Chapter 39 – Let’s go already

"What the.. What the hell did you do?" I said as I squirmed.

"I summoned a healing shadow, don't worry my lady! You'll be good as new!" Abbadon smiled. 

"Hahaha, that's Abbadon for you. Good, you're doing your job. Though, you can use the celestial pool for healing, you know?" Dad was sort of chuckling, glancing at us. How the fuck, why did I end up with these psychos… 

It stopped hurting. I looked down. The shadow started shining in purple then disappeared into me, inside my stomach.. 

"What.. It stopped hurting but..." I stood up, Abbadon helped me and kept holding my arm and shoulder. 

"Okay now my lady?" Abbadon asked with worry in his tone, gazing intensely at me. 

"Y-yes..but where did the shadow go??" I stared at dad, then Abbadon.

Apollyon laid on the ground laughing. I glanced at her with anger but she of course paid me no mind. 

"Well, it fixes you up... Then it fuses with your damaged part to strengthen it. So, your ribs are now way stronger than they were!" he lit up as he explained, like he was thrilled to teach me something new. Wait, a power up shadow thing summoned by the destroyer of worlds? 

"O-okay… umh, well." I leaned my head to the side slightly and scratched my tummy. It got itchy inside for some reason now... That can't be good to have shadows inside you… 

"Oh, only got an itch from being strengthened by a shadow demon summoned by an Archdemon? Hah, fuck I'm proud! That's my daughter everyone!" he yelled out the last part, spinning around with his gigantic arms reaching out. 

I heard yells, cheers coming from all directions... Umh… What the. I haven't looked too much at the surroundings... But now I saw eyes glimmering a little here and there as I looked around. 

"I knew you'd survive everything." he looked at me with pride in his eyes, which had started to tear up.

Aw... That's kind of… Wait. Survive? 

"Wait, I could've died??" I yelled. Again?! 

He chuckled. 

"Well, nooo… You're my daughter! And your mother's daughter! A symbiont shadow won't kill you no matter how strong it is!" he dried his eyes off with his arm. "You look so much like her..." he said, sniveling. 

“Aww, dad.. “ I hugged him. I kinda teared up. I miss her… But I got my hope back, having dad confirm my hunch isn’t a hunch, it’s in fact a demonic trait. 

 

-Explanation time-

Demons have a racial trait that they can always know if someone(Anyone) is alive or dead. As an example, If someone asks a demon, “do you know if my Grandma is alive?” they instinctively gets a feeling sort of, a hunch... Or a stomach feeling. Telling them if that grandma in this scenario is dead or not. 

Another example would be if they think about someone and wonder, “Is she dead?” they get a feeling pulsating through them, good for alive and bad for dead. Like, a butterfly stomach feeling if alive, and a shiver if dead. Or the other way around if they wish the person would be dead or hate the person. 

It can be handy, not that demons are helpful normally. And they're very hard to find and even harder to get to cooperate. And about 10% among the lowest ranked demons doesn't have this ability working to the max so to speak. 

The foxdemon, Sato (The Thordemonsned King, Nana's dad) fell in love with an Elf named Yukio(Nana's mom) and has through finding love become a nicer demon. His clan of demons are allied with Ssargeni sort of.(more on that another time)

But there are more clans of demons out there. A lot not that nice. 

-Explanation end-

 

"Oh, look, you opened a rift to my throne?" dad let go with one hand and pointed. The rift was stil, just a small oblong rip. Like, an oblong window with lightning borders, spitting sparks of magical energy. Blue, purple, white and black mixed lightning looking energy. Which makes me curious.. 

I held out my hand and chanted. "smsöudrts"(Analyse) while focusing on the energy. 

Thunder, Demonic, Celestial, Darkness and Light and an element that blocked my analysis... The elements in that mixture... Ah, thunder is unlocked by storm+flame if I remember Emin correctly... Emin, wonder where he fits into the whole situation at home. We hadn't even have time to go through all of the things we found in the first sanctum me and Herod found. We gotta bring an end to the pureblood lunatics as soon we possibly can. Before they make more nests… wonder how they even managed to build those underground places… Those sanctums can't have been easy to make. Well, nevermind that for now. 

Let's get this done. I smiled, clenching my fist in my newfound realisation that I really needed to get back and get shit done. 

"Good, always be curious and try to figure out what spells consist of or how it's done!" Apollyon said as she gave a thumbs up. 

