Micchi Versus the New World - Chapter 115

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Chapter 115 

Kaoru and I came out the other end of the portal into a massive, obsidian chamber. It looked like Boggart's forge dialed up to max with all the smog and cinders spitting out of burning pits. Large chains crisscrossed over each other, stretching higher than my eyes could see to the top.

Demons crawled all over the place, marching to the beat of drums that seemed to echo from everywhere at once. They entered and exited from monoliths similar to the one we went into.

A giant with flaming red skin adjusted his glasses as he walked down the steps to our portal, all the while muttering to himself.

"Alright, so… We got two villages worth of captives. That's a whole lotta mana to drain from. We're up from yesterday's quota. If Lord Cassian still has something to complain about, then he can eat my ass—"

The big guy stopped in front of us, saw the imp in my hand, and his jaw dropped. He took off running, scrambling to climb the steps.

"You know, my favorite P.E. game in high school was dodgeball. The whole point was to knock the shit outta someone," I told Kaoru, balling up the imp and pitching him toward the giant.

The impact knocked the giant's leg out from under him. He tumbled down and landed hard on his back, head at our feet.

"Ow…" His eyes snapped open. "Oh… Oh, no…"

"By your reaction, you know who we are." Kaoru pressed the tip of Kamigoroshi to the giant's forehead.

"We're expecting some answers, else this shotacon empress here is gonna skewer your head like a dango," I said, squatting down next to his terrified face.

"Where are we, and what is this place?" she asked.

"I-It's a war tower! You're in demon territory, straddling the border into your kingdoms!" he hastily answered.

If we were in demon territory, then Chika should be around. This demon mentioned 'Lord Cassian' though, so maybe she wasn't the leader here.

All this time, no one had any idea where the demons were. They just showed up in these obsidian monoliths, hit places hard, and then duck out. Were they actually a lot closer than we realized?

I tapped Sacchan against the side of the demon's head. "Where the hell did you put all the villagers? Why are demons kidnapping 'em?"

"You're worried about others?" Kaoru scoffed.

"Shut up." I growled. "I ain't doing this for them. Loraine's gonna be disappointed in me if I don't do something about it, alright?"

"The draining halls! One floor below us! I-I can take you to them. Just please, don't hurt me…" the demon pleaded.

Something was off about these bastards. They weren't as vicious as I imagined.

"If it's right below us…" I clenched Sacchan with both hands and brought it down next to the demon's head, causing him to flinch.

The hit left behind a large crater. Cracks snaked along the immediate area as the floor around us became brittle.

"Your immediate reaction is to break through?" Kaoru asked, brow furrowed in disbelief.

"What? It's faster this way," I said just as we fell through the floor.

Both of us landed on opposite sides of a magical barrier. There was a large group of scared dark elves and beastlings on Kaoru's side, as well as other barriers containing people within them. They were probably the missing villagers. On my side, however, was the giant who fell down with me and a bunch of demons dressed in robes, standing in front of and with clawed hands hovering over man-sized magic crystals.

"R-Run! Warn Lord Cassian!" one of them cried, sending the other demons into a panic for the exit.

"No, you don't." I grabbed a sluggish demon by the tail before she left the room and reeled her back in.

"Wait, I'm just a scientist! I haven't harmed any—"

"Shut the fuck up and open the barriers."

"I-I don't have the magical prowess to do so… Only the head researcher can open them, and he just left the room," she stammered.

I shoved the demon away and walked up to the magic crystal, which had weird bandings on them etched with even weirder symbols.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Kaoru asked from the other side.

"Fuck no. Does it look like I do? Lemme try something…" I smashed the crystal with Sacchan, and everyone inside the barriers started crying in pain.

Tendrils of energy were leaving their bodies and draining into the magic crystals in the room.

"Your bright idea is to hit it?" Kaoru sighed. She was being drained, too, but looked more peeved than anything.

