Becoming Monsters: in the Mirror 36

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters Universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

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Chapter 36: Inner Demons

A hundred responses to the Cursebringer's arrival and deep, rumbling voice rushed through my head, ranging from opening fire instantly to "my, you're a tall one." Most of these would not be helpful, and were discarded. Back to basics, I needed to get some time.

"Why me? Why have you been so determined to get at me? One random guy in this huge city?" I was focusing hard, and saw one positive sign. Nibbles was here, standing at Gloria's side as she sized up her sized-up enemy. The full team was, in fact, assembled, and if we had to have this fight we would be facing it together. Not exactly at a hundred percent. We were all hurting, we were all drained to greater or lesser extent, but assembled.

"At first, you were nothing. Now, you are still nothing, but you have managed to foil a significant number of my better plans. Over and over you have frustrated me, and that ends here." I tried to stretch, feeling my range of motion. Again, not perfect, but enormously better than I thought it would be. My scalp itched, annoying but not critical.

"Doesn't sound like a nothing. At least eight times that I know of, you failed because of me. This will be the ninth."

"Your limited successes have given you a certain hubris. When I take you, the rest of your demons will come back to me, and your city will become my playground. My... recruiting ground." Amber was equipped with gun and shield. Good, it would let her stay back a bit. Paige's whips were out, also ready.

"And yet, we are still here talking." Lucy had her staff out and, to my eyes, was obviously charging it. Sarah, similarly, had her wand primed and her ring glittering.

"You are an odd one. A factor I failed to take into account. The only person in a city of nearly a million souls who can do what you have done. I will not make that mistake again." Emily was in a form I had not seen her voluntarily take before, a monstrous quadrupedal fox over five feet at the shoulder, tails writhing. It was reminiscent of the demon she had become when cursed, but she was obviously in control of herself.

"Emily, care to record this one?" I looked up at the thing in front of me. "When, not if, we defeat you here, you leave. Should you survive, you leave my mind, leave my family, leave my city. For good. You and yours do nothing to us." Emily's tail tips were glowing. I didn't know if her Dealmaker power would be strong enough to bind such a foe, but I had to give it a shot. Not that I had any intention of letting it escape, but I didn't know all the rules we were playing by.

"I know what you are doing. Have your servant stop, I will not fall for it like you did." Welp. Worth the shot.

"She is no servant." I still gestured at Emily to stop, no sense wasting resources we would likely need soon. "I do not expect you to believe that, or even understand it, but that is not what we do here." Cursebreaker confirmed my fears. This entity was not cursed. It was the source of them. There wouldn't be a shortcut this time.

"She is bound to you, body and soul. Even more than I demanded. Your so-called 'rescue' was a pale thing. A deep and perverse falsehood." Scan, similarly, was not returning much of anything useful. The being was full on health and stamina, nearly so on mana. The mana gave the impression of some minimal drain. Probably whatever it was using to stay here.

Okay, there's the backstop plan. We either kill it, or we delay it long enough for its MP to run dry. Meant these preliminaries were really freaking important. I focused on my sword, hoping it would get this plan to the team. "Perhaps if I had chosen to exert control, you may be right. I did not, her will remains her own. The same as my wife, the same as the others. Quite the opposite, the wound you just stepped through resulted from my refusal to do so."

"Whether you choose to do so is irrelevant, little Incubus." Okay, I was getting

really

sick of people calling me that. Even when they were taller than me. "The fact remains that you still can. You always will be able to. No matter how gentle the master, how gilded the cage, they are all still your slaves. That you cannot comprehend this is a limitation of your own imposition. It is not one I labor under." My Shield Gauntlet was nearly empty, containing only scraps of power Lucy and I had fed into it before sleeping. I couldn't depend on it for much, so I was more likely to use it for other abilities. Looks like I was fighting duelist-style this evening.

"I know a frontal attack is not all that you are planning. You wouldn't come here if that was all." The thing wasn't radiating an Aura. Either its tank was empty, or (more likely) it wasn't a true Demon. That was somewhat less encouraging than it might otherwise be, I knew Demons. I didn't know this thing.

"I can mold you into something far greater if you come to me willingly. A threat such that the Heralds must take pause. You would even keep much of yourself if you give yourself to me. That is my offer. We help each other, I give you power, and you give me protection."

"Why is it that all of you offer the same thing? Should you walk away from here, let it be a lesson. If what I wanted was power, we would not be here. I would have accepted one of the offers I got this month, suffered less, and been out of your way." I was out of options. If the thing decided it wanted to throw down, I didn't have any glaring weaknesses presenting themselves to exploit. All I knew of its tactics was that it liked to call darkness and fear, and had that Curse in its options. Presumably, those claws weren't exactly pillows, either. No idea how tough the scales were, but better to assume dragon-ish than to underestimate it.

"A pity. A waste. Each of you so strong it took your team to extract victory, and you can have it all."

"I get it now. You're scared. You need slaves to do what you want. One of those Heralds has your number, or will soon, and you know you can't match them. Classic newbie blunder. You bit off more than you can chew, so you are desperately reaching for anything you can grasp."

