I'm sorry, I've held this from you for long enough. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't have any stupid second thoughts about where I'm going with this for the next couple chapters. I figured 'I'll write out the next chapter, and then I'll upload this one if I decide that the thing I'd been planning on is actually good.'
Well, I got probably 7/8ths through #6, and then crashed terribly. So, I recently decided to take a deep breath and power through the rest of the chapter, even if it killed me and I had to leave in my will 'Will someone please be kind enough to upload Chapter 5 for me?'
So, yeah. I made a jab at that. Again.
Does anyone remember when I uploaded chapter 3? I can't seem to check, but I just remember that I made the first two with such ease, and I took forever for 3, but I can't remember how much of a gap it was. Odd. (Small edit here: I think it was in February. Chapter 2 was up on October of 2015, so it was pretty much a 5 month gap.)
Chapter 5
Silently, Raphael and Charlie walked through an underground corridor.
Charlie grunted unhappy.
"Step on another rock?" Raphael asked playfully.
"Shut up," Charlie growled. "It's dark; do you expect me not to be stepping on rocks when you somehow convinced me to remove my shoes?"
I bet you all are wondering if you read that right. Yes, you did.
Raphael laughed. "I took off my shoes, too. You don't hear me complaining."
Want to know why?
"Yeah, because you're obsessed with stealth."
It's because Elisabeth showed concern over getting caught because the demons heard their shoes clicking on the rocks. Ridiculous, isn't it?
"If you aren't stealthy, we'll be caught, and then we'll be fighting our way out, possibly without retrieving Marie's soul."
Charlie let out another unhappy grunt.
"I'll take that as an 'I'll shut up now'."
Charlie did not respond.
"Man, you were right to not have any faith in our author," Raphael muttered in an attempt to fill the silence.
Charlie let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah. Did it take as long as it took for number 3, or did it take less? I don't remember anymore."
"I don't think anything's going to top Chapter 3."
"You mean that you hope," Charlie corrected.
"Yeah, that."
They saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and rushed towards it.
Peering into the new room with curiosity, they determined that they had reached the main catacombs. Luckily, there were no guards.
Cautiously, they walked through the room and gazed into the next room.
Both teens were surprised that they hadn't noticed it earlier. There was a battle royal going on that was causing mini-earthquakes, and there was a constant stream of cries of pain and victory. The room itself was in complete shambles, and the only thing that wasn't completely ruined was, rather surprisingly, the very center, where the throne was located.
Only five demons remained fighting by that point, the rest having been beaten and fled somewhere and though they were worn down, they obviously would still be able to beat the shit out of the punny humans that were currently about to steal from them.
"Whoa," Charlie muttered in shock, unable to come up with anything better to say.
"Yeah, that sums it up nicely," Raphael replied. Suddenly, he spotted something. He pointed. "Over there!"
Charlie glancing in the direction his finger was pointing in. "Marie!" She whispered.
Indeed, a small green soul was resting on the throne the fake Napoleon had once occupied. It just sort of sat there; seemingly unaware of the danger it was going to be in within… possibly only a couple of moments.
"We need to move, now!" Raphael hissed, darting forward, jumping behind a large chunk of rubble before he could be spotted.
"Oh boy, here we go…" Charlie muttered, taking off after him.
About halfway around the perimeter of the room, a demon, which resembled a wolf to some extent, and was about a wolf's size, was slammed into the wall above them. They froze, and slowly glanced up at the canine-demon. The creature didn't notice them and slowly peeled itself from the indentation in the wall that it created, darting back into the battle.
Charlie breathed out a small sigh of relief. "Oh, geez," she whispered. "I was afraid it'd see us."
"I was afraid it was going to get away from that wall just to fall on us," Raphael replied. "Not that it's big enough to cause any real damage." He looked around. "They haven't noticed us yet. I'm actually shocked. Best to keep moving."
They continued on, jumping between fallen boulders to avoid detection for as long as possible while still getting close to the center. Finally, they had somehow gotten close enough that they would only be out of their cover for no more than a couple seconds. They had hit a point where hiding behind the boulders was more risky than hiding in front of one, and thus had their backs pressed up against one.
"You want to grab her?" Raphael asked nervously.
"You're the thief!" Charlie hissed in reply. "Why can't you get her? Besides, you're her boyfriend."
Raphael turned a slight pink color in the face. "We are not in a relationship."
