As Aria felt the simulation shift, she realized very quickly that something was wrong. The room before her was nothing but darkness as far as the eye could see. A red glow soon appeared in the center of the room, but it didn't come from anything. As she cautiously made her way towards the light, a mechanical voice suddenly chimed in.
"Warning! The Godhead has activated emergency protocols! Please reach your designated emergency exits as marked!" the mechanical voice insisted politely, repeating the message quite a few times as Aria thought she heard someone cry out, but it sounded muffled, like she was hearing it from underwater, making her momentarily pause.
"Why you meddling, pink moron!" Mr. Kingsley's voice suddenly rang out, making Aria cry out in dismay as her room suddenly tilted, making her begin to slide away from the red glow at the center of the room at an alarming rate!
"Ow! Hey! Let go of me, ya smarmy asshat!" Angel Dust's voice suddenly yelled as Aria heard someone being hit before something hit something very heavy, and then her ears were assaulted by the sound of something exploding, making the room around her suddenly go completely upside down as Aria began to fall into the endless darkness!
"No! My Fantasy Unfolding Computer Cell!" Mr. Kingsley cried out in dismay before Aria heard a tom cat yowl out in rage before Aria heard Angel Dust suddenly cry out in pain! "You'll pay for this!"
"We gotta g-get Aria out of there!" Andrew's voice suddenly cried out in panic as Aria heard the clicking and tapping of a keyboard, but then she barely caught the sound of something hitting Andrew, causing him to cry out as the sound of a battle grew then faded.
Aria continued to have the sensation of falling, but now she couldn't hear anything except the sound of her own erratic breathing. Despite the falling sensation, the lack of wind in her ears made it feel like she was sinking into deep water, momentarily filling her with a primal fear before she quickly quelched it. She had worse things to worry about than imagined sea monsters lurking beyond her vision.
"Initiating Emergency Protocols! Guardian Angel Ariathe June, Rank: Savior, Voice recognition password: 'The worth of souls is great in the sight of God!'" Aria shouted as she suddenly stopped sinking as a floor finally appeared gently beneath her feet, stopping her descent completely as a dark blue light finally appeared above her, banishing the darkness somewhat.
"Please state your emergency!" the mechanical voice chirped, but it was distorted, making Aria worry about how much damage the simulator was going through at this very moment.
"The Overseers for this simulation have been removed due to unsafe conditions! Please initiate emergency Overseer protocols to quickly complete this simulation!" Aria insisted as the room around her glitched violently for a moment as streaks of red splintered over the sky like lightning before Aria heard a positive ding, making her sigh in relief.
"Your statement of an emergency is acceptable. Please wait while a temporary Overseer is generated," the computer voice stated promptly in its unnaturally distorted tone as the sky turned to a field of red snow before returning to perpetual night, making Aria worry that this part of the program might have already become corrupted.
As Aria waited and her worry mounted as the seconds ticked by, she wondered if she was experiencing her last moments of peace before the simulator drove her to madness. The sky flickered with disjointed, red patterns that reminded Aria of those rare occurrences when video games couldn't render their surroundings properly. Aria just hoped the machine had enough protection protocols still intact to get her out of the simulator in one piece!
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Aria saw something that resembled a lotus flower appear just a few feet before her. It glowed a serene, blue color that got darker around the outer edge of the flower as Aria realized that the fracturing of the scene before her had finally solidified as a feeling of serenity filled her. There was still no sign of any Overseer, but the simulation was still moving forward, making Aria hesitate only a moment before moving forward to investigate.
As she reached the blue flower, she felt compelled to pick it up and examine it. Taking it into her arms, she felt the peace become stronger inside her heart as she instantly knew what the flower represented. It was a mistake, like so many she'd made in her life. As that thought took hold, a dark field spread around her with even more dark, blue lotus blossoms glowing gently in the dark.
As she saw them, she desired that they would brighten and become white. As that thought came to her, she found that a few blossoms in the field began to slowly glow white, first from the center of the blossom until it gradually became a beautiful, white lotus aglow in radiant light! As she watched this happen, her own blossom in her arms began to gradually glow white from the center until it, too, became a glowing, white lotus.
