She Demon

by A P Gore

  Did he kill someone behind the throne?

  Noah creeped closer to the throne. “Esteemed High Priest. I have a question for you, if you don’t mind.” He pulled his copper-3 crystal out as a prop, just to keep the attention of the high priest away from him. “I need to analyze this crystal. Can you do that for me please?”

  The high priest turned back, forehead creased with annoyance. “I don’t help humans.”

  “Just this once, Esteemed One. I’ll be in your debt forever. And I don’t think there is anyone in town who can do this. No one is as powerful as you, after all.”

  “Okay. But just this once. And I’m only doing this because you retrieved this.” His eyes traced back to the diadem like it was his most prized possession. That look bothered Noah, because the diadem belonged to the head demon, not the nosy priest holding it.

  Noah handed the crystal to the priest, looking closely at the priest’s face for the first time. Along with a pointy nose, there was a scar above his left eye.

  That sealed the deal for Noah. The bastard priest was the demon who had killed him again and again and again—the sly fox!

  Noah inched closer to the throne, keeping his focus on the priest. “One more question, please. What level do you think I need to be before I can leave town and start heading to the human town?”

  “That’s a good question. I would say today, and now. You are level 9. I think that’s high enough to go back to where you belong and stop causing trouble for us demons.” He spun suddenly and flung a fire ball at Noah.

  Noah jumped behind the throne to avoid the blazing ball of fire. He stumbled on something lying on the floor—no, someone lying on the floor. The head demon lay there. Dead. A butcher knife stuck out of his chest. A butcher knife Noah knew intimately.

  The anger in his heart flared to a blazing inferno. He’d been waiting for this day, the day when he would meet his killer. This bastard had caused him so much pain that he nearly lost his mind. At the same time, Noah felt sorry for not trusting his friend, Roderich. Still, he didn’t understand what Roderich was doing in the sacrificial grounds, killing the goblin female.

  “Come out, you mouse! I know you’ve seen the old geezer’s corpse. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. You’d just come back, anyway.”

  Noah didn’t believe the killer high priest. He was a fraud, a betrayer of his own kind. “Why did you kill me, then? And why would you kill your own?”

  “You were an annoyance. No one comes to town with a blessing from the fucking whore and claims everyone’s approval. When I saw your title, your fate was sealed. Fucking Sumara did this to our town, sent us to the depths of hell, and yet the old fool still prayed to her. I had to do something about it, and killing you was the first thing.”

  The hatred in his tone made Noah sick. So sick that he feared that he would lose his lunch.

  The high priest continued, “That fucking whore took everything away from us, for god knows what reason. She practically wiped our existence from the surface of BlackFlame. Her curse killed every woman in the empire, even young female demons. And even though she killed his wife, the old fool still trusted in her and arranged a prayer for her every week.” He paused and laughed like a villain in a cheap cable show. “But there is an antidote for everything. Even for the curse of the first Cursemancer. I needed a female demon to sacrifice, and you brought one to our town for me. Now I can complete my sacrifice ritual and wipe Sumara from the face of BlackFlame. Once she is renounced as the goddess of this town, she will turn into an insignificant deity, incapable of doing anything to anyone. Yes, she will face her doom once I sacrifice the demon child you brought to us.” His chuckle echoed through the council hall, pushing Noah’s heart into a deep pit.

  “I won’t let you hurt my daughter. Not while I live.”

  “Of course not. But killing you won’t do me any good either. That’s why I’m going to trap you here for two days instead.”

  Black tendrils sprung from the floor and wrapped around Noah’s arms and legs, pinning him to the ground, leaving only his right hand free. He tried to remove the tendrils from his body, but he failed again and again.

  “Oh, so you have one hand open. How naïve of me to think that twenty percent of my demonic ability would be sufficient to lock you up completely.” The high priest laughed like a maniac and put the copper-3 crystal in Noah’s free hand before chanting another spell.

