All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 186: Watch Me

Hajin stayed pressed against the cratered wall, chain still up in his guard, watching the new figure crouched between him and the spider.

’Huh,’ he thought, taking in the tail, claws, and the way the floor cracked under her weight, ’and who the hell is this?’

The system answered before he could finish the question.

[ Hostile Mana Detected ]

[ Subject: Demonic Entity — Anomaly Class ]

[ Recommended Action: Do Not Engage ]

His own Divine Eye had pegged her mana the second she landed, well before the system caught up, and he almost laughed at the lag.

The same signature had hung off two "human adventurers" in the woods on the way to the Beast King’s gate. Those two had grinned at him with a familiarity he could not place at the time.

So one of them had finally walked in front of him on purpose.

’What the hell are you doing in my gate,’ he thought, his eyes catching her tail, drifting down to her claws, settling on the dark mana off her shoulders.

Before he could finish the question, the answer slid into place on its own.

The corruption running through this gate had the same flavor as the demon crouched in front of him. Purple veins in the trees, static grain in the mana and rot soaking the spider above him, all similar to hers.

’Of course you are here,’ he thought, the answer settling all the way in, ’this whole gate is probably your doing.’

The spider was still on the other side of her, his ribs were wrecked, and a powerful demon was now parked in arm’s reach of his back. Two threats, one of him, and the gap was not one he could close by getting clever.

’Fuck,’ he thought, the smile he had been wearing draining off his face, ’can I even handle this?’

The demon girl turned her head a few degrees, looked at him, and smiled, "don’t worry, big brother," she said, her voice lighter than he was bracing for, "I’m here to help."

He blinked at her, his head taking a beat longer than it should have to catch up, "huh."

A whole wall of chat lit up across his vision right after he said it.

[ CringeSlayer91: ] HUH

[ Voxa: ] HUH ??????

[ ShadowMage44: ] she WHAT

[ AnimeConnoisseur42: ] new waifu just dropped

[ ashley (Mod): ] hold on hold on HOLD ON

He shoved the rest of the way off the wall, chain hanging loose in his grip, "help? help with what, what are you even talking ab—"

The spider cut him off before he could get the rest out, her voice rolling down slow and cold, "Cessy."

She had gone still above them, every eye pulling off him to settle on the demon girl, "what are you doing in my gate," she said, her legs spreading wide across the ground, "and this human, is he some pet of yours?"

"Mommy!" Cessy lit up at the name, straightening out of her crouch with a small bounce, "it has been ages since we last got to talk like this."

She clasped her hands behind her back, her tail swaying in slow, easy arcs behind her.

"I’m sorry for barging into your space all of a sudden," she went on, tilting her head with a sheepish little smile, "I really should have sent word before stepping through your barrier like this."

Hajin stayed flat against the wall, trying to square the bubbly voice and bow with the killing-edge demon he had felt seconds ago.

’What the hell is happening right now,’ he thought, his eyes flicking from the back of her head to the spider hanging over both of them.

The spider did not answer right away, her eyes narrowing as she watched Cessy bow at the foot of her broken leg.

"I know you are upset, mommy, and you have every right to be," she went on, her hands still folded behind her back, "your hunters were really lovely, so trust me when I say I get it, but this little human is very important to my Lord himself, so he really can’t die in here today."

Hajin’s grip stayed tight on the chain, his eyes still on the back of the demon’s head. He had no idea what she was playing at, but he was not dropping his guard for a demon calling him a little human.

"So please, mommy," she went on, her voice tilting up into a singsong as she rocked forward on the balls of her feet, "can you understand this one for me and just let it go, pretty please?"

The spider did not answer for a long stretch of seconds, every leg holding still as her eyes locked down onto Cessy. Hajin felt the silence drag, watching the back of Cessy’s head while the spider’s stillness deepened above her.

"I see," the spider said at last, "so this is how it is, Cessy."

She lowered her front body another inch, her jaws parting on a slow exhale that crawled across the ground.

"We had a deal, did we not," she went on, the weight in her voice climbing with every word, "you and that quiet one came to me, begged me to seed this gate, and promised my children a meal worth the trouble of growing here."

One front leg lifted and slammed back down with a scrape, the broken one twitching behind her at the impact.

"You both promised me something strong to feed my brood," she said, "and I held up my end of that bargain down to the very last egg."

Her eyes pulled off Cessy and dropped onto Hajin against the wall, the weight of the look pinning him flat where he stood.

"This human walked into my home, killed two of my hunters, then crippled me where I now stand," she went on, every word landing harder than the last, "but you come down here with a sweet little bow to ask me, ever so politely, to spare him?"

Her front jaws parted wider on the last word, a low rumble spilling out of her chest toward Cessy.

"You dare, Cessy?" She did not wait for an answer this time, her front leg launching out of the dark at Cessy, punching a crater into the ground, but Cessy was not there to meet it.

She stood a few paces to the left, the dust of the impact still settling around her, hands folded behind her back as before.

"Haaah, well, I tried," she said, her shoulders dropping a fraction as her tail flicked once behind her, "I really did try, mommy."

She drew her hands out from behind her back and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I really did not want to get my hands dirty today," she went on, the singsong sanding off her voice as she spoke, "but you are not leaving me much of a choice now, are you?"

The pressure in the pit shifted before she had even finished the sentence.

It started as a low hum under Hajin’s feet, climbed into his chest, then pushed past his ribs into his throat. He doubled forward against the wall, one hand clamped over his mouth as his stomach flipped, blood pushing up the back of his teeth.

’What the fuck is this,’ he thought, swallowing hard against the urge to empty everything onto the ground, ’I can barely stand up.’

The walls of the pit began to crack apart in long splintering lines, the roots overhead snapping as the whole gate trembled around them.

Dust rained down from the high ledges, the corruption in the ground pulsing twice to match whatever Cessy was pulling out of her core.

She turned her head to look back at Hajin, a small smile returning to her face, "watch me, big brother."