Chapter 53. A Demon's Plea

It had been a couple of days since I faced Daniel and embraced the Darkness and Hellfire Power within me. Using that power without easing myself into it had taken a bit of a toll on my body, leaving me completely exhausted for a day.

Victoria, David, and Steven had asked about me over the phone, and to not worry them, I simply told them that I was okay but indisposed. They didn’t ask anything more after that, leaving me alone to recover in the meantime.

Nicole, on the other hand, had shown up over the last couple of days to ‘take care of me’. I had to admit that it didn’t feel bad to have someone else look after me, even if it was just coming over to talk, watch movies, and eat a few snacks and fruits.

She had been staying with me more often over the last few days, usually so she could have more time to train her Deviant magic, but she had left earlier today after leaving me some fruits, so tonight I was left alone.

Right now, I was just sitting by the window, looking at the glowing lights of the city and thinking about the things that happened a couple of nights ago.

Being faced with someone who spouted the same kind of zealous words as I did in the past was a shock for me, especially when they sounded like nothing more than nonsense, and were directed to my face.

The goblin—whose only name I could remember was Erus—had been extremely grateful to me with as many words as he could express; so many that I had to force him to cut it down almost every time he spoke. I couldn’t even remember most of his names, since the introduction for his name was excessively long, with as many names as there were words he could use. I even worried that perhaps he was just mocking me, but the glint in his dark eyes told me otherwise.

He was insistent that I take his phone number and call him should I ever need anything done, that no matter what I needed, he could get it. I wasn’t too keen on exchanging phone numbers with someone that spoke so much, but in the end I decided to take him up on his offer. It would at least broaden my understanding of Salrak’s people, and maybe even help me when it comes to using those Darkness and Hellfire powers.

As for Daniel and his people, they were taken into a police car by the police that showed up, who then asked us to come along to take some statements about the incident. I told them everything I knew and then they let us go, so I didn’t know what was of Daniel.

Erus said that I shouldn’t worry about anything, and that he’d handle it all. I was so tired back then, that I didn’t bother with even thinking about it, so I left it all to him.

While looking out the window, I extended my right hand outside and called forth my new power. Across my forearm, a dark miasma covered it, which was more intense at my hand, where from the darkness of the miasma a blood-red flame formed to steadily float over my hand.

There was a strange feeling floating in my chest as I looked at the power in my hand. The part of me that had been living and believing in the Holy Gods shouted that I was cursed, that these powers were evil. But I knew that all of that was nonsense, just like the one that Daniel was spouting when he tried to kill me and Erus. It was nothing more than a justification to get away with doing something wrong to good people.

I felt the power in my hand for a while longer. It was different from Holy Power. This one felt mine, not too different from the mana within my body, only that this one was much more pure, as if a part of the essence of creation was a part of me.

It was something that the Holy Power never felt like, since, despite making me feel good, it also felt as if I was using someone else’s arm to do things.

After a couple of minutes of contemplating my new powers, I finally withdrew it and the cold of the night entered the room. I had mostly recovered by now, from both Reeta’s training, the fight I had with Daniel, and the Darkness and Hellfire Power running through my body.

It was time for me to go back to the academy, as well as to finally go into the Tainted Land to earn both money and power. If Salrak was correct, then I should be able to defeat beings in that place to grow stronger by reclaiming some of the remaining power that was used to transport my world’s beings to Earth.

Suddenly, the phone started vibrating and I turned to look at it resting on top of the white table. Without hesitation I walked over to it, wondering if it was Nicole that wanted something from me. However, the vibration was too rhythmic, which meant that someone was calling me.

I looked down at the screen and saw that it was Bo’guth. It was strange for someone to call me, especially Bo’guth, and more so at this time of the night. I would’ve refused to answer his calls before, but after everything that’s happened, I didn’t see a reason to refuse him anymore. Right now, I was likely more alike to him and his kind than the Holy Gods.

Without waiting any longer, I slid my finger across the screen like Nicole taught me to answer a call. “Hello?”

I heard for a moment the uneven breathing on the other side and frowned, but Bo’guth didn’t take much longer to speak.

“Althea?” he said, his voice wavering, lacking that cheerfulness of the demon in it.

“Yes.”

There was a moment of silence, followed by a sigh. “I need help.”

* * *

There were hardly any details on what Bo’guth said about the help that he needed, but judging from the tone of voice, I could tell that it wasn’t something good. He simply asked me to come to his home. I didn’t know where he lived or how to get there, but after giving him my address, he sent a car to the building where all I had to do was get on it and I’d be taken to his place without having to say anything.

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The hesitation I would’ve had to go somewhere a demon told me to go wasn’t there anymore, so at the moment, all I was thinking about was what could’ve possibly happened for a demon like him to ask me for help.

Getting to the place where he lived took a while, and I was in awe about how big this city was.

It was late at night and there weren’t as many cars as there would be in the mornings, afternoons, and early evenings, so the car was able to go at high speeds on the roads. And even then, the buildings and the road lights would go on and on. I had yet to be outside the zone where I was living and going to the Academy, so I couldn’t help but think that perhaps this whole world was just a big city.

That thought cleared when I was getting closer to Bo’guth’s home. It was rather withdrawn from the city as I finally saw more greenery than buildings on the way.

“Huh! Something really important must’ve happened here. Hopefully everything’s okay for you, miss,” the driver of the car said once we were at the place that Bo’guth sent me.

