Chương 22: Chapter 21 – We still have an hour

The beam faded. The light collapsed inward, folding into itself like a dying star, and then there was nothing. Just the dark steel walls, the stale air, and the faint green glow of the bioluminescent fungi on the cavern ceiling above. The overseer moved out of sight without a sound. Peace was gone. The beacon was gone. Chris's head stared at me from the floor, three feet to my left. His eyes were open. He still had that surprised expression, the one he wore when the tiles lit up.

Like he hadn't even had time to be scared. Biscuit's remains lay near him. Brown and white fur, matted and dark. I ducked by Chris and closed his eyes with my hand. With a bit of luck, his soul went to Heaven, so we weren't ever going to meet again. Farewell. I looked away, heading to the hole in the wall that remained after Sarah. I didn't see her extract. The room was a ruin.

Blast marks scorched the walls and ceiling, debris scattered across the floor, the air thick with that acrid chemical smell of expended mana and burnt metal. Smoke still curled from the cracks in the tiles that hadn't fully detonated.

"Sarah," I shouted. No reply. The wall she'd been thrown through had a hole roughly the shape of a person wearing armor and holding a shield. I walked to the hole, looking in. Sarah knelt in the next room, surrounded by chunks of wall. Her shield held her up. Warm, white light surrounded her. Her armor was dented across the chest and stomach, the crusader cross cracked down the middle. She coughed. Blood came up, dark and thick, splattering across her chin.

"You alive?" I shouted from the opening. Another cough. More blood. She wiped her mouth with the back of her gauntlet, leaving a red smear across the metal.

"The Lord..." She coughed again.

"... does not permit me to fall in a place like this." Good enough.

"Can I help you in any way?"

"I'm… fine."

"Anyway, you should extract yourself." She looked up.

"What about you?"

"I'll go finish the floor. Peace took the beacon, so we'd have to start from scratch if we don't finish the run." With a groan, she stood up. On wobbly legs, she made a step forward.

"Let's go then. I'll recover as we walk." I knew better than to try to talk her out of it. Her step improved, and she got through the hole without issues. We walked across the room. When her eyes found the remains of Chris and Biscuit, she stopped. Sarah sheathed her sword, crossed herself, and a white cross of light flew from her. It floated above the remains, shielding them in light.

"God have mercy on his soul," she whispered. I nodded, gave her a moment for the silent prayer, and we walked on. There could be enemies in the next room. Astarielle. Ashy. Crimson flame burst beside me, and Astarielle appeared. Her gaze darted around, and her posture relaxed slightly when she realized the fight was over. She glared at the room so intensely that I expected her to burn a hole in it. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Pink light flashed, and Ashy materialized in sword form. She jerked a bit mid-air, an evasive maneuver from the attack that didn't come. She spun, turned back into a human, and dropped to her knees.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! This never happened to me. It will never happen again. Please don't discard me!" I stared at her. Right, this was her first time she got summoned for combat. Not the best first day at work imaginable.

"I know I was useless!" she wailed.

"I know this was really bad, and I know you must be so disappointed, but please, please, please don't send me back to Hell permanently, I'll do better, I swear I'll do so much better, I'll be the best sword ever, I'll cut through everything, I'll—""Calm down," I said. She stopped, looking up, tears swelling in her eyes. I motioned with my head at Astarielle.

"She also got instagibbed." Astarielle looked away, raising her chin.

"So… you aren't mad?"

"No. Turn back into a sword. We haven't cleared the floor." Her eyes sparked up.

"All right! I promise I'll be the bestest succubus ever. I'll clean all your clothes, not complain about anything, and I'll even learn to cook!" She jumped up, turned into a blade, and spun around.

"Wee!" For the whole time, Sarah glared at me, her grip tightened on her sword's hilt. Her expression had a weird mix to it. I stepped forward, and she instantly caught up.

"What exactly do you do with your demons?" Sarah asked. Astarielle snorted, falling half a step back to give us space. I glanced at Sarah.

"Are you worried about demon rights?"

"No, of course… sort of." Her eyes looked sideways as we entered the next hallway.

"It's complicated." I imagined. On the one hand, those were souls of sinners, forever condemned by God. They had no rights, no place in God's grace, no privileges. On the other hand, they were really human-like. And those two issues clashed in her mind. Especially since Ashy was the most afraid of not being summoned again. The hallway we crossed took us to a room with destroyed bugs. Corroded skitterers and one sentinel. By the laser-type damage they had suffered, Peace carved her path through them.

We found the next set of maintenance stairs and headed up. We walked in silence. That was a problem. Because the silence left room for things I'd shoved down, and they were coming back up whether I wanted them to or not. Chris's face. That earnest, freckled, stupid face. He was sixteen. He'd survived in the tower by himself, hunting bears for villagers, scouting fortress corridors with nothing but a bow and a dog. He went out of his way to help us. And he had a whole life ahead of himself. Peace used him as bait.

A targeting beacon, in essence. She didn't even need to do that. We were going for the waystone, so she could have laid her trap in some room before the waystone. But we would have been more prepared there, so she murdered Chris to give herself the tiny advantage of catching us with less of a guard. Damn her. She wasn't getting away with this. Next to me, the light slowly healed Sarah.

"Do you need healing?" she asked.

"I'm fine."

"You have blood on your mouth. That suggests internal damage." She put her gloved hand on my shoulder. Light flew out. I lowered the shields, so it could get to me. The light filled me with warmth. All the lingering pain vanished. I smiled.

"That was fast."

"Because you've got no health." She withdrew her hand.

"How have you even made it here with this little health?"

"I've got shields."

"But that requires you to use them for complete absorption. That requires an absurd amount of mana…" her voice trailed off. Her eyes found Astarielle.

"How much mana does she cost to summon?"

"A lot!" Ashy shouted, floating above us as a sword.

"Astie is really high maintenance. I'm much cheaper! Much easier! Much more efficient!" I smiled.

"Tell me how much mana you have, and I'll tell you." She snorted.

"Always ready to bargain, aren't you? Very well. God is my shield, so I have no need to hide it. I have over a million mana." Oh. She said it like that was a lot. Truth be told, I had no frame of reference for what counted as having a lot of mana. I mean, my four hundred million sounded great, but maybe others had billions. Well, apparently not.

"Astarielle costs about three hundred thousand mana to summon in her current configuration." Her eyes widened, face paling.

"Heavens above…"

"I'm sorry," I added and meant it.

"Oh, don't say that!" Ashy shouted, floating to me.

"You can't be sorry for being awesome. It's not your fault she doesn't have such an incredible amount of mana as you do." Astarielle added her own glare.

"She's right. Don't embarrass us with fake compassion. Gloat as you should, oh mighty crown prince of Hell."

"Both of you, shut up." I sent that as a command. Astarielle was still grinning from ear to ear. Sarah observed me with a raised eyebrow.

"No space for weakness among the wicked, is there?"

"No. And for the record, nobody calls me like that. Ever."

"She did today." With a smirk, Sarah sped up. We stopped ascending. The path led us to a massive, circular chamber. The staircase spiraled up at its other end. We stepped in. The center of the roof fell in. A massive machine, which formed itself before our eyes. The body of a horse, with an attached body of a man, a head with six sensors instead of eyes, with two massive arms holding a huge scythe with a crystalline blade. The blade lit up, illuminating the darkness of the room.

I stepped into the room, spreading my arms. Come at me.