Royal Princess of Blood

The demon glared at me and quickly pulled out my dagger with a wincing face. At the same time, Satomi and Velar charged against the enemy. As they didn’t have time to cast any holy magic, they intended only on pinning the demon to the wall, stabbing their blades through him. Satomi on the shoulder, while Velar through the belly.

Before the demon could attempt to escape, I swiftly moved in between them and thrust my blade into the imp’s forehead, hitting through the brain. I injected my blood into the head. The demon writhed and screamed in pain. Holy blood being injected into the brain, that would certainly be critical. The demon then limped and fell to the ground after Velar and Satomi withdrew their blades. But his fingers were still twitching, so I stabbed my blade into his head again to make sure he’d be dead.

“They quickly infiltrated my palace?” Miyako muttered in surprise.

“You have no idea how easy it is sometimes to get inside restricted places with nothing but confidence.” Sometimes in life, you just need confidence, and maybe a uniform. If you’re trying to pretend to be someone to get inside something, add confidence; you’d be surprised at how effective it would be. Say you’re the new employee, or just some worker that needs to fix something broken inside, and so on, and so on.

The servants watched in shock and confusion as they had just witnessed someone being murdered inside the palace. I didn’t want that demon to follow where we were going and track us through there. But I suspected it wouldn’t be that much of a help. I hoped it could at least slow them down for just a little. Don’t make things easy for your enemies, basically. Besides, they would have guessed we were leaving anyway, pretty obvious with how we looked.

Well, killing a demon is a nice bonus.

Miyako moaned in annoyance. “I was just done cleaning them up, and now there’s more I have to worry about.”

“I’m their utmost priority, you’ll be fine.” All demons on this island might even come after me if they knew who I was, and that I was here. Considering that I was close in reach, they’d disregard Miyako, a mere human, anytime.

“I hope so. Let’s go onward.”

We ran until we arrived somewhere at the rear side of the palace grounds. Eventually, we met up with a group of warriors already in their full gear. They were familiar to me, they were the same military officials that helped Miyako in defeating Isaki. Which was a nice thing to do, they were the ones that experienced facing a demon, no matter how little that experience may be. Besides, they were still a bunch of strong guys.

Even the old general and Satomi’s master were here.

The old man stepped forward, facing Miyako. “Lady Miyako, what are we doing?”

“An army of demons is here. My friends are fleeing, and I want us to hold back as many as possible.”

“An army of demons?!”

“Here?”

“What are they after?”

Lots of questions echoed throughout the crowd.

“They are after my friends,” Miyako answered. “I will not have them caught.”

The officials glanced at each other, hesitation visible on their faces.

“Lady Miyako, why go this far for them? Risk even your important life?” The old general asked warily. It would seem he didn’t want to risk the lives of his people for outsiders. And especially the daughter of their lord.

“Because I owe them my life, and they are my friends. As your master, I order you to assist me, protect me. Because no matter what, I’m going out there.”

Well, saying that, they would have no choice but to follow. They wouldn’t just abandon the lord’s daughter.

The general bowed his head. “We will follow you then, Lady Miyako.”

With that settled, we continued on as Miyako took the lead. We reached outside the building, then a secluded corner of the wall. Miyako ordered her men to move the stones on the ground.

“By the way, are your parents aware of what’s going on?”

For some reason, Miyako awkwardly smiled. “... I didn’t get to tell the whole story, but I sent my assistants to take care of it.”

Ah, they didn’t get the chance to grant permission for her to do this, nor allow these high-ranking officials to come with her.

Tsk tsk tsk, naughty, naughty Miyako.

After clearing the rocks, they opened the metal door on the ground, and a passageway was revealed. We rushed inside and shortly found three diverging paths.

“This way to the west side.”

We took a turn and continued running through the dark passageway, Miyako using her flames to light the way.

***

A demon witnessed one of them in disguise being killed by their target. He quickly fled the area and into the main grounds of the palace. They had suspected that the target was planning to leave when her group started carrying large bags. They intended to follow where they were going at first. However, following them now would be dangerous to them.

The most important thing was to convey the information they had. Besides, they were ordered not to engage. A dread lord gave them the order, and thus they must follow. If they disobeyed, they feared what might be done to them.

Wings popped out of the demon’s back, causing confusion among the humans around. However, he ignored them and quickly flew into the air. A few more that were hiding amongst the crowds revealed themselves and quickly flew up in the air as well, quickly catching up to him.

“Did you see them? They looked like they were leaving!” One asked mid-air as they flew back to their army.

“They fully intend to leave! No doubt about it!” one imp answered.

“Did they realize we were there?” another asked.

“Yes, they did,” the demon answered. “I saw them kill one of us.”

“K-Kill? What the hell do you mean by kill? How?”

