Thea

“Thea? You aren’t supposed to be here!” Pip accused. He was doing his best to hide behind the much larger demon who was standing in front of him. I didn’t recognize the huge four armed monster who was acting as a living shield, but he didn’t look nice and he was being flanked by an annoyed succubus and what looked like an ice elemental.

Bryce had a history of being weak to attractive women. So, while the thought of fighting an ice elemental nearly made me laugh out loud, the succubus could be a problem.

“What did you mean when you said Thea wasn’t supposed to be here?” The elf in question asked. “We ran into you earlier today. Wouldn’t you expect her to come straight here?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Pip, shut the fuck up.” The succubus turned to the four armed demon. “Kill them. We can’t leave any witnesses.”

“Thea, leave Pip alive. I have some questions for him,” Bryce spoke as she started casting some sort of spell.

“Right. Bug boy lives, for now.” I smiled as I charged the succubus. Her eyes went wide just as my sword passed through the illusion where she should’ve been. I blinked away my surprise and noticed the same succubus smirking at me from halfway across the room, just in time to be blindsided by a sucker punch from Four Arms.

The enchantments on my boots did their best to keep me on my feet, but there was really only so much they could do. So, I ended up lying on my back two meters away in front of the ice elemental. I had to admit, they looked slightly more intimidating from this angle.

Reflexively dropping my sword to reach a hand out, I spewed a torrent of flames which caused the elemental to flinch away. I simultaneously created an illusionary clone to pressure Four Arms. That left Pip and the succubus alone, but Pip was a coward and my girlfriend wasn’t just sitting idly by while I did all the fighting.

Bryce's spell finished and a translucent sphere appeared directly to her left. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was supposed to do, until the smirking succubus dissipated on the other side of the room and the genuine article was revealed trying to claw her way out of the orb. Bryce then furrowed her brows and the sphere clouded over as it began to shrink.

Figuring that was a quarter of the invaders dealt with, I turned to focus my attention on the ice elemental I was still burning. I ended the spell and was surprised to see them bracing themself, still mostly intact, in a shallow puddle of water.

It seemed as if this elemental was more powerful than I thought, which kind of made sense. We were in Hel, and while it wasn’t exactly a dangerous heat for most people, it would take a pretty powerful ice elemental to maintain their form for any real amount of time.

“You know, there’s really no need for you to die.” I created a small flame above my palm while staring up at the stoic block of ice. “If you’d like to surrender, and maybe answer a few questions, then we can send you back to your plane.” The offer had worked for Captain Krag, so I didn’t see any reason not to extend the same one to the elemental. After all, what's an unknown assailant if not a friend you haven’t made yet?

“You seem rather confident for somebody who is outnumbered.” The elemental looked around the room to see Bryce focusing on her spell, my clone fighting the four-armed demon, and Pip cowering in a corner. “Especially since you’re obviously losing.”

I scoffed at that, but before I could respond with a proper quip, the elemental shot a hand out towards the back of the room. Bryce let out a cry of pain as the puddle, which had somehow snaked its way across the room without me noticing, sprouted a barbed spike of ice that passed clear through her left shoulder. The pain must’ve been excruciating, because it was enough to cause her to lose concentration on the spell she was maintaining. The succubus fell to the ground gasping for air, and I fucking lost it.

My clone blocked one last attack from Four Arms before I pulled her mana to myself and stepped forward to wipe the smile off the asshole elemental’s stupid, smug face. They turned their arm into a sword before trying to stab at me, but I caught it by the tip and my hand melted through it without even using a spell. Their eyes went wide as I pushed into their arm, melting it up to the shoulder before tearing their other arm off with brute strength.

The icy limb shattered on the ground and I held them in place by the shoulder while placing my other hand on the top of their head. The screaming only lasted until their mouth had melted, then I continued moving my hand down until it reached their chest.

At that point, I extracted their core and let the lifeless ice sculpture fall to the ground. I then picked up my sword before dropping the core and stabbing it through, causing a silver-blue mist to escape into the blade.

The room had gone silent at this point. The succubus was still propped up on all fours, trying to catch her breath, while Four Arms was staring at the mess that was once his friend.

“Leave. Now.” I growled while meeting the demon’s stare. Four Arms nodded solemnly before walking over to help the succubus stand. The two left the house through the front door and I raised my sword to the third demon who tried to follow after. “Not you.”

Pip froze and I swear I could hear him swallow from halfway across the room. I held his gaze while I side stepped to where Bryce was shivering on her knees. Her left arm was completely limp and her right was clutching the frozen wound in her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m c-cold, b-but I’ll l-live.” Bryce’s teeth were chattering and her breath was coming in white wisps. I nodded before taking another side-step towards her and letting her push herself into me to steal some of my warmth. This was more than just a stab wound. The elemental must’ve included some sort of ice magic with the attack, which made me thankful that I had fully destroyed their core. If I hadn’t, then they could have maintained or even intensified the spell.

“I’m not in the mood for your games, Pip, and you’re not leaving here alive.” His eyes went wide, and I narrowed mine. “But if you answer our questions, then I’ll make it quick and I won’t even use this soul blade. That way you’ll get whatever shitty afterlife you have coming to you.”

He nodded, and I realized that I didn’t know what questions to ask him. Bryce had been the one who wanted him alive, not me. So, I looked to her, and she sighed before reaching out her good arm so that I could help her up.

