All Chapters of Demonbound: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
74 chapters
31
Lumi sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the opposite wall.He lay down.The mattress dipped beneath his weight, soft enough to be comforting. The sheets smelled clean. Fresh.He closed his eyes.Nothing happened.Minutes passed.He turned onto his side.Then onto his back.Then onto his other side.Sleep refused to come.His mind kept circling the same empty space—memories that should have been there, but weren’t. The patrol. The street. The demon Scott claimed he didn’t see.Lumi opened his eyes and sat up.“…This is stupid,” he muttered.He stood, slipped on his boots, and eased the door open.The corridor outside was dim, lit by spaced wall lamps that cast long shadows across patterned carpet. The air was cooler here. Still.He stepped out and closed the door quietly behind him.He hadn’t gone far when he saw someone ahead of him.A woman.She was walking unsteadily, her shoulder bumping into the wall at irregular intervals. Her steps dragged slightly, as though one leg refus
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They spilled back into the corridor at a run.Footsteps thundered against the carpet, lights flickering overhead as Scott led the charge, senses stretched outward like invisible wires. Lumi stayed close, sword already in hand, Cleodora gliding behind them with unsettling calm, her fans folded but ready.The hotel felt wrong now.Too quiet.Doors lined the hallway on either side—closed, pristine, untouched. No voices. No movement. Even the air felt thinner, like the building itself was holding its breath.Scott slowed.“Stop,” he murmured.Something moved ahead.A blur of motion at the far end of the corridor.The woman Lumi had encountered earlier emerged from the shadows, her movements jerky, unnatural, head twitching as though struggling to hold itself upright.Her eyes locked onto them.She screamed—and charged.Scott stepped forward without hesitation.He met her head-on and backhanded her with brutal force.The impact was sickening.She flew sideways, smashing into the wall hard
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They did not run.Running made noise. Noise drew attention.Instead, they slipped.The three of them moved through the town in staggered bursts, ducking between shuttered shops and abandoned cafés, crossing streets only when the shadows were thick enough to swallow them whole. The veil pressed down harder the longer they stayed beneath it—a subtle weight behind the eyes, in the lungs, as though the air itself resisted being breathed.They hid first in a narrow service alley behind a closed bakery.The smell of stale bread lingered. A delivery crate lay overturned, its contents long gone. Scott crouched near the mouth of the alley, staff collapsed and held low, eyes closed as his senses reached outward.Cleodora leaned against the brick wall, fans folded, her earlier levity gone. Even she wasn’t smiling now.Lumi stayed at the back, watching the street beyond the alley’s mouth.Nothing moved.That was worse.Minutes passed.Then Scott stiffened.“Change position,” he whispered.They di
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The smile was the first thing Lumi noticed.Not wide. Not manic.Measured.Three demons stood in the narrow service street like they had always belonged there. One leaned casually against the brick wall to his left, fingers idly tracing a sigil scratched into the mortar. Another stood directly ahead, feet planted, posture relaxed. The third blocked the passage behind him without stepping forward, her shadow stretching unnaturally long beneath the flickering streetlamp.They hadn’t rushed him.They hadn’t snarled.They had simply… waited.“Found one,” they said together.Their voices overlapped imperfectly, just out of sync enough to make Lumi’s skin crawl.He tightened his grip on his sword.The street felt suddenly smaller. The walls closer. The air thicker, humming faintly with pressure. Somewhere above, a loose sign creaked as it swayed, the sound sharp in the silence.Lumi took one slow step back.The demon behind him tilted her head.Not a step forward. Just the tilt.A warning.