"Fool. I will teach you the meaning of fear." With that, darkness fell upon us, and combat began in earnest. Hard on its heels was a wave of terror, the feel of watching inevitability bearing down on you. An avalanche. A tidal wave. A tornado of fear, that which incapacitated and killed well before the object of that fear arrived.

We knew they were coming, and this time his victims were ready. Sarah targeted the wave of darkness and ripped it from the reality of this black landscape. I tapped into my well of power, the Hunger which had driven me so long, and forced out a wave of pure confidence, a surge of joy and protection. What came at us could not stand, and broke upon us like a wave on an uncaring shore.

Whitney and Paige took the signal to begin, diving in so fast they seemed to teleport. Their foe was more than three times their size, neither cared. Paige went low, striking at the Cursebringer's legs to hinder it by laceration or entanglement. Whitney's wings beat as she leapt high, coming directly at the thing's torso.

The Cursebringer tried to swat her out of the air, her ballistic path suicidal against most foes in most situations. This was not "most." Its terrible claws chimed off of the shield that Lucy suddenly manifested to protect the airborne Berserker. Whitney not only delivered a terrible blow to the creature's center of gravity, just before hitting the ground she activated Conserve Momentum to convert her fall to more power.

Wait. Chimed. That sound means metal! "Lucy! Heat the claws!" My voice sounded odd to my ears, I didn't feel it in my throat. Sarah's touches on the sword were putting in some serious work, conveying my messages to my team without allowing casual interception. From the corner of my eyes, I could see Gloria and Amber firing at our target as Lucy suddenly shifted her tactics. Her combat staff traced a rapid circle around her feet, and that circle began to glow red.

Nibbles grew to the size of a very, very angry horse under the influence of Gloria's power, joining Whitney and Paige in the fray. He stuck to attacking the feet and ankles of the Cursebringer, but given those quills were several feet long in this form it was

plenty

.

Our enemy saw the odds twisting in front of his eyes, and decided to do something about it. It emitted a pulse of some kind of kinetic force, knocking Whitney, Paige, and Nibbles backwards and away, giving it time to launch a volley of black bolts at us. I blocked with a momentary manifestation of my Shield, but it wouldn't have very many such uses left. Others blocked, countered, or simply endured other parts of the volley. As my arm dropped, I saw it reach a claw out towards me, and it launched a bolt of bright energy at me. A bolt that was led by an icon of an eye, like that on its face.

The Curse of Reversion.

Cursebreaker snapped into my vision, and the edge of my saber glowed purple. I sliced it out of the air, dispelling it before it could strike. I'd have to be careful. If that hit one of the ladies it would be enormously difficult to save her and still deal with the monster attacking us. If it struck me, it would be immediately irrecoverable. Given how low my mana was, that meant I wouldn't be able to check on progress very often. I settled instead for diving in with my front line once more.

That same, terrible claw came down at me from overhead, but Gloria was way ahead of it. A net of lightning caught the arm and yanked it backwards as my wings beat, and my saber slashed across the being's torso. Its inky scales shattered under the edge, ablating the attack. Hit the ground rolling, and came back up with a Flame Ray as Lucy's spell took effect... and as it landed a massive blow to my torso, sending me flying.

Fact one. Not immune to fire. It was obviously in pain, both its hands and the spot on its arm I tagged with the spell.

Fact two. Neither am I. Those claws freaking hurt. Emily, thankfully, was quick off the draw siphoning off a significant amount of the wounds as I was launched past her.

Lucy and Gloria both immediately shifted to pelting the Cursebringer with flame, and Amber reached into her Pocket for what appeared to be a Molotov Cocktail as well. I felt like I really shouldn't ask about that one. Paige got the point up close as well, and stopped her determined control of her Balar nature. Cracks appeared in her skin for the first time since the hospital, and she vented searing heat into the area.

Whitney and Nibbles wisely leapt clear for a moment. Took a break, caught their breath.

"Cease this. You resist me for no good reason."

"I'm used to flammable folks saying things like that." I was firing my pistol left-handed again. My target was larger than the broad side of a barn, I could get away with it. He launched another Curse at me, and like the last one I cut it from the air just before it could reach me.

"Then I must demonstrate exactly why you should have submitted when first I offered." Oh, I did not like the sound of that one.

No immediate external sign presented itself, which was more worrisome than anything else. As Whitney and Nibbles dove back in, I had an opening to use a sliver of my remaining power to chance another Scan. This time, I got a lot more useful information. We were significantly degrading its health, stamina, and mana. This fight didn't look like it would go for very much longer. The problem is that I found a fourth meter, with a name I could not read, that was very slowly filling. As I watched, it ticked from 2% to 3%. I got the

very strong

feeling that we did not want to let that get full.

"Sarah! See anything we haven't tried?"

"Yeah, go for the head!" I wanted to say something incredibly sarcastic, but bit my tongue.

I looked up. And up. Dude was three times my height, ten times my mass, and actively trying to kill me. I couldn't exactly drop my sword in case he came for the curse again. Headshots might be a problem. Or... it might be a problem for

me

. "Lucy, Gloria! Aim for the eye! Amber, Sarah, support!"