"Right…" Charlie replied with a roll of the eyes. She risked a glance back at the fighting demons. They weren't looking. "If you won't, I will."
After one last glance back, she darted forward, successfully snatching up the soul and ducking behind cover again without being seen.
She let out a sigh of relief. "Now we just need to get back and-"
There was a deep hiss. "Sssssshe'ssss gone!"
The teens went rigid, both thinking, 'Oh, you've got to be kidding me!' Immediately after thinking that, something else, more pressing, passed through their minds, and the sole thing that they were able to focus on was… 'SNAKE!' They figured it was a snake because A) there was actually a snake-like demon, which was only slightly smaller than a human, but was easily twice as long, B) because of the drawn out 'S's and C) because of the irritated little snake-like noises it was currently making.
Charlie glanced to Raphael. 'What do we do?' She mouthed.
'I don't know!' He mouthed back.
'You're kidding me, you're the thief here!' She replied, though most of it was lost because Raphael was a poor lip reader.
Raphael made an irritated little gesture with his hand and scooted to the edge of the boulder. He risked the slightest glance towards the demons. They were approaching, and quickly.
The experienced thief reached out and grabbed Charlie's free hand, and waited for the right moment. The second that the demons passed the boulder, and could no longer see the other side; he slipped over there, dragging his companion with him.
They looked about. No cover except what would require going directly in their line of sight.
Charlie looked to Raphael, who, to her surprise, simply shrugged, as though saying, 'Not much we can do.'
She looked back at the demons. They were staring at the throne as though they were crazy. "She couldn't have just walked off," the dog demon said. "She lacked legs."
"No shit," a demon that kind of resembled an ogre, and was about the size of the stereotypical one, replied. "Must have been those kids that lesser demon was shrieking about."
Charlie and Raphael looked to each other in confusion. Which one? They had sealed away any demons they met. Unless Thanatos was playing a cruel game, with them being the game pieces. But he wasn't a lesser demon, was he?
A flying bird demon, which was a little over half the average human's height, came to rest on the teen's cover. How it failed to notice the two while in the sky was beyond them. They held their breath as it spoke. "Then start searching," it demanded. "I want that soul."
"Hang on, you won't even get it! That soul's mine!" A frog demon, which was very much akin to the bird demon in height, yelled.
"It's mine!" The ogre demon yelled.
Promptly, the ogre and the frog got into an argument that threatened to break into another battle. Unfortunately, the bird and the snake managed to separate them.
"Find the ssssoul, and then we'll worry about who getsssss it," the snake hissed.
There was the sound of a dog sniffing. It moved closer to the boulder. Raphael frowned as he realized there was no way they would be getting out without being spotted. He was about to just grab Charlie and make a run for it, but then he heard the sickening sound of something sinking into flesh, and then a pained whimper, followed closely by a more dog-like whimper, alongside the noise of someone punching something. He broke away from his thoughts to see what happened.
The canine had popped out from the side of the boulder, and bit Charlie's leg. In retaliation, she had clocked it over the head with her fist.
"Well, this just got more complicated than it needed to be," Raphael said, jumping up out of cover to find all of the demons were already staring at him.
Charlie stood and limp-sprinted to his side. "We're dead, aren't we?"
"Yeah, I'd say so," Raphael replied grimly.
"You're not going to give up, are you?"
"NOPE!" Raphael summoned his armor and weapon, a fierce glint in his eye that let all present know that playtime was over.
Charlie nodded, satisfied with that answer, and summoned her armor and right hand's weapon, holding Marie's soul with her left. As the canine's bite impeded her movement on the ground, she then flew into the air.
The bird demon smiled, amused. She was leaving her partner's side, so he would have to deal with four other powerful foes at once, and she held the girl's soul. The bird figured it would be an absolute cinch to just take the soul and devour it, and rip the child apart limb for limb, just to see the boy's reaction.
The frog demon reached the same conclusion the bird had come to. "Hey, hold up, that's not fair! You're the only one who gets a shot at the soul!"
All the other demons turned their attention to the bird and snarled. Charlie silently urged Raphael to attack while their backs were turned.
He did. He dashed at the giant ogre demon and struck, slashing it three times in the back before it could do anything. It roared in pain, and turned to club the boy with its fist, but he managed to get out of the way and continued to attack. The wolf growled and launched itself at him, barreling into him and pinning him to the floor. Even when they're demons, canines apparently remain a humanoid's best friend.
