User blog:AloofComputer/Dark Winds: Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The safehouse

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“What was that?” the monk shouted to the guards standing outside the room. One of them opened the door, a look of panic on his face.

“We are under attack! We must-” his panicked report was cut short, as the undercover knight hit him on the back of his neck, leaving him unconscious on the floor. The monk moved with surprising speed, engaging the armed man in hand to hand combat. Alatar looked with interest that turned to shock, as the monk utilized the cramped space of the corridor and the knight’s armor to his advantage, hitting with precise moves with an unknown martial art, until his opponent collapsed in a heap of panting steel and flesh. He grabbed the knight’s blessed sword, and raised it to finish him off, but another explosion’s shockwave and a wave of demonic energy swept through the corridor. He kicked the knight’s neck, rendering him unconscious, turned and ran further down, leaving Alatar tied inside the interrogation room.

Alatar tried to free himself from the steel chains to no avail. The knight seemed to be breathing, but for now he was out. A second wave of demonic energy washed over him like fresh air. He heard loud yells, metal clashing against metal and bestial growls. The sounds of combat died down, and then the unmistakable sounds of victory began: moaning and panting, slapping of flesh and orgasmic cries. The flapping of wings that came after was even more reassuring; he felt Veronica close in on him fast. Sure enough, she appeared soon after, flying low in high speed.

“Honey! Did they hurt you?”

“No, love. You appeared just in time. Just… don’t fly inside the corridors. It’s not safe.”

“Humph! I came at full speed to save you and this is all you have to say to me?” she pouted, as she cut the chains with her demon silver blade. Alatar stood up and rubbed his arms.

“Sorry, I am just concerned. Come here.” With a sudden move he pulled her close and kissed her deeply. “Do you forgive me?”

“It’s unfair when you do that…” she tried to appear stern but her huge grin betrayed her.

“If I am not interrupting...” The couple turned to see a werewolf standing at the door. “…we have a mission to carry out.”

“Yea, right...” Alatar mumbled. The werewolf scowled, but her face lighted up when she saw the unconscious knight. “Well, seems to be my lucky day-”

“Not him.” Alatar said flatly. The werewolf turned to him, annoyance and slight anger in her yellow eyes. “He is one of our allies. Just carry him outside and wake him up. Nothing more. ” Alatar’s eyes hardened, and the werewolf gulped and nodded. She threw the knight on her shoulder and carried him away.

 The couple followed her, holding hands. Veronica was slightly confused at the change of tone of her husband, but made no further questions; there would be time for that later. As they entered the big room, the sight of victorious combat greeted them: broken swords, torn-off armor, stains of white and transparent liquids on the walls, and the thick smell of sex on the air. Pallanto stood at the center, giving instructions to a werewolf and a dullahan that seemed to be the squad leaders.

“Alatar! Good, I was worried after that small complication, but still we managed to get through. Did you learn anything?” Pallanto asked.

