Chapter 8: The Third Player
The next several hours were filled with last-minute planning as Druella's forces (well, the ones that weren't actively occupied with other things) encroached upon Tomoe's mansion.
With Atreya's Item Diver a success, though there were still a few bugs to work out here and there, they quickly got set into a routine, as time was not on their side.
As Vash, Carl and Ada finished their run, Tomoe, Shizuka and Virgil took their turn at diving into some items the first team had brought back. From a new pair of Falcon Shoes to a set of Majin's Armor, they hadn't any time to dawdle.
Even now, within the randomizing and often confusing labyrinth that was the Item World, they had a plan to speed through as quickly as possible: first off, find the gate that'd let them dive down to the next level...
"How the hell am I supposed to jump up there?" Virgil had found the gate, but it was at the top of an imitation mountain with insurmountable sides.
Mystery gate visits were kept to a minumum of two per every ten floors, as they hadn't any currency with which to purchase any Rosen Queen goods, since the chests inside this item only provided IOU X amount of Hell notes...
"Ohhh, but I really really REALLY wanted that new gauntlet set!" Shizuka had to be dragged away from the vendor.
Any level spheres that showed up were priority one.
"Hurry up and get to that gate. My arms are starting to fall asleep!" Tomoe had underestimated how much this sphere weighed.
Above all else, kill the Item Bosses, grab a Gency, and get out as quickly as possible. The double-kills would have to wait for another time.
"Hey, get off that Invincibility panel!"
If they managed to luck out and get the Innocent town to appear, they'd try to pass a bill to allow the item's limits to be pushed even further.
'Ohh man, and here I am without any bribery items. Better cross my fingers and hope for the best.' A shaky hand came down, pressing the button that told the Item Senators to begin voting. The 'Persuade by Force' button was hidden beneath a panel on the podium, and would only show if it didn't pass.
Whenever one group finished up their run, the second group would rotate in while the first kept watch on any movement outside the mansion. Even though it was broad daylight outside, they couldn't risk allowing Druella's forces to sneak up on them.
As for Nelius, he had tried to accompany one of the groups down, but Tomoe insisted that he get some rest...and by insisted, she had Shizuka use a sleeping spell to knock him out, then set him in her room.
'You've already done us all a big favor... now it's our turn to repay it.'
On one of the lower floors, Vash was making good use of the Binoculars he'd found inside the Item World to keep an focused eye on the surroundings. He made calculated sweeps of the front gate and eastern side, commiting each side to memory.
"This is Stampede. Clover A, can you hear me?" For the team keeping watch in case anyone out of the ordinary showed up, Atreya dug into her seemingly bottomless bag of magical stuff and fished out three gems of communication.
"This is Ada. Mash, what's with the codenames?" Ada's voice responded back, with a slight hint of irritation to it.
"Hey, what if they're listening in right now? And I've told you before, the name's Vash, VASH!"
"Dude, you worry too much." Carl's voice interjected into the conversation. "And all clean on this end."
Same... no, wait a minute..." Ada's line went silent. "Ah, false alarm. It was just a deer." Just as she was about to start another sweep, out of the corner of her eye she saw the deer starting to twitch and convulse. Soon enough, its skin fell away to reveal the form of a young blonde girl dressed in red. "Scratch my previous statement. Real alarm, I see one of their witches."
"Your side, cor-" Carl cut his own sentence short as he saw two Succubi and a Dullahan appear. "Uh, guys, we've got a problem."
"Trust me, I know. They're coming out of the woodwork!" In Vash's sight, there were three Amazonesses and two Werewolves. "They're trying to surround us! Hey, Atreya, are you getting all of this?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Guess it's showtime, then."
"Ah, hello there. Nice to finally meet you face to face." Inside Nelius' sleeping mind, the voice from before spoke to him.
"Huh, hey, why am I asleep?" Nelius found himself floating inside a surprisingly realistic dream. Floating in front of him was the blurred image of a person.
"Simple, when you didn't respect Tomoe's wish to get some rest, she had her hot little Kunoichi friend send you off to dream land with a sleep spell."
"Wha... Dammit Tomoe! This isn't any time for me to-"
"Listen! You've been running around practically non-stop grabbing everyone and doing all these favors free of charge. It's time they started to pull their own weight. Aside from that, this is a perfect chance for me to let you in on a little something."
"That being?"
"Namely, a reference to your old boss." At this mentioning, Nelius scowled. "Yeah, I know, it's a sore point, but it's something I gotta apologize for."
