Detained

      Siti and I stayed together, locked in our imaginations, for what felt like days. I wanted to keep showing her more and more, or maybe I just wanted to remember the world I’d left behind. Or maybe I just wanted to keep spending time with her like this. I know that under that horrible mask I was forced to wear, I was wearing the biggest smile ever. But it had to come to an end eventually.

     The doors burst open and in came Libero. His form had returned to that spiky, scaled body that he previously had, though it looked more uniform and clean compared to the disorganized, asymmetrical mess that was his original form when we first met.

“What’re you two doing? You said we had our next target, so let’s get going already.”

“Right. Come on James, it’s time to get going.”

     Siti pulled away from me, both in our minds and physically and I immediately felt...hollow. Like I’d woken up from a nice dream and realized it was only that. “Yeah,” I muttered while rising to my feet, “Let’s go.” And though my body moved, my mind was still in that dream. That dream could become real, but I needed to survive this place and make it back to Earth. All the more reason to focus and do what I needed to do.

     We moved to the castle annex that didn’t seem to be connected from the inside. There stood an enormous ring-like structure. It was made of neatly-packed scales that each had some kind of symbol etched into them that glowed with a pale blue light. Inside the ring, a rippling reddish haze gently churned and fluctuated. I could vaguely see shapes in the haze, but nothing was clear. Without a word, Libero stepped right through, followed by Siti, then myself.

     As soon as we passed through, we were greeted by dozens of demons pointing spears at us. They were all wearing armor, all had two horns, two wings, a tail, and were mostly human in shape. Unlike in Sero’s settlement, every single one of these guards looked exactly the same with only slight differences in their armor. Even though their helmets had gaps in them, I couldn’t see their faces at all, as if they were covered by shadows no matter which direction they looked. It was also strange that they wore armor and wielded weapons. Since when did demons need those? And where did they get so much metal?

My thoughts were interrupted by one of the guards shouting, “I’ll ask again: Who are you?! State your business!”

“And I’ll say again: get out of my way.”

Siti raised her hands in surrender, “Come on Libero, no need to make this more difficult.”

“Libero!?” The guard shouted, “The Demon of Freedom?! What are you doing here?!?”

“I’m here to eat yo- RrrrRggh?”

     A long coil of vines shot out from Siti’s hand and quickly wrapped around Libero’s mouth to gag him. Even as he tried to bite and tear it off, more would simply block his mouth.

“We’re here to have a civil discussion with Lord Arx about an alliance!” Siti said with a weary smile.

     The guards paused for a moment, looking towards each other, muttering ‘alliance’ before they parted to the sides, still pointing their spears inward on us. “Come! We’ll take you to the lord! But mind your words or we’ll skewer you on the spot!”

     Siti and I looked to each other while Libero kept struggling with his gag, but we all began to walk. We emerged out of the tall stone walls built around their end of the portal and the surroundings opened up around me.

     Their portal was kept in a heavily-guarded structure with multiple layers of walls kept to the outskirts of the...settlement? No, this wasn’t a settlement, it was a fortress. Layers upon layers of walls loomed some distance away. Pointed outcroppings in the walls housed a strange array of weapons, including both cannons and ballistas side by side. More such weapons lined atop the walls with dozens of soldiers patrolling back and forth.

     We were guided along a road that lead to one of the tall, heavy gates that opened slowly and heavily. These were also made of solid metal, unlike the ones at Sero’s settlement. Inside the first wall were more soldiers, all moving around ammunition, maintaining weapons and armor, or training. Here I saw a few demons that didn’t look like all the others and, as I had thought before, these ones did not bother to wear armor or carry weapons. They had even more of a strange mixture of weapons here. Simple bows and trebuchets to rifles and mortars.

     We were lead beyond the second wall, but rather than heading to the third gate, we were lead down some stairs into the underground. It wasn’t until I saw the vertical metal bars that I realized this was a prison. The guard ahead opened up one of the prison cells and jerked his head, gesturing towards the cell, “Get in.”

“Uhm,” Siti began, “Did we do something to offen-”

The guard scoffed, “Do you think we’re idiots? The Demon of Freedom looking for an alliance? The Libero of old would’ve torn this place apart without a second thought. You’re clearly more idiot spies from that damned goddess!”

    Libero looked back towards Siti and scowled, groaning in his gag as if feeling vindicated in his usual behavior.

“And we’re not about to bring some unknown lord in the presence of Lord Arx either! Did you think we couldn’t tell?!” The guard shouted while looking in my direction.

Despite the spears getting closer to our backs, we didn’t move quite yet, unsure if things were about to get violent as Siti continued to discuss, “A-ah! I see! Well, there are some circumstances! Just so I know, assuming we go into that cell peacefully, how long would it take before we could get an audience with Lord Arx?”

“Hah!” The guard scoffed again, “Likely never! We’ll imprison you and torture you until you admit your true intentions, then execute you in front of that vile goddess so she understands that these stupid tricks won’t work anymore!”

Siti sighed and lowered her hands from that surrender she’d initially put up, “Well, I tried to do things peacefully. Guess we’re getting our hands dirty~”

The gag finally unraveled and fell away from Libero’s mouth as he shouted,

“This is how it should’ve gone from the start!!!”