The entrance for the place was large, with one road going one way and another next to it going the other. There were a couple of small cabins at both sides, with wide dark windows, and a barrier between them that blocked the entrance. The most important thing, however, were the several police cars with their red and blue lights that were parked right by those gates.

Because of that, the driver that got me here couldn’t go any further, so he was forced to stop a certain distance away. “Welp, this is it.”

I opened the door and stepped outside. “Thank you for taking me here.”

“My pleasure ma’am and… again, I hope everything’s okay,” he said and I nodded in response before closing the door.

The car did a small turn and left the place just as fast as it had brought me here. He said that he hoped that everything’s okay, but it was clear by now that it wasn’t. Even when I was attacked on the roads of the city, there weren’t this many police cars to respond.

But staying here and thinking about it wouldn’t solve anything, so I made my way to the entrance.

“Excuse me, lady, you can’t go in right now. We’re assessing the situation so once we’re done here, you’ll be able to go in,” a policeman said.

“Someone called me here, he said he needed help,” I said and reached for the phone. “His name is Bo’guth Azid.”

“Ah, are you a friend of his?” the policeman replied and turned to look over at another man. “Sir, there’s a friend of the demon here, is it okay to let them in?”

The man that got called turned to look at me. He didn’t seem particularly interested in what was going on, so he dismissively waved his hand. “Yes, yes, that’s fine. I think there’s nothing else that we can do here anyway.”

“Well, there you have it,” the policeman that first spoke to me said. “Try not to stress them out too much. It’s a delicate situation.”

“Okay,” I said, and walked past the man only to stop a couple of steps. “Do you know where they are right now?”

“They’re at their home, which should be at the end of this road,” the policeman responded by pointing with his finger before turning to check other things on a computer.

I walked in the direction that he told me to go, and while I was doing so, I realized that this whole community was composed of beings from my world, as I could see in the windows of the large houses all sorts of people; from skeletons, ghouls, and goblins; to elves, beastkins, dwarves and a couple of humans.

They were all armed and looking at the roads with wary looks; the kind of looks that people would have when they were getting ready for an attack. I frowned and quickened my pace to reach Bo’guth’s home.

It was fairly obvious now which one it was, as it had a lot of lights turned on, with broken walls, windows, things all over the place, and a couple of police standing close by those remains.

What I didn’t see were corpses, of either people or demons, so perhaps things weren't as grave as I was worried it was, but I had to see inside to be sure.

I walked past the police and to the large, broken door. Inside the house was a complete mess and I could hear soft sobs of someone coming from one of the rooms. I wasn’t sure if I should just walk right in, so I stood by the entrance.

“Hello?” I shouted and I heard someone move from deeper inside the house.

Bo’guth’s large demonic head appeared from a corner. “Ah, you’re finally here.”

“What happened?” I asked as I looked at the broken door, and all the destroyed things inside.

“Come in, and I’ll explain things to you,” he said as he beckoned me with his head.

I did as he asked and I followed after his large frame. A couple of turns inside the house and I was inside a large room, full of broken things. There was something that immediately caught my attention, and it was that there were remnants of Holy Power in the air. It wasn’t too powerful, but the way that it was moving in the air, it seemed to have been used to weaken dark beings.

Beings like Bo’guth and… the softly crying demoness that sat by a large couch with her face between her hands. That was a sight I had seen before. It was exactly the same as when my mother found out that big brother and father had died in a battlefield. This could only mean that something like that had happened to them.

The demoness, Igladith, soon noticed my presence and she lifted her head to look at me. Her face was of complete pain, mixed with a couple of trails of black tears that were painting her face. As for the way she was feeling, I could only say that a mother’s tears were always difficult to describe.

“You!” she shouted, quickly standing up from the couch as she looked at me with fury.

Her clawy hand stretched to the side as a miasma of darkness formed around it. Soon after, a dark scythe as large as the demoness herself appeared and she lunged at me. I prepared myself to defend, but in this case, I knew that she was attacking because of the way she was currently feeling, so I had no intention to retaliate.

Thankfully, Bo’guth moved faster than she did, standing in our way as he grabbed her by the shoulders and held her back.

“Why is she here?!” Igladith cried with a furious glare directed at me.

“Calm down, Iggy. I called her here,” Bo’guth said with as much of a calm tone that he could muster while keeping the demoness between his large, clawy hands.

“Why?!” she shouted, nearly pushing aside the large demon as if he was made out of cotton. “It’s because of people like her that our… that our…”

The demoness broke into tears once more and the scythe in her hand was released, hitting the ground a couple of times before bursting in a miasma of darkness that quickly dissipated.

Bo’guth led her back to the couch where she sat down, Bo’guth next to her. “If there’s someone that’s able to understand and get to the people responsible for this, I think it would be the one that used to lead them.”

Igladith harshly shook her head before glaring back at me again. “Have you lost your mind?! It’s because of her that we got attacked in the first place! How do we know that she’s not the one behind the attack!?”

Saying that, Igladith tried to stand back up to go in my direction, but Bo’guth held her back once more. “Calm down, Iggy. If she was, she wouldn’t have come here after I called her.”

I paused for a moment to look at Bo’guth trying to soothe the crying Igladith, but if things were this dire, I couldn’t just stand here waiting. “What happened?”