The red broke beneath the body of the demon, as she broke the surface of the bubbling pool, her body surged with strength and bloodlust as the bound anger, pain, and fear which remained in the lifeblood of the dead wrapped around her with the warmth of a thick blanket on a cold winter's night. 'Humans are so very blind, so very, very blind, their senses, so dull…' She savored the sensations that no human could detect.

The red water would have blinded her old body, but in this one? It might as well have been a clear day. The fountain's depths, which seemed so shallow in the last vision, were now more obviously a deep ocean of secret deaths and wails of unfortunate ends. Her wings and arms and legs all acted in concert to take her further and further down as the pressure continued to mount. Blood, far heavier than water, pressed all around her body and made it ever easier to reach the great depths she sought.

The red pulsed with life. Life and pain. As if the dying lingered on, and on, and on… and in the madness of directionless emotion, the Tisaphone Fury was at peace. Her sense for guilt let her savor the sins of the undying dead like a summer sunshine, all the way down until she set her feet on a carpet of bones which made up the floor. 'I wonder how long it took for him to make this? Of course I'm assuming she's telling the truth, but I sense no lies.' The reflective moment passed when she heard the voice.

'A visitor. It's been a long, long time since anything has come down here but bones and the occasional body part.'

Vanysa looked around her, her motions were slowed by the constant and steady flow of the blood sea, like trying to walk underwater, but more cumbersome. Her every step disturbed the bones of beastmen, beasts, and humans alike, their clatter all the louder under the red tide, she nonetheless passed through it toward the voice.

She didn't try to speak to answer, instead she just headed in the direction the voice came from. It seemed not to mind her intent, 'Yes, this way, just a little further, I don't have arms or legs, you know. I need a host to bear me.' The voice said.

She found a small stone stalagmite thrusting up from the base, and around it sat a little band of gold in which a small and familiar looking stone was embedded.

'A demon? No… not just a demon, are you? You're an erinyes… did my master create you?' It asked her, and Vanysa nodded. As she was one of the few to know the truth of her master, his search for his long lost friends, and having heard him tell his many stories of his wild adventures in the other world… the certainty that 'this' was such an artifact was clear as crystal in her eyes. A relic of one of her true King's friends. 'It has to be… it must be.'

She reached out and took the golden band in between her hands with the deepest reverence. She looked down at it, and wondered, 'Would it be blasphemy for me to wear it? Even just to speak? Would my master condemn me for it… or…?'

The question haunted her as much as any of the unforgettable dead, she shut her eyes as pain ripped through her body like a gaping wound. Not a physical pain, but as if she could feel her own master's agonizing sense of loss and loneliness like it was hers. 'I have to protect him… I have to…' The memory of the succubus's warnings to her came back to mind.

'He loved them so much, and yet they tore their devotion away from him, they vanished and never came back… what if they come back, only to do it again?' It was a drunken ramble on the part of the Succubus, said only once after the brief time when their master became human.*

But Vanysa never forgot it.

She looked back to that moment, on the memory of her first travels with the Lord of Nazarick. His rare openness when they were alone, speaking of his friends and his supreme happiness at the memory of all they shared… and his desolate silences in the aftermath of his stories, which they filled with his taking the time to teach her.**

Resolve struck her. 'If I'm killed, If I'm punished, sobeit. I died already***, and I've been living on borrowed time ever since. If I give it up to protect my Lord from pain, then there are worse reasons to have this puppet's string's cut.' Her sense of resolve hardened and she set the simple crown on her head.

'You, stone. I am in search of more information on the vampire known as Inta. What can you tell me? Are you aware of him even while trapped down here?' She asked.

'Call me, 'Mocking Stone' at least.' It insisted, but Vanysa gave him only stony silence to match the depths.

'Ugh, fine. Yes. I know where he was and when, and I know now. I know through his murders, as the dead add to his power, a mockery of all that he once was, despite still trying to be that man. I really lucked out with him.' The stone's voice was almost sing song with delight.

'I'm taking you out of this place, returning you to… I think, your home. Or what would have been… you will be silent until I have placed you into the hands of the most powerful demon in the world.'

'I'm intrigued, but the way you say that, you want something, don't you?' The Mocking Stone demanded.

'Yes. Your 'Guardian' is going to come with me. Does she have any knowledge of the appearance or name of the one who created you?' Vanysa asked the stone, and for a moment it was quiet in her mind.

'Stories. Nothing more. No more than you've already been given, which was just barely enough to get you here.' It answered her.

'But you remember, don't you?' Vanysa inquired and stepped on a skull, it cracked and shattered under her foot and her entire body tensed.

'Of course. I could never forget those things myself.' The Mocking Stone answered her.

'Then I have a wish.' Vanysa retorted without hesitation, 'I wish for you, when asked, to only ever answer questions about him with ignorance. Never reveal what you remember or what you know.'

'A strange wish…' It answered her, 'If you found me, then you know that all wishes have a price. The deeper the wish, the deeper it must be perverted, twisted, and the more the wish maker must pay.'

'I will pay the price. Even if it costs me everything I have.' She retorted. 'Never underestimate the resolve of a demoness driven by her love or her loyalty, Mocking Stone.' She answered, and the stone's laughter rang out in her mind.

'The one up there who guards this place had a similar sentiment. Maybe that is why she turned out to become an erinyes of all things. Very well, your wish is granted. I wonder, when you finally pay, as everybody does, will you be able to bear the cost of your bargain? I suppose we will see.' It answered her, and then when it fell silent, Vanysa launched herself up toward the surface, her powerful muscles and body soared through the bloody sea with ease until she shattered the surface, splashing the red fluid in every direction and sending the lingering, waiting Curete staggering back with surprise.

"I was wondering if you'd survived… welcome back…" The golden woman answered, her eyes fixed on the stone centered in Vanysa's forehead just below the base of her horns.

"Thank you. Now it's time for us to leave." Vanysa said and closed her eyes.

'Lady Albedo.' Vanysa used the message spell, and a moment later it connected and was acknowledged.

'Vanysa… why are you reaching out to 'me'?' Albedo demanded.

Vanysa could hear the annoyance in the demoness's voice, but she pressed on. 'Because I have a relic fit only for your hands, and a new servant of some worth to our Lord.'

There was a moment of silence from the succubus. Had it been anyone else, other than Demiurge or Pandora's actor, Vanysa would have felt the need to offer up more, but as one of the three geniuses, she was confident the woman would understand.

'I will have a gate opened for you immediately, you will arrive straight in my quarters and speak of this to no one, am I understood?' The Overseer demanded.

'I am My Lord's true servant.' Vanysa answered, and it was answer enough.

A whorling vortex opened in front of her, and Curete's mouth dropped open in shock.

"Come on, we're getting out of here." Vanysa answered, and Curete hastened after the stone and its bearer, leaving the cave empty at last, and the bloody fountain, bubbling forever on, but with no one to hear it anymore.

*A Heart for a King

**Taming of the Beasts
***God Rising: The Cult of Ainz