Chapter 86 (2 of 2) She In Her Scarlet Raiment Who Blesses With Vengeance. (Patreon)

[S.T.A.G.E.S | Stage 15: Fragment of Chaos]

How shall you be recorded in the annals of dimensional explorers without evidence of your discovery? You have obtained knowledge of the truth, but you’re not finished here yet.

It is the goal of researchers to make use of their knowledge, so leave your permanent mark on this chaotic and hostile realm![Collapse]

Main Quest (Rank-2: Demon Realm) Overall Objective:

• Last two weeks while being pursued by forces so that the stolen treasure you carry can be placed on the summoning ritual along with yourselves.

Sub-Objectives – Stage 11:

Compulsory:

• Locate the exit of the Blackbrook Cavern.

Optional:

·      Obtain the vessel fragment of She In Her Scarlet Raiment Who Blesses With Vengeance.

[]

[Completion Rate: 40%]

Lucille’s gaze was weary as she read the optional objective. “It’s official. The System wants to torment me with horrors far beyond my current capabilities.” She ran a hand down her face. “A fragment of its vessel… I don’t like the sound of that. Not one bit.”

“So… you know what this ‘vessel’ is?” Scytale asked.

She glanced at him and shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it. But I have to assume it’s a ‘conduit’ to the Ancient Daemon in some way or another. It likely has something to do with how they’re connected to the Demon Realm.”

Lucy placed her hands behind her back and began pacing, musing over the new information. “If it’s supposed to be a channel or conduit to the realms…” She gestured to her bond. “The Primals have channels to the magical beasts by virtue of their ‘bloodlines’, but Primarchs don’t work that way. Their ‘channels’ are their connections to the minds of those who draw on their abilities, calling down their incarnations and such with Thaumaturgy. Then you have the Paragon Anomalies, but their classification is ‘higher race’ and draws upon connections to concepts. I’m not certain as to what their conduit is. They might exist without ones.”

She looked up in thought. “Ancient Daemons don’t channel through lineages because the randomness of a demon’s abilities can be easily seen, but the only instance I’ve seen where Great Beings have been so rooted in the physical realm is the Chthons of Tartarus, and they’re the ‘Sectors’ that the Vigils categorise themselves as. Looking at the pattern, the conduit method of Ancient Daemons should be completely different from other Great Beings.”

 Lucille paused as an idea came to mind. “Unless these ‘Ancient Daemon’ Seals are only important because they’re where an object related to them has physically formed, rather than this entire room being evidence of their connection to the realm.”

Scytale screwed up his nose. “I don’t really get it, but…” He pointed at something in the middle of the room. “Would that count as an ‘object’?”

Their eyes fell upon the statue of the Ancient Daemon formerly known as Hellawes Nefas Infernalis. After her name had been called by Lucy in the prior stage, the colour of her robes was slowly leeching away once more to return to normal stone. They walked closer to study the tall statue.

“The demonic power here is certainly stronger, but I can’t say whether this is the ‘vessel’ mentioned,” Lucille remarked.

“I think it’s our best bet.” The humanoid snake sat on the block the statue was resting on. “It’s not like we could see the energies of a Great Being with our strength anyway. Only Rank-7s have a chance of that.”

“Yes, but…” Lucille tapped on her mask. “I can see Influence with the Shard, remember? It may let me see this too.”

Her bond considered it with a frown. “But… it can also see the System. And you said that sensation wasn’t very nice.”

Lucille sighed and crossed her arms. “The Shard of Totality has… shall I say, ‘levels’ to it. I could see into the spiritual realm, but then I could also see the System Influence that composed other people’s Status information, and then finally go beyond that to perceive the impossible metaphysical forces of the System which resides within the esoteric anti-dimensional boundaries of the ‘Tower’.” Lucy dismissively waved her hand. “The Tower is still nothing more than a glorified elevator shaft in my opinion, but that’s off-topic.”

She planted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at the statue. “I understand what you’re worried about because with us being in one of the ‘Stages’ right now, a construct on par with the System, Tower, Malkisofret’s Mansion and such, I could see the Stages and hurt myself. But that’s if I try too hard. I’m confident I can control it.”

He threw up his hands and backed away. “Look, it’s your decision, not mine. The System altered your Stages for this, so it probably assumes you’ll use the Shard. We just don’t know what the consequences of doing this are, that’s all.”

