Day: 1230

Days Left: 4250

Lives Saved: 6

"She should be over here," mumbled the woman with Lili still walking behind, sword to her back.

"Where?" asked Lili, looking around to find no one else in the forest.

"Over..." the woman paused, then pointed over to a tree where at the ground was a pile of rope, parts of it cut.

"Seems like she escaped," Lili sighed, unsure whether to be relieved as Corinna could still be in danger. She guided the woman over to the tree and picked up the rope, tying the hands of her captive. "Come on," Lili said, prodding the woman with her sword. "You're still not off the hook yet."

"I don't know where she is," said the woman, huffing and wincing as the rope around her wrists tightened and dug into her skin.

"But I imagine you might have friends nearby." Lili glared. "You're from that big group based at the drop-off, right?"

The woman hesitated, then replied meekly, "no..."

"I advise you to try not to lie to me again." Lili shoved the woman to start walking again. "If your friends dare attack, I'll use you as a hostage or maybe even a shield."

"You're not going to let me go, are you?"

"I'll decide when I find Corinna; she's more likely to spare you than I am, so your best option is to help me find her-"

"Oh, thank goodness!" cried a voice, followed by a rushing of feet on crunched leaves.

Lili turned to see Corinna, the young woman panting and catching her breath by leaning against a tree, her hand clutching onto her chest.

"I've been so worried! I couldn't find you!" Corinna looked to Lili and then to the tied-up woman.

Lili paused for a moment, then glared at her captive. "Sit and behave," she growled.

The woman glanced at Corinna, then to Lili and obeyed, sitting down on the ground with her tied hands up in surrender.

"We need to find the others!" said Corinna.

"We will," said Lili calmly, approaching the young woman.

"The village has been attacked and-" Corinna gasped as she was pinned against the tree. "What are you doing!" Corinna spluttered for breath as Lili's elbow dug into her stomach, struggling to break free.

"You're not her," Lili hushed into the fake Corinna's ear. "You're a shapeshifter."

The fake Corinna forced a laugh as if attempting to hide her fear. "How'd you figure it out?"

"Corinna can't talk," said Lili. "And she has prosthetic hands that can't move by themselves." She motioned to the fake Corinna's hands, that whilst they looked exactly like the wooden prosthetics Corinna had made, they moved like they were animatronic instead of still and had to be manually moved.

"Damn, just my luck," the fake Corinna coughed. "You're into the mute. I can never tell what form I appear to people-"

"Where is she!" hissed Lili, tightening her hold on the siren's wrist. "What have you-" She let go of the shapeshifter and stepped aside as the captured woman rushed at her from behind.

The fake Corinna whipped out an electric taser from her pocket, attempting to appear threatening, but she was still shaking and gasping for breath. "It's two against one!" she spat.

"Correction," said Lili, rolling back her shoulders. "There's two of you, one with her hands tied and no mask, and you whose mask just lets you look like someone else." Lili tapped her tiger mask that was on the side of her head. "How about you rethink this? Just tell me where Corinna is."

The fake Corinna and the woman glanced at each other, what little confidence they had before waning further. However, the fake Corinna ignored her friend's look of apprehension and turned on the electric taser.

"Okay," Lili grinned. "But I did warn you."

It was over in a matter of seconds. Lili quickly disarmed the fake Corinna, claiming the taser for herself, before pinning both women to the ground. Then, sighing, Lili used the rope to tie their hands together. "Now, will you two promise to behave and help me find my friend?"

The two women grimaced and weakly nodded.

"Very good." Lili ordered them to walk in front of her.

As they walked, Lili noticed them both looking at each other, eyes glancing around. She rolled her eyes as the two women attacked in unison, clumsily lunging at Lili with their hands tied together. Once again, Lili pinned them to the ground.

"You're making fools of yourselves." Lili glared down at them. "And each time, I lose some of my patience." She flourished her sword. "For the very last time, help me find Corinna."

The fake Corinna and the woman with the invisible mask were much more cooperative this time and guided Lili to where the unconscious Corinna was.

"Both of your sit with your hands raised," ordered Lili. "And I hope you have learned to behave by now."

The two women nodded, obeying her command.

Lili crouched beside the unconscious Corinna, gently shaking her arm until she awoke.

Corinna winced, her eyes adjusting to the light, before sitting up.

"You okay?" asked Lili. "I caught those two that had been causing trouble."

Corinna looked at Lili for a moment, almost retreating away, then saw the captured shapeshifter.

Lili wondered who she saw instead; whose form did it take?

"We should probably take away that mask." Lili rose and approached the fake Corinna. "Deactivate your mask."

The siren shook her head. "I can't."

"Why not?" Lili folded her arms.

"Since I take a different form in different people's eyes, it is dangerous to transform back when I'm being watched."

"So we have to look away?"

The siren shook her head again. "I must be in isolation for a couple of hours, during which I must not be seen by anyone else. If you don't want me to look like some abomination, don't make me deactivate my mask."

