Chapter 113: Chapter 113

Eren took one last glance at the girl hiding behind the rocks, her eyes sharp and fixated on the entrance of the cave, her breaths were silent and her moves were subtle, too conscious with everything around her.

He didn’t know how to feel about the whole thing anymore, for he was no longer able to neglect the fact that she was damaged, too damaged, and it led her to surround herself with high thick walls and slowly sink in darkness, it was a defensive mechanism, her way of dealing with pain, and was his when he was a child as well, until he turned mad, and he didn’t want her to walk on the same path.

He feared that she would lose herself, and unlike her, he wasn’t pure enough to bring her back, if anything he was just as dark, yet his fair lady didn’t belong into that darkness, and the thought scared him, for he realized that even when she was alive, she wasn’t truly living.

She was so beautiful, but so broken, Eren thought as he finally managed to rip his eyes off her and focus back on his quest, as silent as a shadow, he sneaked inside the cave, taking advantage by how dark it was, he frowned as he looked around him, trying to sense any presence near the entrance but there were none, there was no one to guard the entrance, which was both strange and suspicious, with more careful moves, Eren mixed walked inside the cave which was at first a narrow canal with accessory ones every ones and a while, the cave was deep, too deep, he thought as he kept on advancing inside, not for once losing his focus as it didn’t only risk of costing him his life, but the life of his beloved waiting outside the cave.

The deeper he went, the hotter the cave became, Eren noticed, thickening his shadows around him to hide his scent better, the heat was bearable for him but it was too high for a human, the human being someone as frail and delicate as Nara, the air was hot and dry, almost unbreathable, which meant that he had little to no time to save the human princess.

After a while of careful sneaking, Eren was finally able to hear some noises coming from the end of the narrow canal, the labored breaths of a girl, and the faint chanting of several people, chanting? Eren wondered as he sneaked to the source of the voices, with the air becoming too hot even for his own liking, making him worry about the princess’ wellbeing, speeding up, Eren finally made it to the source of the voices which he believed to be the deepest part of the cave, he was surprised to see it was a very large hatch which was a complete opposite to the narrow canal, the hatch was as large as a hall, which made him believe that the location the demons chose was not random at all, it looked natural but the size of the hatch made him believe that it was anything but nature’s creation.

Narrowing his eyes, Eren looked at the small stone podium on the middle of the hatch, with the half conscious Nara lying on top of it, the sleeves of her golden dress were ripped and her wrists bared tiny slits, just enough to allow blood to slowly drip from her, one drop at the time, the podium had magical symbols around it, and nineteen fire demons surrounding the princess, their eyes were closed and their faces exhausted as they chanted something he couldn’t decipher as it all sounded like a hum.

What were they doing? And where was the twentieth of them? the demoness in red, she was his main target for she was the strongest among them, and Eren was certain that she was inside the cave as he had sensed her aura inside, was she inside one of the accessory canals? Eren wasn’t truly convinced with that thought as he felt something strange going on but couldn’t point it out, it felt as if his senses were being…shadowed by something, but with the princess in that boiling pot with, he couldn’t dwell on the matter more, not before saving her.

Taking a deep breath, Eren channeled his powers into himself, surrounding himself in his thick dark fog, his body started to slowly dissolve into the fog until he  became a dark cloud, creeping into the dark parts of the cave's inner walls, Eren made his way unnoticed to one of the demons, mingling himself with the fire demon's shadow he waited few seconds before sending his dark extension toward the demon's neck, in one swift and quite move, the demon's neck was snapped, but Eren used his shadows to keep him standing and keep the rest oblivious of what happened to him until it was their turn.

If the princess wasn't there in the room, Eren would have finished the demons in a blink of an eye, those demons were no match to him nor did he need all that time to end them, but with the princess lying there, frail and vulnerable, there was a chance that one of the demons would jump at her and kill her while he was busy fighting the others, or that the red demoness would be alarmed and do the same to the princess whose safety was his top priority at that moment, it was better to do things the easy way, even if it meant wasting few seconds in the process.

Snapping one neck after the other, Eren took the nineteen demons all down while keeping them standing using his shadows, before he surrounded the half-conscious princess with his thick fog, shielding her from the heat, it still made her scared, and scared was the only thing she felt in the last hours, even though it didn’t feel like hours but days in the hold of the demons who jumped at her when she tried to watch the shadows’ lord as he walked in her advisor’s chambers, the next thing Nara saw was that hot hatch with the demons around her, and now this strange fog which was a demon’s doing without any doubts.

