And yet here she was, marching closer to the noises of an obvious war with a demon in her head and an unconscious girl on her back.
Shalise slugged ever onwards, wishing for the millionth time that hour that she was anywhere else.
Cells along the wall ended abruptly. For a good dozen paces, the walls were nothing more than the black metal. Beyond that, the corridor opened up into a much larger plaza-like area.
A plaza full of demons and what could only be the dolls–half rusted iron and half flesh.
Shalise shuddered. A massive bolt ran through one entire shoulder of something that otherwise looked like a little boy. Hanging off the bolt was a claw that it used to tear into a small imp.
The imp never stood a chance.
Three larger demons turned on the doll and set to tearing it apart.
Shalise looked away.
And promptly met the eyes of a violet-skinned woman. Two red eyes narrowed.
“Humans,” she said. She turned to face Shalise as if the battle raging on did not matter in the slightest. “The ones from earlier? And what’s this, a bonded familiar?”
Shalise took a step backwards. “What do I do?” she hissed to her ever-present companion.
Prax did not immediately respond except to let out a brief wave of anger. An anger that fed into Shalise, making her grit her teeth.
Crystal
“Mother?” Shalise hissed, hoping she was being quiet enough that the demon couldn’t hear.
On the demon’s side of things, she did nothing but stand there, ignoring the ongoing battle out in the open area of the room. She wore a polite, almost regal smile. Nowhere near as elegant as some she had seen on Ylva. It might pass as an imitation in the right lighting.
Unfortunately, that smile did nothing to calm Shalise down. That wasn’t the kind of smile one greeted a friend with. It was something to wear when one had absolute confidence in her power over whatever was in front of her.
And currently, Shalise was in front of the her.
“I-is her being your mother good or bad?”
Shalise got the distinct impression that Prax was leaning back in a corner of her mind, sulking.
“That she didn’t know where you were?”
There was a mental scoff somewhere in the back of her head.
“Right,” Shalise muttered. Mentioning Prax wouldn’t help. In fact, it could get her killed.
Shalise swallowed despite her parched mouth.
Prax’s mother crossed her arms beneath her chest. She hefted herself up and down once as she adjusted her positioning. One glowing-violet finger began tapping against her arm.
The universal sign of impatience. Apparently it applied to demons as well.
“I’m sorry, I… um…”
Her lips peeled back to reveal a set of razor-sharp teeth. “And just what is a little
The demon took three sultry steps forward.
Shalise tried to take three steps backwards. Halfway through her first step, Juliana’s armor clanked against a wall.
She leaned down, putting her face right next to Shalise’s face. “Must I rend the answer from your mind?”
“It was an accident,” Shalise said as fast as she could. “I didn’t want to be here. Everything has gone wrong and my friend is sick. I just want to go home.”
“Accident?” she said with a frown. Maoa pulled her face away from Shalise, bringing herself back to full height. Her head turned back to the ongoing battle.
Shalise let out a sigh, glad to no longer have the demon’s immediate attention.
How the battle was going was anyone’s guess. Everything was such a mess. Demons torn apart by dolls. Machinery from the dolls lying around everywhere. There were more demons than there were dolls, but for all Shalise knew, the dolls were winning.
One particular doll–at least, Shalise assumed it was a doll. It didn’t have any rusted iron parts that she could see as its clothing covered it almost entirely, but it was fighting the demons. With a sword.
A very effective sword. Shalise winced and turned away from the demon whose waist no longer connected to his legs. She didn’t even see the sword wielder move other than a slight flicker.
At her side, Maoa’s saccharine smile twisted into a glower aimed at the sword woman.
Now that Maoa’s eyes weren’t on her, Shalise took a brief moment to look the demon over.
Like Prax, she had hoofed feet. Unlike Prax, tree bark-like armor covered her legs from her ankles to her mid-thigh. She wore similar gauntlets that ended in glowing violet points. Another bit of bark wrapped around her neck, ending in a glowing gem right on her sternum.
That was about all she wore. There were a few other ‘vines’ of bark almost mimicking a ribcage, but it did nothing to cover the demon’s assets.
A tail that looked like it was made from the same bark swished back and forth behind her. She had two straight horns poking out the top of her head and dark hair hanging down to her shoulders.
