Lilith: Origin of Succubi

Chapter 239

chapter 239<~> chapter 239

the first thing i noticed when i stepped out of the tunnel and into the market district was the smell of burning wood in the air. several fires were burning in the city and the far-off yelling of fighting could be heard in the distance. now that we were out on the street i could see a few dead bodies laying on the ground here and there. i got the sense that these ones had died in the early rioting because none of them looked like the slaves we had freed.

"we have to go that way to get around the outer wall of the southern quarter and market district if we want to leave through the eastern gate," lorriene said while pointing.

"it sounds like where the fighting is coming from," silva pointed out.

"can you tell what enemies we might face?" i asked her.

silva paused as her ears twitched and swiveled for a moment. "i don't hear any priests chanting so that rules out the tamin church. i mostly hear guardsmen, soldiers, and rioters, but i can't tell if they're fighting each other or fighting the demons quinn saw earlier." there were hushed whispers from the people behind us at the mention of demons but i chose to ignore them for the moment.

"would leaving from the western gate be better?" i asked.

lorriene tapped the handle of her dagger with a nail. "maybe. it would be easier to avoid a fight but it would take a lot longer to regroup with everyone. it will already take a while to get there if we leave out of the correct gate, walking all the way through the city to the other gate and then walking around the outside of the city would add significant time to the return trip." she turned around and looked over the slaves we were guiding. "with our group, i think we could handle most demon threats as long as we're careful, even while protecting the non-combatants."

"you've never tried to run from a hell hound," i said with a grimace.

she shrugged. "fair enough."

silva looked west. "i know it's risky to go east but i think going west might be worse. there are groups of soldiers sweeping through that side of town. if we go that way we'll have to fight them at the risk of being surrounded and trapped near the castle. i'd rather deal with unorganized demons and rioters."

"i thought we came this way to avoid the demons," quinn said with anxiety in his voice.

silva shook her head. "no, we came this way to avoid being surrounded by demons. none of us are afraid of fighting them. we already fought one of them in the cellblocks."

"we never did find anything out about the cult of amphores either," torien added. "i don't think we should go looking for a fight but it would be nice to see if this was all their doing. i assume they're involved since we've come across demons here."

suddenly there was another explosion but from where we were standing we were able to get a better look at it from the outside. a giant fireball splashed against a magic barrier that was surrounding the slaver's guild building. that must have been what we were hearing the entire time we were down there. while the fireball was still dissipating, the giant barrier cracked and exploded into millions of shards of magic that faded into the air like mist.

"uh, guys? i think there might be a problem," morrigan said with barely restrained panic.

"what's wrong?"

"the barrier that just held back that fireball? it was supported by the wards that we just tunneled through. we weakened the barrier by digging through that way and now their barrier just broke. if we stay here, the next fireball could topple the building right on top of us," she said talking a mile a minute.

the demon pushed me over the threshold for the next level i had been at for a while. i longed to look at my new spell but from my past experimentation with [focused perception], i knew better than practice with any perception abilities in the middle of a combat situation. too risky. better to look over the new spell when i was in a safe place.

i quickly looked around for anything else nearby but i didn't see any other demons. "was that it?" i asked.

lorriene hesitantly nodded. "i don't see anything else. it seems these demons were trying to pick people off on their own. anyone who was in this part of town earlier must have been forced to go somewhere else or they all got dragged away by one of those demons. more people should be in the market at this time of day, riot or not."

i decided to leave my spells cast. maintaining the trickle of mana to keep the enhancements active was cheaper than recasting them the next time we were in a fight. i hoped that the visible show of strength would be deterrence if we ran into someone else.

"you're stronger than you look," kal'daeryn commented. the compliment to my fighting was appreciated but i didn't respond.

"let's keep moving," i said to the group. the slaves that had been worried by the demon showing up looked relieved and i got the sense that they were more confident in my strength now that they had seen silva and i fight firsthand.

"i'll go ahead," lorriene called out before jogging forward a few blocks and peeking around corners.

"she's a good scout," silva said to reassure me. "don't worry about her getting hurt, she's slippery. trust that she knows what she's doing." i could feel silva sharing her confidence in her with me through the bond, giving additional weight to her words. she believed what she was saying.

we followed lorriene through the town as she scouted ahead of us. after a little while she had stopped by an alley between two buildings and motioned for us to come to her. i motioned for the group to wait and crept up next to her with silva and torien.

slumped against the wall were a dead tamin paladin and two dead tamin priests. "sophin's work," lorriene whispered. "you can tell from the clean lines." as she said, they had been decapitated in a clean line like they had been sliced apart by wire.

"does this mean that sophin has already started on the priests?" i asked.

"it probably means he's already finished," lorriene replied. "less public than i thought he would be too, if he's leaving their corpses dead in alleyways."

silva looked over the corpse and nodded. "this is his work, i'm sure of it. the demons could have changed his strategy. it would be demoralizing for the people left if all the priests who are supposed to be good at killing demons were being openly killed in front of them. it explains why i don't hear any priests chanting their magic anywhere though."

the three of us returned to our group and continued past the alley. a few of the former slaves looked over as we passed but didn't comment on the corpses we inspected. after a short walk from there, we were approaching the end of the wall that was separating us from the road that would lead us through the rest of town.

another explosion could be heard through the town as another huge fireball hit the slaver's guild building and it began to collapse inward on itself. every part of the building that was not made of stone had caught fire and the building was crumbling. i was relieved we had taken this job, they would have collapsed the building right on top of the people inside, had we not helped them escape first. loud cheering could be heard again as the building fell in on itself.

"i wonder if this means their records are destroyed too," torien said while looking at the burning building.

"we can hope," silva said with a smile.