Yuriko veered off the centre of the highway and slowed down on the shoulder. She'd done so quickly enough that she didn't disturb any of the motorists, but she might have made a few traffic violations. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any traffic police or cameras in sight.
The whiff of daemonfyre lingered in the air. It was faint, barely more than a whisper, but it was potent and distinctive. It wasn't exactly the same as the whiskey she drank back in Junktown, but it was…close? Similar, but of a different vein.
She was about halfway from Trinity Valley and Neo Prism's outskirts, and while it wasn't a full rural environment, it was the suburbs at best. The edge of the road had a low depression, and it was at least half a longstride beyond the sparse woods before she could see houses beyond. It was also halfway between half moon and Full Moon so the night was brilliantly lit. the streetlights also helped illuminate the surroundings, but it was the softly twinkling stars that she couldn't help but admire every time she saw them. In the Myriad Planes, the skies were always covered with Chaos Flows, and only once she left did she actually see the heavenly bodies.
Which, come to think of it, Irvalla might not be part of. The Karcellian skies were also filled with stars, so it must not be in the Chaos Sea. She hadn't realised it at the time, but she remembered the inordinately long time she and the others spent inside the portal tunnel.
The daemonfyre whiff led towards the woods, and she was hesitant whether to pursue it or simply leave it alone. The blood ritual had hints of daemonfyre, so she had little doubt it would be connected, if only tangentially.
Hmmm, she was unarmed. That was a problem. She wouldn't be able to materialise sunblades, sunshards, or even plain Animus constructs. She could still use her Anima kinesis, but her best weapon was probably to reinforce her body with the entire might of her Anima and fight hand-to-hand. Or she could grab pebbles and throw them too. Her right hand curled, leaving just her forefinger and middle finger extended. She sought the resonance of the sword arts and grinned when she felt the edges of her fingers grow sharp. It should work. She loosened her hold and examined the woods.
A motorist rumbled to a stop ahead of her and the man riding it looked back and yelled, "All right there?"
"Yes!" Yuriko yelled back. "Just taking a breather."
"Alright. Might want to keep your park lights on!"
"Thanks!"
The man continued on his way as Yuriko drove towards a petrol station a hundred paces away. It had a mini-mart adjacent to it, as well as varied mechanical services. The whiff of daemonfyre was fading away, but she couldn't just drive into the woods. She parked her scooter next to the mini-mart, stuffed the packet of stories inside the storage, though she had to fold the papers in half, made sure to lock the scooter and that she had the keys, before walking around the back. She still had her purse in hand but pulled it under her hoodie and secured it with her Anima.
Next, she braided her hair until it was easily tucked into the hood that she pulled over her head. She secured that with her kinesis, too. Only when she had a modicum of identity protection did she venture into the woods. She coated her sneakers with her Anima to protect them from the mud and pebbles, as well as to conceal the exact size of her feet and obscure the footprints.
She ran towards where she felt the whiff came from, and within five minutes, she found herself near a small town. Shorehill County, the label said. It looked to be a small community, but there was a row of warehouses near the edge. When she came closer, she was able to make out the billboard. Mini-storage units for rent.
A quick browse of Lilibeth's memories only gave her a vague idea of what the things were, but she supposed they were small warehouses. It certainly looked like it when she got a clearer view. There were several rows of low-rise buildings partitioned into smaller units each with steel rollers blocking the entrances. The daemonfyre was coming from the middle of the compound.
There was a chain-link fence around the perimeter, and she could see security cameras on poles every twenty paces or so. She moved towards the gated entrance and found it open. There was a guardhouse but she didn't see anyone manning it. Yuriko hummed in thought as she strolled inside, careful to keep her head down so that the cameras wouldn't catch a glimpse of her face. The place was eerily quiet although it was still early evening.
In the middle of everything, she walked around a corner and into a corridor. She saw one of the compartments was open, and an orange light was flickering from it. There was also that stench of daemonfyre—and blood.
Yuriko hurried towards the open storage unit and cursed softly once she caught sight of the inside. It was mostly empty space, but the floor had a ritual circle painted with blood. There was no dead body, but there was a…tiny hole in the air above the centre. It was leaking the daemonfyre scent.
She stepped into the unit, cautiously approaching the circle. She noticed that it was slightly different from the one that Lilibeth used. The runescript lines weren't as messy and the circle was properly aligned.
Yuriko approached carefully, then noticed that while the floor was unusually clean. Since she assumed a place that was used as storage would be dusty, there were some scuff marks around the circle. The ritual circle was whole, but she could see the blood drying up and crusting.
