Chapter 46 - Mahogany Devilish City

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Wails of surprise and fear revered through the cursed misty alleyway, she hadn't expected that she'd fall so swiftly, out of nowhere.

The moment Vera's face hit the ground, her nose gave way and broke like the most fragile of crystals, but the panic of the situation didn't give her the leisure to think of this.

Something is tightly grasping her leg, so tight in fact she feels as though it's sinking in her flesh!

"VERA!!"

The two of them immediately ran towards Vera that seemed to be getting pulled!

"CUT THE ROPE FAYE!" Valentine put his weapons away and took both of Vera's arms, pulling her harshly, but as he was doing that he realised when his hand touched the ground.

It's a plant!

"F-FAYE! H-HELP!" With her life in the line like this, Vera panicked.

"GET YOURSELF TOGETHER VERA! TRUST US!" Valentine yelled, pulling as hard as she could while kicking what seemed to be 'branches'.

Vera bit her lips so hard that they bled, enough pain to have her bearings be back to they belonged, she took the Rose Thorn and started to swing it carefully, hitting several things that seemed to be trying to entangle her, but even then the blade wasn't cutting the branches!

Fayette jumped with her knife in hand after putting her bow away, she panted at the nervousness of the whole thing, she was about to see what was holding Vera down when suddenly, they heard it.

*BOOMMM!*

*BOOOMM!*

Heavy, bulky... terrifying.

A creature peeped out of the mist, moving slowly... eerily.

It had no eyes, frankly, it looked like a moving tree with more than a dozen limbs, it held against the buildings and its 'limbs' stuck into them as if spreading its roots.

'Run, we have to run!!' 

Fayette's survival instincts triggered as if she just saw an entire corp of terrorists going coming with AKs.

Paradoxically, only Vera whose leg was being crushed, had the luck to not 'regard' the monster that's surely desiring to slaughter, devour... or whatever the hell it wants to do with them!

She took out her knife and started to try to cut the root while Valentine pulled with all his strength, not noticing how one of the branches entangled against his hand until the crushing strength started to break his bones!

"UGH!! F-FUCK! FAYETTE!!!" Valentine pulled Vera's arms to the point he felt he was going to tear them out of her body, at some point he even used the branches beneath as a support 

He wanted to tell the blonde to run, the situation is not looking good... whatever that thing down there is... it's bigger and way more gruesome than any demon soldier he could have possibly faced, it looked like a force of nature that wanted nothing but to swallow them within its branches.

However, he knows Fayette is not going to run, so the three of them can only do whatever they can to get out of this.

"LET ME DO IT!!" With Vera's shouts almost covering the entire background, she yelled only to notice that no matter how much she tried, she couldn't cut those roots.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Several bones of Vera's leg broke when the branch pulled harder, tearing her flesh apart and it even felt as if the branch had thorns!

The creature kept approaching and several branches were trying to crawl up her body, she had to constantly evade them and move, with a fire permeating in her heterochromatic eyes, she had to make a decision.

'I'm sorry!' 

There is only one possible way to solve this in the fastest and most efficient way possible.

Without even asking for permission she took Vera's Rose Thorn, and bit her lips harshly before swinging it down!

*SLASH!!*

!!!!!!

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Flesh tore open cleanly, giving way to torrents of blood and wails of despair as Vera's slender leg liberated from their 'root'.

The pain spread through her entire body like a wave, reaching her brain and making the yells impact right in front of Valentine who after she got released, fell on his back.

"TAKE HER AND RUN!" He yelled immediately and Fayette didn't waste time, she immediately prepared to take Vera, there is no time, she didn't even get the chance to yell at Valentine to look at his hand when the latter took his ruby knife and cut his own hand down!

"UGH!" With such bad luck that the whole cartilage wasn't cut clean, leaving a piece of hand hanging!

The two of them stood up while kicking the branches that tried to strangle them, the moment they were caught... it's done.

The two of them hurriedly started to run, crawl... they would do anything to get away from the monster as fast as they could!

*BOOM!!*

*BOOM!!*

"LET'S... GO... DON'T LOOK BACK AND BE CAREFUL WITH THE BRANCHES..." With Fayette running to the front while carrying Vera, he ran back, ready to counter any attack that would come from this beast...

Lucky for them, it wasn't fast and kept moving slowly, progressively 'devouring' the entire alleyway within its branches, condemning anything that stood in between.

What remained from the previous security they had in their own skills was a degree of unprecedented despair, this is not going how they planned in the slightest.

This is hell... problems can't always be tackled with just strength, they got confident and they paid for it.

"LET'S GO! DON'T DELAY!!"

**

**

*CHAAA!!*

Unlike most days in the Mahogany Devilish City, tonight seemed to be a little, peculiar... for one it was raining and lightning strikes marred the cloudy sky.

The water was warm not the usually refreshing drizzle that the lucky souls can get back in the earth, this is warm black water.

It is, however, a lot more appreciated than a constant rain of fire and ashes.

...

With the wailing noises of the souls inside the chimney, another important meeting took place within this accursed city.

"My lord... they're inside the alleyways..." One of the demons that survived the killing spree that took place in front of the hotel, quickly rushed back to his lord's office to report the incidents.

It's no other than the demon butler, Zagato.

He had been tasked to dispatch a team to hunt the human that destroyed Bellcroft's arse, and he did... to some extent.

As for how he survived? he's obviously not going to be involved in the hunt against a human that's said to have killed a Demon Soldier, it didn't matter how much the 'bronze soul' argument tests his inner desires.

Any common demon would literally kill for a soul, let alone a bronze soul.

But Zagato hasn't lived millenniums for the sake of peanuts. 

...

"What?! this late!?" The moment he heard the word 'alleyway' he already knew that things weren't going as planned.

"Yes... they entered at night, m-my lord... and the soldier Zellen entered together with them, so he's trapped as well, the night has already started..." The demon reported, wondering how the demon soldier had been so stupid to enter the alleyways when the 'night' was about to begin.

That's the degree of enticement a bronze soul has on a demon.

*CRUNCH!!*

"..." Gleipnir clenched his hands harshly against the desk harshly, obviously destroying it in the process."

Two demon soldiers...

To him, Zellen is as good as dead.

He's not stronger or faster than Bellcroft, which means that in a fight against that human if only the two of them, he's likely to lose a way worse defeat.

...

As the whole event took place, within the tax lord's office, the Demon Magistrate, Lord Gleipnir, heard the report that came from the butter, Zagato.

He hadn't expected those greenhorns to be so reckless, could it be that they're not aware?

"He wasn't the brightest one... we have no way to know if they're even going to come out... send some agents to the gates all over the city, if they appear... it doesn't matter if it takes a century or a Millenium... I want to know!" 

"Yes, my lord." The butter rejoiced that perhaps he would have a couple of centuries or perhaps, longer than that.

...

The green-skinned demon lifted up from his bony throne and walked to the window where the three majestic moons could be seen within the myriad bloody skies.

"This city is called, Mahogany Devilish for a reason... what a pity, but it's a bronze soul, even if I have to wait for a millennium, it's still worth it as long as I get to him first..."

"If they manage to survive that is..."

Upset about the fact that such a prey flew his grasp, Gleipnir left the room, heading towards his other 'office'.

...

Mahogany Devilish City has existed within the underworld for countless aeons, torturing the souls of the wicked that happen to be unlucky enough to be 'selected' into this realm.

Demon Marquesses had gone and come through the years, but the alleyways remain, and they shall remain for as long as there are evil souls from humans to fall in there and feed it further.

Across the never-ending stretch of time.