Newly Summoned Demoness 2 - Chapter 5 – Through a Storm (Patreon)

The clash of the guard slamming into the mass of protestors erupted into a brutal cacophony of metal, flesh, and bone. Elania didn’t need to pulse her [Power] for enough strength to shove her way through the crowd while Yolani’s grip tightened on her arm.

The screams behind them rose in volume as the mob began to turn away from the guard’s iron-clad formation. The beaten and dead were a scattered mess as the contact line pushed forward, and a smaller force of men dragged them out and away for first-aid or covered them with cloth.

Elania felt her stomach turn. They’d been prepared for the result. Henri had known something was up. Had the magister—

A sharp elbow struck her in the side painfully, but bounced off. She shoved the large man who’d been pushed himself back the way he had come from and pushed through. People were getting hurt just trying to get away, and she had to avoid stomping on someone that had fallen in the stampede.

She reached down and snagged the man’s arm and lifted them back up into the press.

Yolani stuck to her like glue while shouting something at her, but the sound was lost in the crowd.

The narrow street opened up into a wider area and she realized they’d entered the main square. The guards stopped following and locked down the street. All around them, the press of people continued to grow, and she realized that they’d been driven into the area on purpose.

Small detachments of guards along the smaller streets blocked the pathways, while a larger group was passing through people down the main avenue, where Elania suspected they were being directed to return to their homes.

But there were so many people that it would take forever to filter out the innocent from the troublemakers. If it was even possible at all.

In the meantime, on the other side of the square, people were becoming even more agitated, and the scaffolding that had been used for the speeches was smoking; someone had set it aflame.

A sharp panic filled her as she looked upwards but realized that they were fine. The city cavern wasn’t really full of glow-moss, the massive dangling artificed light stones casting their light down to illuminate the chaotic scene.

Yolani’s voice was a thin thread in the storm as they came to a relative stop with the crowd. “Elania, we have to get out of this!”

Annoyance flared through her. That much was obvious! “I know, just stay close!” Elania shouted back, her heart racing as she pointed them toward the main avenue and potential exit.

That escape died as a mob of combative protestors surged forward to attack the guards, allowing people through. Yolani bumped into her back as she came to a halt.

The “What?” died on Yolani’s lips as Elania flipped around and began to push them back the way they had come.

Elania shook her head and continued to shout at people to let them through. The pocket they had been part of was becoming more and more dense and, multiple times, shoving someone who crushed into her or Yolani became necessary.

Finally, she spotted an area that looked promising: a smaller avenue that didn’t seem to have much activity. The area in front of it was one of the rare empty pockets in the square, and a small trickle of people was running for it.

Elania pointed and Yolani nodded, their words lost to the thrum of the crowd and the violence erupting everywhere.

As they broke out the rear of the crowd, there was a breath of relief. They both stopped and caught their breath as others broke away and joined the slowly growing trickle of escaping people. Her heart nearly stopped when she spotted more guards at the end of the street, blocking the path.

Confusion filled her as she spotted some black-robed people guiding people down a ramp and out of view. Black Candle cultists? They weren’t really doing anything cultist-y though. She steadied her breath and quelled her spike of fear. Whether they were part of the cult or not, they didn’t really have any reason to be after her and Yolani now, not in the middle of this.

Wherever the people were going, the guards didn’t seem interested in stopping them. Just beating the crap of anyone that got closer to their blockade. Was their intention to filter through the entire crowd and capture anyone they deemed troublesome, while allowing the innocents out?

There were literally too many people for that to be effective. At least, it seemed like that.

Yolani’s gaze found hers, a concerned look on her face. Elania shrugged back. “Let’s look?”

“Might as well look!” Yolani shouted back.

They passed a few of the robbed figures without comment. Elania peered down the ramp and came to a halt. A fleeing person ran right past her and Yolani without hesitating.

It was an entry door that she recognized well: it was one of the heavy metal sewer access doors. It had been jammed open by a bar of metal stuck in the hinges. The smell wafted up at them and her stomach did a twist.

“We can’t go down there,” Elania said, her voice a strained whisper as she turned to Yolani.

Yolani’s face was pale, her eyes wide as she scanned the options before them. “I don’t like it either, but do you see another way out?”

Elania’s mind raced through the memories of their last foray into the sewers. It had been a nightmare of filth, danger, and… nastiness. It didn’t help that she’d been in her [Darkwalker] form for the most of it. She’d sworn never to return, but now…

Looking back at the square, the violence seemed to be reaching a fever pitch. Elania took Yolani’s hand. They scurried down into the filth, with the rest of the people escaping the riot.

The stench hit first, a sickening miasma of waste and decay. The stones were slick with moisture and grime, but it wasn’t exactly dark: her [Darkvision] made sure of that.

Elania raised her hand and pulsed a bit of [Power] into her palm to create a light anyway.

A simple gesture and the orb floated up above her head. That was one thing that Yolani had helped her practice, and she was grateful that she’d taken the time to learn to manipulate the low level of energy away from her body—stably.

There had been plenty of times she’d forced energy externally in a demonstratably unstable way, usually in combat with lethal or violent results.

