Chapter 208: Savior Destruction.

I dropped unto Pandemonium after an even more grueling teleportation process where I and Moonwash suffered several deeper cuts. I should've had this whole process down to a science by now, transporting only the two of us shouldn’t have been nearly this difficult. But that wasn't important right now!"PANDEMONIUM! WHAT'S WRONG!?"

An earthquake shook the entire space around us, and I ran through the holes that suddenly opened in the walls until I found myself outside. I frantically looked around once I was under the open skies, and instantly followed the further directions given to me by the shaking of the ground.

There, just inside the gates of the manor, I found Granuel looking incredibly haggard and in shock.

“WHAT’S WRONG!?” I grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook the small ishkawtan man.

He winced, but spoke before I could think to let him go. “They took Angerly! Arkar City got attacked, and she got captured!!!”

“WHAT!??” My mind processed that in the split of a split of the split of a second.

I did not hear the rest of his explanation as I was already flying. I shot through the air faster than sound could travel. I pushed my body to the limit, leaving a thousand thunderclaps in my wake. The scenery blurred past, and in only a few hours, I had arrived in the last place I had seen my friend.

I landed clumsily before the gates. Dust and sound exploded upon my descent. I heard the shouting from beyond the chaos of my arrival.

“What the–”

“Look–”

I crushed the head of one guard with my blade, and dismembered the other with my magic. I snarled when I glanced up and saw the white and gold colors of Edengar on prominent display, where the green and brown of New Grandera should’ve replaced it. I couldn’t believe they’d actually dared to make a move in this situation. I’d warned my friends of exactly this happening, and they didn’t listen. The Edengarians just had to attack this City of all places, where people I actually cared about were staying!

They fucking captured her. Angerly.

I gritted my teeth and charged.

I rushed straight for the center of town, uncaring of the broken pavement and wagons I left behind.

I finally stopped in front of the biggest manor here, and saw how the people panicked upon the chaos of my arrival. An arrow was loosed towards me, spells, and fucking I cut down the templars that dared to get close, and burned those who mistakenly believed they could run. I strode right through the open gates they never got the opportunity to close and observed my surroundings.

My mind raced. Memories came back with perfect clarity. I layered atop each other the floor plans of all the manors I knew. I leapt and crashed right through the wall, somewhere in the middle floor of the central building. My spatial senses allowed me to pick up the presence of people, and I focused on it for a second to pick up on even the ones at the very edges. My instincts were good enough to gleam a rough idea of their relative power, no matter sense I used.

I stomped and crashed through several layers of floor, only to find a bunch of guards and templars. I killed them, but they weren’t who I was looking for. Which made sense. Of course they’d have some of the strongest people here with them, but not necessarily the highest leadership.

I had to fly back to the room I’d initially entered, and scan the area again until I found a likely target…

I crashed right through more layers of wall, injuring some people on the other side. I then flew up and burst right through the ceiling to arrive at the room I’d aimed for. Here I saw the one shepherd, and two templars who were already swinging their weapons at me.

I was faster and Devilcalibur cleaved them in two.

“You, what–” The shepherd stammered but suddenly choked on the words as I grabbed her by the throat and strangled the life out of her.

“Where. Is. She.”

“I… grr.. argh!”

I relaxed my hand just enough for her to speak.

“I--I don’t know who you’re talking about! You’re that demon!? Haell Zharignan! You shouldn’t be here! GET OUT!”

I squeezed again, and her face turned redder as she tried in vain to pry my hand off her. I nearly snapped her neck when she foolishly tried to invade my mind. I made sure not to kill her, and settled instead for the backlash my vengeance magic returned to her.

She almost died anyway. Fucking frail. Weak. . Did someone like this really dare to touch a friend of mine?

“I’ll ask one more time,” My aura flared out of me, and I gave her a single taste of hellfire. “Tell me where Angerly is! Or is how you’ll die!”

“I don’t know anything! I don’t know anything! I really don't!" Big ugly tears streamed down her face.

“Are you not in charge of this place!? Did you conquer it!?”

“Y-yes! We took it back! I don’t know about who you’re looking for, but they might be in the dungeons below!”

I gave the shepherd woman one last sneer, and then snapped her neck.

I went through multiple layers of floor again, to arrive at the ground level. I crushed people on the way down, and killed the rest who stood in my way. I remembered the vile and gruesome scenes of my own capture, and I set fire to the manor. I couldn’t have them guessing my objective and taking preemptive action.

