"Excuse me, what?" I couldn't believe what that odd girl had said, like seriously they wanted to steal Abelia's heart? Was the Demon Kingdom and Divine Kingdoms in some kind of weird game of capture the flag?

"Sorry, I kinda said too much," she bopped her head with her fist and made a weird noise, "but that's not important now anyways, you two gotta get outta here, right?"

"Not without my father's heart," Lilith stepped past Vox, leaving the room, "come Eve."

"Oh, okie!" I followed her, glaring and growling as I passed by Vox. We wandered down an empty hall, the little weirdo following us like a duckling following its mama. After a couple minutes of her skipping a long behind us I snapped, "quit following us already!"

"Nya but I just wanna come along with you," she covered her 'face' in her oversized sleeves and feigned tears, "besides, you're not going to find the heart if you go that way."

"What do you mean?" Lilith stopped to question her.

"I told you, I know where the heart is, and it's not that way," she rocked back and forth on her toes, "but if you don't want my help then I guess I can just leave…"

She had to be manipulating us, there was just no way she could actually know where the heart was right? I leered at her, bringing my face close to her weird little mask, "and just how do you expect us to trust you can't even show us your face?"

"Oh, I don't have a face though," she sounded genuinely sad, as if she were being sincere and I had just brought up a sore topic for her.

"What do ya mean you don't gotta face? Come on, if you want us to trust you then you gotta take off your mask," living on the road taught me many things, and one obvious thing was don't trust people who keep secrets.

She rocked side to side, twirling her bandaged up hands and contemplated my demand. "Okie," she whispered, "but, please don't make fun of me," she slowly moved the mask out of place.

"Whoa, you… what are you?" I didn't mean to sound so… mean, but honestly how else could you expect someone to react to something like that. She was sort of telling the truth after all. Where you'd have expected a head with a face, complete with eyes a nose mouth, ya know the works, she instead had a swirling mass of hazy energy stuff. The only thing resembling a face was a small section where her brow line would be plus a single purple eye.

Most likely offended by my reaction she quickly placed the mask back over her non-face and squatted down with her hands over her hood, "please don't make fun of me, I can't help that I'm like this," she cried.

"I uhh, damn, I'm sorry," I really didn't know how to respond. I'd seen a lot of messed up things on my journey, but that was a new one. 

"So the rumors are true then, you aren't a person are you?"

"I am just a voice from the void, given form by the goddess," she sniffled, though I'm not really sure how someone without a nose manages to do that.

I felt beyond awkward, perhaps sorry enough I forgot my own suspicion for a moment and continued offering my condolences, "I'm like really sorry, that sounds rough."

She shook her head and leaped back up, "it's okay, I may be just a thing, but at least my life isn't boring," she laughed, or it laughed? I still wasn't sure how to think of Vox. "So, now that that mess is outta the way, are you going to listen to me?"

"We are wasting time, let’s go,” Lilith continued on and I quickly ran after her with Vox on my heels.

The building got colder and darker the deeper we got, confirming my initial assumption that they simply froze cadavers there, till we reached a security door that didn’t look so secure anymore.

“This is the cryo chamber, my father’s body should be here,” Lilith approached the door cautiously, examining the busted lock, “someone has been here already…”

“One of those Malice guys maybe?” I suggested, but she shook her head.

“The door was opened using tools, a crude tool, but clearly not the work of a mindless creature,” wasting no more time with the door, she dashed into the room.

With my rapier summoned, I followed, ready for an ambush only to be greeted by an empty room. Lilith stood beside some kind of storage vessel, a grim gloom over her pretty face. 

“I told you the heart wasn’t here,” Vox hummed.

She seized the girl by her collar and lifted her, “where is my father’s body?”

“Whoa! Hey, I don’t know, honestly I don’t,” her limbs wiggled like a fish plucked out of the river, “I got nothing to do with this, okie?”

“You said you know where my fathers heart is, if it is not with his body, then where is it?”

“Set me down a moment and I can tell you,” Vox stiffened her body and Lilith complied.

"Where is my father’s heart?" 

Vox started to lift her hand, as if to point, but for whatever reason Lilith grabbed it, "wha? Dontcha want me to show you?"

"Yes, lead me to my father’s heart."

