Chapter 16: To Sigma - Part 3 - Cidadel and Demon 2/2
Nimo and the demon knight spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the demon girl's past.
This was a story from before the knight was born. A high-ranking demon and a human slave boy, full of hatred and resentment towards demons, fell in love.
One of the things judged as impossible, a demon to love, happened in the midst of the war. Demons were creatures that were born alone from miasma and grew in the midst of death. Survival of the fittest.
Even with all the disagreements, the love between them blossomed in a simple way and from that was born a girl with small horns and eyes yellow as gold.
It was then that everything started to fall apart. The demon's servants, in an act of treachery, informed other demons of the hybrid's birth, infuriating the army commanded by the demon.
To protect the child and her lover, the demon, now considered a traitor by the other demons, sent them to the floating islands and watched them depart as she struggled against hordes of demons that wanted her head and position.
The girl grew up happily in a remote village in frozen lands where her race mattered least. It was a difficult life, where her father worried every day about what they were going to eat, but still a happy life.
But one day her father didn't come back. The girl spent days and days waiting for her father to return from hunting, and all she gained was the silence of the lonely winds of eternal winter.
The girl later learned that her father had tripped and fallen off the edge of the island after hunting an armored bear. The girl saw the hidden smiles and in that moment she knew what had happened.
"If you warm us up, we'll feed you." They said.
Seeing the girl fall into despair, the men entered her house and spent days with her. So one night the entire house exploded, leaving only the naked girl in the midst of destruction.
On her body there were bite marks and bruises, in addition the girl's eyes were glowing brightly. The villagers took the girl to a fort near the village.
There the girl died and a knight was born.
"...Since then I've only been fighting. But always looking for my place."
Nimo had a grim expression on her face. The girl had spent three hundred years fighting alone and even after suffering so much she didn't kill herself. That was something to praise.
Her tenacity and perseverance touched Nimo's heart and the elf, with a kind smile, took the knight's hands.
"You did well."
"Hã?!" The knight looked around to make sure the elf was talking to her and then her eyes melted into tears.
After a few minutes, the knight calmed down and Nimo stood up.
"I know where Athena are going. But rest. I'll ask to get you clean clothes, supplies and a mount."
"But..." Other than her father and knights who were already dead, she had never been treated kindly.
Whether by humans she'd just saved or demons, she was always treated like a freak. But that woman treated her like a person instead of looking at her race.
At that moment Nimo had become a key in the fate of Athena and the knight without knowing it.
"Ah! We spent all day talking and I still don't know your name... I'm Nimo, the eldest elder of the fog elves."
The knight smiled a warm smile. "I am Lunnia. A wandering knight in search of her master."
***
"Athena, there's more." Fotiá warned.
After Anemus bewitched her kidnapper, other thugs who were in the alley surrounded the girls.
"Athena, try to leave at least one alive." Anemus asked.
"You guys have no idea who you're messing with. Be quiet and we won't smack you too much." Said a man with a dagger in his hand.
"Fotiá, use your shield on yourself." Athena ordered and so Fotiá did.
Flames surrounded Fotiá in a dome shape. Its scarlet colors showed its intensity and even so one of the bandits tried to break through the shield, ending up in a statue of twisted charcoal on the ground.
"How stupid." Athena said almost regretfully. "Anemus, you stay out of there and cover me."
"I don't need to. No one will come from the other side." Anemus said.
She had made a wall of pressurized air strong enough to shred any meat like slices of steak served in taverns.
Athena smiled and drew her sword. "Did you really think it was us in danger? I don't know what you want with us, but you won't get it."
One by one, the farthest outlaw saw his partners defeated without difficulty. When he saw the last one turn to call for help and have his skull pierced by Athena's sword, the man ran as fast as he could. Disappearing on the avenue noisy enough to drown out the slaughter.
"Didn't I say leave one alive?" Anemus yelled at Athena.
"I left!" Athena yelled back pointing to the man drooling behind Anemus.
"I don't know how to undo this spell yet!"
"Huh? So how are we going to get information from him?"
"We will not!" Anemus said and decapitated the man with a wind blade.
"Fotiá knows where Athena gets her information!" Fotiá said as she poked at the charcoal she had created.
Following the path Fotiá indicated, they were standing in front of the merchant's stall from before.
