DD 302 Ch 22

“Oh, interesting,” Lady Frey said as she stuck her crown of horns through the portal and looked around. “This is a very interesting ability.” She ran a finger along the edge of the portal before stepping fully through. As she stood up, with the crown of horns, she was taller than me and about even with me without them.

“Lady,” Des curtsied.

“Ah, you must be the Temptress. I do hope we find a suitable way to improve that. One as lovely as you can’t be left to fallow with such shallow blood.” Lady Frey stated.

Des’s grin lit up the room, and I resisted rolling my eyes. She was being almost too easy.

“And the rest of you,” Lady Frey continued, “I’ll get to know you in turn.” She glanced over the group, searching for someone, although she could only be left in disappointment when she didn’t find who she was looking for.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Misha spoke up, “but may I ask what level you are so that we can appropriately gauge the threat of this Threadspawn?”

Lady Frey glanced at Misha with amusement at the Whaleryn. “I am level 92.”

There was a sharp intake of breath from several of the ladies. Even I was surprised at her strength, wondering if I was bringing a gun to a knife fight. However, while the rest of us were stunned, Misha only nodded.

“Suitable, I guess,” Misha said slowly.

“Yes, well, we can’t all be as impressive as the Whaleryn,” Lady Frey smiled, giving Misha more courtesy than I expected. “I was hoping to meet Crimson, though.”

Lady Frey glanced around the room once more, only for her request to be almost prophetic as another portal ripped open and Crimson strode through like she owned the place. Which, technically she did own the house. She paused, staring at the demon in our midst, then cast her gaze to me.

“I leave you alone for a couple of days and you already brought a demon home.” Crimson looked like this was a challenge she wasn’t going to back down from and stepped up to Lady Frey until their chests were pressed together. Crimson had to look up slightly, even with her heels on.

“I’m Crimson.” Crimson stated.

“Lady Frey.” The Demon Lady smiled.

The succubus and Crimson stared off for a long minute, tension sparking between their eyes. Finally, as if they had come to some agreement, they both took a step back at the same time.

“A pleasure to meet you,” Lady Frey said. “I’ve heard so much about you from Ken. And the Threadspawn issue that humans are dealing with is considerable.”

Crimson frowned, shifting her glare to me for an explanation.

“In all fairness, I have been looking for you, Crimson.” I glared back.

“Well, you could have called me,” she said, pulling up her CID and tapping, only to wince, most likely now seeing that I had called her. “Well, regardless, I’m here. You don’t need this one.” She waved offhandedly at Lady Frey, who wasn’t offended in the slightest.

“Well, that shall be seen. Ken has mentioned this Threadspawn in your New York…” Lady Frey said the word slowly, “…was considerably powerful. He even compared their strength to your own.”

Now Crimson was frowning even deeper. “Ken, you’re going to explain on the way,” Crimson said, stepping up beside me. “But I can only assume that since she’s here, you’re ready to act.” Crimson waved again and ripped open her own portal to the rooftops of New York.

“Oh my. Multiple of you have this portal ability.” Lady Frey examined this one the same way she had mine, though I was unsure what exactly she was seeing.

Crimson paused and glanced at me before turning back to Lady Frey with an easy lie. “There used to be a place where we could get it to drop. Unfortunately that has been lost with the shuffle.”

Lady Frey clicked her tongue. “Well, that might be one of the greatest losses I’ve heard. Truly a wonderful ability. The demons have been very ingenious, but creating whole portals that people can walk through is significant. Even if it only saves a few hours, I can think of all the ways it smooths logistics for me to have Ken just move things about.”

The Lady looked excited as she glanced at me and moved through the portal, and we ended up on the roofs of New York. A cold fall wind blew right through all of our robes, instantly making me regret not wearing something heavier.

Crimson had made the first portal and of course had ended up exactly where I had been expecting to go, but let me scan New York’s skyline with [Eyes of Wisdom]. I quickly spotted the building we had gone into before and saw the Threadspawn were still confidently holed up inside.

