Chapter 382: Dead Heads

Words : 1530 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

Chapter 382: Dead Heads “I’m fine!” Bridget coughed out as Syd held her in her arms. “Behind you!” When a person had three bodies, “behind you” was not a terribly useful piece of guidance. However, since Jadis was already oriented in three different directions, she was able to quickly spot what Bridget was warning her of. Jay spun around with lightning speed and intercepted the flying object in mid-air. The soft and fleshy thing splattered blood against her front as she caught it in her hands. Since she was still disoriented by the change in what she could see and hear, it took a moment for her to realize what the object was. When she did, she dropped it in disgust. It was a torso. Male, and probably human, it had all of its limbs and head torn off which made it hard to identify. The ruined clothing on the mutilated body looked like something a server would have been wearing, though it was hard to tell since there was so much blood. Looking in the direction the torso had been thrown from, Jay caught the tail end of some horrible creature as it crawled along the balcony rail of the second floor, disappearing into the chaos below. The little she had seen looked like some kind of fleshy centipede, with dozens of mismatched arms and legs attached to a long body that bulged in all the wrong places. Jadis didn’t bother asking what the thing had been. Whether it was some common variety of Demon or a Greater Demon or even a Matriarch didn’t matter. The fiend was killing people and she needed to stop it. Acting without any further delay, Jadis moved. Syd carried Bridget over towards the cluster of familiar faces that she had spotted, arriving next to Kerr and Vikwas so quickly that both of them almost swung at her with their makeshift weapons. “Stay together in one group!” Syd commanded as she set Bridget down. “Where are Sabina and Alex?” Aila, Eir, Kerr, Thea, Bridget, and Sorcha were all accounted for in the gathered group, as were Einer, Svana, Vikwas, and Senta. Jadis didn’t see Vraekae or Severina, but those two were skilled warriors and would no doubt be in the thick of things. They could handle themselves. Sabina, however, was not a fighter and Jadis needed to get her into a safe location as quickly as possible. Alex was powerful, so Jadis wasn’t worried about that aspect. What she was worried about was that as a Demon, she could get caught up in the fight and targeted by the guards and city defenders by mistake. “I don’t know where Sabina is,” Aila started, but was cut off as Thea jumped in. “B—bathroom!” Thea pointed towards the third floor. “That way!” “I saw Alex a second ago,” Aila continued. “She was on the other side of you, but I lost track of her.” “Shit,” Syd cursed. “Okay. Any idea on what the fuck is going on?” “No,” Aila shook her head, her face cold and deadly serious. “But by the sounds of things outside, this isn’t the only location being attacked. The bells.” Right. Jadis hadn’t been focused on it, but over the sound of combat and people screaming, she could hear a constant, omnipresent ringing sound. It was like the clocktowers throughout the city were all going off at once, filling the streets with a warning that not even a deaf woman could miss with how it vibrated in her chest. “Stay with me,” Syd told Aila and the others. “Jay and Dys will get Sabina and Alex.” With that, Syd turned around and looked for the nearest Demon. Spotting one of the grabby, handsy monsters attacking a guard who was struggling to keep it from strangling him, she dashed forward and took hold of the Demon’s arms, crushing them and then, a second later, the rest of the putrid thing. Congratulations! Strangling Crawler Defeated. Bonus Experience Points Awarded for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos. “Thank you!” the man panted as wobbled to his feet, blood dripping from several wounds on his face. “I couldn’t get my arms free—” “Go there!” Syd told the man, not having any time to waste on being polite or comforting. “The priestess there will heal you!” With that, Syd moved on to the next person, pulling another “crawler” off of them. While having multiple priority-one objectives would mean other people would have to make a hard choice about which to focus on first, Jadis didn’t have to worry about that particular problem. With three pressing concerns and three bodies, she was able to act on all of them simultaneously. So, while Syd stayed on the second floor where her companions and family were and worked to clear the area of threats, Jay and Dys moved to locate and retrieve her two missing lovers. The sack of twisted flesh exploded like a ballon filled with slime, splattering across Jay’s shoes and the poor elf who was still cowering behind her and Alex. Congratulations! Dead Head Defeated. Bonus Experience Points Awarded for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos. “Alex, are you alright?” Jay turned to check on her. “I am... Well...” Alex said in her usual tone as she unfurled the mass of tentacles she had thrown up in front of her face and torso. “Are you... Seeing... Better...?” Alex didn’t look great. A lot of her limbs had been charred by the blast of fire and she was still bleeding from many cuts and gashes in her sides and back. Her head and body were still in good condition, though, so Jadis had some hope that her health pool was still at a decent level. “Seeing better? Ah, yes, I am,” Jay quickly realized what she had meant. “I was confused by an illusion. But I’m better now.” “Are you... Certain...?” Alex asked as she motioned towards the server who was only just starting to look up at them with wide eyes. “You are... Still... Crying...” “What? No I’m—that’s not... Alex, how many of me do you see here right now?” “Two... Of Jadis...” Alex answered with absolute certainty. “No, that’s not me,” Jay hastily told her lover. “Touch her! Someone’s casting an illusion on you, too. That’s someone else!” Alex acted without hesitation, reaching out one of her large arms to take hold of the woman. The server rocked back, likely afraid of Alex, but she was on the ground and nowhere near fast enough to dodge away. Alex’s hand brushed against the elf’s arm and instantly Jadis saw the confusion as Alex’s demeanor shifted to confusion. “This tastes... Like Jadis... But does not... Feel like Jadis...” “Because it isn’t me,” Jay told her. “Look, let’s get you back upstairs so Eir can heal you.” Alex didn’t protest as Jay directed her back up the stairs, though she could tell that her Demon companion was still confused. Jadis didn’t think Alex had anything on her that was cursed like those pendants had been, so that meant there likely was someone in the building who was casting illusions. Wait. The pendants Jadis had been give had been checked by Eir and a High Priest of Lyssandria. There hadn’t been anything wrong with them. Had something been missed? Or had someone tampered with them after the fact? Whatever the case, Jadis would have to look into it after the immediate crisis was over. It wasn’t like she could start interrogating people in the middle of a battle. The fact that Jadis had only received one notification of dead head death had not gone unnoticed. The Demon with fire spells was still alive, and from what little Jadis could see through the noxious cloud on the first floor, there were a lot more Demons in the mix. Still, she wasn’t going to go charging into disadvantageous terrain with just one of her unarmored, unarmed bodies. Jadis was bold, not suicidal. “Come on,” Jay helped the elf to her feet. “Let’s get you somewhere safe.” “Thank you,” the woman sobbed as Jay escorted her up the stairs. “Thank you!” “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be—” Jadis’ words of comfort were cut off as a set of massive jaws lunged out of the cloud of foul smoke. Reacting with lightning speed, Jay caught either side of the jaws that were split vertically, rather than horizontally, before they could snap around her or the elf. Looking inside the huge jaws, Jay could see a human-like face in the middle where the throat should be. The face was hairless and strangely chubby, almost like a child’s face except that it was far too big. Where its two eye sockets should have been nests of small, wriggling tentacles. A single, large, dark blue eye the size of a grapefruit rested inside of the child-like face’s mouth. The elf woman screamed. Jadis was tempted to scream along with her.

Chapter 382: Dead Heads

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