Chapter 12: What Can I Believe In?

Chapter 12:
What Can I Believe In?

 

“THINK YOU CAN walk, Sara?”

“I think… Yeah, I got this.”

Flum grasped Sara’s hand tightly and pulled the younger girl up to her feet. They were a rather pitiful sight, their clothes ragged, stumbling from exhaustion. Flum wondered if they should have rested longer, but she also wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

The hallways were covered in debris, rendered completely impassable in places due to sections of the ceiling caving in. Fortunately, the girls didn’t encounter any enemies as they searched for alternative routes through the complex. Even the haunting voices calling for help had gone silent. The corpses once propped up to serve as traps lay discarded in the hallway, devoid of life. Gruesome holes had replaced the spiraling organs that had once inhabited their faces.

Flum grabbed Sara’s hand, helping pull her up and over a pile of collapsed debris. As Sara clambered down, her foot snagged on something, and she tripped forward into Flum’s arms.

“Waugh!!”

“Whoa, hey… Watch your step, huh?” Flum patted the top of Sara’s head affectionately.

“Sorry…” Sara glanced down shyly. “But y’know, if we’d run instead of staying to fight, we’d probably be dead by now.”

“Probably? Definitely. I just want to know who’d create something so insane…”

After killing the ogre, Flum had picked up the shattered crystal left in its place and put it in her rucksack for safe keeping. She’d dropped the bag at some point during her battle with the ogre, but fortunately found it again after all was said and done. Sadly, the homemade lunch Milkit made for the two of them hadn’t survived the ordeal. They’d eaten what they could salvage, at least, so hopefully Milkit would forgive them for letting her culinary efforts go to waste.

They finally passed through the area where they had fallen into the faceless woman’s trap, entering a still-unexplored part of the complex. Up ahead, they found a room filled with several massive, cylindrical glass cases, a library full of empty shelves, and a break room with sofas and beds.

Every time they opened a door, Flum hoped it would be the one to lead outside, but so far she’d been disappointed. She felt her heart sink further and further with each wrong turn. The more defeated she felt, the heavier her badly-beaten body seemed to grow.

But still, she persisted.

“Hey, that kinda looks like an exit, yeah?” Sara pointed at something off in the distance.

It looked like an entrance to the facility, actually. The design was completely different from anything they’d seen thus far. The two girls exchanged looks and smiled before jogging excitedly toward the doors, which were dense and felt like they were made of solid metal.

Flum pushed them open. On the other side was a long stairwell leading up to a hatch. Once they made it to the top and slid the bolt holding it closed, Flum lifted the hatch.

“Finally!!!”

The glorious orange rays of the setting sun shone down on her face. She instinctively brought her arm up to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight, but it did little to wipe the smile from her lips.

Once they climbed through the hatch, the girls found themselves right in the midst of the grotto where they had first encountered the bizarre ogre. The dense underbrush had served as the perfect camouflage for the hatch entrance. Though she knew logically that only a few hours had passed since she’d been here last, breathing fresh air again was so invigorating that Flum could have been persuaded they’d spent several days underground.

She threw her hands in the air and let out a luxurious sigh, stretching her body in the glow of the sun. Sara quickly climbed up after her and went through the same motions.

“Aaah, now we can finally get on headin’ home!”

Flum shared the younger girl’s excitement, but she seemed to be forgetting one important detail. “Unfortunately, we still have another challenge to contend with, remember?”

“A…challenge? Oh…oh! Right, that!”

Sara visibly slumped as she looked back over at the collapsed rocks blocking their way out of the cave. After all they’d been through with the ogre, she’d forgotten about what Dein’s underlings had done.

Flum puffed her cheeks out. “If those jerks ever show their faces again, I’ll show them what for!”

“Hey, Flum, think you can use that Cavalier Arts thing on it?”

“I can give it a shot, but I’m kinda worried I only have one good swipe left in me. Besides, wouldn’t a mace be better suited to smashing rocks?”

“No way, I’m totally spent.”

“Then I guess we’re just gonna have to do it the old-fashioned way.”

It’d be tough going but doable without a monster chasing them around. Flum and Sara made their way over toward the collapsed entrance and grabbed the nearest rock.

Two ordinary girls could never have moved something that size. But Flum and Sara were an adventurer and a battle-hardened nun, and they were probably stronger than many grown men. Together, they hefted the rock up and moved it out of the way before dropping it to the ground with a thud.

Flum wiped the sweat from her brow before moving on to the next stone. Sara, meanwhile, wrapped her arms around a rock as wide around as her own torso. However, before she could heft it up, something caught Flum’s attention.

Just across from the entrance, something stood in the middle of a patch of green between a stand of trees.

Bjwooop, bjwoop.

