A Pregnant Sword (A Mace)

“I’m not telling you, boss demon,” Idalec said, pointing to the demon doing all the talking.

“AHHH! Why can’t I walk any more?” Sato demanded as he looked to try to take a second step behind the white line,

“Fire! Everything to that boy!” The boss demon yelled as Idalec lazily looked away; fire, lightning, mist, a particularly strong gust of wind, and bits of metal stopped after hitting Idalec’s Pure Shield.

“Curious.” Idalec walked towards the white line as Sato stumbled backwards away from it.

“You're not going to make any progress, so you might as well leave while you have the chance!”

“And why’s that?” Idalec asked, not even looking at the demon as he stood over the line which was clearly only recently drawn,

“Because every step you take past that white line costs ten lives! You have to have killed ten conscious creatures for every step you take forward.”

Idalec stumbled back, falling to the floor and moving away from the line, ‘I didn’t kill them. No. Not in this life, not with my hands.’ Memories started flashing past Idalec: the thousands of soldiers who lay lifeless after being hit with Pure Attack, the millions who were killed at his camp. ‘What if it only counts this life? How many steps could I take?’ Idalec moved away in fear,

“What’s wrong, Idalec? It’s like you’ve seen a ghost?” Prix asked warmly, moving towards him,

‘I will not be dragged into that hallway.’ Idalec gulped.

“Look at that~” Luna sang as she started walking around, doing a twirl as she moved forward. “Follow me if you dare~” Luna laughed maniacally as she pranced forward gracefully. “If you even can!” Luna then vanished into the corridor.

“It-” Idalec slowly stood up, leaning against the Pure Shield wall. “I did see something.”

“It’s ok,” Prix said, blocking everyone else’s view of Idalec as he was posted up against the Pure Shield, an interesting sight from the side. “What-” Prix wanted to ask before stopping herself. She turned to Miki, Carrot, Garia, and Sato. “How about we sit down for a bit? We should come up with a plan on how to deal with those eight-” Prix motioned to the demons who were still holding their formation. “And then we should investigate this tunnel,” Prix said.

“What’s the point of planning when we can just do it? A perfect plan yesterday is worse than vibing it right now. So we should go strike them!” Sato suggested confidently before running into the Pure Shield that was still very much up.

“Sato Sato…” The boss demon said,

“Why are you taunting me when you're trapped behind this invisible wall?” Sato started feeling around.

“That black cat sure is taking her time,” the boss demon said, leaning to try and get a glance deeper into the tunnel.

“You sure yap a lot,” Sato said as he started feeling around the invisible wall.

“Idalec, they can't dig themselves out, right?” Prix pondered,

“No.” Idalec got off the wall as Sato kept moving left along the wall. ‘I wonder how someone managed to construct that sort of rule?’ Idalec’s eyes flickered to the tunnel with the white line. ‘Could the rules of this world be weaker, relaxed, than even what I tested?’

Well over an hour passed. Idalec started a magical fire; the demons slowly broke formation to check out the Pure Shield prodding at it before falling back to their camp. Garia went up with Carrot to go grab their dinner, which they ate by Idalec’s fire.

“Eating without me~” Luna walked out of the corridor with a mace slung over her shoulder. The metal of the mace seemed almost like a mirror, producing an impossible undistorted reflection even though, judging by the way Luna’s paw wrapped around the handle, it was cylindrical in nature.

“What’s that?” Sato asked angrily, “Where’s my legendary sword?”

“Well, this is my legendary mace~” Luna sneered as she pulled it off her shoulder and pointed it at Sato. Now that Luna lowered the mace, the clean reflection muddied slightly as it turned out that the mace had eight perfectly spaced ribs,

‘Still, how did it produce a perfect reflection?’ Idalec looked with curiosity. Above the shaft of the mace was the globe, and above that globe was a small spike.

“Can I have my sword?” Sato asked, reaching out his hand,

“Well, it’s a mace, not a swo-” Luna smirked, putting the mace back on her shoulder,

“NO! It’s a pregnant sword!” Sato exclaimed, pointing at the globe on the mace, “Like when it gives birth to more mythical children swords, I’ll give you one! Final offer. Take it or leave it!”