“Don’t be scared, it is me, Princess!” Eren whispered softly as he immerged from the shadows and appeared to the panicked princess in his human form, his lower half remained in the darkness, he knew that unlike Sara, who didn’t flinch when she saw his demonic form, Nara would probably have a heart attack if he appeared in front of her like that, and just as he expected, a relieved and a hopeful look appeared on the princess’s face once she saw him, a half smile gracing her beautiful features, the poor thing was a mess, her red hair sticking to her forehead and skin, her dress drenched in sweet, her lips dry from all the heat.

"M... My Lord..."

"We are here to save you, but I need you to remain quite..." Eren whispered, grateful for the princess’ sore throat that forbade her from being loud "Let us get you out of here..." he raised his hand for Nara who took it without a second thought, both relieved and embarrassed, but her relief didn’t last long, for the moment she placed her hands in his, a wave of heat blew on both of them, making her scream even with how sore her throat was for she had felt that the skin of her face was being peeled by the heat, Eren quickly thickened his shadows around her, shielding her from any other attack, while watching his surroundings, his eyes scanning the place until they fell on a pair of clapping hands of a tall and lean man with a sinister smile, and besides him was his fiancée, the demoness in red.

"I must admit, that was so romantic!" Micka said with an amused smile, but his eyes showed the contained viciousness he had towards the shadows lord who stood in the middle of the cave.

"Fascinating, aren't they, My dear Emilia?” Lord Micka brushed his thumb over his fiancée’s neck, making her lean into his touch and smile in content, her eyes looking at the fire lord with enough love and admiration to fill the entire cave, Lord Micka's eyes never left the shadow lord's though, he was so focused on staring at his eternal rival, the one who almost killed him two years ago.

"Last time I saw you, you were into that hybrid girl, look at you now, rushing in your... Well, not in your shining armor to save this beautiful princess, the little gift my sweet Emilia here have brought me, don't tell me you have a thing for the Yoren girls, I mean, off all people, the hybrid's sister?" While Micka was being himself, playing his favorite game in manipulating his prey before finishing it, and while Eren was the least to say angered for falling into this trap and not sensing the fire weasel named Micka before, Nara was, besides being scared to her very core, taking back by the things the other man said to the shadows’ lord.

Her sister?

"What the fuck are you doing here, Micka? Aren't you supposed to be dead? " Eren asked calmly, not showing how angry he was at himself and how worried he was for the girl outside the cave, he thickened his shadows around the princess while readying himself for the upcoming battle.

"Oh, how sweet of you to place yourself at this volcanic gate just to protect the precious princess, Although I must say, the previous one looked better, I mean, Unique is the least to say about her, don’t you agree?" Lord Micka moved his head to the side in an innocent question, while deliberately bringing out the matter of the hybrid whom the shadows’ lord was in love with, the innocent expression however was quickly replaced by the vicious smile as he admitted "Now old friend, Why the grumpy face? While I have orchestrated all this attack just to see you again! At first I wanted to use the hybrid, I was sure you didn't kill her thus I went to the shack my dear friend Mr. Renaldy led me to, sadly, she was already dead, but then a little bird told me that you were being extra friendly with the human king, you even helped him defeat the other kingdoms and take over their lands, he was my target at first, but the ice queen didn't make it easy for my dear Emilia, and she had no choice but to take the little princess instead, I thought her brother would come rescue her and evidently, you would follow after him, but it looks like I didn't need him all along, not with your little lover in our hands."

"Too many words coming out of a dead man's mouth..." Eren who had enough of the fire weasel took his demonic form again, gathering his shadows around him and charging them with his energy to lunch like a set of huge thrones spiking out from every dark corner in the cave, Eren's purpose wasn't to show power but to set a fitting ground for him, knowing Lord Micka, he would already have few tricks hidden up in his sleeves so it would be better for Eren to get ready as well.

Not wasting more time, Eren lunched with full speed at the couple, he knew it was a wrong move when he noticed the way the demoness's lips curled into a wicked smile, jumping back to his previous spot, Eren managed to save himself from the fire spears that Erupted from each of his sides, spears that came out of his shadows, How? Eren was the least to say dumbfounded, how could a fire demon control the shadows... Unless, realization hit him like a bolt and he quickly jumped back in front of Nara in a protective way.

A familiar figure showed off from behind the couple with few other figures, Eren stared at him with disgust, Traitors...

"Remember me? My Lord? " Mr. Renaldy spoke in his usual even voice, Eren noticed that he looked much older than before, the people trailing after him were what was left of his family, and they all were shadow demons.