Chapter 210: Hope.

I found another thing I could do upon Blur’s arrival, and I immediately pounced on the opportunity. He needed to get to the Capital City of Gardine because that remained our most likely target, so we got to talking about the fastest yet most secretive way to get him there.That was how I found myself flying to the nearest shore alone. I did not produce a loud sonic boom this time, because I was wearing my green wind-resistant armor.

From the beach, I flew into the ocean, well past the point where I could not see land anywhere, no matter which direction I looked. I floated above the water, but not so far I attracted the attention of any of the most powerful monsters so high in the sky they could not even be seen from here.

Some sort of flying fish larger than a shark suddenly jumped out of the ocean below and flapped its flippers to bite me right out of the air. I made a sharp turn with my meaty tail, did a single flap that broke my wings, and narrowly dodged the beast. I kicked the nearly hero-ranked creature as we passed each other, and it shrieked once it was cooked by my hellfire and curses.

I caught a delicious smell in the air, but I wasn’t about to dive into the water and fight at a massive disadvantage for a meal. Not when my blood eater could indefinitely consume my own blood for sustenance. Not when I to find Angerly as soon as possible.

I continued on. I had several more encounters with monsters that wanted to eat me, from the waters below, but also occasionally the skies above. None of them ever came close to taking my life, though I didn’t manage to kill all that many either. That wasn’t the goal. No matter how my bloodlust spiked and demanded that I dive down there to finish them off.

A bird seemingly made of blades suddenly fell down from the air. My instincts screamed, and my body moved to dodged, but I still got a pretty deep cut on my side for my trouble. My wind-resistant armor was sheared through. My opponent was well into the herokane rank, and it wasn’t about to leave me alone.

The turned in the air and flew towards me for another pass. I brought Devilcalbur up and parried the creature’s sharp wing, damaging it in the process even as I was thrown off balance in the air. The monster’s beak was quick to follow, and a chunk was gouged out of my shoulder even as I tried to twist away, . My vengeance magic wasn’t as powerful as it could be right now with my armor of choice, but I still had the assistance of the Legacy of Cursifix. My magic roared into life all around us to burn and dismember the bladedread’s face!

The bird shrieked and flew away, but I could plainly see that it hadn’t given up. There were only the skies above, and the deep waters below, forcing me to fight where it was most advantageous for my enemy. I wanted to fucking kill it and wear its skin, but I just did not have the time for this. My Resentment grew, and I unleashed it!

The large bladedread dropped again, and I took another slice from its other wing. But that was an attack I took on purpose, so that I could slam Devilcalibur into the offending limb and break it!

A kick from the creature’s sharp talons followed, and this time I dodged out of the way. I knew it was coming, for the entire around me was in my purview. My enemy again flew a short distance away, but this time I could see that its flight was far less elegant than before. I’d not managed to completely break its wing, but it did not leave unscathed. It was in pain, it was hurting,

Several more exchanges followed, of the bladedread circling around me many times as I twisted and threw myself out of the way in quick bursts of flight. I took many hits on purpose to land hits with my Devilcalibur and set my enemy aflame and rotting. The monster stopped and hovered right next to me to repeatedly bat at me with its sharp limbs, and I did my best to hold on. My blood painted its face, and that blood exploded into different effects!

was my opportunity. I pounced on the opening and cut as I was cut. as I was sliced. as I flew defiant. The creature shrieked and finally tried to flee, but I would not let it get away now! You had your chance, so now reap what you had sown!

I latched onto the creature’s metallic feathers with one hand and slammed Devilcalibur into the torso with the other. I relished the impact of every hit. I could hardly use my anatomic mastery like this, but sheer savagery made up for it.

I did not stop until we were hurtling into the ocean… and my armor had become a torn mess. My body had been cut apart many times over, but it was already healing. The water rapidly approached, and I bit my lip so hard it bled as I was forced to make a decision.

