A Demon's Core

I see more flashes of memories from those who died, but nothing useful, not that I expected any of it to be. With such fragmented snippets, even if I did see anything that could be relevant, there would not be enough to gain any usable information from it. If there was a way to have more control over memories I absorb, to search for specific memories and see more than fragments, it could be a way to gain valuable intelligence on our enemies. Maybe it is something I could work on, if I had suitable test subjects to experiment on. Perhaps I will try to keep a few people alive next time.

Marble came through this ordeal unharmed and after helping to carry a couple of injured imps down to where the others are, she returns to her spot on the roof, taking her new weapons with her. Once she is up there, I ask her to check on the vehicles the humans came in, but after looking over the edge of the building, she reports that they are gone.

That is unfortunate. I have no way of knowing how long ago they left or how far away they are now. They might still be nearby, waiting to hear from their companions or maybe they really did leave and will likely report the situation to whoever they are working for. I ask Marble if she would be willing to go look for them; she is hesitant, but agrees. I firmly instruct her not to engage, even if she finds them.

Turning my attention back to the imps, we lost one more and a few others were injured, though none immediately life-threatening this time, which is good, because despite Rose’s claims to the contrary, she is exhausted.

“I just need more mana and I can keep going,” she insists, stumbling towards her next patient, who is lying on the couch.

No, what you need is to rest.

“But, I’m not done. There are still others that need to be healed.”

No one else is in critical condition. They may be uncomfortable, but they can wait. You cannot help them if you completely wear yourself out. We also do not know the effects of remaining in such an exhausted state for a prolonged period and it is only going to get worse the longer you continue. I am concerned that it could be harmful if you are not careful.

I explain the situation to the imp who is waiting to be healed next, a male with deep purple bruising spread across much of his right arm and the right side of his chest. With a concerned frown, he turns his head to look at Rose, wincing at the pain from even that limited movement.

“It okay. I wait,” he assures her.

Rose leans her back against the couch and slowly lowers herself down until she is sitting on the floor.

“Alright, I’ll rest, just for a little while,” she concedes, her eyelids slowly drifting down.

She falls asleep almost immediately after her eyes are closed and I ask Violet to take her to her bed. Violet is also down in the meeting room, now a temporary infirmary, to be with River, who had received some minor burns from being a little too close to the hellhounds' flames. She is initially reluctant to leave her sister, but the injuries she suffered are not serious and she has Aster to keep her company. She carefully lifts the sleeping imp and carries her back to her room and Rose does not even wake from being moved.

It is curious that River was burned just from being close to the fire when I saw Coal completely engulfed by the flames, even if only briefly, and not be fazed by it at all. I can only assume that, being from the same place as the hellhounds, that variety of imp may have developed a high degree of fire resistance. Did they evolve in such a way specifically because of the hellhounds? Or was it a necessity to survive the environment as a whole? It is not vitally important information, but I may try asking them about it later, if only to satisfy my own curiosity.

There are other questions that are far more important right now though, such as why the humans could not take control of my core, assuming that is what they were trying to accomplish; though I cannot think of anything else they could have been trying to do. This event has given me a glimpse of how complicated fighting against skilled magic users can be. I was only dealing with two and it was already quite a challenge; how would I handle a larger group?

But these were only human. Not only are people who can wield magic still uncommon among humans, they have also only had a few decades to learn about it. What of the other demons? The vak, sucubrius and brutes; from my conversations with Rose, it seems they come from a world where magic is quite commonplace. And there is no telling how long they have had to master it.

Before I can get too deep into my pondering, William’s voice rings out from the radio.

“Magentam, are you there? It’s William, we’re on our way to help. What’s your situation?”

Rose only just got to bed so I do not want to wake her to deal with this, so instead I call on Violet again. While not as proficient as Rose, she has also been trying to learn English. She is a little irked as having to leave her sister again, but makes her way up the stairs without further complaint.

“Magentam, this is William. Please respond,” the voice from the radio entreats as Violet approaches.

She plugs in the microphone and I instruct her on what to say, keeping it simple to make it easier for her.

“We are here,” Violet relays slowly.

“Thank god. What’s happening? Are you still under attack?” William replies, sounding relieved.

