Vol II, Ch 55 – I drank a powerful magic potion and all I got was different colored hair and a headache.

The knife was dull, its edges slowly rusting. It wasn’t a knife meant for combat. Rather, it was a simple kitchen knife for cutting meat. But after searching the small streets and alleys for most of the night, sneaking around any demons I happened upon, I was glad to have found it. I couldn’t be picky. A knife, even a dull, rusting one, was far better than a rock or sharp piece of glass.

I tossed the blade into the air, incessantly testing its weight and the way it moved. My father had given me worse things to fight with. The thought of him made me almost miss the handle as the knife fell back to my hand. My boiling anger was quickly overshadowed by a tide of shame and failure.

It might have been his fault that I was here, attempting to survive in this forsaken realm, but I was to blame for letting him so easily bring me to ruin. Behind the scenes, he’d played me for a fool. And I’d followed along, allowing my weaknesses to define me.

Everything has a cost. Of that, he was correct. It was a fact of life that I hated, and something Lilis’s betrayal made ever more clear. She’d played a part in my father’s schemes, minor as it was.

Yet part of me didn’t want to give up my trust in her. Knowing my father, he’d given her little choice in following his commands.

I sighed. There wasn’t time for this. I needed to figure out my own survival before I could start reasonably fretting over her. I looked down at the ragged brown cloak that I’d found, the second of my spoils from scavenging the streets at night. It was thin, stained, and smelled of mildew, but it would conceal my face and foreign outfit. The school uniform, with its short skirt and frilly white blouse didn’t fit in well with the local customs, even without the cape and bowtie. The cloak I’d found would help me blend in, I hoped.

I needed blood, and without any form of currency, that would mean theft. Perhaps there was a chance of me finding some form of employ, but I wouldn’t dare count on it. Particularly given that I knew nothing of demonic culture and society.

With another sigh, I wrapped the large cloak around me. It fit poorly, even after I’d ripped off much of the bottom to keep it from dragging along the ground. The sleeves were too long, it fit as well as an oversized sack meant for vegetables, and I hated the way the rough material felt against my skin. But I was starving, and my options were either to steal or… find my way to someone’s bed.

The thought brought a warm flush to my cheeks and made my tail twitch. I squeezed my thighs together, hating how tempting the prospect already was. My lust was steadily growing along with my hunger. But that was a step I wasn’t truly willing to take.

Carefully, I made my way back toward the street I’d woken up on, remembering the stalls with food and what was likely several shops. As dawn touched the sky, the small streets and alleys began to wake with it. I hoped that meant the shops would be around as well. Some of them might even be open throughout the night, given that some demons were surely nocturnal.

As I eased down an alley, keeping my steps soft, a figure stepped out of a corner where two buildings merged. He stood taller than me, several heads higher and nearly as tall as the massive ogre had been, but this demon had none of the bulk and muscle of the ogre. I still only came up to his belly in height. He had a stiff, skeletal figure, and a body covered in black feathers, like a humanoid bird. Across his chest was a strip of cloth similar to a sash that connected to another around his waist. I was just thankful that he wasn’t clothed in armor. Two large wings that also functioned as arms stretched out across the alley, completely blocking my path. His hands were similarly spread open, revealing four taloned fingers on each. The demon’s feet were reptilian, like most birds, with large claws that clicked across the cobble street. His face was sharp and pointed, only slightly feathered, unlike the rest of him, and the same light gray as his feet.

He had the air of a bird of prey, yellow eyes with pinprick pupils staring down at me. As his mouth curved into a wide smile, the smooth serrated teeth within made that clear. The sort of teeth made to slice into flesh rather than crunch on nuts or vegetables. The red lighting that seemed to be everywhere only cast him in a even more sinister glow. He looked much like the bloodthirsty harpies were described, those said to reside south of the kingdom. But no harpies were this big, as far as I knew. While I’d never seen one, they were purportedly shorter than most humans.

I could not help the first step back that I took, nor the second, as I gripped the knife hidden beneath my cloak far harder than I should have been.

His wings moved back down around him, making them look more like a pair of eerily long arms in front of a feathered cape. The wide smile still on his face didn’t falter as he spoke. The language sounded similar to that of the tentacle demon that had first approached me but accented by numerous clicks. There was only one word that I recognized, a word that the demon in my mind had called me quite a few times: vyxa.