Lili's eyes narrowed, sensing that the shapeshifter was telling the truth, and she sighed. "Fine."

After returning Corinna's lost weapons and mask, Lili turned back to the two captives. "Well, what should we do with them? They're part of that big group. It seems they have declared war on us; we should retaliate and-"

Corinna shook her head.

Lili sighed. "They attacked us and will likely try to hurt the others if they haven't already done so."

Corinna reached for her whiteboard and approached the two women. She wrote, 'why attack?'

"You hurt one of our people first!" snapped the woman with the invisible mask.

Lili and Corinna shared a confused look.

"Who did we hurt?" asked Lili. "This is the first time we're hearing this."

"Talon! You hurt Talon!" answered the woman. "And you took Jules captive too!"

"Who's Jules?"

"The one who infiltrated your group," said the woman, still angry but less confident as she saw their confused faces.

"Someone infiltrated our group?" Lili hushed aside to Corinna.

Corinna shrugged.

"Did this happen just today?" asked Lili.

"No..." said the woman. "He's been with your group for a month now... and Talon was hurt yesterday..." She looked at her friend, who remained silent, head bowed.

'We apologise if someone in our group hurt your friends,' wrote Corinna. 'Whoever did this does not represent us.'

"You really didn't know about this?" asked the woman, unsure if she genuinely believed them.

Corinna shook her head, then wrote, 'take me to your leader, and we will sort this all out peacefully.'

"I'm not sure that's a good idea..." said Lili slowly, but Corinna gave a reassuring look.

'Please?'

The two captured women stared at each other before sighing and nodding.

Much to Lili's disapproval, Corinna cut the two women free with her hidden blade.

'Corinna Warren', she wrote, then motioned to herself.

The tall woman, who had the invisible mask, hesitated, then replied, "I'm Rachel."

"Rita," said the siren.

They all looked at Lili expectantly.

Lili sighed. "Lili."

Corinna beamed. 'Don't worry; we'll sort this misunderstanding out.'

*

"It wasn't Sir Frederic that killed the maid," Calixte read out in his impression of an elderly woman. "It was I!"

Princess Alfreda gasped and quietly mumbled, "no..."

"It was me all along!" Calixte continued. "And now that you know the truth, I-"

The dark void they were trapped in rumbled and groaned. They both jumped to their feet, and Princess Alfreda snatched up the minotaur labrys.

"What's going on!" Alfreda hissed, more annoyed that the story was interrupted than the possible threat.

"Perhaps we're being released?" Calixte suggested, hopefully.

The darkness of the void faded into a blinding light, the invisible ground continuing to rumble. A powerful force of wind swiped the fire demon and the amphibian off their feet, their reality seeming to tilt, and they fell back into the light and collapsed onto solid ground, onto the grass.

"Quick! Restrain them!" shouted a female voice.

Alfreda winced from the sudden light; her vision was blinded momentarily before adjusting to see monsters and prisoners surrounding them. Then, hearing voices shouting her and Calixte's names, Alfreda glanced to see Oscar, Ms Ivette, and Kai tied to a nearby tree.

But where was everyone else? Where are the imps? Lili and Calanthe? Miss Warren?

A monster stepped closer with rope, and Calixte's antenna instinctively popped up, the orb glowing brightly.

"Get the water!" shouted a prisoner as the nearby monsters froze, entranced in the light.

The amphibian cried out as numerous buckets of water were thrown at him. He screeched and writhed on the ground in uncontrollable sobs.

Those who had thrown the water paused, seeing the fear and terror in Calixte.

"I thought he would just be a bit scared," mumbled one of them. "I thought he would just... this is going too far-"

"Restrain them! Do it now!" shouted a woman wearing a green-scaled monster mask.

Her followers snapped out of their momentary hesitation and surrounded Alfreda and the panic-stricken amphibian.

Alfreda glanced at Oscar, Ivette, and Kai tied up to the tree, then to Calixte screaming and crying on the ground.

A snuff of smoke billowed out of the fire demon's mouth, her eyes of white flame flaring hotter. She rolled back her shoulders, her rock-like skin cracking. "Oh, you're all going to want to beg for my forgiveness soon..." she purred with a deep gravelly voice, then eyed up a nearby prisoner with a smirk. "There is no doubt about that, my pets."

Before any of her assailants could make a move, the fire demon lunged for the minotaur labrys on the ground and, with unnatural strength and in one swing, cut through the first wave of monsters, the axe's blade slicing their chests, knocking them to the ground.

The prisoners froze, seeing their friends in pain, some unable to stand just from a single strike. And then they all charged in, all tactics and strategy thrown aside as fear controlled them to vanquish this monster.

The fire demon bared through all the hits and attacks, too focused on dealing as much damage as she could back instead of protecting herself. She became a whirlwind of blades, claws, teeth, and fire on the battlefield, scorching skin, hacking at limbs, ripping off and shredding faces until she trampled on top of defeated bodies, ignoring their cries of mercy.