I let the dead bladedread go, to be devoured by the monsters of the deep sea. I watched it sink into the water, and regretted how I had allowed the spoils of such a difficult and rare hunt go to waste… but I would regret it more if Angerly died because I’d let such an insignificant thing delay me any further. I couldn’t just teleport it back home, because then I wouldn’t be able to come back to this spot until a few hours later.

I turned around, questioned where I was, determined which way was north, and then tried to chart my course correctly from there.

I finally stopped at yet another stretch of endless ocean. The sun had progressed further across the sky, and I turned towards what should be the right direction. I flapped my wings and produced a mild sonic boom because way too much of my armor had been shorn.

Then again, the Singing Vortex Wonderzone would soon be out of Angelorian control, so I could always get more of the Materials I needed. I just needed to rescue Angerly before then.

After only a short while, I saw dry land on the horizon. I quickly made my way over and landed along the beach crawling with the Angel’s Demise.

They all ignored and flowed around me. But that was fine. I didn’t have the time to deal with them either. I only felt more strongly the connection between us, and I suspected that I could influence them to focus more on one area of Edengar more than any other. I’d have to… ask Granuel later. That was fine. It would be a massive pain in the ass if this ability ever got out, but I trusted him to keep my secrets. I would not leave anything out of the table to rescue Angerly.

The presence of the cursetaceans here at all did mean that I’d at least not navigated poorly. The cursed crabs had to be going somewhere, so there must still be… random villages inland they wished to attack. I was firmly in former Edengarian territory.

I remembered for a moment, how it must be like for the Edengarians to be invaded and slaughtered by the Angel’s Demise. I recalled how I had been captured and tortured by them, and imagined how Angerly might fare, now in that same situation.

I gnashed my teeth and pushed forward. I flew low across shore, and traced the coast until I found the ruins of an Edengarian coastal city nearby. I entered it from its breaking walls and observed the occasional cursetacean inside, the crumbling structures, and the rotted blood that covered the many surfaces that still smelled of iron.

I was in Unim City, I determined, from the shattered signs and signposts. I flew away and past two more settlements like it, until I landed on Harmonis City. It was the second most recent coastal city of Edengar to fall, and the place we’d agreed upon.

I teleported back home. A few hours later, I popped back into the same spot in Harmonis City with The Blur calmly taking in his surroundings, and a few powerful birds of varying sizes crammed around me.

I healed them of the wounds they sustained during that one quick travel.

I seethed. Angerly’s life wasn’t worth keeping my secrets. It was I who decided that. can

“That’s a really interesting and useful ability, Haell,” the Blur said casually.

My head snapped towards the shepherd man, and I glared at him with narrowed eyes for a second. “Just do what we came here to do.”

He nodded, and we picked a good building for our purposes before he up and left.

I departed as well a few hours of difficult meditation later, once my teleportation was back up.

month.

I dismembered the camelion with mechanical malice.

The monster finally died, and I butchered its corpse, at first listlessly, and then violently in a way that flung its many different parts across the changing forest that mocked me!

Where could she have been taken!? What were Granuel’s spies doing?! What good was the Blur for!?

Every day. Every fucking day I came to find the messages he sent to that ruined building by bird. But every day it was the same! They still hadn’t found her! Hadn’t found Angerly! After I’d gone and revealed my secret to get him where he needed to be! The Blur was fucking useless!

I kicked a tree, and it toppled down. Arx gathered the useful remains of my latest kill to his pack. My teleportation was being used up to receive those useless messages just a little faster at the moment. I needed someone to carry what I killed for me.

…And of course Arx was really good in a fight too. There was that (invisiboys) we caught without a prolonged chase because he managed to catch it at my direction. His jumping ability was just that superior. The one problem was that Arx was much worse than me at tracking where the invisible creature was… which just went to show how dangerous the invinator truly was. No wonder no one fucking knew about it until I came along.

My eyes widened. I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

“Haell?” Arx asked in concern, looking around in concern. “Is it… you know who?”

I shook my head. “It’s Pandemonium! There’s an urgent alert!”

“Oh shit! Is it Angerly!? Did they find her?!”

“I…” I hesitated. “No. I don’t think this is urgent enough. But I gotta go anyway!”