“Looks like they haven’t moved, at least not yet,” I said, pointing at the building in the distance.

Crimson followed my finger and clicked her tongue. “I like that place. I really hope we don’t have to destroy it.”

“I’ll do my best,” Lady Frey said confidently, then turned back to me to continue.

Another portal ripped open and I found us back inside the building once more. Only this time, the Threadspawn weren’t as inactive as before. One darted straight for the portal before we were even able to move through.

Crimson caught him halfway, a frown marring her face as she snagged his fist. She twisted and tried to hurl him out of the way.

But he was stronger than she had prepared for and he slipped her hold on his fist as the Threadspawn slipped to the side to try and dart around her.

She let out a grunt of frustration before pinning him down, her face still frowning as he struggled. It was clear she was having to work to keep him pinned down.

“Interesting,” Lady Frey said, stepping through the portal and moving up behind Crimson. The demon grabbed the Threadspawn by his head and squeezed hard enough that his eyes bugged out and his skull went crunch.

“Less than ideal,” Lady Frey said, before tossing the crunched-up head aside.

“I could have done that,” Crimson snorted.

“I was simply admiring their tenacity. Truly interesting creatures they are.” Lady Frey observed.

I noticed the head she had tossed aside had been crushed so thoroughly that if there was a worm inside, it wasn’t going to be very effective. Between Lady Frey and Crimson, this was going to be brutal.

The noise of our entrance didn’t go unnoticed. Several more Threadspawn came rushing around the corner. This time, given we had a few moments to prepare, I lifted my CID to get an idea of their strength.

It was ridiculous that there were people I couldn’t recognize that could stand up against Crimson.

My intuition made more sense. They were not high-level adventurers. The two running around the corner were level 16 and 21. But the way they moved still did not line up. They were moving fast enough that even I would have trouble dodging them.

Crimson’s eyes glowed blue and red lightning sparked up and down her body before, in a simple fluid motion, her whip coiled around one of the Threadspawn, jerking him back toward her, where a swift chop of her hand rendered the man unconscious.

Lady Frey reached other before his body imploded.

He went from being a full human to being sucked into a black pinprick in front of her and simply disappearing from the world, winking out in that second.

Lady Frey checked over her shoulder to see my reaction. “Impressive, right?” she said with a smirk, and I had a feeling Lady Frey and Crimson were going to be a little competitive tonight.

I activated my own Eyes of Wisdom, feeling more useless than I had expected. I thought maybe we would be able to help with some of the smaller ones, but it appeared that between Lady Frey and Crimson, they had this well in hand.

The demon walked through the penthouse, ogling everything like a tourist without a care in the world. “This is lovely architecture. I could do with less angels and something a little more grim, however.”

“Me too,” Des agreed.

“So where’s the strong one?” Lady Frey asked, like she was asking where the bathroom was, which was what she was asking without knowing that really was the answer.

“Down the hall to the right.” I could see the other Threadspawn in the building, twitching and preparing in the bathroom we had been in before.

Lady Frey strolled forward without a care in the world. Whatever was happening, she acted as if it was just another day. But perhaps it was for her. I had much still to learn about the demon world.

When she got to the door, she didn’t even have to open the door. There was still extensive damage from Penny’s entrance last night, and the threadspawn had not yet repaired the door.

Lady Frey turned and regarded the room, a sneer marring her face. “Oh, that is disgusting,” she said, then turned back toward me.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing.” She sighed after a moment. “Just, I can’t believe you walked in here and then walked out so easily.”

This time, the creepy trophy wife woman in the tub wasn’t quite so idle. She was already standing and putting a robe on her soaking-wet body.

“Ah, I see. You went and found help. I suppose that is one way to deal with me. Here I was under the impression humanity wouldn’t have anyone who could challenge me, but I see you simply stepped outside of your people to solve that particular issue.” Her eyes gazed Lady Frey up and down before Crimson came around the corner with her arms crossed, clearly not pleased with the concept that humanity wouldn’t be enough.

