Chương 36: Chapter 32.2 - Paradise backoffice

Ashy! In a pink flash, Ashy appeared. Before the claw reached my throat, she spun, cutting the man in two. Black sludge splattered around me, dripping off my shields. More shadows peeled off the walls, four of them, and stood. These paled, were smooth-skinned and faceless, with a suggestion of folded wings along the back and a soft white glow where eyes should've been. Wonderful. I needed to sneakily break into Paradise's offices, so setting the building on fire wouldn't help.

The pale shadow's arms stretched each into one long, curved claw. They bolted toward me. Ashy stabbed at the first one, flying into him. He slipped past the stab, bolting to me. He stabbed at my chest. My shields blocked it, shining brightly. These were strong. Ashy slashed at another, but he blocked with his claw, knocking her aside before bolting at me. Okay, she couldn't solo this. I sighed, pulling on my power. First, I summoned a hundred tentacle worms.

Not to cause any damage, but to make a mess, turning the entire area around me into a chaos of Hell's least fine tentacle worms. The last two pale shadows stopped moving toward me, instead slashing apart some of my worms. Now, for the technique I didn't want to use. I remembered how Elsha once taught it to me. Shields of Deepest Sorrow. My shields thickened, turning dark blue, becoming heavy. The downside of this technique was that I could barely move. The upside, well… The first pale shadow stabbed at me again.

Its claw hit my shields and sank in, slowing down, unable to reach me. He swiped with the second claw at almost the same time. That one got caught in the shield, aiming for my throat. It realized what was going on and tried to pull out. The claw barely moved. He tried to kick himself off me, his clawed foot stuck in my shields above my stomach. Ashy swooped in and made a wide slash. She cut off its head. Blood sprayed out. The other pale shadow also attacked me in the meantime, and his claw stuck to my lower back.

Nice try, but the shields were everywhere. Ashy spun around, avoided the claw it tried to defend itself with, and cut its head in two. For a split second, I lowered the shields so they could fall off me. The other two pale shadows stood a few steps away, stuck in place, visibly thinking. Ashy bolted at them. Her slashes met their claws, shards sparking. Bit by bit, they started taking hits, their feet getting stuck or slipping on the tentacle worms. Their slime and bodies made the ground unwalkable.

One of them stepped on a worm and slipped. The second he lost balance, Ashy sped up, driving into his chest from above. She passed through, getting stuck inside of him. The other one turned and, in a blur, slashed at Ashy twice. He shattered the sword, making it burst into pink light. He spun, kicking away worms, stepping toward me victoriously. In a flash of pink light, Ashy resummoned above me. The pale shadow paused, lights for eyes slightly widening.

In the moment of distress, the worms teamed up, grabbing his leg, pulling it aside, breaking his stance. Ashy flew in. He tried to block, but the worms caught his arm, pulling it down. She stabbed through its throat, ending its existence. I released the enhanced shields. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! All the tentacle worms rose, wagging their tails in celebration.

[ENEMY DEFEATED — PALE SHADOW SPAWN (x4), SHADOW SPAWN (x1)] [Drops: Inert resonance core (Uncommon) (x4), Filament residue (Common) (x17)] Uncommon, but the cores might be useful. I motioned to Ashy to shift. She turned into her human-like form and picked up the cores. I unsummoned everyone. All right. I exhaled. Nobody was rushing here, so the fight stayed silent enough. I realized I didn't give Ashy a gag order. She figured out how to be silent by herself. Hmph. She sure earned some extra mana today.

I pulled out the lantern and drew in the souls. Not much, but more than nothing. With a smirk, I unsummoned it and searched for how to get to Paradise's offices. The front door was obviously defended. They had to have had side entrances, though. Just about every shop in the mall had some. Obviously, I didn't know if anyone remained inside, but it was worth trying. I circled through the mall until I found the maintenance entrance to the section where the Paradise rooms lay. The door was locked.

No one was around, though, so I summoned Ashy.

