World of Women - World of Women – V4 – Chapter 28

“We’ve stopped,” I observed, as I continued following the young girl who resembled Charlie.

Since entering the Demon Lord’s castle, we had been walking down a long corridor. The castle was extremely large, and the information that I had gained from my piece of the inheritance didn’t contain any clear record or map of this place. At best, I had a vague familiarity with the décor, but that could just as easily have come from the last demon lord castle I had walked through.

There was one benefit I noticed from the moment I walked into the castle. I had a feeling like I could point directly to the demon inheritance. As I concentrated on that feeling, I began to realize I felt a similar pull to Lilith. Were the inheritances connected in some way? That must have been how Lilith was able to find me. I hadn’t been able to detect her earlier. I hadn’t even realized what to look for until I could feel the much stronger pull of this castle.

I wondered if she’d be able to find the last inheritance. I could only assume that when the castle was buried, it went dormant and she wasn’t able to sense it. Once the government unearthed it, the castle must have started to send out this pull. If this was true, then this explained a lot. It explained why Lilith had known to appear here at the same time we did. It explained how the demons had known where to look for the first dungeon. Perhaps, if Lilith absorbed the final inheritance, the two together would make her more sensitive to the last. In that case, we wouldn’t have to rely on pure luck to find some kind of map within those memories.

It wasn’t the same for me. I could feel the pull now, but that was because I was extremely close. If the pull was so strong, then I would have felt it at some point when I was in Amarylis. It was the same with Lilith. I would have felt some connection with her. My strange disposition must have somehow weakened my ability to detect those signals, or maybe it was just that I wasn’t good at it. Either way, there was no guarantee if I took this inheritance that I’d be able to detect the final one easily.

“We’re here,” Jenji answered me.

It looked like the government had already been this far into the castle. There were strings of lights running along the stone walls illuminating the place. Most of the color seemed to have been drained out of the castle over time, so grey stone was about all I could make out.

Occasionally, there was some statue of some horrific beast or creature. Protected from the weather, these artifacts retained more of their shape, and I could occasionally make out what combination of animals was used to inspire them. Then again, maybe creatures like those had existed in this world during the age of demons. This world had a distinct age where monsters were a real thing, so who is to say what existed.

I looked up at a large set of double doors that opened into another room. “What is this about?”

“We’re not able to get through this door.” She turned to me, that all-knowing smile still on her face.

“And?” I asked, deciding to act stupid.

I didn’t have to act too hard. I was clueless over what she expected me to do. If all of them couldn’t get the door opened, what did they expect me to do?

“Put your hand in there.” She gestured to a hole located at the side of the door.

The hole was a mouth. A face of a demonic beast was carved into the hole, and you had to reach through its razor-sharp teeth. Well, the teeth had dulled quite a bit, so it was probably easy to reach in now than it had been once upon a time. I gave her a look, but she remained standing there, confident that I would do as I was told. I wondered what would happen if I tried to take her down. She was just a little girl. Couldn’t I overtake her?

The second I had such a thought, there was a foreboding sense growing deep inside me. It was the same kind of feeling someone would get when they were staring down a lion or bear. It was a feeling of danger. Her smile intensified as if she knew what I was thinking.

“It would be best if you followed my command.” She confirmed my fears.

“What’s to guarantee that you won’t just kill me once my use is finished.”

“Please.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re not important enough for me to kill.”

Jenji spoke those words easily, but I wasn’t sure if she was lying or not. I could remove this world of demons. If she knew about Charlie, was it possible she didn’t know about my ability to destroy demons? It would put a massive hinge in her plans. If she did know, wouldn’t she want to kill all of my children immediately? Even the women held a risk because there was a chance they would eventually produce a male with the same ability I had.

She must not have known, because there was no way she would have been this calm if she had known the horrible truth. Perhaps, she thought I had just absorbed the inheritance and nothing more. That also explained why it was me and not Lilith. Lilith had a much clearer and undamaged inheritance, so she could provide far better intel when it came to helping get through this castle. Jenji was underestimating me completely.

I realized she was still staring at me as I worked through that. Her eyes were starting to narrow as her patience was wearing thin. I quickly shoved my hand into the statue, taking care that it didn’t catch on the teeth. That didn’t matter, because a second later I felt something stab my hand.