"And what, if anything, are you apologizing for?"
"When your boss split your soul up, she was coming after me. I haven't any idea on how or where she acquired the knowledge, but she knew who I am."
"Who you are?"
"Yeah. Several thousands of years ago, I was a human, albeit one who got his hands on some incredibly potent demonic powers, though they came at the cost of my sanity. When I felt my own humanity starting to slip, I called in a favor."
"That favor was..."
"I wanted to reincarnate, to get away from these powers, but I should've known it wouldn't be so cut and dry. For the past several days, I was trying to tell you about the possible dangers, but something was holding me back. Ironically enough, the demonic energy here actually helped break me free."
"So basically I've got the spirit of an eons old human with demonic powers sharing a body with me?"
"It goes much deeper that that, but for now that's the gist of it."
"And I'm guessing someone's after you? Aside from my old boss, that is."
"In this realm, I cannot be certain, but we are close to fusing together. As much as I can tell you're not fond of our current situation, you're a good demon, Nelius, one whom I can entrust my powers and memories to. Much more trustworthy than who's after me."
"Who, exactly, is after you?" Nelius began to feel himself disconnect from the dream. "Hey, what's going on?"
"Well, damn, looks like you're being woken up. Guess their forces are here a bit ahead of schedule. Look, touch up on controlling that other side of you, and we'll meet again. But before I go, let me impart a little something onto you."
The Order patrol moving to retake Lescatie tried to keep any sounds of movement to a minimum, so as not to draw the attention of Druella's forces encroaching upon the mansion.
"How's preparation on the symbol coming?"
"So far so good. Hopefully these next few touches will make it more effective at reverting the energy-" The sounds of something crashing through the trees caught their collective attention. "What was what?"
"I don't know, and I get the feeling we don't want to know what that was. Let's keep moving." They tried to forge ahead, but the crashing sounds were getting closer and closer. Then an alien creature crashed through, staring the twenty-strong group down.
"What in the name of the Chief God above is that?" The creature answered by stomping forward. "To arms, men!" The forward soldiers drew their weapons and charged the monster, only to be swept aside as if they were nonexistant. The mages tried hitting it with spells while the few archers there attempted to ventilate it with arrows; the end result was the same, as the spells and arrows just bounced off its hide. "Fall back! Fall-"
His orders were silenced, as the monster devoured him on one swift gulp. The remaining members of the patrol quickly scattered.
"So, what's the situation?" Nelius pushed a few wet strands of hair out of the way of his eye. "And I really didn't appreciate the wake-up call."
"As it stands right now, we're surrounded on all sides. Whomever's leading this charge planned this one out." Atreya had a projection of the mansion and its surroundings playing out over a blue stone. "And Ada couldn't be up here in time to use Espoir, so I had to go with the next best thing."
"Yeah, thanks for that." He studied the outside forces moving in. "Even though I know everyone else has been doing what Item World diving they can to get stronger, the main problem lies in how outnumbered we are." He began to point out several areas around the mansion itself. "I know Tomoe's been doing some work here and there, but these main points here and here aren't exactly fortified. If someone gets in, they could easily demolish everything we've got, and as it stands right now, it's only eight versus an estimated..." Nelius took a moment to fully study the projection, "I'd wager at least two to three-thousand of them. We're going to end up being spread too thin to effectively counter them."
"Carl and I did consider their numbers compared to our own. We did come to an agreement that we're going to need some serious buffing of our area spells in order to thin their numbers."
"Even so, that's basically 250 to 375 of them to each one of us, and that's not even taking to account if she's going to bother sending reinforcements. A miscalculation now would mean that we're going to get screwed over, in both meanings of the phrase."
"Let's not overthink this too much. Right now it's mainly Druella's branch of the Sabbath, and they're all casters. Getting in close and denying them any chances at using magic would be our best bet."
"But I also see several close combat units being lead by that Bapho-whatever thing, and from what you said, they're supposed to be damn strong physically, basically like how Baal was before he died. I suppose I'll just have to wing it and hope for the best." A beeping sound cut off the conversation. "What was that?"
"Oh! Tomoe's group finally finished their run. They cut it close." Reaching over, she fiddled with a small device, eventually hitting a key. A person-sized portal opened up, and out walked Tomoe, Shizuka and Virgil, each one carrying a bag filled with various items. "So that's what took you guys so long."
"That, and the Item Assembly wanted to try a filibuster when we didn't have enough to bribe them with. So we had to kill them off."
"Hey!" Vash's voice erupted through the communication gem. "When are you guys going to get down here? They're all basically knocking on our front door!"