Amber took a moment to throw a mana potion into the air, giving me a quick charge. This was good, because all of a sudden I was the only person running interference for the front line. Or... I was, until Emily dove in next to me. I was there drawing out attacks, cutting spells from the air, and defending the others by interdicting what was intended for them. Emily? Emily just took it to the face and healed it off before her class abilities let her actually feel it.

That was... horrifying, and frankly concerning. This was the angriest I had ever seen her. There was nothing subtle or restrained about her fury, nothing reasoned about her tactics. She had diamond claws and the ability to take hits, and simply applied both at full speed. No denying its effectiveness, though I had to block at least two of the Cursebringer's attacks that might not have left enough of her to heal.

Lucy finished her charge then, and demonstrated exactly what the sum of all of her power could do. As Gloria took the opportunity to Pin the target in place, Lucy unleashed the power she had built up. A titanic lance of force and fire flew from her combat staff, and the Cursebringer did not have a defending saber to interdict. The blast struck home, right in the center of what should have been its face. It was enough. The monster's head snapped backwards. Ever so slowly, it dropped backwards onto the ground.

It wasn't dead, not yet. Really, not even close. It was like a boxer that wasn't quite done, the referee screaming for the match to stop as he stood again. We didn't have a ref. The monster was trying to get back in the fight, and would be shortly. Five of us had other ideas. Whitney, Paige, Nibbles, Emily, and I dogpiled it.

Lucy, after all, would not be repeating that trick. I knew better. She often gave the impression of not having limits, but even her tank had a bottom. She needed to chill and recharge, but my brain didn't have a convenient ley line to let her do so.

Those scales were unbelievably tough to get through, and I knew the strikes I delivered in the precious few moments I had were not enough to do anything critical to the flesh underneath. Still, by the time it let out another pulse of force to knock us all away and gain space, the nature of the match had changed. It knew it had bitten off more than it could chew by coming after me in this place. If I had been alone? Perhaps it would have bested me easily, but I was not. My family was with me.

It tried to escape back to the portal, but Whitney and Paige were there, knocking it backwards with mighty blows of their own. It tried to escape to the skies, but was cut off by fire and acid from Gloria along with an assault from Emily. It tried to barrel through me directly to get clear of the engagement, but Lucy, Sarah, and Amber stopped it with mystic shields.

The monster stumbled. Whatever it had been trying to charge up for, it never got anywhere close to using it. The deals failed. The coercion failed. The spells and curses and attacks failed. It fell to its knees.Wherever it had come from, it would not be able to return before the force animating it here ran out. I readied my saber.

"Cursebringer, coming here was a mistake. I do not know what means you used, but you will not leave alive. I cannot let you, not after what you have done to me and mine, not after you told me what you wanted for the city under my protection. Do you have any final words?"

"I do, Incubus. I say again that you do not know the forces arranged against you. The dance that you dare meddle in. When you kill me, know this much. You should have stayed in your little corner, and hid when the call came." It bowed its head, offering its neck for the final strike.

"If you had not come to my city, I might have done so. Farewell, and may your Maker judge you as you deserve." I leapt high into the air with a beat of my wings, and with both hands brought the edge of my blade down upon its neck, cleanly severing its head.

It was over. Our foe had fallen. Why did it feel like it was such an empty victory?

The head landed on the onyx ground, and stayed there. The body convulsed, and lay still. Inky blackness like the blood of the void between the stars leaked from the stump of its neck. There was no explosion of fire. There was no crumbling to dust. There was no shedding of coins and components. There was only the finality of that execution, and a dread realization.

The Cursebringer was not a Dungeon Monster. It had been a person. One who had once walked in the sunlight, who had hopes and dreams of their own. One whose enormous corpse now lay before us.

I fell to my hands and knees and heaved. My stomach held nothing in this place, but it still tried to vomit it up anyway. This was one person I could not protect. My reaction was not unique, either. Gloria prayed as the knowledge hit her, Lucy nearly joined me on the ground. Paige and Amber looked vaguely sick. Emily had just regained her Kitsune form, and was crying on the ground in sorrow. It took a minute for me to stand again, scars now screaming at me after being ignored this long. "Lucy. Gloria. Amber. We need to give this man a proper burial. As much of one as we can in this place. I need your help with the pyre, it's too much to do alone."

Wordlessly, they stepped forward. When I threw fire onto the remains, they called it with me. My duty remained, the last I had for this person. "Though our foe has fallen, he once was a human. We stand and remember, though we knew not his face. As his remains are returned to the dust from whence they came we pray that, whatever the circumstances that led to our paths crossing as enemies, his soul will know peace in the Hereafter. What was earned has been rendered unto his body. We have no quarrel with what endures. And let us say: amen."

From my family I heard a chorus of "amen" as the remains burnt away.

I awoke before the sun that morning with tears in my eyes and pain in my body. I would survive both, but all eight of us would need help for now. Slowly, I made sure all of us were up, and we made our way to the hospital. This Saturday morning, we would be the patients.