“We dealt with it,” Violet reports.

“I see, that’s good. Was anyone hurt?,” he asks.

“Yes,” Violet answers curtly.

“I suspected that would be the case, so I’m bringing medical personnel and supplies. We’re nearly there now. We’ll be there soon,” he assures us.

Two imps who avoided injury had been sent up to the roof to resume lookout, so I inform them that we are expecting more visitors and to let me know as soon as they see anything. It is only a few minutes later that one of them comes down to report a single approaching vehicle. I assume that is most likely William, though I do not want to let my guard down until I know for certain.

When I feel two humans coming up the stairs, I send Violet down to check on them.

If it is William, direct him to where the injured are. If it is not William, come back up and we will arrange an appropriate greeting party for them.

‘It’s William and another man I don’t know,’ she reports when she finds them.

Arriving in the infirmary, William is carrying a duffle bag and is followed by a man with a backpack wearing the uniform of a soldier. A few imps growl as they enter the room, but I assure them all that these humans are here to help, so please do not hurt them.

“This is Corporal Bramer, he’s a medic,” William introduces his companion. “Let’s get started. Are there any critical injuries?” He asks.

I do not think so. Rose already dealt with the worst of them.

“Ah, of course. Where is she now?” He looks around the room but does not spot the multi-coloured imp.

I am having her rest at the moment.

“Understandable, even if she can heal others with magic, there’s only so much that one person can do alone. So who’s first then?” He inquires and I direct him to the bruised imp on the couch.

The imp glares as the human approaches, but does not make any rash movements. While the medic examines him, I ask Noctis to come down. She did take a few bullets during the fight and while they do not seem to have hit anything vital, and she does not appear especially bothered by them, I do think it would be better for her to have the bullets removed, if possible.

As the medic inspects the bruises on the imps’ arm and chest, he hisses when the human lifts his arm a little and presses lightly on some of the bruised areas.

“The arm doesn’t appear to be broken, I’d say a few ribs probably are; at least, that’s as much as I can tell without an X-ray,” Corporal Bramer declares. “Any trouble breathing?”

I relay the question and the imps respond in the negative.

“Nausea or vomiting?” He queries.

“No.”

“No apparent swelling in the abdomen either. I haven’t studied demon anatomy at all, but assuming the symptoms would be the same, I can’t see any obvious signs of internal bleeding, though even if there were, there wouldn’t be much I could do about it here,” he announces.

Can you do anything to help him?

“Not really, these are the kind of injuries that just have to heal on their own. Keep an eye on him in case anything changes, but otherwise, just have your healer tend to him when they can and he should be fine.”

“Come on man, you don’t have any pain meds or something you could give the poor guy,” William interjects.

“Sure, I’ve got some, but as far as I know, they have never been tested on demons, so I can’t be sure of their effectiveness or safety,” Bramer explains.

A reasonable concern. Thank you for taking it seriously.

“The only thing I might be comfortable giving…” He cuts off when Noctis enters, limping slightly, with her mate close behind.

“Oh, hey I haven’t seen them in a while; not since the first time I was here,” William exclaims.

“What the hell is that?” Bramer demands.

Your next patient. She has some bullets that need to be removed. I inform him and he pales.

“I-I’m not trained for that,” he stammers.

“Nonsense, you’ve dug bullets out of people before, haven’t you?” William retorts. He is attempting to keep a straight face, but the corners of his mouth are twitching upward.

“That’s not the same!” The medic insists.

“Sure it is, just think of it like a big furry person. I’m sure they won’t bite,” William assures him and is unable to contain a chuckle. “They won’t bite, right?” He asks, just to be sure.

I promise no harm will come to you.

“You think this is funny, do you?” Corporal Bramer glowers at William, “well you’re helping.”

“Ah, yes. Fair enough, I suppose,” William concedes.

“There are some surgical tools in the duffle bag, on the left side. Grab them while I take a look at the…patient,” Bramer instructs.

Noctis lays down on her side before him to give him access to her injuries and the medic crouches down to examine the wounds. It is easy to see the general locations of where the bullets struck thanks to the blood matted fur, but he will probably need to trim the areas in order to clearly see the entry points. Fire looms over them, observing the human attentively, on alert for any indication that he might intend harm to his mate.

