Days with the demon queen
Chapter 31: Illusion

Chapter 31: Illusion

Lily and Ronnie walked through the maze, she had managed to keep him calm after Josh’s disappearance.

Asides the screams from other candidates, the only thing Ronnie could hear was the sound of their footsteps.

"It’s too quiet. Why haven’t we been approached by any demon all this time? I feel like we might be walking in circles" Ronnie said.

"We’re not walking in circles, I believe we’re just fortunate. Anyway, I wonder what your training would look like." Lily said, brushing away the subject. She was in front of Ronnie, he followed behind.

Ronnie grabbed her hand instantly.

"Lily. There’s something I’ve got to ask you" he said in a low tone.

"Argh, you’re always too perceptive for a human" Lily said irritably.

"I knew something was up! you’ve been scaring away the demons. why?!" Ronnie asked.

"To keep you safe, idiot" Lily said.

"What the hell do you mean by keep me safe? We’re in a test" Ronnie was outraged.

"How is me trying to protect you a bad thing? They might be low level demons but you don’t stand a chance. Besides, it’s not like you have to fight the demons. We have the option of hiding" Lily said.

"I don’t like it. I appreciate you caring about my safety and all but I feel like I’m cheating. I’m not playing fair" Ronnie said.

Lily took his hand off hers and continued to walk.

"There’s no such thing as fairness in survival, Ronnie. That’s how you get yourself killed" Lily said.

"Just undo whatever you’re doing. I can take care of myself. This is something I have to do on my own. If any demon comes, I can do that sword thing, right?" Ronnie asked.

"You don’t know how that SWORD THING works. I don’t either. We just happened to get lucky that day" Lily snapped at him.

The following moments were silent. Lily walked, holding on to Ronnie’s hand despite their argument so they wouldn’t get separated.

"Help, please help me!" A young woman ran into Lily and Ronnie from another section of the maze. She looked like she was scared to death. She struggled to catch her breath.

Lily looked at her, without saying a single word she walked past her.

"Shouldn’t we help her?" Ronnie asked.

"It doesn’t concern us" Lily said.

"Stop. What if there’s something up ahead that we need to know about" Ronnie said.

"What ifs what ifs, fine." Lily said, she stopping walking. Ronnie hurriedly walked over to the woman and helped her up.

"What happened to you? Did you get attacked?" Ronnie asked.

"I— i formed an alliance with some other candidates. There was one sketchy looking guy among us but none of us paid that any attention. He was — a demon. A demon! He killed them all in cold blood!" She screamed, her eyes showed that she was losing her mind.

"What did she say?" Lily asked, her brows furrowed.

"Thought you didn’t want to help her?" Ronnie asked.

"I don’t" Lily walked over, shoving Ronnie aside. She grabbed the deranged woman by the collar.

"What did you say? This— demon, what did it look like?" Lily asked.

"de— demon. Demon! He was the devil. He slaughtered those people in cold blood, cold blood, cold blood!" The woman rambled.

"Leave her alone, the woman has lost her mind. Whatever she saw must have really spooked her" Ronnie said.

"Like I said, I couldn’t care less about her. She demon that takes the form of a human being" Lily said.

"We can handle them, right?

Low class demons can’t be that tough. She probably wasn’t cut out for it" Ronnie said.

"Ronald, low class demons can’t change form. Now that I think about it, they can’t create illusions either. This fog was created by a demon" She responded, letting go of the woman’s collar.

"What does that mean?" Ronnie asked.

"The demons here are mid class demons. They’re too much for average human beings. I’m sure that this mist is being generated by one of them as well" Lily articulated.

"So this whole test is—"

"We’re being filtered, culled" Ronnie said.

"We need to find Joshua, as fast as we possibly can." Lily said.

"How do we find him with all of this fog? I almost can’t see a thing" Ronnie expressed.

"We have to find the demon behind this mist, and kill it" Lily said, wearing a more serious expression on her face.

"We still can leave this woman here. What do we do?" Ronnie asked, looking at Lily with eager, expectant eyes. She sighed.