As her lotus glowed warmly against her chest, it was then that Aria knew what the white glow represented. The white lotus blossoms were symbols of success. When that thought occurred to her, Aria had to sigh, smile, and shake her head at herself. She recognized the lesson she'd been running from for most of her mortal and afterlife until this moment. Mistakes, or what she'd seen as agonizing failure, and success were the same blossom. The blue blossoms were mistakes or failures that she hadn't learned from yet, and the white blossoms were those mistakes she had eventually learned to overcome, gaining her success.
"They're beautiful, aren't they?" a familiar voice said to her softly in her mind, making her turn around to find a woman she didn't recognize.
Arrayed in the same Celestial armor in reserve in her angelic artifact around her neck, this woman with long, straight, white hair, and fair skin had her eyes, yet they had no color. She was tall and imposing, yet she was not aggressive and held herself in a gentle, open stance. Aria sensed no ill will from her and as their eyes met, the woman's face softened into a warm smile of love and acceptance.
It was rare to have a familiar feeling around a randomly generated overlord, so Aria grew increasingly curious. What had the machine created? Was she just a ghost in the machine, or was the woman someone from her own past? She knew this woman, she was sure of it, but nothing came to her as she fought to remember where she'd seen this person before.
"Who are you?" Aria asked curiously, knowing she must know the woman, but the woman just smiled a coy smile at her and continued without answering her question.
"Thou knowest now that thou must accept the goodness of mistakes in light of their possibilities for success, and yet much more must be revealed to thee to continue to learn and grow beyond this limited sphere," the mysterious woman said gently, her eyes sad and full of understanding despite her kind smile as Aria struggled to try to recognize her or her voice, but as hard as she tried, the reason for the strange familiarity Aria felt around this woman remained illusive. "There was once a relationship thou dist hold very dearly before your mortal sojourn on Earth."
As Aria watched, her surroundings changed and she was in the time before her mortal life, taking her to a place both familiar and utterly wondrous. Deja vu filled her as she saw the place before her as her heart recognized Heaven despite that she couldn't see much of its surroundings in the vision before her. The vision centered more on her joy as the brief scene centered around herself as she laughed, kissed, and made love with a young, fair-haired man she instantly knew.
Her heart sank and her stomach dropped as she realized who it was. It shook her and she quickly turned away from the image and refused to look at it any longer. Despite the lingering joy she still felt against her skin at the memory as her heart spoke of peace and joy, the reality of who she gave herself so freely to frightened her!
"No," Aria whispered hoarsely, the denial weak and full of pain, but something old, yet timeless stirred inside her soul and she knew the vision was true like her very bones were etched with the forbidden knowledge.
"This is the one thou once loved with all of thy being and adored with all of thy soul, save Jesus only, in the time before God created the Earth," the mysterious woman said simply as though knowing there could be no debate with the facts that the both of them knew were before them. "Despite his abominable crimes against God and His children, thy compassion grew towards him. Thy fear and hatred of him, which thou didst learn in thy mortality, waned and died once thou learned that loving him freed thee from his evil influence, greatly diminishing his power over thee after this revelation. Once brought to this point, thy soul awakened, and a deep and abiding desire to seek whether anything could be done for the welfare of his immortal soul grew within thee and would not relent. Thou didst even ask God Himself during thy mortal sojourn if any way could be made to save him."
"Stop it!" Aria whispered fiercely, terrified that someone would overhear their conversation as she saw the red glitches come back with a vengeance all around them as Aria briefly heard something crack violently. "No one must know of this! I know what you say is true, and he is lost to me, so leave me alone! Let me get out of here and leave my past forgotten!"
"The answer to thy prayers was that the span of time required for his return to the grace of God would span a time so long, it is marked as being beyond an eternity," the mysterious woman continued, unconcerned by her agitation or fear as her gentle demeanor never wavered. "His fate was eternal punishment, and thou knewest that God's punishment would also be key to his eventual return to salvation. This punishment was merely a single stone to build the way out of the prison built for the man you loved because of his own rebellion against God and the whole of Heaven."
"Then leave it and let me live without the knowledge of his name!" Aria begged, wanting the excuse to feign ignorance as she felt her heart break at the knowledge as her soul shivered at what could be done to her if any in Hell found out about this forbidden connection. "Leave it and leave me be! Now!"
"Do not deny thy past," the woman warned solemnly, her eyes still so sad and her smile now gone, replaced by an expression of sorrow. "Denial will leave thee weak and unprepared to face him. This knowledge will protect thee and give thee power to face him when the time inevitably comes. Besides, thou knowest the name of whom I speak already."