"Umm…" the two stared at each other, or at least I think they did. I was honestly unsure how Vox could see anything past a solid mask like that. "Okie, you want me to lead you to your father’s heart?" She tilted her head, then began to chuckle before her laughter turned into an all out rolling fit of merriment, “you’re a funny one, you know that?” Admittedly, I thought the little weirdo was cute, but I am sure Lilith wasn't thinking the same. She glared at Voxie, yes Voxie, cause it's a cuter name. She glared at Voxie, who just tilted her head again and made a cute playful noise like a kibby, "nya~"

“You are trying my patience, please if you wish to help me, then help!”

“Oh, you're serious," she calmed down, "sorry I genuinely thought you were joking."

"Joking? What about this situation is funny to you?" Lilith was pretty terse, honestly, I was glad I wasn't the one on the receiving end of her anger.

As Vox was about to answer we were interested by the voices of other demons down the hall, "we need to get out of here," she grabbed both of us by the hands, "hold your breath, okie?"

"Huh?" Without a second warning she dashed straight for a wall while dragging us behind her. I definitely did not scream like a little girl as we nearly collided with a solid concrete wall, definitely not. With impact imminent, I tried to pull myself away from the crazy girl, but I had completely underestimated the strength of her mighty grip. I was prepared to splat up against a solid surface and feel my bones crunch as she took us running at speeds not normal by mere mortals, but instead I found myself surrounded by a watery substance. Nearly drowning in that liquid barricade, I gasped for air choking and spitting as we emerged on the other side, only to rush past more guards and be thrusted into another wall of water. She continued pulling us through wall after wall, till we burst through the last one that separated us from the world outside. 

Oh goddess, I never wanted to do that again. The moment we arrived at the buildings exterior I began to vomit. It was an embarrassing and regrettable display, like for real… I never wanted Lilith to see me puke like that. Voxie patted my back trying to give me some sort of comfort before apologizing, "I probably should have given you more of a warning. Sorry about that."

"What was that? I've never seen magic like that before," Lilith tried to maintain her composure, but I could tell she was just masking, she was equally as shook as I was. Whatever Voxie did was insane even in demon kingdom standards.

"It wasn't technically magic, I just made you a part of me for a moment which let us pass through the solid surfaces," she shrugged.

"Solid surfaces? But that felt like water!" I was almost entirely sure that I had inhaled bits of liquid building into me, though that could have just been my brain overreacting.

"Actually we were the ones who were liquid, kinda," Voxie explained, "like see, you're not wet right?"

She was right, despite having felt like I'd just been dragged through seven waterfalls, I was bone dry. Holy hell that was some kinda trip! 

"Not liquid, we were malice," Lilith stood tall over her, commanding a threatening presence as she casted her eyes down on the little wanderer.

"Not malice, technically, but close. Void essence, which is part of what the malice is made of," the little wanderer cowered as she sputtered out an explanation, "it's like a shared ingredient between me and malice."

"Void essence?" Voxie was adding more terms to my ever increasing list of vocab words to learn in the demon kingdom.

"Some places call it Aether, others call it Myst, and a few call it dark matter," their explanation didn't really help me understand any better, "basically it's something that comes from nothing, or maybe it's nothing that comes from something? I'm still trying to figure that one out myself."

Lilith sighed and helped pick me back up on my feet, "this conversation is getting us nowhere. My father's body is gone, and I have no idea who took it nor where they are going," she looked to Voxie with a weathered look on her face that blended frustration and desperation, "you said you knew where the heart is, are you being truthful?"

"Of course, I'd have no reason to lie," she assured Lilith.

"And how am I to know you aren't in league with whoever took my father's corpse?"

"I guess you can't really know that for sure," she sighed, "but you know who I am, don't you?"

Lilith nodded, "I have read stories about a wanderer called Vox who travels between worlds, but not a single one is consistent," she bent down examining the girl, scrutinizing every last detail, "some say you have golden hair; some say you have a pink and blue ring around your eyes, others say you're a young man, and others that you are a girl. So then, how am I to know you are the same Vox as these stories?"

"Time moves in a nonlinear fashion between worlds," the supposed Vox explained, "so it is likely that some stories are of a future version of myself, but honestly I don't know. I am unable to read stories about my future, like literally, my brain, or concept of a brain, blocks out anything significant about me whenever I try to."

"Wait, so that V-space thing can see the future?" I really didn't know much about it, in fact I really was super lost whenever it came up, but if it could let us glimpse into the future then it would also be able to help us find the heart.

Voxie shook her head, "nya, no, the goddess who created V-space put in causality protocols that prevent future information being available to past versions of a world." Big words, brain no like… Still, I could at least understand that it wouldn't really be able to help us find the heart.

