[SS 2.102] Hunted (Part 1/3) (Patreon)

Angelica was silent again for a moment, letting the reality envelope her, and process that this wasn’t all some bad dream. Her panic began to rise, to the point that she honestly didn’t know what she’d do, so she desperately gave herself an Order to handle the events as calmly as possible. She knew that it could only affect her mentality to an extent, and even trigger Order Obligation if she failed to comply, but she’d take any help she could get at the moment.

So the Danxer Sect wanted her dead. It wasn’t the most surprising thing in the world. She had stolen something precious of theirs and humiliated them in the process, even as just a lowly little Imp. She could understand why they hadn’t been able to let such a thing go, even though it had been months. Would this all end if she just dropped the Quillaced Tiara in their lap? She’d need to figure out a clever way to do it without having any attention drawn on her, and even then, she doubted it. They still had the much more valuable part of the piece, so it likely was well beyond money at this point. If it was, they’d be trying to capture her and not kill her.

But really, it felt so unfair. The actual culprit was right there, sitting with her presumed parents whom she’d wronged. Lustre was the real one at fault, so why not punish her? Actually, looking at her, maybe she had been. The woman looked defeated, more uncomfortable in her current situation than Angelica did. Maybe she was feeling some sort of guilt for the Demon’s death sentence. 

Yet that didn’t make it any better. Angelica’s Malice was still boiling, and if it weren’t for her Order, she may have acted irrationally already. Part of her really wanted to act on her old fantasies and bite the scuffer. If she was going to die, then why not aim for some self-indulgence? Well, it was far too early to give up on living just yet.

“Pathos, quick question,” she spoke into the phone after a lengthy pause. “A Summoner was caught in the Deterring Field at my apartment just a bit ago. Was that one of you?”

“No,” the woman confirmed. “We don’t know where you live, nor have ever tried to find out—just that it’s somewhere in the city.” Angelica didn’t detect any lies, not that she really doubted them in the first place.

“Then it sounds like my apartment is compromised. But we can worry about me later. Should I send Gelic to Zenmoon?”

“We’d happily shelter her, yes,” Pathos agreed. “Yet I would say Hell is a safer suggestion. There are apparently a lot of stigmas around attacking other Demons in Hell, and I believe she’s also managed to join a Cult, correct? They’d undoubtedly keep her safer than she would be anywhere in our world. And while Demons could still pursue her there, they wouldn’t have the Demon Hunters with them to further give them Orders.”

That definitely made sense. Ba Skin might charge her for the added protection, but he seemed to value loyalty above all else. She couldn’t imagine that he’d throw her out no matter who was asking for her head. And then she’d have the whole Cult, well, maybe at least her whole Legion backing her. Angelica probed the Hellward spell, just to see if it was possible, but as suspected, she couldn’t use it while still in the building. Honestly, she’d prefer not to use it at all, since it’d cost her some Essence, but it would be worth the instant teleportation as an added measure of safety.

Except there was one big problem with the plan: Angie. She planned to leave her Duplicate behind and see the evening through. Not only would that prevent any potential fallout with her mother, it’d also let her keep monitoring the Danxer Summoners present, just in case they wanted to try anything else. Right now, her anonymity was the best thing she had. Fleeing and hiding out in Hell wouldn’t solve the problem, at least not permanently, and could possibly make things worse when she returned.

It could be her Order keeping her calm, but she honestly found running to be a very counterintuitive option. Still, she wasn’t so bold as to think she could handle this unknown threat with ease. Retreat was still the best option, until she better understood the situation and who she was up against. “If it’s all the same, I’d be more comfortable sending her to your Sect for right now.”

“Very well.” Pathos put up no further argument. “She should already be able to get here through one of our Freelancer Circles, but we’ll also close them off to all but her, to ensure she can’t be followed. What about you, though? Where are you right now? Do you want us to send someone to get you here safely as well?”

“No, not right now,” Angelica refused the offer. “I’m at the Vulgrest City Center Event Hall. It’s complicated, but I can’t really leave at the moment.”

“Hmm, isn’t that where Cordial—” The woman on the phone cut herself off. “Sorry, Vystal told me some of the details and her speculations. But now I’m even more worried. We can send a full extraction unit if we need to.”

“Thank you, but I’ll be fine, at least for now.” Really, Angie would be fine, even if she died, so there wasn’t too much to worry about—not that she really wanted her clone to face anything horrible, but they both knew it was for the best. “I should get off the phone now before I draw too much attention. Gelic will need to sneak out before she can teleport, but she should be there in a few minutes. Thank you for the warning, seriously.”

“Be safe, Merlina,” Pathos made sure to hammer that home. “We won’t let anything happen to Gelic, I promise you.”

Angelica slid around the corner into the mostly vacant hall after the call ended, then followed it down to the bathroom. Really, no one’s attention was on her, but it was for the best. She went into the nearest bathroom and emerged a minute later. Well, two of her emerged. Angie, who had taken over as Angelica, made her way back to the event, and would make sure to be spotted by her mother once more, to uphold the lie. 

Their phone had also been left with her, just in case anyone else tried to communicate in the meantime. And once Gelic was safe at Zenmoon, she could pull out the tablet in Second Stomach and send her messages that way, so that they could circumvent the Mind-Link block on the building. Now, Gelic just needed to find a way outside. Annoyingly, the doors to the terrace had been closed, and it’d be too much unnecessary hassle or risk to try to get around that. 