Lucy removed her mask and watched the statue. She circled to its front, and when she felt that she had readied her mind enough to attempt observing the power of a Great Being, she focused on the Shard, gradually increasing the mana and spiritual energy flow to it.

The first thing she noticed was that the statue was luminous. Demonic power had completely filled it to the brim and flowed out of it. It was practically a bottomless well of demonic power… which made a lot of sense to Lucille, considering she knew that Strongholds could only be built near where Ancient Daemon Seals were.

Her focus increased as she wanted to look past what spiritual perception could see.

The Lucille was hit by the alien sensations of impossibly white light trapped within a bottomless abyss of blackness, coiling around each other in a disorderly vortex that paradoxically seemed to grow larger and smaller simultaneously around a hollowed out core of reddest red. And words, sights, and sounds whispered out of the vortex, impressing upon her the past, present and future of an ageless daemonic being who swam in and out of the continuum and metaphysical realms, their entirety condensed into the amalgamation of cause and effect, Influence and a more powerful energy used only by the Constructs. Their very being existing for one purpose, to oppose those of Pandemonium and answer to their master, their creator, their progenitor, both the same and alien from them who was call-

Lucille stumbled as not even a nanosecond after she had breached the layer had she shut off the Shard. She crashed to the floor as Scytale ran forward to support her. Lucy fumbled with her mask and swept away the blood coating her cheek as she slid the mask back on. Scytale wordlessly took out a towel for her which she used to stem her bloody nose.

“And that is strike two for Lucy, never to use the Shard again,” Scytale announced smugly.

She shot him a flat look and removed the damp towel from her face. Lucy mopped up the blood from her bleeding right eye too. “A vessel is a wholly inadequate term to describe what it is. A chain or fetter would be more accurate. It’s also… artificial.”

Scytale blinked. “What? Did someone seal the Ancient Daemon here? Who?”

“I don’t… know.” She had her suspicions, but it wasn’t relevant to their situation. Lucille stood up, walked around and put an ungloved palm on the back of the statue. “What I do know is that this is the object we’re looking for and that I made a severe miscalculation when attempting to glimpse the Ancient Daemon’s power.” She let out a humourless laugh. “I didn’t consider that the Stages can recreate the ability of a Great Being to exist regardless of time and space. I was overwhelmed by the entirety of the Ancient Daemon’s past, present and future.”

Lucy shook her head. “I can only say that my soul power is what allowed me to survive. And even though the Stages tried to recreate it…” She shuddered slightly. “This is barely more than an illusion of an Ancient Daemon Seal and vessel. It’s an artificial, simulated and superficial model of what the real thing is like.”

“…yeah, uh, I might ask you to keep the memories of that away from me.” He walked forward and stood beside her. “So, what do we do?”

 “Well, I noted that the vessel is incomplete.” Lucy ran her fingers over the statue’s back until she felt something give. A round stone plate popped out, to reveal the interior of the statue to be solid, red, foggy crystal, except for the spherical hole in the centre. Lucy observed the cut of the crystal around the edges and hummed. “This must be how Stronghold Crystals are made. Taken out of the vessel. Curious.”

Scytale peered in and glanced at her. “Just cut a part out with the daggers?”

“Probably. Let me cut into it with Apophis-” The black dagger rebounded off an invisible barrier and sunk into the stone behind them. Lucy looked back and stared. “…I’ll get him back and try again.”

Lucille walked over to pull out her dagger, but Scytale reached forward out of curiosity to touch the crystal. His hand wasn’t rebounded and the crystal made a soft clink when he flicked it. “For some reason I can touch it, though.”

She paused and looked back. “Really?” Lucy sheathed Apophis and tried to touch it, but her hand was flung back. She blinked at her palm. “I’m the problem? Why?” She put both hands near the glowing red crystal and attempted to push past the invisible barrier. “Hm? It’s reacting to my left hand more.”

Lucy pulled back her left hand’s glove to see that the Mark of the Primordial Demon had reemerged and was glinting with red, black and white light. She flexed her fingers and hid the mark again, but when she put it near the statue, it was blocked, sometimes with burning pain. She sighed and put her gloves back on. “That stupid Demon Emperor is giving me problems in simulations too.”

“Mystery solved then?”

“Not at all. But at least I know you can touch it,” she replied.