“Same here!”

He jumped, and I ran.

I took the lead, and we went back home.

“Elfrafim!” I entered Pandemonium, and immediately rushed over to meet my friend.

“Holy shit, Haell!”

We hugged, and I felt so relieved that she’d returned. I didn’t know where to start looking for her.

“I heard about what happened.”

“Yeah…” I hesitated and looked at her for a moment. “Can you help me rescue Angerly? Please?”

“Of course I will! Why wouldn’t I?” She was genuinely aghast and offended.

“Well… you don’t like getting involved in this stuff?”

She was confused for a moment, until she realized. “AH! Your wars and kingdoms stupid. But of course I’ll rescue a friend! You idiot!”

She kicked me in the leg. I stumbled, and retaliated, but she fucking dodged!

I glared at her… and then took a deep breath to let it go. “Okay, okay. Well, I’m glad to have you!”

“Yeah!” She twirled her staff, the cheer yet in her voice, but the violence clear in her steps. “Let’s go!”

I stopped.

She took a few more steps before shooting an incredulous look at me. “Well? You coming?”

“We don’t know where she is, Elfrafim,” I looked down, sad and frustrated. “Otherwise I would’ve already stormed the place myself!”

“Oh… That makes sense. That sucks!” She locked her staff unto her back again. “What do I do now then?”

“That’s exactly what I wondered.”

“?” She tapped her light and dextrous feet impatiently on the black grass of Pandemonium. “What did you come up with?”

“Ah… Granuel called over some spies. I provided transport for some of them. And now I’m just… waiting for some news.”

“Well, that’s stupid. I’ll go find her myself!”

“Wait!” I stopped her. “Do you think I don’t want to go looking either!? Well… the reason I’m not doing that is because I’m too… unsubtle. But you can’t go!”

“Why not?” she narrowed her eyes.

“Because how do we even contact you if someone else finds her? Do you have a way to contact

Then again. We might be able to spare Elfrafim. We would’ve gone to rescue Angerly without her if she hadn’t shown up. Maybe it would be best to have someone else looking…

She deflated. “Yeah. I guess that makes sense.”

“Wait!” I shouted again.

“What now!” the elf shouted in a rare moment of annoyance.

“Uh…” I told her of my idea.

“No. I can’t not be there for the rescue. What if you fail! I think I’ll be better at this than you.”

It was my turn to be offended, but then I took a second to consider my words. I was already being so fatalistic before about Angerly’s chances, until my parents hugged some sense into me. But clearly I did believe it to be very difficult. And for all the complications of a rescue mission, Elfrafim would absolutely be a massive help. She might truly be better than me at it, no matter which of us would win in a straight up fight.”

“Yeah,” I agreed silently.

“What if I just take a look at some places, but then come back at least once every 2 days at most?” Elfrafim made another suggestion as we sat around the table Pandemonium had just grown. Her melodious voice gained a razor edge thanks to her rare calm and seriousness. “I can cover a lot of ground very fast, and I can be very sneaky. Once she is found, I think you’ll need time to prepare an assault anyway if Angerly’s being held in any place similar to where you were before.”

I paused at her casual statement. My sight was inadvertently drawn to the ground, because was the place where I was once imprisoned. But . Astro’s Manor was long gone. Pandemonium was not the same. It was great and amazing and like that torturous place.

“I think that could work,” I finally answered. “But let’s wait for the others. They’re better at this. Making plans.” My premature assault only backfired.

“Oh right! I’m terrible at this too.” Elfrafim sighed. “. They really captured Angerly, huh? That’s not good.”

“No it is not.”

One second I was in Pandemonium, and the next I was in the bowels of some random store in Harmonis. I exited the building, and then made my way through the ruins of the city, until I arrived at the tower me and the Blur had agreed upon. I saw the usual messages left for me here, only this time there were three weighted envelopes instead of one.

