Chapter 13-357: A Legion at Work (2/2)

Her other hoof shifted slightly, came down, and a pressure as if that footstep had weighed tons rippled through the floor.

The snarl about to erupt out of its throat was swallowed. Instead, it studied her intently.

“The dead fools said there was something coming and that I would be released to fight it.” Its deep voice was startlingly urbane in the Abyssal tongue of The Pits. “A Heavenbound lilitu? I do not believe such a thing is even possible.”

“We are indeed Heavenbound, among other Pacts, and Queen Rayetizvisha is one of us,” they replied evenly, and watched it grimace in recognition of the name. “We confess to being unaware that the niorgriz were upon this world, but then, we were not informed of this Hollow World until a very short time ago.”

The brute’s grin was fearsome to behold, but naturally didn’t disturb them at all. “It kept out poachers,” the niorgriz replied shamelessly. “Not a Heavenbound to be found here for over a thousand years!” it boasted.

“Indeed. We are impressed. It is something that will be rectified in the future, but I am not here to start dispersing Pacts. I have a single question for you. You may choose not to answer it properly, and I will butcher you on the spot as you stare helplessly in desire and adoration.” The blue, purple, and green skin on the sides of the niorgriz’ face rippled with unhealthy shades. “If you do not answer me most helpfully, I will let the Axiom Runes in this room stand.”

Legion held up an elegantly clawed hand, which glittered with electrum Light. A large number of Runes carved into the walls were suddenly revealed, standing out and pulsing sapphire at the touch of silvery gold radiance.

“They are designed to send you off to Axiom when the Pentagram falls and you touch the walls here. Of course, with the Shroud up, that simply means you will simply be sent into the Shroud, and eternal torment there... unless you are pulled out as the slave to a Shroudlord.”

Although unsurprised at the perfidy, the niorgriz still growled at the duplicity. “What do you want to know?” it replied easily enough.

“Are there Shroudzones in the Hollow Land?” Legion asked calmly.

The expression it gave her was peculiar. “There are two,” the niorgriz admitted. “Why is this important?”

“To bring down the Shroud on this world, all Shroudzones must be destroyed. If we do not know of a Shroud, that complicates matters, does it not?”

“You seek to bring down the Shroud?” the niogriz half-guffawed. “Even I can feel the power of it!”

“The process has begun and is well underway,” they replied calmly in all those voices. “What commands the Zones?”

“Tuatem-Khat the Mummy Prince commands his legions of bones and ushapti constructs from the necropolis of Phatet-Ap. Hoargrim the Wraith King marshals his Wailing Host from the Tomb-Barrows of Gomness-Griann,” the demon brute announced loftily. “Not even I dared enter their lands lightly before the Shroud, and they are far more powerful, if trapped, now, sucking in the fallen dead from all across the Hollow World to bolster their forces. Were they not trapped in their Shroudzones, they would have marched across the Hollow World and destroyed all, swelling their forces beyond imagination as they did so. Even trapped, their forces grow every day, and with it the darkness of their realms...”

It was watching the face of this Heavenbound lilitu carefully, and her body language, and the complete lack of surprise at his statements was impossible to miss. He wasn’t saying things of fear and horror, he was spouting things she was expecting to hear...

“Wonderful. That means I have to go find them,” Legion sighed, unsurprised. “Okay, time for you.”

He was about to ask what that meant when their Grits popped into their hands and roared with heavenly Thunder.

It had three hundred-some Health, and was facing two Mighty Grits with full Purity on the Wrath attached to them. The first two rounds punched completely through its hairy chest, and the next two blew its tusked head apart as if cannon rounds had smashed into it, double-tapped as fast as it could blink from both Guns.

Bursting into vivus, the corpse of the niorgriz fell somewhat stiffly to the ground as superhuman muscles reluctantly relaxed. Tellingly, the containment field of the Pentagram slowly died away as the natural reaction to a supernatural creature within it faded with its death.

The niorgriz had clearly been here for centuries. That meant it had formed a jungle kingdom with demon-blooded apes out there, a kingdom that would be built on bloody savagery and war in the demonic style.

No Heavenbound meant no Good gods were followed here. That was all kinds of ominous about what kinds of societies had developed here.

The demons all agreed that was totally normal operating procedure. Getting rid of the situation would likely involve genocidal warfare against one or more kingdoms of intelligent demon-blooded apes and their pets, at the very least.

This thing had probably had kingdoms worth of intelligent beings sacrificed to it and devoured their beating hearts for its enjoyment, because that was how the niorgriz rolled.

They put Fred’s and Legion’s Grits back in their shoulder holsters, which promptly moved the firearms around to the back and out of the way of their arms.

Idiot came out again, humming expectantly as it transformed into a heavy Maul.

There was, after all, no reason not to totally mess this place up. It wasn’t like that door coming down was going to keep them in here, after all.