  Before the bastard priest finished his chanting, Noah cast Raise Zombie on the head demon’s corpse. The corpse of the head demon vanished from its place, and a dark light entered the crystal in his hand, turning the crystal into ashes. He had created a Raise Zombie curse; how foolish he was! That had been his only chance, and he’d lost it to his foolishness.

  “What was that? What did you just do?” The high priest bent and picked the ashes of the crystal from Noah’s hand, staring at them warily. “I’ll take this with me for safekeeping.” He winked and limped away, leaving Noah behind, fuming and frustrated. “Happy sleeping, human. Two more days, and then I’ll kill you so you’ll end up with some other random god. Too bad I don’t have a way to kill you for good.”

  Noah closed his eyes. He had once again failed to save the little girl he loved. Thia was in danger, and no matter what he did, the tendrils weren’t going anywhere.

  28. Curse of Raise Zombie

  The clock in Noah’s vision ticked away. It’d been an hour since the bastard priest had tied him with the tendrils. He closed his eyes when he couldn’t take any more of the dark, gloomy surroundings. There was a door not far away from him, he had tried to shout at it, hoping someone would come, but no one opened that door or entered it.

  The rumbling of his stomach and the foul smell of the head demon’s blood congealing on the floor were driving him mad, but he was angry at himself more than anything. The throne of the head demon was inches away, but he couldn’t even kick it to relieve his frustration.

  Thia was in danger, and he couldn’t do anything else but curse the bastard priest in his mind and feel the wetness of the blood under his fingers. At least his tattered armor wasn’t soaking up the blood. It was good for something, after all.

  His life in the game replayed behind his closed eyes. It sucked big time. He was an insignificant man in this brutal world of demons and monsters. Virtual life had gifted him two loving women, and he couldn’t save either one. All his boasted self-talk vanished like the façade of a fake smile.

  He tried free himself from the black tendrils, but nothing worked. His hands were bound, so he couldn’t even put himself on fire with his curse and die to respawn.

  Why the heck am I so miserable and powerless?

  Noah opened his eyes when the air stirred beside his head. The strong smell of ale caused an itching in his nostrils. It wasn’t the smell of ale from Mathial’s inn. It was bitter and bad. Turning his head, he found the blue pants demon standing beside him. Was he here for another pleasure kill? That would be great, actually. The blue pants demon raised his tail in the air, and it came down like a falling stone.

  Noah closed his eyes, expecting a swift death. Instead, the tendrils around his hands eased. He opened his eyes. The demon’s tail was slicing the black tendrils around his hand. The tail was cutting through the black tendrils like a sharp knife slicing fruit. It slipped once and cut open Noah’s forearm. It was painful, and cost Noah 10 points of life, but he didn’t say a word. Thia was in danger, and he needed all the help he could get to save her.

  The tail sped up as the tendrils gave way. “Xithala. Help. Human.” The demon in blue pants spoke for the first time. He had the same accent as Thia.

  Noah replied with a thankful smile. He didn’t mind the pain. He just needed to be free and get Thia out of the town. He would save his little girl at any cost. A plan was forming in his mind.

  As soon as Xithala, the blue pants demon, freed him, he an for the inn. He was going to pack his bags, gran Thia, and head for Rihala’s town. That bastard priest h
ad said two days for the ritual. By that time, he would be in Rihala’s town and Thia would be safe. He could figure everything else out later.

  What if the priest has taken Thia already?

  No way. Mathial would protect her with his life.

  Despite pumping all the spirit he could into his legs, it took him ten minutes to reach the inn. He received +1 to spirit run and +1 to spirit manipulation—increasing his speed by 1%—by the time he stopped at the inn’s gate. Sweat flowed down his neck and into his shirt, but he didn’t care. He barged inside the bar and went straight to his room. Thia wasn’t there. Nor was her bed, nor his bed. The room was back to being empty and dusty. He’d been gone for two days, but the room looked like it’d been empty for weeks.

  He raced down stairs and sprinted for the smithy.

  Mathial was pounding a silvery metal plate with his hammer.

  Noah paused to take a breath. “Where is Thia?”