Charlie frowned and fired a single shot at the creature, knocking it off. Raphael jumped up just in time to avoid a kick from the ogre, holding up a thumb in appreciation. He dashed at the dog, which was still reeling from the unexpected attack. He hit it twice before sending it into a wall with a swift kick to the side. He left it there, as he didn't have the time to seal with the ogre about to ram him.
Wait, what?
The ogre smashed into him, sending him flying.
'This isn't going well," Charlie thought with a grimace as she saw this out of the corner of her eye as she tried to focus on keeping the bird from eating Marie. She saw an opportunity to attack, and prepared to do so. Something grabbed onto her leg, though, and knocked off her aim, sending the shot harmlessly past the creature.
Risking a glance downward to see what was on her, she found the frog demon had somehow launched itself up to her, and was now gazing hungrily at the soul she held.
"Back off, buddy," she snarled and swiped at him.
Surprisingly, the frog didn't think to move in time and was sent back to ground.
The snake looked at the frog when it smashed into the ground, creating a small crater, with disappointment, as though it expected far better.
"Like you could do better," the frog grunted from its position of having half its face through the floor, having somehow noticed the look.
"Oh, I can do ssssso much better than you," the snake promised, and then surprisingly managed to launch itself all the way up to Charlie, coiling around her torso, leaving only the hand that held Marie out, as well as her wings, so they wouldn't plummet. "Morning, darling," it greeted. "Ssssssorry, but I need that ssssssoul." It frowned at her struggling. Quick as a flash, it darted its head upward and bit down on her shoulder, easily breaking through her armor as though it wasn't even there.
"What the hell was that?" Charlie grunted.
"Oh, just a minor poison that should stop your resistance, if you survive long enough for it to take effect."
"Why do you have a real snake's attributes!?"
The snake decided to ignore that question entirely and turned its attention back to the soul. "Now then…"
"Oh, no you don't!" The bird yelled, racing forward, talons extended.
Charlie realized that the bird was going to start slashing at the snake. Her fingers curled around the soul she held protectively. One stray slice and Marie could be ripped in two. Did the bird not realize?
The bird started tearing into the snake, careful to not get close to the hand that held the soul. Maybe it wasn't stupid after all.
The snake hissed, in tears from the pain, and dropped off. It shot a glare at the bird before slithering away from the battle zone, unable to fight any longer. The frog, which had since pulled itself from the hole it had created in the ground upon landing, shot the snake an 'I told you so' sort of look and took off with it.
Charlie almost flew after them, not wanting to let any greater demons to get away. If they recovered their strength, they would have one hell of a time fighting them. They were currently only at probably at least half-strength, maybe even better and they were kicking the children's asses. She didn't get the opportunity, though, as the wolf demon somehow managed to get up to her level.
"How the hell?!" She yelled, enraged, when it latched onto her back. She struggled to get it off, but found that it had gotten a good hold on her. It was significantly heavier than either of the previous two, and she immediately found it difficult to keep in the air. Plus, and she hoped it was just her imagination, but it felt like the snake's poison was already starting to take effect. Later, she would wonder why she didn't just drop and use her unwanted passenger as a cushion when they hit the ground. It would have saved a lot of time and energy.
"Pretty, pretty," it commented.
"Wha-" Charlie tried to turn to see what it was looking at.
"Hey, she's mine!" The bird yelled. "Get off!"
"Can't I get a souvenir?" The dog pleaded.
The bird rolled its eyes. "Fine, but only if you'll leave after you get it."
"Fine by me!" The dog yelled happily.
Charlie thrashed about in an attempt to dislodge the dog, not liking what he meant by 'souvenir.'
"Stay still," the dog demanded. "You're going to ruin its prettiness."
"What the hell do you mean?" Charlie asked.
"What do you mean 'what do you mean?' I'm taking a memento."
"What the hell does that even fucking mean!?"
"It means… I'm taking this."
Charlie froze as she felt numerous little somethings, warm and sharp, digging into her left wing. Almost immediately, blood began to flow from the wounds. Why the hell would it even have blood if it was a magical appendage?
She let out a yelp and yelled, "H-hey, what the hell are you doing?"
The sharp objects removed themselves. "I told you, taking a memento," the dog told her.
