Ch. 21 - Demons in the Earth

Hello, hello again.
I'd held this one back to make some heavier edits that I felt were necessary. Even sent large portions to a writer friend (who's almost never played LoZ in her life), asking for her out-of-context input X) I'm still on the fence about it, and I hope as a former purist, that any remaining purists won mind further modifications to temple layout; I don't like it either
Anyway, relatable story: I remember having immense trouble with my first time defeating the Lizalfos mid-boss fight, haha. It simply took forever to figure out their attack pattern. Second play through, a quick flick of the wrist for a spin attack and a death blow each did the trick. I shifted a lot of things about, so if you'd like to view that dual Lizalfos bit, I transferred that to the previous chapter, making it over 10K words, yikes! (Ebony McCloud, I feel your pain !) I'm planning on shifting around more, so for now, I've omitted this chappy's introductory memory

Link remained crouched, sword upended, gasping and drenched in sweat, blood, and burns. A long moment passed before it dawned on him that neither monster was still leaping about the platforms around him. The cool voice of Fi's confirmation notified him of the Lizalfos' eradication, and he snapped back to reality. The worried snout of Ledd poked up from a dirt rift by the door, presumably prompted by the immediate lack of various clashing and serpentine snarls. The young land dweller bolted across the chamber toward his motionless companion, pausing only to cringe at the various bones and the twin Lizalfos carcasses about the floor.

Link steadied himself and began flicking away the acid blood from the blade and scooped up his dented shield from the hot ground. "Master, I require confirmation on your life force. I determine it has been greatly depleted; concerning your health, it may be wise to rest in order to replenish it."

I don't know if Zel can afford that, he answered, but it came out in his head more to himself than to the sword spirit. He chuckled a little wryly, still rather shaken from the Lizalfos encounter. "Worried?" he grunted and added when he didn't get a reply. "Yeah, I think I'll live. I hope."

"Cobal's alive!" came the relieved cry of the young Mogma's from across the room. "And he does have my bomb bag!"

Link breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed the Lizalfos hadn't decided to make the second Mogma into a meal before he arrived. He shot a brief glance at the two Lizalfos bodies and then to his blade as he sheathed it. Guess I killed two Lizalfos with one stone instead. "We should leave," he called back to the young Mogma. "More could come any minute."

He was itching to return to the main room and blast a way through to the far passage. He knew it was unconventional and far from ideal but had long ago decided that the Bokoblins had given him no choice. As he gripped and re-gripped the clench in his fists, Ledd coaxed his friend who had begun to come-to. Link's gaze slid to the leather pouch grasped tightly in its claws. And thank Hylia land dwellers have developed technology to accommodate the flower's fuse.

"You're sayin' that passed out green creep from earlier saved me?" He turned to find Cobal pointing a shaky claw in his direction. "Ya know, he looks a lot like her."

Ledd began waving his arms about dramatically. "Yeah! But he's fought off three whole Lizalfos by now!"

"Wow, thank you for savin' my life," the other exclaimed. A small resonation in the sheath on his back caused Link to blink a few times, matching the confusion he thought he felt in the sword spirit for a fraction of a moment.

"Greenie," nodded Ledd matter-of-factly, "without you, I'd have to save this dirtbrain of a diggin' partner m'self!"

Cobal crossed his arms indignantly. "Yeah, whatever, Mr. Too Scared to Dig in the Dark."

"Seriously though, Greenie. You're a real hero."

Link froze suddenly in his tracks, and the Mogmas nearly bumped into his legs. "N-no. It was... It was just a deal we had," he choked. He knew it sounded harsh, but he didn't like the feeling that accompanied the Mogma's unwelcome appellation. The land dweller shrugged, having fully regained his usual Mogma composure. Every trace of fear and worry had evaporated from the young Momga's snout, and that notion put a strange feeling in the back of Link's head. It's because you saved his friend, came his voice in his head.

It's not like it's true that I'm a hero anyway, he told himself. I just needed that bomb bag help him to help her. So it was the only way. ...Right?

"Right-o then," said Ledd before putting on a sheepish grin. "Really am sorry to put you through all that. That lady in black just zipped right by me, so thank the Goddesses you were here. I guess I owe you one now," he said as Cobal handed the weighted sack to him.

"Thank Hylia I was able to find a way to my own friend."

