Chapter 34
Cold. It had been the one thing she could feel for who knew how long. Someone was pressed against her. A girl much younger than herself. She instinctively returned the gesture.
The girl was shaking, shivering, and filthy. Her messy hair obscured much of her face. Dried tears mixed with the dirt and grime that covered her cheeks. She imagined she didn’t look much better.
A chilling sound made every head lift. Every face shared the same expression of horror.
A monster appeared in the open doorway. It was grotesque, its body covered in huge boils and blisters.
Its face looked as though it had once been human, now twisted into something terrible and deformed. Black eyes swept over the room. It grinned, revealing rows of jagged, razor-sharp teeth.
It tossed a woman into the room. She collapsed onto the cold floor, her body battered and bruised. What little clothing she wore was ragged and torn. A collar encircled her neck, a chain connecting it to metal wrist cuffs tightened uncomfortably around her arms.
The monster stepped into the cold, dark room, bearing witness to hundreds of women huddled together for warmth. They sat in chains on bare ground, heads bowed. The only sound was the occasional whimper.
The monster looked around casually, then raised a finger and pointed.
“You. Come,” it said.
The girl who had been leaning against her suddenly scrambled away, as if she carried a plague. Chains rattled loudly in the otherwise silent room.
The woman looked up in horror and helplessness, shaking her head frantically.
Not again. I can’t. Please not me. Pick someone else.
She didn’t dare speak. Fear of the consequences kept her silent.
When she didn’t stand immediately, the monster took a step closer.
“You’ll regret wasting my time. That’s an extra day in the hole for you,” it said.
Her eyes widened. She scrambled to her feet and ran toward it, desperation etched across her face.
She dropped to her knees at the creature’s feet.
“No, please. I’ll be good. I’m so sorry,” she said.
The thing grinned at her tears. It seized her hair and yanked hard enough to make her whimper. She was forced to stare into its grotesque face.
“You will be.”
It hauled her to her feet by the arm. She stumbled and looked back at the room full of women.
They avoided her gaze.
Her eyes fell on the woman who had been thrown into the room earlier. She lay unmoving, eyes blank, filled with soul-crushing hopelessness.
That will be me soon.
She could only cry helplessly as the monster dragged her away.
Splash.
Warm liquid splattered across her face. She froze, then looked up.
The monster’s head was gone. Black blood poured from the stump of its neck. Its body collapsed to the floor with a heavy thunk.
Every head snapped upward in shock.
She stared at the lifeless corpse until another figure stepped into the room.
A man.
That alone was alarming. She had never seen a man in this place.
He was clad head to toe in gleaming black armor. Some of the monsters had worn armor like that. He carried a weapon she didn’t recognize, something like a spear fused with an axe. Blood coated its blade. She didn’t need to understand the weapon to know how effective it was.
His face was hard to see in the darkness. A scruffy beard framed it, as though he hadn’t shaved in weeks, or maybe months.
His hair hung long and uneven, some sections crudely cut, as if by a knife. That gave her a clear view of his eyes.
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They made her shiver.
His gaze was intense, focused, and cold. Even knowing he was human, she still looked away.
“You’re free,” he said.
His voice was deep and rough. The words sent a shock through the room. No one moved.
The man didn’t seem surprised. He stepped forward and stopped in front of the woman who had nearly been taken.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
She dared to glance up at him. It was a strange question. How could she possibly know? She hadn’t seen a man for who knew how long.
“I’m the one they’ve been whispering about,” he said. “The demon that hunts demons. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors.”
Her eyes widened. Several women looked up in recognition. They’d overheard the monsters’ conversations. He saw it in their faces.
“Say my name.”
Her lips trembled. It had been so long since she’d been allowed to speak.
He waited.
“Ben,” another woman said. “You’re Ben.”
A collective gasp rippled through the room. They stared at him as though he were a ghost.
“You…you’re real?”
The woman in front of him finally spoke. Ben nodded.
“I am. Wherever I go, I leave demonic corpses behind. Do you know what that means?”
Her breath caught.
“Y-you’ve killed them all. We’re really free.”
Her voice was barely a whisper. Ben smiled faintly.
“You’re free.”
She collapsed to her knees and wrapped her arms around his leg, her malnourished body trembling. She pressed her forehead to his shin and sobbed without restraint.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
Ben looked upon a tragic, astonishing sight.
The women crawled toward him and prostrated themselves at his feet. None stood. They groveled, cried, and praised him with desperate fervor, as though trained to do so.
Ben’s gaze hardened. He had seen it before. The first time had been shocking. Now, it was simply heartbreaking.
He shifted his halberd to his left hand and made the sign of the cross with his right.
“All glory to God,” he said.
“God?”
Confusion spread through the room. The idea seemed impossible in a place like this.
“By the devil you were taken,” Ben said. “Through Christ, you have been set free. Without Him, I can do nothing.”
“Christ?”
Awe spread across their faces. Ben had spoken those words in places like this more times than he could count.
His search for his sister drove him forward. His faith was the only thing that kept him sane.
“Are you an angel?” a small voice asked.
It came from a young girl. Her voice was thin and raspy. Ben smiled gently.
“I’m only a servant on a mission. Speaking of which…”
He manifested an item from his inventory. The women gasped as a small photograph appeared in his hand. He held it up.
It showed a young woman smiling brightly beside a young man with the same expression.
No one recognized Ben as that man anymore.
“Have any of you seen this girl?”
No one spoke.
“When she was taken, she wore Sunday clothes,” Ben said. “A head covering. She may have looked like a nun, or a Muslim woman.”
Their eyes told him everything.
Ben turned away.
“This place is safe. I’ve killed every demon nearby. There’s a camp not far from here. There is food, water, shelter. My soldiers protect it. They will escort you.
If you choose to stay, I’ll return for you myself after I defeat the boss and open the exit portal.”
“Please don’t go.”
“Don’t leave us!”
Ben turned back. Their desperation softened his gaze.
“I can’t stop until I find my sister.”
The room fell silent.
Then the woman who had nearly been taken gasped. She looked back at the young girl who had been huddled against her.
The girl had a cloth wrapped around her arm.
The woman rushed forward and knelt beside the girl. She gently lifted the fabric.
Ben froze.
Then he moved at a speed that was shocking to everyone.
One moment he stood near the doorway. The next, he was kneeling in front of the girl.
“Where did you get this!”
His voice was too sharp. The girl bowed her head, trembling. The rest of the women followed suit.
Hundreds of heads bowed in fear. The collective rattle of chains reminded Ben of their valnerability.
He inhaled slowly.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s alright. I won’t hurt you.”
The girl peeked up at him.
“T-there was a girl. She was kind. I was bleeding, and she gave me this.”
“Where is she now?” Ben asked.
The girl shook her head.
“They took her. I never saw her again.”
Ben’s fists clenched.
“But you don’t know where?”
She shook her head again.
“I think I might,” another woman said.
Ben turned to her, hope flickering.
“Please.”
She hesitated.
“If they didn’t bring her back… then either she didn’t survive, or someone chose to keep her.”
Ben’s jaw tightened.
“Where?”
“With the master,” someone said.
Fear rippled through the room.
“The master decides.”
“The master gives and takes.”
“The master is the arbiter of life and death.”
Their voices were hollow, rehearsed.
Ben’s eyes narrowed.
“Where is this… master?”
