บท 31: Chapter 31: Retribution

The clanking of locks sounds out throughout the entire dungeon prison.

"<Day Time.>"

Each prisoner was given a selection of weapons to choose from. They carried clubs, swords, and daggers. Even a few blood blades were offered to be chosen from. Groups of prisoners formed together with a common goal in mind. All the while Kalika continued to sleep without a care until her cell door was finally unlocked as well.

"<Day Time...Good luck,>" The guard said.

Kalika didn't have much care and started to go back to her nap. She quickly snapped to her senses, realizing that she couldn't waste time. It was the start of the hunt.

She made a dash for her cell door, but to her shock, she found a mass of prisoners waiting for her at both ends of the hall.

"What the-! H-how am I supposed to get out of here!?" Kalika keeps her hands grasped on the bar of her cell, frantically searching around for a potential opening.

"Don't make us wait now!" A prisoner showed up excitedly, showing his ugly mug to Kalika and scaring her. The door was forcefully opened. Kalika backed herself to the wall, trying to think of a way out of this dire predicament.

"Hey guys, why don't we play with her a little, before we kill the little witch." The ugly mugged prisoner entered the cell along with a few other Prisoners.

"Don't think about it."

"Careful she might bring out her blade" Another calls out.

"Who cares about that? Look at her."

"Yeah. Yeah. she's like a scared cat."

Kalika tried to scarp what little courage she has, glaring back at the men in defiance.

"Hey look I think she's trying to scare us," a prisoner outside said.

The ugly prisoner grabbed Kalika by the edge of her shoulders, licking his lips. Suddenly his head exploded into a bloody mess, shocking everyone who witnessed this..

"W…What!!" Kalika could take her eyes off the grim scene

The spectacle left everyone speechless. That man's head just exploded seemingly out of nowhere.

Kalika, looking around, quickly realized that this was the perfect opportunity to try to at least escape.

Soaked in blood, she pushed the corpse off her. She charged past the few prisoners in her cell, leaving them dumbfounded.

"What are you doing!! She's escaping!!!" one of them realized.

The prisoners turned to dash madly to catch Kalika. The adrenalin was pumping through her, she felt far ahead of them, so she looked back to find them not even a foot behind.

"I have to get to 'that' hall, Then I can lose, these guys!"

"Urk!"

Kalika spat out blood and found that a spear had penetrated her stomach. A now chuckling prisoner threw the spear, and another was sent flying to her. It went through her chest!

"N…No I can't… stop…" She feels her feet slipping. She lost her balance and fell.

"Nice shot!" one of them yelled.

Her vision became hazy. She tried crawling to the hall intersection before her, but someone got in front of her. her heart sank for a moment, until she noticed some familiar shoes.

She looked up to find a familiar face. "R-Rhonda?"

Rhonda pulled out the two spears from Kalika's body, all the while the prisoner kept running to reach Kalika. Rhonda glared back up at the men with her one glowing pink eye.

In that same instant, the prisoners suddenly found themselves in a dark forest. They looked up to find that there was no sky, only a pitch dark void with a plethora of white glowing specs littered through the darkness.

"W-where the hell are we???"

A sense of someone watching them made their spines tingle. They went on high alert as they all scanned the area and spread out. The yelp of a prisoner echoed. The scream of another. The sound of something slithering just on the ground, then a sudden yank.

"Aaahhhhhh!!!!"

"What the hell is going on!!??"

One of the prisoners looked around to find many pink eyes staring at him. "Stay away! Don't come any closer!"

The rapid crunching of leaves and branches sound off. All the while the patter of small footsteps got louder. He turned to find a horrendous looking monster standing over him. His screams echo around as the other prisoners are getting attacked by many smaller beasts and monster

They all fought back ferociously, but also in vain as they all fell, one by one.

Back with Kalika, she watched the horde of men convulsing and cowering aside from a few who averted their eyes from Rhonda.

Kalika glanced back at Rhonda, finding her much paler and exhausted. She forced a smile for Kalika before turning her attention back to the few remaining men that looked away from her gaze.

The prisoner that remained looked around to find the pitiful state of the other men.

