Kalika found herself in a familiar dream. Just like those other dreams, she now relived an experience not her own. She turned down the familiar dungeon paths with a wooden bucket in hand and cleaning supplies in the other as she trudged past the cells that housed several prisoners.
She could hear the whistles and catcalls of the prisoners looking for an easy catch. They're pestering was something she felt too familiar with and disgusted by. It was a pitiful scene that she could describe with a single thought.
"Desperate…"
Eventually, leaving the sight of the rowdy prisoners, she arrived at the part of the hall where there were barely any prisoners around. And then none at all.
"How cute." A familiar voice rose.
She froze in place. Recognizing Rakon's voice. She took to the wall, hugging it close as she tried to stay out of sight from the jail cell, where the voice came from.
"This makes it your third-no. Your fifth time trying to escape!" Rakon laughed, amused.
"S-shut up!" Kalika yelled.
"I'd be lying if I said you weren't determined. But that makes it all the more cute. You're like a child trying to steal a sweet treat, all the while trying to skip your overdue chores."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Suddenly, Kalika saw her human self pressed against the stone wall of the cell, held by the neck with Rakon's red, clawed hands. She shuddered and witnessed his hands leaving a thick ring of blood around her human self's throat.
The ring slowly brought the human Kalika to the ceiling, leaving her to flail and struggle to breathe.
Not long after, Rakon came to view, standing right in front of the cell bars, looking unamused.
"Don't play stupid, you know our deal well. You should at least make an effort to keep your part of the bargain. Tch!"
Rakon gave a quick glare to their eavesdropper. Uninterested, he turned back to Kalika. With a flick of his finger, the blood around Kalika's neck vanished. She dropped to her bed, bent over, and panted for air.
"But no. You're still as defiant as ever, and for what? Some meaningless hope? Hope, that someone will come and save you, or that you can somehow escape again? Hah! Don't kid yourself! You and I both know the only way you can escape."
Rakon forcefully grabbed and pulled her face to his. "And that's not by playing a fool or being a disloyal dog! If you want freedom, you have to play by my rules! Otherwise, you'll continue to suffer alone for the rest of your miserable life!"
Kalika spat in his face.
"You damn human…" Rakon hissed.
A second later, the blood splattered all across the cell and into the prison hall, followed by unsteady breathing. "Danm it. I did it again." Rakon clutched his blood-drenched hands. All the while, the Kalika that witnessed the events found herself instinctively covering her mouth as fear rose within her.
Not long after the blood traced its way back to the origin, a loud and pained scream emanated from the human Kalika.
Rakon scoffed. "Defiance will only get you so far, Kalika." He quickly turned and passed through the cell bars, leaving Kalika. "Humans like you are better suited as mindless slaves."
Kalika quickly ran to the bars of the cell, grasping them tightly. "I hate you, Demons! You can all go to hell!!"
Kalika then caught a glimpse of their eavesdropper, surprised to see her presence. "Rhonda?"
Suddenly, Kalika's vision started to fade, replaced by darkness, followed by a booming headache that overcame her.
She felt a patch of grass and dirt beneath her fingers as she clutched the ground. She scanned around with her hazy vision and got to her knees. "Argh… My head…"
Her vision slowly came into view, and she found herself surrounded by trees with a natural stone wall behind her. Looking up, she found more natural stone.
"Where am I?" Feeling to her side, she touched a familiar fur.
She turned and found a very familiar scarred wolf sleeping right next to her. She looked on, more puzzled, until memories of the sudden ambush invaded her mind—memories of her getting stabbed with an arrow and of Donovan getting stabbed in the stomach.
"Donovan!"
She clutched her head, burying it in the ground. Her breathing slowly quickened as thoughts, doubts, and disbelief filled her mind.
"This can't be happening. This can't be happening!! Th-these damn demons!" she hissed.
She slowed down and steadied her breath. She turned her gaze to the wolf beside her. "What a horrible dream."
Kalika, with even more unsteady eyes, stumbled to her feet and walked in a random direction. "Kill… I-I'll kill them. All of them!"
Suddenly, she found the wolf blocking her way.
