UCPA Chapter 27: One Step Away

Chapter 27: One Step Away

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: PlumSauce

 

Running her fingers along the iron maiden’s inner wall of spikes, she let out a breath of relief. “Thank goodness — this should be a door. These spikes haven’t been used in a long time.”

“Is it empty underneath?” John pointed to the opening directly below the inside of the device. It was pitch black, just big enough for a person to fit through.

“For disposing of bodies,” she explained. “The spikes can be pulled out from the outside, and there’s a mechanism to remove the panel beneath the device. That way, the mangled corpse drops straight into the sewer. It makes cleanup a lot easier.”

“So…we’re supposed to jump down there? What if this isn’t a door?”

“We’ll throw something down first,” Coraci said.

John turned to look for handcuffs or any other bits of junk. Mariana casually yanked the head off a nearby corpse. John sighed, took it from her, and took on the task of tossing it inside.

Sure enough, the iron maiden was a door — the head vanished before it even hit the bottom.

John and Coraci exchanged a glance, then pressed themselves back into the Lizardman’s arms as usual.

 

Less than three kilometers from the Aefida Airport, Carolyn was still waiting for the person she wanted to see.

At first, when Mitchel had said they should head to the airport, Carolyn hadn’t objected. After all, she’d already been hoping to draw Sidov out. But after she’d taken Liz’s call, she found the demon more and more unbearable, itching for an excuse to hit him a few more times.

Traffic on the highway was sparse, with only the occasional large truck rumbling past. A voice she didn’t recognize came through her Bluetooth earpiece.

“Miss, there’s something wrong with the last truck in the convoy. I can sense an Abyssal demon’s presence.”

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My human name is Lathander. I’m from the newest batch of interns. I’m a mortal-born demon — you saw me on the written exam day and made fun of my motorcycle jacket.”

“Oh, hell. You actually named yourself Lathander… Why didn’t you just go with Pelor while you were at it?” (Note 1) Carolyn’s mood brightened considerably. That joke alone might keep her laughing for the next three months. “Forget it — where are you?”

“At the gas station you passed two minutes ago. The guy smoking by the roadside on a motorcycle — that’s me.”

“You’re smoking at a gas station!”

“Just pretending. I have to look like a bad guy. I can’t track him — if I can sense the Abyssal demon, he can sense me. To keep him from realizing I’m with the Association, I’ve got to make it look like I’m just hanging around looking shady.”

“All right…” Carolyn kept her eyes on the convoy as it moved into the lane beside them, watching the last truck through her rearview mirror.

“I’ll close the distance later. The rest of the Association is already moving in,” Lathander said, his voice fading just as the final truck roared past.

Carolyn distinctly felt something struck the car roof — very light, barely affecting the car’s motion.

Wu Jiu’s arm shot out from the driver’s seat, wrapping tightly around her like a second seatbelt. A split second later, an enormous force flipped the car, sending it careening off the highway.

The vehicle rolled completely over, miraculously holding its shape. In those brief seconds of tumbling, Carolyn drew her gun.

When the car landed upside down, a black silhouette appeared beyond the shattered windshield — and gunfire erupted.

Wu Jiu flung the door open with one hand while his other worked quickly to free Carolyn’s seatbelt. She twisted her body like a wildcat, and with Wu Jiu’s coordination, the whole maneuver took only seconds. The moment her upper body cleared the driver’s seat, she avoided another lunge from the demon who had fired the earlier shot.

Carolyn kept pulling the trigger. She knew she couldn’t let the demon get close, and absolutely couldn’t give him the chance to cast a spell. She fired without pause, buying precious seconds for her hidden allies.

Her custom silver-bullet handgun was a modified Glock 18 with an extended magazine holding thirty-three rounds. The bullets were explosive-core rounds — upon impact, they vibrated and burst into a cloud of tiny, razor-sharp silver fragments.

Sidov dodged most of the shots, though her rounds clipped his waist and thigh. He touched the wound, smirked, and looked at her with a predatory gleam.

“Running low? I won’t wait for you to reload,” he drawled, taking slow, deliberate steps toward her. “But we can talk — if you’ll just hand Mitchel over…”

He didn’t finish. Carolyn had already pulled the belt from her waist. With a sharp flick, it extended into a whip three times its original length, the refined-silver buckle missing Sidov’s chest by inches.