The demons on the other side of the barrier all started to crack up. ‘That’s a good one.’ Idalec chuckled along.

“What’s so funny? Are you laughing at the sword for being pregnant?” Sato demanded seriously,

“We’re laughing at you,” Miki said while wiping a tear off her face,

“Why?”

“Sato,” Idalec said as he got over Sato’s initial joke, “That’s a mace.”

“Ohh! Is that what a pregnant female sword is called?” Sato acknowledged another round of laughter,

“Is mace like a funny word?” Sato looked around at everyone

“A- A sword can’t get pregnant~.”

“Luna, why are you lying to me?” Sato spun around to face Luna. “You're literally holding a mace? How could you possibly be denying what’s before your eyes?”

“Sw-swords can’t get pregnant,” the boss demon howled,

“And what would you know about it? Huh? That’s right, nothing.” Sato said, pointing at the mace, “What are you going to tell me next? That deer or human can’t get pregnant?”

“You can have your pregnant sword.” Luna flicked the mace towards, and it penetrated the stone with the ease that boiling water would penetrate snow. It dug itself into the floor right up to its grip.

“It’s not called a pregnant sword, Luna.” Sato complained, not in the slightest bit concerned that this mace just bore through the floor with such ease, “I’m going to name it-” Sato took hold of the grip and pulled it out as it flew out with ease, “The Swordomizer 32K!” The demons stopped laughing. “That’s right.” Sato pointed his mace at the eight demons. “I’m about to swordomize your asses.”

‘Isn’t that a little too far, Sato?’ Idalec wondered as the demons scrambled into position.

“That’s right! Now someone’s not laughing anymore!” Sato forced out a laugh as he swung around the mace as if it weighed less than nothing, propelling his arm forward. “Hey, Idalec, why is this thing so light?” Sato swung his mace with such vigor to the left that he’s whole body twisted in that direction,

“It’s enchanted…” Idalec guessed, ‘It’s a pretty interesting idea.’ Idalec watched as Sato tried to figure out where to hang his Swordomizer. ‘These laws are lax to the point where even non-living things can use mana; most of them have to be powered by someone.’

Sato finally decided to tie his mace around his pants. “Let’s go,” Sato said, leading everyone out of the cave. As he did so, the mace started growing heavier, causing his pants to start sagging. “Wait.” Sato held up his pants all the way out of the cave,

“Was there anything else in there other than that mace?” Idalec asked Luna,

“No~,” Luna said cheekily,

“What else was in there?” Idalec barked,

“Well, there was this big-” Luna spread her arms apart as wide as she could. “Statue of Sato, but it was prettier-” Everyone looked back at Luna, "because it was a flat and featureless wall.” Luna giggled at her own joke,

“Hehe haha.” Sato mocked her as he untied the mace and started lugging it around on his shoulder,

“You didn’t think that was funny.” Luna threatened,

“I laughed.” Sato rolled his eyes as they left the cave,

“I might just use that mace on you if you keep acting up,” Luna said angrily. The moon was already up, yet Gibson was still sitting against the tree, dozing off.

“Mr Gibson, could you show us back?” Prix asked gently, which didn’t wake him. “Mr. Gibson?” Prix asked a little more firmly; still nothing,

“UP!” Luna shouted at Gibson, which got him to open his eyes. “Prix the pitiful princess.” Luna rolled her eyes,

“Mr. Gibson-” Prix closed her eyes to shrug off the insult. “Can you show us back to Pinkgrad?”

“Did you deal with the demons inside?” he asked, eyeing the cave.

“...“

“Consider it done,” Idalec said, pointing in the demon's vague direction, Idalec the Pure shield around them, before firing off Pure Attack. Idalec kept pouring in mana until the spell looked like a billion falling stars being shot right into the stone and cave.

“What was that spell?” Prix asked after Idalec stopped the spell,

“Pure Attack. We should go.” Idalec said the air had been drained of mana, nearly every last bit of it.