“I hate to break it to you, but if I wanted to kick you out, there’s nothing you would have been able to do to stop me.” Crimson stated.

The Threadspawn turned to regard Crimson. “Ah, there you are. I had wondered where the famed and vaunted Crimson had gone. Here I had expected you tonight,” the Threadspawn said with a very disconcerting smirk and a gesture at the writing tub.

The fact that she had been expecting Crimson and stuck around, told me she thought she could handle my teacher. I was feeling far better about bringing Lady Frey. 

For so long, Crimson had been powerful enough that she’d essentially been unstoppable. For someone to so casually say they could deal with her sent chills down my spine.

“I think you’ll find I am far harder to deal with than you might be expecting,” Crimson growled, clearly not liking being so overlooked.

The Threadspawn only smirked. And then, without a word of warning, it leapt forward, only to stop before the door as the others rushed in from the sides. Lady Frey had been ready to block the trophy wife and was startled when instead she was defending from the side.

Crimson, on the other hand, had no compunction, launching herself straight into the fight. [Limit Break] crackled along her body as she took on three threadspawn at once, giving as good as she got.

They came at her like bruisers and it was clear Crimson had a little frustration to work off as she completely ignored her own defense to maximize how much damage she could deal to the threadspawn.

There was a brutal but quick exchange as Crimson slugged it out with three threadspawn before the leader appeared at Crimson’s back with a cheap shot that sent her sprawling.

Lady Frey intercepted, catching Crimson to pull her out of the way.

“Ken, if you would be a dear and keep an eye on Crimson, I think I have a decent understanding of this creature’s strength.” Lady Frey stepped in the next second, and the other threadspawn that tried to approach her were thrown back before she stomped a foot down that caused the whole building to quake, slamming those she had thrown hard into the floor.

In that instant she hadn’t even touched them, but their bodies were a mangled mess, though not dead enough to revive.

I didn’t think they’d be getting back up anytime soon, even with the threadspawn’s ridiculous regeneration. Though, perhaps that was naive.

It was becoming clear that I knew next to nothing about threadspawn, and I knew better than to underestimate any opponent. I stayed ready for whatever came next.

But I had not expected the next big surprise to come from Lady Frey.

She clapped her hands together, the noise loud enough that it blew out the glass all around us. But instead of falling to the ground, the glass hung in the air for a brief moment, and then got sucked in toward the center of her hands, similar to how she’d killed the one threadspawn earlier. There was a single point of darkness in the center of her palms that seemed to consume absolutely everything.

“The trick is just to kill them so completely that they can’t come back,” Lady Frey chuckled, as the three threadspawn were ripped up into mincemeat by her ability as it sucked them in and they disappeared completely. The rest in the room didn’t fare much better.

However, the powerful threadspawn in the trophy wife’s body did not try to run, seeming to still believe she could handle Lady Frey. She watched impassively as the rest of her people were summarily executed before her.

Only once Lady Frey had finished with her ability did the trophy wife do anything, and in the next second she moved faster than I could track, sweeping forward to attack Crimson and try to throw her into the bathroom.

Lady Frey moved once again to catch Crimson, then spun around and launched the threadspawn back into the other wall just as hard. She didn’t even touch either of them, just gestured with her hands to stop Crimson or send the threadspawn flying.

“I was fine. You interfering is making this harder.” Crimson growled.

“I would rather not see what happens if she gets any of you near that tub.” Lady Frey deadpanned.

A shudder went through my spine, realizing that’s what the threadspawn had been trying to do. Behind me, I heard Des gag. The rest of my part was already hanging back, but took a few more steps back at that.

The treadspawn was on her feet, despite blood flowing freely down her limbs.

Lady Frey stepped through the glass crunching under her feet as she focused back on the fight in front of her. “You may be able to deal with what humanity can throw at you, but I guarantee I am out of your league.”

The threadspawn shot forward like an arrow.

Lady Frey lifted a hand, and the threadspawn suddenly floated in the air without anything for her feet to find purchase on. She simply couldn’t move one way or the other. Instead, she was completely under Lady Frey’s control as the demoness threw the threadspawn-infested human about.

The threadspawn tried to regain control of herself by pushing off the walls, but whatever Lady Frey was doing gave her far more control, even sending the trophy wife flying face first, straight into her own fist before launching her back the other direction just as hard.

I could tell the threadspawn had not been ready for this type of ability by the way she stammered and struggled to recover after each new twist and direction she was being thrown.

Though that might have been the twenty ways her jaw was broken by the end.

Lady Frey was in fact toying with her. It was fascinating to watch a creature that took over control of other bodies lose control itself. I felt a sort of satisfaction in seeing some justice play out.

I watched, waiting to see if the threadspawn could figure a way out of its current predicament. And meanwhile, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into with Lady Frey. She was handling a level of power that was still hard for my brain to process.

“Do you understand your mistake?” Lady Frey asked, holding the threadspawn aloft with a small smirk.

“I think you know nothing of the dangers that we pose to your people. You have certainly bested me, but that will do little to stop our greater work.” The threadspawn answered.

Lady Frey’s eyes lit up and a smile flashed across her face. “I would be absolutely remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to take this talkative woman somewhere she can let it all out.” She glanced over her shoulder at me as if to ask if she could take her.

“Of course. Whatever you wish, Mistress.” I added the last because it seemed to be the correct term of address when talking to superiors within the demon hierarchy.

However, the flash of anger from Crimson was a wake-up call that perhaps that term was going to cause me some other issues.

If Lady Frey minded, she didn’t let it show.

“Beautiful. Take this.” She took a stone much similar to the one she had given me to contact her. “Just tell her that I have something here she would very much like to see.”

I held the stone tightly in my hand. It worked like the other one. A blurry vision of a pink-haired young woman with a pair of large horns curled in a spiral on either side of her head.

“Lady Frey told me to bring you to her…” I said, unsure who or what I was talking to.

The woman in question glared at me, touching her own stone as she became clearer. The moment it cleared, a smile flashed across her face. “You must be Ken.” Somehow, this demon knew who I was despite us never having met before.

“I assume you have a way to bring me to her.” The woman’s voice was rougher than her petite delicate appearance.

I activated a portal. It shimmered into existence at the edge of the vision I could see. She rose up, stepping out of the tub while the stone slipped from her fingers and stopped me from seeing any details. A moment later, the same pink-haired woman, this time fully robed in a blue dress slowly growing wet from her hair, stepped out on my side of the portal. Her eyes cast about the room, a brief scowl on her face as she took in the scene.

Her eyes moved to the tub filled with writing threadspawn, all screeching,before her head tilting slightly.  “We don’t need to keep that around, do we?” she asked and without waiting for an answer a small thread of fire beginning to burn at her fingertips before it shot into the tub only for the water, the threadspawn, and the entire tub vanished, leaving behind a smoldering crater of white melted substance.

I could only assume she had effectively melted the marble. I didn’t even know that could happen.

“Now, what did you want me to see?” she asked Lady Frey casually. Given her lack of demeanor toward the demon lord, I could only assume this woman was her superior.

My suspicion was further confirmed when Lady Frey bowed. “This one here is incredibly talkative,” Lady Frey said, holding the Threadspawn aloft.

“What?” the demon princess asked casually. “I haven’t met any that have been talkative. Tell me, do you have a name?” The demon princess asked, only for the threadspawn to actually growl in response.

“See, they’re never very talkative. Fairly sure their entire race are just mindless worms,” she gestured, as if this one was par for what she’d seen in their species thus far.

“You barbarians have no idea what you’re talking about.” The threadspawn stated.

“You barbarians? Us?” the princess scoffed with a hand against her chest. Then she pointed a finger at the threadspawn, only for a small fire to blossom against the creature’s navel. The ability didn’t noticeably burn anything, floating in the air at the center of her chest. But whatever it was doing was clearly incredibly painful based on the way the threadspawn screamed both out the hosts mouth with an echo of something higher like what was in the tub.

