The Demon Queen

The figure slowly descended, landing on her feet without a sound. She approached Komo, looking at the state he was in. She calmly looked behind her, at the four still standing.

"So, Komo. Mind explaining what happened?" Her voice was soft. Calm. Almost ethereal.

"I-it was those guys!" Komo blubbered. "They stole the gem, and they did this to me. You gotta kill em!"

The girl fully turned around, and Ulrich finally got a good look at her. Silver hair and light purple skin, the same as Komo. She wore a black leather tunic, and her neon green eyes stared into him.

"You won. Congratulations." She gave a polite clap towards the three of them. Ayana lunged forward without a sound, and her dagger went directly into her neck.

The woman didn't look fazed, laying a hand on her shoulder, and Ayana dropped the knife and dropped to the floor, unable to speak. She then covered her neck with a small part of the portal, and within a few seconds, it was healed, as if nothing ever happened to it.

"I'll pretend that didn't happen." Her voice unchanged. She stared at Vivian for a brief second, and that seemed to change her disposition. She squinted her eyes.

"Good day, I see you're doing well."

"Same to you." Vivian replied, applying ice chunks to her hands. She lunged at the woman, disappearing and reappearing behind her. Only at the last second was the woman able to turn around and block it.

"Wait, you used…how?" She seemed surprised at her moves, managing to dodge Vivian's swings, sweeping a leg underneath Vivian, and shooting a bolt of thin purple energy as she fell. Vivian fell to the floor, motionless.

Ayana stood up, leaning on Ulrich for support. The woman approached them, stopping a short bit away. Her eyes fixating on Ulrich's hands.

"Those. Are those gloves?" She asked, her voice getting a bit more serious.

"Uh, yeah?" Ulrich replied, hesitant. This…thing was being nice to them.

"I…see. Where did you get them?"

"The girl you just shot a beam at. Got them from her."

"So, you work for Halford?"

"Halford?"

The woman shot up. "Do you…not know Halford?"

"God's name is Halford?"

The woman's voice lowered to a whisper. "That…bastard. He brought more mortals into this."

She looked away, and Ulrich saw tears. At this point, he had no idea what was going on, and he could only see the demonic droplets getting to the floor. He heard Lainey's demon hiss behind the rubble blocking the door. Ayana stepped forward, but a crack was heard, and she fell, clutching her left leg.

Ulrich tried getting a flame going. Concentrating energy, clicking his fingers, anything. None of it worked. He just felt a stabbing pain through his body, that increased with every attempt. Ayana's screaming eventually became background noise, as he witnessed the demons form around him.

"What the? K-Komo? What are these?"

"The…demons?" Komo replied, his spirit quickly draining. “I was able to make some more to fight them. Now kill them and bring us back.”

Ulrich's senses were slowly returning to him. A demon approached, and Ulrich gave one more desperate attempt to start a fire. But before the demon could do anything, it exploded.

The demon girl sent the waves through all the smaller demons, and then approached Komo.

"What was the deal with those demons?" She asked, with a calm fury. "Why did they have claws!?"

"I…I modified them." Komo screamed, sounding extremely terrified. "You know, in case I needed to kill any humans."

"You prepared for that?" The girl screamed.

"You…you said I could kill the humans!"

"As a last resort! This…wasn't the plan at all!"

Ulrich finally decided to speak up. "Wait, you don't want to kill humans?"

The girl shot him a look of desperation all over her face. Ulrich meekly pointed up, and she nodded, floating up. She stayed in the air for a few seconds, around ten. She slowly descended, before silently picking up the golden orb next to Dominic's body. The orb slowly sunk into her hand, disappearing entirely. Komo was screaming in hysterics at this point, trying to crawl away. She pointed her index and middle finger at him.

A brilliant light show of pink, yellow, and white streams shot out. The crackling drowned out Komo's screaming, and eventually, he was gone.

Silently, she approached Ulrich. He noticed Vivian stand up behind her, and dig through the rubble for the black gem, which she put in her pocket.

And the girl hugged Ulrich.

The hug wasn't even bad. It at least felt sincere as she wrapped her arms around him. And while he didn't have the confidence to wrap his arms around her, he didn't try to fight her off.

"I'm…sorry. I'm so sorry." She let go of him, and he stood still for a few seconds. The girl turned to Vivian.

"You…you know a medic, right?" She asked, sounding like she could burst into tears at any moment.

"Yes." Vivian replied through gritted teeth. She healed Lainey, and the young girl, before moving on to Gene and Dominic, and Finally Ayana's leg. She then silently warped outside, now that the door was covered by rubble.

"Okay, who the hell are you?" Ulrich asked. "And what was all of that you just did?"

"All in due time." The woman replied, sitting down. "I should have brought food."