William opens the duffle bag and extracts a plastic case. Opening reveals a set of well organised surgical tools. He places the box beside Corporal Bramer who nods in acknowledgement.

“I would have brought some clippers if I knew I’d have to treat animals as well,” he complains as he removes his backpack and takes some scissors from a side pocket to cut away the matted fur.

After he has revealed the bullet wound, he puts the scissors aside and retrieves some alcohol disinfectant from his pack.

“This will probably hurt, but it is important to disinfect the area. Please be sure to keep them under control.”

I inform Nocts and Fire of what to expect, but she still whines when the disinfectant is applied. Fire growls in response, but Noctis quickly barks a command to silence him.

With William acting as an assistant, all three bullets are safely removed and the wounds sewn closed with sutures that Corporal Bramer assures me will dissolve on their own eventually, so there will be no need for him to come back to remove them. Having a trained professional with appropriate tools made the process easier and probably a lot less painful than it would have been if an imp had tried to dig the bullets out with their claws. I think about the imp who already had to go through exactly that and privately offer him my sympathy.

With her treatment done, Noctis returns to her den where a tiny imp is no doubt eagerly waiting for her. I am a little surprised that Calla did not come down with Noctis, but it seems that this time the child prioritised staying with her mother, who had gone back to her room after being mostly healed by Rose.

After that, no other injuries are quite as serious so William’s assistance is no longer required, so he takes a seat on one of the chairs by the table. Some imps are given improvised splints to keep them from moving their injured limbs around too much, others simply need bandages and gauze to dress their wounds. Many of the imps object to the use of disinfectant and I do wonder if it is actually necessary for them, since in all the time I have known them, I have yet to see an imp develop any kind of infection, but decide it is better to be safe than sorry and ask them to bear with it.

A few imps have deep lacerations that could warrant stitches, but Corporal Bramer suggests using butterfly bandages to hold the wounds closed, rather than the sutures he used for Noctis, since Rose would be able to heal them later. I ask him why he did not use the same thing when treating the hellhound and he replies that he did not think they would be effective with her fur.

While the first aid treatments are being administered, I sense Marble’s return on the roof. She has returned unharmed, unlike Igneous when I sent him on a similar mission. I ask her how it went and she informs me that she found them, showing me images of three cars driving along the road following the river. Curiously though, they are headed in the opposite direction of the bridge. The only conclusions I can draw from that are that there are other bridges, which is not an unreasonable assumption, or that their destination is somewhere other than the city on the other side of the river. I thank Marble for her efforts and bring my attention back to the infirmary.

The last patient to be treated is River. Suffering only minor burns, there is not much that she really needs, but the medic retrieves a tube from his backpack and explains that it is a skin ointment that can soothe burns and even help the skin heal, but reiterates that it has not been tested for use on demons and the only reason he is offering it is because it can be tested on only a small patch of skin for any sign of negative reactions before being applied to a larger area. He also offers another ointment that has mild anaesthetic properties to numb pain for some of the others but gives the same warning about testing it first.

With that, Corporal Bramer’s role here is finished and I thank him for everything he has done. Some of the imps with only minor injuries have wandered off to other places, though others, including Violet and Coal, stayed behind to keep the company of the few whose conditions are worse and do not want to go anywhere for the moment.

Now that things have calmed down I take some time to converse with William, who is rocking back in his chair, while Corporal Bramer, unsure of what else to do, packs up his things and heads out to the hallway to wait.

Cassandra did not come this time? I ask William.

“She was busy and I was kind of in a hurry, so I didn’t have time to wait for her,” he explains, sitting up straight with all four chair legs planted firmly on the floor.

Are there others? Surely you did not come with just the two of you.

“We’ve got three more guys, but given the circumstances, I thought it best to leave the armed soldiers to wait outside.”

That was probably a good call. Although, with so few people, what were you planning to do if we had not defeated the attackers before you arrived?

“It was the best I could do on such short notice. We had more reinforcements coming, but I told them to stand down after you said you had dealt with them. Was it more Honey Badgers again? We saw some of the bodies in the stairwell, they looked pretty well equipped,” He says.