“They have already made artificial incubi.” Alatar’s answer made Pallanto curse under his breath.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Damn, they move fast. What about that monk? Who was him?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“He said that he was the actual brains behind this whole cult. Did you get him?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Sadly, no. He moved so fast, I suspected that he was an artificial incubus himself. No matter, we will get him another time. But we did get Father Alfonso. Lucella is… tending to him. Most of the forces were caught by surprise, and the rest couldn’t resist for long.” Pallanto looked cheerful, but the shadow in his eyes told Alatar otherwise. “We still haven’t searched the whole safehouse, this place is huge. We have split the squads in groups of four, and are looking around for the kidnapped mamono. Care to join them?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Make the teams consist of two werewolves and two dullahan. The monk used some martial art I am not familiar with; he could have invented it himself. We need flexibility in the teams. Also, of course I will join them. You will come with me too, there is something I want to find out.” He turned to the squad leaders. “If you encounter an artificial incubus, do not try to take him on. Just retreat and try to ambush them with the help of another squad. Do not try to subdue them; those guys are still sealed, they feel nothing. Just restrain them.” The leaders nodded and moved to their teams, shouting orders. “Shall we, Pallanto?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; border-top: none; border-bottom: 1px solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: none; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.03in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; font-style: normal">“After you, pal.” Pallanto answered, and threw Alatar his serrated blade that he pulled from his expansion pouch.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The safehouse had been expanded in an irregular way, something that was evident in the maze-like pattern of its twisting tunnels. The inner sections were mostly storage areas for food, clothing and weapons. The silence was only broken by their footsteps, Alatar in the front, followed by Pallanto and Veronica.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">After a few unlocked doors, Pallanto voiced what was in all their minds. “Where the hell is their research rooms? And where the hell is the hostage keeping area?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ I suspect it will be a gate that is sealed by a barrier, and locked with key and magic. They can’t keep mamono on blessed ground, so it stands to reason that they will keep them deep inside, to prevent demonic energy to spill to residential areas. They may have cloaked the entrance as well, to prevent any unwanted visitors… do you-”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Pallanto interrupted Alatar with the incantation for the enhanced vision spell. His eyes glowed green as they scanned the walls and doors of the safehouse. After a couple more doors, he made a cry of victory.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Aha! We may have a winner here. Let’s see...” He approached a section of the wall, placing his hand on it, and scowled. “This is quite advanced spellcraft for a bunch of monks, and even Alfred couldn’t do this alone. I smell a rat here…”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Alatar touched the wall, and a slight jolt made him retreat his hand. “And a barrier, to keep demonic energy inside. Check and check. It will take both of us to crack the seal open… where the hell is Lucella and Mimil when you need them?” he sighed.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Well, Mimil had to stay behind, and Lucella is busy staining the place with demonic energy and setting up the evidence. Looks like it’s just us to try it.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Both men began chanting, making the wall glow lightly. Bright blue runes appeared on its surface, forming the shape of an archway. The mages’ hands glowed with arcane energy, and sweat began forming on their foreheads, but their spellcasting was working: the runes started to hum and slowly change color, before dimming out and disappearing. After a good fifteen minutes, the last rune disappeared and the spells were broken, revealing a dark passage.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Pallanto sat on the ground, breathing heavily. He pulled two mana potions from his pouch, and tossed one to Alatar, raising an eyebrow as his friend just smirked and tossed it back. His slight surprise changed into a “I should have known” face, as Alatar hugged Veronica, making her squeal, and started making out with her.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Geez you two, get a room,will you?” he said, half annoyed, half amused. After he drank the second potion, he stood up, and snapped his fingers to get attention from the kissing couple. “Let’s move. Veronica, you take the lead, Alatar seems out of breath-”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Really funny, smartass.” Alatar said, his face flushed.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The trio entered the dark passage, soon to be blocked by a sturdy gate. Luckily, this one seemed to be without any warding spells, and with a sharp slash of Veronica’s blade, the lock gave way.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> The room they entered was more like a natural cavern; its walls and floor were solid rock. It was illuminated by magical lights, their glow casting light on a gruesome scene. Cages were stacked on top of each other, each holding a shackled mamono. The girls looked dirty and malnourished, many sported bruises and cuts. Most of the girls were holstaurs and harpies, with a few kappas and werecats, and a group of merrows that looked in especially bad shape. The sight made Veronica’s face twist in disgust and anger.