Vol II, Ch 54 – A new leash on life? Well, as long as I’m the one holding it, sure.

My horns ached—a sensation that I was certain I’d never felt before. Almost every part of my body was in some amount of pain. Scowling, I opened my eyes, trying to blink away the heavy fatigue of unconsciousness. Despite just waking, I felt as though I hadn’t had any rest for days.

And I could tell that something about myself was… different.

I peeled my face off the hard surface below, grumbling at the small rocks and dirt that stuck to my cheek. Silver-white hair fell, splaying out across the cobbled ground, and I flinched in surprise.

White? My hair had been black, at least since my unintended transformation into a succubus. I ran my fingers through it just to confirm that it was truly attached to my head, realizing it was also far longer than it had been before. As the hair flowed, the light of the sun made it shine like imbued silk.

A light voice spoke, just a few feet to my right—foreign words that were completely unintelligible to me. I looked over, expecting the sight of a woman, only to freeze.

The creature that stood before me was human only in shape and face. Rather than arms or legs, she had numerous tentacles, like some monster of the deep that had found its way on land and taken human form. Her skin was black, with a magenta underbelly, and her “hair” was a mass of yet more tentacles, swaying and curling above her head. Two horns curved upward from where a human’s ears would normally sit, with a tentacle twirling its way up around the right one. What looked like shadows covered her body, dripping off of her and behaving almost like a thick liquid before fading into the air like wisps of flames.

I’d never seen something like her before, but with the two horns, there was no mistaking what she was.

“D-demon,” I stuttered out. My hand reached instinctively for my sword, only to find nothing.

The demon tilted her head as she asked something else, moving a step closer to me, almost within reach. As the creature reached out with a large tentacle, revealing numerous magenta-colored octopus-like suckers, my hand scraped along the rocks of the cobbled street beneath me. I twisted around, shuddering as my feet slid and I stumbled upward. I was so focused on scurrying away from her that I’d taken several steps before I noticed the rest of my surroundings.

Demons. Hundreds of them—or rather, thousands, given that there was not a human in sight. A city of demons.

And so many of them stared my way. I grabbed my chest as I struggled to breathe. This was it. This was the end for me. I could already feel my life slipping between my fingers.

Another voice spoke, deeper this time, and then a large hand gently grabbed my shoulder. I jerked away, slapping it aside.

“D-d-don’t touch me!” I yelled at the creature, barely giving the large figure a glance before running the other direction.

I crashed, face first into the post of some kind of street stand, a foreign blue fruit spilling out onto the ground as I fell against a bin full of them. Someone shouted, but I didn’t stop running, my eyes darting around for an escape until I saw a small alley to my left. A demon stepped out of my way as I charged for it, barely hearing the foreign shouts behind me.

Another demon tried to grab me, but I ducked beneath them, not stopping.

“Stay away from me!”

I reached the gap between buildings and kept running, on and on until my legs ached and threatened to give out.

Buildings towered around me, those further away covered in an eerie red-tinged fog. Numerous beings of differing shapes and sizes filled the wide street—many pausing to watch the apparent spectacle. The humanoid figure of an ogre, a spider-like being with four legs and four arms, several creatures with large wings, and so many others that I wasn’t familiar with. Further down, a massive brown-furred beast bigger than most buildings moved. It easily took up two-thirds of the street as it lumbered forward on four legs, demons parting aside out of its way. In the distance, I could hear fighting, and the smell of what I was certain was freshly spilled blood met my nose as I took in a shaky breath.

Finally, after what felt like hours, I slumped against the wooden back wall of some building, thoroughly exhausted but alone. As I caught my breath, I took a better look at my surroundings.

I was in a narrow alley. The sky above was darkening, or at least I assumed as much. It didn’t feel like it was getting any brighter out. Shoddy looking buildings were stacked atop one another, almost haphazardly, with a small rope bridge cutting across the alley from one building to another. Part of the alley ahead of me had pillars up the middle of it, holding together what looked like a walkway three stories up between two doorways—though one had a curtain in place of the door. The walkway was missing half of its boards and looked to be leaning to one side, with no apparent railing to keep balance. In short, it looked like a death trap.

It was all rather alien to me. Every town or city I’d been to in the past had simple one-story structures throughout, unless you were on the wealthier side. The buildings here all looked ready to collapse, chaotically stacked as they were, yet many somehow stood five or more buildings high. All the lighting that I’d seen had been red-tinted lamps, casting the steadily darkening and foggy city in an eerie scarlet and maroon light.

Where the fuck was I?