I believe so. They did not specifically identify themselves as such nor were they wearing the logo, but I got the impression that they were when talking to them.

“You spoke to them?” He asks with a raised eyebrow.

Briefly, but it seemed they were using the opportunity to stall for time. They actually had a decent plan and it might have worked if not for some…miscalculations on their part.

I consider telling him about how they were unable to take my core, but I think it might be best to keep that fact a secret for now. I do not know how the humans would react if they knew my core could not be claimed. Maybe they would give up and leave us alone if they thought they no longer had anything to gain from attacking us or maybe someone would decide that we are a threat that needs to be destroyed instead.

“It’s impressive that you were able to hold them off so well when there were that many of them. Did you lose anyone?” He inquires, looking around the room at the remaining imps who are all watching him warily.

Yes. Four imps lost their lives today.

“I’m sorry we couldn't prevent this. We’ll be better prepared next time to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he insists.

There will not be a next time. It is clear that we are not safe here so we will be leaving as soon as everyone is able to travel.

“What?! Wait, you can’t just leave like that,” he stammers, leaping to his feet.

Why not? You promised to protect us and you have consistently failed to do so.

“Well, that’s…true, but we still need your help,” he pleads.

You just need mana stones. How can I be sure the people you work for will not give up on diplomacy and come for us at some point?

“I can’t deny that there are some who want to do that, but there are others who believe you have much more to offer than just mana stones.”

Such as?

“We’ve never known any other dungeon controller who used the dungeon core to summon demons; we didn’t even know it was possible. And the fact that the ones you have summoned are hostile to the vak means we can help each other out,” William implores.

Though I am not translating for the imps in the room, they are still paying close attention to his tone and body language. They growl when William starts to raise his voice and he flinches in response.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, is that it?

“Exactly! So we should be working together.”

Except, it is humans who have been attacking us regularly ever since they found us here. We can hardly consider humans to be our ‘friends’. And you speak of helping each other, but have said nothing of what you can offer us.

“We can help protect you from the vak if they find you, but we can’t do that if you leave,” William suggests.

So you would protect us from your enemies, but not from your own kind? Is that not a little contradictory?

“We’re still working on that. Please just give us another chance.”

Despite my frustration at the situation, he does seem sincere, and desperate, in his pleas. He is right about one thing, if the vak do find us, which I am sure they will eventually, it would be better to have someone to back us up. This could also be a good opportunity to wring some additional concessions from him. But it would also be a risk. I cannot not rely on William or those he works for to protect us from those who keep attacking us, they have already proven that quite conclusively. Perhaps it is time I get a little more proactive in dealing with the situation myself. This decision will affect everyone though, so it is not one I should make on my own.

Please wait a moment, I would like to confer with the others.

“Fair enough,” he concedes and sits back down at the table.

While I would prefer to let Rose sleep until she wakes up on her own, this is too important of a decision to make without her input. I ask Violet to head up to the room she shares with Rose so the three of us can talk in private.

“Keep an eye on him,” she tells Coal, pointing to William, and he nods. After taking a few steps towards the door, she stops and turns back. “But no biting,” she commands. It takes him a little longer to respond this time, but he eventually nods again.

In their bedroom, she gently nudges Rose’s shoulder to rouse the sleeping imp. She stirs a little, but does not wake, so Violet uses a little more force the second time. Rose slowly opens her eyes, sits up and looks around with a bleary-eyed, dazed expression.

“What happened? Does someone need my help?” She asks.

No, but there is an important matter that we need to discuss. William is downstairs and while I am thinking it might be time for us to leave this place, he is begging us to stay. I wanted to get your opinions before I make a decision.

“Screw him. We should leave,” Rose states without any hesitation.

I suspected that would be your response and it was my initial thought as well, but we might be able to leverage some benefits out of him if we stay.

“What kind of benefits?” She inquires, with narrowed eyes.

Supplies, weapons, better fitting clothes, information, training resources…

“Pretzels?” Violet interjects.

Yes, I am sure we could ask for pretzels too.

Rose mulls over the situation, still not entirely convinced.

“Even if we get all of that, we’ll still be at risk of being attacked again if we stay,” she argues.

I have a plan to deal with that.

“I still have reservations, but if you think it’s worth the risk, I won’t object,” she relents.