"Sounds like they're not going to try and surround us. I suppose this can work in our favor. Now let's plan. Atreya, can you create a layout of this place?"
"Sure. What are you planning this time?"
"You'll see. Now then, here's what I've got in mind. If you've got an idea to modify it, speak up now."
"Um, Leader Heather, how much longer are we going to wait?" A witch idly fiddled with her staff, which had a cattle's head planted firmly on top. Behind her, several more witches were growing restless, alongside the other monsters.
"Only until I figure out their game." The one known as Heather stood only slightly taller than her witch subordinates, with goat's horns growing from her head and matching ears in place. Fur ran down from her knees to where her feet would be, but instead she had light-brown hooves. Her clothing, if such an arrangement could even be called such, was little more than a brown cape and violet scraps of metal and cloth covering her most sensitive areas. In one of her pawlike hands was a serrated-edged scythe.
"Um, game?" A second witch spoke up.
"By now they should've already known we're here, but there's nothing here to try and impede our progress. No magical wards, no traps set up inside the grounds, no nothing. I mean, look, I can reach over and touch the front door, and nothing happens."
"Maybe they aren't here, they set up somewhere else?" A third added her two cents.
"Unless you can perfectly replicate their unique types of life energy signatures, refrain from such an outlandish suggestion. Remember, we're not dealing with humans. Inside this mansion are several beings who identify as demons, much as our Demon Lord does, but what I can't understand is how they do half of what they do; it's like they operate under completely different rules than us."
"Well, the man did say they were from beyond any star ever seen in the sky. Maybe they're aliens or something?" Heather basically face-palmed.
'I really need smarter subordinates.' "All right, you three. Fly around and see if you can find any traces of activity." The three witches made use of levitation magic and began flying around the mansion, each one looking for any movement. About three minutes later, they landed.
"Nope, all's quiet. We looked everywhere, but there's nothing going on inside. We even walked right into that house on the roof, but nothing."
"Oh very well, then. We'll play their little game. Now then-" Heather turned to address the witch on her left, only to see that she was gone. "Hey, where'd Anna run off to now?"
"What the- she was standing right here a second ago!"
"Gah, to hell with it, everyone inside!" Opening the front door with little to no resistance, the Baphomet lead her forces inside the silent mansion. "Spread out, and leave nothing to chance. Turn this place upside down if you must." The door slammed shut behind her, and she turned around to find out who did so. "Did anyone touch that door?"
"Not us." They all chorused back. The Baphomet strolled over and grabbed a hold of the door handle, and pulled the door open to let the rest of her subordinates in.
"What in the-" Standing behind the droves of monsters, was Nelius. "Hey, behind you!"
"Y'know, if you wanted in that badly, you could've just knocked." The entire drove spun around to see him. "About time you noticed. I mean, I've been sitting here for about..." He pretended to count, "Eh, I'd wager four, five minutes. My buddies and I easily could've offed half of you before someone would've noticed the smell of blood."
"How'd you get behind us?" One of the witches looked a bit spooked. "I'm damn certain one of us would've noticed movement of any kind."
"Well, your boss up there did say we operate under completely different rules. This is just one of them."
"He's talking crap. Get him!" An overly eager Werewolf lead the initial charge to attack. A Dullahan shouted for her to stop, but her warning fell upon deaf ears. The very moment of of the Werewolf's feet hit the ground about seven feet from Nelius, she was caught in an incredibly strong wind gust that sent her high into the air, and then crashing down into the ground.
"I tried to warn you. This one's got strong wind powers." The Dullahan hefted the Werewolf to her feet.
"Actually, that wasn't me. Carl, Atreya, give them the standard welcome!" A powerful windstorm started up, and at random intervals jets of flame and shards of ice were aimed at the monster army, forcing them to improvise if they preferred not to get burned or chilled.
"Find those casters!" Over the roaring winds the command was given, and those capable of moving against the winds, much less actually able to keep their footing, spread out to find Carl and Atreya's hiding spots, only to find themselves fighting against someone.
Two Amazoness monsters leapt for the nearest trees, only to find a pair of blades batting them back to the ground. A Werewolf darted for the bushes, but found herself in a headlock. As the winds died down, the witches moved to spread out, but dozens of holes and arrows began to dot the grounds at incredulous speeds.
To Nelius' sides, Tomoe and Virgil appeared. Shizuka had the Werewolf in a headlock, and Vash was a few floors up laying down cover fire. Carl was set up one floor below Vash, while Atreya was making herself comfortable inside a hollowed-out tree to Nelius' right. Ada was a floor above and to the right of Vash.