“Ah!” I shouted.

Whatever had stabbed into my hand finally released and I was able to remove my hand again. My palm was bloody. It was at that moment that I started hearing some clicking sounds. I looked back at the statue to see a red line flowing from the side and down in the door. I realized that that red line was some of my blood. There were various grinding noises as the large doors started to undo themselves. A moment later, the door opened with a woosh, stagnant air from eons passed flowing past us with a gush.

I shot her an angry look. “You could have warned me.”

“Heh, why would I care to do that?” She responded flippantly.

At least she had one thing in common with Charlie. She seemed to be just as full of herself and just as capable of pissing me off.

“The doors will only open for a demon or someone who contains the inheritance of the Demon Lord. That’s because the inheritance includes a few drops of the Demon Lord’s blood. The door recognizes it and opens accordingly. Ah… just getting your blood doesn’t work. It needs to be taken fresh. I don’t know why, but we tried some old demon blood we had acquired and it didn’t work.”

What she just said left a lot to unpack. First off, where did she acquire some demon blood? That felt like a story someone might get shot over. As far as the door opening to someone with demon blood, I’d be the only person on the planet who didn’t contain any. Even if I had the inheritance, things like blood would have been destroyed. I was almost certain of it. This left me feeling a bit complicated. Why did the door open for me?

It was good that it did. I had almost exposed my darkest secret without even realizing it. I wiped the sweat from my brow and shook my head. Jenji was already walking in ahead of me, showing no fear toward entering the demon castle. She had pulled out a flashlight.  At least she couldn’t see in the dark or something else equally ridiculous. Weren’t there supposed to be traps in here, or were those already destroyed?

The pair of us continued farther into the Demon Lord’s castle. Jenji didn’t walk ahead as much, instead of moving side by side with me. I quickly realized that she didn’t know the way. The pull between the inheritance and me was getting stronger, and I had been subconsciously heading in that direction. The hallways of the castle might have otherwise been maze-like if I didn’t know where I was going. Jenji must have known that and had been using me to guide the way without even realizing it.

I briefly considered going the wrong way. There was a chance she’d know I was misleading her, and there could be repercussions. Perhaps she did know the way, and this was just a trap. Then I realized that none of that mattered. It wasn’t like I was waiting to be rescued. If I stalled five minutes, an hour, or a day, it would ultimately change nothing. I’d still be in here with Jenji, and we’d inevitably reach the inheritance at the end of this, where she would take it.

No. I couldn’t allow her to obtain the inheritance. What was I doing? I was just calmly walking in a direction that might be the end of men everywhere? It didn’t matter if my genes would or would not be spread around the world if I couldn’t stop these women from summoning demons. If more demons came into this world, then they’d use it to condemn all men. Only men could be possessed by demons. It was the perfect revelation to put any number of controls over all men. Even if I could make the world demon-free in a few generations, it was a few generations too late.

The time to do something about it was now! Furthermore, there was no time to spare. I was awakened to this world for a reason. I could destroy demon blood and have children at the proper ratio for a reason. I had to believe that. In that case, I had to do something more than follow along and hope things turned out right. I worried about the others, but they were all capable. Lilith was a powerful inheritor of her own. Mia had traveled along with her. I didn’t know about the kind of dangers they got into, but I couldn’t believe it was all smooth traveling.

Then there was Brooke, who was as tough as nails and had gotten through many disasters. Cornelia was a survivor too. I just had to trust them! I couldn’t allow this little girl to threaten me into violence. I couldn’t allow this world to fall apart because of these people. All of the girls in my life were fighting hard to change things. Whether it was Madison blogging on the internet about the virtues of men and women, Hannah getting arrested to meet with contacts, Nada working in a soup kitchen, Lyra acting like a gang leader, or Mako who took a bullet, they were all giving their all so that men could live a better life.

Now, here I was at ground zero, facing our greatest enemy, and I was ready to give up? No… I absolutely wouldn’t. I pulled on the one ability that I contained. I started constructing a rune in my head. Jenji turned to me with a frown. I had slowed down for a bit. I started moving again. This time, I mapped out a path that would take a bit longer, but wouldn’t look like I was deliberately leading her around in circles. I needed every second I could gather.