"Make minimum noise possible," I ordered. She turned in the air and flung herself into the lock with her pommel. It still released a loud boom, but the lock tore from the wall. I walked in, holding the door for her to fly in. She wiggled when flying through the held door, taking her time. The maintenance hall in front of us had only doors and a turning. Now, which one led to Paradise offices? Well, probably the reinforced one with an eye scanner. I walked to it. The scanner even had Paradise written on it. Subtle.

I motioned at the door, at the lock.

"Strike with the tip here." She spun in the air and hit the door. A clang echoed through the hallway. The door barely budged. Again. She hit it once more. And four more times. Hmpm. She did make a bit of a hole in the frame. This needed something curved. I unsummoned her. What worm had a spike on the tail? I pulled the worm number 3871. No spike. 3872. Ha, this one had a nice, curved spike on the tail end. I grabbed the tentacle worm and raised it to the door.

"Open the lock." The worm wiggled the tail end and jabbed the spike into the hole. He squirmed, wiggled, and the lock unlatched. The door clicked open. Nice. He waves in a cheer. I gave him a bit of extra mana and unsummoned him. I walked into the offices. Half of the room was ordinary. Desks, chairs, a coffee machine, and a large printer. The other half was a machine, which felt almost alive. Banks of pale panels stood floor to ceiling, and they moved in a slow, regular swell and ebb, as if the wall was breathing.

Cabling ran between them in thick bundles, branching and rejoining the way veins do. The whole apparatus gave off a low, wet warmth and a pulse I felt in my back teeth. Where the panels met the floor, a faint glow ran along the seams. Right, so I needed someone good with technology. I summoned Astarielle. She appeared, readying a fireball before realizing we were alone. She turned, glaring at the wall.

"What in damnation is that?"

"I summoned you to tell me." She shrugged.

"How do you expect me to know. I'm from Hell, not from whatever nightmare they pulled this out of." I unsummoned her. Careful, I walked to the panel. I pressed it. A login screen came up. Hmph. I checked the computers. All were turned off, and when I turned one on, it came up with a login screen, too. Damn it. I searched the room. In a drawer, I found a set of keys. I tried them in the lock that we just broke, and they fit. Well, maybe they were going to fix it into the same one.

I summoned Ashy, gave her the keys, and unsummoned her. In the search, I hoped to find some Post-it notes with passwords, or stuff like that. I found nothing. This needed a hacker. I had to get one and figure out how to come back. I tried the door deeper into the offices, and found two more rooms like this one, except without the living machine wall. A countdown popped up in front of my eyes. Oh, shit. I was out of time. Well, there was that. I let it happen, waiting out the timer.

I reawakened straight into reality. The world was already frozen. Everything was tainted with the soft rose spray paint, and then it all came apart into petals, which gave way, and there she was. Elsha, lounging on her sofa, was floating above me.

"There you are," she said.

"I've come to congratulate you on hitting level twenty-five. And to celebrate with you." Oh, sure, that was exactly what she was here for.

"What do you want?" She gasped.

"That sounded way too accusatory! You should apologize for being so unfriendly."

"You popped in before I could ever see the level-up notification."

"Right, so it's been brought to my attention that you're pathing to the advanced engraving nodes on the soulcarver tree. You—" I frowned.

"Who snitched?"

"Ashy. She knows better than to lie to me."

"I never spoke with her about my build." Elsha giggled.

"Well, Astarielle also knows better than to lie to me. That's unrelated, though. So, anyway, you take that node, you go to my statue, and you give me a custom enhancement. There are a ton of options, but you'll put the ninety-nine percent discount on my self-maintenance one. Remember that. It's important." I sighed. Demons had to maintain themselves in the physical realm. For that, they used the mana I gave them. Discounting their inner upkeep didn't mean I would have to give her less maintenance.

"I'll think about it. Tell me about Mefista. There's no way you don't know the name." Her face froze halfway between smiling and flat.

"Who?"

"Don't bullshit me. There's no way you don't know about Mefista, the goddess Paradise is trying to raise or create."

"Why are you switching the topic? This is about how you'll enhance my experience with your next skill point. About us, and our future. Don't bring others into it."

"That part is settled. Who's Mefista?"

"Ask her yourself." She raised her chin.

"Why would you even ask me about her? That's so annoying. I dismiss myself." She vanished. Huh?