"Then are we done, because I already know who you speak of?" Aria stated desperately, hoping the overlord of the simulation would be content with this statement, but the mysterious woman just shook her head.
"Call out his name and you will be free to leave," the mysterious woman said, leaving Aria's heart heavy as a terrible, bitter laugh escaped her.
"Why? Why should I dare say it out loud?" Aria asked, the fear and worry heavy in her tone as she grew angry. "No one has the right to know that name and my connection to him! No one! Can you guarantee that our conversation is unknown to all but us?"
"I can only guarantee a way out if you call out his name," the mysterious woman stated gently, but firmly, leaving Aria feeling utterly frustrated.
"Why his name!?" Aria shouted angrily. "We both know who we speak of! Why must I repeat the name of this man who has actively tried to destroy me, and yet I can't bring myself to do the same? Why speak it out, when I've proven I'll spare the wicked over and over, with the same result? Why is his name so important!?"
"Admitting his importance shaping who thou art and why thou hast suffered long because of it must not only be admitted within thy mind, but spoken out by thy heart also," the mysterious woman insisted firmly as she really looked at Aria with a gaze that pierced her very soul. "The admittance of it will prove thy commitment to who thou truly art and why thou art here, severing the few fearful, painful chains that still hold thee back even now."
"Of course I'm afraid!" Aria admitted in exasperation as she put her hands to her head and shook it. "Admitting this in full means it's real, and if it's real, then I won't be able to turn away from this anymore, and that scares the hell out of me! Wouldn't it prove my undoing as an angel if I admit to this openly!? It's completely taboo!"
"That's exactly the point," the mysterious woman insisted with an amused smile on her face. "What demon or devil can withstand the selfless gift of love and stand?"
Aria tried to argue, but the mysterious woman had a point and Aria found she had nothing she could say in her defense. As much as she hated to admit it, the mysterious woman was right. Aria wanted to forget her new knowledge of a part of her distant, pre-Earth past that explained so much about her lack of self worth she struggled with her entire life and afterlife. However, with how badly the sky was glitching around her, hesitating to admit her own past could cost her everything. As the mysterious woman started to glitch right in front of her, Aria knew she'd run out of time.
"...fine," Aria said reluctantly as she watched the world around her spasm with flashes of red and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut as she opened her mouth and spoke. "Lucifer."
With that, a rush of Celestial words flooded the air around her, taking her breath away as she closed her eyes to shield them from the light as red flashes tried to unhinge the code! A terrible dizzy spell hit her and she almost lost her lunch as her body burned very uncomfortably as the simulator fought to return her to the waking world. By the time she could see, again, she was finally outside the simulator on her hands and knees, but before she could even catch her breath as she recognized her white, feathery hands and red dress, the sound of a pistol cocking next to her head made her freeze on the spot.
"A pity you escaped my machine, Poppet, and more's the pity on who you relied on to free you from my incredibly expensive piece of tech!" Mr. Kingsley seethed with a deep level of profound irritation, disappointment, and controlled rage dripping from his words as Aria slowly looked up to find Mr. Kingsley standing over her with a pistol aimed right at her head. "Get up slowly and no funny business unless you want to end up like your friends."
As Aria very slowly got up and placed her hands on her head, she saw Angel Dust lying tied up on the floor looking like he'd lost a fight with a meat tenderizer. Aria feared the worst until she saw that he was just unconscious as she saw his chest rise and fall. Tied up right next to him was a very conscious, gagged, beaten, and bruised Andrew with a pair of hulking wolf demons looming over him and Angel Dust with guns at the ready. As Aria stared at all the dead demon bodies strewn around the room laying in their own blood, the two wolves must've gotten lucky subduing Angel and Andrew.
The lab was a mess of broken parts, sizzling, live wires, and shattered screens as smoke billowed out of the massive main computer system, rendering it inoperable. Despite knowing that the damage to the simulator almost cost her her life, she was glad no one was going to use it anytime soon. She said a quick prayer of thanks to God for getting them all out safely as Mr. Kingsley eyed her up and down like a piece of meat.
