Chapter 54. Getting Ready for a Rescue

“Hah,” I couldn’t help but scoff after listening to Bo’guth’s retelling of the incident.

Igladith turned a fierce glare my way, nearly jumping from her place. “What? Do you think it’s funny that this happened to us?!”

“No, not at all,” I replied with a shake of my head. “I just find those ‘Followers of Leyfall’ to be extreme fools.”

“And why is that?” she asked, settling down slightly.

“They don’t know the kind of damage that they’re causing,” I said and closed my eyes momentarily, remembering the damage that I did under the same beliefs.

“None of that matters right now,” Bo’guth said, raising a hand to go back to the issue. “I called you here because I thought that you might help us. We already reported it to the authorities, but as you could see… they didn’t really seem to be in a hurry.”

I opened my eyes and placed a hand on my chin. It wasn’t an easy task to find their kidnapped child, especially in such a large city, but… if their daughter is currently using dark magic to protect herself, then I might be able to sense her. The problem is knowing in which direction to go.

“Hm… I might be able to find her,” I said and both Bo’guth and Igladith looked at me with surprise. “I just need to have a general place of where they might’ve taken her.”

“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be sitting here waiting for other people to do it,” Igladith said with the same fierce frown.

“Yes, you are right. But as long as I can detect her dark magic, I’ll be able to find her,” I said with as much of a calm tone as I could express.

“Is that something that’s related to your Holy Power? Like the ability to detect darkness or something like that?” Bo’guth asked. He appeared to be much calmer than Igladith.

I shook my head with a wry smile. Rather, ever since I started using Darkness and Hellfire, I’ve been able to much more easily detect Darkness, which was strange, because I didn’t get that much of an enhanced sense with Holy Power. Although, that could just be because of the contrast of both powers.

I stretched my hand forward with the palm facing upwards. The power within me stirred and spread to my hand as I had been doing earlier by the window of the room. Darkness covered my arm, and a Hellfire flame floated above my hand. Both Igladith and Bo’guth looked with stunned disbelief at what I was doing.

“Lets just say that I understand Darkness and Hellfire much better now,” I said, sustaining the flame for a while longer before quickly dissipating it all. “I’ll find your daughter.”

Both demons stared at me for a moment, with Bo’guth snapping out of it by doing an incredulous chuckle. “Now that is something I never expected.” He then looked me seriously in the eyes. “What do you suggest we do?”

I placed a hand over my chin again as I considered what our options were. We could do a sweep of the whole city until we found the girl, but this place seems so absurdly large, that doing something like that with my current resources wasn’t feasible at all. The best option remains that we should try to find a place where they were likely to take her.

If these were the Followers of Leyfall, then they should’ve taken her to a base of sorts. However, I have no idea about what they could possibly use as a base. “Are the Followers of Leyfall a large organization?”

Bo’guth shook his head. “No—well, yes, but they aren’t big in this place yet. So far, they’ve just started having a footing.”

“Then, is it safe to assume they don’t have many bases?” I asked.

“I would say so, yes. I’d even go as far as saying that they likely only have one place,” Bo’guth said before clicking his tongue. “However, I don’t know where they have it.”

“Then, there might be an easy way to find it,” I said and reached for the phone.

“So you really are connected to them,” Igladith said while glaring.

I shook my head in response. It irked me slightly that she still would still attack me right now, but I also understand the kind of distress that she’s under, so I wasn’t going to provoke her. “No, but I know of someone that might.”

After clumsily using my phone to find the person that I wanted to contact, I finally managed to see the name that I was looking for: Brian Tasis. He had been contacted and likely recruited by them to join their cause—even if he wasn’t a believer and only did it for power.

I hadn’t bothered to contact him before and I hadn’t seen nor heard about him, but now wasn’t the time to be giving him space. I pressed the screen on the phone as I was taught by Nicole and placed the top part on my ear, something that I had only done a handful of times.

