RD 2 Ch 35-36

Chapter 35

I was careful and made sure to not start any fights with the demons. But, oh was it tempting to wade into the two other buildings I found and start cutting them up.

That’s also why I found myself at the busiest of the three hotspots with Circe standing behind me.

“Where’s Hercules to drag you away when I need him?” She had a small troop of ladies, and all of them had at least five thousand total stats. Simone and Nyx were here as well, both staying near me as if I needed their protection.

“Hi, new little brother.” A purple-haired woman with a chest that put even giants to shame tried to wrestle me down for a very booby hug.

“Aunty Andrea, please let my dear man go. You’re making Nyx jealous,” Simone teased.

“Why are they all women?” I grumbled and pulled myself out of her grip.

“They go out and bring back bloodlines. The ones staying here usually have kids.” Circe shrugged and checked her watch before snapping her fingers. “They have stopped leaving the building. It’s clear they’ve realized something is wrong.”

The whole area was trapped in a dome of swirling wind.

“What’s going on?!” A panicked Heros ran out of the building with their hands up.

“If you would, Bran,” Circe said.

I pushed Soul Gaze, and the panicked man popped, replaced by a gangly pitch black demon. His red eyes still held up the act for a moment until he noticed our expressions.

Andrea flicked her arm out. An ice-blue glob hit the ground in front of the demon and exploded in spikes of ice for the next ten feet, catching the demon.

Yet, his body was durable enough that he pulled himself off the spikes. “OUR COVER IS BLOWN!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

“If you can disable one, please do,” Circe said to the group. “I would very much like to get answers.”

More demon people rushed out of the building, and I pushed Soul Gaze to pop all of their illusions as Blood Boil made my muscles swell and my veins pulse in my arm as I lifted it forward towards the one who’d been weakened.

The demon’s vessel squirmed as blood ran from its eyes into my hands, and I drained it of its bloodline.

Everyone else would know exactly what I did, but I’d made my decision.

As soon as I drained the bloodline, it disappeared into one of the many vials I had in my spatial ring.

Circe gave me an admonishing look for using that ability in front of other people, but it would become known sooner rather than later. Especially if the clan’s intelligence was full of these many holes.

I’d much rather collect more powerful bloodlines for the Mul Branova ladies.

“Damn.” A petite lady stepped forward and swung a spear from her spatial ring, cleaving into the oncoming demons. “Form up. Softies in back.”

Simone drew a pink heart in the air before a giant pink laser beam shot into the demons, but it didn’t do much to them. Most of these were decently powerful demons.

My Blood Blade came out of my hand and cut the first demon to reach me down. The smell of demon blood in the air reminded me of better times.

The second demon tried to block, only for me to overpower them and shove them back.

More were coming out of the building as if it was attached to some terrible depth.

“These are only weak fodder,” I said to Circe. “Likely a distraction. This barrier of yours doesn’t extend underground does it?”

“It does not.” She waved her hand through the crowd of demons, and they were shattered like eggs against a rock as a terrifying wind nearly tore me from the ground. “Advance. Bran, you don’t go first. Don’t give me that look.”

I was chomping at the bit to get in there and do some damage.

Yet, I had to let a bunch of Circe’s ladies charge in first.

“Tell me what you see.” Circe moved briskly with me. “That Soul Gaze of yours is turning out to be too valuable of an asset. Don’t know if you’d mind sharing how you got it with me?”

“Use inspect often while performing battles within your soul or another,” I told her bluntly.

“That and soul absorption paint a picture that’s beyond what you’ve told us.” She moved with me, stopping at a doorway and blowing apart an inscription.

“It was just a lock,” I said.

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t take chances.” Circe moved forward; the fighting had summarily ended with her single attack at the front of the building.

“Stairs!” came a shout from ahead. “Looks like it was hidden before.”

As those words were spoken, smoke drifted up the stairs.

“Damnit. Get down there and put out the fires.” Circe pointed a finger, and a powerful gale blew the smoke back down as well as quenched any fires in the direct line.

Her people rushed down.

“Don’t much care for this.” Circe moved steadily down the stairs which had clearly been a secret passage. A large cabinet had broken off what appeared to be hidden mounting.

Her people were fighting up ahead, and I managed to pull a few bloodlines before their opponents died.

