Glyn wanders through the tunnels of the airship as the Miasma grows thicker and a dark mass grows across every surface. He struggles to hold his breath as the Miasma grows thicker the further he goes. He walks across the fleshy surface as the terrain gets harder to walk on, with flesh and mass growing wildly across the hall.
“Stupid Demon, you can’t just make it easy on me.”
“Glyn. Even with your condition, this is too much for you.” Pepper floats around in a glowing sphere, moving around Glyn’s head. “At least let me…”
“No, save your strength. Stay in my shirt; this environment is too dangerous for you. At the very least, I can take whatever that asshole Demon spits out. I won’t let that damned thing get what it wants!” He yells, charging ahead. “I’ll find Mila, and then we’ll end this.”
“Glyn. I hope you're right about this.”
Mila sits chained up, her head in a dark cell. Miasma fills the air, but as it approaches her, it burns away as flames burn away at the ends of her nine tails. She struggles to breathe, with the flames growing stronger and the miasma growing thicker. She stares ahead as her vision blurs and her mind wanders, as her tears well up and fall down the sides of her cheeks. As her strength wanes, her tails slowly fade away one after another, leaving only two tails burning behind her.
“Glyn….” She whispers to herself as she feels her body weaken further. “As long as Glyn escapes, none of it matters. All that matters is that he survives.”
As she struggles, her eyes close, and she feels her mind slip away.
“
**** why are you crying?
” A voice from the past echoes through Mila’s mind.
“
They made fun of my tails again. They said a beast with nine tails is always a bad omen.
”
“
Do you believe them?
”
“
I don’t know. Nothing good happens when all my tails come out. I can’t control my magic, and I keep burning things down.
”
“
That has nothing to do with your tails. Those are just little accidents. When you get older, you’ll learn to control your magic and your Mana.
”
“
But….
”
“
Tell you what, I’ll put a little spell on you. This way, you’ll only have a handful of your tails out at a time, unless you're in danger. When you're in danger, all your tails will come out to protect you.
”
“
My tails will protect me?
”
“
Yes. Until the day you can control your power, they’ll protect you and everyone you love. I promise you, one day, you’ll learn to control it. And then you’ll have enough power to protect everyone.
”
“
Can I protect everyone? Then I can be a Hero like the king?
”
“
If you want to become a Hero, then you can. You’ll have the power to save the world. This I promise you.
”
The voices echo through her mind, and she takes a deep breath as the black mass grows around her. “Mother… I… I will…”
As the black mass envelops her, a burst of flames erupts from her body. She stands, her hair turning white and going wild, burning on all ends with her nine tails flailing wildly across the area. The heat rises rapidly as the metal around her melts. She gnarls her teeth and stomps forward, burning everything around her as she grabs hold of the door. She forces the door off its hinges and lets out a roar that echoes across the ship.
On top of the ship, sitting deep within the Demon, the Leech, formerly Sebastian, senses a wave of energy from deep within the ship. He smirks and wiggles his body, controlling the lower portions of the Demon’s mass by his own will. He spreads the black mass, forming humanoid constructs out of the fleshy material, and sends them marching into the depths towards the source of the sensation. They march forward towards the source, only for a flaming sphere to shoot out from the depths of the ship.
A flaming figure rushes forward, slashing through the figures and burning everything in its path. Using their claws, they decapitate several masses of flesh and burn away the miasma filling the air. They roar with flames pouring out of their body and burning the surface area around them.
The rampaging creature stomps ahead uncontrolled. Their eyes burning red with an unstoppable rage. More humanoid figures form out of the black, fleshy mass, lunging forward to attack them. Their tails swing wildly with reckless abandon as everything they touch melts from the intense heat covering their body.
“I’ll kill them. I’ll destroy them.” They yell out, rushing forward.
More figures appear attacking them, but also leading them deeper into the airship towards the top. Each one dies in an instant as she charges ahead, slashing her way through the end of the hallway towards the top of the airship. She roars out, shooting out a fireball that explodes as it reaches the end of the hall, as they smash their way through another series of doors.
Glyn climbs up a ladder, reaching for a hatch above his head. He twists open the hatch and climbs through the hatch to climb onto the top of the airship. The wind blows at him, but he grabs down, watching as the Demon’s flesh spreads across the frame of the ship.
“Great, the damn thing’s up and mobile.” He sighs.
“At least this is better than being coated by all that Miasma.” Pepper floats around Glyn, taking in a breath of air.
Glyn shakes his head. “It’s strange; normally, Demons are supposed to spread their Miasma around like mad. But this one seems to concentrate it inside the ship for some reason.”
“Maybe it's part of some plan.”
Glyn clenches his teeth. “Just what we need. A Demon with a plan.”
As the two stand atop the ship, Glyn stares up at the multiheaded Demon as it stares ahead at the island in front of him. “We need to stop it before it can make landfall. Once it does, it’ll have a solid basis to plant itself and spread around.”
“Then what do we do? We still haven’t found Mila.”
“I doubt that’ll be an issue soon enough.”
“Huh?”
As the pair stand around, a pillar of flames explodes from within the airship as a figure leaps up onto the top of the airship. Mila emerges from the flames, baring her fangs as fire burns across her body. She roars out in a rage, focused on the Demon before them as Glyn steps forward.
“Glyn, what’re you doing? She’s lost control; she’s going to kill you if you get any closer.”
Glyn smiles. “I doubt that.” He holds out his hand and focuses on Mila, feeling the connection between the two. “I forgot the most important part of our contract. The fact that I’m supposed to drain out all that excess Mana from her body.”
“What’re you doing?”
“Mila, let’s reform our contract and let’s use your flames to forge a sacred blade!” He yells out as the shards of the Queen Piece come together in the palm of his hand. “And I promise you I won’t take no for an answer!”