My eyes widened. My blood instantly rushed faster through my body at the change. I immediately tore open one of them, and crumpled it at the same lack of updates. The next informed me that Angerly had arrived in Blank City, and I wanted to fly there immediately. But then the third…

A growling scream tore out of my throat as I raged at Queen Eden’s demand. They wanted to chain me again like they once did! I doubted they even had a prison that could hold me. But did I dare risk it? Could I give them the opportunity to capture and torture me again? What if they have something that could sedate me, bind me, rob me of my freedom and leave me as nothing but a broodmare for them to make more demonspawn! It… wouldn’t even work anymore, no demon could have children normally ever again, but could I fucking risk it? What else would they do to me if I was ever under their control again? I didn’t want to find out. I was…… afraid! I was mad.

It was only with a monumental effort of will that I redirected my hellfire away from the papers, and towards another nearby building instead. I pocketed the messages and kicked a wall down. It crumbled as I punched a dozen holes into a door. I flew out of the tower, and then several homes. I slammed my body into all surfaces as I cursed the world in all the languages I knew. The city spun around me as I carved a chaotic path through the existing destruction. I screamed impotently, where I knew it would not reach my enemies. My body crashed against several of the Angel’s Demise, but they didn’t even retaliate, as if to me.

Finally, I tired myself out. Except not really, because I could keep going. I could heal these bruises as easily as breathing. But for a moment I didn’t, and just allowed my mind to feel the ache. Anything to drown out the that threatened to consume me so thoroughly I might never even make it to my target, but instead become but a wandering calamity. Aimless. Adrift.

I breathed. I inhaled the dust that had not yet settled and tried my hardest to calm myself, but I just couldn’t be alone with my thoughts right now, or it would only get worse.

I went back home.

We sat in silence after I delivered the news. My head throbbed, and my hearts hammered in my chest, as my hands dug deeper and deeper into the table in violent despair. Everyone was here, from all the Piss Hunters, what’s left of my old Harvesters party, the Demon Aspires, Entarin, and the new Adventure Friends established just as Grandpa died.

“What do we do?”

“Can’t we break in?”

“She’s in the dungeons of the royal palace! It’s not so simple.”

“I think we actually do have the power to push through, but… wouldn’t they kill her before we could reach her?”

“That’s true…”

“What about their demands…?”

“No! Absolutely not! Out of the question!”

I steeled myself as I prepared to address it. I glanced at Luine and Salaire, and with growing guilt in my hearts, I told them of what I had decided.

“No. I will not do it. I’m… I’ve made my decision.” I almost apologized, but there was nothing to apologize for! Never again wouldI allow anyone to catch me in that position. I would burn this world down and then myself before I let that happen. “I won’t give myself up for Angerly to be released.”

“I–” Luine hesitated for a second. I wasn’t sure if she noticed the murderous glare both my parents were sending her way. “It’s okay, Haell. We don’t expect you to. You… shouldn’t.”

“Yeah. We don’t even know if they’ll fulfil their end of the bargain!” Salaire rationalized, and she wasn’t wrong about that. None of us here trusted Edengar.

Still, we had to come up with something, and that’s what we spent the evening doing. I hadn’t given up on rescuing my friend. I just… couldn’t make the ultimate sacrifice for her. Not anymore.

I ran my hands over Zilantor as we listened to this Angerly’s story deep in my dungeons. My lover here had really outdone himself, and I was very pleased.

“Y-your majesty!” he mewled so needily as I tickled his brain in just the right way. “Queen Shanayah!”

“Shhhh,” I placed a finger on his lips, and he instantly calmed down, if that thoughtless bliss could be called calm anyway. “Quiet. Our captive here is performing so well for us. The least we can do is listen.”

“Y-yes! Of course.” His colors changed so , and I felt that familiar rush, as if I were right now sailing the high seas. The ogre spoke about all of Haell’s secrets, but I got the sense that she’d become so much more secretive. It was shocking to find out that she’d evolved three whole times, but Angerly could give so little details about the latest one.

Clearly, Haell had changed. She’d already given up her life before to let her friends escape, but would she do it again?

A grin split my face, and I took Zilantor right here and now.