The whip cracked against the ground with a crisp snap, kicking up dust.

“I don’t make deals with demons,” Carolyn said.

Two vans tore off the highway, braking hard not far from the demon and Carolyn. Liz and a black-haired man jumped down from one vehicle while from the other stepped Carol — a tough young man from the Witch Blood Descendants who was now also an apprentice exorcist.

In unison, the exorcists began chanting spells, tossing small silver spheres into the air. The spheres shot forward like floating cannons, following precise trajectories before weaving into a massive silver net.

Before the net could drop, Sidov unfurled his bone wings and pulled himself clear of its range. Carolyn didn’t hesitate — she chased after him, raising her whip in an attempt to catch him. She was human, after all; she could never match a demon’s strength. Sidov, as if mocking her, didn’t even bother to dodge. Instead, he caught the end of the whip in his hand and gave it a sharp yank.

The exorcists directed the silver spheres, dragging the net to pursue. Before it could touch him, Sidov’s bone wings shimmered with red light, and he dragged Carolyn, who refused to let go, into the sky.

He turned toward the people on the ground, one palm outstretched. A ball of fire began to form in his hand. Carolyn hurled a long spike with her left hand, neatly piercing the fleshy pad of his palm. The fireball flickered but didn’t go out. Sidov surged upward, his gaze snapping back to her.

Suddenly, something massive swept past, jaws clamping down on his torso.

Sidov let go, and Carolyn fell, still gripping the whip. She twisted in midair, while the exorcists below began chanting to slow her descent.

The attacker was a huge, winged, long-tailed creature. Its fangs drove deep into Sidov’s body — not fatal to a demon, but enough to stop him from casting spells.

“What is that?” Carolyn landed lightly, eyes wide. “A Quetzalcoatlus?”

“Not a Quetzalcoatlus. That’s a real feathered serpent god,” Liz said.

“A feathered serpent god? There’s really such a thing? The Association has one?” Carolyn’s face looked like her whole worldview had just imploded.

Liz shook her head. “No, of course we don’t have a feathered serpent god. That’s just…Smith transformed.”

Carolyn looked like her worldview had shattered a second time.

Smith wasn’t an actual feathered serpent god, and though he couldn’t take on a demon alone, his interference kept Sidov from dodging the giant silver net.

The intersecting mesh slashed back and forth through the demon’s body several times, dragging him down from the sky.

The “feathered serpent god” followed him to the ground, pinning him beneath its weight. The exorcists swarmed in, and alongside Liz, the black-haired man injected a vial of serum into Sidov’s neck. Within seconds, the demon stopped moving.

From the overturned Land Rover, Wu Jiu shouted. Mitchel had woken up. While everyone else was distracted, he had cast a spell to break free from the silver chains and the dagger pinning him down. He had already climbed out of the vehicle and was running for the highway.

Injured as he was, the exorcists weren’t in a hurry. One after another, they pulled out silver pens and began drawing a Prison Cart array.

Before they could finish, Mitchel — barely up on the road — screamed in pain as a heavy motorcycle slammed into him.

Lathander, the mortal-born demon, removed his helmet and proudly blew a kiss toward the exorcists.

 

After the iron maiden, Coraci, John, and Mariana passed through several more rooms, encountering no shortage of strange creatures. Now they found themselves inside a greenhouse filled with roses climbing over ornate iron frames, its walls made of transparent glass.

It was daytime, and they could see a clear sky and dazzling sunlight — but they couldn’t break the glass to get out.

In the courtyard outside were dozens of lesser demons and small imps, even a man-eating troll chained with thick iron links. These creatures could see the intruders inside the greenhouse, pounding at the glass in frustration, unable to get in.

Suddenly, the pounding stopped. The creatures glanced around in confusion. The chained troll began yanking furiously at its chain, bellowing.

“What’s wrong with them?” John asked, surprised.

Mariana tilted her head, listening. “They’re excited. I’ve never seen them act like this before — they don’t usually make that kind of sound.”

“The bindings are weakening,” Coraci said, pointing at the troll’s chain. “Look — it’s nearly pulling it out of the ground. If it could’ve done that before, it would’ve escaped long ago. The bindings on this place are loosening, and they can feel it.”

“Sidov…?”