After a few moments of the phone making a sound, I worried that perhaps Brian wouldn’t answer.

“A-Althea?” I heard the young man’s wavery voice from the phone.

“Yes, I need your aid with something,” I said, my tone of voice soft but firm.

“Listen, I don’t want any more trouble, okay? I promise that you won’t see me again, so please just—”

“This is life or death,” I firmly interrupted and the young man quieted down for me to continue. “I shall forgive and forget what you did if you aid me.”

* * *

A few minutes later, I had a location for where to go. It might not be completely related to where they took Mirlaneth, but it was our only lead for the moment.

“This is the place?” Bo’guth asked while looking at a map on his phone.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I nodded. “It’s where they took him once for an initiation. So if there’s anywhere that’s close to their base, it might just be that place.”

“Good, then we shall leave right away,” Bo’guth said, turning to go deeper into his own house, Igladith moving along with him. He stopped to look at her with surprise. “You’re coming too?”

“Of course I am. I’m not going to stay here with my arms crossed while our daughter is out there,” she said before turning to look at me. “And I’m certainly not going to leave it all up to her.”

Bo’guth chuckled and nodded. “I guess you’d be the stronger of the two of us.” He then grabbed her softly by the shoulders, prompting her to look back at him. “Just—try to keep a cool head, okay?”

“Don’t worry. As long as our Miri needs me, I’ll do whatever it takes,” she turned to look at me once more, only this time she looked me up and down. “That silly uniform won’t be enough. Come, I’ll offer something better to you.”

“Oh yeah, and you don’t have a weapon. We have something that you might use for that as well,” Bo’guth said and slightly tilted his head, gesturing to me to follow after them.

I, once more, felt somewhat strange following demons and taking things from them, but I also now knew that they weren’t evil beings, especially now that they were in need. So without thinking too much about it, I followed them.

They didn’t take me too far, even if the house was somewhat large, as they opened a door that led to a pitch dark downstairs basement. The two of them went in without hesitation and without turning a light, but I couldn’t see anything, so I threw a light orb down the stairs to see better where I was going.

“Oh right, I forgot that not every being can see well in the dark,” Bo’guth said and pressed a bit on the wall to give proper light to this underground.

Even with the light turned on, the place was still dark, mostly because of the color of the walls. It wasn’t a large place by any means, and the ceiling wasn’t high, so both Igladith and Bo’guth had to be careful not to scratch the ceiling with their horns.

The place was full of seemingly random things, from chairs, tables and dusty furniture, to old artifacts that didn’t appear to have been touched in a while. The two of them ignored most of them and went to a vault at the back that was almost as tall as they were.

With quick movements of her hand, Igladith opened the vault to reveal several expensive artifacts, gold, and jewelry. She ignored all of them to grab a small black box, before closing the vault once more.

“I was starting to think I wouldn’t use these anymore,” Bo’guth sighed while looking down at the small box. “I think you know what it is.”

“Yes,” I replied as I approached them. “It’s a Magic Pocket from our world.”

“We have our old equipment from the Final War here, and a few others that you might be able to use,” Igladith said as she softly tapped the top of the box. “However, they are all made by our people from Tenebreius, and I’m not sure a ‘Holy Hero’ like yourself would deign herself to use them.”

I smiled in response to her mocking tone. “You’ve already seen the kind of powers I have now. It wouldn’t be an issue.”

Despite my response, Igladith’s cold stare remained as she looked down at me for a moment, her hand on top of the Magic Pocket. “I trust my husband with all my heart, who in turn trusts the words of our Dark Lord. He claimed that you were just a foolish girl who got used by the Holy Gods, but…” she paused to look at Bo’guth before looking down at me again. “…But that your intentions were always good. I will trust you as well, and so, I will give everything that I have to ensure that we can get our daughter back. Don’t make me regret it.”

She tapped the Magic Pocket once more and gear came out of it to land on the floor. They were of a very high quality, the kind that many people in my world would’ve been eager to get their hands on—if not for the fact that it was demonic—which didn’t matter to me anymore.

