Unborn Hero Chapter 72: Upgrades (Patreon)

Last weekend, I finally replaced my ancient 8-year-old desktop. On the bright side, I now have a boot/application drive that's bigger than 256GB. On the downside, everything has changed! Why is libreoffice saving in utf8 now rather than ascii, with &xxx; entities for anything outside of the 7-bit range? (Which, I suppose, also makes it valid utf-8...) Why can't windows keep a consistant user interface for more than two seconds straight? Why do amazon music's 'this is the song I'm playing' notifications stick around forever now, rather than only lasting a few seconds when the song starts like they used to. (Or the more sensible option of lasting as long as the song does...)

Of course, the other, more serious, downside is that I now have a graphics card capable of doing justice to the new monitor I got when my last one broke. Much of my writing time is thus likely to be spent replaying my games catalogue with the graphics dials turned up to 11. And this is why I keep an extensive backlog... >.>

"We had them right there!" spat a particularly grotesque demon, naked with grey skin, long bowed limbs and a distended belly. His head flopped back and forth, as if his neck completely lacked any musculature. "You should have chopped off their heads, but no. You insisted on letting them live."

"The strategy was sound," replied Xander calmly. "Only the implementation failed. Dreobeth demanded we keep all five alive, when we needed only the pink one. We will not make that mistake again."

"She will kill herself if you kill her husband," pointed out Dreobeth, who now was just plain depressed. He'd successfully talked the others into a plan that, to demons, was so crazy as to be akin to declaring the sky was green. And it had come so close to working. If only he hadn't needed to leave the prisoners alone to mollify his damn imbecilic lord. If only the other arch-demons hadn't declared guard duty beneath them. Even if it had only been for a few days, to ensure their 'guests' settled into their new lives, it would have prevented the escape. It wasn't his fault the plan had failed, but, of course, everyone was blaming him anyway.

"So you keep claiming. I find this unlikely. All party members of the [Hero] are exceptionally strong willed."

"It's the strong will that's the problem!" exclaimed an exasperated Dreobeth. How many times had he tried to explain this? Why could the others not grasp the concept of self-sacrifice? It wasn't as if they didn't understand that the party members of past heroes would sometimes take blows for each other, occasionally at the cost of their lives, but the thought that someone would kill themselves to allow the birth of a future [Hero] that didn't even exist yet was simply not something they seemed able to conceive of.

If they captured Kellela alone, there were certainly more drastic measures that could be taken. Collar her, remove her limbs, remove her tongue. Keep her perpetually drugged with something that clouded her consciousness. Move her outside of the forest to prevent her succumbing to the miasma. They could keep her alive until the [Hero] was born without an issue.

But Kellela had never been the problem. Her unborn child could use [Astral Projection], a skill that was infamous for the dangers to the user even among the skill-less demons. Could the mind of someone who was more soul than body be manipulated by drugs? Was there anything that would prevent the [Hero] from flying off and just... not coming back? Mystery was more than capable of committing suicide without the aid of Kellela, and he could think of no way to stop her. Keeping her parents around and intact was the best option he could conceive of.

And now he knew it would never happen. With his perceived failure, convincing his brethren a second time would be impossible.

There was only one gamble he had left. He still had no idea what would happen to the [Hero] if her mother suffered miasma poisoning before the birth, but his last hope was that it would result in something that let him salvage the situation. The perfect outcome would be the birth of a demonic [Hero]. Enough of a [Hero] to prevent the birth of another, but enough of a demon to place him under the control of their idiot master. It seemed unlikely, but it was the best he had. At least the outcome wouldn't be worse than simply killing her outright.

"Keep sending in the runts," ordered Xander. "Tire them. Drain them. Take the pink one alive if possible, but do not let them reach our master."

The skull turned towards the evil fairy, eyes glowing red. "Unless our colleague has any objections," he added.

"No. Carry on," sighed Dreobeth. "And once we're ready for phase two, I will, of course, be accompanying you."

"Yes, you will," agreed Xander, making it clear he hadn't intended to give Dreobeth any choice in the matter.

