Elvirund | ✔️

Chapter Seventeen

I folded my arms and waited for an explanation, impatient and angry.

"Relax, relax. I just like experimenting."

"That's not an excuse."

I couldn't stand up straight, still trying to recover from the hit I had taken.

"I decided to try and insert a demon with Level 4 capabilities into something a Level 2 demon would possess. I see it turned out marvelously."

Calphys snickered, their eyes gleaming with greed. I resisted the urge to sigh, instead drawing in a long breath and closing my eyes briefly. Such a petty experiment, if I was concerned, and a violent misuse of science. I wasn't on Earth to clean up the mess of someone like that.

"I don't care. If you infect my territory, I will make you clean it up and then lick the dust off my shoes."

Calphys cackled and lightly slapped my cheek.

"And what exactly is your territory?"

"The entirety of this Earth."

I stared Calphys in the eye, waiting for them to laugh at me. I was prepared for a raucous uproar, a mocking of my statement, a rude snub. What I got instead was quite the opposite.

"Very well. My apologies."

Calphys bowed slightly and I suppressed my disgust. I didn't need this.

"Clean up your mess, and be fast about it."

"Of course."

I flinched slightly but continued.

"And the faster you finish your business here on Earth the better."

I have Calphys a pointed glare and began the listless walk back to the clinic. Plodding past crumbling houses and demon-spit covered buildings, I sighed and met Chip's silent mask of shock.

"Sorry."

"No. I chose this." He didn't smile, but his eyes were kind.

"Not really."

He chuckled dryly and shook his head.

"Think about it. I could have walked out on you. But I chose not to, with full knowledge that things like this would happen."

"That will probably be your own downfall."

"Well, then so it goes."

I couldn't meet his gaze, regardless of how much he said he was the one who had made the decision. If he died it would be my fault. I didn't think I had the capacity to carry the weight of that.

"You should have walked out. I bring destruction wherever I go."

"Clover, are you stupid? Actually, don't answer that. Awful question."

I almost smiled. At least we shared the same sense of bad humor.

"Maybe we're both stupid. Just in different ways."

My feet scuffed the fine layer of dust on the ground as I walked, and once or twice I nearly tripped over myself. There wasn't a single hint of rain, just a blue cloudless sky allowing the sun to mercilessly send heat into the Earth's carbon-saturated atmosphere. It was a wonder I hadn't melted yet; I hated heat more than I hated meddling dark bitches who tried to mess with my probation time.

"I may come to regret this decision to go south. Just because I can handle heat doesn't mean I like it." I muttered.

"It's not much cooler up north anymore anyways."