Violet, your opinion?

“I would like to have more fruit, but maybe Igneous or Marble will fly us to the orchard sometimes if we ask really nicely,” Violet replies.

Then we will stay here, for a while longer at least, but I will not tolerate another attack like this.

I would have asked Igneous if he were here, but Marble seems completely indifferent to the entire situation. That is not entirely unexpected as she and Igneous are both often quite easy going about most things. I should also ask Noctis since this will affect her as well. She is lounging with her pack in their room and when I explain everything to her, she responds with feelings of trust and confidence. Returning to the two imps, I see Rose climbing out of bed.

What are you doing? You still need rest.

“Since I’m awake, I should get back to healing the others,” she states.

No, you should go back to sleep.

“But I can’t just leave them like that,” she retorts.

William brought a medic with him and administered first aid to everyone who needed it. So they can wait until you are fully rested.

“But…”

I will ask Violet to hold you down until you fall asleep again.

Rose glances towards Violet, who giggles and steps forwards, rubbing her hands together with glee.

“Fine,” she yields, climbing back into bed and burying her face in her pillow.

I then return to William to deliver my demands.

We might be willing to stay, but there are conditions.

“I expected that would be the case. What do you need?” He asks, perking up in his chair.

First, I want the elevator doors on every floor to be welded shut.

“Uh, okay… Can I ask why?”

In this attack, they bypassed the stairs by climbing up the elevator shaft.

“Really? That’s actually a little impressive. I understand why you would want to prevent that from happening again. We can certainly deal with that for you,” William assures me.

Next, food and medical supplies.

“You don’t have enough food?” He asks, a tone of concern entering his voice.

It is not an issue of quantity, for now at least. All of my creatures have been able to find as much as they need so far, though that might change as their numbers grow. For the moment, it is more about variety, so I would like you to focus on snackfoods, such as pretzels and anything else you might recommend.

“I see. Any dietary restrictions I should be aware of?” He asks, stroking his chin, already thinking about what he could bring.

Not for the imps, they seem willing to eat just about anything. The others are a little pickier and lean towards meat, though I cannot say that they would not eat anything else.

“Hang on, I should probably be writing this down.” He rushes out to the hallway where Corporal Bramer is still waiting and quickly returns with a small notebook and a pen.

“The food and basic medical supplies should be doable. What else?” He asks after writing a few notes.

Weapons training for Igneous and Marble.

“Marble?” He questions with a raised eyebrow.

Another creature like Igneous.

“Oh? You have two of them now? Okay, well what kind of weapons training are we talking?”

Guns. We have collected quite a stockpile now from all the people who have attacked us. I would like them to learn how to use them effectively.

“Not you though?” He wonders.

I will listen in while they are learning, but I would prefer to focus on honing my magic rather than using a gun.

In truth, while I think I could probably use magic to fire them, such weapons would be unwieldy for me and I can accomplish more by just using my magic to attack directly. He does not need to know that though.

“Fair enough. I’m sure that can be arranged,” he agrees.

Magic lessons for me and Rose, specifically relating to combat application.

“That would be a little harder, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Someone who can teach Rose more about using magic for healing.

William frowns at that request.

“That…would be a lot harder. I’m not sure if that’s something we even could provide,” he laments.

If you can at least share whatever information you have on demon biology and anatomy and any other materials you think might help improve her healing ability, I suppose that will suffice, for now.

“Hmm, I’ll have to pass that one onto Cassandra; that's more her department. Shouldn’t be a problem though.”

I would still like our car to be fixed and for Igneous to learn to drive, as we previously discussed; Marble too, if she wants.

William sighs and shakes his head.

“I did submit a request for that; and while it has not been rejected…yet, they’re really dragging their feet about it.”

I see. Next, I want some new gear for my imps.

“What sort of gear are you hoping for?”

A bit of everything. All the weapons we have were taken from humans, and thus sized for human hands. The imps have impressive grip strength for their size, allowing them to use those weapons despite that, but I think it would be better for them to have weapons designed for smaller hands.

Any armour you can provide that will offer some defence without hindering movement would be helpful. I would also like some clothes for them. The ones they wear now were intended for human children and while they do mostly fit, they were obviously not designed with tails in mind.

