It hadn’t been the wisest decision on Aria’s part to pass through Akari territory, especially knowing their disdain for independent Demon construct wielders. But she had been left with no choice, her contact was in Bassera and would be leaving with the expedition forces soon.
Her only choices were to either let go of any hopes of acquiring a Realm-Codex for herself in the foreseeable future, or take a risky shortcut through the Underground Railways of the Akari Dominion.
Most of her journey had been fine, relaxing even, but she should have known it could never be too easy.
Following the usual loud bustle of people disembarking the train carriage at one of the stops, the carriage went completely quiet as 4 figures in the Tan and Red Uniforms of the Purgers walked into the carriage.
The Purgers were the Demon Hunting Division of the Dominion’s Military. Warrior mages trained to be ruthless in their hunt for demons and Demon Construct users alike, which was less honourable as it may seem at first glance because every single one of the Purgers were Demon construct users themselves.
Deciding not to draw attention to herself by reacting, she leaned back into her seat and did her best to blend in among the other obviously nervous passengers of that carriage.
She let out a breath she had apparently been holding as the Purgers took their own seats, not paying any attention to anyone else within that carriage.
Now that she got a closer look, their uniforms all looked pretty worn, there were cracks on several of the glass demon containment cells, especially one with something pulsing inside, affixed to a bandolier like belt worn across the shoulder of one of the shorter Purgers, dried stains of whatever they had gotten splattered with still remained on most of their uniforms.
As she was watching, one of them opened up an obscured box or a cage as it turned out, that he had been carrying, and let out a small black dog, It was cute at first glance, then one started noticing the large mouths on the front and back of its torso, the teeth gnashing and occasionally revealing the innumerable tentacles writhing within.
The moment it was on the floor of the carriage, it sniffed the air and started barking wildly, spinning in all directions and the tentacles within its back-mouth flickering outward as if searching for something or someone…
‘A Pursuer…’ she has heard of these dogs, if you could even call them dogs. They had apparently been bred by the Purgers to specifically sniff out Demons and subdue them.
This one could probably sense the demon construct within her spirit but couldn’t zero in on her…yet.
Aria wanted to get up and leave without drawing much attention, but that was easier said than done. Noticing a couple of the other passengers looking queasy, she leaned over to them ‘Hey, should we just… go to the next carriage?, I’m not feeling good with that thing in here with me’
The couple of middle aged ladies she had been talking to nodded in a hurry and got up with her to briskly make their way to the next carriage.
Just before they reached the door at the end of the carriage, it opened wide to reveal the massive form of one of the Rail guards, resplendent in his deep blue and white uniform with a rather impressive black moustache.
He turned towards us with a stern but not unkind expression
‘I’m afraid the next carriage is at maximum capacity, please return to your seats, we’ll try to see if we can accommodate you there once the passengers have disembarked at the next stop, so till then please cooperate with the staff and take your current seats’,
He then turned and marched towards the Purgers with a much darker expression,
‘Purgers!’, he said with a booming voice ‘I must ask you to quiet down your animal, the rail regulations make it clear that only well-trained animals may be allowed on board, that too with a permit’. He looked at each one of them carefully, ‘Must i remind you that NO ONE is an exception to those rules?’,
the Purger that was carrying the dog, probably no older than 20, opened his mouth, seemingly to retort, but was quieted by an older Purger woman placing her hand on his shoulder. The expression on her face was stern but she nodded and gave a look to the younger Purger, who immediately grabbed the Dog, trying to pacify it with minimal success.
The Train Guard soon left to stand near the door at the end of the carriage and 3 of the purgers were focused on trying to control the dog. But the older woman, maybe in her mid 50s, who was seemingly their troop leader, looked around with suspicion, not as quick to write away the dog’s reaction as the others.
Aria watched with mounting dismay as a small Eye-like construct manifested in the Purger leader’s palm and pulsed softly. She didn’t need to read the spirit to recognise a tracking spell taking form,
Left with no other choice, she got up and quickly made her way out of the carriage, asking the Rail guard the way to the nearest restroom as she passed by.
Nearing the restroom door, she risked a small glance back at the closing carriage door and could make out that the Purger leader had also gotten up and was walking in the same direction as her.
Hurrying into the restroom, she locked it and looked around for another exit, all she could see were small vents and a window too small for her to crawl through.
She could hear footsteps outside the door coming to a stop in front of it. She heard a knock, ‘One moment!’ she said, trying to do her best to make it sound like she was in the middle of a very strained task, which honestly wasn’t that difficult given the circumstances.
Deciding to gamble on a last ditch effort, she focused on a point outside the restroom window, outside the train carriage and activated her demon construct.
Within the dark underground tunnel, outside her window, she could barely make out the form of the creature she had just manifested, a form she knew would look like a red and black bird with 6 wings and no head or neck. In their place sitting between the shoulders of the bird would be a single yellow cat like eye.
Extending her senses through the creature she commanded it to fly around the outside of the moving carriage until she could just spot the team of Purgers sitting inside, through one of the windows.
Taking a deep breath Aria focused all her will into a small presence she had sensed earlier, like a very slow heartbeat, within one of the cracked Containment Cells carried by the Purger with the bandolier.
Building up as much of Rho- her spirit energy, as she could possibly risk channelling through her manifested demon without breaking it, she sent it spearing into that canister.
All she saw next was a blinding flash and the sound of something breaking.
Her demon dissolved from the strain of channelling that much Rho, but she was rewarded with the sound of a loud screech coming from within the carriage.
‘Shit!…’ She heard muffled from the other side of her restroom door and barely made out the sound of the Purger woman’s footsteps as she rushed back to check on whatever had happened within her carriage.
Not feeling particularly hurried, Aria waited in the restroom for about half an hour and then slowly made her way back out to her carriage and peeked in through the half-closed door.
Inside stood several guards facing the Purgers, one of whom was holding on to a large glass container within which a jet black almost liquid, snake-like form writhed, it’s screeches muffled through the glass.
The Purger’s clothes looked even more worse for wear than they did before but thankfully, none of the other passengers in the Carriage appeared to be hurt, say what you will about the Purger’s motivations, but their efficiency could not be denied.
The dog was still trying to bark, but was being held restrained by its owner this time round.
‘…The pursuer must have sensed the leak in the containment cell earlier and had attempted to alert us. It was my own incompetence as the leader to not have conducted strict maintenance procedures…’ She heard the Purger leader explaining through gritted teeth to the Train guard from earlier, who looked furious to the point of his Moustache flaring out occasionally.
She felt the train lurch slightly as it slowed down for her approaching stop.
A large group of the passengers got up and began to huddle next to the door in order to leave the train and primarily to avoid the confrontation between the purgers and the Train Guard.
As a huge crowd bustled out of the carriage doors, mere 2 seconds after it stopped, she quietly drifted and disappeared into it, letting the wave of people carry her out and away from the trains and the now fading shouting match that had begun within it.
Aria felt a little bad for them but not too much, given what they would have done to her under different circumstances.
At the very least by the end of it, the Pursuer-dog would get the recognition it deserved for its skill at tracking demons.
Its creepy torso mouths aside, it was still a rather cute dog.