"What am I going to do with you now that I can no longer extract your precious secrets, my Poppet?" Mr. Kingsley asked softly with an intense frown, his eyes narrowing to slits as Aria realized that the gun in his hand wasn't what it seemed as her analysis tech revealed that it was a tranquilizer gun, explaining how he'd gotten the drop on Angel Dust eventually, which probably surprised Andrew long enough to get him pinned down and tied up. "I was really hoping to kill you slowly, painfully, and with great precision as I ripped out your secrets from you! As it now stands, however, I'm probably going to have to just kill you right now to save face with Valentino. How incredibly disappointing! He's going to go dead mental when he finds out the pig's ear you all turned his machine into, however, and knowing that mug of a pink spider will probably somehow ruin any chance of being truly punished for it, I have no choice but to pin the blame on someone expendable. Thankfully, my secretary is in the perfect position for this kind of thing, so I'll just frame it to look like she was trying to kill me by blowing up my machine along with me so she could take my job, while you, Poppet, and your accomplice get to be her lackeys in all this. Oh, now don't look at me that way. It'll be so much easier this way. A perfect story, wouldn't you say, my Poppet? Then Cheers! I do apologize for-!"
Aria didn't wait to hear his apology as she lit up the space before her with a bright flash of celestial light! As the light momentarily blinded Mr. Kingsley and his goons as they yelled out very colorful profanities, Aria changed swiftly into a large snake before she coiled to strike and bit hard into Mr. Kingsley's wrist holding the gun! Crying out in agony, he shot off a dart that sailed over Aria's serpentine head before he dropped the gun and flung her off! Changing back to her bird disguise as she rushed for the gun, she managed to grab it just as Mr. Kingsley fumbled into it in his blind search to get it back! Sensing her, Mr. Kingsley lashed out at her blindly with his cat claws, succeeding in hitting her shoulder, drawing blood as she cried out in pain! She fought against his frenzied claw attacks as she finally got a firm hold of the gun in her hand, turned, and shot him with his own gun! There was a muffled shot as a dart swiftly appeared and sunk deep into Mr. Kingsley's shoulder, making him swiftly pull it out, but the damage was already done.
"Bloody hell, you trollop! If I wake up from this, you're dead, you hear me!? Dead!" Mr. Kingsley swore as he tried to make a grab for her, but he tilted too far to the right and passed out on the floor, while Aria heard a gunshot as something zoomed past her ear, barely missing her as she moved swiftly to find cover as she took a shot at the two wolf demons and succeeded in hitting one of the wolf demons in the leg, downing him quickly.
"Ya better stop taking pot shots, or I'll kill your scrawny fish friend!" the last wolf demon called out brutishly as Aria heard Andrew cry out in pain as she peeked around the large, broken set of complicated machinery she was using as cover and saw the wolf demon was digging his pawed foot into Andrew's back, making him writhe on the ground in agony!
Changing back into a large snake, she quickly slithered around the corner, scaring the heck out of the wolf demon as he swore and took pot shots at her! Swerving and slithering as fast as she could, she succeeded in dodging the goon's shots as she reached the goon before turning into a huge, yellow slime monster in the shape of a cube to immobolize him! The beast struggled and tried to shoot his gun, but the goo that formed her new body had gotten into every open crevice of the firearm, making it utterly useless.
As she moved away from Angel Dust and Andrew, she waited patiently as she watched the goon struggle and fight for air as he failed to swim out of her. As soon as it looked like he was about to drown as his motions became increasingly sluggish, she spewed him out away from Angel and Andrew before changing into her original disguise. She wanted to keep her bird one, but she was worried she'd bloody Andrew if she used her sharp claws on her feet to free him. Wishing she hadn't shown so much to the wolf demon as he gasped and threw up slime helplessly a few feet away from her, Aria used her black claws to free Andrew from his bindings, making it possible for him to remove the gag out of his mouth.
"Are you alright?" Aria asked with genuine concern, but Andrew just stood and put a hand on her shoulder before walking straight for the wolf demon, who was struggling to try and regain his footing on the slimey mess she'd left on the floor.