  Mathial looked up, startled, then stepped back like he had seen a ghost. “Noah, what are you doing here?” A hint of fear leaked into his voice.

  “She is…” he paused and looked at the back door of the house. “Sleeping in the cellar.”

  Noah bit his lip. Another time, he would have fought with Mathial over putting her back in the cellar. He was only two days late on his rent, and the greedy blacksmith had already put his little girl in the tiny room.

  “I’m leaving town with Thia. Do you know where I can find Roderich?” He needed the antidote. He might have a few days before Thia need it again, but it would be safer if he could keep a bunch of doses with him. “Come with us, friend. It might hurt your feelings, but trust me, this town is full of crazy people.”

  Mathial tucked his hammer behind his belt. “What do you mean? Why do you want to leave town?” His right hand moved to his back.

  Noah stepped forward, standing a step away from Mathial. “I’ve got news for you, man. The high priest is doing some ritual for which he needs a demon female sacrifice, and he is planning to sacrifice our Thia. Can you believe that? We need to get out of here before he finds out I escaped.”

  “If you die, how much time will you spend in your evil place?”

  “It’s called a respawn room, and it’s not evil.” Noah was taken aback for a moment by Mathial’s awkward belief. “But about a day. Why does it matter?”

  “It does, my friend, it does matter. Thanks for the information. We might have to speed up our ritual and do it in four hours.”

  “Your ritu—” A knife pierced Noah’s heart, scoring a crit, and then a hammer struck his head for another crit. His vision went red, and his health plummeted. He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. He died in seconds, wondering why Mathial had killed him.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Noah woke in the respawn room with a nasty pain in his head and heart. The knife had scored a double crit on him, dealing almost 350 damage. The next hit with the hammer had finished him off. The pain was brutal, but the agony in his heart overpowered any other effect the game put him through.

  Noah ordered five cups of coffee and emptied them on the white table. If he had his armor, he would have destroyed it with his hand. Mathial, the bastard, had betrayed him. How could he? How could he betray Thia? How could he not love that small girl who called him uncle—especially when he’d lost his own little girl to a goblin raid?

  Damn you all! This is so painful.

  Noah grabbed his head and slumped in his chair when he couldn’t shred the coffee cup any further.

  This is all a game, Noah. Just let it go. Start a fresh with a new deity.

  “Yes, this is all a game. Thia, with her sweet innocent smile, is a piece of code. Her selflessness and love were digital. Rihala is another piece of code. Her taut ass is part of that code.” He paused, looking up. “Yes, everything is code, Sumara.”

  He slammed his hand on the table, embracing the pain.

  “Then why does it feel so real?” The pain was real. His feelings were real. He wanted to save both women, but he’d failed miserably. He’d failed to protect the ones he loved. He’d failed in real life, and now he was failing in virtual life too.

  “Why is this happening to me, Sumara? Why?”

  “I can give you a hint.” Sumara’s voice echoed in his mind.

  “Why are you talking to me? Run away. Soon your existence will be wiped from the world.”

  “No one can wipe me out of this pseudo-earth, Noah.”

  “Aren’t you afraid of what the high priest is doing with the last bit of your followers?”

  “No. But I don’t like someone spilling coffee for stupid reasons.” There was a hint of anger in her voice.

  “Why do you even care? I’m just a player in your grand scheme—if there is one.”

  “I won’t convince you of anything you don’t want to hear. I only helped you because… It had been a long fucking time since I met someone, human. A damn long time.” A hint of loneliness leaked into her voice.

  “Can you send me back?” Noah asked, hopeful that she was trying to help him. “I’ll order you all my coffee quota for the next month.”

  “Really?” she asked, sounding happy. “But I can’t send you back. That’s a fucking hardcore rule of the game. No goddess can directly help her follower. Plus, you haven’t done anything to earn my blessings, yet.”

  “Please, Goddess Sumara, think about this. If the high priest succeeds, I’ll be assigned to a new god, and you won’t get the coffee you love.”

