Berith wasn't exactly sure what she should be doing.
Should she continue climbing? Should she wait for them to finish?!
She was confused as the strange couple that she was carrying kissed each other.
As a humanoid spider, Berith had never been able to find a partner. While her mother might not see anything wrong with incest, her humanoid side made it so that incest was completely unacceptable, and as such she had no romantic feelings towards her brother- who was the only other member of her species.
There were other spiders, certainly, but there were no other humanoids- at least none that she had ever met.
But what should she do? She stopped walking for just a moment, and the red demon who she was carrying finally took his lips off the ghost girl.
Was she jealous? Was Berith jealous of them for having someone? No! They were her masters that she had now pledged her life to! She didn't have time to be thinking about things like romance!
She continued walking slowly, and looked over to her brother.
He seemed to be struggling at carrying the weight of the other two, but he was managing.
The other two however....
The elf had wide eyes, and was surprised at first, but after a moment he simply looked down with a bitter face as if he was reminiscing to the past.
The blue demon however, was clearly freaking out.
She was doing everything she could to keep silent, but she was fidgeting back and forth like a fangirl who had just seen a famous star, but was too shy to go up and speak to them.
She looked back and forth to the elf, pointing and almost saying something but stopping herself every time.
Berith continued doing her duty.
It was her responsibility to get her masters up to the tunnel on the side of the cliff. Only until she made it up there could she think of anything else.
But there was something in Berith's heart that fluttered, and she soon realized what it was.
These demons... these monsters...
They were more human than even she was.
The same people who had slaughtered thousands of spiders in an instant were human enough to have this sort of exchange.
This left a deep mark on Berith, and she gained a much improved impression of her masters.
----
An awkward silence followed after Garett had instinctively kissed Ashley.
"Ah! Shit! What have I done!? I'm sorry! I just-"
Garett was unsure what to say. He didn't plan on kissing her, but the moment just felt right, and before he even knew what he was doing... it just happened.
However upon seeing Ashley's face...
She was giggling to herself in a very creepy way.
Or at least, it would be seen as creepy to the average person.
But to Garett, it was adorable.
"heh heh.... heh heh... to think that getting a first kiss from a demon would be this...good."
Garett looked at her face.
It was not the flushed face of a young girl who had just had her first kiss stolen from her, nor was it the face of a mature woman who didn't care.
It was the face of a girl who was smugly satisfied with herself as if a burden had been lifted off her.
Ashley even stuck her tongue out at Samantha for just a moment and pulled down her baggy eye with her finger.
'Shes... so cute...', Garett thought.
'Why you little....'
Samantha was clearly irritated, but still remained silent at Ashley's light taunt.
Ashley continued laughing and talking to herself, but eventually they had reached the top of the cliff, and entered the tunnel.
Trevor and Samantha decided not to say anything. If their comrades wanted to have a romantic relationship, was there anything they could say about that? There was nothing wrong with that... albeit, it would certainly be awkward with them always being 3 m away from each other.
Samantha put these thoughts out of her head, and decided to focus on what was in front of them.
"UM! ANYWAYS!! We have somewhere to be heading to! Let us go!"
She said, as she was talking like a robot. She was the one who was effected the most out of anyone.
Was she jealous of Ashley? No. There was no way she could be jealous of her... no way... she had always been adored by everyone around her. There was no way she could be jealous of Ashley, who had spent her life alone at home as a bum... right? RIGHT?
Wrong. But of course, Samantha wouldn't admit that to herself.
However, the awkward tension soon broke itself, as the antiheroes and the spiders decided to move forward after climbing up the cavern and into the tunnel.
"Should we take the lead, in case there is any danger up ahead, your excellency?", Coran asked to Trevor.
"No, I will take the lead since I have the ability to sense life"
"But, your excellency! Surely I cannot allow you to put yourself in danger for such a thing! As your slave, it would only be right for me to perform the dangerous task of taking the lead!"
Trevor pushed his glasses up, and a slight vein bulged in his forehead.
"Hm... no. Stay behind me. You are now my property, and it would be a bad investment for me to allow damage to come to my property."
"As you wish, your excellency."
Coran and Berith lined up behind the four, and Trevor began listening.
He heard the dripping of some water in the caves, but there was something else he heard.
It was feint.
It was far away.
But he heard... light moaning.
It was as if someone was in pain, but it was very quiet. It was not as if they were screaming- simply a calm moaning.
However, there were multiple voices.
There were a lot of them, and they all were lightly moaning.
"There is... someone or something up ahead... multiple of them... not only that, I can hear footsteps. Quite a few, walking about. We should prepare for battle. Red, up front. Ghost girl, prepare to use a spell if you need to. We must be on guard at all times."
Coran admired the diligence and caution of his masters.
Perhaps it was the right choice to serve these people. He felt that at the very least, they knew exactly what they were doing, and would not lead him astray. Even if he had to live his life as a slave, a sliver of hope remained in Coran's heart that him and his sister would be able to live happily.
Of course, he was still terrified of his new masters.
Who wouldn't be?
These demons... while they may seem very oddly human in some ways, the fact still remained that they were beings of absolute power.
There was no telling what horrible things Coran would be forced to do. He could only hope that his worries were incorrect.
In the worst case, he was prepared to kill his sister and commit suicide himself- if they intended on doing things so horrible that it would be better to die then live.
His new masters had saved his life in order to use him as a slave. What could be more terrifying? They surely had some sort of alternate motives... however what they were, Coran didn't know.
Even so, Coran clung to the hope that since he had been given the option to flee, that he would live a better life with them than he would have if they simply fled.
After all, what slavemaster would give their slaves a choice to go free?
If they intended on abusing their slaves to the point of death, then would they even consider giving the slaves an option?
Coran and Berith were not powerful.
They would likely die alone if they went off on their own, however they would at least die free.
Which was why Coran had decided that if their fate that awaited them was worse than death, he would simply choose death.
The six walked down the tunnel while the elf listened to the sounds ahead of them. As a spider humanoid, Coran did not have any special hearing abilities, and as such was not able to hear the things that the elf spoke of.
Eventually the elf held out his hand, stopping their advance.
"Just beyond this turn are some creatures... there are about 5 of them, likely enemies. Red, perhaps you should take the lead and try out that new weapon of yours. I will back you up, Ghost girl, hold back for this fight unless things get hairy."