Chapter 117

Torien pulled open the hidden door to the cellar. I cast fireflies and my small twinkling lights lit the dark room.

I narrowed my eyes. "I see traces of demon miasma. Silva pull Raya to the side."

Silva nodded and pulled Raya out of the rubble of the destroyed building.

I drew my sword and Torien looked at me. "Are you seriously going to order Silva into the street and go down there yourself?"

I shrugged and decided not to answer. I wasn't going to be able to stop her from worrying about me and she wasn't going to be able to convince me not to be the one that goes down there. I looked down the hole, the floor wasn't that far from the ground, under the circumstances it was probably best to jump rather than try and take the ladder.

Torien sighed. "At least put your sword away first, you're more likely to stab yourself on the way down than anything else."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I replied while sheepishly sheathing my sword.

Bella glanced out of the window at Raya, before quickly handing Mimi's necklace over to me. "At least take Mimi with you. That way you're not alone."

I nodded and put Mimi around my neck. I felt a feeling of reassurance and protectiveness flow through our bond. I dropped down into the hole and quickly drew my sword again. With the amount of miasma in here, it was unlikely it wasn't a demon. I cautiously stepped around the barrels and sacks that were piled up in here looking for the source of it.

Something screeched loudly and made me wince but I just powered through the horrible scream and kept my sword at the ready. A wise choice as the sonic attack was a prelude to the ghastly demon jumping at me. A careful swing swiftly decapitated the demon as I stepped out of its path, killing it instantly. The head and body fell to the floor with a thump and began to instantly dissolve into miasma. It dropped a small core that was leaking miasma as well, it would be useful as proof there were still demons around.

[You have defeated a Banshee]

Mimi's voice filled the small room. "Weird, I was once able to absorb miasma in the dungeon but the miasma that demon released is incompatible with me now."

I watched as the miasma thinned before eventually dissipating, returning to the cycle of mana. "That means you're changing, moving further away from being a demon and moving toward being one of us. A member of my family." I gently rubbed the edge of the necklace with a thumb. My bond with Mimi was filled with contentment and pride, in both directions. I leaned down and picked up the small core. It was similar to the ones that I had fed to Mimi in the past but it was filled with miasma rather than normal elemental energy. I hadn't found anything like this in the dungeon, is this something that only spawns from demons outside of a dungeon?

I stepped back over to the trap door and called up to everyone. "Looks like it is all clear. There was a Banshee down here but I killed it."

Torien's pained face peeked into the cellar. "Is that what that horrible noise was?"

I laughed. "Maybe it was a good thing I was the one to come down here after all. I'm sure Silva's tall ears aren't just for show." I scanned the cellar. "Torien, why don't you come down here and help me look around."

"Sure, let me just get some healing from Bella. My ears are still ringing." Torien rubbed the bridge of her nose between her eyes, likely trying to stave off a headache.

"Sounds good, I'll poke around a little in the meantime."

I opened a few of the barrels and peered inside, unfortunately, most of it was empty. I'm not sure what the reason was though, perhaps they were almost out of supplies when the demons attacked? I kept looking through the crates and barrels, unfortunately not finding much of value. Torien joined after a bit and began searching on the other side of the basement. I looked through all of the crates and barrels and only found a single small crate of flour in the whole room.

I picked it up and carried it over to Torien who was squeezing behind some of the crates. "All I've found so far is this small crate of flour... What are you doing back there?"

"I think I found something but these crates are blocking me. Can you help me pull them out?"

I set the small crate of flour on a shelf before dragging the large wooden crate away from the wall while Torien pushed with her shoulder. They were more awkward to move than actually being heavy so after a little bit of pushing we got them moved out of her way. Behind the shelving and crammed against the wall were two dusty burlap sacks.

"What did you find?" I asked while trying to look around the crates.

She dragged one of the heavy bags away from the wall and untied the top to reveal... rice. I laughed to myself, I'm sure one of the many Japanese protagonists in the anime I used to watch would be overjoyed. Torien dug her hand in the bag and pulled a handful out letting it flow back into the bag.

"Looks okay to me, no bugs or mold. I'm not sure how long this has been sitting here but it looks okay to eat," Torien said.

I smiled. "Great, this should go a long way to helping out the girls. You grab that crate of flour I'll carry these bags of rice up the ladder."

When the two of us finally came back up the ladder Raya's eyes were glued to what we were carrying. "You found something!"

Torien laughed. "We sure did! I found these bags pushed behind some empty crates."

I plopped the bags of rice down and opened both of them to reveal the untouched rice. Raya gasped and grabbed a handful of the grains. "This is perfect! This should help a lot! What's in the crate?"

I took the lid off of the crate. "Flour. I was actually a bit surprised how little they had on hand."