"Get out of my way!" Kalika readied her dagger with the intent to kill at an all-time high.
Undeterred, the wolf turned its head to Kalika and pointed its snout in the opposite direction. It did so a few times, prompting Kalika to turn her gaze. In the far distance, smoke was rising. It was a sign of life.
"The demons are that way?" Kalika smiled sinisterly.
********
Donovan slowly opened his eyes, feeling a pain in his stomach. He flinched and steadied his breathing. He glanced at his stomach, finding it patched up. "What the-?"
His elbow bumped a wooden bar. He looked around and took note of his surroundings, finding himself trapped in a wooden cage surrounded by tattooed demons and demonesses. They all seemed to be going about their day as if it were another day, while others conversed or guarded the area.
Looking around more, Donovan saw even more cages that were empty with some clear blood stains. Beyond that, a plethora of mud and clay houses with thatched roofs surrounded the area, resembling a town square with a bonfire at its centerpiece. Aside from the clay and mud buildings, there was one building that stood out amongst the rest.
On Donovan's far-off left, he saw a building constructed from wood and fitted with stone tiles as the roof. Surrounding the building was a considerable presence of spear-wielding warriors that seemed focused on a strange black idol figure made of rock. Obsidian perhaps. "That's probably where their leader lives…"
Donovan tried shaking the bar, but it was as stiff as a tree.
"
Donovan turned, seeing a passing demon with his adolescent son.
"
"
"
Some time after the demons passed, even more of the demons noticed Donovan's new state. They gave him strange glances, and some of the passing children started to grow curious about him, poked him with a stick as if he were some captive beast. Some of them began to get more aggressive with a flurry of pokes coming from all sides.
"Crap. What do I do?"
Feeling the searing pain from his wound again, a confusing thought struck him. "Wait… Why am I still alive? And where's Kalika? Ah. That's right, that wolf took her… And now she's probably…"
Donovan clutched his hands. Concern started to mask his face.
"What's wrong? Human?"
The children fled, seeing Zelak, and Donovan whipped his head around, finding a tall, thin blue demon with some white markings on his face and bare chest. He had white hair that draped over his cold blue eyes, filled with mischief and intrigue.
The demon, Zelak, smiled smugly, awaiting some sort of answer.
"What? Goblins got your tongue?"
Donovan glared at Zelak, but the demon only chuckled.
"By the looks of it, you must be some former soldier, Adept but still lacking in muscles and some skill."
To Donovan's surprise, Zelak sat himself in front of Donovan and leaned his head on his fist.
"It's a shame I can't look into someone's past, would've been fun to mess around with a human like you. But alas."
"Who the hell are you?" Donovan questioned.
Zelak sat back up, crossing his arms. "The name is Zelak, and you're the human, Donovan. I presume you're here looking for Bjorn, along with that human woman, turned demoness. This. Kalika."
"H-how do you- ?"Donovan stepped back, startled by the demon's knowledge of them and their group. He snapped himself back, igniting his soul. "Where's Bjorn!?"
"I just sold him off a while ago. A group of Incubi from Bona had a bone to pick with him, too, so we worked out a nice deal. Thanks ot Bjorn, we were able to get a lot of supplies and plenty of the glow crystals. At this point, they're probably halfway to Bona by now."
Donovan slammed his hands on the wooden bars. "You bastard!"
"Teh! That rat bastard, Bjorn, only has himself to blame. It's only fair after everything he did. An eye for an eye, as some of you humans call it."
Suddenly, Zelak barfed up an immaculate amount of blood. His eyes and nose started to bleed, and he shook. Donovan, Stunned, was unable to look away from the scene.
Zelak wiped his face clean.
"
Donovan darted his eyes to a demon behind him. He recognized him from the demons that ambushed him and Kalika.
"
The demon, Prawn, scoffed. "
"
Prawn nodded and marched in the direction of the huge wooden lodge.
"What was that about?" Donovan wondered.
"Consider yourself lucky for now, that you're not dead already." Zelak stood back up. "Especially since we'll need to use you as a bargaining chip. But who knows, maybe she'll abandon you like so many of her so-called friends."