"Talking out on the streets like this is perhaps ill-advised given the police may show up any moment," Lilith pulled up her hood and spied around a corner, "we need to find someplace to regroup and formulate a plan.”

“Huh? The what?”

“They’re like city guards only worse,” Voxie explained, “maybe we should leave the city altogether?”

Lilith shook her head, “it’ll be fields to the east, or forests to the west and we are ill prepared to travel on foot through either terrain.”

“Speak for yourself, I’ve got a full stock of rations and camping equipment,” I patted my magic satchel with a prideful grin, “I came well prepared, thank you very much!”

“Do you have enough to feed three?”

“Actually, I don’t eat,” Voxie interjected, “and as far as sleeping goes, I don’t do that either so I don’t need a sleeping bag or any other accommodations out on the road really," she sounded so proud about it, but like that sounded awful. Imagine not being able to enjoy something as wonderful as a parfait!

Lilith sighed, “still, I do not wish to waltz out into the wilderness with zero heading and a marginal number of supplies.” It was a fair point, but also a moot point if the city really wasn’t going to be a safe place for us. 

“Talking about it here is wasting time, right? Let’s go get supplies and then we’ll discuss it over parfaits or something!” Feeling that we had dawdled enough, I grabbed Voxie and Lilith by the hands and pulled in a random direction down a side street.

“Eve, you don’t even know where you are going,” Lilith tried to slip her hand away, dragging her heels as I forced her along, “Eve, think before you act.”

“I am thinking, I’m thinking that we gotta get out of here, right?”

After a couple more tugs, Lilith freed herself from my grip, running and ducking into an alley. I ran after her, still pulling Voxie along with me, “what are you doing Lilith?”

She crouched down hiding behind a bin full of rubbish, “there are cameras everywhere in the city, my uncle ensures that his territory is under constant surveillance, we have to move with caution, or we’ll get caught.”

“Cameras? You mean like that thing I used to talk to Belail?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth Lilith shot me a very unpleasant glare, her eyes burning right down into my soul, “oh, uuuuuh, I shoulda told you about that… So Belail called, ehehe,” I chuckled as I sheepishly retrieved her magic rectangle from my pocket and returned it to its rightful owner.

She snatched it out of my hands and immediately began to tap the little device until Belail once again graced the screen, “Lilith, my queen, thank the goddess you are alive!” the demon general’s voice carried an exuberant tune of triumph, “where are you now?”

“I am in Elkado with that Champion you allowed to slip past you,” the way she said it almost made me think she was unhappy having me around.

“You have to leave the city immediately, your highness!” her joyful hum had quickly turned to a frantic plea, “it is not safe for you there.”

“Should I return to the castle? Perhaps you can allow me in?”

“The castle isn’t safe either, the barrier has failed, Abaddon has become infested with the Malicious,” her voice grew more desperate with every new sentence.

“If the castle has fallen, and Elkado is unsafe, where is there left for me to go?”

“Meet me in Yericho, Lady Agreas is still faithful and can provide shelter.”

Lilith nodded, “then that will have to do, though I am concerned as to what has you so shook, Belail, why is Elkado not safe?”

“Lord Valefor has conscripted the services of a party of Champions from the divine kingdom, they are headed there now to kill you.”

“Pft, that’s ridiculous, Champions don’t travel in parties,” I didn’t want to laugh when the situation had seemed so grim, but like I couldn’t help it.

“I do not jest, this is quite serious lady Eve, listen to me!” Belail commanded, even through the little device her roar was threatening me to comply as I squeaked, “this may come as a shock but I trust you Eve. Leave the city through the western gate and stay off the main road. I will be requesting an Electra Sprite to give you special directions,” she explained, though I didn’t quite understand all of the things she said, “and promise me this, you will protect my queen with the same ferocity as you had in our battle.”

“I don’t know what half that means, but you can count on me to protect Lilith,” I clasped my hand to my heart and gave her my word.

“Good, be safe, both of you. I will be delivering the instructions soon. Do not accept the Electra Sprite till you are out of the city, okay Lilith?”

“Understood, take care Belail.”

“Of course, my queen.” 

They ended their call and immediately I grabbed Lilith by the sleeve, “come on girly, we gotta go!” 

She nodded, “the western gate is not far from here, perhaps a couple of kilometers.”

“Kiloma-what?” 