Their eyes met. Or would have, had the other party had an eye. In any case, it was clear that Flum had been noticed.

The spiral-shaped organ began to spew blood in excitement at catching sight of its prey.

“No way…”

Sara cocked her head to the side. “Hey, Flum, what’re you do…ing…”

She caught sight of what Flum was looking at mid-sentence and froze.

One question kept running through Flum’s mind: how?

She remembered the shattered glass cases they had seen on their way through the facility. Had there been more than one of those things? And…had the one they encountered underground actually been a completely different individual from the one they’d originally met in the clearing?

“I don’t believe this… Just how many of those things are there??”

Flum retreated until she felt cool stone press against her back. She could move no further. They had managed to make a small hole in the rock pile, but it wasn’t anywhere near big enough to fit through.

If she hadn’t used up all her endurance, she could take this second ogre out with the Cavalier Arts. But she knew she just didn’t have the strength left. They could run and try to find a place to hide while she rested, but it was very unlikely they’d be able to evade the thing for that long.

Basically, they were as good as dead.

“I’m sorry, Milkit.”

Even as Flum made peace with the fact that she was going to die, she intended to fight to the bitter end. Her only regret was that she wouldn’t be able to make good on her promise to return to Milkit’s side.

She stuck out her hand and summoned forth the Souleater. She grasped the handle tight and gave the sword a few practice swings before pointing its tip right at her opponent.

Sara also raised her mace, ready for battle.

The vortex in the middle of the ogre’s face spun almost cheerfully, sputtering blood onto the ground before them. The creature slowly, casually even, approached the two girls with its arms still dangling at its side, like a child on a picnic, heading back over to the blanket for a snack. It seemed quite pleased to find that its prey had returned.

Once it stood just beyond the Souleater’s reach, it stopped and looked down at her, eyeing its prey, gauging how much of a fight they could put up. Its victory was practically assured. It raised its fist to strike.

“Run, Sara!!”

“We’re not gonna lose this one, Flum!”

They stood their ground in defiance.

But before the ogre’s blow could land, Flum suddenly caught sight of a woman stepping out from the bushes. She looked like she was in her twenties, with blue skin and dark blue hair, dressed in rather revealing attire.

The woman moved her fingers through the air as if she were playing an invisible harp. Her rouged lips curled up into a smile.

“Crimson Sphere.”

A turquoise ball made completely of air appeared before her, then bounced toward the ogre and struck it from behind. The sphere grew until it was about three meters across, completely enveloping the ogre. Countless blades of wind swooped in from every direction, cutting through the ogre like sharpened scythes. With nowhere to run, the creature feebly threw its arms up to protect itself, only to have them chopped to shreds. Its head, legs, and torso followed shortly thereafter.

Much like the one they’d encountered underground, each gash in its skin led to the formation of yet another vortex which quickly stopped the bleeding before hardening into a protective layer. But it was no match for such powerful magic, which continued to slice and dice the ogre’s body before the wound could even finished hardening.

True to the attack’s name, the sphere enveloping the ogre was now painted with dark red blood. All Flum and Sara could do was stand there and watch, dumbfounded, as something they’d fought tooth and nail against was taken down so easily.

The winds slowly died down, and piece by piece, the chunks of what had once been the ogre dropped to the ground with a series of wet thuds. The black crystal that once inhabited its core sat amidst a puddle of blood.

The woman scowled and plucked up the crystal. After using another blast of wind magic to blow the blood off it, she brought it to eye level and inspected it closely.

“Gah. I can’t believe humans would actually create something like this. It’s quite strange, don’t you think, Flum?”

“M-my…”

“Are you meowing now? Aw, are you a cat?” The woman pulled her hands up in front of her bountiful chest and curled her fingers in like cat paws.

Flum was at a complete loss for words. Meanwhile, a look of hatred greater than anything she’d shown the ogre washed over Sara’s face as she faced the demon.

“Oh, and who are you?” the demon mused. “You’re a cute little thing, aren’t you? Would you happen to be one of the sisters of Origin?”

“Don’t call me cute, you murderer! You make my skin crawl!!”

The blue-skinned woman’s shoulders slumped at Sara’s anger. “It’s the same thing every time, isn’t it? First that Maria girl, now you.”

“Of course she hates you! You bastards took our homes and everyone that was important to us! The only thing that can answer my hatred, my anger, is your death!”

Sara looked on the verge of lunging in to strike at the woman, but Flum quickly stepped up to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, Sara. Please.”

“Calm down? Calm down?? She’s a demon! All demons do is…”

“Just…listen. Try scanning her real quick.”

Sara huffed a bit before turning to cast Scan on the woman.

 

Neigass

Affinity: Blood; Wind

Strength: 3596

Magic: 15997

Endurance: 2479

Agility: 3698

Perception: 7854

 

Flum could see the lump forming in Sara’s throat as she looked over those numbers. It was the same feeling she’d had earlier.