My head was still fuzzy as I thought back to what I could remember—the events of the fight with the ogre slowly coming back to me. Along with my encounter with my father.

He forced me to drink that disgusting potion.

Sucking in a deep breath, I examined myself in a panic, terrified that the potion had done exactly what it was supposed to: turn me back into my old self. The swell of my chest and my tattered academy uniform were a comforting sight, along with the red skin and clawed fingers. I could feel the continued ache of my horns and the twitch of my tail against my back. My sigh was full of relief. While my hair was different and something else about myself felt peculiar, I was at least still me. I was still Ruby.

Before I could ponder further on why that fact didn’t upset me at all, I heard a noise nearby.

Carefully, I snuck forward, over to where the small alley met a larger street. I was seemingly alone, but that didn’t mean I was safe. In a normal city, this would be the sort of place you’d go if you wanted to get mugged—or worse. Seeing nothing ahead, I peeked out around the corner and froze, before pressing my back against the wall, out of sight. The wood groaned from the pressure.

A stake of fear cut through my heart, and I had to stop myself from hyperventilating, instead covering my mouth with a hand.

A figure was walking along the small street. And not a human one. In my brief glance, I’d seen the horns and tail of what looked to be another ogre. I hadn’t been imagining things, then. This city really was full of demons. Were they searching for me? But wait, I was a demon now too, wasn’t I? Shouldn’t my appearance be normal here?

Risking another peek, I looked the ogre over.

It was heading in my direction, but wasn’t yet looking my way, instead focusing on the ground. He was male, though not nearly as large as the one I’d fought. It still made him a fair bit taller than me. He was neither armed nor armored, instead clothed in a simple rugged shirt and trousers—both with a few holes around their seams. And he was stumbling.

…Was he drunk?

I cowered back around the corner before he had a chance to spot me. Even if he wasn’t searching for me, running into someone in a place like this was asking for trouble in a normal human city, much less a demonic one. The crude construction made it clear I’d ended up in a poorer area. I didn’t want to know what the locals might think of my intrusion.

With that thought in mind, I made my way deeper into the alley, hoping to stay out of sight. The fact that demons had cities of all things left me dumbfounded. Though perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Demons did have weapons and clothing and such. Which meant they had to have some kind of vaguely functional society. Cities were a natural result of that, weren’t they?

How had I never thought about this?

I supposed I’d never really cared to know, simply assuming they were a bunch of barbarians living in caves or tents or some such. What did it matter to me what their realm was like? I’d just been trying to summon one for my own benefit. Before I’d unfortunately become one instead. Panicking as I had when I’d woken was perhaps a bit unnecessary, but it was too late to fret about it now. Instead, I went back to pondering just how I’d ended up here.

My memories after drinking the potion were muddled. Thinking about them felt like treading through soup. Like a potent drug, it left the whole experience feeling rather hazy and unreal. Though at least the thing hadn’t killed me.

Lilis’s betrayal left my mouth tasting sour, but worse was remembering the moment my father tossed the knife at my feet… I shook my head, trying to think about something else. Trying to forget what I’d almost done.

And then the portal appeared, and everything really became a blur. Had I really gone through it? Was I fucking insane? If I was lucky, this was all part of some hyperrealistic fever dream after almost dying. I didn’t feel lucky.

“Lilis?” Her name left my lips before I could stop myself.

I’d pulled her through with me. At least, assuming my memory of it wasn’t a dream or some kind of hallucination. Neither Lilis or the demon supposedly summoning me were around. Or rather, while a demon had been there, I could tell that it wasn’t the same one—like a gut instinct of some kind. And I was certain that the demon had mentioned something about it taking place in a forest. Something must have gone wrong, surely. Unless the demon had taken Lilis and simply left me there on the street. But then why go through all the effort of doing the summoning in the first place?

I needed to find Lilis, and perhaps find out what went wrong with the portal. As much as her betrayal hurt, I couldn’t bring myself to simply abandon her. Were I to guess, the reason I woke up alone probably had something to do with whatever that big brute of an ogre had done to my head.

But first, I needed to survive. Which for me, meant shelter and a source of blood. My exhaustion from both the fight and the potion was catching up to me, and hunger was only a step behind. Surely the demon market sold blood for succubi and any other demons that needed it, right? The alternative left me fidgeting with nerves.

Perhaps what I actually needed to find first was a weapon to defend myself with. Then I could figure out the blood, shelter, money, and ideally some new clothing. And then my search for Lilis would begin—partially just so that I could give the girl a piece of my mind.