Andrew easily walked through the slimey wake of her previous form towards the helpless goon, catching Aria by surprise! Andrew was completely immune to the slime's slippery effects, making Aria's heart sink as a red glow began to blaze from Andrew's glasses! Aria gasped as she realized what he had in mind as she tried to move quickly through the yellow slime, but she just ended up slipping and landing on her butt with a cry of pain and frustration. She tried to use her telekenesis on the jelly-like mess and scoop it all up into the broken remains of the simulator, but something was interfering with her telekenesis, making her watch helplessly as Andrew reached the wolf demon from behind without making a sound as the goon finally managed to stand up. Without any hesitation, Andrew drew back his right hand and thrust it through the goon's throat just like he had to the tiger demon, making the wolf demon gurgle and gasp in shock and agony!
"I'm sorry, but you've seen too much," Andrew said coldly, making Aria let out a cry of anguish, but Andrew ignored her as he easily overwhelmed the helpless wolf demon as Andrew drew out the goon's blood, making it float out of him before Andrew turned them into a shower of blood knives before executing him on the spot until he was nothing but a pile of guts and gore.
"You didn't have to do that!" Aria yelled out angrily as she changed back into her bird disguise, making Andrew put his finger to his lips to remind her to keep quiet, making her growl as she quieted down despite how angry she felt!
Making sure Andrew couldn't kill anyone else, Aria struggled out of her gooey, yellow slime trail and tried to use her telekenesis again to lift the sleeping forms of Mr. Kingsley and the remaining wolf demon, but still nothing happened. Letting a frustrated sigh escape her, she just summoned a rope from her emergency storage and tied them up before stowing them away in the furthest corner of the lab she could drag them to. She also gagged them for good measure with one of her extra wash cloths she had in her storage, but felt it was such a waste of good, clean cloth as she suddenly got a wicked idea in her head as she chuckled to herself. Removing Mr. Kingsley's shoes, she stuffed his own socks into his mouth, leaving the wolf demon to be gagged with one of her own washcloths, since he wore no shoes.
"Huh! I n-never thought I'd see the day when an angel would pull a prank on a demon!" Andrew said softly with a surprised smirk on his face, making Aria roll her eyes, but she couldn't help but smirk a little at the comment.
"He had it coming, that's for sure!" Aria insisted flippantly in a loud whisper as she looked at the pile of blood, guts and gore next to Andrew and sighed again in frustration as she tried to figure out how to make the scene not look like a blood-soaked jail break. "It'd be better if we knew where a broom closet was so we could stow Mr. Kingsley and his goons, but as it stands, this is going to be the best we can do. They didn't see me change like the other wolf demon had. I just wish my telekenesis was working!"
"You c-can't move things around like you normally can?" Andrew asked in surprise, making Aria shake her head grimly as he sighed heavily before lifting a hand towards the bloody mess, making it lift into the air and move towards the machine and its center before gently placing it easily into the center of the twisted mess of metal as he then walked through the yellow slime on the ground before taking her by the hand. "Stay c-close."
"Thanks," muttered Aria, blushing at the intimacy of the gesture, but also embarrassed at having to be led like a child through her own mess as they got to the door of the lab without any trouble.
"No problem, but...are you s-sure you want to leave them alive?" Andrew whispered evenly with an undercurrent of anger in his tone, making Aria think about what Mr. Kingsley had forced her to go through, but despite the anger she felt, she had no desire to add murder to her list of things to do that night.
"Let him live with the embarrassment of losing me," Aria insisted as she turned her back on Mr. Kingsley and the wolf demon as she looked down at Angel Dust, who was still out cold despite everything that had happened. "We already have enough on our plates already. Besides, I couldn't live with being on the same level as that jerk. Just concentrate on getting out of here without rousing suspicion while we haul a completely comatose Angel Dust out of a basement we have no business being in."
"Yeah...that's n-not going to be hard at all," Andrew said sarcastically as he helped Aria untie Angel Dust and reluctantly helped lift the pink spider over onto her shoulder after some coaxing from Aria as they made their way out of the lab as they peeked around the corner before turning right down the long, white corridor. "Lucky for me, I was m-mostly aware of my surroundings when Damian was in control, so I know the way out. Ugh, I j-just hope you're wrong about that shadowy demon coming back again. It sucks that your t-telekenesis isn't working. It can be really handy in a p-pinch!"
"Just keep moving," Aria whispered urgently as she stood up straighter and tried to look far more regal and in complete control despite the butterflies in her stomach as Angel snored over her shoulder. "The sooner we get away from this part of the basement and get back to the party, the sooner I can make Valentino look like a fool and get the hell out of here."
