by E. M. Hardy
He pushed his exhausted body up from the couch, slowly ambling his way toward the stove. A steaming hot cup of slurry waited for him within the stove’s receptacle, the enticing smells of synthetic cheese and tomato scents eliciting a rumble from his stomach. Kristina’s cooking was out of this world, true, but there was just something so comforting about spooning down the warm, cheap, and plentiful food down his gullet.
Emphasis on cheap, especially since his savings were cut deeply by his need to visit sex workers. With Life Link though, he could potentially keep himself topped up with life points even if he limited himself to Kristina, Hazel, and hopefully Annie—if she didn’t kill him first.
Relying on Life Link too much, however, would be a little bit too dangerous.
Kris and Hazel seemed to lose their inhibitions, their sense of restraint and self-control after their sessions. He had to space himself out between them, keep himself topped up. He could theoretically try sex workers again, avail of their services for extra experience and to give his partners some breathing space. The only problem was that demons were just too hot right now. He was pretty sure that Clara and the others were talking to the confeds, sharing what they knew about him.
“Oh right,” Glenn spoke aloud after downing the last spoonful of pizza-flavored slush before tossing the cup in the sink for later washing. “When is my next appointment with the gene therapist, Ynnie?”
Ynnistoria: August 11, Glenn. In about a month’s time.
“Thanks.”
“You are rather unconventional for a demon, aren’t you?”
“You think? I’m not really that knowledgeable about other demons, so there’s little basis for me to go on.” Glenn paused, wondering why Ynnistoria’s voice sounded rather different from the usual tone that he ‘heard’ through his mental connection with her.
Ynnistoria: Behind you!!
He instantly whipped his head around, his eyes landing on a woman dressed in armored plate covered by a cape with its hood set down. White hair tied in a tight bun, arms crossed and face tilted in puzzlement as iridescent red eyes assessed him with a stern countenance.
He thought her face looked familiar. He spent a few moments digging through his memories until he finally realized where he had seen her: on the news, surrounded by cameras, as the spokesperson of the aliens hunting down the demons.
“Inasha Pridestar, at your service,” the stranger said, slightly inclining her head at him.
“Um. Hi. I’m—”
“Glenn Olson,” interrupted the woman. “I have been watching you, demon, and I am genuinely curious about you. This is why I am here, talking to you right now, instead of extinguishing your existence as I normally should.”
Glenn gulped, nervously eyeing Inasha as he sat down on the couch opposite the Amarian hero who just magically appeared inside his room. She just sat there, staring at him with equal intensity.
That’s when his digital assistant chirped in, giving her two cents.
Ynnistoria: I would have advised evasion at all costs, Glenn, but… well… there is no escaping now.
Glenn: I… can imagine. How screwed am I?
Ynnistoria: A lone Amarian hunter is capable of killing a mature demon by herself. A team of Amarian hunters can take down a greater demon with some difficulty. A heroic? Those take down prime demons all by themselves, especially demons stupid enough to catch their attention while in the mortal realm.
Ynnistoria: Long story short: you are completely, utterly, and hopelessly screwed.
Glenn winced as his digital assistant ruthlessly laid out the facts to him, and he fought hard to keep his breathing steady.
Ynnistoria: Before I die, let me just say that you are a useless lump of meat, and I wish from the bottom of my heart that I killed you before getting myself trapped in this insufferable prison of meat that—
ImmerCorp Anti-Malware Shield has detected anomalous behavior! Please wait a moment while we clear that up for you!
… … … !!! … … … … … … …
ImmerCorp Anti-Malware scan completed! We found [1] issue, and have automatically treated the infected file for you!
Glenn would have laughed out loud if he wasn’t terrified out of his pants. Here he was, thinking only the best of his digital assistant, when it seemed that she didn’t quite share his sentiments. Either that, or it was the last act of desperate defiance from someone facing imminent death.
“Now before you do anything stupid,” cautioned the stranger while holding up a gauntleted finger in the air. “Let me just say that I can whip out my holy blade, summon magical bindings, and cast blasts of light all in the blink of an eye. My spells cut through the ether, meaning you can’t phase through them,” the stranger warned just as Glenn considered doing just that. “I am immune to mental manipulations of any kind, so don’t bother trying any of your Lust Demon tricks on me. My armor can and already has deflected earth-shattering blows from demons far more powerful and malevolent than you.
“I can also just pummel you to dust with these beauties right here,” she said with finality, wiggling her gauntleted fingers before forming a tight fist that literally glowed with power.
Glenn nodded, thoroughly intimidated, which earned an approving nod from the armored thug threatening him with mortal doom. Inasha then leaned back on Glenn’s couch, crossed her arms, and resumed staring at Glenn.
He blinked. She stared. He coughed and fidgeted. She continued staring. He shifted uneasily, looking around him as he expected her to end his life. Still she stared.
Five agonizing minutes later, Glenn finally mustered up enough courage to break the silence. “So, um, Miss Inasha Pridestar.”