“I don’t fucking know! I only saw it, okay?! They must have some kind of holy magic or some shit.”

“Dammit!”

“Why are you surprised? We’re hunting a god. They are literally embodiments of holy shit.”

Realizing that they could be killed, the imps felt fear in their hearts. But there was no backing out now. They absolutely shouldn’t. Not only would they be punished for desertion, they were trying to catch the only one that could free their creator.

Then they arrived at where their army was located, and they quickly landed before Trigel.

“My lord! We have urgent news!”

Trigel raised an eyebrow, realizing the urgency in his voice. “Speak.”

“We suspect that the target is leaving the palace, or rather, the city.”

Trigel’s eyes widened. “So she is here!” That at least confirmed she was here. If she wasn’t, he was intending on interrogating the lord’s daughter about the young goddess. But it would seem that was no longer needed. “How can you tell they’re leaving?”

“They packed their bags, and they killed one of us.”

At that, Trigel was quite astonished. “Killed? An imp?”

“I suspect they possess holy magic.”

“That answers how Rytus just disappeared… Where did they go?”

“They didn’t go through the front gates, but further into the palace. I didn’t follow them after I witnessed them easily killing one of us.”

“Further into the palace…?” Trigel stared towards the city, and then he came to a realization. “They’re using secret passages to slip away.” He turned back towards the imps. “Fly! Have eyes in the sky! Find them! They should pop out outside the city! You’re the only ones who know how they look, so go!

“Y-Yes, my lord!”

“Don’t let them escape!”

With that, the imps quickly flew back, ascending high in the sky. Trigel then turned towards his army.

“Attention! All of you, get ready to move out!”

***

We reached the end of the passage. The way was blocked by a large boulder. The men pushed it forward, and light immediately pierced through. I blinked my eyes to refocus as we slowly got out. Before me was the stale, vast landscape, we were now outside the city.

“Let’s go,” I said. “There’s no time to waste.”

And thus we sprinted across the plain. A moment later, I looked up and saw some winged creatures flying above. They would have seen us by now. I turned towards Taneva as we continued running.

“Can’t you do something about those flyers?”

He glanced up before a hole opened up from thin air, and he suddenly pulled out a majestic bow.

What the fuck?

He then threw it at me, and I frantically caught it.

“Use that, I got it from an elf.” He then grabbed a quiver from the hole and threw me an arrow.

Dammit, he really gotta teach me that trick.

But a bow from an elf, huh? It looked pretty well-made, too.

“Be careful using that, it’s a special magical item.”

“What the hell does that mean?!”

“Just shoot it! Pour mana into it!”

I nocked the arrow and poured mana into the bow, and to my surprise, I could feel the mana flow through the bow, then to the arrow. And the arrow began to glow at the tip. I glanced up to determine a target. Pouring a little mana into my limbs, I drew back the string.

At the same time, I turned around and aimed at the sky, specifically at an imp. I let the arrow loose, and it shot out with incredible force. “Woah!” The arrow rapidly shot through the air and immediately pierced the target with a big hole in the torso, and it started falling from the sky.

What the hell? Why was that so strong?

As I continued running, I noticed the falling imp recovered mid-air. Of course it wouldn’t work, there was no holy magic in that.

“Incredible, Estelia, you really hit that guy up there,” Taneva casually said.

“Didn’t do much. Give me another one!”

He threw me another arrow. I stared at the bladed tip. Well, it was a blade, so shouldn’t it work…? I pricked my finger and cast my blood magic. The blood then crawled on the arrow’s tip. Seeing that it worked, I smiled.

I loaded the arrow and aimed at another imp. I shot the arrow, this time not pouring any magic into the bow. The release was still powerful. And the arrow struck the target in the chest. With that, it started falling from the sky.

Seeing that, the other flying imps seemed to become wary, and they increased the distance between us. I received another arrow from Taneva and shot another blood-enchanted arrow, hitting another one. The first one I shot with a blood arrow pulled out the arrow and he started flapping his wings again.

Of course one arrow wouldn’t be enough. But this was interesting to experience.

“It’s not effective at this range.” I threw the arrow back to Taneva.

“Incoming!” a soldier shouted.

There was a group of demons running towards us, big and small. Hm, it would seem not all imps they brought have wings. In this first group of demons coming after us, there was one red giant demon.

So that’s a ravager…

Miyako then suddenly stopped, and I halted.

“It’s time, Estelia.” She made a cut on her finger and wiped blood on her blade. “Stay safe out there,” she said with a wide smile.

I frowned. “Listen, Miyako, don’t be a hero this time. Don’t put all your work to waste.”

“Is that your roundabout way of saying not to die?” She chuckled. “I’ll be fine.”

I nodded. “Good luck, Miyako.”