"As long as you're safe first my lady." Abbadon glared at Apollyon. She just made a pfft sound. "She can take a few hits no problem, you're just going to earth." she said, jumped up a tad and just laid on her back in the air, floating in long circles around us. Or, big circles. 

"You're so fucking useless, you do fucking realize she's the fucking Princess you disgusting turtle snot slime, you're job is to keep them fucking SAFE!" Abbadon's outburst had sent ripples of purple waves of... what looked like smoke, in all directions. It felt like pure magic that emanated from him. It seem to make everything it hits rot. The Arachnids a small distance away fell over writhing in pain. 

 

What looked like fairies popped out of seemingly nowhere and started to repair the damage caused by his shockwave. They healed up the Arachnids in no time and fixed up mushrooms and such that was rotted. The stream of water-smoke or what ever seemed okay though. 

The fairies, are they In purgatory too? They don't seem dead at all. 

One of them was a tad bigger than the others, at 100cm in length or so, wings as big as themselves, maybe bigger. The others I'd say was about 80 and 60cm, plus minus a little. 

The big one and the smallest one was blue in skin and wings, sort of normal blue and light blue skin, as if it shifted constantly in spots. Both colors were always present, so I don't mean it shifted between the colors. More like, they floated around on them. 

The little one had a little white in the mixture as well. 

The middle one was pink and purple. It's wings pink only. 

The middle one and the tiny one was female. They had quite the perfect body measurement ratio for women, if it was scaled down then I mean. Hard to say exactly what their measurements were. They had long hair reaching down below their feet, with a color matching them. The tiny one had light blue hair and the pink one had pink. As you'd maybe guess. The female ones wore long sleeveless dresses, I think it's a dress...its split at the hip on both sides, having the material cover back and front but not restricting leg movement. 

The big one was male. He looked really big, ripped. He sure had a perfect body measurement ratio as well, for a tiny body builder… 

I'd have to let them take their measurements to know exactly.. But damn, they looked really cool and amazing. 

"Hey, Abbadon, chill. What if you'd hit Nana with that huh?" Dad raised an eyebrow at him, arms crossed. Kinda felt like dad would laugh and come up with a reason why it would be healthy to take a rot-aura to the face… 

"Oh my fuck, you're right sir! I…" he looked quite panicked. "I didn't think that far..." he bowed down with his forehead to the ground before him, begging sort of I suppose. 

"Haha don't apologise to me, she's over there you moron!" Dad pointed at me and smiled at me. I was watching the fairies though, and he realised I was gazing at the fairies cleaning up as I didn't react to his comment towards Abbadon. 

Abbadon threw himself at my feet grovelling, saying sorry over and over. I directed my gaze at dad though and didn't pay Abbadon any attention right now as dad started to talk. 

"You taking an interest in the fairies hun?" He looked at them as well. I nodded at dad and replied with a mumbled 'yes' as I directed my gaze back at the fairies. Dad walked over and stood beside me. 

There was basically no information about them. Only random reports of sightings. 

"Well, I had a pair asking if they could live here. They're not exactly shy." he chuckled, stroking his beard. "The red one of them, the one that's a tad bigger than the big one out there now cleaning up" he pointed over at the fairy. "It came here to this dimension asking for the boss." he chuckled. 

"oh, so... Did they know... This was, or is, demon territory? I just assume it is since..." I poked my dad on his side. "Right, right, the king is a demon. But yes, you're right. This realm is mine and my demons." he smiled. I looked around at the terrain. Sure was a weird place, hovering rivers of smoke-water with skeletons, or zombie-(since they had flesh left in random spots)fish. Mushroom looking trees with deadly poisons in them. A purple-ish, black, grey and pink landscape with purple, black and more rarely white rocks. Gravel and sand mostly. The forest of mushroom trees that looks gigantic. Rain going sideways in the sky not even hitting the ground. What looked like an ocean wall further down... Going up into the sky, as far as I could see with my eyes it had no end. 

And only dark, light, demonic, shadow and celestial magic worked. And apparently thunder. A slight chill went down my spine as I saw something float by. 

Hum. I think I just saw what looked like a human, but very see-through, fly past me... A ghost? Better not think about it.

 

I shook my head. Yes this has been a weird experience for sure... 

"soo, where do they come from?" I asked and looked at him. "Stand up, it's okay Abbadon, geeez!" I got a tad annoyed by his grovelling. He stood up and replied "Yes mam, as you wish!" as he bowed and backed up. 

Dad chuckled. "They didn't say much about it, but somewhere well hidden. They came asking if they could stay in exchange for services." he mumbled, stroking his beard. “They might have fled their home perhaps. Why else hide in this dimension?” he shrugged as he said the last part. Looking a bit confused. 