She sighed and waved her hands, “there is no time for that, let us hurry now,” she looked to Vox, “will you be following us?”

“West is kinda the opposite of where I need to go,” she twiddled her thumbs and rocked back and forth, “but also I kind of want to stay with you two a bit longer so… yea, count me in!” My own mixed feelings about her aside, it would be nice to have another fighter on my side if things did get dicey.       

Wasting no more time, we fled from that little alley and took to the streets. I could see a crowd of spectators gathering back at the big glass building, so instead Lilith led us down a different road. The sun was getting pretty low which I had figured would be a good thing, allowing us to escape the city in the cover of night, but for whatever reason Lilith suddenly took off in a full sprint and I had to push myself to match her pace. I am quite athletic, my muscles are lean and my body is primed for combat, I got enough stamina to last in battle for days, that being said keeping up with Lilith felt like a serious chore. Well for me at least, Voxie looked like she was out for a leisurely jog as she stayed beside the demon Queen during our run through the city. If our intention was to blend in then we were not exactly doing a fantastic job at that as we darted our way through pedestrians on the busy sidewalks, looking all the more suspicious like we were thieves on the lam. Something had to have spooked her, to go from a natural walking speed to a sudden sprint was not a normal thing, but what could have her running like that? Curiosity overtaking me, I peeked over my shoulder, but nothing was there. Guess she just really didn’t wanna stay in the city any longer than she needed, right?

At our new pace, we had traveled a whole thirty maiden’s really fast, arriving just short of our destination before Lilith came to an immediate halt. Nearly colliding with her, I slid on my heels, Voxie helping catch me, keeping my balance. Regaining my composure, mostly, I leaned over Lilith’s shoulder, “wuz up? Why are we stopping?”

“The gate is being monitored, most likely they are looking for the fugitive that vandalized the cryonics lab,” she pointed towards a gathering of demons in uniforms inspecting vehicles and interrogating travelers as they attempted to make their way out of the city, “we will have to find an alternate route out of the city. And we will have to find it fast.” Not lingering for even a second, she turned north, “come on, we’ll just have to find a way over the wall in the woods.”

“Oh, okie,” knowing next to nothing about the city, I followed her without objection, Vox tailing behind humming as she kicked her feet. 

Her urgency never faltered, though her speed slowed considerably as the black paved roads turned to sandy paths and buildings became sparse while trees took their place. Soon enough our surroundings mirrored those of the park, feeling a lot more like woods, though still distinctly within the city. The only real indications we hadn’t left the city were the paved sidewalk we followed, and the tall metal light fixtures that illuminated our path just as the sun began to set. Once the last building disappeared behind the canopy of tree tops, Lilith turned away from the paved path and took us down a grassy one instead. Unlike the park, the natural elements felt more… well natural, grown without any kind of intervention like pruning, weeding and the like. If I didn’t remember she mentioned us going over a wall, I would have thought we already made it out of the city, it just felt so naturey there. 

“Hmm, perhaps here?” Lilith brought us to a halt just when the aforementioned wall became visible on the path ahead.

“Hey Lilith, why is there a giant wall around the city anyways?”

“A fail safe incase of invasion, I’d imagine,” Voxie chimed in.

“No,” Lilith corrected her, “we are physically far enough from the Divine Kingdom that it would be unlikely they could ever invade,” she sounded so confident in that little detail, yet supposedly there were champions in the city already. Still she did not answer the question, which led me to believe she didn’t know either. I guess it didn’t matter, but it would have been nice to know if there were, I don’t know, giants that ate people or something just lurking outside the city. 

“So we just got to get over this wall and we can get out of here?” Of course, that was a task that was far easier said than done. The wall was massive, like maybe one-hundred maidens tall. If she really wanted us to scale that it would be quite the difficult task. I mean I could do it, but I really didn’t want to, I was tired.

“Get over it? No, I was simply going to ask Vox to help us again.” Oooh yeah, why didn’t I think of that? She looked to our acquaintance in question, “will you be able to do it?”

The little wanderer looked at the wall, I think, and scratched her chin, I think, before shrugging, “guess I can try,” she nodded a few times, “yeah, I can definitely give it a try, but I should probably go on my own first to make sure it's not gonna be too much for you two.”

Lilith crossed her arms and nodded in agreement, “very well, we shall wait here for you then.”

Vox gave her a thumbs up and took a few steps back, “alrighty, I’ll be back in a jiffy,” she took another few steps back then made a mad dash for the wall, splashing through it like it was nothing.