“Most of these are lower-rank bloodlines. Lots of A’s.” I told her.

“Doesn’t mean anything until we find someone who is strong enough to answer questions. The clan does not tolerate traitors or weaklings.” Circe pushed down to a floor that opened up into a giant circular chamber.

There was a spiked throne in the center with black roots that led out in every direction as well as passages that split off in over a dozen ways.

One of those passages was puffing smoke.

“Andrea, Taylor, go deal with the fire.” Circe quickly gave orders, pointing down each passage and assigning two to four people to deal with it. “Some throne room, underneath our islands.” She looked disgusted.

“If it makes you feel better, it’s a sacrificial chamber.”

“No. It does not. What are they sacrificing here?” she asked.

“Dunno,” I lied. “But you don’t put manacles on a chair people sit on willingly. Besides, that looks painful as fuck.” I chuckled and pointed at the spikes embedded in the seat and back of the chair.

This was a problem.

The spiked chair was to bring immense pain to the host, breaking their mind enough that a demon could enter or to leave the vessel and turn it into an empty, raging shell. The shock troopers of many wars were such creatures. Though there often seemed to be an inexhaustible number of demon souls, they didn’t share. When a demon wanted to leave a body, they just put it through unimaginable pain, leaving behind the fragment of their soul that contained that pain.

It was a durable and mindless monster that was worth shit experience. That exact tactic was how they flooded many cities in the beginning. Later, the same technique would be used to break and wear down armies. People started to call them husks.

What we had fought outside hadn’t been those. Normally, they’d be kept locked up somewhere until they were needed.

Circe hummed. “You three with me. Bran, you will follow just behind me and keep your eyes open for anything dangerous.”

“As you wish.” I walked with her, looking at the black roots that wound along the walls.

Circe had picked the one the most covered in the roots as her own. As she passed the entrance, she slashed with her hand, a blade of wind cutting into the root but not severing it.

Green goo dripped from the cut she made.

“It’s alive.”

“It’s a demon. Stationary, alive, and a massive repository of souls. It can’t do anything in its current state,” I said, not bothering with all the subterfuge now.

“A corpse tree?” she asked.

I nodded. “Dangerous if it grows more. Frankly, I can’t believe there is one under the clan.”

“Corpse Tree sounds pretty dangerous,” Nyx added.

“It’s a mid-tier demon,” I said, though that was plenty before The Rapture. “Demons use them to terraform spaces or as a living battery of demon souls to use to infect new hosts. It seems to me that the Heros Clan has been slowly losing a number of individuals. If they were pulling more than a handful a year, this tree would be far more established.”

Circe gave me a glance.

“I’m very invested in hunting demons,” I answered blandly and stepped ahead of Circe through the passage we were traveling.

Given all the roots, it was likely that the Corpse Tree was down in this direction. Despite the name, it had no need for sunlight. Instead, it often dried out areas and put enough dust into the air to turn the sky a gloomy red and orange.

“Can you get information out of this Corpse Tree?” Circe asked.

“I can get information out of just about any demon there is—if I have enough time.” Killing demons was my specialty after all.

The passage opened up into an underground ruins that had water dripping from the ceiling into a shallow pool that took up the whole space. On the far side, half a dozen figures worked next to the trunk of the tree.

Circe held out a finger towards them, and the wind gathered around her momentarily before surging out with such force it was a physical current of wind that crossed the water to bind several of the demons.

“They are trying to get the heart of the tree out,” I told her. The tree had a large cut down its trunk oozing green ichor with just a faint hint of a dark purple glow behind it.

“Circe!” one demon barked. “You bitch.”

“Do I know you?” Circe strode forward, her feet never touching the ground and moving with confidence.

Another of the demons hissed at the one who’d spoken, and ice exploded all around them, reaching out towards Circe and me.

But the old sorceress waved her hand before it reached her and shattered it with a blast of wind that only ruffled my clothes. “Try harder.” She reached out like she was grabbing them, and I could only see their reactions to immediately know what ability she was using.

Circe had just sucked the air from their lungs, and they were struggling in their bindings.

A loud rumbling from another passage made me look down that way before I heard the patter of dozens upon dozens of feet.

“Circe. Incoming,” I said.