Scytale glanced between her and the statue and held out his hand. “Pass me Apophis. I’m not exactly the clawed kind of beast, so I’ll need something sharper than fingernails to get a chunk out.”

She passed him her demonic weapon and he set to work wedging the serrated blade in the back of the statue. With a bit of effort, a finger-sized piece was excavated and he picked it up. Scytale winced and looked down at the crystal in his hands. “I… think there’s something wrong with me. I don’t feel quite right-”

“Give me that.” She snatched it from him before he had held it for even half a second and raised it to observe it. Lucille glanced at his hands. “I believe you could get past the barrier because you’re a Primal Descendant, and Primals are antagonistic to Ancient Daemons. However, you’re not a Primal yourself, so even a piece as weak as this will still harm you. Look, you have small serrations all over your hands.”

He moved his fingers and hissed as beads of blood formed along the small cuts. Golden light mana welled up as he quickly healed himself. “Ouch. That’s nasty.”

Lucy grabbed one of his hands to inspect it. “Is your mana chaotic?”

“No, there isn’t any leftover demonic power,” Scytale replied.

[Sub-Objective Complete: Obtain the vessel fragment of She In Her Scarlet Raiment Who Blesses With Vengeance. ]

[Completion Rate: +6%]

[New! Completion Rate: 46%]

“Was your optional objective the same as mine?” Lucy asked, putting away the crystal shard for safekeeping.

“Yep. I got the completion notification.” He nodded.

Lucille stretched her arms above her head and gestured for him to follow. “Time to get out of here then. If the System is asking us to locate an exit to this cavern, then I have a feeling it doesn’t want us going through the same way we entered.”

They walked back out of the tunnel. When they left, some slight trembling of the ground made Lucy narrow her eyes and look back, but it stopped shortly afterwards.

“Something wrong?” Scytale put his hands on his hips.

“No…” She turned back and marched on ahead. “Let’s get out of here.”

…

“To find this exit, I say we should follow the Blackbrook upstream and-” The words died in Scytale’s mouth as he stared at his bond, who was walking ahead without stopping to listen to him.

“Of course, we’re going upstream. Downstream only leads deeper underground.” Lucy trekked across the large boulders by the pebbled riverbed, leaving Scytale to his own devices.

“I was going to say…” He changed into his snake form and flew up to her to give her a side-eye. “…that I remember seeing this brook outside of the cavern when I did the Stages last time, so I know upstream leads to outside somewhere,” he finished sourly. “Do you always have to take credit for everything?”

“Credit should go to those who deserve it,” she replied haughtily. Scytale flew close and nipped her arm. Lucy swatted him away. “Don’t bite me.”

He blew her a mental raspberry. “I’m going to fly ahead to check what’s there.”

Left alone for the moment, Lucille used the time to fully absorb the memory of what she had seen and store it in a safe way that wouldn’t induce a migraine every time she remembered it. The other part of her mind was stealthy scanning their surroundings for threats. She had to be careful because stronger enemies would be more sensitive to her soul power.

“Help! I’m stuck! Stuck!”

Her expression twitched when she saw the situation of her bond and she bolted around the bend in the acidic brook, unsheathing both snake swords. Lucille found herself below a massive spider web that her bond had gotten caught in. He was violently thrashing around, trying to dislodge his wings.

“This spider web silk feels so grimy! Ugh, help me get it off, please! I can tell it’ll be stuck in my feathers for the rest of the Stages!”

“..have you ever heard the saying that where there’s smoke, there’s fire?” Lucy asked dryly.

Scytale stopped to squint at her. “Obviously, but what has that got to do with any…” A sudden tremble across the spider web caused his body to stiffen up.

“Yes, well, where there is spider silk…” Lucille pointed up, fixing her gaze on the gargantuan blood-red arachnid tentatively climbing down from the ceiling onto its web. “…there’s a spider.”

The noisy snake’s eyes went wide. “Why do I always have to meet these nasty bugs?! First the Dungeon, now this! Give me a good cockroach to stomp on any day!”

“Arachnids aren’t bugs,” she reminded him.

“I don’t care! Tell me how to get out of this situation!”

“Well…” Lucille looked up and veeery slowly began to back away. The dark eight orbs of the scarlet spider gazed soullessly at both her and the stupid snake caught in its web. “As a general rule, demon beasts prefer to keep their prey alive to the last minute. This is because the bodies of dead demons disappear when they get reformed in another part of the realm. So, it wants to poison you while you’re still alive so it can absorb your demonic power as mundane spiders absorb the liquified bodies of their prey.”