The man's jaw dropped as he stared at Athena who looked like she wanted to rip him open right then and there.
The avenue was busy and guards paced back and forth, but the merchant realized that the woman wouldn't mind.
"What did you intend to do after capturing us?" Athena asked.
"Hahaha... It was an innocent joke." Said the merchant surreptitiously.
Athena pulled the man closer by his shirt collar. Athena smelled of sweat, roses and blood, making the merchant's heart leap over and over.
"I won't ask again."
"Hey, what are you doing?" A passing guard asked as he placed a hand on Athena's shoulder.
Athena turned around, nearly punching the guard in fright. Stopping her fist millimeters from the man's nose.
"I am a paladin. This man set an ambush for me." Athena said as she lowered her fist.
"N-no. Hehehe! I think you are confused."
"Fotiá, who told us to go to that alley?"
"It was the old man!" Fotiá said chewing an apple she took from the merchant's counter. "Want Anemus? It's sweet."
"Who's going to believe a child? Guardsman, she was beating me up for nothing. And you're going to have to pay for the apples and cherries!"
"What cherries?" Athena asked and looked at the girls.
Fotiá had two apples and Anemus had several cherries in her hands.
"What's up? I haven't had lunch yet." Anemus said.
"I forgot about that. Fotiá and Anemus are nymphs. Nymphs don't lie." Athena said and Anemus almost gasped.
"Seed..."
The guard called other guards and took Athena, the girls, and the merchant to the checkpoint. They spent hours, only leaving in the early evening.
"What do we do?" Anemus asked.
"Nothing." Athena surprisingly responded.
"Huh? Nothing? Aren't you going to retaliate?"
"I didn't say that. After spending the day looking at that bastard, I noticed how he looked at you. He won't wait long to do something. We just need to wait."
During Athena's explanation, Anemus saw the woman lick her lips two or three times. As if he was imagining what he would do with the merchant and looking forward to having him come to them soon.
"Does he think he can try to kidnap you and get away with it? I'll make him suffer."
Anemus felt both happiness and a bit of aversion to this side of Athena at the same time. It was a new feeling, mysterious and weird.
Later that night, when the streets were completely empty, a group of twenty men surrounded the inn where Athena was staying.
"See? Didn't I say he would do something?" Athena said with an 'I told you so' smile.
Atheba was staying in a room on the second floor of the inn and watched the men gather in front of the building.
"So what? What's the plan?" Anemus asked.
"Let's make a bet?"
"Bet? What's at stake and what are the rules?"
"It's simple. Whoever kills the most wins. It's not worth area magic and the winner can ask for what they want once."
"Hm..." Anemus pondered and then accepted. "Right... But I want one more rule."
"Which would be?"
"You can only use your sword. After all I can only use magic."
"It's OK!"
"On my signal..." Anemus said and fluffed her wings. "Go!"
"Hey! I don't have wings!"
"It's not my problem! Hahahahaha!"
Hearing Anemus chuckle, the men looked up and then one of them was torn in half and suddenly another was crushed by something that suddenly fell.
The three moons were bright in the starry sky and from the middle of the huddle of flesh that had once been a man, a blue-silver light emerged.
Athena stood up, rubbing her ass as it hit the crush's head, shining like an angel.
"What are you thinking? Jumping from this height, are you wanting to die?" Anemus said from a safe height. "And why are you glowing?"
"So this is how it works... It's the armor, Anemus. It looks like it actually absorbs the moonlight... Huh? Why does it have three moons?"
Athena had never seen three moons in the game, in fact the third didn't even exist there. But she didn't have time to think about that right now.
She was among enemies and had a bet to win. Athena brandished her sword and shield and the men awoke from their trances.
"Let's get them guys!" One of the thugs yelled and then one disappeared.
"Athena, I have two already!"
"What magic was that?" Athena asked and defended the attack of three men with shield and sword.
"Teleport. It should be falling any second now."
Athena looked up at the sky for a second and then turned her eyes to her opponents. "Anemus, you never said anything about skills!"
"What?"
"[Hew]" Athena said and the three men next to her fell to the ground in pieces. "HAHAHAHAHA!" Athena laughed loudly and pleasantly.