“Please get ready as fast as you can. We’ll leave right away.”

* * *

The armor and gear that they gave me was strangely comfortable, with an unusual design that I felt I had seen before, but I couldn’t be sure, since I hardly ever paid attention to demonic artifacts beyond just wanting to destroy them.

The armor was composed of different kinds of materials, from cloths and leathers, to metals I couldn’t really recognize.

On the top I was wearing three things: tough clothes with a black armor that would only cover my torso, and a large armored coat on top of it all. The armor for the torso was similar to the one that Bo’guth had given me before, even if… the design was strange. But, this one fit my form much more perfectly, so I didn’t feel constrained nor uncomfortable wearing it. In a way, it reminded me of the Golden Armor—or Holy Armored Dress as some people called it.

As for the coat, it had armored shoulders with intricate red patterns on them, and the arms were almost completely armored with a black and red metal that made my fingers look like they were claws. Again, this coat somehow fit my form almost perfectly, where in my waist it would tighten to then spread until it almost reached the floor. It somewhat made me feel like I was wearing an open front skirt if not for the knowledge that this was all part of the coat.

As for the lower part, I was wearing black pants with a pair of long metal greaves on top that reached up to my thighs. I was amazed at the fine craftsmanship of the boots, but I found it somewhat curious that they would have long heels with pointy ends, since even if some of the armors I wore before had heels—like the Golden Armor—they usually weren’t this long and pointy.

Igladith took notice of my curiosity as she looked me over. “That armor used to belong to one of the greatest Tenebreian generals. She was called ‘The Darkest Knight’; a silly title that she despised, since she didn’t like the idea of being compared to you on the other side of the world.”

I found it surprising that this armor belonged to someone so important, so I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows slightly. “Is that so? Is it okay for anyone else to be wearing it?”

With a shake of her head, Igladith answered the question. “It doesn’t matter to her anymore.” She paused for a moment, giving me a somber look. “I guess I don’t have to tell you where she went during the Final War, do I?”

I looked down at the gear once more, and I quickly realized that there were a few bits and pieces of the armor that had been magically refurbished, in particular around the vitals, which meant that she was no more.

“I see. Then I shall not put her armor to shame,” I replied and looked with determination back at Igladith.

Igladith scoffed as she looked down at the armor. “It is a fine piece of armor, with plenty of room for improvement. It has active and passive protections, such as,”—she suddenly and without warning slashed my face, or tried to, since a Mana Barrier immediately formed to block it—“and it will also combine with your weapon to make it easier to carry.”

“Yes, I can see that it has plenty of enchantments on it,” I said before looking down at the high heels again. “Though I find that part of the design odd.”

“Ah, as you well know, it was custom made for the General. She was usually flying, so she hardly ever walked—as you might guess. But, she did like to drop on her enemies without warning, and she figured it would be easier to spear them with the heels of her armor, which is why they have that shape,” Igladith said while looking down at the greaves before looking back at me. “She also liked the aesthetic of it… I hope they’re not an issue.”

“They won’t,” I said, since they still weren’t extremely long. I looked over the large black sword placed by a wall. “I shall use them to their best of capabilities.”

The sword was also a very fine piece of gear, being much bigger than every other sword I’ve used here. It was longer than me by about a head, as wide as my face, and as thick as the sword’s grip. I grabbed the sword and threw it to my back, where it softly floated across as if it was being held by something, which was just the armor’s magic in effect.

For Igladith, she didn’t change much from what she was wearing when I got here. The only extra things she was wearing were a few rings on both her hands and on her horns. I didn’t have to ask why, since just from looking at them, I could easily tell that they were enchanted to empower her in more ways than one.

Bo’guth wasn’t looking too different from what he wore the time we went into the Tainted Land. “Ready to go?”

“Yes,” I replied and walked past him. “Let us not waste any more time.”