"What about your other m-mission?" Andrew whispered as he found the golden key card Damian had gotten earlier in one of his pockets, while three boar demon guards dressed in black leather bondage gear turned a corner Aria hadn't even known was there.
"It'll have to wait," Aria whispered tensely as she saw the boar demons, hoping they'd succeed in bluffing their way out as they saw her and Andrew and made their way over.
"Oy! Watcha doin', pretty lady?" one of the boar demons asked with a wicked gleam in his eye as Aria realized with disgust that nothing covered his family jewels as he stood there as stiff as a board for all to see. "Ya coming from ol' stuffed shirt's lab? I was expecting a corpse or whatever. Ol' stuffed shirt don't usually let his experiments loose, all exceptin' ol' long legs here ya carrying. Why hasn't his cute secretary come over to tell us you was coming, eh?"
"The party upstairs has delayed Mr. Kingsley's secretary, and as for us, we were asked to remove Angel Dust due to his interference earlier in Mr. Kingsley's private time," Aria bluffed haughtily, hoping her vague excuse would be good enough for the disgusting guards.
"We saw long legs here come on down from the upper level, and we saw this blue one, too, but I don't remember you, pretty lady! I'd remember you! Oh yes!" one of the boar demon guards said with a slurpy grin as he wiped his red mouth hungrily as he looked her up and down, making Aria's skin crawl as she fought to keep her composure.
"I came in much earlier in the day via Mr. Kingsley's orders and haven't had the pleasure of wandering around," Aria said quickly, keeping to the truth as she fought to not throw up as the third guard with a more bluish tinge to his black fur started to grope himself in front of her, moaning in pleasure. "There may've been a shift switch while this all played out. I'm sure it's just an oversight. Now, could you please step aside so we can bring Angel Dust to Valentino? He has big plans for the pink spider and he'd be furious if he didn't get to rub it into his cocky, pink face."
"That's what I want to do to you, pretty lady!" the first boar said gruffly with want as the three guards suddenly lunged for her, groping with strong, meaty hands!
Aria tried to push them off her with her telekenesis, but something was still interfering with it! No matter how hard she tried to ply her telekenetic powers, nothing happened as the nasty, groping hands of the three guards succeeded in grabbing her, making her almost drop Angel Dust as she felt someone take a grab at her chest, while another made a go for her groin. As Aria felt panic begin to overwhelm her as she thought of using her angelic light to blind them and make a run for it, there was a scream of agonizing pain as one of the guards clutched at his family jewels. Aria looked to see why he was screaming so loudly, since she hadn't seen anything happen, but as blood poured through the boars hands holding his genitals, she put a hand over her mouth in horror.
The boar had been castrated!
"You would do well to get out of our way or you'll l-lose even more than that," Andrew bluffed as calmly as he could as he flicked the blood off his tail in agitation before he pushed the two remaining boar demons off of Aria. "I'm guarding Mr. Kingsley's n-new favorite toy, so back off or else!"
"Ya bloomin' asshole! You'll pay for fuckin' with the Mind Fuckers!" the first boar demon squeeled out in outrage as one of the castrated boar's friends succeeded in grabbing Andrew's tail as he tried to fight them off, forcing Aria to bite the boar's hand to let Andrew go before they made a run for it back the way they came.
Spitting and gagging at what her mouth had tasted on the boar's filthy hand, Aria and Andrew ran past the lab and a few more see-through doorways, many of which emitted screams of both pleasure and pain. The sounds made Aria nervous and sick as she almost ran right into a rat demon in a lab coat and goggles who held a writhing heart in his bare hands, laughing maniacally! Aria's analysis tech was going crazy, giving out information on old Celestian labs with contradicting data from what her eyes saw within each cursed laboratory, making her feel incredibly nauseous as Andrew suddenly grabbed her and pulled her against him!
"This way!" he hissed out quickly in her ear as she was suddenly pushed into an obviously new decorative fountain of blood that was made to look like a large waterfall that cascaded into a thick, grated floor of writhing souls below.
Aria screamed, but Andrew put a hand on her mouth quickly as he dove through the waterfall with her to find that there was a hidden passage on the other side. Andrew shushed Aria as she felt the blood on her skin and clothes suddenly rise off of her in floating droplets of blood before she saw them return to the cascading waterfall, leaving her feeling a mixture of relief and wonder at Andrew's ability. As she watched more blood rise off of the comatose form of Angel Dust, she heard the boars stomp past their hiding spot. By the time Andrew had removed the blood from all three of them, Aria couldn't hear the swearing roars of the boar demons anymore.