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The sound of muffled crying and grunts caught their attention. Its source was a solid table, where a kappa was chained, and a naked man atop her thrust his pelvis into her, his hand on her mouth muffling the cries of horror. Veronica took off and charged with a flap of her wings, followed by Alatar and Pallanto. The man raised his face, and his violet eyes along with his expressionless face told them all they needed to know.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The incubus jumped from the table and grabbed a faintly glowing sword. His blade clashed with Veronica’s, throwing sparks around. The man didn’t budge at all, despite holding off a charge at high speed.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Careful there, Veronica. This is a blessed blade.” Alatar shouted.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> The man pushed against the succubus with inhuman strength, but Veronica sidestepped and let the man’s blade continue forward, setting him off balance. The incubus was fast to recover, and slashed to the side, twisting his body. His blade whistled, cutting through the air where Veronica was, as she flapped her wings above him. With a dive, she charged at him again.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The wide space of the chamber was to her advantage, as she made full use of her wings. She attacked the incubus from all angles with the agility of a hummingbird, yet the incubus parried all her attacks. Alatar and Pallanto stood a short distance away, waiting for the right chance to strike without getting in Veronica’s way, as she flew around the incubus raining powerful slashes.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Honey, he uses the pivot stance.” Alatar said to his wife. Veronica nodded and dived once again, but her slash was somewhat off, a bit too weak and too high, and the incubus parried it without effort, only to be surprised when she landed, instead of flying away, and kicked him to the stomach with a roundhouse kick, sending him backwards. The incubus doubled over and backflipped, slashing in front of him as his feet touched the ground. His sword clashed with Veronica’s blade, and sparks flew off the point of contact. He pushed forth the crossed swords, perhaps in hopes that his blessed blade could make a cut on his opponent’s skin, but the enraged succubus had other plans. With a strong push, she moved the blade aside, and with a series of sidesteps, aided by her wings, she slashed at the incubus from the left side, his back, then his right side, and appeared in front of him. She looked in the eye the disoriented incubus, and kicked him straight to the crotch.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Ouch...” Pallanto commented.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Ouch indeed… she came up with that move, when we were… ummm… sparring…” Alatar said with a wince, the memory made fresh by the look of pain on the incubus’ face. “ She calls it the dance of the lily or something. I would call it three slash crotch kick, but I decided not to.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Smart decision.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> The incubus doubled over, the excruciating pain made worse by the S eals of N emesis. With a look of pained determination he grabbed his blade with both hands.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Shit! Veronica, move!”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The succubus launched herself in the air before Alatar finished his sentence, putting distance between her and the incubus, as Alatar grabbed Pallanto and jumped behind. The incubus thrust the blade in his body with a yell. The blade shone brightly, as holy energy reacted with demonic, causing a powerful explosion. The shockwave shook the cavern and knocked Veronica from the air, right on top of the two men.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Alatar stood up with a groan. He checked Veronica for injuries. Thankfully, she was just shaken from the blast.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Damn, that was a nasty surprise.” Pallanto said as he stood up and shook the dust from his cloak. “Thanks for the rescue.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Just repaying the debt.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Hah! You have still ways to go.” Pallanto scoffed, as he made his way to the point where the incubus made his last stand. Only the broken remains of the blessed sword lied on the ground, now nothing more than common steel. “At least now we know-”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Is he gone?” a trembling voice cut him off. The trio turned to its source, the kappa that was chained on the table.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; border-top: none; border-bottom: 1px solid #000000; border-left: none; border-right: none; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0.03in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; font-style: normal">“Yes. You are safe now.” Veronica answered, as she made her way to the girl. Alatar followed her, but stopped when Veronica motioned to him. The kappa jumped at her when she cut her bonds, hugging her tightly, crying. Veronica stroked her back. “It’s all right… it’s over. You will go home now.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Not fair! You guys had all the fun!” Lucella said teasingly, but when she saw the stacks of cages and the state of the mamono within, her face darkened. With an incantation, countless purple tentacles shot from her and hit the locks of the cages, and a series of loud metallic noises followed. The cages’ doors opened, creaking ominously. “Let’s get you girls out of here.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The werewolves and dullahan helped the captives from their prison; some girls couldn’t move after many months of abuse and hardship, and were carried away. Lucella turned to Pallanto and Alatar, her face betraying fury.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“We have dealt with one of the artificial incubi already.” Pallanto hurried to tell the enraged baphomet. “Is the rest of the facility clear?