Chapter 14: Chapter Twelve: Hell Smells

“I see, I think I get the gist of it.” I nodded at the group of noobies, after hearing a brief summary of what transpired.

“That being said, it's up to the guild to judge the validity of your report.”

“We understand, Lady Amare,” the little leader Chiri said.

” But umm…” she hesitated, her eyes darting around my torso area.

“Hmmm? Oh, that. No need to be concerned over the little one." I said.

My focus was drawn to the little doll-like figure draped in robes within my arms. 

“She should be fine. We’ll just need to take her in to answer some questions at the guild.” 

Looking down at the person in my arms again, an idea suddenly popped into my head.

I stood up and excused myself from the noobie group and walked a little ways away, out of earshot.

“Kn’Ave, Mayari, Manti, Ahia. Can you all come out?” I called out to my team.

One by one, they appeared from seemingly nowhere.

“You all heard the story, our mission here is done. It’s time to head back up.”

“But Rua, what about the source of the resonances? We haven’t solved that yet,” Kn’Ave asked tilting both of her heads.

“Right, hon, but I have a hunch that our answer is a lot closer than we might have expected.” 

Both of her faces flashed a confused look, that was quickly changed to knowing smiles.

“That being said, I’ll escort this little one to the guild personally,” I continued. “Could you girls do me a favor and make sure the noobies make it there safe and sound?”

“Of course, my love,” Kn’Ave affirmed. 

This was followed by a grunt of affirmation and a nod from Manti and Ahia respectively. Which only left my blockheaded niece. 

“I refuse,” the redhead stated. 

“Haah. What now, Ari? It’s always something with you, I swear. I knew I should have brought Aruna instead.” I sighed. 

“Why do you get to escort the cutie?! I thought you brought me for training?? What’s better training than protecting something that cute?” Mayari exploded. 

“I’ll give you three reasons. One, I said so. Aunt privileges. Two and three…”

I pointed with my thumb toward my back fully spreading my wings out.

“Guh, fine you win this time,” she let out, defeated. 

“Of course I do,” I smirked. “Grow some wings, and maybe next time you be the one protecting the ‘cutie’.”

“Hmph. Maybe I will, stupid aunt.”

Laughing at my pouting niece, it beat my wings getting airborne again. 

After blowing a kiss to my girlfriend and waving to the rest of the group, I flew off.

 

—⁕????⁕—

 

“Ugh,” I groaned, my head throbbing as I attempt to shake off my grogginess. 

'An unfamiliar ceiling.'

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Not that I could recognize any ceiling I have seen, excluding museums and things like that. I just wanted to say it. But that means I’m in a building of sorts.

'And I feel restrained. Again.'

“Oh, are you awake? The cutie’s awake!” yelled the girl sitting in a chair next to me.

I winced at the decibel of her voice. 

‘She’s got a really nice voice but does she have to be that loud?’

“Oops. My bad, your head probably still hurts from getting knocked out, huh? She asked, seemingly reading my thoughts.

“Sorry about that too, I swear I didn’t know you were that cute when I knocked you out. I would’ve been gentler.” 

“Wait, that was you? I thought it was the beautiful but scary golden dragon lady.” I leaned over, attempting to crane my neck to get a look at her.

She had glossy dark chocolate skin much like the dragon lady. Her bold red hair was sectioned off into five points much like a starfish. Her violet eyes and the moon-like markings on her face glowed even in the light.

“Hehehe. ‘Beautiful but scary golden dragon lady.’ What an accurate description. But no, it was me, sorry. As an apology, I’ll try to answer questions you might have.”

‘Great. I don’t know if she’s a reliable source of information but it's better than nothing.’

“So, where exactly are we?”

“The Guild. Specifically, the med bay.”

‘Okay, that’s something to go off of. Kind of. Maybe I’m supposed to know what that means and she’s probing me? I’ll just act like I do and investigate later… anyways, seeing as we were on the first circle when I lost consciousness last, it's probably safe to assume I’ve left Hell. Well, that’s fine it smelled anyways.’

“What about the group I was traveling with?”

“Hmm?” she asked with a finger on her lip. “Oh, the noobies? They’re fine.”

“ As a matter of, they’re here too.  I escorted them myself.” She flexed her arm, showing off her muscles. "Feel free to praise me.”

I heard a creak as a door opened.

“You’re asking for praise, and you didn’t even want the job?” a new voice teased.

“Ugh, Kna’Ve, give me a break. You're making me lose cool points in front of the cutie.” the redhead pouted.

“Hoh? Are you cheating on Aruna? I bet you didn’t even introduce yourself, anyways. You already lost plenty of cool points before I even walked in.” the lady, apparently named Kna’Ve, jabbed.

“What? As if, I can’t cheat if we’re not even dating?!....yet. A-and no I didn’t. I was getting to that.” The redhead blushed, her cheeks doing their best impression of her hair.

Kna’Ve chuckled as she seemed to enjoy the reaction.

She was also beautiful. Seems like most people here are. She had glimmery hair and acidic green eyes. Did I mention that she had two heads? Yes, two fudging heads On her shoulders, instead of just one, she had two necks connecting to separate but identical heads.

“Hi there, I’m Kna’Ve, and this airhead is Mayari. It’s nice to meet you.” she continued, ignoring the other girl's rambling. 

“A pleasure to meet you as well?”

“Yeah, yeah. Why are you here, Kna’Ve?” Mayari said impatiently.

“Well I came to get our little friend here,” She gestured to me.”… for some questions and some tests, so I’m going to remove these restraints.”

Then she moved closer to the bed I was on, holding a key.

She inserted it and somehow unlocked all the restraints, freeing my arms and legs.

Wait, my arms and legs?!