“I’m not a demon! Also, how does that help me?!”

“The only way to get it to ignore you is if you seem dead. Arachnids generally have poor eyesight, so to prevent them from detecting the vibrations from their webs… you need to remain quiet and very, very still.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.

Scytale’s body locked up as harsh spider hairs brushed against him, a leg coming way too close for comfort. His own 30-metre-length body was nothing compared to the monstrosity hovering above him.

“Uh…. What is it-”

Scytale, I said to stay silent. Use the bond if you need to.

“But why the bond-”

Do you want to stop yourself from getting eaten by this thing or not?

He didn’t retort and stayed utterly still and silent.

…until the spider’s mandibles clicked right next to his tail and he yelped at the top of his lungs.

“Ew ew ew! Lucy, I swear I can see saliva dripping from those fangs. It’s going to get on my scales and feather-”

“Scytale you idiot! It’s a demon beast! Its demonic silk can pick up on the spiritual energy of your mental transmission!” Lucille yelled as her eyes went wide.

The spider chattered and hissed right at that moment and spat a globule of thick black sludge at Scytale. The winged snake wriggled with all his might to escape the thick web, until the sharp barb on one of the legs of the spider severed the weakened thread and he tumbled away. He hastily tried to shrug off the silk as the two of them ran – or slithered – away from the angered arachnid.

“It was a mistake to do the stages with you,” Lucy muttered darkly, ducking behind a column of fern-covered stone. The spider chittered angrily and ran up the side of the cavern to get a better vantage point.

Rocks dislodged by the mammoth demon beast began falling from above and they sped off, stones tumbling into the hissing and bubbling river alongside them.

“It was an accident! I never wanted to be caught in that mess!”

“Does it seem like I care? You were too careless!”

“Not as careless as when you tried to use the Shard to- look! The river is coming out of a tunnel!”

Lucy noticed it at the same time as he did and ran towards it. The demon beast above them spotted them making a beeline for the tunnel opening smaller than it could fit through and screeched wildly. It continued crawling across the slowly lowering cavern ceiling.

The demon spider made it to the opening before they did and waited menacingly above the exit, rocks falling all around them.

“We just need to make a break for it,” Lucille said while taking deep breaths. “I’ll use Ouroboros to shield us against its venom, so ignore it and go.”

Scytale narrowed his slitted eyes at the beast above them. “Y’know, I think I’ve got the perfect shot to attack it right now…”

“No, it’s not worth it. We’ve almost made it so let’s just-”

A bolt of light mana shot out and hit the spider right in the middle of its back. The cavern wall rumbled and it fell down… with them right below it.

Lucy’s eyes widened. “Scytale!”

The world faded to white.

…

“Uh… okay, fine. I confess.” Scytale raised his hands in surrender. “I purposely antagonised the spider by yelling. It was a dumb move, I get it. I just thought I felt a little give from the silk and wanted to break it.”

Lucy didn’t remove the hand pressing down on her nose bridge within the endless confines of the System limbo space.

“But how could I have known the exit was right there!” he argued, gesturing with his hands. “If I knew we were so close then I wouldn’t have –”

“Wouldn’t have what, Scytale?” she hissed.

Scytale shut his mouth, his self-preservation instinct – regarding Lucy – very belatedly kicking in.

Lucille took a deep breath to calm herself, and then fixed a bright smile on her face. “One more Stage. One. More. Stage. That’s all we need to do for today! That’s right. I’ll be rid of you after redoing Stage 15 and then taking this last Stage.”

She tapped on Stage 15 and they were whisked away back to the Ancient Daemon Seal room. A small comfort was the pain that Scytale had to go through again to get the fragment.

…

[S.T.A.G.E.S | Stage 16: Propagation of Chaos’s Influence]

Oh poor weak denizens of the other realms, you have unleashed a catastrophe on the Dominion with your actions. For how could ones such as yourselves dare to fracture the vessel of the Ancient Daemon? A being magnitudes more powerful than you carved Stronghold Crystals from Her vessel, but you relied on pure luck.

In the wake of your path, Her fetters have loosened and called Her back to the realm. She will be infuriated to hear of what has been taken from Her. The Stronghold ruler of the Stronghold you have been heading towards has been alerted to the shattering of his crystal, and their forces have been thrown into disarray.