"Dunno 'oo Hylia is, but you sure have put yourself out there, getting this far…" The young Mogma appeared to hesitate and glance back at the fresh scorch marks etched in the ground. "And since you're goin' deeper into the volcano, you'll definitely need this," he said tossing the bag over. Link caught it, and he felt the weight of a number of the small plants jostling against the soft padding of the leather. "Forget blastin' a way through. Tha'd take forever even with my bombs. There was a cracked wall with a hidden cave to the right in that big ol chamber; I could smell it. 'Member I told you 'bout them bein' everywhere in this volcano?"

Link nodded and carefully affixed the bag to his belt. "And thank you—for letting me borrow this."

The two Mogmas looked at each other, crossed their arms, and Ledd grinned smugly. "I'm not letting you borrow my bag, though. Nope. I'm giving it to you! Just... don't blow yourself up."

"I don't plan on it," he returned, heading for the door and adding in a quieter voice. "I got a friend depending on me."

Ledd shuffled his paws guiltily, but Cobal piped up. "So your friend can count on you, though, right? I mean, it looks like you've risked life and limb to get here… But she's not the girl who was taken away is she?"

Link froze, door lifted only half-way. "What-did you say?" he questioned, cold fear clawing at his heart.

"I was just sayin' I saw that lady in white with a golden instrument. Got taken away by them red creeps." The door fell with a heavy thunk. "Yeah, that strange blonde girl in the weird clothes got taken away by red creeps just when I was taken in 'ere. Everything was all fuzzy like, so I wasn't sure."

"Zel was here…" Link whispered to himself, eyes scanning the macabre bones and scorch marks dominating the hot chamber.

"Yeah, I thought we were both gonna be eaten up by Lizalfos," Cobal said, shivering, "but then them red creeps had come in, and they took her away." He shuddered, unable to finish.

"Yeah… I thought I saw them carryin' something over right before they blew up that main bridge—maybe to cover their tracks..." finished Ledd. "I couldn't tell what it was they were carryin'. You-you think it was your friend?" Creeping fear compounded with exhaustion, and Link felt the sudden urge to throw up. "...Well, wherever they're taking her, they don't intend on bringing her back."

"I have to go," Link whispered, staring through the door. "Now…"

"Yeah, forget that spring thing," Ledd nodded, scampering to the dirt and beginning to scrape at it. "Don't think she made it there."

Link jerked up suddenly. "Just one question," he said and whirled about just as they began burrowing away. "How did you know I needed to travel to a spring if you said you said you never knew where it was in the first place?"

Ledd continued to paw at the ground, albeit more nervously. "Well. I can't tell you that. At least, she told me it was dangerous to tell someone."

"She?"

Cobal cocked his snout. "Before she was taken away. Before she came to this place. You know, that blonde lady with the pretty golden instrument-"

Ledd thwacked his friend with a cuff to the ear. "Dirtbrain! She said it was dangerous to tell anyone!"

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Forgot. Sorry."

With that, the Mogmas burrowed themselves deeper until all that was left were twin holes in the rough ground, leaving Link utterly at a loss. Fi's consciousness touched his own, joining cool expression with now-roiling turmoil. "I conclude from the Mogma conversation that the land dweller Ledd had previous discourse with the spirit maiden."

Yeah, agreed Link, hoisting up the ornate door lift with undue force. And for some reason Zelda knew there was something dangerous about telling. But now it could be too late…

The twin Lizalfos fight had felt as though it had dragged on for hours, but he realized it couldn't have been more than a number of frantic minutes. Even sprinting back to the temple mainchamber had been quick work. Though the occasional Bokoblin had repopulated the winding corridors and fiery chambers, no more Lizalfos stood to impede his way back, each one gone presumably from the eerie phenomenon that had disturbed them earlier.

Just as Ledd had promised and with the guidance of Fi's clinical, methodical analysis, Link found himself able to identify and blast open a cracking fissure of rock just to the right of the temple's northern passage to take a flying leap of faith over the jump and pound up the revealed passage. The thought of Ghirahim achieving his aim to overtake Zelda was terrifying, but the reality of those twisted, demonic monsters having captured her was unbearably more real.

The meld of temple architecture and cavern fell to pure stonework and colored engravings, faded by heat and cracked with age. Fences ornate with tracert and openwork blurred by his eyes. Boosted by terror, he flew up steep ramps, dodging ill placed boulders and triggered traps. Every corner turned held the plausible scene of Zelda's limp body over which shrieked and danced the misshapen humanoids brandishing their carvers.