Also some appropriately sized backpacks for all of the imps so they can carry supplies and collect things when they go out. The two we have now are also just a bit too big for most of them to wear without dragging on the ground.

William frowns as he writes everything down.

“The clothes and backpacks should be simple enough, but weapons and armour are going to have to be custom made and that won’t be easy. How many imps do you currently have here?” He inquires.

Eighteen. I reply after a quick head count.

“And you’re planning to summon more, I assume?”

Of course.

William sighs and places the notebook down on the table.

“You’re asking for quite a lot here. As much as I want to help you, this isn’t going to go down well with my superiors, especially the ones who already think we’re wasting our time with this.”

While I would prefer not to have to admit it, I cannot deny that he is raising a good point. While I may feel justified in asking for compensation for the losses we have suffered, I am trying to negotiate with an opponent that could probably crush us like bugs with ease, if they felt so inclined. I should be careful about pushing my luck too far.

We once criticised these humans for making demands while offering nothing in return, but in my obstinance, I have been doing much the same thing. Perhaps it is about time I should consider being more cooperative and that will hopefully encourage them to do the same and put more effort into helping us.

You are right. Maybe I am being a little unreasonable. So to provide an incentive, please inform your superiors that if they can meet all of my demands, I will be willing to discuss trading mana stones for other things we need going forward. That is what they want from us after all, is it not?

“Wait, really? That will definitely help smooth things out,” William exclaims with an excited grin.

But there is something else that I need. I want to get in contact with the Honey Badgers; I have a job that needs doing and I think they would be the best ones to do it. I would like them to send a representative here so we can discuss terms.

Williams' expression sours and he remains quiet for a while.

“You can’t be serious,” he eventually replies.

I am serious.

“Even knowing how bad they are, you want to hire them. What could you possibly need them for?” He demands, slamming a hand down on the table.

Coal appears on the table right in front of him in response to the sudden display of aggression, growling just a few centimetres from Williams’ face. Startled, William pushes back from the table so hard that the chair he is sitting on tips back and falls over.

“What was… how did he…?” He takes a few deep breaths to calm himself, then picks himself up from the floor and rights his chair, to the sound of Coal’s laughter.

“I apologise for my outburst, but what you’re asking, I don’t think there’s any way my superiors would agree to that,” he says as he sits back down.

Coal has moved back a little but he is remaining on the table to keep a closer eye on the human; a silent threat perhaps. While I do not believe such a threat is necessary at this point, I also do not see any reason to deter him from doing so.

You will have to figure something out, because of all of the conditions I have stated, this one is the most important. If you cannot fulfil it, then everything else is irrelevant.

William leans back and looks up at the ceiling. He groans as he runs his hands down the sides of his face.

“Alright, I’ll think of something. Is there anything else?” He drawls.

No. Those are all of my conditions. But I want to make one thing clear; if this happens again, that will be the end. We will be done and no amount of begging, grovelling or apologising will convince me to give you another chance. This is your final warning.

“Understood. I’ll be on my way then,” he says as he stands and makes his way towards the door.

As he is leaving the room, I remember something else I should ask for.

Wait. Actually, there is one more thing.

William stops in the doorway and sighs.

“What do you need?” He asks despondently.

As you have surely noticed, we have almost reached the ground floor now. You once promised us a sign we can put up to warn people against climbing higher than they should. I would like you to deliver on that promise.

“Well, I can certainly do that,” he says, his mood brightening, “But please don’t forget, you also promised to arrange a meeting place on a lower floor so we won’t have to climb all the way up here every single time.”

Of course, I will start working on that soon.

With their business finally concluded, William and his companion begin winding their way back down the stairs.

I need to plan my next move. I do not know if the humans will be able or willing to fulfil all of the conditions I have set forth. I could probably forgive some of them not being provided, or at least be willing to negotiate, but the most important one is also the one William seemed the least confident in.

Once Rose is awake, and finished healing everyone who needs it, we will start making preparations so that everyone will be ready to leave at a moment's notice, if needed. Though, in the event that they do give me everything I have asked for, I will keep my word and stay; at least until they give me a reason not to.

If we are going to stay here, even for a little while longer, I need to make some changes.