Amanises and Daly carefully avoided each differentiated strand of silk by doing incredible acrobatics, nearly breaking their backs in the process.
"This should do. Any other ideas you want to add?" The Spirit Medium stood in the middle of the velvety bedroom while throwing a look back at her teammate.
"There's one, why can't we just report the demoness and let the authorities handle it?"
"Where's your dignity, where's your sense of self? Where's your pride as an Arcanist!?
"How can we let those idiots do a job with their crazed sense of 'justice'! These morons will fail the moment they step in!"
"I...see." Amanises was quite appalled at Daly's strong 'opinion' on the authorities but it made sense, after all they were the same ones that hadn't abolished the cult she was a part of.
***
A shiver.
A few times she would shiver, and if she did, that could only mean one thing.
I caught a few insects this time. With a wide grin, the dignified Madam Sharon excused herself from the late night party, saying she had a headache from drinking too much.
Clear disappointment could be visible on the men's faces, something that could only be gone with empty promises from a beauty like her and a flutter of a lacy black fan.
I have to hurry. Can't wait to see what I caught! She thought in pure delight, already salivating from praise received by the high demoness.
Maybe I could actually get a night with her this time...
The carriage stopped at a corner, Sharon skillfully bewitched the passers-byes to keep their mouths shut, and carefully made her way to the mansion using the shadows that rested along the dark corners.
Before entering in, the experienced Demoness did a mirror divination. Once she swiped with a hand along the reflective surface, the mirror showed a person rummaging through her study desk with a hurry.
Ugh, a woman. A man would be easier to deal with.
She then added with a smile. But a woman is more fun to play with...
After the divination, Sharon climbed up the balcony using her Assassin skills, choosing a window on the opposite of the entrance which led through the basement's stairway.
Sensing a little more with the Spider Silk, she was able to accurately pinpoint the location of the intruder, entering a hidden passage along the gas pipes and into the airways.
Without sound, she crawled over, ending up behind the woman who was still focused on an open drawer.
But before Sharon could attack, a black claw-like hand swiped over her, causing the Pleasure to stagger back.
Sharon stopped herself from hitting the wall, dashing towards the woman who was already taking a step back.
She had anticipated this!
Before her nails could even scratch the intruder, she froze completely in place, her feet paralyzed by hard ice.
Sharon immediately flexed her legs, putting immense force in the movement to break the ice, however the woman turned around and raised her black claw again.
Instantly, a number of obsidian chains raised from her shadow, immobilizing her completely, leaving her lower half rooted in ice.
"You little wretch!" Sharon yelled out, swinging her hands forward and extending her spider silk towards her.
The woman spun back and swung her claw once over the demoness, who instantly shattered into countless mirror fragments, appearing near the intruder.
Mirror Substitution!
Sharon ignited a black flame, allowing the remaining spiritual ice that plagued the ground to melt, but not fast enough as more ice continued to grow.
The demoness' own ice started to mix in, icicles flying around to pierce the hooded woman. However, they were intercepted by other icicles that manifested just before impact.
"Eugh!" Sharon grunted heavily,
She switched projectiles to black flames, flying one by one towards the hooded woman, before they could reach—each one of them dissipated.
"What?" From her perception, each black flame actually hit a target!
Seven invisible spirits ran in front of the black flames, protecting their summoner, leaving her unscathed.
Meanwhile, shadows continued to manifest and claw at Sharon, trying once again to bind her in place.
She looked around, watching as the covered mirrors shattered one by one in her bedroom, leaving shards on the carpeted floor.
"You were prepared weren't you?" Sharon activated Mirror Substitution by herself, blinking in the only spot next to the hooded lady that had no shards of glass or ice.
She immediately manifested an ice spear, swinging it over the woman's head, however while she was completely focused on the intruder, the shadows from behind shifted and a magnificent crystal ice scythe swung over her shoulder, causing it to split in two.
Sharon's last Mirror Substitution activated and the woman manifested not too far, feet pierced by ice and mirror fragments.
She instantly took a defensive stance, strands of spider silk moving in a cocoon and ice forming at the bottom.
But before she could be completely covered, a poem resounded in one breath.
"Shatter! Shatter and scatter your soul over the lands!
"There's no rest for the wicked,
"Neither body nor soul can break!"
The verses brought along a crazed hurry, a nervousness, an agitation that made her stop into place, just enough for another one to roll out.
"You're not forgiven, your soul is impure!
"The world sees you as its stain,
"The world urges to get rid of you!"