"Pathetic, I warned them too about the maid." he grunted

"What do we do about her?" another asked

"Dumbass. We'll just kill her." He rushed straight at Rhonda without hesitation, attacking her! She caught the blade in his hands, keeping it off her. But she found her strength slowly waning.

"Rhonda!" Kalika, still on the ground, watched as Rhonda was barely holding off against the man. She felt useless as she struggled in front of her.

Looking at the man's legs however, she got an idea.

Kalika grabbed him by his legs, and with all her strength, pushed his leg up. He lost his balance falling over hard onto his head with a loud cracking sound emanating upon impact.

Another man charged right at them, and without thinking Kalika forced herself up and got in front of Rhonda taking the stab in the chest.

Rhonda was taken aback by this sudden action. "K…Kalika??"

"Y-your fight is with me. But then again… I guess all the prisoners here are just dumb."

"B-but Why??" Rhonda cried a little seeing Kalika protect her.

Kalika grabbed the blade of the man pulling it out of herself. The man becomes shocked, trying to resist her. Eventually she pulled the blade from her chest. "If you were to die now, who else would cut my hair and clean my cell?"

The man freaked out seeing Kalika forming a thin dark aura around her as glared at him.

"What the hell are you!!" he tripped over himself, crawling back.

Kalika's breathing became heavier as she tried to keep herself composed. Another prisoner ran in, snatching the blade from her grasp.

"Just Die!!"

Kalika closes her eyes, ready to be struck down. The sound of blades clashing rang out through the prison hall. She opened her eyes to find Rhonda fending off the blade of the man with another familiar red blade.

"A blood blade?"

"What the fuck!" The prisoner, surprised by this, instantly became annoyed.

Rhonda completely deflected the blade. Another prisoner approached from behind, but upon seeing Rhonda's glowing eye he practically went limp.

Rhonda avoided the falling, but upon looking back, she found a horde of prisoners heading their direction.

Kalika shook, seeing this new group of prisoners, eager and ready to kill her. It was surreal seeing how many people actually wanted to see her dead. Her hands trembled uncontrollably and her breathing hastened.

"R-R-Rhonda. You have to leave now! Otherwise-"

"I'm sorry… But no.." Rhonda interrupted. a gulp is heard from Rhonda as though she chugged down a cup of water. Another gulp. Then another. And another.

"What is she-?"

"Miss Kalika… please flee." Rhonda looked back at Kalika briefly with a flush red face, hazy eyes and a strange smile. To Kalika's surprise, Rhonda's tail then popped out from under her skirt, moving around erratically.

"Please go now," Rhonda said.

"Fine," Kalika said. Not wasting another minute Kalika turned to enter the booby-trapped hallway.

"That idiot. When did she become so reckless!?"

A sudden numbness overcame Kalika. she could no longer feel or move her body. a sensation she was all too familiar with when she would be killed.

"W-when did I-?

Kalika looked over to her left to find a tall man with long brown-hair, posed with his attack completed. She felt herself falling over, watching as more prisoners were joining him, watching and relishing her downfall.

"No! I can't stop now!"

Kalika's vision left her, only for her to return to finding herself being slashed in the chest with the same sword.

"Again!"

Kalika fell to her back. She glanced up, seeing the trapped dungeon hall not too far from her. Slowly her vision faded yet again.

"I Have to-!"

"-ow is she still moving!?"

Kalika found herself scampering into the hall.

"Don't let her escape!"

A stab through her chest once again from the very same man's sword. She didn't let this stop her however as she leaped into the booby-trapped hall, sliding on the ground with blood gushing from her chest. one of the prisoners, accompanying the tall long brown-haired man chased after Kalika. He carelessly swung his club, aiming for Kalika.

"For my brother!!!" he yelled.

THWARP

Everyone witnessed the man instantly die, seeing iron spears protruding from the ground and through his head and body.

"Dumbass," the brown-haired man said.

"What do we do now Maverick?"

Kalika notice the prisoner addressing the tall brown man

"Maverick?"

Maverick turned around heading back down the hall he came from.

"We wait," He said. "She's bound to be hungry at some point, she can't hide in that hall forever. You two wait by the mess hall and let us know if you see her."