I frowned. From past fights, my understanding was that they were virtually unreactive to pain.

The princess said, “I’m sure we can keep her alive, and there will be a report on what is happening.” The pink-haired demon princess then turned to me.

“Portal.” She gestured where she’d come through.

My best guess was that she wanted to go right back to where she’d been before. That was easy enough, as I quickly opened the portal again.

The demon princess ran a finger along the edge. “I do like this. If Lady Frey ever makes you dissatisfied, please just give me a call. I’ll make you a contract to be my steed.” She winked and then stepped through the portal as Lady Frey dragged her new prisoner floating behind her. The Demon Lady acting like a proud servant of the other.

But after a moment it was clear neither of them were coming back through and I closed the portal to glance back at my group. “I think we might have gotten lucky that we didn’t manage to piss any of them off.”

We’d all been quiet watching everything, and now that the demons were gone, we felt a little more comfortable speaking aloud.

“Ken, I think you were playing with something more dangerous than you realized,” Crimson shot me a glare, but then hesitated. “But I do think, in this particular instance, it wasn’t necessarily the worst idea to bring the succubi. I think we all just dodged a bullet.”

“Well, I’m just happy it’s over.” I glanced at Crimson. “And I’m sorry for the surprise. I did look for you.”

“It’s fine,” she waved her hand. “Just don’t let it happen again.” She smirked, and we both let it go unsaid that it would likely happen again. Based on what little I understood about the ever-evolving situation in the dungeon, it was unlikely that the situation was going to get less complex.

“Well, that’s fine. I was tired of everything else anyway,” Crimson said. “Besides, it’s probably about time I focused a little more on classes again.”

I smirked. “Of course. How could we forgive you for giving us a break?”

It was painfully obvious to me that Crimson was jealous. I’d have to smooth that out over the next several weeks. Otherwise, Crimson would turn around and make it my problem.

“Though I do think before class, you and I need to catch up a little,” Crimson said. “And we probably need to at least go say something to the UG Pres. Lest this—” she waved a hand around “—get back to him and cause us more issues. I don’t think he would be very happy to learn that we’ve been chumming it up with the demons.”

I winced. “We don’t have to tell him, do we?” I gave Crimson my best smile.

“We should,” she said slowly. “However, if you wish to avoid it for now, then I suppose there’s not much I can do, is there?” The helpless shrug she gave was entirely performative.

But I was also completely okay with that, because this time Crimson was fully on my side, and she was trusting me to deal with all of this rather than trying to push me one way or the other. In a strange way, that was a strong vote of confidence from Crimson, one that made me smile.

“But don’t think any of this is going to get you out of homework.” She reminded me.

“Oh, of course not,” I said quickly, only to get a squint from her, starting to be more concerned. “Seriously, Crimson, it’s all going to be just fine.”

“There was a cost that the demon mentioned,” Crimson pursed her lips.

“Yeah, it doesn’t exactly come free to ask for her help,” I admitted. “But it’s a price I was willing to pay, especially when I realized just how powerful the threadspawn ended up being.”

Crimson was strong, but that would have been terribly dangerous if we had gone in without Lady Frey. While I could appreciate that she wasn’t happy with me seeking someone else’s help, there had to be some room in her ego for me to seek help from someone else. After all, we were going to experience greater and greater dangers in the world. She was going to have to get used to me relying on other people when I needed it. 

This would be far from the last challenge we faced. The dungeon wasn’t getting any easier.

“Why don’t I go admit everything to the UG and you at the same time,” I told Crimson. “I want to get this over with.”

Crimson eyed me. “I am curious to see what exactly it is you’re about to confess to.”

I grunted. “Nothing too exciting. Just learning more about the demon culture while being wrapped up in it.”

“Great,” Crimson told me. She was more amused than anything else. The next several hours were going to be fun. I just hoped the UG didn’t make me do too much paperwork.