Chapter 76

Beatrice’s claws went into the tentacle demon’s inner flesh like butter.

An agonizing cry of a mutated whale getting torn to shreds by sharks reverberated through the mines. The open maw that was meant for enwrapping a prey for devious purposes was not designed to be pierced by weapons sharp enough to slice the demon’s tentacles.

The circular walls of flesh of the mushy opening moved to collapse on Beatrice, but she did not waste a second in cutting, slicing, and dicing the surrounding flesh until she was waist-up in the demon’s sticky purple liquid. What flesh did manage close over the succubus (instead of collapsing sideways like the other walls) Beatrice simply tore right through, continuing to exacerbate the demon’s wound.

The demon’s cries grew louder and more unpleasant. It thrashed, its body swayed, and the demon helplessly ran back and forth around the arena, woefully unprepared for the agony it was inflicted, as if a dentist started drilling into the deepest cavity all the way to the nerves and through them, into the jawbone and without anesthetic, the demon lost control of its motor functions and many of the tentacles. Bodies fell from the air, one by one. And those that the demon still held, it hurled in random directions in blind fury.

“AH!? OLIVIA!!” Beatrice screamed when she saw the ninja girl’s body fly through the air and disappear in the purple mist, hitting the ground further in the dark.

“Die!! Fucking piece of shit!” Beatrice screamed at the demon as she ripped through its flesh with both hands, practically digging for some vital organ to rip out.

The demonlings jumped on the tentacle demon’s body to get rid of the menace, but it was even harder for the demonlings to move on the trembling, thrashing body of the demon than it was for Beatrice, who held herself by digging her claws into the demon’s flesh. Each time the demon thrashed, Beatrice’s claws just ripped the demon’s flesh further, like cruel hooks.

And the demonlings were not the only ones to jump on the giant demon’s body. Number Seven followed suit—grabbing onto the base of the nearest tentacle, Number Seven just slashed at the root of the tentacle over and over until he tore it off, and swiftly moved on to the next one.

On the far side of the arena a bright, wild flame grew rapidly in Ember’s hands. With the demonlings gone to help their master, Ember was free to channel any spell she wanted.

“I’ll clear this annoying mist,” Ember said to the small party she had while spreading her arms wider and wider for the flame that was about to outgrow her body.

“With fire!?” Carl, the eunuch, screamed. “Didn’t you see!? The arena is littered with the demon’s victims it let go!”

“To those that are still alive, death would be mercy compared to what awaits them!” Ember said coldly and grew her fire further.

However, Ember’s fire attracted the attention of the demonlings that were guarding the nearest exit to Ember’s group. With the battle suddenly taking bad turn, the group of demonlings abandoned their post and rushed to kill the nearest threats.

“Fuck!” Ember cursed and raised her arms above her head. Before the demonlings could reach her, Ember compressed the fire into a tiny ball and shouted, “Duck!”

The men barely had time to react before Ember herself dropped backward and spread her arms, letting go of her control over the fire she conjured. The fireball instantly expanded and blasted in all directions as a thin ring of fire, flying just a few feet over Ember’s group.

The fire hit the nearest demonlings doing no damage to them apart from slowing them down with impact. What the ring did do was blast the purple mist with the hot wind gust it created, clearing a considerable area as well as momentarily lighting up about a fifth of the arena’s entire surface, illuminating countless bodies spread all over the arena.

After the momentary forced pause, one of the demonlings ran straight for Ember, but was impaled through its body by a five-foot iron arrow, nearly ripped in half by the sheer force and knocked back and against the ground.

Ember looked up to where the arrow came from. On one of the main platforms for viewers several dozen soldiers already took positions and set up additional mechanized arrow launchers in addition to the one that just shot the arrow, with more soldiers arriving through the giant open gateway in the wall of the mines through which Ember and Beatrice arrived earlier.

The soldiers wore their standard full-body armor with the signature cape of purple color. Among them, a skinny girl with black hair done in a ponytail and black make up across her face: eyeliner, eye shadow, black lipstick—the works. But this smallest soldier among all that arrived bore the mark of a captain on her uniform.

“W-what the hell is this?” one of the Purple Capes on the spectator platform asked in disbelief when he saw dozens of demonlings in the arena along with countless bodies illuminated by the light from the magic circle of fire before it quickly dissipated, and darkness reclaimed the arena.

“Hurry up! Blast everything that moves!” another Purple Cape urged the man behind a mounted and ready arrow launching device while several men and women still put in place the other five machines at the edge of the platform.

“Hold that fire!” the captain of the Purple Capes stopped the reckless blind shooting. “A member of the royal family might still be down there.”

“Shit!” Ember cursed when she recognized captain Flavna among the fresh Purple Cape forces. “Beatrice!! Time to go!”

However, Ember did not even see the tentacle demon anymore and had no idea if Beatrice heard her.

“Wait! What do you mean “go”?” one of the masked men from Ember’s group of survivors asked as he rose to his feet after narrowly avoiding getting his head turned to charcoal by her circle of fire. “Nobody’s going anywher—UEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

Ember turned lit the masked soldier on fire and stood up. The other two masked soldiers learned from the mistake of their burning buddy and stayed motionless.