She stood with one arm out holding the bindings and the other depriving them of air. There was a grimace on her face. “Deal with it, Bran. Prove to me just how strong you are. Holding them is about all I can manage at this moment.”

These demons weren’t weak. Each of them had about eight to ten thousand stats, which paled in comparison to Circe’s over twenty thousand stats. There was a reason she was a leader of the clan.

The sounds grew as they grew closer. I could make out the scrabbling of claws and hard skin as an absolute flood of bodies tore down the hall.

I stepped up. I already knew what was coming, I just didn’t know how many.

Husks appeared in the passage, their eyes both wild and hollow as they brayed and rushed down.

“Simone, Nyx, just keep firing down the passage,” I told them as I strode forward.

My job was to stem the tide.

Reaching them, my blade cut through the first two. Their blood splashed out, hit me, and sizzled. Demons loved to pack these husks full of all sorts of nastiness.

Acid, poison, and curses.

I slashed through the first two rows as darkness enveloped the space around me. I felt acid on my chest and poison seeping into my hands from where their blood dripped down the blade.

My smile grew vicious as I roared, using brute force and a fighting style designed exactly for the purpose of clearing chaff from a battlefield. Now this was far more natural than fighting in a tin can flying through the sky.

Wide strokes took dozens out, while pink beams tore through the darkness and around me before soothing calm settled over my skin and mind from Simone.

Nearby, arrows punched through the air over my shoulder as Nyx fired arrow after arrow into the heads of the husks.

I was proud of her fighting spirit, but she really was not doing anything.

After a husk took an arrow, it jerked back only to keep going forward.

“Headshots don’t work?” Nyx shouted.

“They’re not really alive. Just corpses driven entirely on spite and hate left in them.” I cut to the right, only for one to leap from the left and bite deep into my arm, making it feel like the inside of my arm was on fire.

Stepping back, I used Crimson Barrier to stop up the passage while I ripped the head off and cut it into two before throwing it to the side.

Fucking husks.

The cave shuddered like there was an earthquake.

“What’s that?” Nyx was spooked.

“I’d hazard we aren’t the only group underground. This is big enough that the other buildings likely connect down as well,” I said.

Nyx was still confused, and Simone filled in the last detail. “That means Hercules is likely down here making a mess.”

[Acid Resistance F]

The system note popped up on the side of my vision as Crimson Barrier cracked, and I focused forward on all the husks.

Chapter 36

Our small army fought for a solid twenty minutes before the husks stopped coming.

“Phew.” Nyx coiled her serpent half and sat down atop it. “I don’t know why I’m so tired.”

“Adrenaline crash,” I answered, glancing over where Circe was still detaining the six demons. I flicked my blade to the side to clear it of blood before I realized it was made of blood, making the move a little silly in of itself.

Chuckling, I let the weapon melt away.

“One is still awake,” Circe reported.

“Well, keep at it. Demons are hard to detain. You’re doing great.”

She glared at my tone.

In fairness, I did sound like I was talking to a junior.

Rather than worry about trying to dig myself out of that hole, I went to the corpse tree where the demons had been cutting and stuck my hand in to pry out the swirling orb of dark purple.

When my hands touched the heart, the thing started pulsing angrily, and a spike tried to injure my soul. The move was easily deflected by my spirit.

“None of that,” I chided the orb.

“What now?” Nyx asked.

“Normally, this is the part where we squeeze them for information.” I said as the cavern shook ominously again.

“Perhaps we should head back up to the room with the torture throne?” Simone offered. “I don’t like being so deep underground with those quakes.”

Circe nodded and lifted the six demons in the air. “Let’s head back up. Sounds like Herc found something strong enough to let loose.”

“Glad we didn’t find something that tough,” Nyx said.

“These six demons are pretty strong,” I informed her. “Circe is just very good at subduing people, it seems.”

The woman in question smiled wide enough to pinch her eyes. “You should remember that before you go off and do anything stupid.”

“Going to remind you that you gave me permission to go to the Ionian Sea and start that part.” I needed to get this bloodline under control.

“Of course,” Circe replied, making good time through the tunnel and back up to the spiked throne.

More than a few of her people had already returned ahead of us.

“Demons!” one hissed as they spotted us.