Minutes passed and we didn’t hear a thing, part of me wondered if she was going to abandon us there. The sweet side of me preferred that possibility over the very real chance that something had gone terribly wrong. Of course, I wasn’t about to let my paranoia get the best of me. Everything was going to be okay. Even if I couldn’t shake the feeling of a strange thickness in the air, like my mana was being choked out.

“Hopefully they won’t take too long,” Lilith gave a long-exhausted sigh as we stood with our backs to the wall, “I would like to escape before the Champions catch up to us.”

“Don’t be silly Lilly, there’s no way there’s an actual group of champions after… us?” as if by some insane spell of misfortune, I found my sentence cut off by an aggressive battle cry from a heavily armored warrior.

“Demon King Adamnson, I’ve come for your heart!” they bellowed as they swung a giant sword over their head.

“We,” A small girl with bnuuy ears and antlers corrected as they stepped out from behind them.

“Of course, we,” they cleared their throat, “we’ve come for your heart!”

“Too bad, I already called dibs!” I stepped between Lilith and the Champions, “so back off!”

“I cannot say I am surprised a half-breed has betrayed their quest,” a dark voice growled from inside the woods, “you are Sir Everette, correct?” A pair of silver eyes shone through the shadows.

“My name is Eve, and I didn’t abandon anything, I just found a better solution is all,” standing my ground I summoned my rapier and prepared to clash with the three warriors from the divine kingdoms. 

“Oh? My sources say otherwise, though it doesn’t matter, your corpse shall join my army soon enough boy.”

“Only corpses gonna be yours!” 

“Eve, slash your rapier to the left now!” the voice inside me screamed and I immediately complied, swatting an arrow down before it could hit Lilith.

“How the hell did he see that arrow?” the armored Champion bellowed, “guess the rumors about him are true.”

“True or not, he can’t take us all on,” the beast eared girl practically whispered as she cowered by the armored one's side.

“Right, enough talk, we fight!” the earth practically shook beneath each step of the armored champion's mighty charge as they came barreling at me.

“Forget him, another arrow!” the voice directed me to slash again, cutting a second projectile out of the sky “quick, shining blast, four arms right, stop that oaf in their tracks!” 

Just like the voice said, I quickly charged a holy incantation, rushing my prayer, “Shining blast!” I sent a small orb of holy magic hurtling at the ground causing a little explosion just as the warrior stepped down, halting their approach as they fell back.  

“Lorena!” the timid furry eared girl cried.

“I’m okay, just shook me up is all,” as the dust cleared I could see the warrior shamble back to their feet. 

“Arrow, wait three seconds and slash!” I followed the voice’s instructions and stopped another arrow. “Angelic fault, send these assholes runnin!” 

“Right,” I lifted my rapier and charged mana into it, “blessed Valkyrie of the garden, ignite my blade with your holy wrath, Angelic Fault!” my rapier blazed with holy magic, tearing away the earth as I swung the blade down, a massive blaze of light enveloping my victi… opponents. A heavy cloud of sand and ash billowed in the aftermath of my spell.

“Eve, have you had access to such a spell this entire time?” Lilith asked, stepping closer to me.

“That’s not even my strongest incantation,” I chuckled a little, my ego inflating just a tad bit. While I wasn’t wholly convinced that the attack would have killed them all, I was at least certain it would have incapacitated them. Still, I wasn’t about to put away my rapier like that, especially because I didn’t know where the archer was.

“Eve,” my inner voice growled.

“Impressive,” a familiar voice chuckled from beyond the settling dust, “you’ve grown quite strong Evertte.”

“Eve, run, now!” the voice demanded, her own fear radiating inside of me.

With fire blazing around him and his companions knocked senseless, a man clad in priestly garbs stepped through the smoke and dust, a gleam in his eyes shining through from behind his cowl.

My head began to howl in pain as the voice inside me screeched and clamored at me to get out of there.

“Eve, what is wrong, Eve?” Lilith grabbed my shoulder and tried to get my attention, but I couldn’t respond. The noise in my head and the sudden galloping beat of my heart cause me to lose my sense of the world. I couldn’t think, couldn’t move, all I could do was watch as Lilith stepped in front of me, summoning a scythe as she prepared to meet this newcomer in battle. The whole world nearly faded into nothingness, my eyes going black, when I felt a hand grab ahold of mine.

“Hold your breath!” Voxie yelled, then yanked the two of us backwards into the wall.