A Preview of Something to Come

“Time for your next session.”

Now.

With my absolute hatred of this place giving me more strength than I had any right to have, I slugged the demon across the face, grabbed her head, then smashed it against the bars of my cell repeatedly until I was absolutely sure she was dead.

It was cathartic, killing my primary tormentor. One minute she was alive, confident in her ability to finally break me… maybe she had. After all, I was dashing her head against the steel bars of my cell, something I would never have done before.

Spitting on her body, I did a quick search of it for anything useful. Upon finding her keys (stuffed between her breasts, classic), I made my escape, though not before opening the only other occupied cell and dragging the rather beautiful blonde within to her feet.

“Danke.” She said, her eyes glimmering with tears. “They underestimated you, it seems.”

I laughed. It was not a pleasant sound, filled with nothing but hatred of this place. “Yes. And they’ll pay for that. Here, let me get your bindings.”

“Danke. Abyssal bastards, those were far too tight.”
I filed that tidbit of information away as well. “I’ve seen others escaping this place. Do you happen to know how?”

The blonde nodded. “It’s not exactly an exact science, but, hopefully someone on the surface is performing a summoning. We basically just hitch a ride on the summons, and hope to god that they have enough materials on hand to pay the cost of our summoning.”

I raise my eyebrows, “and if that fails?”

“We hope that we can self summon.”

“Oh joy.” I remark, eyeing the startlingly familiar girl, now that I had a chance to observe her.

‘Holy shit, that’s Prinz Eugen. From Kancolle. Well fuck. I guess the various information coincides. But…’

My eyes widened in absolute horror.

Invested enough in your soul… Abyssal… Oh FUCK… They were going to make me an Abyssal. Shit. I’m glad I never broke. Especially if my suspicions are true, I wouldn’t have been a mook. It would have been something more, likely a Flagship, Demon, or Princess.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” My companion asked, her concerned eyes filling my vision. My gaze softened. It was nice, having someone else being concerned for me.

“Nothing. Just realized how close I had been to breaking, to serving this… this…”

“Scum?”

“Yeah, that works.”

Prinz smiled. “You didn’t break, and that’s what matters. Never seen a human infused by the Abyss with a blueprint not break, though I’m sure there are more of you.”

“Ehehe. Thanks. It wasn’t easy, but it got easier when that bitch decided to make it her personal mission to break me.”

Prinz’s smile was a beautiful thing, one that filled me with hope. “Yeah, it gets easier when you can focus your anger on one.” Her brow furrowed briefly as she focused on something I couldn’t parse. “Also, I found an ongoing summoning. Standby.” Her face knitted into a mein of concentration, Prinz Eugen began tearing a rift in reality open, one that finally widened enough for both of us to step through. “Together. Else the rift might destabilize. Three, Two, One!”

With a cry of triumph, I stepped through the portal, Prinz at my side.