Everyone was in much better spirits the next day. A lot of the unspoken tension had faded once Bella and I were able to make up, and everyone blew off a lot of steam last night. I was the only one who went to sleep, since I was the only one mentally fatigued enough to need it. Before the sun came up, everyone quickly repacked our supplies, and we were back on the road just as it was cresting the horizon.
I felt a lot lighter after my conversation with Torien yesterday and the talk I had with Bella last night. I wasn't used to fighting with my lovers, so my issue with Bella was probably more disturbing to me than I realized.
Today, my carousel spell created me a wolf to ride. It was a bit faster than the previous animals I had gotten, but it felt a bit less stable since it was smaller and lower to the ground compared to the majority of the animals it had created for me in the past. This spell was an odd one, something that felt rather out of place next to the other luck magic spells I knew. Because they were so heavily tied to Fortuna, I initially had some reservations about relearning all of the luck magic spells, but I had used most of them so many times that it felt like a waste not to get them back. Combined with my light and ice magic, I was probably a much more effective mage now than I had been before System's End, even though it took a lot of work to get to this point. Our time in Traehall had given me a lot more time to practice things, rather than just deal with everything on the fly like I had been.
"Lilith, I see something on the road," Torien called from her perch on the roof of our carriage.
"I'll go up ahead and take a look," I called back.
"Be careful. It looks big."
I scouted ahead of the caravan a short distance before I saw it. A large spiderlike demon with twelve long but humanoid arms held up its grotesque body. The thing moved unnaturally with an almost swaying motion as it walked in circles over the path. The way it acted, it didn't look like it was going to move out of our way anytime soon.
("We'll need to kill it. I've never seen a demon like this, so I'm not sure how strong it is. It's large enough to call for fighting it as a group,") I relayed through the bond.
("Alright, our fighters are coming off the carriage. You, Kal'daeryn, and Mimi will be the vanguards,") Torien replied.
After a five-minute walk, all of us were ready to fight the monster away from the carriage. Bella, Cecilia, and the other non-combatants in our group stayed behind, but the rest of us were ready to fight.
"What would Cecilia normally do in this situation?" I asked.
"Fight it with her uunas, or wait for it to eventually leave," Lori replied.
"I would be worried about fighting something like this alone," I said wryly.
Lori nodded. "Uunas are good about taking tactical retreats, but I understand your worry."
Mimi, Kal'daeryn, and I slowly approached from the front while Lori and the twins circled around it. The thing was still pacing in circles, not really reacting to being surrounded. It wasn't until the three of us got close to it that it suddenly reacted.
Without any warning, it leapt at us sideways. The long hands it had at the end of its leg-arms tried to grab at us mid-jump. The three of us lifted our shields in tandem, and the monster rocked against us with its full bodyweight. The hands reached out to grab at our shields and tried to pull them away, but they weren't strong enough to break our hold.
Now that we were closer, I was able to get a better look at its body. The part that I had assumed was its head was just a blank patch of twisted skin. From the angle I had, it didn't look like it had a head. That might explain why it had jumped at us in such an odd way.
Mimi held out her free hand and cast a spell she had been working on with Morrigan. The two had been working on applications for her natural spatial affinity, and this was an obvious thing that came to mind, minor gravity manipulation.
The spider demon's limbs buckled under the sudden added weight, and Kal'daeryn and I both took the opportunity to slash at its many limbs the moment it was caught off balance from the sudden weight shift. As Mimi released her spell, the demon stumbled back in pain, nearly falling over from the sudden lightening of gravity, combined with the three limbs we managed to tear from its body. As it stumbled away, Torien, Morrigan, and Lori unleashed their range attacks and sprayed its black blood in the dirt behind it.
As if enraged, the monster leapt at Torien, but Kal'daeryn already leapt to intercept the demon before it could make the entire distance over to her. Kal'daeryn shielded her face as the long nails of the hands dug through the gaps in her armor and into her flesh, but she had shoved the demon away from Torien before the monster could grab her.
A rush of holy magic suffused Kal'daeryn as Nelly healed her from a distance. The gashes and tears from the monster's nails quickly healed as Kal'daeryn was able to reestablish a defensive stance. After tackling the monster, Kal'daeryn once again had its attention.
I jumped and used my wings to pull myself into the air while I charged a brilliant laser spell. The spell still took a lot of mana, but it was easily one of my strongest offensive attacks. It was one of the few that I hadn't had to relearn, since I created the spell myself initially. While I was charging my spell, Mimi had circled around it so she could keep it contained in one spot.
The demon's attacks quickly grew more frantic. It was in pain, but without any kind of mouth, the monster remained eerily silent even as it thrashed and scratched at Mimi and Kal'daeryn's shields. The monster looked like it was going to leap at me. It wouldn't be the first demon to be able to sense this spell collecting energy. Just as its limbs compressed so it could jump, Mimi again used her gravity spell, which this time pummeled the monster into the ground.
As it flailed, my friends felt my nudge through the bond and gave me space to unleash my laser attack. A bright hot beam of light burst out from my hand and tore through the limbs of the monster. The thing's torso didn't seem to take much damage, but it sliced off every arm it passed through. When I released the magic, the monster had been reduced to a limbless torso with a pile of scorched and burnt arms at its sides.