As I walked forward, I was lost in thought. Thankfully, Jenji followed silently. Was she cautious? She said it earlier; I was a pushover; I wasn’t even worth killing. She needed to continue to believe that. The one greatest failing of the WRA members was that they looked down on all men. They didn’t expect us to be able to accomplish anything. That was where I could draw my strength. I had to hit her with the unexpected. I had to create some kind of spell that she would never see coming.

Should it be some kind of attack? If she was anything like Charlie, was there any kind of spell that could kill her? From the moment I saw her face, I remembered the seemingly invincible girl. She had shaken off two explosions that should have killed me. It was best to assume that she could shake off any attack I could launch at her. At the very least, she would be as hard to handle as Rebecca.

I hastily worked through problem after problem, trying to figure out a way to defeat someone who was inherently undefeatable. As I started to exhaust options, I started considering options that I might not get away alive with. That was when I came up with a plan. It was a simple plan, a dumb plan. Those were the plans I was best with. I started to finish the rune in my head. While we walked through the quiet, dark hallway, echoing with every step, my mind was racing with calculations. It took everything I had not to increase my breathing and sweating as I performed mental gymnastics.

“Finally, the throne room,” Jenji declared.

My eyes regained focus and turned to pinpricks as I saw a familiar room. This room looked the same as the one from Matahari. I had been trapped in this room with Rebecca and Ash before her strange change in personality. They had believed me to be their demon king messiah, and I had just managed to convince them that I was the genuine article, a demon. Otherwise, I would have died back there. Instead, I had lied with Brooke and then absorbed inheritance. The number of lives lost because of that day, I didn’t want to think about it.

That was another life and another throne room. This wasn’t the same place. This was another chance. This time, it wouldn’t end with hundreds if not thousands dying. This time, I would put my life on the line so things turned out better. As I was thinking this, Jenji had walked up ahead to the chair in the middle of the room. While I hadn’t realized it the first time, I had seen such a chair, I now knew that the entire thing was one giant runic array. The inheritance was built into the circuits of a complex magical altar. All you needed to do was spill some blood on it, and it would activate.

This was information that the chair itself told anyone who got close enough. It wanted you to bleed on it. It yearned it. I started to hear whispers. Had I heard those the first time? I couldn’t recall them, but then again, maybe the demon women had somehow neutralized it. I had a feeling like if the inheritance did possess someone, they would become a demon lord.

I recalled my worry over Lilith taking the inheritance. Feeling the power and radiance of this demonic chair, I knew I would never have allowed her to touch it. I began to have an epiphany. The Demon Lord’s inheritance was designed to possess the person and turn them into the next demon lord.

This was how Lilith became a demon lord back then. Recalling history, I began to doubt that the original Lilith was good. She might have been as evil as the stories suggested. She made armies of monsters and she attacked the world of man. The chair must have corrupted her, and it must have been the Lilith contract that got her under control. The hero might have been genuine. Even though he spread the demonic gene into the population, he did save everyone. Maybe, he signed some kind of demonic contract to stop her, and the cost was a drop of demonic blood.

The evil inheritance would corrupt the person who absorbed it. The current Lilith had only gained the power and knowledge of the inheritance second-hand, which was why she was safe. As for me, I had my unique properties that absorbed the inheritance. That meant that if Jenji consumed the inheritance now, without a doubt, she would become a demon lord. Her plans to use the power to dominate the planet and end the law of man were flawed. I just knew it!

I often jumped to a lot of logical conclusions as I tried to piece together a past that was old enough to be a myth. It was like trying to ask what really happened during the time of Moses or Jesus. Were the stories as true as they said, or were there distinct historical differences that were lost with time? However, I felt a certainty here. I took a step forward.

“Wait! You can’t take the inheritance!” I cried out. “It’s a trap!”

The government, WRA, and this woman, in their arrogance, had thought they could use the demons? The demons had already considered that option! They were using the WRA. They had already been using the WRA.

“Stay back!” She hissed, taking the steps up to the altar, and pulling out a knife.

“No!” I shouted back. “The Demon Lord has cursed the inheritance. He will be in control. You won’t,” I cried out defensively.

“You think far too small.” She narrowed her eyes, and then slit her hand.