"Well, I'm glad Valentino still l-likes his secret passage ways," Andrew said quietly with relief as he got the blood stains out of the carpet below their feet with ease as he lifted Aria's feet to make sure no droplets had gone unnnoticed.
"You knew this was here!?" Aria whispered loudly in surprise.
"Not this one specifically, but this k-kind of hidden passageway isn't new for Valentino," Andrew explained as a few more drops of blood were returned to the waterfall that had gotten on the walls and ceiling before Andrew turned to her and shrugged. "It's how Damian got around Porn S-Studios before we were forced to leave when we worked here in the past. These passages are more often used as emergency escape routes or as m-mazes with traps during the annual purge. I knew this one was here because I f-felt the large space beyond the waterfall of blood when we were about to pass it."
"So...what kind of other abilities do you have that I should be aware of other than having incredible control over liquids and the ability to sense the void behind waterfalls of blood?" Aria asked nervously as she tried to process where they were as the smell of pennies never left her nostrils, making her wonder if he missed her nose.
"That I'm also better at ambush tactics and blood magic when I'm not in melee range unless I've succeeded to overwhelm my target the first go around," Andrew insisted impatiently as he started to walk down the corridor, making Aria look back at the blood waterfall with a shudder before following closely behind Andrew as she shifted Angel on her shoulder a little. "Being that my primary weapon is my t-tail, you've seen how easily it can be avoided, grabbed, or even d-destroyed in combat when you saw me and Angel fight in the simulator. It grows back eventually, but d-damn, it hurts every time I lose it!"
"You don't think the traps are live, do you?" Aria asked tensely, but Andrew just chuckled softly and shook his head as they made their way to what looked like an old atrium with a mesh floor covered in a layer of blood and gore, while the walls were covered in not only more blood and gore, but also deadly saws, guns, blasters, and sprayers Aria's analysis tech all reported to be lethal to angels.
"It's barely been a f-few days after the annual purge and, judging by the smell, and the s-state of the hardware, they haven't even reloaded the machinery, yet," Andrew whispered confidently as Andrew shooed them into a small crevice in the bloodstained wall as a green demon with six legs covered in hooves, and multiple eyes and a grotesque tongue slobbered and slithered over to the mesh floor, licking it clean as Aria hoped it wouldn't see them. "Licker demon. Loves the taste of old, d-dead things. Cleaning rotting angel flesh is its f-favorite job. Valentino always pays to have them roam free throughout the passageways for a few days after the purge to clean them. It pays like shit, but they love eating angel remains, so they d-don't mind much."
"Shhh! He'll hear you!" Aria whispered fearfully in Andrew's ear, making him chuckle, which only bewildered her.
"They d-don't have ears, or didn't you notice with your superior, angelic powers?" Andrew whispered with a smirk, making Aria frown as she begrudgingly looked at the licker demon again, and sure enough, it had no ears to speak of. "Relax. I'm whispering in case anyone from m-maintenance bothers to do their rounds. Licker demons are deadly, but as long as you aren't c-cornered by one, you'll be fine. They're known to eat unsuspecting d-demons who wander the hidden passageways, especially unarmed prey."
"Great! So can we get out of here quickly before we become demon food?" Aria asked hastily, making Andrew smile as he flashed the gold card in his hand at her before he used it on a key pad she hadn't even noticed, making her sigh in relief as a hidden door opened behind her. "Good. Let's just try and get out of here before anything else happens."
As they entered through the hidden doorway and let the door close silently behind them, a dark cloud slithered and churned where the blood waterfall began. As it went through the waterfall and down the narrow hall to the bloody atrium full of weaponry, it formed into a shadowy form of a tall, thin man. As soon as it did so, the shriek of a licker demon cut through the air as it lunged for the shadowy form! With a wave of its hand, it blasted a shadowy substance at it, making the licker demon scream in agony as the shadows ate away at its face. By the time the shadowy substance finally receded and returned to the shadow man, the licker demon no longer had a head as the body went limp and slumped onto the ground, completely motionless as the shadow man turned into a shadowy mass and continued his hunt.