He put on a further burst of speed, only to stop short at the terrifying sight of a massive Lizalfos head protruding from the wall—eyes bulging and maw dripping a lavafall of thick magma from its throat. But it remained motionless and unseeing, and Link realized it was the effigy of some sort of ancient dragon; he'd seen pictures and read vague inscriptions of texts in the library of the academy of three powerful draconian beings who had aided the goddess in her quest to liberate her people. Looking at it more closely, the effigy's likeness now seemed far in likeness from the menacing teeth and vicious glare of the large saurians. It looked almost as if the statue were guarding something.

He jerked himself from his reverie. No time, Link, he told himself roughly and began to make his way up one of the twin staircases on either side of a curved ramp which extended far up in the chamber to disappear in the haze of heat. It wound upward and dominated the left portion of the chamber, and he hoped wildly that the top held his way forward. Because you and Zel are getting out of here.

Soon the claws and snout of an identical dragon sculpture came into view at the top of the serpentine path lined with flanking dragon columns. Below its closed jaws, only a rusted chest, ajar at its hinges, lay visible when the ramp leveled out. Dead end, he cursed but quickly knocked his boot into the box, which gave a rusty squeal before revealing its contents. Perplexed, but unwilling to spend time gawking, Link snatched at the discolored golden idol sculpture inside. He tucked it under his arms and turned about, frantically wondering if he had missed something below.

Just when he began to scan the walls for any more cracks or fissures hiding unseen caves, a heart-stopping clunk sounded behind him followed by the grinding of slowly rolling stone. A heavier, closer thunk reached his ears, and as soon as he turned about, he bolted as fast as his fatigued legs could carry him, gold sculpture in tow. Heart pounding, he could barely hear the voice of Fi alerting him to the presence of the massive boulder careening toward him from the pathway summit.

As the heavy boulder bore faster down the track behind him, desperation shot a bolt of extra speed into his legs as he wildly wished he had some sort of whip to swing himself out of the boulder's rumbling path. He clutched at the golden idol and willed himself to move faster.

Hylia help me!

The stone pathway vanished from beneath his boots, and he dropped a number of feet through the air to land with a heavy thunk on the stonework floor. The golden sculpture clattered from his hands as black dots cascaded across his vision. Utterly winded, he forced himself to his feet with no little exertion to find the boulder had passed overhead and lodged itself firmly in the maw of the dragon effigy, stopping the dripping lava from falling. Blackened double doors bolted together by a heavy lock materialized through the heat haze.

Despite his erratically pounding heart and reeling head, Link couldn't help but marvel at the mechanical prowess of the temple's builders. He guessed both heads served as a calculated defense mechanism, far superior than any crude impediments the Bokoblins had scattered throughout the temple. A jarring harsh din grated against his ears when the dragon's jaws clamped shut with a harsh snap as if the mechanical wonder had swallowed the boulder like a living creature.

The golden sculpture, he discovered, sufficed as the key to the heavy metal doors, and it slid smoothly into the heavy bolt. Even though the stone arcade beyond lay silent, Link unhooked his battered shield from his back. His hold on the leather hand grip tightened, and he cautiously looked from side to side, expecting a Lizalfos or a Bokoblin to leap out at any moment. He eyed the arcade ceiling warily, but a resonation in the sword on his back made him cast his gaze forward. The shield nearly slid from his arm.

Next it was the scent that hit him. Without the torrid winds of the outside volcano, the bitterly acidic scent of the burnt bodies that had been scattered about the stonework before him remained trapped to hang thick in the air. Hollow-eyed and lifeless Bokoblins stared back at him. He'd seen enough blasted camps and various blown in mesh shelters to know it was the mysterious work of the woman in black, and the effects of it must have been compounded by the small shoots of blue bomb flowers growing in the cracks of the stone.

Unnerved, he crouched low and kept a wary eye about him as he filled Ledd's leather pouch in case of more unforeseen hindrances. He fumbled with the hissing blue orbs for a moment before hastily shoving them into the pouch opening of the bomb bag. He let out a held breath when the fuses died out.

A low rumbling above his head jerked him to his feet. The ceiling work above his head had transitioned from the familiar guiding turquoise tile and stone to what looked like genuine vertebral bone. The boulder from the divisive trap, he deduced, regan to roll unsteadily up the strange spine structure. He squinted at it, confused, as it continued to roll upward in a gravity-defying act of motion.