"I don't see you coming up with something better! Okay, one more time—" Putting all my strength into the next swing, I shattered the crystal, but the ensuing pulse of magic sent me and the two demons trying to escape crashing into the wall.

The draining stopped, and the magical barriers dropped all at once.

Kaoru clasped my hand and ripped me out of the wall.

"It worked, bitch." I sneered.

"Trespassers in the tower. They breached the portal room and have now entered the draining halls. All soldiers, take care of these interlopers and teach them not to interfere with the demon lord's plans!"

Well, it wasn't like I expected us to stay hidden for long. At least now, things were getting a little interesting.

Suddenly, the prisoners we freed began to crowd around us.

"Wait, I recognize you two! You're the Empress of Jinwa and champion of the Lannarkis Ring! What are you doing here?" an elderly dark elven man asked.

"Oh… About that. We kinda invaded Amarinth," I said.

"EHH?!" everyone gasped in horror.

Kaoru clicked her tongue at me, then pushed me aside to address them. "It is true we are at war with each other. However, Sultan Yusef has proven himself an ally to the demons and likely sold your lives out to them. Loraine Arselios, the sultan's niece, has ignited a rebellion intending to usurp him. We are on her side and have come to rescue you."

"Ahhh…" They sounded a lot more on board with that.

"Nice save," I whispered to Kaoru.

"You have no way with words," she replied derisively.

We led the captives upstairs and were forced to fight through a huge number of armed demons. Our first obstacle was a fork in the road. Heading left would take us back to the portal room, but taking the right…

Kaoru took one look at me and knew exactly what I wanted to do.

"You bring everyone back. I'm gonna pay this Cassian guy a visit," I said.

"I'll return to help just in case. Anya won't forgive me if I end up leaving you behind." Kaoru nodded.

We split up from there. The direction I headed went farther up whatever this tower was. Eventually, it brought me to a wide corridor where chandeliers creaked on rusty chains and torches lit the way.

"You must be who the demon lord warned us about. I would welcome you, but no one grants hospitality to a roach that enters their home, do they?" the haughty voice asked, echoing through the halls.

"Buddy, if you're calling me a roach, we're already off to a bad start. Since Chika told you about me, then I hope you have a change of pants. I'm kicking your ass as soon as I get to you," I shouted back.

"We'll see about that. I don't expect you to survive the traps I've laid ahead…"

Laughter filled the space.

A magic circle lit up at my feet and consumed me in a pillar of flames, but it did nothing except burn off some loose threads from my jacket. With Sacchan's help, I consumed the inferno and drained the magic dry until the circle dimmed out. Every step I took, a fiery explosion went off, volleys of ice magic rained down on me, and puffs of poison blew in my face. All of which tickled me at best.

"So you have a few tricks up your sleeve! What of it? Those trap is only one of many. How about we throw in a little bite? This was a personal gift from the previous demon lord. Sic 'em, Razorfang!"

A summoning circle drew itself on the ground in the distance and brought forth a snarling, demon dog. It was a lot bigger than Kawa and had gnarled fangs the size of swords. The beast stampeded towards me.

"You think I'm afraid of some stupid dog? Hahh?!" I bared my own fangs, at which point the giant demon dog skidded to a stop.

The beast threw itself to the ground belly-up like any scared beastling. It whimpered as I got close and stared at me with puppy-dog eyes.

"Eh? Razorfang, what are you doing? Get up and make a chew toy out of her. I command it!"

"Seriously? I got a dog with more bite than your sorry shitstain of a furball. What about you? It's starting to sound like you're all bark and no bite. I'm getting closer, and I can just feel your bones cracking with each punch," I taunted.

Cassian didn't say shit anymore. All I heard were his grinding teeth and panicked rustling. I was maybe a stone's throw away from the savage iron doors at the end of the corridor when an enormous spiked ball materialized. It began rolling down to me.

"Hahahaha! What now, hero? You should have turned back when you had the chance—"

"Orraaa!" I gathered all the magic drained earlier into Sacchan and batted the ball back down the hall. The impact not only broke down the door, but also shattered the metal ball into several large pieces. I had to step over them to get inside.

