With Nicholas dealt with, Momo figured it was time to fulfill her promise.

  Time to break Richard out of bubble-jail.

  She floated back to the ground, watching as everything in the city below, which had seemed so small and miniscule, like a child’s dollhouse, retained its original dimensions. With an intake of breath, she touched her open palm to the black dome she created. But just as she was about to start dismantling its monumental walls, she noticed a flash of black light out of the corner of her eye. Somewhere across the street, past the long stretch of pavement.

  The zap of light was momentarily blinding, like car headlights, and stranger yet—it was followed by a high-pitched crunching sound, which sounded both mechanical and simultaneously organic. It made the hairs on her arm stand up straight.

  A hint of a memory blossomed at the back of her brain.

  Where had she heard that before?

  Was that a…?

  Her eyes widened.

  She looked across the street again, more frantic this time. Several people were dashing down the sidewalk, all dressed in different sets of armor—robes, plate metal, the usual. As her eyes studied each one, their rankings appeared in front of her.

  One million and twenty two.

  One million and twenty six.

  Not a single one of them was even close to possessing a rank like the villain she’d just put down, so they couldn’t be too powerful. And they didn’t seem like they were trying to kill each other either, either, so Momo had no reason to intervene.

  But she could have sworn she saw...

  Oh.

  Shit.

  Seven stories up, on the roof of the building just across the street. Long claws and a blank, black face. No fingers. No discernable eyes or a nose.

  It was a Nether Demon.

  The creature leapt from the roof, and fell with tremendous speed, seemingly unconcerned about injuring its body as it plummeted towards the ground—and towards the unsuspecting group.

  Type: Nether Demon. Level 37.

  “Crap,” Momo shouted. “Look out!”

  She reached out her hand, and Nether zipped out of her fingertips, passing over the street and forming a semicircular dome over the heads of the unsuspecting group.

  They looked up, confused, and Momo was about to fly over to them and explain when—

  She realized her mistake.

  The demon did not hit the dome. Instead, it shimmered through the defense, materializing instantly on the other side and diving its claws into the armor of one of the stragglers and pinning him to the ground.

  The surrounding group looked on in horror. One of the men in mage’s robes attempted to free his friend with a slap of his staff, but the demon’s claws were deep in.

  Luckily, the metal plate the man was wearing was dense enough that the claws didn't seem to pierce through the skin towards the heart; no, he was still very much alive, screaming and shouting and trying with all of his might to pry the creature off himself with his metal gauntlets.

  Damn it. She was so high on her own power, Momo had completely forgotten the most basic tool of the trade.

  You can’t fight fire with fire—or Nether with Nether.

  She had just been so startled to see one here of all places. But it wasn’t surprising, looking back. Nicholas had mentioned them. That they’d appeared in the quest description. Nether spawn, he'd called them. She had been so focused on everything else that she’d not actually contemplated the fact they were really here.

  Was this… Was this Kyros’s solution to the Nether’s demon epidemic?

  To use Earth as an exhaust pipe for all the demon baggage that he and Morgana had accumulated in their power struggle? To just fling their heaping trash to Earth, so that the planet’s new burgeoning heroes and villains could clean it all up?

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  It wasn’t the worst idea, practically speaking.

  So much so that she actually doubted it belonged to Kyros at all.

  The man’s shrieking pulled her back into the present.

  Momo bounded off the pavement and flew across the street, barreling into the demon. She and it were flung into the opposite wall, its claws torn out of the man’s armored chest. The demon scratched at her face, but the cuts healed almost as fast as they were made. This thing was only level 37, but it was still squirmy.

  “Run!” Momo shouted towards the group, who was staring at her in silent alarm.

  Startled out of their silence, the group nodded. Then, as they began to heave their companion off the pavement, Momo cupped her hands around the creature’s middle; it ravaged its razor sharp nails over the skin of her hands, and it felt like getting stabbed with a hundred tiny needles, but she resisted the urge to let it go. She knew the next strike it made on those people, it wouldn’t miss. And all she had to do was—

  "[Purify]," Momo said.

  With a large burst of light, white magic seeped from her fingers, burying into the creature's chest.

  Its struggling became less and less frenetic. Its claws, once reaping across her arms, slowed to a dull scratch. Momo closed her eyes. By the time they fluttered open again, a wholly different creature was looking back at her. Something soft. Something curious. It made her heart sink. Had the first demon she met arrived here too?