We infiltrated the Capital City of Gardine. Moonwash had managed to make three sets of invinator-skin cloaks, which were given to me, Elfrafim, and herself. The three of us then met up with the Blur, and he smuggled us over the wall, through a narrow strip that we had to climb guarded only by two allied spies.

They weren’t informed of our arrival, and neither did they ever find out. The less people that knew, the better. The gates were apparently under such strict checks now that it was doubtful any of us could’ve gotten through unnoticed, no matter how strong we were. Scaling the wall was also deemed safer and more secure than my idea of just dropping invisibly from the sky.

We immediately glided back down, but to the other side where the city of Gardine… thrived. It annoyed me how this city of the vilest of schemes had such a beautiful facade. Only half of it was on hardened land, while the other half built homes right the ocean on supports of wood and stone. Below even was an entire underwater city of its own. I saw crorcas swimming about or just walking around, and they were the white/blue crocodile/orca looking fellows. Armies of them and others attacked the veritable tide of cursetaceans that boiled out of the water so fast, I could hardly catch a living glimpse of them. The attacks of the Angel’s Demise been more erratic lately, thanks to my urging. They sometimes focused harder on other cities to try and draw the nearby armies there, but Gardine had been steadfast in not giving away a single soldier of its standing army. It was the only city with a proper coastal layout, because the final ‘fuck you’ of Cursifix would be too strong to contend with for almost any other coastal city. Our plan didn’t work, and they actually called in more support from the neighboring cities, no matter how much pressure they were already under.

We couldn’t figure out a way to break into their dungeons and rescue Angerly, so we had to wait for a few more grueling days. Our best chance was when they finally took her out to be executed in front of a massive crowd of people.

The day had come.

Multiple wagons came out of the manor, and I stared at the Blur. My gaze bored into him. But he only shook his head.

He did not know where Angerly was.

I clenched my fist, and then looked away before I snap and reveal our fucking location.

We followed that whole procession. Through the clean streets, and the people who fucking cheered and celebrated for my friend’s execution. The brilliant architecture, and then the wooden and stone foundations that held the above-water portion of this city. The homes here were built out of the same material, novel in their creation, but I could not appreciate a single one of it. I could hardly stop myself from lashing out now, to save my friend, and to fucking the chants for her death!

“Kill her!”

“Angerly!”

“Where is she!?”

“Rebel scum!”

“Demon conspirator!”

“She brought the cursetaceans here!”

“It’s all their fault!”

“It’s all her fault!”

“Where’s Haell!”

“Oh yeah!”

“SURRENDER!”

“COME HERE!”

“DIE YOU COWARD DEMON!”

I gritted my teeth but took care not to make any more sound as we continued to make our way through the deepest shadows we could find. We would’ve tried the rooftops, but even that was being watched, as the whole military presence in this city was on high alert. I and Moonwash had many additional pieces of enchanted gear to help us remain stealthy, and Elfrafim was always nearby to assist us if we fucked up. She needed to maintain a constant illusion over me because my Mark of The Beast was always visible, and . Low level and passive illusions could be broken. I didn’t even have my usual set of armor today to lessen Elfrafim’s load, instead opting for a much lighter one that suppressed sound, and still gave a measure of wind-resistance.

The Blur separated from us. He had disappeared more thoroughly than me with far less gear. Just some illusion magic of his own, and clearly an anatomic mastery. He was hard to pick out even with my dimensional scanner. All the better for my enemies to be blindsided. Twenty different ogre captives came out of the twenty wagons, a sack over all their faces. The Blur attacked one templar among them, and Angerly’s face was revealed by a thrown dagger.

It was clean, unmarred, and with an expression of bliss.

It made my blood boil and I charged. Elfrafim’s arrow was faster. The templar guard it, and took out a familiar partially serrated sword.

I saw those same malicious eyes. Her hands moved at a harrowing speed. I deployed my aura, my eyes, my resentment, that might reach. But nothing did. was unaffected. That damnable blade continued its arc downward.

I watched for an eternity as Angerly’s head dropped slowly to the ground, that same haunting smile frozen on her dying face.