"Sure."

"Got it."

Kalika simply watched the men leave as she slowly died from the fatal wound. Waking back up she found that they were now gone. She leaned herself back onto the wall to catch her breath.

"What the hell. It's not even ten minutes, and all these people were after me…"

After a few moments, Kalika started to hear a weird sound coming from the prison corridor with her cell. Kalika shimmied past the first trapped to take a peek only to immediately regret it.

She quickly averted her eyes, blushing flush red.

"H-how can she do something so embarrassing!!?? I-I saw nothing!" Kalika covered her ears.

Kalika looked down at the dark booby-trapped hall. "I-I should head deeper… J-just in case anyone else tries to follow…" Kalika glanced behind herself, taking one last look before trekking into the dungeon hall. Not long after, she instantly dies by a trap.

She awakened, annoyed. Taking note of the trap. Unknown to her, an eye on the ceiling is watching. Elsewhere a demon with green eyes and a broken horn has been observing her through this. He chuckled to himself.

"Clever girl. Perhaps I should've made this area off limits too… no matter what." The demon closed his eyes, opening them, now in front of the Daji, Valam and Florin.

"<Master?>" Daji called out a little confused. "<What brings you around>"

"<I have a new job for you three>," Rakon Said.

********

Kalika continued to journey through the dungeon; she peeked around every corner, died by many traps and still found no guards in sight. it felt a little suspicious.

"Perhaps they didn't feel a need to have guards in booby trapped hallways. But still…" Kalika looked behind herself to find many of the traps going off. They looked broken. "Why are there so many traps!?"

Kalika then came across a very familiar corridor. "This is…"

She followed it all the way through, knowing there wouldn't be any traps. She kept following down the hall until she came to a very familiar room.

It was the resting place of her adopted father, who Lillian had killed many years ago. It looked well-kept aside from the dust that collected on the decorations and furniture.

The urn was still on its pedestal and the heirlooms haven't moved an inch. Some dying dahlias looked to be placed right at the foot of the pedestal.

Kalika couldn't help but look at the flowers beneath her bitterly. "I had no Idea that this place was so close…"

Kalika placed her hand on the urn, with memories of simpler times. And the memory of when she first met him.

Memories of the smoldering ashes that filled the sky and man ready to strike her down resurfaced. She remembered crying as a five-year-old child, knowing her end was nigh. But then the man hesitated.

"What a fool of a man…" She said to herself.

Looking back up at the heirlooms, Kalika noticed some magic crystals. Her eyes widened in shock. Finding her eyes glued to them. There were three different crystals: a red crystal, a blue crystal and a green crystal.

"I… I can use these!" she exclaimed, excitedly.

Kalika quickly pushed herself to the crystals picking one up, but to her shock it immediately turned gray.

"W-what the-! N-no way." Kalika picked up another with the same result, then the last that also turned gray.

"W-why are they turning gray!?" she held all three in her hand in bewilderment. "A-am I going insane???"

The sound of footsteps approaching became audible. She looked back, sensing three demons. "N-no way! it couldn't be. H-how did they find me!???"

Kalika quickly hid behind the pedestal, keeping still and quiet. they seemed to be looking around, picking up and looking at random trinkets

"Just leave. Just leave!"

The eyes of three demons suddenly peered over Kalika.

"Naughty girl." Valam said in the human language.

Daji soon after destroyed the entire pedestal that housed her adopted father's ashes. Kalika was grabbed and thrown across the room.

"<Look at this room, who knew there was a treasure room here,>" Valam said.

"<So many pretty ornaments too.>" Florin added.

"<Who cares about that? Let's feed this girl to those hungry pigs. I'm sure their starving to kill her right about now.>"

Kalika couldn't understand a word they were saying. But despite this she understood that they didn't have any good intentions. With what energy she had, she quickly got up to run away from them only for something to grab her by her hair.

"<Now, now. We were just about to have fun Kalika.>" Florin said. "<Hey Daji, Why don't we have fun with her ourselves before we return her.>"

Valam agreed. and Daji herself loved the idea. Kalika, glancing back, could only look back in horror seeing all them smiling wickedly.