I circled around the place, thrashing everything inside the building with my sheer speed, until I finally found the dungeon they kept underneath.

Several guards collapsed dead by my hooves as I stared at the rough staircase that led down. Just like that place. That awful place where I’d been tortured and kept.

I let go of the curse and hellfire I’d been tearing at my surroundings with, and climbed down.

I opened the door, and found just what I’d expected. Filthy cells full of filthy people. Pitiable. They’d all been chopped up or at least carved in some way, just like I once was. But most of them had lost their will, where I had not. They recoiled away from me in fear, while only a few allowed themselves to hope.

“You–”

I leapt across the large space and grabbed the one templar that remained by the fucking face. He was really the only one left, as the chaos I’d brought above forced most of them to flee.

“Angerly!” I shoved his face into the nearby bars. “Where is Angerly!?”

“Let go! Fucking let go of me, you demon! In the name of the angels–”

I pulled the human man back and smashed his head again into the steel, knocking out a few teeth. “Answer my fucking question. . An ogre about Level 20. Where is she?”

“Gah! I don’t know anyone like that, you crazy bitch! Let… go! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

All my intimidation slammed into his mind. Hellfire burned his body. I struggled not to crush his tiny pathetic head between my palms right this instant.

“WHERE!? WHERE IS MY FRIEND!”

“ARRRGGGHHH!! HELP! NO! HELPPP!!”

“I ASKED YOU A FUCKING QUESTION!”

“NO! I–I don’t know! GET IT OFF ME!”

“LIES!”

“AGGGGGGHHHHH!!!”

“ANSWER ME!”

“I’M NOT LYING! THERE! AN OGRE!”

I looked at where he was pointing, and indeed found an ogre, but he was a dude and lower level!

“THAT’S NOT ANGERLY!” his skull creaked as my meaty grip tightened.

“I DON’T KNOW! I DON’T KNOW I DON’T KNOW I REALLY DON’T KNOW! PLEASE! AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!”

I gritted my teeth, my evil eyes bored into him, and my hand finally clenched.

His tiny skull was crushed from the force. Shards of bone and gore filled my fist as his body fell to the ground, dead.

I took a step back and , observing my surroundings and the prisoners who had watched all of that happen. A few had predictably become afraid, but I also heard many now thanking me through the bars and their chains. I’d killed one of the templars that’d tormented them. I was the Haell Zharignan, the Demon Queen, and to them, a great ally against the depravations of Edengar.

I didn’t care for their admiration. Not right now. It was only annoying.

“Help!”

“Please!”

“Free us!”

“Demon Queen!”

Neither did I care for their please. But I tore right through the bars of the prisons that held them anyway, in order to search for my friend. For Angerly.

I felt a measure of relief and disappointment, at every broken one of them I glanced at who wasn’t my friend. My rage simmered at that relief, for I should know already, that no matter where she was taken, she would not be treated any better than the people tortured down in this dungeon.

“Fuck. FUCK!”

The former prisoners shrieked as my fist buried into the stone and reached the soil this place was built upon. A few of them ran away to freedom, only to recoil back at the sheer heat and pain awaiting them above. One even tripped and rolled down the stairs like a fucking idiot, but someone luckily caught her down below.

I clicked my tongue and shouldered myself past them as they froze in indecision. I’d freed myself from a much worse prison, and they couldn’t even figure shit out when someone had actually come to save–

I took a step back from my thoughts. None of them were Angerly. They weren’t who I came here for. They were fucking useless. I’d been in their position once before.

I probably shouldn’t just let them burn and die here.

They might have information.

I parted the sea of hellfire before me and stepped through.

The prisoners hesitated behind me.

“Are you coming or not?” I asked testily.

“A-ah!”

“Yes, yes!”

“Thank you!”

They rushed forward and clamored around me, fighting for the spaces closest to myself, and farther away from the hellfire. I took another step, and the area safe from the hellflames wobbled and shifted.

People did not take that well.

“AAaah!”

“Noooo!”

“What are you doing!?”

“I’m making my way out,” I replied firmly. I didn’t even need the hellfire gone. I could just walk through it, unlike … scared and suffering and sometimes crippled people. It was good that there were those among them compassionate enough to help the most injured. “Feel free to tag along. Fight among yourselves and get left behind. Oh and go bring all your most injured closest to me.”

“What?”

“No!”

“We deserve to live too!”

“Why do they get to be safer!?”

“I’m injured too, see? See!?”

