Chapter 9: The Demon

Our eyes snap open. We leap to our feet. Nearby, someone gasps. We look to the side and see Radestro with eyes closed and Kittpey with eyes wide. A loud droning sound comes to a halt, and we look in its former direction to see the evil pig staring at us in shock.

Wait… “we?” “Us?” Time seems to come to a crawl as our minds race, our eyes roam and our hands touch, taking in all available information. We are… we were two people. Biat and Ellemenie. Both of us are here, yet there is only one person. Biemenie, perhaps. Bimenie? We can workshop that later. But here we are, where Biat in Ruem’s body once stoo— well they were down on the ground, but anyway. “They?” Yes, just go with it, we think to ourself. It’s not like we’re asking who Ruem is even though not all of us knows. Let’s not be questioning pronouns right now. Our head hurts as we think at ourself. This is confusing.

Whatever, our body. It’s different than it used to be, something we agree on. It’s fatter, even more so than Ruem’s body. It’s also, perhaps more notably, naked, featureless, and colored in haphazard splotches of the darkest black and brightest white. The Idrestian features of Ruem’s body are also gone — no horns or tails here. Our hair is shoulder-length. We wonder what our face—

“R—Ruem?” Kittpey says, next to us and still on her knees. We look at her, and she flinches. “Y—your eyes…”

Oh, perfect! “What do they look like? We can’t see them!”

“Red,” she says, leaning away from us. “Where… Your mouth is gone.” She blinks rapidly. “Wait, we? Who??”

A short, loud squeal draws our attention back to the kaiju swine. It’s twitching, turning its head this way and that, snout sniffling and snuffling. It seems confused, and confusion seems to make it angry. It squeals again, longer and louder this time, and charges directly at us.

Before, the sight of this titanic beast barreling down upon us would have horrified, would have sent us to the depths of despair. But now? There is no fear. We are not alone. And we… we are powerful. Confidence fills us, stuffs us to the brim. Everything that once struck terror in our soul feels minor now, easy to overcome. And this pig? This overgrown sack of pork? We aren’t worried about it in the slightest.

Crouching low, we throw our arms out, clawed fingers bared. Energy courses through our body, rising off our skin like steam. We can do this, we’re sure. It won’t even be hard. If we had a mouth, which apparently we don’t, we’d be smirking. Time to make bacon.

The pig shoots toward us, gargantuan hooves kicking up veritable mounds of dirt. But before those hooves can crush anyone, our hand grows three sizes and we smack the thing right in the side of its silly pointy head. The creature is launched half a kilometer to the side, through one building and into another, where debris falls and covers its ugly face. Shaking itself free, the beast stands, shrieks and stomps its hooves. We could wait for it to charge again, but we have a better plan.

Grabbing a chunk of detached wall, we hurl it like a baseball at the monster, aiming for its eye. Unfortunately, it's just smart enough to counter our attack, despite the speed of our throw, opening its maw wide to swallow the projectile whole. Undeterred, we launch several more slabs of cobblestone and walls of brick at the creature, yet every single one gets sucked up into its mouth. The size of the projectile and speed of our throw makes no difference. Fine, then. Time to get close and personal.

Coiling the muscles in our legs, we rocket forward, covering half a kilometer in half a second. Recoiling, the boar takes one massive step back and spits fiery stones our way. We dodge and weave around the flaming missiles with ease, almost like we’ve practiced, which… Hm, part of us has practiced, apparently. But we were never very good at it, not until now. We’re so much better together than we ever were apart.

Grabbing one of the beast’s many tusks, we launch lightning-quick strikes at the base, whittling it down until we’re able to snap the thing off. In retaliation, the pig tries to smash us into the ground with its sharp face. This proves to be a bad idea; we flip the tusk around, allowing the monster to stab itself directly in its beady eyes. Thrashing wildly, the demon boar rears back and howls in pain. When it crashes back down to its hooves the earth shakes and buildings tremble, but we ignore it all, leaping up onto the beast’s snout to pull the tusk free. It exits the creature’s eye with a wet plop, magma leaking from the hole. The tusk is melted now, hot lava still covering what’s left of the tip. We’ll just have to get another one, then.

Leaping back to the ground, we dodge a desperate stomp, grasp another tusk, whittle it down, and wrench it off. The monster spits magma at us, but we slide under both the attack and the creature. With one powerful thrust, we stab our makeshift weapon into the beast’s chest. It wails, but before it can do anything else, we crouch down, leg muscles coiling. Then we launch forward, dragging the tusk with us. It rips through the creature’s body like a dull knife, tearing an open gash from the creature’s chest down to its hind legs. Magma splashes to the ground and the demon’s legs shake, barely keeping it upright. It coughs up even more lava, which dribbles down its chin and pools on the ground. Shaking and shivering, the beast lifts its head to the sky, letting loose a broken wail. With one final dry heave, it tumbles to its side, shudders, and lies still.