She slammed her palm onto the armrest of the chair. I let out a curse as I could feel the power flowing into her. It was too late, she was going to become a demon lord. No matter what her original plan was, the second that inheritance entered her, she’d be a demon.

With a curse, I raced at her. She had her eyes closed as the power flowed into her. The power buffeted me in waves, but I had already prepared a few small runes to resist the pressure as I reached her. My hand went for the knife in hers. Just as my hand grabbed it, her eyes snapped open. Her face filled with an expression between insanity and ecstasy.

“You dare? Die!”

I managed to wrestle the knife out of her hand. A moment later, her other hand shot out. With just her fingers, she ripped right into my gut, impaling me. I stared down in shock as I could see her arm. Her hand was completely inside me.

“Y-you…”

“Did you think this would end in any other way?” She asked mockingly, a cruel expression on her face.

Slash! I brought the knife across her arm and then activated my rune. The blood pouring out of my open wound started seemingly to move with a purpose. It left my body and then slid right into her open wound. It took her a moment to realize what was happening, but a moment was all it needed. With a disgusted look, she pulled her hand back out of me. I stumbled down the steps and onto the floor.

“I… was counting on it.” I grinned up at her.

“You… whatever you think you were doing, you’re… what? What’s going on?” Her body spasmed. “What? What did you do?”

She was more or less stuck to the chair as the inheritance was entering her, but as it entered her, it was being destroyed. My blood was inside her now. I didn’t know if it had the same purifying effect as when a woman was pregnant with my child, but it was delivered at the perfect time to screw up her inheritance. The power, and the Demon Lord’s control, were being eaten away. In the end, all she would possess would be fractured knowledge, just like me.

There was only one problem remaining with all of that. I had hoped that her attack on me would have been a bit more lenient. It had been my last-ditch plan to bleed in her, but it wasn’t my plan to get impaled. I didn’t even realize that she had that kind of strength. I was losing blood too quickly, I had no means of healing myself. It looked like I would die here. There was one demon lord inheritance left. I guessed I’d have to leave that to my children to remedy.

Right… I just revealed my abilities. If she figured out it was hereditary, she’d be going after my children. I wouldn’t be around to protect them. Lilith also didn’t know about the true danger of the inheritance. If she managed to find the last one and absorb it, it’d be bad. In the end, I guess I really hadn’t thought everything through. Now, it was too late to do anything. I was dying.

I had lost too much blood. I was starting to feel cold. I could see the blood pooling out from under me. She hadn’t put her hand through my body, so it wasn’t like I could see through it, but that didn’t reassure me much, as I was sure the damage was great. The coldness and numbness spread through my body. My eyes were getting droopy.

“You dare come here?”

“Why can I not come here? I have as much of a right to be here as you do,” another voice spoke right above me.

I opened my eyes, and standing in front of me was a young, pretty girl. I was somewhat delirious at this point.

“Are… you an angel?”

“Heh… heh…  Clyburn is such a flirt.” She moved closer, and I saw Charlie there.

“What kind of monster have you summoned to this world? What’s going on with the inheritance?” Jenji demanded angrily, still frozen in her spot as the inheritance went in her, only to be eaten away.

Charlie giggled again. “Do you like my little Clyburn? I brought him as a gift to this world, just as you brought that other one long ago.”

“I was trying to save the world! At the time, I didn’t know that men were such pigs!”

“Sister, men are men, and women are women. They are two halves of the same coin. If men are pigs, it is only because women are truffles.”

“Y-you…”

She kneeled and touched me, and I immediately felt a glowing warmth from her touch. The feeling quickly returned to my body, but I was immediately inundated by the feeling of needles and pain. I clenched my teeth and spasmed, the healing in my body now feeling anything but warm. Charlie laughed at my pain, seeming to find it amusing. Although my wound was closing at a pace I could see with my eyes, there was a sadistic gleam in her eyes. Just who the heck was this woman?

As I started to recover to the point, I was confident I’d live, I could feel that the castle was shaking. This whole place was going to collapse, just like the last one. We needed to get moving, but when I tried to sit up, Charlie flicked my nose and then pushed my head into the concrete with a thud. I let out a sound of pain, eliciting a giggle from her.

“Are you an angel or a demon?” I demanded.

She stuck her tongue out at me. “Can’t I be both?”