My brows furrowed, and then I made the hellfire around us close in for just a second.

“The injured to me, And we move Or I throw you out.

They gulped, and finally fucking listened to my instructions. We made our way through the broken manor, until finally, the curtain of flames and failing masonry gave way to the great outdoors.

We were immediately greeted by a great and powerful hail of projectiles.

I pushed my horns to their limit as I filled the space around us in roiling curses and hellfire.

Some attacks still inevitably got through for my elements were not made for defense. I was no protector. I could not protect my friend. Her association with me only jeopardized her life.

So I did the one thing I was good at.

I charged.

I whaled into lines of soldiers and templars and adventurers. This city is at the frontlines of the war, and they’d managed to gather their armies previously scattered throughout the settlement. But I did not fear. Instead, it was they who feared as my intimidation powers slammed into their minds and found their will to live and die wanting.

I seized the moment and their own rage, forcing it all towards myself in a great wave of taunting curse.

The rain of projectiles resumed, now predominantly trailing in my direction. They inevitably cut down their own as I danced across their breaking formations. I heard groans of pain from far away mages as they broke my armor, and were broken in turn. Instantly and without mercy, for this armor had been forged from the remains of a herokane-rank cursetacean, who had precisely died to give me the Legacy of Cursifix. My vengeance was now unavoidable and inexorable, and soon, those who had taken Angerly would learn of it too.

For now, my enemies died and were unable to protect their commanders from me. I burned down the buildings they’d taken to using as platforms, with them still inside. They chased after the thunderclaps I left in my wake in vain as they could never hope to keep up. My great armor was whittled down by a thousand cuts and arrows, followed by my toughened flesh that swiftly healed.

Their spirit broke long before my body did. Even my armor yet remained, broken but repairable. The thin veil that previously hid their cowardice was ripped right open as the number of shepherds rapidly dwindled. A squad broke formation, and soon everyone was in full retreat. I chased after them through the streets of the city they were supposed to protect from me. I did not stop even after they’d left the whole settlement and gone past the walls. I continued my hunt as they spread and spread, past the forest and towards the great plains beyond.

I only stopped when I could no longer find easy prey around me. One fully Edengarian city was visible faraway in the vast and open plains, promising an even greater slaughter.

Today I’d proven that I could break a whole army on my own.

I teleported back home. I quickly found Granuel busily working in the town hall, and asked him for his best spies.

“What? What do you need them for?”

“Because I’m an idiot! The leader of Arkar City didn’t know where the fuck Angerly was, but they did have prisoners, so I freed them and fought this army and chased them to hell and back… Which led to me having lost track of those prisoners! They’ve surely scattered by now. And all because I cared more about venting my frustrations instead of actually saving my friend! FUCK!”

My hand punched through his wall.

Granuel blinked. “Okay. I understand the situation. I’ll call for them now. And don’t be too hard on yourself, Haell. Anyone would be mad.”

I pulled my hand out of his office’s wall, and gave a brusque nod.

Granuel left, and I sighed, a little embarrassed, which became a whole lot of self-loathing, but I let that pain disappear into the world of hate I always carried like usual.

Only a few minutes later, I was flying while carrying two people of Level 40. They were one shepherd woman and one belfegor man. I wore my green armor that gave me wind-resistance, and covered my two passenger in similar if weaker material, therefore we made even better time to Arkar City.

“T-t-that was crazy,” the shepherd assassin said once I’d set them down on the outskirts.

“Ground… oh sweet ground. Sweet tree.” The belfegor spy stayed on his knees, then supported himself against the trunk of a tree. “Please warn us… next time…”

“Uh-huh.” My gaze was firmly set on the city I’d just wrecked earlier today.

The two people I’d brought with me both vomited, and I tapped my hooves impatiently, waiting for them to get back on their feet.

Finally, they straightened, and got to work. I provided all the details that I knew, and they made sketches of the prisoners’ faces. I’d always been bad at describing faces, and the belfegor man did complain only to get elbowed by the other, but thankfully they were skilled enough to get the job done no matter how much I might suck at this.

“What should I do?” I asked as they finished with me and left for the city.

The shepherd woman scratched her head upon my question. “Um. We’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”

“This is best done discreetly,” the other spy added.

My brows furrowed in offense and indignation, but I just let out a sigh and gave them a brisk nod to go on with their mission. They were right, I’d already failed. The priority was to rescue Angerly. We’d find her, and then we’d avenge her!

I–couldn’t be sure that she was lost forever.