We did it!! Tossing the tusk to the side, we leap for joy, whooping and hollering. Racing back over to Kittpey, we excitedly shout, “We did it!! We killed that—”

Our face jerks to the side as claws rake across it. Searing pain courses through our skin but then it’s gone. And so is the “us”. Suddenly it is just you, Biat, and your energy is completely sapped. You collapse to the ground in a heap, breathing ragged. Raising a shaky hand, you feel your head — the horns are back. You look down — you’re thinner now, though not by a lot. It’s Ruem’s body once more, with just one soul inside it. You feel… alone. Horrifyingly alone.

A hand touches your leg, though it takes you a while to process. A moment later Kittpey’s face appears as she crawls into view. “R—R—Ruem?? You’re… normal again?” You nod. All that power you’d felt surging through you before is gone, as though it was never there. And so is Ellemenie. Maybe she’s gone forever. You barely hear Kittpey’s next words. “What… what was…” Her mouth opens and closes a few times; nothing coherent comes out.

“She is back!!!” shouts a voice a moment before Umeso crouches next to you, beaming, tears on their face. They touch your arm and sure enough, a shaky orb peeks out from behind their head. Your eyes slowly widen.

“Th—thanks,” Ruem says softly, with a little cough. Despite being a black orb with white eyes, she looks notably haggard.

Shoving Umeso away from you, Kittpey shouts, “What’re you— who is back!? What the FUCK just happened!?”