'Not very bright, is it?' Charlie thought to herself. 'Maybe I can keep it occupied with a petty conversation until Raphael can finish his fight. Then again, I have to worry about that damn snake's toxin eventually.' She risked a glance over to her partner to find that he had gotten the upper hand, but not before getting smacked into a wall at least 5 times. The poor guy probably had a concussion by now.
Raphael looked up at her, and his eyes widened when he saw the situation she had gotten into. "Nice going," he murmured. He glanced back at the ogre just in time to get smacked again.
The bird made a strange clicking sound with its talons, reminiscent of snapping one's fingers. "Hey, dog breathe, hurry up, will ya?"
The dog nodded, and moved to bite down again.
"H-hey, why do you want a wing, anyway?" Charlie asked in vain attempt at distracting him.
"You're getting annoying, kid," the bird growled.
"Oh, and you would enjoy it if a dog was going to rip off your wing?"
"Of course not. Thing is, it's not me. Now stop struggling so the dog can get his souvenir and I can get the soul."
"The only issue with that plan is I won't let you have the soul, no matter what!"
"I doubt you'll be saying that when you're wriggling in pain. Dog breath, move it!"
"No, this is amusing," the canine said, watching the entertainment intently.
"I don't fucking care! Rip, tear, murder!"
"Do you want me to murder her?"
"Sure! Why the hell not? Just get your souvenir and leave!"
"Yay!" The dog shouted cheerfully, immediately trying to find a way to scratch out her throat.
It didn't manage to, though, as Charlie, on accident, really, managed to bob it on the nose, which somehow knocked it off.
"Of course it was that easy," she muttered to herself as she watched it fall to the ground, running away to a corner with its tail between its legs.
The time taken to deal with the wolf's (dog? …whatever) interference was a rather large amount when on an unseen timer. Though the creature was no longer resting on her back, she still left as though it were there. It hardly took a nanosecond to determine that the snake's poison was starting to take its toll.
"God motherfucking-" Charlie started to swear continually, and rather loudly, as she reengaged in battle with the bird. With the toxin slowing her, however, the only thing that she really accomplished was having over half her armor completely decimated, and very nearly losing a hand at least twice.
"Geez," Raphael sighed as he jumped away from the ogre's fist yet again. Raising his voice, he called out, "Need some help over there?"
Charlie paused in her swearing to yell, "That would be very fucking nice, yes!"
Raphael nodded and looked back at the ogre. "Sorry buddy, playtime's over. My partner needs me."
The ogre growled and swung again as Raphael launched himself into the air.
"Whoa, someone needs some anger management classes," he taunted as he flew away. "Hey, here's a thought…" He said to Charlie as he reached them, intercepting the bird's attack. "Why don't we run?"
"Don't you mean 'fly away'?" Charlie asked as she slipped away from the bird.
"Does it really matter?"
"No, it does not."
Raphael nodded happily. "Then leave. I'll hold them off for a couple moments."
"That's stupid on the most extreme level."
"Well, you seem a little sluggish at the moment, so I don't think we'll both get away otherwise. And you have Marie's soul."
"Quite frankly, I think I'll pass out before I get anywhere."
"That has yet to be seen."
Unfortunately for him, it was then that Charlie briefly lost consciousness and fell a couple feet before catching herself.
Raphael groaned. "Isn't this the point whereas we unlock a new power that can save our asses?"
"You're thinking of anime, not video games," Charlie grunted, trying to keep herself from passing out again. Sadly, this failed miserably and she dropped again.
The bird grinned, which looked all too creepy considering the fact that, last he checked, anyway, Raphael was sure birds could not grin. It darted forward and got behind her as she started to force herself awake again.
"Sorry, dear," it cooed evilly, "but there can only be one magical creature that can fly here."
"What about me?" Raphael asked, feeling very offended. While he was actually quite unhappy that the bird didn't even think about him, he was actually only talking to stall for time as he moved to slice the bird out of the air.
"…That are good at it, anyway," the bird replied with a small, taunting laugh, not pausing for a second as it reached forward with its talons and latched onto Charlie's already damaged wing.
There was a disturbing ripping sound as it pulled.
Yes, isn't that the perfect time to stop? Especially with my update time, you'll likely be waiting a month, hell, maybe two, until I finally remember to post the chapter... I've already written up. Tell you what, I'll try to give you it in... two weeks. Good? Unless, of course, that isn't enough time for anyone to realize this chapter is up.
The fact that Marie's soul is green comes from a site saying that the color represents a harmonizer and healer. Take three guesses as to why, and the first two don't count.