The people Vivian healed slowly got up, starting with Lainey. She immediately noticed the girl with purple skin sitting down, calmly walking up to her, hands in her pockets.

"So, you the boss?" She asked, leaning down.

"Yes." Was all the girl gave in return, and all the reason Lainey needed to sucker punch her. She fell back, and Lainey grabbed her by the collar of her tunic.

"Daisy and Maya." She yelled. "Where are they?"

The girl let out a small wave, causing Lainey to jump back and let her go.

"Friends lost because of me, correct?" She asked calmly. "Are you sure they died?"

"I-I…I don't." Lainey replied. "The demons absorbed them and dragged them into a portal."

"I see." The girl replied, with a small purple portal appearing beside them. "Full names, please."

"Daisy Whitehurst and Maya Jacobi." Lainey answered. The girl nodded, going into the portal.

Once she was gone, Dominic went up to Ulrich and Ayana.

"Hey, who was that goth lady?" He asked.

"The boss." Ulrich replied.

"Wait, what about the other guy?" Dominic asked, panicked.

"Dead." Ayana replied through heavy breathes. "She killed him." She sounded like she was still trying to rationalise everything that just happened.

Vivian warped back into the room alongside Sapphire’s unconscious body. She looked more or less…fine. Outside of a black spot on her shoulder going down to her upper back, she looked okay.

“Sapphire!” Lainey screamed, going over to her. She looked over towards her, and she was breathing slowly.

“She’ll…she’ll be okay, right?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” Vivian replied. “I tried to do all I could, but between how much damage she took and how long it took me to get to her…she might die soon.”

“No…no, she can’t die!” Lainey screamed, tears forming in her eyes. She held Sapphire’s body towards her, hearing her slow heartbeat.

“Don’t die…don’t leave me.”

“One woman must die.” Vivian said, kneeling down to meet her. “This is a part of the prophecy. If she dies, just know it was for a worthy cause.”

As if by instinct, Oni came out of Lainey’s guitar and slashed Vivian in the face, causing her to fall backwards.

“You think I care?” Lainey screamed out in anguish. “I’ll fucking kill you if it means she lives!”

She went back to Sapphire’s body, and Sapphire moved slightly.

“Lainey?” She coughed.

“Sapphire!” Lainey yelled out.

“Could you…come closer?”

Lainey did as she instructed, and Sapphire’s arms wrapped around her as their lips pressed together.

“Sorry for worrying you.” She said with a soft smile. “I just need to rest up a little.”

Lainey supported her up as Vivian was talking to Ulrich while looking around the shattered building.

"Where is she?" Vivian asked, sounding more on edge than ever before.

"She went to look for Lainey's friends." Ulrich replied.

Gene just went up to the child, trying to console her with Bartholomew.

And then the girl came out of the portal, with two people in tow.

A girl with dirty blonde hair with neon blue tips, a red flannel shirt, and skinny jeans popped out first, dragging by the hand a black girl in a pink tank top, black frizzy hair, and a blue piece of clothing wrapped around her waist.

Lainey stood there for a second, silent. She silently touched the flannel's girls face, before she finally said something.

"Guys?" She asked, on the edge of tears.

"Yeah." The girl replied in a Brooklyn accent.

The three girls leapt into a group hug, Lainey crying the entire time. After a solid minute of this, alongside Dominic tearing up in the background due to the emotions of the whole thing, they let go.

"So, how was it?" The whole demon thing?" Lainey asked.

"Eh, not that bad." The flannel girl replied. "Stank like hell, but we had food and shit. But anyway, where are we right now?"

"Uh, Japan?" Lainey answered.

"Japan?" The black girl asked. "Think I could pick up a samurai sword?"

"I mean, the whole place was…destroyed. But I'll look." Lainey said.

"And who are they?" Flannel asked, pointing to the others.

"Oh, the anti-demon team I assembled."

"You assembled a team?" The black girl asked.

"Well, I was a founding member." Lainey responded. "But anyway, the devil hair guy is Ulrich, Demon Ball hair is Dominic, tuxedo guy is Bart…holomew. Gray hoodie guy is Gene, Japanese chick is Ayana, Blonde chick is Vivian, and the tall chick is…my girlfriend, Sapphire."

"Hey." Sapphire said, shaking their hands.

"That's your girlfriend?!" The black girl asked, shocked.

"Dude. Nice." Flannel girl replied, fist bumping Lainey.

"So, what now?" The black girl asked. "You going to fight the demons?"

Lainey looked at the demon girl. The girl sighed.

"I'll admit, my plans were sabotaged. So, if you'll allow me the time, I'll do my best to explain everything that happened."

"Yes, that would be quite nice."

The demon girl froze for a second, as the others looked at what just appeared next to Vivian.

"Ah, Zeb. It's nice to see you again."