548: Through the Wreckage

548: Through the Wreckage

“Cough, so that magic that you used, was it the same as when Lucarad appeared as a giant bat on fire?” Beatrice asked as she and Ember moved through the debris toward fresh air, and—inadvertently—toward the cries and screams that multiplied in the rattled city.

“No, that was all him,” Ember answered. “I just added a little fire for the show. You could say it was practically the opposite.”

“Do you think the others made it out? The people we freed.”

“Probably. Y’Shtara would not have wasted time hanging around, and they had more than enough time since we parted.”

Beatrice thanked the cat girl in her mind for taking initiative and not following her into this mess.

Ember continued, “Though, if there was anyone else in those pits with Felicia, they most certainly shared the fate of the Purple Capes.”

That stung Beatrice. She never even bothered to check. It was one thing after another and she ended up overindulging with her lactation spells, even if it did prove useful level-wise.

“When you say ‘Purple Capes’…”

“If those two captains ended up dead because some rocks fell on their heads, I will be extremely underwhelmed,” Ember answered what Beatrice was about to ask. “Then again, one of the captains was taken out by a single spell, and another let himself be turned into… Whatever that was. You should do it more often!”

“I’ll think about it,” Beatrice said. Seeing how rapidly the effects spread, she did not want to accidently turn entire city into zombified simpletons.

“There’s so much potential!” Ember continued. “And we didn’t even get the chance to investigate what effects it had on those soldiers. A change of mental state that completely shifted their allegiances, tastes, thoughts. Would they have truly come out of it as they were before?”

And that’s what I’m worried about, Beatrice thought. Using it on killers and psychos might be one thing, but if a new Lactating Minion starts changing and corrupting everyone in their path. Isn’t that what the demons do to their captives?

“Too bad they all died,” Ember still spoke about the soldiers. “Though a few might have escaped. Bah! Searching for them now would be too time-consuming to be worth it when you can just make a fresh batch to play with!”

And the more excited Ember was about this spell, the more apprehensive Beatrice was about using it again. So she quickly changed the subject to a more important issue.

“What the hell was that earthquake anyway?” Beatrice asked.

“There hasn’t been an earthquake worth notice in this area for as long as anyone kept records,” Ember answered. “A powerful spell would be my guess. Question is who is responsible for it.”

“Or ‘what’,” Beatrice added as she stepped over another body. “The captains were supposed to be the most powerful here, and they wouldn’t collapse their own fortress. Maybe Felicia summoned another demon before she died? Or the same one? Ah, could it have broken through from the underground tunnels and caused the collapse? Who knows where those underground tunnels go or end!”

“Not unless that puny abomination has learned to chew through solid rock,” Ember said.

“Puny?”

“Either way, as much as that abomination loved to snack on hapless weaklings, I cannot imagine that simple thing having the strength or the will to cause this level of damage. The ones that built this fortress weren’t idiots. Just like the royal palace it has immeasurable tons of solid rock as a foundation. Without it, the entire thing would have collapsed long ago.

“And Felicia couldn’t have summoned another demon. At least if we go by what that giant muscle head said, the Queen was the one who gave the Felicia the demon. Felicia wasn’t the one truly controlling anything.”

“Maybe she gave her another one then? The abomination in the mines came with bonus demonlings.”

“A demon powerful enough to do this? No way!” Ember dismissed the idea. “Besides, where did it come from then? No matter how strong or fast, no demons that I know of can teleport. And if Felicia had access to such power, why didn’t she use it before her death? It is not unimaginable that an extremely powerful being could have hidden itself within Felicia, but I think our big friend would have noticed that.”

“Then could it have been the Queen’s doing!?” Beatrice abandoned Felicia and went to the source. “Either one of her demons or some other underlings. None of her daughters that I met were right in the head. Two of them were outright possessed!”

“That is far more likely, if they found out where we were. But even then, taking out their major allies?”

“It didn’t seem like those captains were aware of the whole demon thing,” Beatrice said. “Maybe the Queen didn’t want to risk the chance that they’d switch sides?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Well then, if your theory is true, then we should be on the lookout for someone to come and finish the job. In such a situation the best course of action is to hide. I’m in no condition to fight anyway.”