Time was of the essence. She had to dispatch the creature before even the ingrained ability to sense other demons could be affected.
Arachne ran. She honed in on the other demon and sprinted. Even if she couldn’t see it, she’d hit something. The demon would make a crack in the ground or a small rock–something for Arachne to trip over.
Then she’d strike.
She jumped over Eva’s blood shield, making sure to just barely skim the surface. Two of her legs dug into the shield, just to ensure the jezebeth wasn’t disguising itself.
Doing so was unnecessary.
The jezebeth was sitting–inasmuch as a sphere with legs could sit–in front of the flame. The palpable surprise on its face as Arachne vaulted the shield was to die for.
Arachne’s face split in two with her grin. She had every intention of making that literal.
Her legs swept across as much empty air that they could reach. Missing the demon on account of it being two rolls to one side would be as annoying as it would be embarrassing.
Flesh spilled to the ground from empty air just a few paces from the demon. Arachne immediately turned and jabbed all of her legs into the spot. Over and over she pulled out her legs and jammed them back in.
The sitting jezebeth shimmered away into nothingness. A broken, battered, and screaming demon materialized in front of Arachne.
She absently noted that most of the creature was covered in freshly burned skin. Considering it was a demon that had some level of immunity to flames, that was mildly impressive. Unfortunately, that was likely caused by the professor rather than her Eva.
She wished, desperately wished that she had time to spare. Slow running of her fingers over the jezebeth’s flesh, cutting away small chunks as it serenaded her with screams. And its screams were so nice. High-pitched and from three mouths at once.
Arachne couldn’t ask for more.
But Eva was in trouble.
Bits of flesh flew off of the jezebeth as Arachne started tearing it to pieces. It didn’t have a head, but it had to have some vital core in there.
It fell apart, bit by bit, like a claw to an overripe tomato. Black goop oozed from every wound.
Arachne continued to pull, rend, tear, and decimate until its screams ceased. The ground opened up and swallowed most of the pulpy mess. An arm here and a leg there along with several strips of flesh and even a few fangs that had broken out all had been left behind.
She couldn’t worry about souvenirs. Arachne spun on a sharp heel and jumped through the shield to land at Eva’s side.
A second shield just inside caught Arachne mid jump.
“Eva,” Arachne said.
A spike of nearly black blood speared out of Eva’s chest and into Arachne’s own. It failed to penetrate and Eva looked in no mood to clap.
Her breathing was ragged. One arm looked like it tried to lift. It gave up just an inch off the ground.
Arachne ignored the spike as she knelt next to her Eva. Tons of blood made the surrounding grass slick, but that could be from her vials. Apart from the dagger in her chest and the blood trickling from her mouth, Eva didn’t look harmed.
The dagger in the chest was worrying enough.
“All the illusions are gone, Eva. Everything left is real.”
Not caring that her hand was still sticky with the jezebeth and carnivean’s blood, Arachne gripped the sides of Eva’s face. She turned her head to face Arachne.
Despite her soon-to-be-rectified lack of eyes, it almost seemed as if Eva was looking at her.
“It’s okay. I’m really Arachne. All the other demons are dead. You need to heal.”
Arachne paused as she glanced over Eva. Her breathing might have steadied slightly, but she didn’t move a muscle.
“Can you understand me?”
Eva made a slight cough. A spittle of blood flew into the air.
It didn’t fall back down. A thin string slipped from her mouth to join the few droplets already in the air. The moved around until they formed three simple shapes.
“How do I help?”
Arachne frowned with a glance a the dagger. “How do I help?”
“Eva,” Arachne said in a quiet voice, “how do I help?”
The blood in the air swirled into a tight sphere before forming into her response.
“I can do that.”
“That would leave you alone.”