I gathered my bravery and took a breath. I’d taken on that big brute of an ogre, refusing to submit to it, and I wouldn’t let this creature frighten me into submission either. Even if I was far out of my normal element.

“Back off, or I’ll make you regret it,” I hissed, hoping he would understand me.

The oversized bird laughed, and then I heard a sound from behind me. Risking a peek, I spotted another demon of the same species entering the alley, one that looked even taller, if that was possible, and had a slightly more feminine shape.

The more masculine one in front took the opportunity to step closer to me, and I let him. Instead of backing away, this time I bent slightly forward, as though cowering before him.

“Go away,” I said far more softly as he came to tower over me.

That long, winged arm reached for my hood, and I sprung my attack. My clawed hand swung for him, and the demon grabbed my forearm, as I’d hoped he would. I winced at the tight grip, his talons threatening to pierce skin as the overly large hand left what was certain to be deep bruises later.

The rusty knife slipped out from my cloak unnoticed, and sliced into his inner elbow before cutting across his chest. The demon cried out, and to my surprise, didn’t let me go. Instead, he yanked my arm above my head, nearly pulling it from its socket as his talons cut into me. His grip became somehow even stronger, as though threatening to crush bone, and his other winged arm reached for my knife hand.

I did what came instinctively to me after years of training, stepping in closer to him and jabbing my shoulder into the demon’s side several times before leaning forward. My hips pressed up against him, and I pulled my arm downward, forcing him to bend over. Just as the other demon approached us, I flipped the dumb bird over my shoulder. He was far lighter than I’d expected, and despite his strength, tumbled over me with ease. The other demon’s eyes widened in surprise just before the masculine one’s skeletal form crashed into her. The harpy demon was forced to finally release me, and they fell in a tangle of legs and wings.

I used the opportunity for what it was and rushed down the alley away from them, hiding my knife back in my tattered cloak. Hopefully, they would think twice before pursuing, but there was no reason to chance it. For several streets, I didn’t bother to care who might hear or spot me, only wanting to put distance between myself and my attackers. Then, as my mind and body calmed, I slowed down to a normal walk. Other demons began to fill the slightly tidier streets around me. One or two gave me looks, but none stopped to bother me.

Other demons. What an odd thought. I still wasn’t fully used to being one, but it was clear that I was becoming more and more comfortable with the idea. It made me wonder once more just how much my transformation had affected me mentally. Perhaps that was the best though, at least for now. It might mean a better chance of surviving in this pit of demons.

I was approaching what I hoped was the market area that I’d woken in, but everything around me still looked to be simple homes stacked atop one another. It was impossible not to be seen at this point, but I took care to stay out of anyone’s reach. No one bothered me, but I did garner a few more stares from those I passed. Whether it was because of my tattered, smelly cloak or something else, I wasn’t sure. I doubted that it helped though.

Interestingly, the houses even here were stacked, with some not even having proper ladders or walkways to their doors. Considering that a number of demons had wings, it made an amount of sense. But could they really fly? A common magical problem was that the bigger and heavier something was, the more challenging it was to bring and hold it up in the air. It was theorized to be why bird species were only ever so big, only becoming slightly larger if they had the aid of mana in their blood. Even the harpies of our realm were shorter than humans, though I wasn’t sure how wide their wingspan was.

I looked up into the sky, or at least the small section that wasn’t blocked by the crammed-together buildings, and caught the end of several birds flying by. The bluish-purple sky was brightening just enough to see them. Or rather, I had assumed they were birds. Squinting as another flew in the distance, I realized that it had a similar shape to the two demons I’d just fought.

For a moment, I couldn’t help but stop and stare, imagining what it would be like to fly through the clouds like that. Just what did it feel like?

Perhaps magically aided flight came naturally to them? But did they have the amount of mana and control to go long distances?

I shook my head. Why should any of this matter to me? I couldn’t fly and more importantly, I desperately needed to tend to my own survival. Any of those flying demons could be dangerous, and it was best not to stare. Not to mention that once I was able to find Lilis, we’d need to focus on getting back to our realm. I’d clearly not been in my right mind when I’d decided to jump into this one. It’d let me escape my father, certainly, but once I was able to get back, I knew that I couldn’t avoid him for long.

He would know. I wasn’t sure how, but I was certain that he would, no matter where I popped up in the human realm. Before I went back, I would need to come up with a plan to face him.

My wandering thoughts of flight and other things came to an end as I reached the market. It was time to source some blood. A rather demonic thought, if I were to say.