Face of Eternity : The Little Angel

Logistically speaking, our info and supplies were not doing so well. Not only were we severely lacking in stardust power to fight demons, but we also didn’t even know the true power of the enemy.

That was okay though. We’d been in tighter spots and made it through. Well, this might be the worst situation of my life to date…but I had confidence in our skills, and a prayer in my heart!

“How exactly do we storm the castle, Old Man?” Indena asked Uncle.

“Without knowing the layout, rushing in there would be a terrible idea.” Uncle held his chin and tipped his hat down, trying to come up with a possible way to get more info. “We don’t even know what the streets are like, and I don’t want us running around them like chicken again.”

The biggest issue right now was that our maps couldn’t download schematics of the location. And even if we could get the maps filled out, who’s to say the demons couldn’t just change the roadways on the fly? We had to expect strange things like that to happen.

The next best option was to send out a scout to gather info for us, but nobody was good enough to travel out there aimlessly…

Maybe I had an idea, but was I willing to risk my pet snake, who I loved so much?

I snuck into a corner and started whispering to Samael “Samael, you think you could maybe get us info on the roads?”

“Sss?” He hissed.

“Yeah. It would be just like back at the beach when I asked you to spy on the others for me. I think you’re the only one who can do this safely.”

With his small size and quickness, he’d be a hard target for the demons to catch, if they even noticed him.

“…” He slithered down to a table, then looked like he wanted to bite one of the crystal hearts on my arm. “Ss.” That was him giving this plan a go.

“Alright.” I pulled the crystal heart from my arm. “Here. Now that you’ve said it’s okay, we can tell the oth…”

I turned around and saw everyone freakishly crowding around me, staring on with bug eyes.

“…others?” I finished my sentence. “Were you guys listening?”

“We were,” Uncle replied.

I started pouting, stomping my feet in frustration. This was supposed to be a secret in case Samael didn’t want to do it!

“That’s actually not a bad idea, Yalda,” Emily said. “If your snake is brave enough for this, then we’ll be in business.”

“That snake’s brave enough, trust me.” Indena commented.

He’d done this once already, so I think he’ll be good. But the problem is that there were a lot more threats this time, so would he truly be okay?

~☆☆☆~

Like the time before, I could see and communicate from my spare heart in Samael’s mouth.

As Samael slithered through the streets and through buildings, I was drawing up a map of what I was seeing.

It was perfect! My map was really coming together before too long, and Samael was easily able to evade the notice of any of the night hags. Even when he was about to encounter one, they were just lazily lying on the ground, not caring if he passed by. Maybe snakes didn’t bother them?

“How’s the map coming along?” Uncle asked.

“Oh, it’s great!” I continued to jot things down, but I didn’t want them to see until it was finished. It’s an artist thing, you know? “I’ve been marking down all the streets in green. The safest route I marked in blue.”

Surprisingly, the safe route was pretty direct. It was a big street with very little demon activity.

Finally, Samael reached the entrance to the castle. It was at the end of a big circular plaza. The demons were actually fortifying that position, setting up bowalkers on the roofs and night hags in crevasses and alleyways that would make it simple for them to jump us. A very tall demon with a military esc helmet was calling the shots.

Was that the demon lord? No… He didn’t look him at all. He actually looked like one of the tall demons Mella and I fought on the roof of the Longitude tower.

The tall demon pointed out to the streets, scattering large numbers of demons out onto the roads. There was something big stomping in the fog, but it was really hard to tell what it was. Samael was too afraid to check. It was definitely something formidable, so I couldn’t blame him.

Since we had all this info, Samael returned back to us, confirming that the safe route was still viable.

“Done!” I said, signing the corner of the map with my name in Nazalian. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a path!”

It wasn’t perfect, and I’m sure there’d be some unpredictable elements…but based on what Samael found, this would be the best way to go.

“Alright, let me see…the map?” Uncle looked a little shocked as he inspected the paper, then he face palmed. “Oh boy…”

Indena took a peek at the map drawing too. “What the heck is this? It’s a bunch of messy squiggles!”

Emily gave me a fake smile after taking a look of her own, then patted my head. “Good job.”

“She could bury treasure and nobody would ever find it with these skills,” Indena said.

You know what? I’d like to see them draw a better map from a snake’s perspective! I for one think it’s a work of art!

My pouty face turned up to the max and I stuck my tongue out at them.

“Turds!” I called them all.

The maximum pouty face started to fail and I got really sad. Was my drawing really that bad?