“They seemed to be in charge,” Circe said. “Also, Bran, put that down.”

“It’s trying to attack my soul. I would caution anyone else from touching it.” The orb was alive with its own soul. I couldn’t put it in a spatial ring as a result. So, I put it on the throne, using some of the spikes to seat the orb.

The cavern rumbled, but the noise was far less concerning than when we were deeper.

“Alright.” Circe stopped and turned to me. “How are you going to get information out of them?”

“Simple.” I took a piece of talisman paper and made a quick inscription on it before sticking it to the forehead of one of the demons. “Just going to go diving into their soul and squeeze it out of them.”

Several of Circe’s people looked distressed at the idea.

“Don’t worry. He’s pretty good at this,” Simone offered. “He killed a demon general’s soul before.”

That comment made Circe stare at me. “One of these days I’m going to interrogate you.”

“Good luck.” I headbutted the chosen demon and immediately found myself in their soul.

The whole place was a giant glowing red cavern with souls twisting about the periphery, with the demon in question sitting on a throne a good twenty feet off the ground so that I had to look up to them.

“Haha! Someone came in here to greet me, how foolish.” Chains snapped up from the ground and wrapped around my shoulders and arms before pulling me to the ground.

I flexed my spirit and resisted the chains before taking a step forward and breaking the annoying constraints out of the ground they had risen from. “Foolish, yes. I have my moments. But right now, I just want to get this job done.” I breathed, and the chains dissolved into mist and entered my soul.

Soul Absorption Arts worked on everything in another’s soul.

The demon shrieked and jumped from his throne to attack me. “Die!” He moved far faster than he would have outside the body. His soul world shifted with him to make him faster still.

I blocked the first two attacks and then met my fist to his face on the third, smashing him down into the steps before his throne.

With a quick step, I grabbed his arm and twisted it while using Soul Absorption Arts again on the debris we made.

“That’s a shame. Don’t think you’re going to deal with me so easily. Moving the world is a nice touch.” I twisted hard, keeping contact with his soul. “What the fuck were you doing underneath the clan?” The tools at my disposal were less than I would like, but amid his soul, I could pry something loose.

Glancing at a nearby pool of water, I used Soul Gaze to pierce his soul.

Typically when asked a question, most people and demons thought about the answer, even if they didn’t say it aloud. And the soul was a representation of their thoughts.

I had learned that surfaces like a pool of water could often give answers through the images you could see within.

In the pool, I saw nothing more than a gathering of demons chattering, but there was no sound. “Oh, come on. You met other demons? What about the Corpse Tree? Where did it come from?”

There was a flash, and the image shifted to someone handing the demon the orb and more silent words.

“Better question, where were you getting all the people from?” Even as I asked, I had several ideas of the answer.

There were far too many husks down below the surface. This operation had been going on for a very long time, and they had a very plentiful supply of demons.

My mind immediately jumped to Tartarus. It was a place for thousands of people to disappear and never be seen again? Almost too perfect of an operation for the demons.

It would provide a huge stream of bodies with bloodlines for them to inhabit, from one of the five clans no less.

“Are you Tartarus?!” I roared and slammed his face to the stairs as I looked back into the pool.

Immediately, there was a sense like gravity had left me as I spun weightless in his soul.

I pulled myself back and struggled as I threw everything I had at the thin connection to my body.

Back in the real world, I staggered to my feet as the demon bled out from where its body had been cut in two.

A fury of a woman swept through the room.

Persephone appeared out of twisting darkness, and with a flick of her wrist, she severed the orb on the throne. “Fucking demons.”

“You bitch!” I roared and swung at her with a new blood blade in my hands.

Persephone blocked the move with a pale hand, but her eyes opened wide when I pushed her back and left a small gash on her hand. She stopped for a moment, turning her hand back and forth as she studied the mark. Once her brain rebooted, her eyes came up, and she was pissed. “How dare you attack me.”

“You killed a demon while I was inside his soul.” I was a little off kilter, my mind rattled. “You nearly killed me, you bitch. But you certainly succeeded at stopping all of these demons from telling me who was behind this!” I pointed my sword at her with a grimace. My head was pounding.

When I used the talisman I had, I still had a connection back to my body, even if most of my soul was injected into the demon’s.

