Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13
Chapter 11: Self-Rescuing Princess
Her brother walked through the doorway spell, cocky and smug as usual. “Hello Sister, I knew you couldn’t resist opening my present.”
“Still copying my work I see.” She wanted to scream and yell but that would be exactly what he wanted.
“Why mess with genius? Come now, big sis. Your work has paved the way for a whole new world.” He waved at the portal behind him.
Diana was about to answer but her brother turned to Ezekiel and yelled, “KNEEL BEFORE YOUR BETTERS FOOL.” There was a spelled command in his yelling. Ezekiel fell to one knee and stayed there frozen. Seeing her anger he said, “Come now, sister. It’ll fade after we leave.”
“Is this where you ask me to join you?” she asked half sarcastically.
“Yes. Join me and we can rule all the worlds together!”
“No! Go back to hell, you power craving, megalomaniac plagiarist.”
He smirked and said, “Plagiarist? Is that the worst thing you can think of? Fine, glad we got that out of the way.” He then said something in a language that sounded like grinding rocks and two large demons came out of the portal and approached her.
“I don’t need you. I just need your mind and that I can extract.” He walked back into the portal.
The problem with the lost prince was his lack of foresight, she thought. She grabbed her sword and started to defend herself. The Demons healed from every cut but as she was fighting them she was also analyzing everything she knew. The spell that made her airships heal had been destroyed by the Gabon Snake venom and it looked like the healing spell was exactly the same.
She’d discovered how to synthesise the venom and mass produce it. The design of the spell and the airships was shared with all of her neighbours. Having a counter that would destroy attacking ships only made sense. At least that’s what she’d thought.
There were three bottles in the cabinet demon was tipping it over. A quick levitation spell got her two bottles and she smashed one on her sword.
The first demon she ran through looked surprised. The next two didn’t, but despite breaking the second bottle she couldn’t stop the blow and one of them bashed her in the head. Her brother wanted her alive and that’s the only reason she lived.
Darkness transitioned to grayness, to soft light filtering through a wooden door. She was in a small closet. She’d have called it a cell but those tended to have bars.
The wooden door was spelled. She stood in front of it and felt the magic. “You’re either an idiot or your demons don’t have great initiative.” She reached into her apron and pulled out a small hammer. The first time she hit the door with it the floor shook, the second time the door flew out and exploded into a hail of splinters. The demon who was standing outside was perfectly perforated.
His blood ate the wood and his spelled healing took seconds to fix the damage.
“Get back inside the cell.”
“What? No please?”
“I don’t recognise your rule.”
“Princess or pauper, it’s just polite.”
The demon grunted and pointed at the closet, now a nook.
“Just a hint for the future. If you’re holding a spell caster or a tinker, make sure to take everything away from them and leave them naked.” She put her hand into her pockets.
“What could you be hiding in those-” he never finished the statement. She took her pistols out from the extradimensional space in her pockets and fired a shot through his head. He fell to the ground and dissolved. The healing spell couldn’t deal with massive head trauma… that was good to know. She hadn’t used the pistols in her lab; too many explosives.
“Never trust a woman with pockets. You never know what we’re hiding.” She reloaded her pistol and started to wonder how she was going to get home.
The easiest way was to open a portal to her world but without an anchor, there was no way of knowing where she’d end up and travelling across the world would take too long.
The demon blood sizzled. Who knows what they were like before her brother had warped and corrupted them?
“Blood!” The demon blood. These creatures were not native to her world. Which meant that they were all in the same place.
She picked up a little blood with a spelled beaker and concentrated on the spell she needed. Pulling out ingredients she only had a little time to wonder why no one had come to check on her yet.
When the mixture with the blood was ready she threw it at the wall and jumped through, praying to the goddess that she was right.
She landed in a crouch and looked around. She was surrounded by angry screaming demons.
From behind her she heard Fred, the royal healer, “I think we pissed them off.”
And Arty’s voice, “Maybe, or it could be a coincidence.”
“The two of you look like you could use some help,” Diana said smirking at Arty.
“Aren’t you supposed to be figuring out how to get rid of these things?” Fred didn’t miss a beat.
“Gabon Venom, Paul’s leading them, and he’s using my spells. Oh, and I had to escape being captured.”
Nodding, Fred said, “So we need to get to the royal airship and the Gabon stores?” When she nodded, he added, “I think it’s going to rain.”
If you’re enjoying this year’s serial story why not check out those from past years?
- 2022 – Birth of the Aetherverse (Fantasy)
- 2021 – Diamond Stars and the Galactic Heist (Sci-Fi, Heist, Romance)
- 2020 – Point Zero (Superhero, Sci-Fi)
- 2019 – Seren Plentyn and the Secret of Hokulua Station (Sci-Fi Adventure Mystery)
1 thought on “Devices of Desire (Serial Story) Chapter 11”