Chapter 17: Chapter 56 – In Search of Irapesha

The eight of us set off immediately. Their group was composed of an efficient unit of two spellcasters, one scout, and three frontline fighters. I was to remain in the center of their formation for maximum protection, and Cresta was given free reign to traverse the landscape as she pleased.

We took a portal opened up for us to a distant place called Rotasha Pastures. Not quite the rolling green landscape I pictured in my mind. The soil was hard and cracked like dried skin. What grass remained was brown and withered. Entire tracts of lands looked like they were ripped out of the ground by giants, forming unnatural ravines and canyons. A river further down the hill was murky and slow flowing.

"My grandparents used to graze in these fields." Commander Qarth sighed.

I pictured a family of minotaurs on all fours, eating grass under a sunny and blue sky. My amusing thought, however, didn't get so much as a smile from me. The pain in the minotaur commander's voice was felt by everyone.

This was their home, a precious memory. Now a wasteland.

"This was the edge of the Oretian front, right?" Cresta asked. "Ours and the demon's forces were locked here for months. But aren't we hundreds of miles from where Pesha supposedly died?"

Our canine-eared scout pulled out what looked like a small, red scale the size of a cell phone.

"When King Tarcosa sent us to recon and survey the damage on this side of the continent, my nose came across this. I don't mean for it to sound weird, but it has Commander Irapesha's scent. Clerics confirmed it through a divination," he explained.

"So, how do we begin to find her?" I asked.

"The quickest way? Probably find a trail of dead demons." The scout pointed down to the bottom of the hill where a pack of demons lay still.

I held back the urge to vomit as we investigated them. They looked like terrible creatures. Ashy skin, jagged teeth, and horns were among some of their features. Others who were more humanoid had blue or red complexions. All of them had sharp gashes across their bodies.

"She butchered them…" the elven mage muttered in horror.

"I've fought alongside Pesha enough to know this was definitely her doing!" Cresta exclaimed, the excitement in her voice rising.

My head was spinning. This was already too much for me to take in. The creatures in front of me were once living things. Sure they were possibly evil, but they were also of Ange's race. Just seeing them made me feel sick.

Cresta stroked my back, thinking I was going to barf. "Trust me, they're better off dead. Demons wouldn't hesitate to kill us."

"I have her scent!" their scout shouted further down the road.

While we followed the scout, the netherfolks had a lot of questions for me and Cresta in the meantime.

"Hey, hey! Is it true that humans have a fetish for seeing my race get sexually assaulted by orcs and goblins?" the elven woman asked. "That's so gross!"

"I'm not answering that!" 

"I hear there are alchemists on Earth that created potions that build muscle mass really fast." Commander Qarth said.

"Do you think you can put a word in to get me a caretaker that lives in a place called the Sahara Desert?" the female lamia asked.

"I feel like a lot of you are interested in Earth for really strange reasons," I remarked.

"Can you blame them?" Cresta giggled. "It's a whole new world for them to explore!"

The elf leaned in close and lowered her voice. "Do… Do you have those kinds of picture books of elves in uncompromising positions with other races?"

I squinted at her and wondered if the fictional trope of horny elves was actually non-fictional all along.

Cresta's ears suddenly perked up. The canine scout came racing back to us on all fours.

"Demons up ahead! They have a sorcerer with them!" he warned.

A large number of demons amassed at the crest of the hill before them. Snarling hounds with spiked spines, goblinoid monsters carrying clubs and makeshift weapons, and giants with metal plates merged into their skin let loose a bloodthirsty roar. Leading them was a red-skinned demon in tattered blue and gold robes, flying above the horde.

"We came looking to finish off an injured dragonewt, only to find a crew of Tarcosa's mutts. You lot will die in the name of our late lord!" the demon shouted.

I nearly pissed my pants. My legs were shaking so much, there might as well have been an earthquake. This wasn't a place for someone like me. I should be back home. 

Yet one from our party stepped forward fearlessly and with a smirk. She brandished her sharpened claws that were recently filed to a fine point.

"Sounds like you guys have seen Pesha. I'm going to rip you all to shreds, then pummel the info out of you." Cresta cracked her neck and lowered her legs in preparation for a lunge.

The former assassin-turned burger flipper did exactly just that. With the others catching the few that slipped by her rampage— the elven mage being an exception to protect me way in the back— she systematically annihilated the small army of demons. It was almost hard to imagine they had troubles with her as a trump card. Harder to believe that she was once captured.