"A footprint," she muttered as she spotted one just at the threshold of the door. Half of it was blood, but the other half looked like ashes. On the circle, in place of what should have been grimoire pages, were also small bowls of crimson blood. Well, the liquid inside was already gone, but it stained the sides.
The clear space in the middle was big enough for somebody to lie down in, and she wondered if whoever made this invited the same thing Lilibeth did. And she wondered if they survived the ordeal—or if it was somebody, or something else, walking in their stead. The footprint was oriented away from the circle, giving credence to the fact that somebody left. There were no other tracks, however.
The hole in the fabric of reality bothered her, however, and she pondered how to close it. The simplest would probably be to destroy the circle, as it was what opened the thing, but what if the circle was what's keeping the hole small?
A minute's observation crossed that off the list since the hole was growing smaller. At the rate it was going, a few hours would close it completely.
She peered down the small rift, but the view behind it was blocked by obscuring darkness. She could smell the whiff of daemonfyre still wafting from it, but she also detected a different flavour leading outside.
'The victim?' she wondered.
Unsure of what to do with the portal, Yuriko retreated from the storage unit and turned to follow the trail. There were a couple of scuff marks that bore the brunt of the altered daemonfyre which eventually led her outside of the entire compound. The petrol station where she parked her scooter was on the other side of the compound, and the rest of the community was across the road.
The trail continued for half a longstride, leading to an empty field at another edge of the community. And there, she found the victim, or what was left of her.
The body was lying on her back, her shirt torn and her ribs splayed out, as if something inside her chest had torn its way out. Her face was placid, emotionless, and her eyes stared eerily at the moon. There was a blood trail leading to the woods, but it couldn't be more than a couple of minutes old. Whatever had come out of the woman was still nearby.
Yuriko leapt over the corpse and ran after the blood trail. She saw something flickering fifty paces away. When she landed in the clearing, the…thing that came out of the woman, looked up at her, its black eyes gleaming with both malice and fear.
Yuriko stared at the creature for a long moment, wondering how it even managed to fit inside the woman's torso. It was the size of a ten-year-old child, though it wasn't standing straight. It had a feminine shape, but its skin was greyish and rubbery. It was naked, but it had no outward genitals. Its fingers were incredibly long, as long as the forearm. It had no nose but had a wide mouth. When its jaw opened to hiss at her, it revealed the opening to stretch from ear to ear. The maw was filled with small, pointed teeth.
"Mortal…" it hissed, using Dawnspeak with a horrible accent. Its voice was both gravelly and sounded like sharp nails scratching across glass.
"Daemon," Yuriko answered in the same tongue.
"Leave me."
"Hmmm, no."
"Then…die."
As she expected, the creature swiped at her with its hands. The fingers writhed to form long claws, and its body slowly stretched into a more adult shape. Yuriko leaned back, avoiding the slash easily, then reversed her momentum and closed in.
The daemon jerked back, surprised, its mouth gaping open to hiss, threaten, or bite. Yuriko ducked under the swipe from the other hand, balled her fist, and slammed into the thing's elbow.
Crack!
Her body, enhanced with the full might of her Anima, was more than enough to overcome the daemon's basic defences. The skin ruptured and the bones shattered. The creature howled in pain, the sound echoing in the distance.
She kicked up. Her toe slammed into the creature's jaw, slamming its mouth shut and lifting it off the ground half a pace. She spun around, and her fingers formed into a sword. Her Animus circulated within her body, mimicking the Phases of the Sword. Elemental energy gathered around her body, appearing with such speed that it seemed to come from thin air. Yuriko's eyes widened when she realised that the fabric of reality here was thin…too thin, and energies beyond the veil poured through micro-fractures caused by her Intent. Thankfully, they sealed quickly.
Her sword fingers drew a line from the daemon's hip to its collarbone. She danced away even as blood burst from the cut, and the creature fell into two pieces. Its flesh bubbled and burned, flashed to ashes, and left nothing behind except for a dark imprint and remnant flames.
"Huh," Yuriko muttered as she tilted her head to crack her neck. Her body had only reforged a small percentage from its base, and she was probably at twelve percent. That little bit helped, but she could feel muscles and bone seizing up as she couldn't bear the weight of her Anima nor the flow of Animus. She hadn't even used her Radiant energy, and if she did, she'd probably have third-degree burns all over her body afterwards.
She sighed as she walked back to the corpse. The creature had been immediately hostile, but she was no closer to the underlying truth of this place.
When she arrived at the body, she wondered what she could do.
"Ma'am. I'm going to have to ask you to step away, and hold your hands over your head."
The voice had a bit of a quaver, but it was firm and decisive. A pair of costumed figures revealed themselves, a man and a woman, and both were looking at her with deadly calm.