“Hmm?”
“How may I help you?”
The hero snickered, fighting back a grin. “Yes, an unconventional demon indeed.”
Glenn pursed his lips at her comment, trying his best not to wince at what sounded like an insult. It had been a long, long day dealing with Annie, and all he wanted to do was just chill and go to sleep.
Inasha wrapped up her snickering fit, reached behind her neck, slipped the hood over her head… and promptly disappeared.
Glenn startled at that, gawking at the empty space in his couch. A slight creaking sound, and the depression of Inasha’s weight on the cushions disappeared.
“Being a demon, you must know that your kind is drawn toward specific individuals. Most of the Marked never survive their encounters with your kind, and we only ever realize they’re Marked when we come across their lifeless corpses.”
The disembodied voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. He couldn’t pinpoint her location even after swiveling his head left and right.
Glenn: Some kind of cloak of invisibility?
Ynnistoria: That is most likely, Glenn. A powerfully-enchanted one as well, considering it hides her signature so completely. I know she is in this room, but I cannot sense even a hint of power from her.
Glenn: Thanks, Ynnie. So, uh, what you said earlier? About killing me?
Ynnistoria: Query unclear, Glenn. Could you please rephrase the question?
“So imagine my surprise when one of my hunter teams reported that a Marked woman survived her stalker when it attacked.” Inasha’s disembodied words brought Glenn back to the present, and he shivered as he thought he felt the ghost of a blade’s edge graze his neck.
“I followed this woman after this world’s authorities released her. I thought I could perhaps ambush the demon that Marked her, do what I do best instead of wrestling with an endless parade of flapping mouths. Your people do love their politics, and I get enough of that back home.”
Glenn gulped, still not sure where the heroic demon hunter was going with all this. Inasha reappeared in front of him, pulling her hood back down with one hand and using the other to wield a glowing falchion. The
weapon twinkled, the light on its tapered edge painful to his eyes. He forced himself to look at Inasha’s face instead, ignore the very real possibility that she’d swipe that blade and cut him down with a single stroke.
She seemed to approve, rewarding him with a surprisingly warm smile.
“I expected a wounded Terror Demon would come sniffing around after her, try to siphon off some power from its failed hunt. I instead stumbled across the strangest of sights: a Lust Demon cavorting with women instead of devouring them and leaving desiccated husks in its wake.”
Glenn startled at that, straightening in his seat. If Inasha was telling the truth, then an invisible demon hunter had indeed been stalking him ever since Annie had first barged in on him. And if she just popped up here right now, then that meant…
His distress only emboldened Inasha, who rubbed her chin with a gauntleted finger as she studied his reaction. “Yes, Glenn Olson, I was there for everything. From when the Marked woman threatened you, to your explanations of what you are, to the way that other woman passionately defended your character. Hazel, was it?”
Inasha sheathed her sword, extinguishing its light and its threat to his life. He breathed a sigh of relief, both annoyed at the theatrics of the woman and glad that it was all just a gesture to intimidate him.
“I was also there when you were engaged in sexual congress with Annie—Anastasia—and lulled her into a false sense of security, lowering her guard and allowing you to slip past her mental defenses.”
Glenn schooled his face into neutrality, forcing himself to control his emotions now that he knew that Inasha was playing some kind of game with him. He held his tongue, waiting for Inasha to continue.
“What would you have done if you had succeeded, hm? What would have happened to that woman if I had not subtly prodded at her sleeping mind, slipped a thin thread of healing light into her soul to wake her up from her slumber?”
Glenn fought against the grimace trying to force its way out of his mouth. Annie recovered unnaturally quickly from the rather forceful methods of his session with her. He attributed her recovery to her irrepressible will, but it would appear that this hunter was actually responsible for ruining his plans.
He nodded slowly, considering his words then. Could he try lying to the hero in front of him? What plausible story could he present that would convince Inasha to spare his life? How much of his initial plans should he share with the woman whose job was to hunt down demons like himself?
He spent a few more moments thinking, then inhaled deeply before bracing himself.
“Honestly? I would have used whatever tools I have at my disposal to convince Annie to back off.” He met Inasha’s gaze head-on, squaring himself for what he needed to say. “I’m not sure if you know her, but she doesn’t make idle threats. If she says she’s going to ruin the lives of my friends, then she is going to do just that: ruin their lives.”
“So you would have enthralled her, turned her into your tool,” said Inasha, sitting back down in the same spot she occupied a few moments before.
“NO!” Glenn shot back with more heat than he intended, pushing himself off the couch. He remembered himself when runic glyphs materialized in the air, the glowing center of their spinning circles all aimed at him. He coughed into a balled fist, sitting back down, and the glyphs dissolved into thin air.
Inasha just smirked, lazily tapping her chin.
“No, I would not have enthralled her. I used to possess the ability to enthrall people, but it changed into Soothe—a spell that calms someone down, makes them less aggressive. I upgraded that skill just now, adding the ability to Imprint myself on people and make them more likely to listen to my suggestions.