“The big dickless guys, I suggest you follow me and your ‘Cock Gifter’ out of here,” Ember said to Carl and the other eunuch with her. “I don’t need to tell you what the Purple Capes will do to you for everything that’s happened.”

“Liam, come on!” Carl helped his wounded fellow eunuch up while looking around for others. “Bob!? Chris!?”

Ember did not wait around for stragglers and ran to where she last saw the big tentacle demon.

Unable to withstand the pain any longer, the giant demon switched from haphazard movements and suddenly ran in a straight line.

Beatrice noticed the change in the demon’s movements and looked up from the hole filled with purple muck in the demon’s body to see where the demon was running. She saw nothing in the darker than black void ahead of her.

“Fuck,” Beatrice gasped and used her wings to jump up from the demon’s body as it charged further, right to the edge of the arena.

“Gamesh!” captain Flavna called out on the spectator platform.

On cue, a man walked out of the shadows and stood behind the captain. The man all but smiled as he walked with a laid-back posture like he owned the place. A few short strands of dark blue hair fell across his narrow eyes. The difference in their height was apparent. Flavna’s head did not even reach to the middle of Gamesh’s shoulder pads. And although Gamesh appeared as soon as he was called upon, he also bore a captain’s mark, just like Flavna.

“This certainly won’t do,” he said, looking at the barely visible arena below. “You all ready?”

Gamesh then conjured a bright sphere the size of a watermelon and launched it high into the air. The sphere suddenly stopped mid-flight high above the arena and grew brighter. The sphere was not nearly as bright as a midday sun, but more than enough to clearly illuminate the arena and the rest of the mines around it. Flavna barely caught a glimpse of some strange creature before it disappeared over the edge of the arena, leaving several dozen demonlings chaotically skittering about.

The sphere also revealed that the arena was not the only place filled with bodies. Flavna surveyed her surroundings with disgust at the drunks and druggies that laid about on various platforms. Most were solitary, some in pairs or in groups, nearly all were naked, nearly all passed out in their own vomit.

“Nobody leaves!” Flavna ordered. “Find and secure any possible members of the royal family!”

She then jumped off the platform to the nearest path that led to the arena. The Purple Cape forces spread out through the mines, securing every exit. Dozens followed Flavna down to the arena, though none took her “shortcut”.

“And, obviously, rid this place of the demon filth!” Gamesh added. “I see no princesses, kings, or queens over by that small group of four demonlings. Why are they still alive?”

“FIRE!!” one of the Purple Capes screamed and the soldiers behind the six minigun-like arrow launchers unleashed one arrow after another into the pack of demonlings.

Not used to her improved wings, Beatrice fumbled the landing after the jump off the demon. But just as she got up to her feet the arena grew brighter from a new source of light above the arena. That source of light also illuminated a new force of soldiers up where the shitty spectators used to be.

Just can’t catch a break! Beatrice thought remembering Ember’s comments and agreeing that by now her best hope was that the Purple Capes and the remaining demonlings would be busy fighting each other.

Beatrice looked around for her allies, but there were few to be found. Plenty of demonlings scattered all over the place. The only improvement was that with the tentacle demon gone, the demonlings seemed to have lost their organization and were now spread out randomly.

“Ah!?” Beatrice saw Ember running toward her with two eunuchs following behind her.

Beatrice ran forward to meet her bodyguard, cutting down a demonling in the process that tried to separate them.

“Beatrice, we leave, now!” Ember said as soon as they met. Meanwhile, far behind her, arrow rained onto the arena. The first volley before the Purple Capes entered the arena.

“You’re all that’s left?” Beatrice looked at Carl and the other eunuch behind Ember. Her heart sank when she realized what her glorious cult was reduced to right after its formation. So much potential—No! Beatrice shook her head. Not the time for this.

“We’re taking Felicia and princess Mary with us!” Beatrice said.

“Not happening!” Ember hard disagreed. “The first thing they will do is look for the princess. We’ll have the biggest targets on our back if we try to kidnap her! It’s the only chance we have to leave while they try to search for her.”

“Felicia then!” Beatrice insisted. “She literally summoned the demons!”

“What!?” Ember missed that little development apparently. She looked around and said, “Alright, where is the little ferret?”

“I left her guarded by one of the eu-my loyal followers,” Beatrice said, also looking around, but not for Felicia. “Take her and as many of our allies as you can! We’ll need them! Split up to get this over with faster!”

“I don’t agree—”

“Nonnegotiable!” Beatrice interrupted Ember and ran off.

Beatrice agreed that splitting up was a bad idea, but she had to find Olivia!

With a small change of fortune, Beatrice actually spotted Olivia’s body surprisingly quickly. Unfortunately, the ease with which Beatrice spotted Olivia’s unconscious, broken body was more a curse than it was a blessing as it exewmplified just how much worse of a state the demon left her in compared to the others.

And as Beatrice ran to Olivia she also ran into another buff figure. Bob, on his knees, held a severed tentacle with both his hands, huffing and puffing as he thrust his cock into its cock-sucking opening and fucked it with furious passion.

Beatrice grasped at the opportunity to try and salvage what remained of her cult. She ran to Bob and shook him, shouting in his ear, “BOB!! Wake up!”