"Where'd they come from?" Heather was less than pleased with this display. "How'd you get this set up? I mean, we combed the place and everything! We should've seen you!"
"Good demons never reveal their secrets." Nelius actually felt a slight bit of enjoyment at seeing the Baphomet's face flush red with anger. "You mad?"
"No. I'm downright furious! Do with the others as you want, but this one is MINE!" The other monsters barely had enough time to clear a path as Heather charged straight for him, scythe poised to rip into him. In response, Nelius drew his own axe before charging forward to meet her.
Axe met scythe in a flurry of attempted strikes and blocks. Heather's weapon struck out at various points at amazing speed, but as it only had one real end to deal intial damage, it was easily blocked by Nelius' axe, which was slightly faster on the draw.
"Why can't I hit you?!" Each swipe of her scythe seemed to just dance around him rather than out and out hit. Sometimes he'd just step back, other times he jumped over the attack, and at least once he locked weapons with her. "No man alive, aside from the Demon Lord's husband, has ever matched a Baphomet on even terms. How can someone like you make it look so easy?"
"I already said, good demons keep their secrets... well, secret."
"Aggh, stop toying with me!" Eyes practically glowing red, she continued to lash out at the Incubus, who continued to deflect and parry her blows. "Fight me!"
"Okay." With that he brought a leg up, smashing the bottom of his foot into her face.
"Damn you! That's not funny!" She held the offended area with her free paw.
"Then why am I smiling?" The sound of crashing trees was all that answered him. "Oh come on, it wasn't that bad of a joke, was it?"
"Ah, no. I think we've an interloper." Whatever it was that was crashing through the trees was getting closer. All of a sudden an Order knight burst through the trees. "This is it?"
"Help, there's a strange-" He didn't even get a chance to finish as a whiplike arm wrapped around his legs, pulling him to the ground. "Oh God no! HELP!" He tried to free himself, but he was soon dragged into the growth, screaming the whole way until a fleshy crunch replaced his screams.
"What in the hell?" The fighting had come to a stop as everyone waited to see what it was that just ate the Order Knight. With one final push through the trees, the new monster revealed itself.
Standing upon six spindly legs, this creature's white body resembled a worm's, though its tail end curled up much like a scorpion's, and at its tail end was a head resembling a lizard or dragon's, with rows of sharp bloodstained teeth. In place of its nostrils there were two of the same whiplike protrusions that grabbed the Knight, each one ending in a imitation of a human hand. As for the actual head end of the alien being, it was a gaping circular maw with seemingly endless scores of teeth similar to the tail head's, and hanging off of one of them was a familiar helmet.
"Again, what in the hell is that thing?"
"You think I know?" The creature let loose a strong roar, threatening to blow everyone off their feet. Well, everyone minus Ada, who was beginning to feel rather woozy.
'What is this... why do I hear...' She quickly moved from her vantage point to further inside the mansion.
"Screw this." Scythe in hand, the Baphomet charged the beast down, and with one swing attempted to decapitate it, but all that resulted from her swing was her weapon getting stuck in its almost platelike hide. "No friggin' way. That should've killed you!"
"Boss, get away!" A witch quickly flew up, wrapping her arms around Heather and pulling her away, just in time to avoid a nasty blast of energy from the tail head.
'That's right my pet. A glorious smorgasboard for you to feed upon.' Watching the ensuing battle from afar was the girl in white and black. 'Feast upon them and develop your powers. Once you are complete, you'll be the spearhead to overtake this system. I shall make those fools pay.'
She looked down, only to see a rogue fireball headed her way. She held a hand out, forming a shield around herself for protection, but the fireball was slightly off, hitting at her feet rather than directly at her torso. This not only had the effect of shifting the ground beneath her, throwing her balance off, but also distracting her from keeping a hold on her companion, a consequence she'd soon come to fear.
"Ugh, that was... wait, where is he? Shit!"
'There's something highly unsettling about this monster.' Inside her castle, Druella watched as the battle unfolded against the alien monster. 'For it to eat humans whole, who's to say it won't try to come after one of us next?'
"Mistress, do you believe it to be one of the sealed monsters from beneath Poseidon's domain?"
"Honestly, I haven't a clue, but if it's one of the old one's designs, then we cannot allow it to live." 'Such a bothersome parasite would be detrimental to Mother's plans.'
"Your orders as for dealing with this monstrosity?"