But you have a more immediate problem on your hands. After all, this daemonic paradise under the mountain has only thrived due to Her power. With Her unleashed…

…you must escape before the mountain range collapses on you.

[Collapse]

Main Quest (Rank-2: Demon Realm) Overall Objective:

• Last two weeks while being pursued by forces so that the stolen treasure you carry can be placed on the summoning ritual along with yourselves.

Sub-Objectives – Stage 11:

Compulsory:

• Escape the collapsing mountain range.

[]

[Completion Rate: 50%]

Lucille and Scytale traded glances. Lucy only said one word: “Run.”

Before they had crossed their first ten metres, the land below them began to rumble and they charged up the steep slope whose base they had emerged from. The cave behind them crumbled, forever blocking that path, and the acidic river that flowed into it began to pool, the beginnings of a new lake forming.

The earth below their feet began to rise and crack, forming ridges. Scytale grasped Lucy’s wrist and pulled her over to his side before they were pushed apart. Both of their enhanced AGIs were beyond helpful as they leapt from one shattering rock face to another, landslides forming along the valley walls on either side. It was almost as if the destruction was following them… and them alone.

They continued to run like that for several more minutes, Scytale remaining in his human form to help Lucy when she needed it. Her shirt pocket began to glow and she pulled out the vessel fragment to see the chaotic light emitting from it.

“Is it attracted to the collapsed cavern?” Scytale yelled over the sound of crashing trees and howling demon beasts.

“We need to put some space between us and the cavern, or else we won’t be able to get ahead.” Lucy nodded to her bond and threw him the shard.

Scytale ignored the pain caused by it and put it in his mouth. With a flash of light, he returned to his true form and flew up into the sky, flying at a slightly different angle to attract the destruction away from Lucille.

The collapsing of the valley seemed to stop as other mountains turned into rubble in Scytale’s wake. With the opportunity now available to get to the next zone, she focused on following the path she remembered to the Stronghold, her bond with Scytale an effective beacon for him to meet up with her again.

Ten minutes later she burst through the gates of the Stronghold, to the shouts of surprise of the citizens. As a high-ranked guard marched forward to meet her, she slowed to a stop while breathing heavily and raised the golden cup from her bag into the air.

“I have what your Lord desires,” she finally announced.

___________________________________________________________________________

“Paragon Anomalies…?” Marellen frowned slightly and rubbed his chin. “That sounds faintly familiar… where have I heard that term…”

“Please recall where you heard it, if at all possible,” Vincent requested politely. “It’s important.”

“Let me see…” Marellen tapped on his head with a pen, pacing around the room he had been given for his magical experiments. “Paragon Anomalies… anomalies… scholars like to use that term in the Athenaeum…”

Like lightning had struck him he whirled around and pointed at Vincent with the pen. “Aha! You’re talking about the Realm Rulers!”

Vincent stared at him. “…what.”

“Yes, now I remember!” Marellen crossed his arms and nodded thoughtfully. “Paragon Anomalies is a term I’ve seen recorded in the journals of a few System Scholars. It’s something used by the System and the scholars tried to appeal for the Athenaeum to use that designation, as it’s not correct to call those beings ‘Realm Rulers’ when the Celestial Cardinal Beasts and the World Tree don’t rule their realms. It wasn’t accepted, but System Scholars still use that term today.”

The navy-haired mage blinked when he noticed Vincent’s reaction. “Hm? Is something wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“N-No, everything is fine. Thank you for the information.”

“You’re welcome, but if you don’t mind, could I ask what prompted the quest-”

Vincent shut the door on Marellen and stiffly walked away, not even hearing the young man’s request.

Lucille calls the Realm Rulers… Paragon Anomalies. She was saying she met with a Realm Ruler last year.

He ruminated over that thought for a minute until he firmly put it out of his mind and gave a large nod.

No, some things aren’t worth finding out. This time, I’m willing to live in ignorance. Realm Rulers are above my pay grade.

Content to never bring up the matter of September again, Vincent whistled, not quite realising how much he was imitating Lucy at the moment, and made his way to the Headquarters’ exit, looking forward to a much-needed break in his home, away from the residence of Lucille Adrienne Goldcroft.

~~~~~

My apologies for the terribly late chapter.

Let me release a little info that the last ten chapters will be very... action packed.