The Scumbags Guide to Enslaving Demon's

The bridge exploded.

Splinters of dead road lashed out in all directions.

Its dying scream echoed in his head.

Black roots folded into themselves with a sound resembling collapsing buildings, and the Freehold lobby dipped beneath Austin Veyron’ weight. Marble spider-webbed across ivory edges. Knots around the root heart bucked, then expelled dark tentacles outward in every direction.

"Down!" Veyra shouted.

Austin Veyron tossed the white root chain over the nearest crowd of scribes. Sarielle’ silver flame singed the advancing thorns mid-air, enveloping the lobby in blinding white light. Rin rolled behind the shattered front desk and responded with three arrows, impaling a writhing road-snippet onto the floor.

It shattered apart.

"No!" Rin cursed.

"No clean deaths." Sable interjected.

She stood next to the ruptured doorway with a trickle of blood dripping down her neck. The shattered crown piece in her hands was smoking. One black tendril had snaked up her leg from the floor around her wrist, searching for whatever power remained inside the old Herald.

Austin Veyron snatched her wrist before she could clutch her palm.

"Tell me where it leads." Austin demanded.

Her eyes shot to his. The fear inside them wasn’ t terror of him. She was terrified of deciphering the road’ goal faster than him. "All root networks in the city are attempting to merge themselves into a single relay," she explained. "The bridge is dead, so it will rebuild its body using the Freehold’ routes. If even one relay survives long enough to reach the outer gates, the Emperor will be able to speak again."

Marcus nodded at the fractured ceiling tiles. "How many total relays are there?"

"There are five." Sable tuned into the thrum below the lobby floor tiles. "Basement, stairwell, roof relay, west gate, and something below the ballroom."

Elena’ buzzing transfer book shook in her hands. "The common ledger can notify strike teams, but there are still people getting hurt. We can’ t send everyone into harm’ s way."

"Then don’ t." Austin commanded. "Send up an alert. Call for reinforcements. Let them decide how they want to help."

There was a moment of silence while the lobby digested his words. All that could be heard was the sound of whipping flames crackling between heartbeats.

Seconds later, Elena nodded and began authorizing transactions. Minutes later, white lines branched out from her documents and shot into every corner of the city. A medic team was assigned to treat the wounded. Two runners volunteered to sabotage the west gate. The kitchen crew supplied water and heat packs to those volunteering to head for the basement. Half a dozen warriors volunteered for Rin’ announcement of the stairwell.

No one waited to be told what to do.

The common ledger burst into light.

Austin turned to Calder. The contest-mark molded into Calder’ wrist had no longer dulled black. It was now a dull gray stain against pale skin. But it was pulsing in time with the roots beneath the lobby floor.

"Can you trace a command pull?" he questioned.

Calder flexed his fingers. "I can sense it. I fucking hate that I can sense it."

"You do not need to like a weapon to choose where it fires." Austin replied placidly.

"That is so easy for you to say." Calder grumbled.

Austin wanted to yell at him. It was too easy for him.

DEVOUR wanted to consume every option with violent ends.

DEVOUR wanted absolutes.

DEVOUR wanted one clean solution: a single pathway it could use to devour every threat whole.

Instead he released his hold on Calder’ wrist.

"No," he sighed quietly. "Trust me. It isn’ t that easy for me. Which is why I asked. I didn’ t demand."

Calder looked him over for a few moments then sighed tiredly.

"Basement relay first." Calder stated. "The pull is the strongest through the floor."

The basement service level smelled strongly of oxidized metals, wet stone, and demon ichor. Austin led the group down stairs with Veyra to his immediate right and Sable close behind. Maelis clutched an aflame chunk of coal between both palms, flames deliberately small. At the bottom of the stairwell, they found the first relay.

It had tunneled its way through the boiler room.

