Entering the cave, we traveled for what felt like around two to three hours as we had Tiki carry us through the dim cavern. On the way through the path, we discovered some remnants of a camp at its midway point; there had been someone here before recently.
"This isn't good, the timber is still warm," Ashari said as she rubbed some ash between her fingers.
"I predict it's been half a day or so since they had left-- whether Human or Demon."
"Let's hope it's Demon, then," I said, trying my best to reassure the nervous siblings.
After having discovered the campsite, we traveled for around an hour more before we began to see some light trickle into the darkness; it was the exit to the other side of the Dragon's Spine.
"Daylight, we're almost there!" Rayji said with glee.
"Tiki's excited, she's even picking up her pace," Ashari noted with a smile.
Lizards being cold-blooded, no wonder they'd hate the cold dampness of a cave; I didn't blame her.
With a proud gallop, Tiki brought us out into the warm embrace of sunlight as we finally left the mountain passage.
But, this feeling of freedom quickly dissipated as we witnessed a terrible sight before us.
It was a corpse pile of around ten or so bodies burned to a crisp at the foot of the cave's entrance. Above the corpse pile was what looked like a driven stake with a sign that I couldn't read.
"Look away!" I commanded the children, but they didn't listen; they focused their trembling eyes on what the sign read.
"These criminals have stolen from the benevolent Baron Valefor, do not do the same." Tesera meekly read in a heart-rending whisper.
"Despicable." Ashari hissed, looking away with a fury emblazoned into her eyes.
"Look." Rayji extended his arm, pointing to something ahead following the trail forward.
Refocusing my attention away from the corpse pile, I was now given a chance to take in my surroundings. Looking much like the edge of the desert with an abundance of rolling grassy hills dotted with trees, there was a billowing smoke column that smeared the sky like an ugly gray scar; it was coming from what looked like a town.
"It's coming from Quell, it's the town we were kidnapped from when we had come with our Big Sis!" Rayji cried.
"What do you think is happening?" Ashari asked.
"Whatever it is, it isn't good; especially with this being here," I said as I took another glance at the corpsepile.
All the skulls in the corpse pile had horns, signifying they were Demons.
"We have no other way to go but forward, let's see what's going on." I rationalized.
Rayji and Tesera shrunk back into the back of the skiff-turned-carriage, they looked like they were both on the verge of a panic attack.
"W-We can't go back there!" Tesera cried, she looked ghastly pale.
"T-They'll take us away again!" Rayji begged as he hugged his sister tighter.
"Don't worry," I said, catching their attention.
"As if I'd let anything happen to you two, I'm a Hero after all." I told them, internally wincing over calling myself a 'Hero'.
They both looked at me with eyes that could swallow an ocean, analyzing every pore and scar on my skin as they stared at me with a wavering conviction.
"And don't forget about me too, I'm Ashari, Princess of the Zepar." Ashari touted in, she looked strong with the silver spear in her hand.
"O-Okay, we believe in you." They repeated, some courage returning in their small bodies.
"Thank you, you won't regret it," I told them as I signaled Ashari to move forward.
Whatever it was that we were going to face heading into Quell, I had to face it head-on no matter what.
---
Following the Smoke column, we arrive at Quell easily enough.
But, entering Quell itself was a whole other ordeal.
"Hang the bastards!"
"Death to them!"
"Glory to the Baron!"
A crowd of Demons, some looking like Rayji and Tesera's race with identical pink hair and the single horn, but others had black hair and twin horns like mine. They were all concentrated at the head of Quell's entrance, with wooden spike blockades erected in conjunction pointed inward to Quell; they were trying to prevent something from leaving, but what?
"You! Who are you!? Get out of here, this doesn't concern you." A voice spoke out to us, it came from a fierce-looking man dressed in what I could best describe as a clergyman's habit; it was black and accented red.
"I am Ashari Zepar, Princess of the Zepar Steppe." Ashari introduced herself as she gallantly deboarded Tiki.
"A Zepar? Impossible, you lot are cowardly, godless isolationists." the clergyman said with a clear, ugly distaste.
"How dare you," Ashair growled as she stomped her spear into the ground, alerting some of the others from the crowd of our presence.
"Hey, I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot here. We don't mean any trouble, we're just trying to reach Ars Goetia." I butted in as I jumped out of the carriage; silently signaling to the siblings to stay hidden for now.
But even with my attempt to diffuse the situation, more and more of the angry crowd began to divert their attention to us; it looked like they were all itching for any reason for a fight.
"What the hell are you?" The Clergyman said as he gawked at me with disdain and puzzlement.
"Me? I'm Ignis, I come from very, very far away." I explained with a small bow, but he wasn't amused.
"I don't care for your name, infidel. You're of unpure blood, you're some abomination in the skin of a Demon!" He hissed as he pointed his finger at me.
"Unpure!"
"Unpure!"
Some of the others in the crowd began to chant as they focused their unnatural zeal on me; this was about to turn ugly.
Just as I was about to signal Ashari to get ready for the worst, we suddenly heard the thundering of something running towards us.
It was a closed-carriage colored midnight; thrice the size of our modest skiff. At the head of the carriage were two powerful horses; armored throughout in a gleaming obsidian with twin jutting horns set on each head. A coach driver clad in a dusky black robe led the carriage straight at the space between us and the crowd.
"It's the Black Witch!" One of the crowdgoers screamed as some of them retreated from where they stood. But the Clergyman stood his ground as he watched the carriage gun straight at him.
"Hyah!" The coach driver reined in the horses just at the last second as they made a dramatic stop directly in front of the Clergyman; the Horses neighing fiercely at him.
But the Clergyman was unphased, he stared down the horses and its carriage with a resoluteness behind his eyes that could stare down death itself.
"Is that!? It can't be!!" I suddenly heard the siblings behind me exclaim as they popped their heads out of the carriage.
"What're you doing, stay hidden you two!" I shouted at them, but they ignored me; their eyes were dazzled at the sight before them.
"Kyhahahahaha!" A rambunctious laugh roared into the air, it came from inside the carriage.
The carriage door opened, revealing a short Demon dressed in an officer's black coat with a matching leotard, mesh tights, and black boots.
Her skin was peach-colored and her hair was a roaring violet, the same distinct color as the lone Sufolk in the clearing I had awoken in. Two large black curved horns were protruding from her temples aimed up at the sky behind her as a small golden crown sat atop her head.
She was the spitting image of the Demon Queen of Chronicle of Eos, the same face that I had seen on the defeat screen for the last nine hundred and ninety-ninth times; the one I've failed to save time after time again.
"Black Witch, what are you doing here!?" the Clergyman hissed, his fury pointed to her now instead at me.
"Kyahahahaha, it's good to see you too, Ervwin." She spoke with a rough, yet regal tone; her teeth were sharp like razors curved into a fearless smile.
"Worry not fair citizens, for I--"
"Big Sis!!!" Rayji and Tesera cried out into the air, cutting her off mid-speech.
"W-Wuh?" Her haughty attitude was completely thrown into disarray after hearing the siblings suddenly call her Big Sis.
"R-Rayji? Tesera!?" She frantically looked around, but once she caught the two sitting in the carriage; she made a mad dash towards them.
"Your Majesty!" The coach driver called out to her in vain, but he was helpless to stop her from her whim.
Your Majesty.
Your... Majesty...
Big Sis was... the Demon Queen!?