"Didn’t that Chloe woman say something about retiring?" Lily asked.

"Oh? She did" Ronnie answered. Realization washed upon him.

He grabbed the woman, supporting her head with his hands.

"Would you like to retire? You don’t have to continue" Ronnie said.

"Cold blood, be killed them in cold blood" she continued to mutter.

"Do you want to retire?!" Ronnie yelled, his voice echoed. She fixed her eyes on him like she had regained a tiny bit of her sanity.

"Yes, yes please. I don’t want to do this anymore. No more of this!" She yelled.

Almost immediately a person appeared from the shadows. Holding out his arms.

Ronnie was startled at first.

"Are you a supervisor?" He asked.

The young man said nothing, he gave a single nod of his head.

Ronnie lifted her and handed her over to the him. Shortly, he disappeared into the shadows again.

Ronnie and Lily walked through the maze for a few minutes. In that time they had encountered some corpses that were dismembered, some people wanting to drop out, and suprisingly for them, three demon corpses.

"I guess some humans can hold their own" Lily said.

"Isn’t there a faster way to handle this? The odds of Josh being hurt—" Ronnie said, cutting himself off halfway.

"A faster way. There is, I just didn’t mention because I thought you no longer wanted my help" Lily said.

"We don’t have time for this right now!" Ronnie said.

"Fine. I’ll take care of the demon creating this Illusion. Don’t move a muscle, I’ll be back" Lily instructed.

Ronnie nodded. She then sped into the fog till she was out of Ronnie’s sights.

Ronnie stood against the wall, waiting for Lily to return. Suddenly he felt a hand grab his leg.

He was startled, he pulled out the sword that was given to him at the entrance.

"don’t— don’t attack" a faint voice said from the ground. Ronnie impulsively moved back.

He tried to get a closer look at the face of the man laying on the ground. He saw none other than Josh’s face. His eyes widened in shock.

"Josh!" He yelled, rushing to help him up. Josh appeared to be badly injured.

"What happened to you? did you get attacked?" Ronnie asked, he ripped off the sleeve of his shirt to stop the bleeding from Josh’s head.

"I don’t know— it happened so fast" Josh said.

"I’m glad you found me. do you want to retire? You should, you’re in no condition to continue" Ronnie said.

"I’d like to retire. Yes, I was in way over my head" Josh said.

Ronnie helped him up, throwing one of Josh’s hands over his own shoulder so he could provide support.

The two walked down the section of the maze. Josh was slow. He limped.

"I wonder why none of them came forth. Maybe there’s no one in this section" Ronnie muttered.

"None of who? A demon?" Josh asked.

"No no. Supervisors. A supervisor is supposed to appear whenever anyone desires to drop out" Ronnie said.

"Do you think the demons got them?" Josh asked.

"I hope not" Ronnie said.

"Ronald. Hold on a second, I’m tired. We should rest in this section for a bit" Josh suggested.

"Alright. That sounds like a good idea" Ronnie said.

Ronnie placed Josh against the wall after scoping out the surroundings to make sure they’re alone.

"Ronald. Where is Lily?" Josh asked.

"She’s around. She want on to handle something. I think she’ll be back pretty soon" Ronnie responded. He rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply and then letting out a sigh.

"So, we’re completely alone? Isn’t that dangerous? It has to be" Josh said.

"We’ll be fine if we just stay out of sight" Ronnie said.

"What happens if a demon were to find us somehow?" Josh asked.

"We’d be goners then. These demons appear to be quite strong" Ronnie said. Laughing softly.

He then stood up, stretching his legs.

"Joshua. do you think we’ll be able to make it out of here in one piece?" Ronnie asked.

"Of course. We’ll be just fine, trust me. You should retire too" Josh said with a smile.

Ronnie turned around just in time to swing his sword at Josh who was charging at him.

Josh dodged.

"How did you figure it out?" Josh asked.

"The real Josh always gets upset when I call him Joshua!" Ronnie stated.