  She sighed. “I can live with that. Don’t forget I lived without it for millions of years. It’s been a long journey to this point. I just don’t care about anything anymore.” She sounded tired. Not long day tired, but lifelong tired.

  “Can you at least help my little girl? She is in danger.” All the hope and anger was gone from Noah’s voice. Only pure helplessness remained.

  “I can only give you a hint about how you can defeat the high priest.”

  “If I can’t go back in time, then what’s the use of going back at all?”

  “You’ve got that other girl, don’t you?”

  “Yes. She is pretty and has a heart of gold. But Thia…”

  A notification interrupted their conversation. A timer appeared, reading 1 hour for respawn.

  “Did you do something?” he asked, jumping to his feet and grinning. He was going back in one hour’s time after all.

  “No, I didn’t. A mage did this. Interesting. I didn’t know he could do this with a player.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He resurrected you at the expense of his own life. That’s a standard resurrection spell intended to be used by player mages. NPCs do get it, but they never use it. Interesting. I’d love to observe the human coder when his supervisor sees this after going through the thousands of error lines. He is acting like a real human.”

  “A real human?” Noah’s mind reeled. Something was off about the game. First the reputation glitch, and now an NPC mage giving his life to bring him back. “Who resurrected me?”

  She paused for a moment. “Someone named Roderich.”

  “Really?” Noah’s eyes almost jumped out of his eye sockets.

  Sumara stepped into the room. “You don’t have enough time, man. Order me some coffee, and then we can talk about your plan to kill the priest. He is a level 13 mage, and you are just a level 9 Cursemancer. You don’t even have access to the high-level curses.”

  “Shit! I only have…” He stared at the order menu. His quota had increased by three. Had it increased with his level?

  Noah ordered three cups. Sumara didn’t look pleased with the numbers, but she went ahead and devoured the coffee.

  “Okay, Goddess Sumara, bless me with your knowledge. How can I kill a level 13 demon?”

  “Just look at your new skill, dude.” She winked and vanished.

  Noah sighed and muttered, “What a bitch.”

  “I can still hear you,” Sumara’s disembodied voice said. �
�Next time, don’t waste my coffee on the table and I’ll try to be friendlier.” A giggle echoed through the respawn room.

  Noah opened his skill panel to check out his new skill.

  Curse of Raise Zombie (Level 1): Raise a zombie with your spirit. No corpse required. Available charges: 50/50. Zombie deals 50 damage. Zombie time: 1 minute. Zombie Life: 200 Spirit. Cost: 100. Synergy detected. Synergies with native skill Raise Zombie. +1 to the number of zombies per 2 levels in the native skill. +1 minute to zombie time per 2 levels in native skill. +10 to damage per 2 levels in native skill. - 5 spirit cost per 2 levels in Raise Zombie. Spell Level can’t be increased by skill points.

  Noah looked at his character sheet. He had 15 skill points left and his current Raise Zombie was at 5, giving him 2 spirit zombies at 90 spirit cost each.

  “What the heck.” He dumped all his remaining points in the native Raise Zombie skill, bringing it to level 20.

  Notifications once again flooded his vision.

  Congratulations! You have brought one of your skills to Initiate level. +10% to zombie time, +10% zombie speed. +100 experience.

  Congratulations! You have brought one of your skills to Apprentice level. +10% to zombie damage, +10% zombie speed. +500 experience.

  Congratulations! You have gained -1 to intelligence for putting all your skill points in one skill. I sometimes wonder how much worse you can get, and if it’s the last level of foolishness. You beat me every time.

  Congratulations! You have gained +2 to wisdom for believing in your goddess’s advice.

  One more nasty comment from the game, but Noah didn’t mind it. He looked at his Raise Zombie skill.

  Raise Zombie (Level 20, Apprentice): Raise 20 zombies (cap reached).

  Zombie Life: 700

  Zombie Damage: 117.65

  Zombie Time: 242 minutes

  Spirit cost: 125

  Then he remembered about the off-hand weapon with +1 to zombie. His Raise Zombie reached level 21, but as it was an odd level it didn’t add much to the Curse of Raise Zombie.