before the sprite can respond, Jade's phone starts to ring, the vampire takes out the phone from her pocket and answers the call. "What is it?" She asked. "Huh? I'll be there," she said before putting the phone back in her pocket.

"That was Circe, she apparently needs my help for something important," said the vampire.

"Well, you shouldn't keep her waiting then. See you tomorrow?"

"Of course. We have a lot to talk about. Goodnight, Hunter." The vampire walks back into her car and drives away.

Hunter uses his index finger to scratch the back of his ear. "Are you going to show yourself or are you going to hide behind that tree all night?"

"Keen observation Mr. Heffernan but I wasn't hiding, I was simply waiting for the leech to move along." A tall middle age man with brown hair and blue eyes stepped out from behind a tree. The man was wearing a bartender suit and his hands were folded behind his back.

"Right. I don't think we've met before," Hunter said raising an eyebrow.

"Indeed we haven't. I am Sir Aragones of the Grand Liberation Program. I was recently appointed as the coordinator for the year one students in the Metropolitan School of Mysticism," said the blue-eyed man.

"Oh. Am I in trouble?"

"Depends on your definition of the word. I was looking through the attendance record and came to note that yours were staggeringly low. This school is esteemed and distinguished and we simply cannot have that." He hands a sheet of paper to Hunter which contained the sprite's attendance record to further prove his point.

Hunter looks at the paper and then at the man. "I'm sorry. But I've only been absent due to the long missions I was assigned by the Public Safety and Demon Control agency, you know, the organization the Council of Mysticism ask me to join," he defended himself.

"That has certainly been taken into account which is why your behavior shall not be disciplined. However, we have notified the Bureau and your organization that the Council of Mysticism only assigned your weekends to them. Which, if adhered to, should not affect your attendance record here. Therefore, I'm giving you up until the end of the semester to raise your attendance record past the required percentage or you would be expelled."

...

"I'm exhausted," Hunter said as he throws himself on his bed. "I just want today to end already,"

[Eh ...]

"What?"

There was a quick knock on the door and Hunter turned with a loud groan. "Oh come on!"

The sprite begrudgingly got up from his bed and walks across the room to the door. He pulled it open to see Zoe with dark circles under her eyes and holding a pillow in her hand. "Hey ..." She said softly.

"Um ... Hey," said the sprite.

"I know you're scared of sleeping alone so I decided to come spend the night with you ... You know, to help you fall asleep," she said gently before walking past the sprite and making her way for the bed.

"I --"

"It's alright, you don't have to be scared since I'm here. Good night, Hunter," she said pulling the covers to her waist. "Can you leave the lights on?"

[Hunter she's --]

'Yeah, I know.'

"Sure," Hunter said before lying on the other side of the bed. "Goodnight Zoe."

*ELSEWHERE*

Ishani springs out of her bed grabbing a lance from her bedside and pointing it at a hooded figure who had just walked into her room.

"Relax, it's just me," said the hooded figure, their voice was masculine and deep.

Ishani lowers her weapon and sighs. "You could have knocked like any normal person should," she said.

"Thought you might have visitors," he stated. "I tried calling your phone for the past week but it always goes to voice mail," he said.

"Yeah well, reception is pretty bad in Hel," the dark brown-skinned woman replied.

"What were you doing in Hel?"

"What else? Watching and protecting Hunter," she rolled her eyes. "Thankfully the situation was different from the Northland job and he asked me to come with him otherwise following him would have been difficult," Ishani stated.

"He asked you to follow him? That's good, hope you used the opportunity to get closer to him?"

"You know me, I don't waste a good opportunity," she said.

*MEANWHILE*

Jade stepped out of her car and walks up to Circe who was leaning on a wall with a floating lamp just above her head.

"It's been a while since I've seen one of these," said the vampire pointing at the lamp.

"Yeah, Stella misses you too," Circe said.

They both turn to face a dark tunnel. "What am I looking at?" Jade asked.

"No idea. The New Lanes police raided a ranch suspected to belong to cultists a couple of miles from here. All the people arrested killed themselves while they were being transported to the station," Circe said.

Jade nods. "I see why you needed my help," she said. "You think it's in here?" She asks.

"Let's find out."

The duo walked into the tunnel with the lamp hovering over them both as they moved and brightened their path. "Have you finally come up with a good riddle for me?" Jade asked.

"Not yet. I still can't believe you solved the last one as soon as I recited it to you," said Circe.

"And I still can't believe how easy the riddle was to solve," said Jade.

"I spent weeks putting it together," said the light red-haired woman.

"You could have spent those weeks doing something better," Jade teased.

"Heh, you would earn no retort from me," said Circe.

"I know, it would probably take you weeks to come up with one," said Jade.

"That was a good one," conceded the yellow-eyed woman. "Can I ask you something?" said the leader of the Public Safety and Demon Control agency, suddenly changing the topic. "It's about Hunter," she added.

"What about him?"

"Why did you offer to supervise him? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you did but for more than five hundred years I tried to get you to take several protégés but you declined them all without hesitation," Circe stated. "In Hunter's case, you offered to take him on your own."

"I don't know," Jade shrugged looking at her feet. "I guess I was afraid," she stated.

"You? Afraid?"

"Yes ... Someone uses chaos magic out in the open since you know who. I wanted to keep an eye on him just in case," Jade lied.

"I see," Circe said deep in thought.

"But I'm glad I did," said the vampire. "He reminds me of someone I used to know," Jade stated.

"Your little brother, Aiden?" Circe asked.

"Yeah," Jade said with a tight smile. "What about you? I don't imagine Councilwoman Hecate was thrilled with your decision to take in a chaos magic user," Jade said.

"She was infuriated but I couldn't help it. When I saw him ... I liked what I saw,"

"You keep your cougar hands away from my little brother!"

"I didn't mean it like that. Besides, I don't think he's interested in me like that," said Circe.

"Oh, so if he did it would be alright?"

"I mean ..." They both laugh.

The duo began to see the end of the tunnel. Circe stopped while Jade continued a bit forward. The vampire gets a closer look at the old crumbly-looking wall that had runes marked on it and brown stains all over it.

"Yeesh! What's in here?!" said the vampire as she inspects the walls.

"It's a torture room for vampires. My mother created it during the class wars to extract information from any member of your faction we capture. The runes serve to increase tenfold the mechanism of the vampires so that their craving for blood would increase while the increase in their ability would make them see the darkness of the room and hear the silence. The point is to drive the vampire to the brink of insanity," Circe explained.

"If you already knew what was down here why did you ask me to --" Jade cuts her sentence short and tries to use her enhanced speed to rush out of the tunnel but she's stopped by an invisible energy barrier. "It activated as soon as you walked past that line," the light red-haired woman said pointing to a dark line on the ground.

"What are you doing, Circe?"

"I'm starting the final phase. I have no intention of hurting you, Jade, but this is the one place I'm sure can hold you until judgment day."

The yellow-eyed woman turns on her heels and began making her way out of the tunnel, her floating lamp following her.

"Circe!"

Circe stops and turns to face the vampire. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of him - no, I'll take care of both of them."

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