“I would also like an answer to that question,” says yet another nearby voice. You glance up. It’s Headmistress Onpertet, and she is staring pointedly at you, eyes hard. “You three,” she says, pointing at Kittpey, Umeso and yourself. “My office. Now.” She turns her head and shouts, gesturing at Radestro. “Tawnee, take care of this one. I don’t think he goes here, but he’s hurt, so patch him up.” Her eyes shift back to you and narrow. “I said “now,” didn’t I? Get moving.”

~~~

Pushing through wide halls filled with whispering throngs of students, the four of you make your way swiftly through the Setzel center. Headmistress Onpertet leads the bunch of you, who silently march along, heads hung low. Leaving the crowd behind, you climb staircase after spiral staircase, eventually reaching a short hallway that leads to a nondescript wooden door. Given how altogether plain the hallway and the door itself look, your first guess at what lies beyond would be a janitorial closet, or perhaps a storage space. Yet why would the Headmistress herself be leading you to such a place? Casting a spell so fast that you only see the flick of her hand, Headmistress Onpertet opens the door, strides through and shouts, “Close the door behind you, whoever’s at the back.”

As Umeso shuts the door, you glance around the room. It’s an office, you’re pretty sure. It’s large, but you would expect someone with the title of “Headmistress” to have something larger. There’s little in the way of decoration — a painted picture of a cute furry animal, presumably a pet, is the only item hung on the wall. There’s a fireplace in one corner of the room, with a comfy-looking chair not far from it. And along the nearby wall is a bookshelf, filled to the brim. In the center of the room is a large desk with multiple piles of paper on it. No chairs sit either in front of or behind this desk. Rather, multiple wooden chairs are stacked in an otherwise empty corner — six, if you had to guess.

With another quick spell that looks only like a wave, the Headmistress draws three chairs off the stack. They fly through the air, settling in front of the desk. With another flick of her wrist, the comfy chair near the fireplace flies over to sit on the desk’s other side.

“Sit,” she says, gesturing at the wooden chairs. You take the one in the middle. The Headmistress leans against the side of her desk, arms crossed, eyeing you and your friends. You eye her right back, realizing you’ve been looking at your feet for most of the trip to this office. And before that, you had far greater concerns than taking in a new person’s appearance.

The intimidating woman currently trying to stare through to your soul towers over you, and you’re quite sure she would do so even if you weren’t sitting down. She seems to be naturally tall, but her high-heeled boots, which look like they could easily kill a man, certainly exaggerate that height. She wears long black gloves that nearly go up to her elbows, while her tight black dress is shorter than you would expect of a school official. Her bright red blazer looks to be magically attached to her shoulders, otherwise you can’t imagine it would stay on. Red and black kind of seem to be her colors, really, given her deep red skin and jet black hair. It pools around her shoulders, framing a sharp, gorgeous face accentuated by sharp, gorgeous makeup, particularly her black lipstick. If you’d met this woman before you came to Idrest, you would have thought her a literal demon from hell, given how perfectly she looks the part.

Pushing off her desk, Headmistress Onpertet swivels around to take a seat in her plush chair. With one long finger pointing at Kittpey, she says, “You. Tell me what you saw.”

Jaw working open and closed a few times, Kittpey finally says, “What I saw…?”

“Everything you observed concerning the monster that attacked my school, and everything you observed concerning its defeat.” She rests her elbows on her desk, laces her fingers, and stares intently, waiting.

“I… Okay. Well…” Kittpey bites at her lip and glances your way. Her eyes are asking a question, but you don’t know how to answer. You shrug helplessly. Kittpey gnaws her lip more and looks away. When you glance back at the Headmistress, you realize with certainty that she observed every second of that interaction.

Gesturing at you and herself, Kittpey says, “So that giant thing broke through the wall near the two of us. We almost died.”

“Why were you near the wall?”

Kittpey’s eyes glance your way. “We… needed to talk about something.”

“That’s why she was screaming your name before, then?” The Headmistress leans forward a little, eyes boring into Kittpey.

“Y—yes,” Kittpey says, swallowing a lump in her throat. 

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“What did the two of you talk about?”

“That’s… personal.”

“Of course.” The Headmistress leans back. “So after the monster broke through, then what?”

“W—well we heard our…” She looks at you again. “friend… call out. So we went to help him.”

“That unconscious man?”

“Yes.” Kittpey waits a beat, but there are no follow-up questions. “S—so after we helped him, Ruem ran off to find, um…” She gestures at Umeso. “Them.”

Umeso gives a small wave, then immediately seems to regret it. They cross their arms and stare at their lap, jaw set.

The Headmistress glances over at Umeso for a brief moment, then her eyes lock onto you. “Your name is Ruem?” A chill goes down your spine, though you’re not entirely sure why. You nod slowly. The Headmistress turns her gaze back to Kittpey. “What did you do then?”

“Well I had to go after her,” Kittpey says, as though it is the most obvious thing in the world. “But I couldn’t just leave Radestro in the dirt, so I tried to figure out where I could stash him that would be safe, couldn’t think of anything, and just decided to drag him along with me.”

“I thought you were trying to get to the magic bubble, for safety,” you say sheepishly. You hadn’t imagined she was trying to follow you.

“I didn’t even know about it.” Kittpey says, eyes back on you and strangely intense. Like Umeso, you find yourself staring at your lap.

Sighing, the Headmistress says, “Yes, we used to advertise that feature before, but… well it hasn’t been used in so long.” You glance up in time to see her shake her head. “Anyway. You went after her, and then?”

“She came back, actually. And she said the Setzel center was safe, so we both grabbed Radestro and booked it. But Ruem tripped, and hit her head and…” Kittpey clams up, her hands balled into fists.

“And…?”

Kittpey looks at you once more, and you shrug yet again. Is it possible to hide? Does it matter? Does anything matter right now? Your friends are safe, at least, but is Ellemenie? Squeezing your eyes shut for a moment, you try to stay focused on the present. When you open them again, Kittpey looks back to the Headmistress. “Um… how much…?”

“Let’s just assume I saw everything.”

Your blonde friend frowns. “What… will you do to her?”

The Headmistresses’ eyebrows raise. “Nothing. She saved the school. Why would I do anything to her?”

Kittpey’s eyes narrow, clearly disbelieving. “I… I don’t know what I saw.”

Nodding, the Headmistress straightens up, hands flat on her desk. “I see.” She takes a deep breath, eyes closed. When they open again, they are cold. With a dismissive wave at Kittpey, she says. “You can go.”

“I— what?”

The chair beneath Kittpey wobbles, prompting her to leap to her feet. It zooms away to join the stack of unused chairs in the corner. Stomping her foot, Kittpey levels the Headmistresses with a furious stare. “I— you— I don’t want to g—”

“If it helps set your mind at ease, you may take a chair and wait outside the door.”

Kittpey glances at the chairs, then back to the Headmistress. She doesn’t move. “How do I know you won’t teleport away?”

Headmistress Onpertet’s expression, which has maintained a relative cool detachment throughout the conversation, shifts to something more worrisome: amused consideration. Her eyes flash green. “Ah yes, the Slatterald child, hm? I can understand the concern.” Palms up, the Headmistress outright shrugs, smiling not like a reassuring caretaker, but rather a cheshire cat. “Unfortunately, there is little I can offer you beyond my solemn vow. I will not kidnap your friend.”

“I don’t trust you,” Kittpey says, staring the Headmistress down.

“Then trust your friend. She seems more than capable of defending herself.” You begin to shiver. If only that were true.

The staredown lasts a few more moments before Kittpey finally turns away. She grabs a chair from the corner, then walks back to you, setting a hand on your shoulder. “Call for me if she does anything suspicious, okay?” You nod, eyes wide and flicking between both your friend and her self-appointed enemy. Then Kittpey leaves, chair in hand, closing the door behind her.

Once she’s gone, the Headmistress lets out one short, sharp laugh. “Wow, that friend of yours is sure something. She cares about you a lot, doesn’t she?”

“I—I guess, yeah,” you say, ignoring the heat in your cheeks. What you don’t ignore is the spell you see the Headmistress quickly cast, her hand flicking toward the door. You look behind you, but visually, nothing seems to have happened.

“Wh—what was…” Umeso forces out, voice shaking.

“Oh, just soundproofing the door,” the Headmistress says, putting her elbows back on the table and setting her chin down on laced fingers. “Now, Mx. Arestran,” the devil woman says, baring a sharp-toothed grin at Umeso. “Tell me more about those devoured souls.”