As soon as Cresta caught the sorcerer demon by his ankle, she slammed him into the ground. Commander Qarth put a large hoof on top of his chest to pin him down. The rest of the demons fled in terror, seeing their leader defeated.

The elven mage cast down a pinkish shield around us. "That should nullify any magic he might have up his sleeves."

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"This is where the pummelling starts," Cresta said, smashing a fist into her palm. "Where's Pesha? You really thought you were going to hurt my friend?!"

"If I knew, we wouldn't have run into each other…" He growled.

Cresta winded a fist to smash his head in, but I jumped in to hold it back.

"I know you want to splatter his brains, but he's our only lead to Irapesha. Let me try to reason with him," I said.

She nodded and stepped away.

"The one they're looking for is very important to them. You'd be doing them a favor by leading us to her. It's a good chance to get on our good side and away from the bad situation you're in," I explained, playing to his self-preservation.

The demon glared at me as if I were his mortal enemy. "If it weren't for you damn humans, this war would have been ours. Go to the depths of hell."

"It's fine. We can just find him ourselves. Drop the barrier for me, will you?" Cresta asked of the mage.

As the shield came down, Cresta broke the demon's wings at his shoulder blades and chucked him so far into the air that he became a spec in the sky.

"Cresta, what gives? I barely got to speak with him! What if he did know, and we just needed to wear down his resistance a bit?" I scolded her.

"He'd rather die and curse us than give us any clue. You don't know demons like we do.  The only good demon is a dead one," she fired back.

"What about Ange? Do you think she should die, too?" I folded my arms.

"Ange is… She's different…"

Cresta fell silent and looked away.

I already knew of this bloodthirsty side of her. I expected nothing less from an assassin. But I had hoped she learned to become more sensible after cohabitating with others at the dorm.

"I'm sorry… All I know how to do is talk with my fists and claws. I was taught that if my targets refused to answer even one question, then they weren't worth keeping alive," she said quietly.

"I know you're stressed and worried to death for Irapesha, but we need to keep a cool head." Without waiting for permission, I grabbed her by both ears and pinched them. "And killing people isn't all you know how to do. I heard from Dave you can make a mean burger now."

"Hehe. I've been giving it my all so I can make the perfect burger for Pesha's first time," she said.

Commander Qarth put a heavy hand on mine and Cresta's shoulders.

"Don't forget about us!" he exclaimed.

Everyone fell into laughter, with Cresta going into a tangent about the nuances of burger ingredient combinations.

Meanwhile, I noticed a strange red stone on the ground where the demon was lying down before being thrown. A symbol was etched into the rigid surface.

"Hey, guys… What's this?" I asked, picking it up.

The elven mage's eyes went wide. "Oh, no. That's a teleportation stone!"

She tried to throw up another barrier, but the stone glowed bright red and emitted a blinding light.

When I next opened my eyes, I was standing on the rubble of a fortress ruins. The ceiling was caved in, revealing the red and black skies. Multiple levels of the fortress were visible as a result of collapsed floors and pillars holding up the structure.

The others weren't around me. I was completely alone. 

Okay, Akira. Keep calm. They had a scout with them. As long as I find a safe place to hide, they would find me eventually.

The archway entrance had collapsed, leaving behind a pile of rubble which blocked the way out. I climbed over the loose stone and debris until I was finally outside again. However, I wasn't alone.

Standing at a bridge leading up to the castle was a one-winged figure with several dead demons around her. She was choking the life of a humanoid demon with one hand. When he stopped moving, she threw him off the bridge into a deep ravine.

Is that who I think it is? I wondered to myself.

Before I could get a better look, I lost my footing. I slid all the way down to the bottom of the castle and landed hard on my ass.

The commotion alerted the strange figure to my presence, and she was on top of me in  a split second. I was lifted off my feet, held by my neck like the demon. A murderous gaze, one that wasn't all there in the head stared back at me. She bared her large fangs at me, growling like a lioness whose territory was trespassed upon.

Up close and personal, I realized that she was missing her entire left arm and wing. The remaining right wing had holes and tears in the webbing. I couldn't mistake her face for anyone else. I'd seen her from the pumpkin carving and statue in the Terrace of Heroes. This was none other than Irapesha Bloodtalon.

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