Her blood-spattered armor glowed a silvery violet light and that with her laughter and had body parts in a pool of blood in front of her, it made the scene horrifying.
The men hesitated, twenty, suddenly thirteen, then twelve when another fell from the sky on an inattentive one.
"It's four to four, Athena!"
Athena leapt over the mound of flesh and buried her sword in the skull of another.
"Wrong! Five to four!" Athena said, looking at Anemus and then felt a twinge in her right thigh, followed by pain and burning.
"Athena!"
Athena swung her shield in the man's face and, drawing her sword from the other's skull, she buried it in the chest of the one who struck her.
"I'm fine. S-seven!" Athena lied.
At once she felt the sword's venom spread. Athena ripped the blade from her thigh, then a silver light covered her and nothing else was there.
Athena smiled and then looked again at Anemus. "Right now I'm truly immortal! Anemus, which god does that red moon represent?"
"Huh? Ah! It's a forgotten god. So there's no god."
At that moment Athena's green eyes sparkled with happiness. "So she's mine!"
"Huh?"
"She is mine, she has no owner, she is mine! Her name is now 'Moon of the Massacre' and I am the immortal goddess of the massacre! HAHAHAHAHA!"
"Ah~. She broke again...?"
"Goddess? How do you call yourself a 'goddess'?" Said a thug in a blue shirt.
"Heretic!" Shouted another.
Suddenly the situation had changed to a hunt, but the bandits forgot that they were weak and that they were the ones to be hunted.
The men all advanced together towards Athena. Nine men against one woman. Athena was in defensive position, but before the first one attacked, she did.
The sword the bandit brandished was deflected by Athena's sword and hit her shield, while Athena's sword opened the man's arm to the elbow.
The man dropped his sword and fell to the ground screaming in pain. Athena felt a pressure of air and then she heard a lightning noise and three other men were on the ground.
The count was seven for Athena and seven for Anemus. The five remaining thugs who were still standing backed away with horror stamped on their faces.
"M-monster!"
"D-demon!
"Devil!!"
They said as they ran away.
"Draw?" Anemus asked.
"What are you talking about? I still have this one!" Athena kicked the man moaning on the ground.
"Ah! So…" Lightning hits a man's head in the distance, but he doesn't stop until another two lightning strikes. "And now?"
"How much mana you have, you little monster!" Athena asked in surprise.
"Much more than you. Won't you kill this one?"
"First, the information."
"Goddess! Athena learned!" Anemu scoffed.
"I'm always learning..." Athena said, feeling affronted. "Now what can you tell us before our little girl wakes up?"
With the promise that he could leave alive, the man who introduced himself as Duhan told them everything.
The merchant was called Lupáz and was a famous slaver among nobles with dubious tastes. The plan was to kidnap one of the girls and then make Athena go after her while they kidnapped the other and then Athena would disappear too.
The girls would be sold privately and Athena would be auctioned off in a safe house on the outskirts of town.
"...th-that's all. I swear."
"I believe you." Athena said charismatically. "Anemus, you stay here with Fotiá, I'll go after Lupaz."
"I agree..." Anemus said and looked at Duhan who was staggering away. "Are you really going to let him go? He can sell you..."
"I promised... Besides, the chances that the others have already informed Lupaz is high."
"Hm... I won."
"What?"
"The bet, I won!"
"Ah!!! I forgot! Duhan, come back here!" Athena screamed.
Duhan looked back and then began to run for his life until lightning struck him and he fell to the ground.
Athena looked at Anemus with an expression of disbelief on her face. "Have you ever heard of 'kill steal'?"
Anemus cocked her head, confused. "Qiu istiu?"
***
The next morning, in town, don't touch another subject. The whole city was talking about the mysterious massacres on Main Street and in the alley of Third Avenue, which no one knew who the killer was.
In addition, people were also talking about twenty-eight nobles arrested in an illegal slave auction and about the merchant Lupáz being found in every part of the city.
Athena butchered him and handed a piece to each freed slave to scatter throughout the city, leaving only his head that she left in his tent.
Athena, Anemus and Fotiá had breakfast at lunchtime and were in a very good mood. Later they managed to buy what they wanted and left for their next destination.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
All_J
All_J Due to some personal reasons, next week will be very busy for me, but I will try to write at least one chapter.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone