“Who goes there!” a smuggler shouted, backing away from Maiya. “How’d you get in here? Guards!”
“They’re a bit preoccupied, I’m afraid,” Maiya said, slowly approaching the terrified smugglers with a look of absolute superiority plastered over her face. “Y’know, being dead and all?”
An act, of course, though not too far off from the truth. These smugglers might have a lesser Mejai Sorcar among them, but what of it?
“Your dealings have not gone unnoticed by the lords of this empire. Your operation, and your lives, end here.”
To her amusement, a couple of smugglers actually laughed.
“Is that right? Tell us, who will mete this justice upon us? You? A little girl? Alone?”
“If I needed help to crush the likes of you, I’d have to kill myself in shame, after.”
To no one’s surprise, the smugglers all drew concealed daggers. The nearest two, confident in their victory, rushed her with the poorest form Maiya had ever witnessed.
Moving slightly to avoid the smugglers’ blows, Maiya grabbed his wrist and arm and twisted, eliciting a shriek of agony from the man as his weapon clattered to the ground.
His friend, who’d recovered from his missed strike and was coming in for another, never got the chance. Maiya unleashed a kick at his ribcage right as he swung.
His arm couldn’t compete with the longer reach of Maiya’s leg, and his dagger hit nothing but air. Maiya’s armored boot landed, cracking ribs and sending the man to the ground in agony.
“I thought you said you were alone!” another smuggler shrieked, finding himself beset by her Balarian warriors.
“Pretty sure I never said that. Did I say that?”
“No, ma’am.”
Her warriors forced two more smugglers to their knees, holding their necks to spearpoint while they bound and gagged them.
The last one ran, but he didn’t make it far; Maiya had blocked all the exits, after all.
“Y’know, if we didn’t want you alive, you’d all have been dead before you ever saw any of us. Consider yourselves lucky.”
A thrown dagger impaled the running man’s hand, sending him crumpling to the ground, whimpering like a baby.
“At least, I think you’re lucky. To be honest, I have no idea what they’ll do to you.”
Maiya might’ve felt sorry for what was about to happen to them, had she not witnessed their other criminal acts. For while they might’ve been smugglers, these criminals dabbled in both the trade of opiates and the trafficking of both demons and humans. Drugs were one thing, but treating people as though they were livestock was something else entirely.
Her hand moved to the orb in her robe, subconsciously yearning to speak to Vir. Another, larger part, wished he’d take his time. When they spoke again, she wanted to show off how much she’d improved.
For the first time in her life, she was on par with Vir’s strength. For the first time, they’d stood together as equals. There was no way she’d let him leave her in the dust again. Taking down small-time criminals simply wasn’t going to cut it. She needed more. A lot more.
Maya sighed, cursing her friend’s ambition, despite having the same feelings herself.
Suppose I oughta ask the princess if I can solo Ash Beasts in my free time.
Be it Balar 500 or 1000, when he returned, Maiya fully intended on greeting her precious friend with power no less than his own.
10FORCES OF NATURE
“No luck?” Vir asked as Cirayus approached. His eyes remained closed, his mind focused on the never-ending task of expanding his body’s prana carrying capacity.
“Nay. The Ash has shifted considerably since I was here last. Landmarks are missing, and strange new ones have taken their place. I know generally where we are, but pinpointing a location is another matter entirely,” the giant replied, setting down two full waterskins and a sack full of wild edibles he’d collected on his outing.
“Would’ve been nice if we could’ve brought Maiya’s Acira along,” Vir grumbled.
“Alas, Acira cannot survive here in the Ash. Demons have tried before. They become Ash dyed before long.”
“Ash dyed?” Vir asked.
“Corrupted by prana. They often gain great strength in the process, but lose their minds instead. Doomed to roam the Ash as feral beasts.”
Would that have happened to me, if I didn’t get a handle on things? Vir shuddered at the thought.
“How goes your training, lad?”
“Slowly,” Vir replied. “It takes a lot longer to see gains now compared to when we arrived here.”
“Hah! Y’know, I’ve mentored a lot of demons in my time. You just might be the most reckless of them all. With as much Ash prana as you have, it’s a wonder you’re even walking.”
“It’s been a week since we came here!” Vir said, opening his eyes to stare at the demon. A field of empty Ash stretched on in all directions, without a single feature to color the landscape. “I’ve only just gotten to where my body doesn’t hurt being at equilibrium with the ambient prana.”
Vir had spent his waking hours meditating, pulling prana into his body to stretch his blood vessels. Until recently, he’d maintained a supersaturated layer of blood near his skin, keeping the rest of his body at a prana deficit so he could use Talents without risk of overstressing.
But that was just a stopgap measure, and so he’d worked on how much prana his blood could carry. If, at equilibrium, he had extra capacity, then he could safely use more prana to boost his attacks. Here in the Ash, his only limit was how much prana his blood could carry.
In his spare time, Vir attempted to work on Prana Vision, though the staggering density that granted him power continued to stymie his eyes, forcing him to run with a minimum of prana to avoid blinding himself.
“Aye, only a week. The stronger the reaction, the longer it takes to adapt to this realm. I’ve accompanied demons who’ve had far less severe responses, and even they took weeks. You’re doing well, lad. More than well. You ought to be proud of your progress.”
“I guess…” Vir grumbled.
“Usually, I only see such advances when a demon does something reckless.”
Vir looked sheepishly away.
“So you’ve hurt yourself overtraining?”
“More like experimenting with concepts I knew nothing about. This was a long time ago, when I first learned I wasn’t prana scorned.”
“Scorned… Humans are blind. They’ve had millennia to advance, yet they remain blissfully unaware of not just one, but three affinities! It’s a wonder they’re as strong as they are.”
“How strong, do you think? Demons vs Humans. Who would win?”
War was the last thing Vir wanted, though given how much humans hated demons, if they ever did come into contact, he doubted there would be peace.
“Humans. Without a doubt,” Cirayus replied immediately.
“I thought demons were stronger, though? Their magic seems more powerful, too.”
“Aye, this is true. The average demon is stronger than the average human, and our strongest demons are far stronger than the strongest humans. We’ve also delved further into the secrets of prana than humans have.”
“Then…”
“Numbers, lad. There are far more of them than there are of us. They breed like insects. It is difficult to overcome the advantage of size with individual strength alone.”
Was that it? Or was there more to it? He’d have to judge for himself. How did they live? What did they eat? What was their culture like? The Demon Realm promised a whole new world to explore.