  "Hi," Momo greeted it, then smiled slowly. “Welcome to Earth.”

  ***

  The walls of the dome slowly descended, and Momo watched the pink horizon emerge behind it. A helicopter skidded across the fuchsia sky. Police sirens wailed. Although the particular area of town she was in wasn't brimming with violence, she could hear it on the perimeters. People screaming. Laughing. Frantically calling taxis. Facetiming their moms to see what class grandma had chosen.

  The walls rescinded completely into the ground, the Nether devolving back into nothingness. Momo stepped into the circle, and was about to call out to Richard when her eyes widened. Oh shit.

  The black darkness of the dome had been blocking out the overwhelming sound from inside—a sound that could only be described as a guttural groaning; almost half the policemen were injured, bleeding, or at the very least, unconscious.

  The Nether Demons.

  A black wall hadn’t protected them from them—it had entrapped them inside.

  Luckily, none of the police officers seemed dead from what she could see. They all had their heads. Their soul chains were still attached. But it was utter mayhem. The ground was splotched with black, the remnants of the demons staining the pavement.

  Richard was breathing heavily, his gauntlets covered with a black goop like he had just strangled a fresh one. Laura was busy standing over the injured, pressing white magic to their chests. Thank goodness she had chosen a class that could heal.

  Richard caught notice of her almost immediately. Naturally, it was not a grateful homecoming for Momo; he looked at her with pure fury in his eyes.

  "You! You said," he shouted, stalking up to her, then furiously pushing her back with the fist of his gauntlet, so she stumbled a step. "We would be safe in here!"

  "I'm so sorry," Momo said in a rush. "I had no idea.”

  “You trapped us!”

  “I promise,” she whispered. “I was trying to keep you safe in here. I didn’t know the Nether Demons were here. I really didn’t know.”

  Richard’s jaw clicked, and he closed his eyes, taking a sharp breath in. Momo was grateful he was taking a moment to stop himself from strangling her.

  “For fuck’s sake— You're lucky no one's life is on your head,” he grunted, after a long moment. “Three of those—those demons showed up. And the chief took the brunt of the attack. They clawed him from all sides; over the head, behind the back. Only reason he’s alive is that Laura has some sort of spell that stops wounds from bleeding out. That, and they missed his heart by a few inches.”

  Momo glanced toward the police chief, who was sitting on the floor in their makeshift medical area, his armor in shambles, his golden helmet smashed. There were claw marks on his neck and his legs, hastily bandaged up with gauze.

  “When the first one came in, we had no idea what to hit it with. I mean, what in the hell are you supposed to throw at devil spawn that’s raining from the ceiling?” Richard continued, following Momo’s gaze. “But blunt force seemed to be the only thing that worked. I had to tear the thing's goddamn head open."

  Momo winced. She did not like the image. If only she had gotten there earlier. Damn it—screw being there earlier. if only she could be a hundred places at once. This scene was probably playing out all over town. All over Earth.

  Her stomach turned, anger rising hot in her lungs.

  Because—

  Because—

  This was so pointless.

  There was no reason for the demons to fight the humans. There was no reason they had to be demons at all. It was clear as day to her. The demons were nothing but cells that had turned malignant; the Nether’s innocent blood vessels that had been roughhoused and corrupted by the universe’s longest standing argument.

  But Momo didn’t care about their goddamn argument. That excuse wasn’t good enough for her anymore. This went beyond heavenly trauma—this was her home. This is where her family lived. Her parents had crossed oceans to find somewhere safe for Momo to grow up. Her brother had worked his tail off to make sure they lived the rest of their lives comfortably. They had all done their part to help each other.

  All of them except for her.

  Except for Momo.

  This was no longer just a plea for Valerica’s attention, or an attempt to get out of her own shell. She was way beyond that now. She’d molted like a baby bird. Crawled out of the abyss and danced on her own ashes. She’d thrown a man into the Pacific Ocean.

  No—this was her family.

  And their backyard wasn’t anyone’s dumpster.

  Remembering her [Body Double] spell, a plan began to form in the back of Momo’s mind. A plan that reached far beyond what she’d ever accomplished in Alois as queen—in far less time.

  "I'm really sorry," Momo said, again, her eyes boring imploringly into Richard’s as she put a hand on his shoulder. "But we only have so much time. So I’m going to need you to listen closely.”

  Want to know what happens next? Find out right now on Patreon (25 chapters ahead)!

  Join the conversation on Discord!