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Rose fell to her knees, having successfully fought off the latest greater demon. "Can't keep... this up..." she panted.

"Grace, how's your mana?" called Hayedalf.

"About a third!"

"Mystery? Any idea how much further we have to go?"

"... No..."

"It could be two minutes away or two days," sighed Rrillandral.

"We'll need to take a gamble. Let's just run for it," suggested Kellela, grabbing Rose and lifting her.

"Eep!" exclaimed Rose.

"Take the opportunity to get your breath back," said Kellela.

"... Another..." warned Mystery, firing a small indicator [Fireball] between a pair of trees, where a large, chitinous demon swatted it out of the air with a casual backhand.

"Ignore him and keep running," shouted Rrillandral, summoning vines to tangle up the newcomer's ankles.

The group sprinted past, ignoring the demon.

"Was it just me, or did he look relieved?" asked Rose, who had more leeway to notice that sort of thing, given that she wasn't concentrating on running. "He certainly didn't try too hard to break out of your vines."

"Of course... If they were forced into taking part in this..." muttered Rrillandral. "Dammit. I should have thought to take advantage of that earlier!"

"Too late now. Keep running and don't stop for..." started Kellela, before Mystery interrupted.

"... Stop...! Dodge...!"

ding
For beating your personal best for psychic volume, [Telepathy] advances to level 19.

Having got the hang of reacting to Mystery's warnings, the group moved as one, jamming their feet into the soil and twisting, diverting their forward momentum as they leapt to the side.

The patch of soil in front of them, which had been flickering in browns and oranges to Mystery's [Sense Sound], flashed a brighter red as the soil erupted, a giant worm bursting out from beneath them.

It didn't escape the notice of the group that had they not dodged, it would have come out directly beneath Grace.

It continued upwards, its momentum taking its full length out of the ground, before it curved and landed head first, digging its way back under. A swarm of familiar moths emerged from the first hole.

"No... not again..." mumbled Grace, eyes wide with fear. The continuous running battle had started before Hayedalf had finished their replacement protective items.

"No. Not again," agreed Kellela, in her case her eyes narrowing with anger as she held Rose tightly to her chest. "Never again will we be at the mercy of evil. Never again will I fail to protect those in my care. Mother's embrace!"

She shone with a warm pink light which detached and spread to the four others.

"What was that?"

"Not sure... The words just came out on their own," admitted Kellela. "I think it's defensive magic that protects against abnormal status conditions."

"Good timing!"

"Why's everyone else getting cool new powers when I'm supposed to be the first?" whined Rose. "Sword rain!"

The flock of midnight moths didn't survive, bursting apart into clouds of dust which completely failed to affect the girls.

"At least that one doesn't shove me out of the way," thought Mystery. "I agree with Rose, though. That's two in quick succession. Is it because of our situation? Oh, maybe it has something to do with that 'milestone reached' message?"

ding
Maybe it does. [Investigation] advances to level 7.

"Wish you had that ability earlier," sighed Grace, calming down a little. She wasn't entirely certain why she'd reacted so badly to the moths. Of the group, wasn't she the one who had got off most lightly? Her mana and powers left intact? Yes, there had been the tentacle incident, but that kraken would never bother a maiden again.

Then the memories of needing to cut Rose free resurfaced, and she almost missed her footing. Rose, whose fingers were still raw and bloodied, the skin and some muscle still not having grown back completely. How much pain was she in, fighting in that condition?

Grace agreed with Kellela. Never again.

"You can put me down now," commented the aforementioned Rose, still in Kellela's arms.

"... More demons..." warned Mystery as three at once swerved around trees towards the group, all from the front, but at different angles.

"They're trying to block us. We can't evade them and keep running towards the demon lord!"

"... Monsters behind..." added Mystery, spotting a couple of ogres moving between the trees. "... Above...!" she added in a hurry, spotting another ghost leopard.

"Grace, Hayedalf, demons! Rose, ogres!" shouted Kellela as she blocked the ghost leopard with heart shield, tossing the monster towards Rrillandral. Vines sprouted from the ground, wrapping around the transparent monster, but it continued to struggle.