Mimi didn't hesitate and summoned a large hammer in her quick approach. As she swung the massive thing, her spatial magic enhanced its weight, and she tore through the monster's torso with a disgusting splat. Dark black blood sprayed out from where she hit, but each drop was sucked away and pulled into her spatial dimension before the potentially dangerous fluid could splatter on anyone.
I gave her a quick agreement to her question through the bond, and Mimi's torso opened up and swallowed the demon's corpse whole. Mimi had become a bit of a powerhouse in combat after some training. She had always been a pretty reliable fighter, but she had been fighting instinctively. Now that she had a bit of training and magic development, she was a force to be reckoned with, possibly the strongest member of our group now.
She smiled and turned to the group before wiping her brow of non-existent sweat in an imitation of what someone might do after a battle like this. It always made me laugh when I would see her imitate something like that after missing the point of the gesture. I would tell her about it later, but part of me wanted to leave the gesture uncorrected because I found it so cute.
Torien frowned. "I would have at least liked to look at its core."
Mimi opened her hand, and a water core appeared in her palm. "It isn't that big, but I kept it just in case."
Torien sighed, and her frown quickly turned into a wry smile. "I forgot you could do that. I can't help but think that anything you eat is just gone when you chomp it down like that."
Morrigan's brow furrowed as she took the core from Mimi. "A water core? That's unusual. Torien said she found several different cores when she went with Lilith a while back. Do you think the demons are spreading out to other elements?"
I shrugged. "It seems like it, but that demon didn't strike me as a water affinity monster."
"Yeah, it didn't even use any water-based attacks. I wouldn't have been able to guess it had a water core if I wasn't looking at it," Morrigan said, perplexed.
Torien clicked her tongue. "Too bad, I would have liked another shadow core. They make for good materials for me and Lori."
Morrigan handed the water core back to Mimi for safekeeping. "Hold onto it for now. We might be able to craft something with it once we get to Goldenhearth."
"Okay!" Mimi chirped happily. The core disappeared into her pocket dimension.
I turned to look at the black bloodstain on the ground, the blood that had mixed with the soil being the only thing Mimi hadn't eaten. "At least we don't need to worry about cleanup with Mimi around."
Mimi giggled at my comment as we began to walk back to the carriage. Everyone in the carriage was still safe, but I still took a moment to visit with Bella and Ashe while we were stopped. The fight hadn't taken all that much time, and it created a good opportunity for everyone to take a few minutes to stretch their legs before we got back on the road.
While we were waiting, I pulled Mimi into a hug from behind and kissed her neck. "You did really great in that fight, Mimi. You're getting so strong."
She leaned back into my touch. "I'm happy to get stronger to protect our family. I won't let something like that hurt our baby Ashe."
"You've taken a liking to her, haven't you?" I asked with a smile.
There was a long pause, and I could feel her thoughts churning through the bond. "She just seems so... amazing to me. She's a part of both you and Bella. Mimics aren't created that way. It was pretty lonely in that castle. None of the other mimics could talk to me. The one that I spawned from tried to kill me. It's so... beautiful by comparison."
I hugged her tighter. "You're a succubus too now, you know? You can probably have a child too. You could carry one like Bella, or maybe father one like I have."
"I don't know... I'm afraid I wouldn't be a very good parent. I still feel like it's hard to understand you guys sometimes. I still feel... weird. I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to take care of a child the right way... and what if my child is like one of the old mimics? What if my baby isn't intelligent and tries to attack one of us? I don't know what I would do if that were the case... I'm... scared."
I kissed her neck again and thought about it. "I don't think you would give birth to a normal mimic. Even if you gave birth to a mimic, I can't imagine it wouldn't be intelligent like you... but I admit, I don't really know how it works. Maybe we should consult with Nelly? Her goddess might be able to give you insight on what might happen."
Mimi nodded. "Okay... that might be nice to know. But I don't want to have a baby right now. I want to watch Ashe grow up and see if I can be a good aunt to her before I make a decision. Maybe if I wait longer, I might understand all of you better too."
I smiled and squeezed her again. "Mimi. It's okay if you think a little bit differently from the rest of us. You don't need to understand us fully to be a good lover, or a good parent, or even a good auntie. Some people's brains just work differently, and that's okay. We can all tell that you care about us. Even if you have trouble conveying it with your words, all of us can tell by your actions. I can tell that you love all of us very much."
Mimi twisted in my grip to face me. "Really? You promise? You're not just saying that to make me feel better, right?"
I smiled. "Of course not. I promise you that I'm being honest when I say that all of us can tell how much you care. I could tell how much you loved Ashe from the way that you first looked at her. I could tell how much you love Bella from the way that you always try to help her when she needs it. You don't have to worry. We can tell how much you love us, and I want you to know that all of us love you a lot too. I promise."
I pulled Mimi against me and let my love for her flow through the bond. I know that the way she experiences emotions is a bit different from the rest of us, but maybe the sincerity of my words will shine through to her.
The two of us stood together for a long time as Mimi and I shared a moment. The two of us reluctantly pulled away when it was finally time to get back on the road.