As soon as I got past the debris and into the next room that looked like a study, a single demon was inside, lying flat on the ground and prostrating in front of the desk.

"I, uh… humbly beg for mercy… Please, don't kill me," Cassian pleaded shamelessly.

The red demon had two sharp horns protruding from his forehead and a tail tucked between his legs. I picked him up by a horn to find a sniveling face.

"You know Chika. What the hell is she planning?" I asked.

"I-If I tell you—"

I snapped the horn off his head and tossed it over my shoulder.

"Aaaahhh! Not the horns! They take forever to grow back!" he cried.

"Alright, unicorn. Tell me what I wanna know, or I rip the other one off!" I snarled.

"You want to know what I'm doing, Micchi?"

When I followed the voice, Chika was looking right at me from behind the demon.

Cassian gasped. "M-My lord—"

I pushed the demon aside and swung at her head, but Sacchan went right past.

"Tch. Just an illusion?" I glowered.

"You were always the hit first, ask questions later type. You've gotten stronger, Micchi. Last time we fought, you could barely land a hit. You might bruise me this time," Chika said with patronizing intent.

"If you're showing yourself, that means you're willing to answer some questions? Or are you just here to mock me and go? You owe me. Us. For everything that you did. We want answers, Chika!"

A wry smile flashed across Chika's face. Like she was enjoying this.

"I've told you before. Just like I told Anya. This is our playground. Even if we didn't end up in this world, we were bound to cross paths in Japan. When that happened, only one of us could stay standing. To tell you the truth, I could have easily beaten all of you. Yui, Kaoru, Anya, and Ririko… Everyone. Including you. Here in this world? We can get stronger by leaps and bounds, Micchi! Look at yourself! Isn't this fun? Doesn't it get your blood boiling?"

That excitement didn't feel right. I wasn't even sure how to respond. Yeah, it felt good. It also felt wrong because it put people I cared about in danger.

"You… were the one who wanted to poison Kawa and Loraine. You beat Yui so bad, she fell into a coma. How was that supposed to fun? What part leaving us made this worth it?" I asked as pain gripped my chest.

Chika reached out to me. For some reason, I backed away and her hand flinched. Was she trying to comfort me?

"Micchi," Chika began as her illusion clenched a fist and raised it up to my face. "You want answers? Then come beat them out of me. You and Yui both. If you have what it takes, show me how much you've grown. Otherwise, I'll destroy this world and everything you hold dear with it."

"Tough talk from someone hiding who the hell knows where," I muttered.

Chika's lips curved into a smirk before her illusion vanished. With nothing left to do here, I dragged the unconcious Cassian out the portal with me. Kaoru was outside back in the village, ushering people back to their homes.

"You left me hanging back there," I joked.

"I figured you had it handled. Besides, something turned up that has everyone worried," Kaoru said, casting her gaze southward.

When I followed Kaoru's eyes, I didn't expect to see an impossibly gargantuan landmass in the sky partially hidden behind the clouds. A red and bleak landscape of craggy mountains. Like hell on earth.

"Hey, unicorn." I shook Cassian awake and directed his attention to the phenomenon. "What the hell is that over there?"

Cassian gasped so hard, I thought he was going to choke on his own tongue.

"That… is the realm of the demon continent, Sathorayn… If it's revealed itself now, then our great lord has finally deemed it time to conquer Dysentia. Tremble, lesser races— ow, ow, ow! Wait, noo!"

Crack!

I ripped the other horn off and threw him aside.

"Ashura," Kaoru uttered spitefully.

"Looks like Chika's been aching for a fight, too. Anego! If you're watching from up there, then watch closely! After I bring down Ririko and Sultan Yusef, I'm coming for you! Yui and I… We got a score to settle with you!" I shouted.

Somewhere far away yet so close at the same time, I heard a whisper carried through the winds. It almost sounded like Chika was asking me to bring it on.