Since shoulders weren’t all that important for standing, she was able to do that without too much difficulty. Although, I still stuck close in order to try to raise her body temperature. It must’ve helped, because she had mostly stopped shivering by the time she asked her questions. “What did you do when you learned that Thea was back in Hel?”

“I sent a message back to Raith and then followed you.”

“If that’s true, then why were you so surprised when you found Thea here?” Bryce frowned, which made me realize how discolored her lips still were. I felt my rage start to boil inside me and Bryce flinched away. After a brief moment of hurt confusion, I took a calming breath in order to lower the heat my body was giving off to continue providing warmth without hurting her.

“Because Rose was supposed to stay behind, not her.” Pip explained. “We had been prepared to fight a powerful Dryad, not whatever the fuck Thea is now.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I asked, more than a little offended.

He shot me an incredulous look. “Seriously? You're clearly not an imp, not anymore. Your magic used to be enough to play some pranks and maybe toast a few mortals. You’ve never been anywhere near powerful enough to melt a greater ice elemental with your bare hands.”

“If you thought that was something, then you should’ve seen me fight an ancient celestial in Elysia.” I couldn’t help but smirk at Pip’s expression as I added one last half-truth. “I was winning until Kai stepped in to stop me because I was causing too much damage to her afterlife.”

Bryce interjected with her next question before he could properly respond. “What were you doing here, and why did you wait until Thea was back in Hel before you made your move?”

“We were supposed to subdue Rose and then make our way to Lilith’s room to rescue the girl in there.” There was a lot of weird phrasing in Pip’s explanation and Bryce clearly hadn’t missed any of it, because she perked up a bit after hearing it.

“Subdue Rose, not kill her?” She asked. “And what do you mean rescue the girl? I thought she was Lilith’s daughter.”

“We were only supposed to kill Rose if we had to, because somebody was going to need to run this dump with Lilith gone. Besides, killing a Dryad in her grove isn’t easy.”

It was now my turn to ask a question. “What about Stephy? Why did you say ‘rescue’ when you obviously meant kidnap?”

“Because you can’t kidnap somebody who was already kidnapped?” Pip glared at me with an awful lot of undeserved self-righteousness. Except, he really believed what he was saying, and when Bryce looked to me for confirmation, I was forced to nod to let her know he wasn’t lying.

“Who is Stephy exactly?” This time Bryce directed her question at me, and I had to admit that I wasn’t sure.

“Well, her actual name is Persephone. I just call her Stephy because it’s less stupid.” Bryce shot me a look, and I just shrugged before continuing. “She kind of predates me. She was even here before Esme, for that matter, and she’s been asleep the entire time.”

“But she is Lilith’s daughter, right?” Bryce asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, at least that’s what Lilith says. Plus, she’s been trying to wake her up for as long as I’ve known her.” I held up my storage ring to show Bryce. “I got this after Lilith asked me to travel to Dis in order to bargain with a witch for some magic flowers that were supposed to help. It was actually that same witch who sold me and Esme the cigar I used in Vurdex’s casino.”

“But you don’t know who the father is or why she’s asleep?” I shook my head at the question, which caused Bryce to turn to Pip for answers. “What do you know about Persephone?”

“Didn’t even know her name.” Bug boy shrugged. “Raith just said she was another kid that Lilith stole from her parents, and everybody knows what happened with Wrynn, so nobody questioned it.”

“I wasn’t stolen from anybody,” Wrynn said from the kitchen doorway. “Raith chose a shitty life over me, and I chose to stay. She’s made that decision countless times, and could’ve changed her mind at any point.”

“Dammit Wrynn! I told you to stay in the kitchen.” I glared at the boy. “Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

“Because I’ve met you before?” He smirked. “Besides, I’m technically still in the kitchen.”

“Thea, if you’re going to kill me, then I’d prefer you get it over with.” Pip shifted his weight and had the audacity to roll his eyes at me. “I’ve got things to do, so if we’re done here, then I’m going to head out.”

“No! We’re not done here.” I disappeared my sword and pointed an accusing finger at him. “Bryce still has more questions, and you’re going to sit there until you’ve answered all of them.”

“Was she like this while you two were still dating?” Wrynn, the little shit asked.

“Wait, you two dated?” Bryce looked horrified, and I couldn’t blame her. Pip had very few redeeming qualities, and I was going through a bit of a phase when we dated.

“For two decades.” Pip shrugged. “She broke it off when I brought up the idea of contracting.”

“Wait, like a breeding contract? I thought you said—”

“Pip said he was busy,” I interrupted Bryce before she could dig deeper. “If you have any questions, not about our dating, then you really should ask them now.”

Bryce smiled at me as she shook her head. I silently thanked the gods that I was dating somebody who didn’t pry into embarrassing past relationships. Although, that did kind of make me wonder what sort of embarrassing relationship stories Bryce had that made her so understanding… I would have to look into it later. Respectfully, of course.

“In that case, I just have one last question for you, Pip.” Bryce quickly switched back into business mode. “Why didn’t you do this attack earlier? Thea and Esme have been gone for a while now. Wouldn’t it have been easier before they got back?”

“Raith wasn’t ready to fight Lilith before.” Pip shrugged. “Hells, she wasn’t really ready now, but we needed to act before Thea could get to the girl.”

“Why did it matter if I made it to Stephy?” I tilted my head as I asked Pip the question, but Bryce was the one to answer.

“I can only imagine one reason,” she said absentmindedly. “Regardless, that’s all my questions. You can kill Pip or let him go. Either way, I think we need to talk to Lilith as soon as possible.”