So she’d need to find another way out. By the sounds of it, the Demon Hunters didn’t really know where she was yet, but at the same time, felt like they had to be more concerted with their efforts than blindly sweeping the whole city. So it probably wouldn’t be wise of her to just waltz out the front door, meaning she’d find a way out the back. She was already in Demon form, but had cast Conceal on herself in case there were any Abstainers on staff as she pushed through the employee area. 

There had been a brief consideration about further changing her appearance, and giving herself a Fake ID, but she didn’t know if that would somehow affect the Freelancer Circle if they were locking everyone else out. Ideally, she should only actually be outside for a few moments, assuming it didn’t take her long to figure out how to lock-on to the Zenmoon Circle. She’d only used that type once, and it had been by her own making. Well, if it ended up taking too long, maybe she could call up Xinder and ask Vystal to Summon her, or just make the trek herself if there were no signs of danger.

Things were looking good, though. Gelic found a completely deserted door, leading to a back alley by the dumpsters. There wasn’t even an employee taking a smoke break. Nice calm quiet in the dark night, a peaceful moment for her to figure this out and get to safety. Which was of course ruined immediately. A bright, practically blinding light suddenly shone down on her, or more like it was coming from her, sending a great magical beacon into the sky. Suspecting Skin practically screamed at her, letting her know she wasn’t safe, but it was too late.

[Your personal Concealment has been shattered] 

Before she could even process the message, something else was shattered: her armor. A high speed projectile surged through her body in the blink of an eye, completely ignoring her carapace, piercing out the other side before it vanished entirely. Strangely, it hadn’t really hurt, and barely took down a few bits of health, nor had it caused any sort of lasting wound. Except, something had been left behind. Incorporeal chains shimmered around her body before vanishing completely.

[You have been Anchored]

What the hell did that mean?! At first, she thought it meant she wouldn’t be able to move, but that was immediately proven incorrect. While she was still assessing the situation, she’d thrown her body into panic mode, swiftly switching over to her Imp form, and bouncing quickly out of the alley as a surging Puffball, desperate to get away from her unknown attacker. 

Her actual initial response was to cast Return, even knowing that her apartment wasn’t the safest place. The Summoner had been, deterred at least, so it would have hopefully given her a moment of reprieve, except… it hadn’t worked. At first, she thought she might still have just been too close to the event hall, still caught in its limiters, but even a block away, Return was doing scuff all, and she was still fleeing for her life. Scuff it then, Hellward! She expected the prompt to come up about spending Essence, but got an entirely different notification instead.

[Hellward cannot be cast while Anchored]

Frits, really?! Gelic wanted to stop and scry herself, to see if she could get to the bottom of what this debuff actually was, but doing so would require her to stop bouncing around for a moment so she could get a good glimpse of her own body, and that was not something she was currently willing to do. Getting as far away from this place as fast as possible was the only thing on her mind, and she bounced chaotically, not paying too much attention to where she was going, as long as it wasn’t there.

In the meantime, when she was pretty sure she’d gotten out of sight from whomever had shot her, Gelic recast Conceal on herself, as well as Transfiguration. She turned back into the throwaway Demon appearance she’d used a single time before when making a deposit at Coterie bank, and gave it a new name that would be a bit more believable than “Placeholder.” The form wouldn’t be nearly as ideal for bouncing, but that wouldn’t be crucially important if she were out of danger. Except it didn’t matter at all.

[Your personal Concealment has been shattered] 

[Your self-altering illusion has been shattered]

Dammit! They barely lasted a second. It was that damn light, it had to be. The beacon had clung to her, following her from the event hall, continuing to shoot skyward no matter where she went. It must be giving away her location, and may be doing some of the shattering itself too. Could only she and the Demon Hunters see it, or was it broadcasting her location to everyone in the city with Magical Proficiency who happened to be looking her way? 

[Incoming Transmission from Accomplice: Xinder. Do you accept?]

“Are you alright, Gelic? We expected you to be here by now.”

“Uhh, no, not really!” Her mental voice probably came out quite panicked. “They did something to me and made me Anchored. I can’t use Hellward or the Freelance Circle.” She hadn’t actually tried the latter until that moment, but got a similar error. “Uhh, do you think maybe Vystal could summon me?” Her hopes weren’t high, but that was the last thing they could try. 

“No, she won’t be able to,” he regretted to inform her. “Anchored blocks all means of teleportation and chains you to your current plane of existence. You won’t be able to escape to Hell or be summoned by anyone until the status is cleared. That will happen eventually, though it’s hard to say how long. If the anchor is destroyed early, then you will be freed immediately. Do you know who or what did it?”

“Nope! They shot me with something, and I never saw who or where. Right now I’m just doing my best to ditch them, but I’m pretty sure they’re still chasing me.”

“Do you think you’d be able to make it to Zenmoon?” He asked, sounding genuinely concerned. 

“Uhh, maybe.” Gelic genuinely wasn’t sure. If she was able to bounce there cleanly, it shouldn’t take too long, assuming her chain wasn’t interrupted. “But is that fine? Some weird light is coming out of me, so I think they’d know I’m there!”

“Damn, you were marked by some tracking Skill then, but yes. It’s fine. Get here, and they will protect you, even if it means their Sects are at odds. In the meantime, we will try to track you down ourselves, and offer any support we can. I need to end this chat so I can coordinate with them now. Though as a last word of advice, assuming it’s the Skill I think it is. If you need to hide, head underground. If you go deep enough, the light will diminish or not shine through the surface at all. They still may be able to find you, but it should impede their efforts.”

[Current Contract: Get to Zenmoon safely]