"You call that begging?" she grinned, her claws digging into a monster's neck, holding it above the ground, whilst her tail deflected an oncoming attack from behind. "You can do better than that-"

"Stop! Let him go!" shouted a voice.

Amused, Alfreda chuckled and turned. But, then, her arrogance was diminished instantly as she saw the woman in the green-scaled mask holding a gun to Calixte's head, her foot firmly treading on the whimpering amphibian's back.

"We underestimated you, Your Highness," spoke the woman. "From the reports, it seemed you were just a spoilt princess that did nothing but hide away all day."

Princess Alfreda huffed a small puff of hot ash out of her nostrils, then replied with a devilish grin, "are you the leader, I suppose? Although I must admit, I am disappointed a how easily I just wiped out so many of your forces. But I suppose you had to sacrifice quality for quantity, yes?" She glanced the woman up and down, still holding the monster by the neck. "Yes, you most certainly sacrificed quality, pet."

"You are still acting this cocky even when I have your friend's memories hostage?" The leader aimed the gun closer to Calixte's head. "Just a pull of a trigger, and he will no longer be the same person, not remember who any of you are. Do you want that?"

"My, you truly are scared, aren't you?" Alfreda cocked her head to the side, the lava veins coursing across her rock body spat out hot ash. "How many bullets do you have? How many do you think it'll take to breach my hardened skin and kill me? Do you think you'll be quick enough to shoot before I tear out your throat?"

"It'll take only one bullet to erase your friend's memory." The leader glanced at the amphibian, still drenched in water and silently sobbing from his hydrophobia. "If you do not care about him, his mask would be quite useful to us; I'll erase his memories anyway." She returned to face the fire demon. "Or perhaps if you don't want that to happen, you can surrender and take off your mask."

Alfreda smirked, her eyes glancing again behind at Kai, Ivette, and Oscar tied to the tree and then to the weak amphibian in psychological pain, whimpering as the woman pressed her boot deeper into his neck.

Then Alfreda looked to the surrounding monsters and prisoners; though she had taken out the majority, the defeated were either badly wounded or lying still on the ground. How many could she take out? How many would bare her path to strike their leader? How quickly could she throw the minotaur labrys and behead the smug bitch? How accurate would her aim be? What if she missed? What if she hit Calixte by accident?

The fire demon bowed her head, and a billow of boiling steam gasped out of her mouth in frustration, and then, with much reluctance, she eventually placed the terrified prisoner down to the ground. He retreated away, spluttering for breath.

"Very good," cooed the leader, still pointing the gun at the amphibian's head. "And now the mask."

With a disgruntled growl, the fire demon princess held her hand to her face. A bright line shone briefly, and her body shrunk, the horns and tail receding, until all that was left was a human woman, though, with the state she was in, no one would believe she was a princess. Her hair was not so perfectly styled, no gold and silver weaved in like she used to; her garments were frayed and discoloured with dirt and wear and tear, her face not covered in makeshift make-up; a state which not even her servants had seen her in.

Princess Alfreda stared down at the fire demon mask; without it nor a veil, her face was laid bare, all of her confidence and fire from before dwindled, and not even a tiny flicker remained.

"The mask," the leader pressed as one of her peons stepped closer, hand outstretched to receive it.

Sucking in a breath, Alfreda passed the mask. Not even a moment later, she was pinned to the ground and tied to a tree next to the others captured.

"Keep a closer eye on that one," ordered the leader, and then she turned to look down at the amphibian squashed underneath her boot. "Now, it's time for you to take off your mask-"

"He can't!" Kai yelled, only just comprehensible through the gag in his mouth.

After the leader gave permission, a nearby peon took out the gag in Kai's mouth, allowing him to speak.

"He can't transform back!" continued Kai. "He's stuck in his mask form and can't get back to being human!"

"Is this true?" the leader addressed the question to others.

Oscar and Ivette nodded in agreement, mumbling through their gags that it was correct.

"Interesting..." the leader mumbled, then said after a pause, "because we received a different report..."

Alfreda's breath caught in her throat as the leader crouched beside Calixte.

"We heard that he can take off his mask," continued the leader. "In fact, he does it every day." She reached her hand out to the amphibian's face, hesitant to go near the numerous set of sharp brush-thin teeth.

"No, stop!" cried Kai before his gag was put back in, and his screams and the others' were all muffled and incomprehensible.

"Well?" the leader hushed to Calixte. "Do as your friends did, and take off your mask..."

The amphibian, though no longer as traumatised from having a bucket of water thrown at him, was still shaking with the remnants of droplets covering his scales and dripping down his face.

"Come on," the leader pulled at the amphibian's antenna, forcing Calixte to look up at her. "Take it off, or I will do it myself."

Calixte closed his eyes, wincing as he was allowed to move his webbed hand to his face, the light shining around the edges as he detransformed. 

Apologies for the late update; it has been busy at work.

Thank you for being so patient.