"Just die already," exclaimed an uncharacteristically angry Rrillandral, and foot-long thorns burst out of the vines, along their full lengths. The monster whimpered as its blood drained onto the forest floor, its struggles growing weaker until they stopped completely.

"Sword rain!" shouted Rose, summoning a rain of blades that pierced through one ogre. She dealt with the second by hand, dodging a swing of its rudimentary but heavy club and slicing deeply into a leg. The ogre crumpled sideways, and she stabbed her rapier through its ear, then tore upwards, cleaving the monster's skull. "To think my swords used to shatter the moment I tried to attack anything with them," she added as she ran back to the others.

"Purification wave!" shouted Grace, blasting all three demons. They screamed and sizzled, but clung to life. One was engulfed by a handful of enchanted soil, each grain exploding on contact, blasting chunks of flesh off the demon. A second was grabbed by more vines, thorns digging into its legs.

Another pained hiss came from further away as Grace's attack rolled into the distance.

"... Tree...!" warned Mystery, again shooting a small [Fireball] as an indicator.

High up in the branches of a distant tree was another demon. Something in its hands glinted, and Grace gasped with pain, blood splattering the soil behind her. The surprise attack distracted her from the third demon, who took the opportunity to aim a spear jab at her heart.

One of Kellela's shields sprung into existence between the two, carefully angled to deflect the spear rather than blocking it, Kellela having learnt a bit about effective combat over her time as Lotus Pink.

Grace burst with power again, frying the spear demon and stunning their ranged attacker. Rose followed up with sword rain, and the demon fell from the tree.

"Keep going!" shouted Kellela.

"I... I... can't," said Grace, stumbling as she tried to repair the hole in her shoulder, her precious blood still flowing from it. "No more... mana..."

Kellela caught her as she fell, the efforts of trying to cast [Heal] with insufficient mana having left Grace teetering on the edge of unconsciousness.

"... Demons... All around...!" warned Mystery, watching as more of them poured between the trees.

They looked far happier than the earlier sacrificial pawns, grinning wickedly at the helpless Grace.

"Rrillandral?" sighed Rose. "Looks like it's over. Let's just hope we're close enough to the egg for it to get caught up in the destruction."

"Not yet," snapped Hayedalf. "Not ever. As long as we never give up, we can't lose."

"Yes, I know that's what Mystery says about magical girls, but..." started Rose, before realising Hayedalf wasn't speaking to her.

"If you think the likes of you can overcome our bonds of friendship and love, you who understand none of it, you stand to be sorely disappointed."

The demons laughed harder.

"Recharge," declared Hayedalf. His mana dropped. Grace's mana rose.

Grace's eyes snapped fully open.

The demons stopped laughing.

"Fear not, you poor creatures who were created to be incapable of comprehending that which grants us our power, for I shall purge your corruption and free you from the hatred that consumes you. Purification wave!"

Grace burst with the strongest white light she had managed thus far, surrounding the party with the sounds of screams and the stench of burning flesh, a hundred demons wiped out with a single spell.

ding
For aiding your pupil in the slaying of an entire horde of demons in a single blow, [Magical Girl Transformation] advances to level 29.

"Wow. Three levels in one go!" thought Mystery, but given the number of demons dropping dead around her, she didn't feel it was undeserved.

"Seriously?!" complained Rose. "Even Hayedalf? He doesn't even have a new occupation! Please tell me that thorn thing wasn't a new ability, too, Rrillandral. I can't be the only one without a cool new ability!"

"Maybe it's because you gave up?" suggested Rrillandral. "As far as I understand, that was not very magical girl-like behaviour."

"That wasn't 'giving up', it was 'winning at the cost of my life'."

"If it's all the same to you, I would rather win and keep my life."

"Dear? What's wrong?" asked Kellela, peering at the furiously blushing Hayedalf. Alas for him, in his magical girl form, he was less adept at hiding his emotions.

Rose peered suspiciously. "You do! You do have a new occupation! Spill! I want to know what it is!"

"... [Magical Enchantress]," he admitted.

Rose burst out laughing.