It wasn’t that she landed on something.
Something literally caught her out of the sky, moving downwards just enough to dampen her speed before bringing her to a stop.
Eva let out a slight sigh of relief before feeling whatever it was that had caught her move slightly. It didn’t just move all at once. Thousands of things moved against her back. It was as if she were lying on a bed of snakes.
Or tentacles.
The latter made much more sense.
Except she couldn’t see any blood inside the things. Though her body didn’t resemble a human beyond the superficial, Lucy still had blood that Eva could perceive. This thing didn’t.
Scrambling to her feet, Eva tried to move. Something–tentacles–caught on her foot. With a slight yelp, she started tipping forwards.
Only to be caught again. Something slithered around her waist before latching out to her arms.
Eva wasn’t about to stick around to find out what would happen next. Her arms and her legs burst into flames. The tentacles holding onto her quickly retreated save for the one around her waist. Clawing at it resolved that situation.
Thankfully, the glow from her fire illuminated the area. She could actually see what was around her.
The writhing and squirming tentacles surrounding her were not what she wanted to see. Long and thick tubes of flesh curled around the ground, far thicker than any one of Lucy’s tentacles. At least there were no eyes or mouths. They were all coated in some sheen that glistened against the light.
Looking down, Eva found some of clear ooze around her shirt where the tentacle had grabbed hold. She couldn’t risk any sort of toxicity seeping in through her skin. With her hands still on fire, Eva carefully burned off most of her shirt. It took a bit of care to not get any of the gunk on her skin, but eventually she managed. She had nothing on from the chest down.
Both of her hands and her legs were clean of any ooze. The fire coating her carapace was enough to burn it off.
There was a small bubble of space around her that was clear of any tentacles, but they swirled around her as if looking for any weakness in the light.
As the light danced across the moving worms on the ground, Eva’s breathing started to pick up. Light moved one way while the tentacles moved another. It blurred together to create a nauseating illusion of motion despite Eva’s feet being firmly planted on the solid ground.
The all-encompassing darkness beyond the small ring of light weighed down on her. Even flaring the brightness didn’t serve to penetrate the darkness any further.
Absolute silence did not help matters. Eva could hear nothing but her own heart beating and her increasingly ragged breath. Though the ground had a foot-thick layer of tentacles squirming across it, they made not even the slightest sound.
This was a terrible idea.
Taking a deep breath, Eva stepped forwards.
The tentacles in front of her retreated further back.
That was good. As long as they kept their distance, everything would be just fine.
Eva reared back and threw a few balls of fire. Each one exploded into a bright flare high above the ground level, providing some extra light all around.
Three out of four directions, there was nothing but tentacles on the ground.
Off in the distance, there was some kind of structure. Eva could just barely see some light from her flares glinting off it. It was crooked and twisted. Probably not a building. Maybe some kind of natural formation. At least, as natural as one could get down in Hell.
Her first thought was to head towards it.
Looking around at the mass of tentacles writhing along the floor, Eva decided that she had lost all of her curiosity towards this place. If she really wanted to know, she would come back with Lucy as a guide.
Water so still that it could have been mistaken for a sheet of glass encompassed most of the direction opposite from the structure. That looked to be the safer direction, so Eva started walking.
Slowly.
Trying to pretend that she didn’t see the larger shadows that moved around at the edge of her ring of fire.
One of those shadows came just a little too close.
A flesh-colored mass roughly the size and shape of a human was in Eva’s sight for less than a second before it retreated back to the shadows. Goosebumps spread across her skin as she tried to make sense of what she saw. She took a subconscious step away from the thing.
Its pale flesh was dotted with thousands of holes. Tiny black circles that Eva’s light failed to illuminate. They were clustered together. Some in large groups, others scattered across the surface like stars in the nights sky. There was no organization, or order or rhyme or reason. They were just there.
As the thing retreated, it turned ever so slightly. As if a person was looking over their head.
Yet there were no eyes. No mouth. Just more of the tiny holes clustered together without any real pattern.
That second was all Eva needed to know that she never wanted to return again, with or without Lucy’s guidance.
With an unnatural panic, Eva gathered fireballs into her hands. She started throwing them at the ground between herself and the water. As the tentacles ahead of her began retreating from the bursts of flames, Eva started running.
She didn’t stop until she dove into the water head first.
There was a slight pulling sensation in the pit of her stomach before she found herself gently gliding down to the sandy beach within her domain.
She had been intending to visit Zagan’s domain. It would probably be more like Ylva’s or Catherine’s domains, but Eva really wasn’t about to take the chance. Maybe some day, but for the moment, she was just relieved to be landing back in someplace familiar.
Eva didn’t move. She stood on the sand, taking deep breaths that she let out slowly.
It took her a few moments to realize that there was still a sickly sensation in her stomach, but it wasn’t from Lucy’s domain.
It was the same sensation as what she felt from enigmas.
With one last deep breath, Eva started towards the women’s ward. She took care in keeping watch for anything that might have burrowed beneath her.
Nothing jumped out at her.
Several of the trap doors were opened wide, each had at least one enigma inside. Eva counted up a mere four before she reached the doors.
Prax was standing just inside, saying something about how everything was more peaceful before she had showed up. Eva shook her head and waved him off without fully comprehending whatever it was that he was saying.
Sinking down into a chair in her common room, Eva spent a moment just shuddering.
Chapter 018
It took most of the rest of the day for Eva to finally shake herself out of her stupor. After having a few minutes to calm down, Lucy’s domain probably hadn’t been the worst thing ever. It was close, but not the worst.
The tentacles weren’t even that bad. Eva could stand tentacles. That monster covered in holes on the other hand…
Another shudder wracked Eva’s body at the thought. Whatever it was, Eva wouldn’t mind never seeing it again.
At the moment, Eva was assuming both the tentacles and the monster–if they were even separate entities–to be a part of Lucy’s domain. Some constructs that she had created. Perhaps out of a desire for company, she had created a companion that was like her self and another that was the inverse of herself.
But if they weren’t created by Lucy… if they were attackers or invaders, then Lucy should probably be made aware of their presence. It could be a new type of enigma. Or even another demon. Whatever the case was, Eva hoped that Lucy wouldn’t be too upset with the brief tour of her domain that she had taken.
As unnerving as the domain had been, Lucy was still a genuinely decent demon to interact with. Sure, she was a bit strange, but who among Eva’s acquaintances wasn’t at least a little abnormal.