Rule of strength
Rin had not really thought about what the demon city would look like. A massive sphere wasn't what she had expected but then nothing was.
On the outskirts of the sphere were several small collections of buildings, something like docks for ships. What sort of ships would sail a desert though? demonic engineered ships?
Her demons followed at a slight distance now that they were here. In the demon realm they were fully physical at all times so they were staying out of her way until she needed them.
She approached one dock that was futher away than it had first appeared (Taking an hour of travel time) and pulled herself up onto the strange metalic planks of the dock. Her demons followed after her.
They walked down the jetty to get to the main area of the dock and as she did she called Silber to her and asked "Will you be able to track her from here?" Silber shook it's head "As I have not encountered your sister before I will have to ask questions to begin the hunt. I could start asking those questions now but it would only give me a rough idea of where she was if they have even heard of her."
Rin closed her eyes to think before opening them and giving her orders "Go, ask your questions then return to me, we will be heading further in." Silber walked deeper into the dockyards leaving Rin with her other two demons.
The three of them walked towards a breach in the massive sphere that was the demon city proper but Rin's path was blocked by a trio of blood-apes.
The smartest looking one (Not saying much) walked forward before making a face that made it look even more ugly, Rin wondered if it was trying for an evil grin.
"Well hello there doll, you're coming with us." It's voice was grating and just as ugly as it's face.
Rin look annoyed and spoke clearly "Clear the way, you beasts should get out of my way." she then glanced around to look for her demons but noticed that they had backed off a way. Rubinrot was flying above them and Blutspucke was hiding ineffectively behind a crate.
The blood-ape leader's grin grew "Lost your allies? What a shame, guess you will be coming with us then. As you are the weaker party, the laws of the city demand you bow to our strength."
The two other blood-apes stepped forward, Rin raised her hands defensively but realised how much weaker she was in context. These were supernatural killing machines and apart from a charm that would make her hit harder she had no charms for martial combat. Instead when the demons reached for her she dodged back and began to cast Sting of the ice hornet. Due to that her caste mark burned bright for a moment and the blood-apes stopped for a moment in shock.
The shock gave me the moment she needed and the darts of ice speared the two blood-apes to the ground, after a moment though they started to rise to their feet.
Rin cursed and tried to think of ways she could put them down. Before long they were standing ready to attack again and they knew she was a lunar now. That wouldn't work as a distraction now.
It then hit her, the laws of the demon city. Rubinrot explained them as "The strong rule the weak." if that were the case then why was this fight three on one?
It was because she hadn't ordered her demons into battle. She looked at each of her demons in turn and yelled "Rubinrot, Blutspucke, enter battle."
The effect was instant. Blutspucke charged down towards them and intercepted an attack from one of the demons while Rubinrot dropped and landed on the other attacking it repeatedly with it's stinger.
Soon the two blood-apes had been destroyed and all that was left was the leader. He tried to back away only for Rin to fix her eyes on it "The strong rule, that is what you said. Then here is my order; destroy yourself or be destroyed."
The ape just ran. He ran deep into the city.
Rin and her demons followed it through the crack to see the city proper.
Spheres within spheres, continent sized islands in the sky all acting similar to a dyson sphere around a bright green sun whose light stung.
As they walked forwards it was like the world arounded them shifted, while they had walked in a straight line they were now walking around the interior of the sphere. Rubinrot told Rin of a place she could rest and eat (the food would not be normal but it would be a chance to eat without using the rations) so Rin had asked it to lead the way.
Rin was awed and horrified by the demon realm. They travelled along a road where each stone was either boiling hot or ice cold and then a few minutes later a road just wasn't there until Blutspucke cut himself and allowed the blood to touch the stones, at which point the road grew out. There were shops selling artifacts, a few selling eyeballs and there was a bar that claimed to have poisonous and highly acidic drinks.
The demons came in every shape too, little hopping puppets to large raven-like birds with four wings and three eyes. Another road they walked on was even a demon that Rubinrot said was one of Malfeas's second circle souls.
In the end they entered a 'Demonic inn' a spot of quality on a lower level of Malfeas according to Rubinrot. Rin didn't even eat then, she just wanted to sleep so Rubinrot and Blutspucke payed for a three demon room and gave Rin the key. She and Rubinrot then headed to the room.
The room was a warped version of normal. The beds looked normal but that was basically the only normal thing in the room. The painting on the wall could be summed up as blood, death and sex and the window looked out onto a battlefield.
A literal battlefield, were demons were still fighting to the death.
Either way, Rin was too tired for this so she lay down to sleep.
End of chapter
Rin is now in Malfeas, yay?
Next chapter is back to Shirou... maybe, depends how I feel.