The noise from the riot muffled almost immediately as soon as they were through the heavy door’s threshold.

Yolani shot her an appreciative glance. “Thanks. The light wand would work, but saving power on the crystal is probably more efficient.”

They joined a thin stream of humanity. Dim sticks placed periodically provided light for the rest of them, but a small huddle of people slowly coalesced around Elania’s raised hand. People who had possibly come back to guide the rest were stationed at intersections and urged them forward to safety.

A prickle of unhappiness hit her. “We could have just climbed up a building!” Elania hissed.

Yolani shot her a frown, then shook her head. “Too late for that now, but you’re right. I wasn’t thinking.”

One of the guides was wearing a black robe and alarm bells suddenly started going off in Elania’s head. It was suspicious as hell that people were being directed by people she could only regard as Cultists. All of them showing up at once during the riot made little sense.

Unless they were involved in starting it?

“I don’t like this,” Elania whispered to her friend.

Yolani nodded and loosened a wand on her belt. That was smart, and Elania mentally prepared herself for some kind of fight.

When the sewer way opened up into one of the larger causeways, they both stopped in their tracks. Hundreds of people were milling about, some injured were being tended to by people in black robes. Dozens of the cultists mingled talking with people, and others led groups away down the main line.

One cultist stepped forward to address the small crowd that had formed around Elania’s light.

“If you are injured, please cross to the other side and a healer will tend to you! If you just want to get out of here, please move to the side and wait in a group! A guide will be here soon to take you up to a safe exit point near the center of the Mercenary District!”

Hesitation gripped Elania as she stood in the sewer's dimness, the dreary environment punctuated by the echoes of retreating footsteps and the slowly running water. The stench of refuse was a stark contrast to the seemingly altruistic acts being carried out by the black-robed figures she had no intention of trusting.

Yolani’s grip on her wand was a mirror to Elania’s own unease. The sewers weren’t known to be a safe or pleasant place, and Elania’s eyes widened when she spotted a few tin metal shacks making up a sewer shanty in the distance. They were at a junction that was like the one where Tessa had butchered the unfortunate inhabitants from the mercenary district.

If not the same one, she couldn’t be sure that someone hadn’t just set the buildings up again after the demoness had flattened it and ate everyone.

“They’re helping,” Yolani murmured, her voice tinged with uncertainty. “What’s their angle?”

Elania shook her head, her thoughts mirroring Yolani’s skepticism. “I don’t trust this. Not one bit.”

Yolani pointed across the waterway to where a cultist was using some type of magic to heal someone’s broken leg. “That’s a holy-healing spell. I know that one requires a high karma. We should be careful.”

It was a pretty broken system, in Elania’s opinion, that high or low karma was an indicator that a person was bad.

Positive karma still meant you had to kill someone with negative karma. Even if the ‘karma slave-pens’ were banned in Neftasu, that didn’t mean people didn’t farm it for some of their skill requirements.

It brought her adventure to reach the city with the ‘holy’ monks in a new light. They probably executed people to get their karma high enough to use them.

A guide arrived and began to lead the crowd that had followed them down the sewer avenue. Elania shared a look with Yolani. “Should we go with them?”

Yolani bit her lip and looked between the cultists across the water and the retreating group, gauging things before answering. “I think we should find out more.”

Their deliberation was cut short by a pair of cultists approaching them. Elania’s entire body tensed up into a coil waiting to spring, but all she saw was concern etched into the man and woman’s faces.

“Are you hurt? Do you need assistance?” the man asked, glancing between Elania and Yolani.

Elania straightened her stance, her eyes shimmering with a golden hue. “What are you doing here? Why are you helping these people?” she demanded.

The cultists shared a confused look, clearly taken aback by her accusatory tone. “We’re just here to help,” the woman replied, her tone genuine. “There’s no ulterior motive.”

Elania and Yolani shared a loaded glance, and Elania fought with her incredulity. “Are you part of the Black Candle?”

A smile appeared on the man’s face. “So you’ve heard of us. You can understand why we want to help everyone. It’s part of our mission.”

The possibility that the cultists were simply aiding those in need wasn’t completely insane. Maybe they were trying to gain favor with the common people to gain power somehow? Whatever it was, she wasn’t buying the ‘no motive’ business.

Another brief, wordless communication ran between her and Yolani. The other girl nodding slightly.

With a deep breath, Elania faced the cultists once more, her resolve hardening. “Take us to your leader,” she commanded. “We want answers.”

A flicker of anger ran across the man’s face. “Who are you to demand—”

The woman put her hand on his shoulder, and he went silent. She smiled at Elania and Yolani, the friendly expression never wavering. “Of course. We can take you to the master. He’s here right now.”

“Ralei, we can’t just—”

“Shush, Fink. We can. We are here to help people after all, and I’m sure Darius wouldn’t mind talking to them,” she continued.

He gave her a sour look but didn’t seem ready to argue any further. “Come. It’s not far,” he said.

Elania let Yolani take the rear, while she tightened the grip on her [Power], ready for whatever awaited them in the murk.