“But even that’s different from Enthrall. If I remember correctly, Enthrall wipes out someone’s consciousness—erases their personality altogether. Imprint doesn’t do that. If I understand it right, Imprint would have just made her view me with more affection, more friendliness.
“And even then, I would have used it to just reduce her hostility, make her less inclined to harm Kris, Haze, and Sam. You’re a hero, right? With weird heroic skills? Maybe you have some skill or spell that tells you I’m being as honest as I can here!”
It was Inasha’s turn to raise her brows in surprise right before she released a good-hearted chuckle. “Yes, I do so happen to have a truth-seeing spell running. In fact…” She grinned, and a white glowing glyph revealed itself in the air. “Huh. That’s interesting. I expected gray, maybe even brown or pink if you’d tried mental manipulation. But white?” She chuckled once more, shaking her head with amusement. “Your friend Annie was right: you are shit at manipulating people.”
“Um. Thanks?”
Inasha’s amusement died away, her gaze sharpening as she considered his words. “One moment. Did you just say that this spell of yours—Soothe—it used to be Enthrall?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“How did that happen?”
“I’m… not entirely sure. I—”
(Good boys keep secrets. You’re being a good boy, aren’t you?)
“—really don’t have any clue how this works. It was just there when I was transformed into a demon.”
“Wait… you were transformed into a demon?”
“Yes?” Inasha’s sharp question raised alarm bells in Glenn’s mind, and he responded automatically without thinking.
“What were you originally?”
“Err, human… like everyone else on the planet.”
“And you’re not from the void realms?”
“From where?”
“The void realms? The planes where demons spawn from deep darkness and primal chaos?”
“Um. No. As far as I remember, I was… I was…” Glenn furrowed his brows in thought, pouting as he scratched his mind for memories about his past. The pain flared then, and he winced as it cut through him.
The truth glyph that Inasha summoned flared black and purple, crackling violently, before settling back to white. Inasha hummed to herself, nodding, as she turned her attention back to Glenn.
“You’re enthralled.”
“I’m… wait, what?”
Inasha studied the floating glyph, her white hair wobbling as she shook her head. “You’re enthralled, Glenn Olson. My glyph detected the mental manipulation twice now. I initially picked up a weak whisper, barely detectable. What you felt just now was far more forceful, more violent in its manipulation.”
She unsummoned the glyph, which dissipated like smoke in the wind. “But that is rather strange. The enthralled end up becoming mental cripples, drooling slaves disconnected from the waking world. You, however, seem rather conscious and wakeful for a thrall. Very curious indeed.”
She whispered under her breath, her gauntleted fingers flitting through the air and leaving glowing lines in their wake.
“What are you doing?” asked Glenn, his voice trembling as Inasha continued working on a rather complex set of glyphs.
“Preparing to break the enthrallment ward wrapped around your mind. Now shush… I need to concentrate.”
He squirmed nervously as Inasha wove complicated runes one atop the other. “Are you sure it’s safe? I mean, I am technically a demon here. My last experiment with water blessed by a divine entity wasn’t exactly encouraging.”
“Oh, don’t be such a crybaby. I’ve banished dozens of enthrallment wards in the past couple of years. This one will be as easy as one, two, thr—"
He yelped as the bright glyphs wrapped themselves around his head, and he cried out even louder when blinding white light slammed inside his eyeballs.
One moment he was choking soundlessly while the glyphs worked their way inside his mind, the next he was staring at Inasha as she lay groaning on the ground. He blinked his stupor away, banished the last traces of confusion, before kneeling beside the fallen hunter to check on her.
“Inasha! Inasha, are you all right?” Two glyphs fla
shed into existence as he tried shaking her awake, skewering his left shoulder and right thigh with condensed needles of light. All this happened in the blink of an eye, the needles of the glyphs materializing and darting out so quickly that it took him a full three seconds to register.
Ynnistoria: The hunter’s armor is enchanted with automated defenses of some kind! Move away, before you get speared with more attacks!
Glenn immediately scrambled away, trailing bright red blood in his wake. Another needle struck him in his back, and he yelped out in pain when the projectile pierced a squishy organ inside his gut.
1,500 holy damage received! (4,100 Life Points remaining)
1,600 holy damage received! (2,500 Life Points remaining)
1,300 holy damage received! (1,200 Life Points remaining)
Glenn Olson
Mature Incubus
Life Points
1,200/6,600
Glenn pulled himself away from the unconscious hunter, biting down on his tongue to avoid screaming out loud. Fortunately for him, no further needles followed after the third one. He groaned out in pain and relief when he escaped the effective range of whatever protective spell guarded the unconscious hunter.
The massive Life Point boost of his three consecutive level-ups was the only reason he was still alive. Of course, he could have avoided this entire scenario altogether if he didn’t recklessly approach the hunter.