When Persephone had killed the demon, it was like trying to rip my soul in two.

Only by my strength of soul had I been able to retreat to my body as the demon’s soul faded.

But damn, this hurt worse than playing with the Stamphalian birds.

“Bran, calm down.” Circe made a wall of wind between the two of us. “Pers, thank you for joining us. However, you just killed targets we had been intending to interrogate. Explain yourself.”

“I don’t need an excuse to kill demons.” Persephone held her head high.

I used Soul Gaze on her, pushing hard to pop any illusions she might have around herself.

Yet, there was no illusion.

She was human. Also, she was similar to Hercules with a potent class. Twilight Emissary SSS. She had abilities that had to do with darkness and light.

That didn’t completely absolve her, but given that she wasn’t a demon in hiding, she might just be a bitch.

“Then go get me a few more to interrogate!” I snapped.

“You dare command me?” Persephone slipped through the wall of wind, and her hand hit me in the chest with an explosion of light that threw me back into the wall of the room. “I understand there’s quite a dilemma with you. However, I think it’s quite simple. Just teach you a thorough lesson and make you into a servant of the clan.”

Her attack had burnt away a big circle in my shirt, but mostly, it had been more effect than impact.

I winced, but Regeneration had the burn healing in moments as I stood back up. “Going to make you pay for that.”

She laughed. “What is it you kids say these days? Fuck around and find out?” She leered at me. “You’re about to find out.”

“Enough.” Circe put herself between us. “Persephone, you attacked him first by killing that demon. Bran, deactivate that berserk ability of yours and calm down. Now, if everyone has finished clearing their paths, head back to the surface.”

“If you want to go at it, I’m happy to pick a fight.” I wiped some blood on my chest.

“Bran,” Circe warned me.

“No. Why don’t we fight? You were ‘saving’ those demons for interrogation later. Who knows, maybe you were trying to sneak them out or steal off with them?” Persephone had a daffodil in her hand again. “I killed them as they should be dead.”

“You and your shitty Tartarus branch are nothing but worthless. When push comes to shove, I don’t think you’ll stand beside the rest of the clan. Demons are coming, and you are still focused on hiding.” If she wanted to pick a fight, I had several ideas on how I could even the playing field. She was strong, but my new level one-hundred ability was likely strong enough to keep up with her.

Persephone tilted her head and looked at me like she was already imagining my head swinging free of my body. “You want to die?”

Circe spun wind out from both of her hands, ready to keep us apart.

Persephone relaxed and laughed. “Oh, what fun. This new initiate likes to make jokes. Or perhaps he’s just upset that his mother has been sequestered by me. There’s no need to play with you.”

Simone came and took my arm. “Bran.”

Hercules walked out of one of the tunnels, covered in blood and ichor. His face was set in a dark mask that looked like he was just looking for a fight. “Circe, Persephone,” he grunted, even though he barely looked like he was anything but walking bloodlust.

“Hercules. There’s a disagreement about taking hostages for interrogation. Nothing worth getting upset over.” Circe tried to keep him from adding to the fight.

“Only good demon is a dead demon,” Hercules said. “Besides, interrogation is a flawed method for information gathering. We just need to wipe them clean off our island.”

“I can’t help but feel an analogy between this deep cave system and Tartarus,” I said, glaring at Persephone.

“You think I’m responsible here?” Persephone laughed. “No. I kill demons.”

“She lost her family to a demon attack many, many years ago.” Hercules told me. “Persephone is the least likely among us to be working with demons.”

His words didn’t stop me from glaring at her.

The tension was so fiery that the air should have ignited between us.

“I’ll be scouting the tunnels and then meet you all on the surface. This discovery needs to be discussed.” Persephone spoke to Circe and Hercules before bleeding into darkness again and zipping off.

Circe turned to me. “You will be following me to the palace, and we will be shortly arranging for you to go sailing. Maybe a dip in the Ionian Sea will cool your head off.” She sighed and jerked her head for me to follow.

With Persephone gone, my anger was calming down quickly, but I still wanted to take a chunk out of something.

Simone kissed my arm and rubbed it in an attempt to diffuse my anger. “It’ll be alright. Blood is running hot, and everyone’s angry for different reasons.”