And if Juliana was in trouble, it might be some time before someone came along to free her. A potentially deadly situation should the shackles drain her as the other shackles tried to do to her.
“Juliana,” Eva called out again.
This time, she actually heard something in response. Nothing clear. A mumbled noise coming from somewhere below.
The staircase leading up to the roof had fallen with the blast. The way down from whatever floor Eva was on looked more or less intact.
Unfortunately, she spotted several demon shackles just waiting for some poor demon to try to walk up it without glancing above them. They were much easier to notice while facing the stairwell from the wrong direction. However, they spoke of just how on guard she would have to be while walking through the building. Or any of the buildings around.
If she had her cellphone on her, she might have called up Irene to see if she could get a human walking her through the area. At the very least, Irene should be able to scuff up the shackles enough to break them.
Not a choice at the moment, sadly.
Eva overpowered a fireball, throwing it right at the shackle before it exploded. When it did go off, it took most of the ceiling with it.
Surprising, given the difficulty in destroying the shackles within the apartment building. Perhaps they hadn’t had time to make them difficult to remove. Though they had managed to set up all the other wards that littered the rooftops.
“Oh well,” Eva mumbled to herself. “No complaints here.”
She carefully descended the staircase, checking every nook and cranny for more shackles. Even underneath the handrail and the vertical slat on each stair. Rubble from the ceiling of the stairs or the roof itself littered the landing, nearly causing her to miss another set of shackles.
This time, she tried a far less explosive fireball. Just enough to chip into the concrete platform and disrupt the shackles.
She made it all the way down to the first floor.
And promptly froze.
“Am I glad to see you,” Juliana said.
Eva wasn’t sure what to say in response.
A half-sphere of water sat in front of her. Somewhat like an above-ground swimming pool. Except there were no walls. The water was entirely held in by magic.
Wards.
Juliana stood inside it, feet about an arm’s length away from the ground, standing on a pillar of metal. Her pillar let her stick out from her chest up, but she had clearly fallen in at least once. She was soaked from head to toe.
Obviously, given her toes were underwater.
The pillar was probably made of her armor; she was only wearing her regular clothes at the moment. The only metal on her was her ring foci and Ylva’s black band.
The metal-encased idol was lying on the floor right next to the metal pillar.
Eva reached out, about to touch the bubble of water.
“Don’t!”
Juliana’s shout had her pull her hand back, clutching it to her chest.
“What if you got stuck in here? How would we get out then?”
“I’m just confused as to how you managed to fall into this trap?”
In slow motion because of the water, Juliana placed a hand on her hip. “It wasn’t full of water when I walked in. I didn’t see a thing until I ran into an invisible wall.
She pointed down at her feet. As she lifted one foot out of the way, Eva found a mostly formed summoning circle had been etched into the top of the pillar.
“Of course,” Juliana continued in a quieter mumble, “probably would have gotten an enigma which would have just killed me. Better than drowning though. Even if I got a demon, no room for shackles here.”
“Don’t worry about either. I’m going to get you out of there.”
An easy statement to make. Much harder to follow through with. Now she was wishing she had a phone to call up Professor Lepus. The warding professor should be able to tear it down in the time it took to snap her fingers.
“How fast has it been filling?”
“Fast enough that I’d rather get out now than later.”
“You didn’t think to call someone once you got trapped?”
Juliana pulled a cellphone out of her pocket. One long dead from the water.
“Was the first thing I thought of once I realized I was trapped. Unfortunately, the water was rushing in much faster then. Enough to knock me down.” She dropped the phone with a shrug. It sank down alongside the idol and her pillar. “I honestly thought I would drown before I even had a chance to form the summoning circle,” she said.
She kept a careful eye out for any shackles as she moved.