The feeling didn't last long; instead it was replaced with a colder, much more sinister feeling, one that remained as a heat-defying chill between the shoulders. The sour taste of fear lay thick in the air like a tangible shroud of fog as the same weighing feeling from earlier froze him to the bone. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. A thick feeling of dread poured into his limbs and his heart began to race as the feeling morphed into a sense of a familiar presence.

He'd felt it before.

Oh Hylia, he can't be… I can't—She can't… He placed a hand to his mouth to stifle the rising scream of terror clawing up his throat. He fought the overpowering urge to bolt back and hide himself from all view. But Zel is… But I can't face him again…

Placing a hand to his side, he could still feel the shifting of bandages wound across his middle and under the fabric at his arms. The healing of his home isle's potions had sealed them up well enough, but he was deathly aware that even his clash with the dual lizardmen had come close to reopening them. The feeling only wrapped its grasping tendrils around his mind closer as the boulder rolled up and out of sight into the chamber's haze of heat.

Ghirahim…

He took a step forward—but then a step back when he thought he heard dark laughter gliding across the walls. He shook his head and tried to take a few more staggering steps. He was telling his legs to move, but it was little use. As the terrifying images of the demon lord surfaced through the roiling turmoil in his brain, he remained rooted, petrified, to the ground. His hand, rife with tremors, reached for his sword, and the grind of the steel seemed terribly amplified in the air that had since lapsed into sickening silence.

The sudden burst of light accompanying Fi's appearance elicited a startle from him. She fixed her pupiless gaze on a rusted floor chain fastened into the flagstones. "Master, I detect Zelda's aura in the surrounding area."

"Your dowsing is back," he croaked.

"I only detect an especially strong reaction from this chain," she replied. "I calculate the probability the spirit maiden was bound by it recently at ninety-five percent. I surmise she was somehow able to escape and proceed along this path," she said, inclining her head calmly toward a long incline stretching up and across the far lengths of the cavern.

Link let out a pent-up breath and glanced at the charred Bokoblin bodies. She escaped then... Hylia only knows if that other woman helped her or just blew them up afterward. But the news did little to alleviate him of the cold terror restraining him with its own intangible chains. "But it he's here... what do I do?" His voice came out hoarse and breathy as he tried to parse the brawl of emotions battering his brain.

"I suggest we continue with all possible speed," she answered, "as I infer that she may still be in significant danger. Furthermore, I detect another presence, though unidentifiable. Please proceed with caution." She promptly returned to the sword gripped tightly in his hands. It was strange, he thought, that Fi was unable to tell that the demon had to be somewhere near in the temple, especially since he couldn't seem to knock the familiar, oppressive feeling from gripping his bones.

A twisting triad of relief, fear, and anger roiled and raged in his mind. Zelda had escaped from the Bokoblins, but the dangerous and horribly insane demon lord was undoubtedly close. Even more, she had already been captured and chained to the ground, and if the woman in black hadn't freed her, the demon could have easily reached her.

...If he hasn't already…

Anger lashed about, rising above the other two and strangling his fear in a smoldering grip of spontaneous vice. The nonphysical fog lifted, if but a little, and a sense of reawakening shot fury into his veins.

I've come so close. I can't let her down now.

His feet carried him, gradually at first, beyond the mounds of corpses, down the steep steps from the columned arcade, and up again over a tract more massive than the one built in the twin dragon room. The boulder that had rolled through the extensive skeletal framework above his head had long since disappeared.

This spring can't possibly be much farther ahead. She can't be much farther ahead, he told himself.

Link took the uneven surface steadily, pumping his legs harder as he picked up speed. A third alarming yet majestic dragon sculpture arched its neck far above the top of the slope, but it wasn't its snarling face that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Oh," sailed an airy voice. "It's you..."

"No…" he breathed as his gaze locked on a demure figure perched atop the dragon's carved head. He didn't need to hear Fi's confirmation and warning to recognize that demon lord Ghirahim lay between him and his way deeper into the temple. So he is already here...

The demon tossed his blood-red mantle about his shoulder and placed his gloved hands upon his hips, stretching his pallid face into a lazy grin. "Let me see…" he drawled. "No, that's not it… Not that either. Oh, this is so very embarrassing. I seem to be at a loss for your name."