Sara let her mace drop to the ground, defeated. Neigass shot Flum a thumbs up and smiled. It was awkward, to say the least, given that Flum’s only previous interactions with Neigass had been on the field of battle.

“So now that you’ve calmed down, mind if we have a chat?” Neigass proposed.

Sara didn’t look completely convinced, but she seemed to at least be willing to listen.

“Very well, then. I think some introductions are in order, don’t you? I’ll start. My name is Neigass, my affinities are wind and blood, which gives me power over darkness, and I’m a lot older than most humans. I’m also one of the Demon Chiefs, whom I’m sure you’ve heard of, and yes, of course, I’m a demon. But I think you already knew that.”

Flum and Sara stared back in silence, unresponsive.

Neigass puffed out her cheeks at this.

“What’s with you two?? I just introduced myself, so I think it’d only be polite if Sara here… Whoa, hey, don’t glare at me like that! Didn’t your parents teach you any manners, kid?”

“Why should I introduce myself to the likes of you?? If you’re so strong, why don’t you just kill us now and get it over with?!”

“Like I said, I’m a deeeeemon, all right? I don’t kill people.”

The words flowed from her lips as if it were a well-known fact. This set Sara off like a struck match.

“Don’t play us for fools! You’ve killed countless people and robbed even more of their homes!!”

“Oh, and you’ve seen that with your own eyes?”

This made Sara pause for a moment. “I, well…not exactly. But…but the church took me in and told me that’s what happened!”

“Hmm now, just hear me out. You’re standing in the middle of this vast facility in the middle of nowhere, doing god-knows-what, and you still believe everything the church tells you?” Neigass held up the black crystal as she spoke.

“Hmmph…” Sara had no response to that.

Flum, on the other hand, was stuck on something else. “What makes you say the church had a hand in creating this place?”

“You didn’t notice?” Neigass queried. “Honestly, I didn’t go all the way inside, but the church’s symbol was a pretty good clue. You’d think Sara would have picked up on it, hmm?”

Sara looked down and bit her lip.

After a brief moment of hesitation, she said, “I did notice the intertwined rings that serve as the mark of Origin. I’ve had this really bad feeling ever since. Also, that researcher’s notes were sayin’ a lot about knowledge, wisdom, and other phrasing used by the church. It reminded me of a lot of the religious texts I’ve read. After a bit, I started to think it might really be an Origin facility, but I didn’t want to believe it…”

“So the church is experimenting on people…and now a demon’s here,” Flum said, stunned. “What were they doing here?”

“We don’t exactly look fondly on the kinds of things they were researching, so when I found out this place existed, I came to give it a look.”

Which suggested that whatever the church was researching would have been bad news for the demons. This wasn’t surprising, in and of itself. Both church and government considered the demons their mortal enemies, and this research had likely been established as part of their ongoing quest to destroy them.

Performing experiments on humans, however, was an entirely different kettle of fish. The strange vortexes were massively powerful, sure, but Flum couldn’t bring herself to make peace with the thought of experimenting on people, even if the result could be used to slay the demons.

“But that’s enough from me. What brings you here, Flum? I haven’t seen you with the rest of the party lately. And…hey, isn’t that thing on your cheek the mark of a slave?”

“Well, umm…” Flum hesitated.

Sara looked over at Flum in surprise. “Flum… You’re not Flum Apricot the hero, are you?”

“I guess you could say that. But I wasn’t much use to the party, so they kicked me out and sold me off as a slave. That’s how I ended up here.”

“That’s terrible!”

“Oh, wow, that’s bad…”

Both the other people present seemed surprised to hear this, though their reactions were quite different: Sara was scowling, while Neigass simply smirked.

“Putting that aside for the moment,” the demon said, “that still doesn’t tell me what you’re doing here. It doesn’t seem like you’re here to investigate the facility.”

Sara sighed. “We, uh, we came here on a job to pick up some herbs.”

“Oh, now that’s interesting. Doesn’t the church outlaw the use of herbs?”

“Illegal or not, this person is suffering, and herbal medicine is the only thing that can help them!”

The demon clasped her hands in front of her chest, her eyes twinkling. “Aww, Flum, this is a really sweet girl you’ve got here!”

“Yeah, she’s a good kid.” Flum didn’t know how to react to Neigass’s sudden friendliness, though she didn’t appear to be lying. At the very least, she wasn’t detecting any malice behind her smile or her rank demeanor.

“Ah, well, it all makes sense now. So you were attacked by these awful experiments while you were hunting for herbs and accidentally ended up in the facility? And then, just as you were about to meet an awful end, this lovely lady here came and saved you both!”

“Well, Flum killed the first one…” Sara said.