For some reason, the woman's voice was louder, assaulting her ears. She couldn't even cover them, bewitched by the first poem and overtaken by the other, her soul being split into two.
One wished to get out, to hurry back, while the other to stay in place and accept its sentence.
Another spirit appeared at her side, this time one that had a layered set of sharp teeth, bloody eyes and grotesque tongue.
From its mouth, a piercing sound rolled out, but no one ever heard it except herself.
The sound nearly broke her eardrums, entering her psyche and invoking frenzy. Her hair lashed out, moving on its own in all directions.
The two women watched as the lady screamed her lungs out, but no one ever heard her.
Eventually the screams died out once the scythe pierced her again, not missing her neck.
***
"Phew! Nice work here!" Daly Simone wiped sweat off her face, scanning the area.
"She's completely dead?"
"Yup!" The Spirit Medium confirmed after carefully listening to the forming dead spirit.
"This was harder than I thought it would be, honestly. Had it not been for this carefully constructed plan we would've been gone!"
"It's useful knowing your opponent from the start. The spirits here told me everything I needed to know, plus the information on the demonesses gathered by the Arcanists made this easy-peasy."
Daly had to give Amanises some credit too. The idea to organize a double ambush from the shadows and act quite experienced the first time was her idea.
Not to add the last use of the poems coupled with the Frenzied Scream Spirit that she had in her arsenal.
"It's like a two-step authentication. If Madam Sharon managed to pass the first one, then the other would take her by surprise!" The Midnight Poet immediately compared the situation to something from Modern Earth.
"What's that?"
"Nothing." Amanises didn't want to bother explaining.
Daly was practically the MVP for this mission. I only did some side planning and over-all refining, but my work still counts!
A duo of a Sequence 7 Spirit Medium and Sequence 8 Midnight Poet worked better than expected.
The basis of the plan was to completely immobilize the Demoness, leaving her to use her Mirror Substitutions and to perhaps trigger them by themselves.
The spirits informed that Madam Sharron carried three special mirrors with her, and many hidden in her own room.
Daly and Amanises covered the large mirrors, leaving the small ones as a small consolement for the Pleasure demoness, only to destroy them using Frost Shadow's icicles afterwards.
Dissipating any chance the woman might've had at curses or Substitution.
Daly had to sacrifice some nearby spirits to not get burned by the spirit flames which would stop once hitting and killing a target. The small nearby ones worked great.
Amanises hastily conjured some poems, with the effect of agitation and trembling respectively, which were only amplified by frenzy.
That way, this duo of lower sequence managed to completely get rid of the notorious Pleasure Demoness!
Planning really makes everything easier!
Amanises breathed a sigh of relief, she
was scared that one wrong move would trigger Madam Sharon, causing Amanises to be targeted and killed, but from the Sleepless sequence, she seamlessly blended into the shadows and remained undiscovered throughout the entire fighting sequence.
While Amanises focused on calming herself down using a tranquility poem, Daly moved towards the corpse encased in ice and observed the forming dead spirit.
From her vision, wisps of dark smoke moved to form the beautiful body of the demoness, long hair flowing behind her back as if a stray breeze was blowing from above.
"Why are you here?" Madam Daly's voice turned ethereal as her eyes became completely black to look beyond.
"To influence the decision of the Parliament in Tingen City and to digest my potion." Her mouth moved in calm motions as her gaze was empty.
"Which decision and why?"
"Undisclosed."
"Hmmm, why did you kill Maynard?"
"He kept talking useless shit and I got mad."
"Understandable, are there other demonesses in Tingen?"
"There are, but I do not know their location, we are only directed by Lady Katarina who is in Backlund."
"All the way from Backlund? Is she strong?"
"A sequence 3 Unaging."
"Goddammit, we have to make haste. Do you have any proof in your house of killings and affairs?"
"I keep some photos and letters of them in my safe behind that painting." The spirit pointed at a beautiful painting of her own naked body, covered modestly by a red cloth on her groin.
Amanises took the cue from Daly's look and removed the painting, seeing the safe that was placed inside the wall.
"Combination?"
Madam Sharon recited the combination of the safe, which was later retold by Daly to Amanises who inserted the code into the rotary combination dial lock.
After a loud click, it opened, allowing Amanises and Daly to see its contents.
Inside were a few letters, a picture of a young man and a strange statue, Amanises nearly moved to take it when suddenly she stopped.
I don't even want to touch that…
The statue offered an odd feeling, its hair was akin to the ancient Medusa from Earth with her hair made out of snakes, but here the snakes' heads became either open or closed eyes.