Morrigan pointed at a large black spot in a corner that spread up the remains of the wall. "It looks like a lot of their supply was out here when the building caught fire, it probably lit the entire building up in a flash. Flour is pretty flammable."

Raya looked up from the box of flour. "You said something about demons earlier, was there anything down there?"

"Yeah, a Banshee. I killed it pretty easily. Oh! It dropped this though." I held out the small core that was leaking miasma.

Morrigan took it from me and examined it closely. "It's leaking miasma, it's a demon core. These spawn from demons sometimes but not from the ones that come out of dungeons. This means the demon was either summoned with the others or formed in the area when the larger one was killed."

Raya's mood soured. "We should probably tell someone but... they won't like it if they know we were trying to loot the area."

I glanced up at the sky for a moment before nodding. "When we were let into town they pulled us aside since we had traces of demons on us. They already know most of us have the [Demon Hunter] title so we could just tell them we were looking for the demons."

Morrigan shook her head. "I don't know. It'll still look suspicious if we tell them we were looking for demons and only found a singular demon. There are probably more around here."

Now that I was actively looking for it I did notice some other traces of demon miasma. Not just the leftovers from the old strong one either, weaker ones were around too.

I sighed. "What should we do then? Not tell anyone?"

Torien looked around. "It's pretty deserted around here for this very reason. Maybe we should just come back after we drop this off and keep looking? We don't know how many more demons there are but as long as we check out a decent amount of the area it shouldn't be too weird to tell them we were out demon hunting."

I nodded and glanced at the two corpses. I wouldn't know what to do with the bodies if we dug them out right now, I'm sure the city would take care of it eventually but... I still felt compelled to pull out my money pouch. I pulled out four copper coins and placed them on the eyes of the deceased.

Silva tilted her head in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Death ritual. I'm giving them fare for Charon to take them across the river of the dead."

Silva looked around before settling her eyes back on me. "That's pretty weird. Don't let the Tamin church see you do that. I know you've already said they don't like you but they would really not like it if you did this in front of them."

"They don't like a lot of things I do."

She shook her head. "I'm serious. If they think you worship the god of death which..." she gestured to the corpses. "is exactly what this looks like, they might try and kill you on the spot."

"I'm sure they'll find a reason eventually... but I'll take your advice to heart."

"Err sorry to interrupt..." Raya gestured at the bags. "I wish I could help you carry these but... carrying stuff isn't my strong suit. We should get these back to the Ruby Vixen as soon as possible."

I looked at Silva. "Do you mind taking these back to the Ruby Vixen with Raya?"

She studied my face for a few moments before sighing and shaking her head. "Fine, it's not like you have to ask in the first place. I'll take that as a sign of trust. Should I come back here after?"

"Sure. We'll keep looking in this area." I turned to Raya. "Now that you've shown us this area you don't need to come back here right? I don't want you to be in danger now that we know there are demons around."

Raya hesitated but eventually nodded. "You're right. I probably shouldn't put myself in any unnecessary danger and this will be more than enough to hold over the girls at the Ruby Vixen for now. Just be careful okay? Come talk to me when you come back."

I smiled. "No problem. Torien, do you mind going with them? I'm sure Silva wouldn't want to come back here on her own."

Torien glanced at Morrigan for a moment before nodding. "Sure, just keep my sister out of trouble," she said while grinning at Morrigan. She tried to make it into a joke but I could sense she was being serious, she was telling me not to let her get hurt.

"Of course," I said before kissing Morrigan on her cheek. "I wouldn't let my lover come to harm." I caught Morrigan off guard and got to see her happily flush in embarrassment.

Morrigan, Bella, and I watched the three of them walk away for a few moments before we turned back to the rest of the buildings. I followed one of the loose traces of miasma I could see to one of the nearby doors. It looked like someone's home.

"I don't know if it's a good idea to break into what looks like a person's house to hunt demons. That seems like it might get us arrested." I tried the handle and the door was locked like I had expected.

Morrigan nodded. "I doubt it, the city guards look too busy for that. But there are probably other buildings that aren't locked or are destroyed enough to let us enter without worrying about it. We should keep looking."

I followed another trail to a building that stood out from the ones around it. This one would pose less of a challenge entering, considering the giant open hole in the side. As we got closer the miasma got more intense. I was surprised we hadn't noticed it sooner, the air was thick with it. I drew the sword from my hip as we approached.

The building was three stories tall and had been built of wood and stone. The wood looked decayed and rotten despite having the same architecture as the building right next door. Unless it was a coincidence, something was happening to the walls of the building itself, making them look far more aged than the ones around it.

Looking through the hole I could tell the first floor was clear but once I got close to the edge of the building I heard a loud thumping coming from the second floor. I shot a glance at Morrigan and Bella who nodded back to me. I took a deep breath and took a step inside.