BXBX NOVEL Chapter 121: Out of time.
"Okay, then, how is that child of yours coming along did it survive getting poked?" She asked, and like a switch had been flipped Ikaris's eyes flashed with divine power and the chains holding her trembled.
"How dare you...?" Ikaris pulled against the shackles until they started tearing at her skin as her hatred bled out and her cerulean gaze turned crimson. "In my presence, how dare you mention her!?" She snarled dragging the chains until she started choking on them.
"Oi-oi~" Sitri smirked at her. "Careful not to kill yourself there, I haven't had my fun with you yet." She reached across the small table and grabbed Ikaris's cheeks, leaning her head and looking at her blood dripping down the binds. "How are you even still able to use magic when you have been separated from Arkadia?" She watched Ikaris cast "heal" on herself.
"I will tell you nothing!" Ikaris snapped when her sealed divinity subsided and a rush of flames came from her throat much like the breath of a dragon, burning the table to cinders in an instant before she began struggling again.
"Haha, you even have more after clearly exhausting it earlier? Does this mean if I had practiced using Arkadian mana I would have had a secondary mana pool as well?" The demon-god laughed, intrigued by Ikaris's evolution. "By far the most fascinating deity I have ever met."
"You haven not seen the half of it yet..." Ikaris growled, glancing at the demons beyond the cell bars of the newly reformed prison where she alone was taking up one side.
"You ran with your tail tucked between your legs, Sitri, from Sol, he has already killed you once, you know by now how his strength works and how rapidly he evolves, you know that he is the Godslayer, you will not get away a second time."
"He will never come." Sitri's playfulness evaporated in the face of Ikaris's clear provocation.
"Sol Vestic is stuck on Arkadia, and you are stuck here, but as I said before, hope is good, keep holding on to it, I want you to hold on for as long as possible, so that I can slowly break you." Sitri stood and walked to the entrance taking a deep breath to calm herself and then looking at the guards who were staring at Ikaris's presumably defenceless state.
"Keep her healthy, keep her fed, force her to eat if you have to, but if you touch a hair on her head otherwise, I will slaughter you and the entirety of your descendants, ancestors as well as your friends and their people, not a single hair, understood?" She glared at the large boar-demon.
"Loud and clear, your highness." He stood at attention.
"Good."
***
"Time works differently here on Zola than Hāl." Arla stood on a small balcony staring at the large world that orbited them.
"Though only a few hours of night have passed here, yet it is almost the next day on Hāl already because of a faster rotation." She stared at the clock on the tablet before her. "This concept of timezones is interesting."
[That is true]
The system answered her analogy.
[Master Vestic is scheduled to arrive within the next two hours, I have been picking up faint levels of Arkadian mana being used for small tasks such as terrain, flame and water magic, it is an assumption, but I believe they are somewhere slightly safe for the time being, and though I am unable to pinpoint their locations I have confirmed throughout the night on Hāl that the two are indeed alive and actively using magic whenever they feel they have to]
"Thank you for telling me." Arla sighed with a stiff smile, seeing the demons passing her casually while glaring with obvious I'll intent. "How is master Vestic?"
[Master is focused, almost scarily so, with the constant readings of mana he has lost his composure and patience]
"I see, she is his wife after all, and he and Dina have grown close as well." She rested her hand on the railings staring up at the stars. "I pray for all of their safety, and I feel pity for anyone who has become his enemy."
[I do not, the demons are ruthless even to their own kind, evil creatures, though I would not support the genocide of an entire race, in their case I would not reject the idea either, even I with limited emotion am angry at them for what happened to Arkadia.] The system replied very emotionally in voice, and Arla nodded and sunk into a chair behind her.
"Milady." The servant girl approached with her hands folded daintily before her. "Supper is ready, father has invited you to join us."
"... Okay."
It was a bit strange for Arla, everyone had their perceptions of demonkin, they were vicious indeed, but she had been exposed to one who showed some level of kindness in this girl, she did not behave like the others, she did not operate demonic in any regard; she seemed kind even...
"Ugh, what the fuck am I even thinking, of course they are all bad." Arla shook her head.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing," Arla stood and turned off the tablet. "Lead the way, Sri."
***
"I wish there was a way to ride them," Dina commented, watching the worms in the distance emerge and dive through the sand in a large pod like dolphins. "Social animals are often easier to tame."
"You wish to ride the sand-worms?" Gadriel asked with a raised brow.
They had continued long before the sun was even up, gaining more distance after dismantling the previous campsite and burying everything under a dune. "Where did you get such an absurd idea?"
"A performance, a movie I watched as a child called "desert hills" where the male protagonist; the hero of the story, was able to ride on the top of a giant worm, it was a fun movie." Dina responded, her and most of the others now had chunks of worm shell as makeshift shelters.
"Did this hero have a name?" Gabriell asked.
"It is only a story, the world where I am from does not have magic, so people create fantastical tales all the time to explore the impossible things they are unable to do in reality."
MVLeMpYr-unofficial-text
"But you are a hero, and clearly able to manipulate mana, skillfully too." Gadriel countered.
"I was summoned to Arkadia by the Queen of the last remaining city in a desperate bid to help defeat the demon army, in the end the army was defeated not by us heroes, even Ikaris stood no chance against that monster; It was Sol who saved us and killed Sitri."
"Sitri is alive though."
"That is not the real Sitri, not truly, from what I understand, it is merely a clone of the original soul of the demon-god that possessed and injabits the body of an unfortunate girl. "Sitri died on Arkadia, by his hands." Dina shook her head.
"Hail to the Liberator." Gabriell chanted in a whisper. "Through his grace we gods will escape oppression."
"Haha, Sol hates gods." Dina raised a brow at the goddess next to her.
"But... He and ikaris-"
"Are in love, yes, they are betrothed as well, she was even pregnant until recently, where Sitri caused her to lose the child."
"Gods are infertile, that is absurd, how could she be pregnant?"
"Their bond is a miracle, I had no idea." Dina chuckled. "Either way, it happened, and the demon-god paid the price of her sins with her life... I should have never left Ikaris alone with that monster..."
"Then," Gabriell tugged at the torn cape on Dina's shoulder. "Will you return to save her?"
"Ikaris is strong, and I don't mean that in a physical way, I mean she is the strongest person I know, next to Sol; she stood before hordes of demons knowing well that her life was a risk, she fought against a demon-god when the other gods all ran away, she has continued to grow ever since I met her, the once arrogant and selfish goddess is now a caring and nurturing woman capable of so many great things, that is something Sitri will never be able to take from her.
Besides..."
"Besides?" Another asked when Dina went quiet.
"If she says Sol will come, then that means he's already on his way, maybe a day from now, or a month, I don't know, but I do know that she sensed him on the day we arrived, and I believe her, because he is just that kind of person, once he finds out where she is, nothing will stop him."
"No matter what, he always finds a way." Dina took a deep breath and stopped, summoning her staff and pointing it toward the horizon behind them. "Everyone, run, and keep running, there is a ridge ahead, some kind of desert canyon, I will buy you as much time as I possibly can, find a way to Zola-Prime, that is where he would be according to her."
"What happened?" Gadriel asked staring across the horizon and seeing nothing but clouds, sand and stars.
"Sitri is coming, our time ran out."