"I never told it to you," Link returned, trying to grasp at the quickly weakening flame of his determined anger.

The demon chuckled and drew back his curtain of colorless hair. "That? No... Oh, it couldn't possibly be… Link?" he asked as if it were some sort of jest.

Link couldn't keep surprise from overtaking the hardness in his voice. "How did you..."

Ghirahim's tittering expression dropped equally as much, and for a moment his slim frame stiffened before another airy sigh sailed through the torrid air, far more amused this time. "What can I say…" He giggled. "Who would have thought that these threads of fate are twisting in ways that are so very unexpected...?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I... Let me pass." Link finished with a forward jerk to his extended sword, but he wasn't sure he could back up the action's meaning.

He narrowed his eyes to slits when the demon merely laughed harder before clicking his tongue. Concern dripped off his words—all saccharine and sweet. "Now, skychild, I can't see those blue eyes of yours. Strikingly like his, but they lack no spirit. No real will."

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about. Let me pass," he growled again. He knew he had no chance at compliance, but the demon didn't seem inclined toward violence.

The demon placed his cheek in his palm, sighing. "Oh, and he was such fun, too… Not that it matters, really. You're too late. And to tell you the truth, I'm feeling a bit frustrated. Right now I just need someone to vent to." A bare pause hung in the air as if the demon were expecting confirmation, but he shrugged dully when none evidently came. "...I've been waiting very long for the spirit maiden. Ever since her fall, I've sent out a number of underlings to fetch her." He paused for an even longer moment before his next words shook Link even more. "You see, I'd heard my underlings had finally captured the spirit maiden."

"Bokoblins," Link breathed, stunned. "Bokoblins are your underlings?" Suddenly, everything fell into place—their sudden invasion into the Eldin region, their capture of Zelda, their hasty traps laid to cover their tracks. Ghirahim's proclaimed authority over them even explained their presence in Faron. The only thing missing was remained to be the reason why the demon was so adamant on apprehending his closest friend.

Ghirahim's lip curled. "Oh, is that what they call themselves? Or what your kind used to call them? Makes my gorge rise. But credit is due I suppose; they make up the greater numbers of my magnificent demon horde. Though it was a pity those dithering lizard half-beings weren't compliant. The moment I arrived here, they promptly turned-tail and hid in their holes. Awfully rude to treat a guest in your home that way," he said, lolling his head about with evident ennui. "But my underlings proved themselves to be successful, so of course I rushed over here."

"You shouldn't have bothered," Link snarled, pressing his shield closer and trying to hide a flare of triumph. Thank Hylia she was able to get out.

Hurt tented the demon's features. "What can I say? I was excited. Flustered, even…" he said and placed a hand over his chest quite contritely. "But what did I find when I arrived? That agent of the goddess…" His souring voice trailed off, and Link had to strain his ears to hear. "She had once again…" he mumbled even quieter. He sighed and tsked disappointedly. "You see, what im trying to say is…" His face suddenly twisted into a contorted grimace of pure animosity. "That goddess-serving dog escaped with the girl!"

The woman in back? Link's eyebrows lifted imperceptibly before snapping back down. So he doesn't know about Zel traveling to the springs specifically… Or he wouldn't- But any shred of relief he might have felt was immediately evaporated when he realized Ghirahim had vanished during his fury.

His dark voice raged throughout the smoldering cavern. "I must have the spirit maiden in order to resurrect my master! I must have her!" The cavern fell to a deafening silence before his drawling voice filled it once again. "...I—got a little carried away there, didn't I?"

Link whipped his about, shield extended, wildly trying to locate the unseen demon as his panic grew to a frightening degree. The pervasive reverberations lessened to a carried voice, and Link caught sight of the demon having returned to his luxurious position on the dragon head. "You see, I don't deal well with… complications to plans I've laid out so carefully." Ghirahim shook his curtained head, scowling to the side. "It's a character flaw of mine."

He whipped up a single finger into the air so quickly, Link thought he was about to disappear again. "Ah, but something good can still come from this day!" he exclaimed gleefully. This detour in my plans made me realize something. I've been patiently waiting oh so very long for our spirit maiden to come."

