Helluva Child

29: Da win?

"Come on you stupid...!"

The sound of your mother's struggles pulls your attention away from the cellar door, your head tilting in concern as you watched her pull at the metallic jaws with strain, making it creaking subtly as it held stubbornly.

"Dammit!" She grunted, wincing as the teeth snapped back into place on her ankle. "Ugh... I'll take my damn foot off at this rate..."

She looked up at you, smiling in reassurance as you looked up at her with concerned eyes. "Don't worry, shug. Mama's gonna be okay. She just needs a better grip."

She looked around the cellar, not noticing your stare falling to the trap now.

"Now... I know there's gotta be somethin' I can use to pry this-"

CLANK!

Her head snapped forward to find you clamping down and gnawing at the screw that held the trap in place.

Millie flinched, staring in both concern and bewilderment as you gnawed at the trap. After a moment, however, she chuckled softly. "Is my brave lil devil tryin' to help ma--?"

CrrrreeeeeeAaaa....

Her words faltered as you twisted your head, her expression wavering to surprise as she felt the jaws of the trap quake and loosen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My dear commoners of the Ring of Wrath! I, Stolas of the Ars Goetia, hereby curse this year's harvest with the glow of the true Harvest Moon!"

After the announcement, Stolas then creates a portal within the clouds, revealing a large, glowing orange and scarlet moon in the sky, much to the awe of the crowd.

In a distance, however, a dark chuckle is emanated from Striker as he aims the rifle at Stolas' forehead from his spot at the window.

Click!

His concentration was thrown off by the click of a flintlock behind him.

"Uh, excuse me? The F**K?!"

"Bliiiitz!" Despite the hostility he was facing, Striker greeted him with an air of nonchalance. "I thought you were still at the ceremony!"

"You thought I wanted to stand around with a buncha hillbillies excited about corn n' shit with a thirsty owl on stage?!"

Striker stands up from his spot, still wearing a smug expression. "Huh. And now you seem disappointed in me."

"Yeaaaaah." Blitz fixed him with a look of unimpressed irritation. "Well, I'm not a fan of someone I offered a job to about to off my easiest lengthy ticket to Earth behind my back."

"Blitz, come on. You know, the two of us are superior than most of our kind." He cooly walks towards him, his voice dropping into a tone of temptation.

"And you were so above suckin' on a disgusting, rich, pompous Goetia, only to sneak topside for scraps and work for bitter sinners, who could care less who you are, when you could be slaying Overlords."

He circled the conflicted imp, as he tried to keep his aim on him as he moved through the shadows as slick as a serpent, continuing with a note of sinister conviction. "Why struggle to run a business that is rigged against you? When you could partner up with me and kill... the unkillable?"

With a quick lunge, Striker pins Blitz against the wall, leering at the alarmed imp with a somewhat sultry expression.

"...Starting with the one that treats you like a plaything?"