"It's to be killed, then brought back here for research purposes. The others will be a distant second priority."
"Understood."
Carl, Atreya and several witches banded together, creating a highly potent Ice spell designed to stop its rampage. Launching the spell, it hit, but only managed to keep the creature still for about four seconds before it broke free from its icy tomb.
The creature spun around, trying to bowl over several others with its tail. Two Amazonesses, a Werewolf and the Dullahan braced for impact, barely managing to stop its swing and grab a hold of it. When it tried to swing the other way, Nelius quickly grabbed hold of its other side closer to the head, turning one wing into a spike and sending it into the ground to strengthen his end while the other wing morphed around the tail head and barely kept it pointed away from anyone else.
"No more laserface for you!" The beast thrashed about, trying to get free with no success.
"Boss, now's your chance!" Wasting no time, Heather darted for her stuck weapon, finally managing to yank it free. With her weapon reclaimed, she decided on a different approach. Aiming for its back, she drove the pointed end of the scythe into its hide, and struck pay dirt as she hit the small ridges where the plates connected, sinking about two inches into its flesh. Again it flailed about wildly, hurt by the attack. Satisfied with this, she withdrew her weapon, only to strike again even harder this time, driving a majority of the blade into its flesh before giving a hard pull, tearing several of the plates off.
The beast gave a terrifying screech of pain, but held tight as it was, it could do little but jerk around.
From afar, the only surviving Order knight from the earlier patrol stumbled onto the scene, unable to fully believe what he was seeing.
'This can't be right. I thought Druella's forces were working against Mr. Raoul, not with him. But what about that beast? Is it trying to devour him too?' He slumped against a tree, physically and mentally exhausted from the earlier run in.
"This will end it!" With one final, ferocious swing, Heather finally managed to sever the beast in two, its clear blood spewing everywhere as its body went slack. It gave one final shriek of pain and anguish before growing silent. "Geez, that thing was tenacious."
"I've never seen a monster constructed like this." Nelius warily studied its physcial features.
"I've a sneaky suspicion." The Baphomet's ears went up as she received an order. "Ah, I see."
"See what?"
"Mistress Druella wants this thing brought back, and what she mentioned about it only serves to reaffirm my suspicions."
"Such as?"
"The feeling that it might belong to one of the fallen, gods and demon lords cast down from their respective places and sealed somewhere beneath Poseidon's domain." The carefree way Heather mentioned this actually got a few of her own to involuntarily shiver.
"Well, which half are you taking?"
"You're offering to split it?"
"Look at the effort it took to kill it. My previous experiences are telling me that it's not staying down so easily."
"What, you actually think it'll revive itself?"
"I've seen that happen once before, and it taught me to never take chances so lightly. So, make a pick, head or tail?"
"The head."
"Ada!" Vash found the Lady Healer in a state of near-unconsciousness just near the stairs leading upwards. "C'mon babe, speak to me. What's going on?"
"Vash, is that you? Oh god, the voices..."
"Voices?"
"I hear them... some crying out, looking for rest..."
"Come on, let's get you into bed." Hooking one of her arms around the back of his neck, he used his arms to support her as he carefully got her inside her room. Carl then arrived from the lower floor, aiding Vash in getting his sister into bed.
"Vash, what happened?"
"No clue, kid. She was going on about voices she could hear, but I don't hear a thing."
"Me neither. Something's not right."
"Nothing is right about this world. Monsters that have nothing else on the mind except bedding you, both sides warring for control being a bunch of dicks, and now this."
"They're being awfully civil for someone who was trying to capture us just a few moments ago." Tomoe commented as she watched the Amazonesses, Werewolves and Dullahan under Heather's command heft the top half of the monster onto their collective shoulders with relative ease.
"It's almost to be expected. Considering that it was trying to murder us all, I'm only grateful they didn't turn back on us the moment it was dead." Shizuka added her two cents to the conversation.
"She did say she recently got an order to bring it back." Nelius was busy inspecting his axe, checking for any damage. "And if what she mentioned beforehand has any sort of consequence, there's another party who's got genocide on the brain."
"Still, that was just one of them..."
"And we can't rule out the possibility of more of those monstrosities being out there somewhere. Furthermore, we haven't any idea who or what these Fallen Ones are." He heaved a sigh before continuing. "I think our journey to get ourselves home just got a whole hell of a lot more complicated."
With the top half now long gone, Nelius and Virgil both took a hold of the tail end and carried it inside, unaware they were about to get a new visitor...
Chapter 8: Complete