Satisfied, Zelak turned away from Donovan. "Heh. Well, I think I had enough chatting for now, perhaps we'll see each other later."
Donovan grimaced. He watched on, clutching the bars of his wooden prison tightly as Zelak left, as he laughed to himself.
"I can't listen to that demon." Donovan thought. "He's probably trying to get under my skin. But… Kalika… Will she actually come? No. If there's one thing I know about her, it's that she'd do whatever it takes to get what she wants. And I doubt that she'll roll over after what they did."
********
A goblin's head fell from its body, and the red dagger was sheathed. A blood-stained Kalika took the corpse of the monster, dragging it by the arm to a cliff that overlooked the entire village. "There it is…"
She growled as her gaze intensified on the large village of mud and clay houses, with a large wooden Lodge at its center. She saw the white marked demons walking around, like little ants going about their own business.
"Demons. Demons. Demons, demons, demons." She shook. "There's so many of them."
The wolf behind wagged its large tail as it feasted on one of the many goblins Kalika had slaughtered. She turned back, throwing the headless corpse to the wolf. "Be a good girl and stay."
Without much warning, Kalika jumped down from the cliff with her new target set. She fell through the trees and broke her fall. Scratches and cuts riddled her body, along with a painful broken leg that twisted back to form.
A wave of adrenaline pulsed through her, and like a fiend, she dashed through the forest with a single goal in mind.
She dove through branches, broke through bushes, and crushed the slime creatures beneath her feet. An aura of darkness soon enveloped her as thoughts of Donovan getting stabbed filled her mind on repeat. She broke from the forest and hurtled straight through the village wall.
She crashed in like a rocket, hurling splintered wood in all directions. The demons around looked at Kalika in complete shock.
A wide, large smile formed beneath the darkness covering Kalika's face.
"
"
Without hesitation, she drew her dagger and drove it into the neck of the first demon in sight. The other demon, witnessing this sudden brutality, quickly turned and fled.
Boxes and baskets dropped as others launched their attacks.
Spears flew, and earth spikes launched at Kalika with a blind ferocity. Despite all odds, she dodged and shattered an earth spike, closed the distance, and carved her way through demons before her. One at a time, two at a time. One after another, they fell to her blade as the battle alerted the warriors and guards to the chaos she invoked in their home.
Kalika's eyes twitched, seeing the approach of familiar demons. With maniacal laughter, pure darkness traced its way to the demons, entrenching the ground below them to their shock.
"I'll kill you all!!"
Spikes of darkness shot from the ground like bullets riddling the demons with new holes.
Not finished with the demons, she raised her dagger, newly cloaked in dark energy, and swiped, decimating the demon warriors and their precious homes behind.
Homes collapsed, rubble flew. The terrified screams grew even louder. A sense of pleasure and bliss made its presence known.
Kalika cackled. Her smile widened with the thought of the untold destruction she could inflict on these demons.
She stood and laughed at the untold destruction she caused. As she stretched her hands, ready to attack, several demon warriors ambushed her from behind, stabbing straight into her with all their weapons.
Despite the otherwise grim situation, she continued to laugh joyously. ""
Some of the warriors began to be unnerved by her laughter, with some tempted to distance themselves. But slowly her laughter died down, and her head drooped down.
"
Kalika suddenly clutched one of the warriors' throats as the other to he right was stabbed up the head with her dagger. Their weapons snapped with the tips of blades and spear heads falling to the ground.
"
With reinvigorated eyes, she darted her gaze to her next would-be victim.
"
The warriors around quickly prostrated themselves, shocking Kalika. The darkness that enveloped her dissipated immediately as confusion took place.
Kalika scoffed at the sight of such a thing happening. "Why is this dream getting weird now!?"
She raised her blade, ready to strike again. Only for it to suddenly repel from her hand.
She turned quickly and saw it swirl around in the air, changing trajectory until it landed into the hands of the demon, Prawn.
Kalika glared at the demon that stood before her. "You! You're the one who stabbed me!"
From behind, Zelak approached Prawn and stood beside him. "I see… So our champion has arrived."
"Champion?"