The Mayaware's reign must end.
In a world of demonic beings with a hunger for human flesh and thirst for blood, Hesi Renen knows it well. When her siblings are taken to the harvesting farms, she must do everything she can to get them out, even if it...
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The ground smelled of burning corpses and wilted flowers as Hesi trudged through the growing onyx sea at her feet. Spears and curved blades sang in the air, hungry for her blood, but she only reached out, swung her dagger, and soon, a demon slammed bodily on the polished stone floor. Her gaze never wavered from the single door she had in mind.
The High King's quarters.
She turned a corner and came across another demonic platoon. Each hefted a curved blade which sparkled against the sunlight bursting through spaces unblocked by fruit-bearing trees and flowering bushes. Three or four or five demons. Whatever.
With bared teeth, she lunged. Sparks painted the midday sky orange as her dagger slammed into the first blade shooting for her. The Mayaware behind it matched her hiss, onyx frills wide and fangs dripping with poison. She grunted and pushed its weight back, jabbing a heel against its knee. Like a rag doll, the demon flailed backward, its limbs more interested in keeping itself upright than fighting her.
She swung, nicking the falling demon in the chest. Her blade cut deep into the gut of the shadow's owner creeping from behind. Flesh squelched when she freed her weapon. Inky smoke replaced the amber gradients, rising to heaven in wispy plumes.
She spun, meeting another blade. With a yell, she drove it back against the wall, stabbed back to deal with another presence behind her, and slashed forward again. Dark blood spewed from the gaping hole in the demon's throat, painting the wall with splashes of ink. Her fingers hooked the demon's gold collar. She planted her foot on the ground and pivoted on a heel.
The demon's body sailed in the air, knocking three reinforcements pouring from the same corner she trickled in. Something cracked. Snapped. A head rolled on the ground next to her feet as she engaged the last demon standing. She didn't care whose it was.
Time blurred as her blade slashed and sliced, bringing down anyone who dared block her path towards the High King. Judging by how they congealed like a colony of ants, she must be in the right place.
A flash of silver. She turned too late. Darpeh.
Beige and sienna leaped into the air. A weight knocked against her shoulder, driving her back a few steps off. What—
Metal clanged, the sound reverberating throughout the hollow stone chambers. Sandals scraped the stone floor clean. A shadow fell over Hesi, and when it turned, the figure carried a playful smile. "Go," Uzare said. A curved blade glinted from her hands, and she kept it poised forward, driving the first wave of reinforcements back. "Isueri and I will handle this."
Hesi's chest heaved from the breaths she realized she never took. She staggered up and touched two fingers to her chest then to her lips and to her forehead. Never to be felt. Never to be spoken of. Never to be forgotten. It was a misplaced gesture, but should anyone die here today, it was the least she could give them.