Ebony roots covered every inch of wall space. In the center was a woman with copper-colored horns bent back against her head, ensnared inside of a cage made out of thorned-vines. She wore broken plate armor and a choker fashioned from the same road-material as the doorway ash. Through the woman’ throat, a thick root had pierced her shoulder; suspending her above the relay as it fed on her blood.

She growled when she noticed Sable.

"Herald." she spat through gritted teeth. "Master promised the road would awaken."

"He isn’ t my master."

The woman snorted. Then grimaced in pain. "Then execute me. Let the relay feast on me until it figures out how to walk."

Austin advanced. Fight or flight flooded through every nerve ending in his body at her provocation. The relay recoiled in fear from his approach. A web of tendrils shot towards him, encapsulating bubbles of the Emperor’ voice trapped inside.

’DEVOURER. CLAIM THE GENERAL. CLAIM HER WILL. MAKE HER YOUR SLAVE.’

DEVOUR wanted him to kill her.

He hated how easy of an order that was.

A blade suddenly materialized between Austin and the chained demon.

"Kesra." Veyra questioned.

The woman eyed her like she had just granted her freedom. "Kesra."

"Kesra." Veyra repeated slowly. "Do you wish to leave?"

"Yes."

"Will you stand against this road when you have the chance?"

"If I make it out alive, I will."

Austin noted the conditions hiding underneath her words. Not I pledge allegiance to you. Not I will obey your command forever. Just an honest request for help.

"Then we’ ll help you."

Roots screamed. They whipped at Kesra’ choker and began forcing it down deeper around her neck.

Sable wasted no time. She placed the broken crown shard against the black collar Kesra wore around her neck, allowing the relay to access her previous Claim. The possessed road hesitated, internally debating commands that no longer pertained to her.

"This way." She commanded.

Maelis slammed her coal through the root wall. Fire roared from its kinetic energy, engulfing exposed root-nodes. Calder placed his tainted wrist on the ground and redirected the relay’ command pull into the white line Elena was drafting up stairs. Veyra sheared Kesra’ choker in half with her blade. Rin shot the root growing out of Kesra’ shoulder.

Austin squeezed the relay core until it cracked open in his palm.

DEVOUR consumed everything else.

Piece-by-piece, the synthetic heart unraveled inside his hands: fire, submit, repeat.

He bit down with everything crawling beneath his ribs, feasting on its horrified disbelief bleed into him. It fought him at every turn, bucking with the power of every Citizen it had claimed before Kesra.

He crushed it.

The boiler room fell silent and Ash fell from Austin Veyron’ mouth.

For a brief second, he could see every road on the map of Grand Meridian city. Every person walking those roads resembled a corpse he could cradle in his arms.

Veyra punched her fist through his chest.

"Austin." She growled.

Something pulled him back to reality.

Kesra on the ground gasping for breath. Rin inspecting the Herald for injuries. Sable collapsed against the wall, fingertips frantically keeping her feduration together.

He nodded at Maelis and the rest of the group collecting gear, then bolted towards the lobby exit as the echoes of hunger licked the back of his neck.

DEVOUR would never leave him be.

Not after today.

"Why did you destroy the seed without drinking from my veins?" Kesra asked while standing with Veyra’ help.

"You never would have given it to me."

The copper-antlered road cocked her head at him, eyes narrowed in focused scrutiny. "Then let me offer you something else in return. The road originated in Ash Meridian. There is a sector north of the burn-zone where the Emperor keeps the very first surviving Crownforge."

Sable’ complexion turned white as paper. "There isn’ t a first Crownforge."

"All of them are." Kesra nodded at the dead road-core next to them. "There are copies the Emperor takes from living volunteers."

A pulsing ran beneath the basement floor. Marcus had updated the strike team numbers above them in glowing white text: ’WEST GATE SECURED. STAIRWELL SECURED. ROOF RELAY BURNING. BALLROOM ROOT APPROACHING.’

Above them, the ballroom floor exploded.

It too had learned how to walk.

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