The closed eyes were all turned towards her, as if observing and laughing at the women silently.
The statue also exuded a cold air around itself, as if touching it would cause one's hand to become encased in frost.
Daly chuckled a little further away. "Looks like you finally learned your lesson! Didn't touch what you were not supposed to satisfy your curiosity."
"Is it dangerous?"
"Extremely. This spirit here just told me it's a statue of the Primordial Demoness, their deity."
"A statue of a deity..."
Amanises' voice trailed off.
"Yes, that's right. Let's leave this to the authorities."
Oh now you want to leave them to the officials!
Amanises took out the letters and pocketed them, then she carefully erased her traces.
"We need an antidivination method."
"How do we do that?"
Daly sighed. "That's the part I didn't think through."
"Damn it!"
"Shall I pray to the Leader? We made quite the chaos here..."
"Would he ask for money? I mean, we will receive 100 pounds for this. I'm sure we can spare a few."
Daly shook her head. "I don't think money is the problem here. Our mission was done purely out of greed, and not to exorcize evil. This wasn't a planned mission and didn't go through the higher-ups, which goes completely out of The Arcanists' values."
"So what should we do? This will get reported to the Captain at one point or another, might as well just ask."
Daly gave a long sigh and then assumed a prayer motion, after a few unintelligible whispers, a cold wind blew in the room, causing Amanises to shiver slightly.
"Let's make our way. Dunn is waiting."
"Captain?"
***
Inside the captain's office at the BlackThorn Sprit Domain.
Dunn Smith, Kenley White and Seeka Tron chatted away surrounding the captain's desk.
Details concerning the mission flew by, along with the time.
After no more than one hour of chatter, Kenley and Seeka became incredibly tired, not used to staying up so late.
Seeing that, Dunn signaled for them to retreat, only when they were about to pull the grand doors, they opened on their own.
"What?" Seeka was baffled to see Daly Simone and the still new recruit Evelyn Dusk enter.
Dunn looked up in silent question to which Daly could only nod.
"What happened?" Asked Kenley, he wasn't a nosy person but such a late-night visit could only mean so little.
"Call your little henchmen to Sharon's house."
"Madam Sharon? The mistress?"
"Exactly. Maynard's wife hired us to investigate and it turns out the mistress was a Demoness of Pleasure."
"A demoness?!" Kenley was wide eyed, there was a slight fear in that surprise as if he already knew of them personally.
Seeka looked at him for a second and crossed her arms, intending to continue listening.
"We made a plan and killed her, isolated the room so that the servants wouldn't find out what happened. There was a statue of the Primordial in a locked place. We left it there." Amanises gave out more details.
Dunn Smith assumed a thinking position. "Alright, what excuse should we give?"
"An excuse? Simple! Me and Daly wanted to ask a more indepth question at the crack of dawn, we asked the servants to direct us to Madam Sharon, only to find her dead in a frozen cocoon." Amanises was a purebred liar. She thought of giving out the best excuse on the way here.
"The servants of the house don't check up on Sharon until she herself leaves the room, that's a rule she instilled in them." Added Daly.
"You can ask the Machinery Hivemind to investigate, we made sure to not leave any traces behind, nothing that would give out our pathways directly." As someone from the Modern Era, Amanises was well aware of the official procedures, as well as extraordinary ones.
Dunn gave a detailed instruction on how to bypass each not long ago.
The Machinery Hivemind preferred to use high-end technology, analyzing DNA and residual spirituality left behind. This could be easily faked or misdirected, not only that but with the Leader's employed anti-divination everything was in place.
"Looks like you two took care of everything." Commented Seeka, who continued to listen to the side.
Meanwhile Kenley was appalled. "You managed to defeat a demoness by yourselves just like that! Maybe you should teach me a thing or two!"
"Heh! Aren't Seers good at planning? You should be the one teaching us!" Exclaimed Daly with pride in her chest.
Kenley just rubbed the back of his nape with an awkward smile.
"If everything is set I expect a more detailed explanation once we guide the Machinery Hivemind there. Seeka and Kenley, you are free to leave.
"Daly and Evelyn, come with me to give out your testimony."
"And we have to go collect our paycheck." Added the Spirit Medium.
"Our? Weren't you the one who said she wouldn't partake in the investigation? Now you want to steal my money?" Near shouted Amanises, which provoked a chuckle from Daly.
"Would you be alive to collect that paycheck if it weren't for me?"
"Alright, right, I'm just joking! Come on, let's get going."