*Sniffle* *Sniffle*

Uncle let out a sigh, then knelt down and pointed to a smiley face on the map.

“This is where we currently are, right?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“And this big birthday cake is the castle, yes?”

That wasn’t a birthday cake. It was the big tower thingies around the castle. I gave them big pillars of fire rising out of their tops to make them look more menacing. I don’t know if fire was actually coming out of them in real life, but I took some liberties with the drawing.

“Yeah. The entrance is this part here.”

“And these angry faces everywhere are supposed to be enemies?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Large groups of them.”

“Okay…” Uncle did his best to trace out the blue route from our current location to the castle, asking me to clarify a few spots. “This should work then.” He handed the paper back to me. “We’ll gather some gear and head out. Young Mistress, you’ll be navigating us. I have an idea of where we need to go, but just in case…”

“Okay.” I could understand the map, so that wouldn’t be an issue.

“Good. Let’s get set and ready to leave.”

“Yes, captain.” Indena playfully saluted.

~☆☆☆~

After gearing up, we took to the streets again. Indena was the only one who altered her arsenal, taking fire proof gloves with makeshift stardust knuckles attached to them. I’d have to make sure to re-grow the stardust every so often for her, but those things would increase her damage against the demons for sure!

The night hags were quick to find our position once we were out in the open, sending word to their friends with loud grumbles and screeches. Not much time passed before their swarms came after us again.

“Take that!” I jabbed my spear at one, using the momentum to swing around and cut a few more of them with the blade. All of them turned to dust.

Uncle was doing the bulk of the work here with his longsword. His wide sweeps cut down dozens of the little devils at once. I'd come in and poke at those he missed to finish the job.

Indena wasn't messing around either with those stardust knuckles. She was punching them out like a speedy pro MMA fighter!

Carving through these little guys was like mowing an overgrown lawn. It takes time, but it looks much better when it's done.

*THUD!*

*THUD! THUD!!*

*CRASH!*

A car went flying, hitting a building and landing on some night hags!

Uncle pulled me out of the way. Then we all stayed quiet, awaiting what was at the end of the street…

*THUD!*

Amidst the fog ahead, something big stomped its way toward us…

This thing looked like an oversized night hag, but with a more melty looking feminine face, kinda' like a stereotypical witch mixed with a hyena.

Whenever she would go to strike something out of her path, her arms would swell with red veins, then slam into the object and send it flying.

“What is that fugly thing?!” Indena questioned.

*CRASH!*

Windows shattered as a big mailbox hit a building!

Uncle covered over us to protect from falling debris.

-WARNING! Harrowing Class demon sighted!-

-Harrowing Hag identified. Tagged; Foe-

According to my HELP menu, Harrowing class demons were the equivalent of Dire class monsters. Big, mean and very strong.

She wasn’t fast, but she made big strides using her powers to swell her legs and leap forward.

Her big arm nearly backhanded Uncle, but his sword clashed with it just in time.

The stardust flame of the sword was burning the skin of the hulking hag, but like a dull knife, couldn’t cut through.

Her other arm reeled back to hit Uncle, but I stabbed it with my spear.

“Raaah!” she screamed in pain.

Little night hags started racing out from all over, like a bee hive had been shaken.

Indena was trying to take care of them with her fire, but that also got the harrowing hag’s attention on her.

“Raaah!” the hag screamed and easily threw Uncle aside, then attempted to reach Indena, only to be thwarted by my spear.

“Take that, ugly!”

I got her right in the chest, but missed the heart.

She threw her fist out and punched me hard, sending me flying back, but Indena retaliated with a flamethrower attack to force the demon back.

While stumbling backwards, the hag flailed her arms around wildly, crashing them into lamp posts and walls. Uncle waited for the moment to jump in.

She recovered, but seemed exhausted, slumping over and taking heavy breaths.

Uncle now saw an opening, racing in and stabbing his longsword right through her back!

“Raaah!” She screamed, then rays of light burst from her skin!

She exploded into sparkling dust, leaving a pile of ash on the ground. As with the bowalker demons, a person was slumbering in the ash, this one was an elderly woman.

“What do we do about the old lady?” Indena asked, punching out the straggler night hags that focused almost exclusively on her.

“Grab her,” Uncle ordered. “We’ll leave her somewhere safer than this.

We could hear more of those hulking abominations ahead. Our safe route was compromised, so it was time for a little detour.

-Yalda's Map-