Neigass was visibly surprised. “You killed one of those things?!”

“So did you, ya know?”

“Well, yes, but my magic is pretty powerful. Flum… Well, not so much. Last time I fought the party, you were just a little country bumpkin hanging out on the sidelines. How did you take down something like that?”

“It’s all kind of a blur, to be honest.” The memories were starting to collapse into each other. Flum remembered a lot of yelling, and fighting fiercely. “I mean, I stabbed it really hard and shattered this crystal thing that was stuck inside it. Then it just…kinda…stopped moving.”

Neigass’s expression abruptly grew more serious. “You broke the core?”

She approached Flum and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Do you have it with you??”

“I do, yes.”

Flum reached into her bag and handed the crystal over to Neigass. The demon woman held it up to her face and inspected it closely.

“Hmm, seems like it’s broken. But how? Wait…that’s impossible.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. Hey, do you mind if I keep this broken core?”

Given the choice, Flum would have liked to take the crystal with her so she could have someone take a look at it. But if this facility had been built by the church, the government was almost certainly involved, and so no matter where she took it, it would wind up snatched from her hands and made to disappear. Practically speaking, a demon was probably the only person she could trust it with.

“Sure. I have no use for it.”

“Thank you,” Neigass said. “This will be very helpful.”

Flum wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“Come to think of it, we still haven’t found the herbs,” Sara volunteered.

“I was thinking we could get started on that once we cleared the rocks blocking the exit.”

“Hmm? Now that you mention it, why is the cave blocked off?”

“Let’s just say there were some jerks who have it out for us.”

“Sounds like you two have had a pretty eventful day. Let me take care of that for you. Erosion!”

With a fanciful wave of her hand, Neigass launched a spell at the rockslide blocking their way. A burst of black wind materialized from thin air and enveloped the debris, slowly grinding it to dust and chips until nothing remained.

“Listen, if any other monsters show up, I’ll take care of them for you. You girls just focus on hurrying up and finding those herbs.”

Sara looked puzzled. “But why would you help us?”

Neigass smiled back warmly.

“I know it’s still hard for you to trust me, but our needs are in line with each other. I figured it couldn’t hurt.”

“C’mon, Sara,” Flum said. “Let’s hurry up and get this over with.”

“Gotcha!”

The girls quickly went about gathering all the kialahri they could find, plus several other herbs they happened across along the way. It felt strange to have a demon watching their backs, but Neigass even escorted them all the way back to the cave’s entrance, swiftly dispatching any monsters they ran into along the way.

As they said goodbye to their unexpected companion, Flum had one final question. “Hey, Neigass?”

“What is it, honey?”

“Is it true that demons don’t kill humans?”

“Well, I can’t speak in absolutes. There were casualties during the war, when the humans invaded our territory, of course. But we are sworn to not kill people merely for our own benefit or enjoyment.”

“Swore? To who?”

Neigass put a finger to her lips in thought. “Hmm, now that’s a tough question.”

She turned her smile at Sara.

“We don’t believe in anything like a god, per se. But we make that promise to everyone we meet, including you, Sara.”

“I…see.”

Sara neither rejected nor accepted Neigass’s claims but turned to leave instead. That was fair enough. She’d spent the past eight years of her life hating demons, and those lessons weren’t going to unlearn themselves anytime soon. The fact that they’d been able to have this civil a conversation was impressive in and of itself.

With their goodbyes out of the way, Neigass turned around and made her way back into the cave.

 

***

 

Using the dim light cast by their lanterns, Flum and Sara picked their way through the forest on their way back to town. Insects chirped in the distance like a chorus of tiny bells, giving their journey a rather melancholy feel.

Sara remained quiet as they walked, her face clouded over with a complicated expression. Flum decided to leave her travel companion to her thoughts for the first half of the trip, before finally speaking up.

“That was a lot to take in. I’m still not sure I understand all of it.”

“Me too. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Think that really was a church facility?”

“If even a nun like myself could cotton on to it, the senior priests must’ve noticed that the church is hiding something.”

“The church would take a pretty big hit to its reputation if it got out that they were performing experiments on humans.”

“Definitely. I’m sure they wanna keep this hush-hush, whatever the cost.”

Which might extend to getting rid of the two of them, Flum thought. “We should probably keep this to ourselves, then.”

Sara nodded in agreement but said nothing further. As a nun, this had to be much harder for her to swallow than it was for Flum, but it was easy to imagine the terrible things that awaited her if she ever breathed word of it to anyone.

No matter how much she racked her brains, Flum kept coming to the same conclusion: their best bet was to hold their tongues and keep mum. No point thinking about it any further, then. For now, she just wanted to get back to Milkit and sleep the sleep of the dead.

The two continued their silent march on toward Anichidey.