"She's not yours," he tried

Ghirahim paid the comment no mind, instead counting meticulously on his fingers. "Come to think of it, has it already been two millennia? Three?" He waved the hand in the air dismissively. "Even that seems sorely below the mark. Master would be mighty displeased if I didn't acquire her, 'your' spirit maiden… but," His voice grew hungry. "It's been years since I've enjoyed myself so much. And… since you don't pose much of a danger to me, I think I can afford just a little more fun. A little more thrill of the chase.

"To tell you the truth, I do believe I can still feel her presence in this goddess-ridden place. But—ah, ah, ah…" he tsked, wagging a finger at Link's violent stream of curses. "I can't let you off that easy. I've had all this, this bottled-up anger smoldering inside me, and now I can release it," he said stifling his giggles with a widening smile. "I'm sincerely sorry, but I have to make your day just a teensy bit worse for my own sake. See, though I can't slack off on my attempts to free my master, I do feel so very…" he snapped his fingers as if searching for a word, and Link clenched his sword tighter, ready for the demon to vanish behind him at any moment.

"Livid," he finished. "Thusly, I do sincerely apologize for this inconvenience with all my heart." A resounding snap filled the air, and the demon burst into a shimmering cloud of varicolored diamonds.

"No!"

"Missing me already?" the demon's voice rumbled through the cavern.

Link began to bolt up the ramp way, terror boosting him forward. I have to get out! I can't do this again-!

"Oh, don't be shy! There's someone special I'd like you to meet. I need to vent all this unhealthy anger, and your agony is such a great stress reliever. It won't take more than a few moments with my friend before you're charred to a satisfying crisp."

The lower jaw of the dragon head trembled and hinged open to reveal the same large boulder. It collided into the stone below with an earth-shaking tremor as the giggling demon lord manipulated its momentum. "And let me tell you, that will put a spring in my step. Skychild, I do hope you're ready." The last tones of his fell voice faded into the walls of the cavern, and the cold contact of his presence lifted.

Link threw himself to the side just as the boulder thundered past him for the second time to smash at the bottom of the incline. The dust thrown into the air abated, and Link could only state in horror as the cracks in the huge rock glowed with an amber light. Six insect legs burst from the cracks in between the shields of rough rock that formed the former boulder's outer carapace.

"Fi, what did Ghirahim do?" he gasped at the blade, unable to tear his eyes away from the rocking boulder.

A sinister slit formed across the middle of the thrashing rock, and it opened itself wide as if the fiery core behind its unhinged jaw were about to split it in two. A hollow roar smashed into his eardrums louder than thunder, and it looked as if it was about to swallow the entire cavern in its maw. Overpowering, unbearable heat washed over him and crushed the breath from his lungs, making his head spin and his eyes sting.

"Analysis complete," Fi replied. "Pyroclastic Fiend: Scaldera."

For those of you living in my country, I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day, and depending on your state, launch some good fireworks! I recently met a wonderful older man named Leo who's lived a lot of his life with his amazing wife in an RV community located by a stunning lake in Texas (whose laws allow fireworks, the lucky people). Something he said randomly stuck with me, and I've been telling as many people I know simply because I don't think we hear enough in our culture. "Do what you love, and let God take care of the rest." Even if you don't believe in a higher power, I hope anyone can take his words to heart, especially today; I'll certainly never forget them. Happy 4th !

Now for review responses because PMs are no fun. Feel free to skip over these if you don't want to read my antics, but just a quick thank you for those who have and will review; your thoughts point me in right directions and give me helpful advice. Stay you!

Midqad Suleman: (Ch20) You bet there'll be some angst!
ZeldaBrowser: (Ch20) Either that or completely ignore Ledd entirely, and that wouldn't reflect well on the spirit of the hero, nu-uh
Dragonfighter: (x2, Ch1,2) I think I'll do this story justice maybe in like, ten or so years. Most everything's a placeholder, but I'm glad you enjoyed my start | Hey, that's my goal! Anyway, totally not surprised about proofreads. My betas have been doing a massively amazing job (links to them in my profile), but unfortunately their brilliant work will be put toward that final draft since time never seems to be on my side
StJames1: (Ch20) Woohoo! Also because I do believe SS has a need for a number of mechanical/plot tweaks, at least for it to pass novel-ically
Tyler Darkside: (Ch5) Thank you :) HA! A brilliant way to put it; laughed aloud there. I think for most writers, me not being exempt, dialogue is a challenge, so thanks. Hope you enjoyed this chapter's dose of of our favorite demon lord