Realms of Magic: Demon Invasion

110. Princess Rescue Mission II

"Well, I must say I feel like they have managed to slow you down more than all the Empire's agents combined have," Lita comments with a laugh, pointing at a huge pile of souvenirs in the aerocopter. I let out a nervous laugh.

"Anyways, Lita, what'll you do after this?" I ask. "After everything settles down, I mean."

"Hm. Let's see. I mean, I have never been an Imperial Guard officially, I just kind of stick around. I'm thinking of retiring and opening a potion shop."

"Oh, that's cool."

"What about you?"

"I'll probably stay a Guard until the situation stabilizes. But after that, I need to talk to Darryl about our relationship," I say with a weak sigh, "if the world were all unicorns and rainbows and love were the only thing needed, we'd marry without question. But he's a Lutzian king and I'm an Irvinian Imperial Guard."

"I'm sure it'll work out in the end."

"Hopefully so. But for now, we have a princess to save." The aerocopter lands safely on some nearby uninhabited island.

Holy shit.

"We're still far away and I'm feeling some kind of bad juju coming from that den," Lita comments.

"Yeah ... it's like a sense of impending doom."

Madam Fron approaches us. "It's a miracle that our diplomats manage to stave Lilith off for this long. They need a raise," she says. "But I'm afraid her patience draws short. She demands the papers now."

"Okay. What's the plan?"

"The two of you will rescue Seira. Take this." She hands me a heavy briefcase. The papers inside, as I can feel, have been laced with explosive magic.

"Lure her out so that I can engage her in combat. Aelita, Remi, and John have prepared large-scale combat and healing spells to support you if necessary."

"So in total there will be six of us."

"Yeah. Bringing in any lesser mages would be risky. I wanted to call help from the Empire, but they seem to be in a chaotic mess right now, and their major Lords are temporarily weakened."

I sigh. "Let's go, Lita."

And bloody hell, even the entrance feels intimidating; a dark stone entrance with stairs spiraling downwards. 

"Designed to keep in whatever enters," Lita remarks.

"That isn't exactly confidence inspiring, Lita," I grumble.

Lita and I are greeted inside of a wide chamber. To the left and to the right of us, there are many small corridors. The roof–if it could even be called that–is heavily reinforced. Tens of human elite mages act as guardians.

She has humans as underlings?

We are greeted by a strange figure. She looks humanoid, but with red bat-like wings, horns, and a spaded tail. "So. At least you have the gall to not delay any further," she says, licking her lips. "A pity. Your princess is close to breaking."

"Where is she?"

"The papers first."

"No. Show us Princess Seira first."

"Fine. Fair enough." She flicks her fingers. One of her human underlings immediately disappear to the corridors.

He returns a few moments later, dragging a badly injured Princess Seira by some chains attached to her neck. Princess Seira herself seems almost hopeless, allowing herself to be taken.