“Maybe. Either he’s on the brink of death, or he’s decided to abandon this place.”

They skirted around the lily beds and found a small door in the greenhouse. The door led outside, where several lesser demons darted about, stirred into frenzy by the weakening bindings.

From behind a patch of flowers to their rear came the rustle of movement. The three slowly turned their heads — and saw a massive Nile crocodile crawling out from the blooms.

“Can you take on a crocodile?” Coraci asked John.

“I’ve never fought one,” John replied, pointing to the door. “Can we choose not to fight it?”

Mariana tilted her head slightly, then suddenly shrieked, “We need to get out of here — now!”

Even as her voice rang out, the crocodile’s forelimbs lengthened, its body rearing upward. It lifted its head sharply, jaws yawning open to a full one hundred and eighty degrees, and from its throat extended a grayish-white layer of inner pharyngeal teeth.

A crocodile on land should have been shuffling forward on all fours — but this creature was clearly no ordinary crocodile. Its hind legs coiled like springs, and it launched itself forward like a frog, hurtling straight toward the three of them at the door.

John had already pushed it open, one arm pulling Coraci close, but Mariana didn’t reach for his hand.

She swung her tail, striking the creature’s inner-toothed maw. The outer jaws clamped down in an instant, ripping Mariana’s tail clean off. The massive lizard tail writhed in its mouth, forcing it to stumble back a few steps.

Coraci and John both reached for her, gripping her claws tightly. Mariana ran to them, scooping them into her arms and lunging through the doorway.

The moment they passed through, Coraci felt a sudden heat at his back. They crashed onto cold, hard tile, and a wet warmth seeped through Coraci’s shirt.

“Mariana!” John rolled over to sit up — only to realize her injuries were far worse than a lost tail.

As they had leapt for the door, the monster’s inner pharyngeal teeth had lashed out again, biting deep into Mariana’s back and tearing open a massive wound.

The “crocodile” had not followed them through. Mariana’s mouth hung open, her long tongue limp. The injury was grievous — bone gleamed through the torn flesh of her back, and it was almost possible to see into her abdominal cavity.

She spoke in broken gasps. “Room… room…”

“Hush, don’t strain yourself. Don’t talk,” Coraci said, holding her close to keep her warm. “It’s all right — we’re going to save you. I promised I’d get you out of here.”

Mariana shook her head faintly, insisting, “It’s…a room I’ve been in before. There’s wind, people coming and going…”

Coraci and John exchanged a look. The Lizardman finished, “…but there are guards.”

They were in an indoor swimming pool. Only a few lights were lit. The water was clean, reflecting rippling waves across the walls.

“John, help me,” Coraci said. He had no time to think about guards or exits now — saving Mariana was all that mattered.

“I can’t help. She’s a Lizardman — she can’t be embraced,” John said.

“No, I’m not asking you to turn her.”

Only humans could survive the First Embrace. Animals or supernatural beings either became mindless blood zombies, died instantly, or — worse — turned on the vampire. Coraci knew this well.

He grabbed John’s wrist, eyeing the steel-like nails on his fingers. In a sudden motion, he took John’s hand and used one of those nails to slash open his own forearm, cutting deep.

John cried out and tried to pull away, but Coraci held on.

“John, help me cut out her heart — while she’s still breathing.”

John’s spine shuddered in shock. “What?”

“I know a spell,” Coraci said, pressing a hand to his wound, bracing himself. “It can bind a dying person’s soul to their heart. The heart will stay alive, driven by the soul, for about three to seven days. If the soul doesn’t find a new host before the heart withers, only then will they die.”

Coraci gripped his wrist harder. “Do it! If you keep stalling, I won’t be able to save her!”

John bit his own tongue with his fangs, forcing himself to stay focused. He averted his gaze, refusing to look at the blood on Coraci’s arm.

He reached out with his right hand, and his sharp nails sliced open Mariana’s chest, closing around the heart that still beat — slowly but surely.

 

Author’s Notes:

Note 1: Lathander is the God of Dawn from the D&D Forgotten Realms setting, while Pelor is the Sun God from Greyhawk (also part of the core rules). In short, both are radiant, benevolent deities associated with light and goodness…

About the motorcyclist: He’s the mortal-born species member of the Association — the one who failed the written exam the very first time.

 

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