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Yes. We couldn’t find that monk that took Alatar, but I swear, by the Demon Lord, that I will rip that Alfonso’s prick and-”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Alfonso is the least of our worries now.” Alatar cut her off. “We need to move those girls to safety. And we need to move fast. The Order investigation party will be here by dawn. Are all the preparations done?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Yes. I’ll conjure a gate from this point. Without the magical barriers and the blessing nonsense, Mimil will be able to connect her side with us.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Lucella raised her arms, and a purple light enveloped her body as it started floating. Two tendrils shot from her paws and formed a circle in front of her. She murmured a long incantation, and the tendrils spun faster and faster, and a dark membrane started creeping from them towards the center of the circle. When the membrane covered all of it, it glowed, and became transparent, showing Mimil in a similar stance with Druella standing behind her.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Go through the gate, two at a time, and hurry. Lucella can’t keep up the spell forever!” Pallanto ordered. The captives that could move entered first, followed by the werewolves and dullahan, each carrying a prisoner that was in bad shape, or dragging a few unconscious men.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Soon, the prisoners and the strike force, along with the captive men, had moved over to Lescatie, leaving Pallanto, Veronica, Alatar and Lucella behind. Alatar turned to his wife. “Are you not going?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Of course not. I wouldn’t want to lose a chance to take a field trip with you honey.” she winked at him. He sighed.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Fine. Lucella, close the gate. We’re done.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">With a short incantation, the gate collapsed. Lucella stretched her limbs. “Keeping a gate open for that long makes my arms so sore...” she whined. “Care to massage them for me, dear?” she smiled at Pallanto.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“In your dreams. Let’s get out of here, we are almost out of time.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">The four of them ran through the corridors, passing by Father Alfonso. The priest was masturbating furiously at a statue of Druella, licking its stone feet. “You sure are brutal, Lucella. Ripping off his dick might be more humane.” Pallanto said, half amused, half disgusted.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ Oh well, he deserves worse. Let’s hope that he didn’t kill any mamono, or else execution by the Order will be the best he can hope for.” Lucella said, anger seeping in her childish voice. They ran at full speed to the entrance, where two knights stood guard. The men drew their weapons, revealing blessed blades glimmering in the dawn’s first glow.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“It’s us!” Pallanto shouted. The undercover knights sheathed their weapons, as the group stopped to catch their breath.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Is it done?” one of them asked.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Yes, tell the Commander we got most of them. We got one artificial incubus too. I’ll write him a detailed report as soon as possible.” Pallanto said between deep breaths.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Nice. You should make haste, the investigation team is scheduled to leave by dawn from the eastern fortress. They will be here in about half an hour. Godspeed, Pallanto.” the knight patted Pallanto on the shoulder and left with his companion, ignoring the rest of them.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“They sure know how to be passive aggressive.” Alatar said, trying to control his breath. He turned to the two mamono. “Now, It’s time-”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Do we really have to?” they asked with almost perfect sync. Both Alatar and Pallanto shot them a strict glare.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Yes, love, you know what will happen if they catch sight of you and Lucella. Come on, get in. Pallanto.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">Pallanto opened his expansion pouch. The seemingly small pouch expanded, its opening expanding until it was large enough for a human to go through. Alatar grabbed Veronica and lifted her bridal style.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“ You’ll make up for this!” Veronica declared, before kissing him and slipping inside. Pallanto turned to Lucella, who had closed her eyes and raised her face, expecting a similar treatment. The mage rolled his eyes. “Oh, for the love of...”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">He grabbed the tiny baphomet by her collar, raising her light body with one hand. Lucella’s eyes snapped open. “Why don’t I get a kiss-” her voice was lost, as Pallanto shoved her inside the pouch, head first.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“She will remember that.” Alatar casually mentioned as they jogged away from the entrance.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Like I care. We are on a timetable and you people are fooling around! You don’t understand how easy it will be, especially in the end, to screw up everything!”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Well, our main objective was to rescue the captive girls. We struck a blow to the radical faction too, a blow that they won’t recover anytime soon. But I doubt it will be the last time we hear of them.”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">“Save the time for the mystery talk and explanations until after we reach Lescatie. We have a long way ahead of us. And we will need to go on foot, since we are to keep a low profile.”

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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal">A/N: I had this ready for some time, but I was too busy to publish it... until Christmas came around and I got some peace and quiet. Read and review