“Well, shall we?” He pointed to the rift and walked through. Huh. But, what about the body thing? I walked through as well, Abbadon and Apollyon followed. 

“But, didn’t you say that bodies would be left behind?” I scratched my head looking confused. She giggled. 

“Well, when you’re a demon that doesn’t happen. Mortals can’t even see the rifts if they don’t open it themselves.” She smiled. That’s a big fucking detail to leave out… I sighed.

"Oh, but they can… eh, nevermind. Not important." she mumbled to herself. Fucking demons! I shook my head and thought, fuck it, I'll find out eventually. Damn demons. 

It started closing slowly as I had passed through. It took maybe one minute or so in total. It slowly shrunk and ended with a spark, like a small firework, and it was gone.

“Well done! I’m proud of you my girl!” He said as he hugged me, and kept hugging for a while. 

"I love you, I hope you know that. " he whispered, calm as he hugged me. 

"I know dad, I love you too." I hugged extra hard.

I guess I won't see him for a while again. He was smiling behind my back, Apollyon had not seen him smile like that in years. 

He let go and dried his eyes with his arm. 

"let's see if you can make one of these rifts leading... To your body... Or home. Focus on your body though." he said. He was smiling wide, proud. I noticed him gleeming with pride, but with tears in his eyes as well. Which one who didn't know him wouldn't see of course. Its hard to notice slightly teary eyes on a foxman. 

But I knew. I saw. 

"I can come visit you know, or you me!" I said as I looked at him pouting a bit. He laughed for a moment. "Just as cute as your mother. And sure thing hun." he said and patted my head as a sad smile now grew on his face. Huh. 

"Now let's see it." he said. He kept smiling. Aw. He's pretty sensitive. I know he wants to cry but puts on the tough guy act... Oh well. I can make him proud. I will make him even prouder. 

 

I opened the rift back to earth. 

Apparently time has moved way slow in purgatory according to dad so, they can't have gotten far after me…

umh. 

Departure I guess? 

I had no idea you could actually just, rip up a hole leading into another reality… 

Maybe that's what mom did? 

Escaped? But… how many dimensions are there?... 

"And dad's been looking as well for her. "

I mumbled a bit to myself as I opened the rift, it's of course a skill from the time and spatial category it seems.

I just sort of load up on magic power and imagine I want to go back to my body, in this specific case, and then I sort of imagine tearing up a rift before me by imagining myself cutting the... Material of the universe? That's how I imagine it anyway...

It opened up, then expanded into a circular form that I precisely would fit through when my wings weren't out. Hum… 

 

First it showed a black static screen. Looked like a camera looking for focus, failing at gaining focus on the object but still progressing slowly towards getting the object into focus. But it started out as pitch black, then slowly faded into a picture of the room where my body was. 

So, that's what I meant with a camera that's looking for focus. And in that black screen the image of my body started taking shape. Wait. Not sure if that description made sense. Eh, I'm confused here myself. 

I was at home by the looks of it, with… Yuna crying over me...

And Daeron...

Sorry guys, I'm on my way!

 

Yuna and Daeron suddenly looked up looking surprised. 

Oh, Kiwi! Maybe Kiwi told them something? 

She must've stayed behind, or not be able to visit this dimension at all perhaps… Never thought about asking. But would make sense if only certain types of magic works that she might not be able to come here. 

Yeah, it must be because she can't go here. 

Well, good she did stay in case they'd need her. 

Not that much time has passed but still. 

I imagine they could need her much more than I if shit goes down so to speak. But…

The image got clearer and stable, each second made things look less blurry. It started out black, then just black and grey blurred shapes. Then some color was added. 

From there it all slowly came into focus ever so slow, but it did eventually get clear. 

Then the rift was opened when the image was as clear as if you'd watched it with your own eyes. 

Rifts took time to stabilise which dad had said earlier. 

"Wait until the image is clear now for fucks sake and don't just jump in impatiently. God knows what the fuck will happen if you don't let it stabilise." he said and gazed at me with a really REAALLY serious face. He was painfully aware I did crazy stuff sometimes and experimented wildly with magic now and again. 

"and you know its stable when the image is crystal clear!" he then added. 

Then he smiled and hugged me again while looking at the rift, not letting go. Is he waiting for it to be stable? Is the hug to keep me from jumping in preemptive? Eh, its nice hugging so. Why not. 

I was ready, time to go.