Void Domain, Book 04 полностью

She looked back up to the glowing white eyes in the darkness behind the ‘Y’ shaped visor.

They looked… sad.

What was I doing?

Juliana’s sickness returned in full force as whatever possessed her died out. She promptly vomited black blood.

The judicator removed her sword. Again, not a speck of filth touched any part of the angel. She slowly turned from Juliana–who was standing solely through virtue of her ferrokinesis failing and hardening her golden armor around her.

She watched the wings sweep the angel away as her vision darkened.

The pain in her chest vanished as a light clapping noise echoed inside her head.

Juliana blinked. The theater was back. She was on the stage, looking out over the seats.

“Bravo, bravo. Good show, milady.”

Before Juliana could turn her eyes towards the front seat, she collapsed. First to her knees, then her face met the floor.

She gave a light groan as she manipulated as much gold off of her as she could manage. That stuff was heavy after all. Especially now that she was back in her normal body.

“Bit of an overenthusiastic bow, don’t you think?”

Juliana pushed herself up to a kneeling position and looked over at the marionette demon. As she watched, he reached up and slid a featureless mask off his face and over to one side. The strings puppeteering his hands danced around him as he moved.

“You–”

“Willie,” he said, standing from his seat and performing a bow of his own. “I cannot recall whether I introduced myself or not during our first meeting. I was in a bit of a rush before.”

Blinking, Juliana grasped her chest, feeling all around. There was no sign, not even the tiniest mark, of the angel’s spear or the hole it had made.

Juliana bent over and gagged. She could remember every moment of what happened. Cutting down all those angels. The blood. The liking it.

She spat out on the floor in front of her and tried to control her breathing. Juliana didn’t know how long she sat there, but it was a good while. All constantly thinking about what she had done.

It wasn’t real, she thought. Like a video game.

As she finally calmed down, Juliana looked up. Willie hadn’t moved. He just stood there, watching. It had to have been more than an hour, but he didn’t move.

Juliana spat on the ground one more time, trying not to think about tasting anything. “What was that?”

“I provided you with entertainment upon being summoned. As a theatergoing demon, I expect the same of visitors in my domain.”

“Your domain? How–I was supposed to be in Prax’s domain.”

“The gift I gave you marked you–”

“Like this?” Juliana held up her ring finger, wishing Ylva’s ring was on a different finger.

Willie tilted his head with a pained expression. “Not quite that strongly. Just enough that I could tell you had entered the waters of Hell. Quite the surprise. Nearly missed my chance to nudge you over to my humble abode.”

Juliana half rolled her eyes and half glanced around the exorbitant theater. From the stage, she could see a second floor. The place had to be bigger on the inside. Each of the second floor seats were filled by golden statues of half-humanoid bees. None of them were moving; given the honey outside, there had to be a connection.

“What are you doing in Hell, milady?”

Juliana frowned, wishing she had a proper answer.

The long hallway.

Blood red walls with a black hardwood floor. A narrow carpet protected the hardwood from the sharp undersides of Eva’s feet.

There were no doors. No side passages. Nothing at all apart from a way forwards and a way backwards.

It looked exactly as it had every other time.

Eva took off at a run.

And promptly got nowhere.

It didn’t matter which way she ran. Neither direction ever took her anywhere apart from where she was.

Yet Eva ran.

There had to be progress somewhere. Even if she was dead, there had to be more to it than a hallway.

She passed by some scorch marks on the walls. Those were old. She hadn’t tried burning her way out of the hallway in what felt like forever.

It never worked.

On the plus side, if Eva ever managed to escape from the hallway, she was quite confident that her thaumaturgical flames had increased dramatically in temperature and intensity. Attempting to burn down a hallway several times over the past eternity turned out to be decent training.

Who would have guessed.

Eva tripped. Her face became intimately introduced to the carpet. Eva groaned as she pushed herself up to her knees. Rubbing the rug burn off her cheek, Eva glanced around.

She had never fallen before. Not without intending to at least. That change alone welled up excitement in her chest.

A lip of carpet. That was what had caused her to trip.

Frowning, Eva used her sharp claws to tear away at the carpet.

Nothing. No trap door. No secret tunnel. Clawing at the wood did nothing–it never had in the past either.

Sighing, Eva got to her feet. She froze half way there.