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The underground sanctum they created in the sewers had not changed.It never did.The cavern stretched wide beneath the earth, its ceiling lost in shadow, carved stone arching like the ribs of some ancient beast long since buried. Veins of dull crimson crystal threaded through the walls, pulsing faintly, not enough to illuminate—only enough to remind anyone inside that the place was alive.Or listening.At the heart of it all sat the Monarch.He reclined upon his throne of fused obsidian and bone, one leg crossed over the other, fingers resting lightly against his chin. The shadows bent subtly toward him, as though the dark itself acknowledged authority.Igor stood several steps below, hands clasped behind his back, posture straight, unmoving. His eyes glinted with quiet anticipation.“What’s the status?” the Monarch asked.His voice was calm. Too calm. It slid through the cavern like a blade drawn slowly from its sheath.Igor inclined his head.“The Cupida’s trap is holding in place,
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Lumi froze.The shadow shifted.Two fans glinted faintly in the half-light.“…Cleo?” he breathed.She straightened slowly, stepping out from where the wall met a collapsed stairwell, expression flat, unimpressed.“Yes, I’m the one,” Cleodora said. “Why do you look so surprised?”Lumi exhaled a laugh he hadn’t realised he was holding.“Nothing,” he said. “Just didn’t expect you to be hiding from demons.”“I’m not hiding,” Cleodora snapped.Her voice echoed sharper than intended.Lumi’s smile widened, faint but real.“Sure,” he said lightly. “Whatever you say.”She scowled at him, then folded her fans with a crisp click.“Are you done?”“Yeah,” Lumi replied. His gaze shifted down the street. “Let’s go find Scott. I’m sure he has his hands full.”“Are you sure?” Cleodora asked. “He told us not to.”“He can’t handle all the demons alone. Not like this. We have to help.”Cleodora thought for a while and then nodded once.They moved.—They didn’t rush.They couldn’t afford to.The town ha
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Lumi didn’t hesitate.He lunged.Fire erupted.It didn’t burst outward like an explosion. It coiled—tight, controlled, wrapped around his arm as he drove forward, heat screaming through the air. The demon barely had time to widen her eyes before flames crashed into her chest and sent her skidding backwards across the street.She recovered fast.Too fast.She twisted mid-slide, claws digging into the ground, heels carving molten lines into stone as she forced herself upright. Smoke curled from her dress, fabric blackened but regenerating slowly, painfully.“Ah,” she said, smiling despite it. “So that’s it.”Lumi didn’t answer.He was already moving again.He swung low, fire spilling from his blade this time, trailing behind it like a living thing. The demon ducked, felt the heat singe her hair, then countered with a sharp elbow aimed at his ribs.Lumi twisted aside.Barely.The blow clipped his shoulder instead, pain flaring—but he rolled with it, slammed his palm into the ground, and
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Darkness swallowed Lumi whole.Not the soft kind.Not shadow.This was absolute.It pressed in from every direction, thick and suffocating, as though the world itself had been erased and forgotten to be replaced. There was no ground beneath his feet—just the sensation of standing because he expected to be standing.His breath sounded too loud.He turned slowly, heart hammering.Nothing.No sky.No walls.No horizon.Just black.“Cleodora?” he called.A shape shifted.Then a voice answered, sharp and unmistakably irritated.“I’m right here.”Lumi spun toward the sound.Cleodora stood a few steps away, her fans clenched tightly in her hands, posture tense but upright. She looked shaken—but unharmed.Relief hit him so hard his knees nearly buckled.He ran to her.“Are you okay?” he asked.She looked up at him, eyes still sharp despite everything.“I am now,” she said. Then, glancing around, “What is this place?”Lumi swallowed.“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But we have to get out. Right
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The Patriarch’s chamber was quiet in a way that felt deliberate.Not peaceful—measured.The walls rose high and pale, carved from stone that seemed to drink in light rather than reflect it. Sigils were etched into every surface, layered over one another like the history of the Order itself, old magic half-buried beneath newer, sharper lines. The air carried the faint scent of incense and iron, a reminder that this was a place of both judgement and command.At the centre of the room sat the Patriarch.He did not rise when Scott, Cleodora, and Lumi entered. He did not need to. Authority clung to him like gravity, bending the space around his seat.Scott stepped forward first.His posture was formal. Controlled. But the tension in his shoulders hadn’t fully faded since the town.“Report,” the Patriarch said.Scott inclined his head.“The town was empty,” he began. “No civilians. No refugees. Just demons.”The Patriarch’s fingers stilled where they rested against the arm of his chair.“Th
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Evening settled over the city like a held breath.Street lights bloomed to life one by one, their glow spilling across cobblestone streets and painted storefronts. Vendors called out final offers before nightfall. Laughter drifted from open tavern doors. Somewhere, a bell chimed the hour—soft, unhurried.Life moved freely here.Too freely.Corvin and Lumi slipped through the crowd with practiced ease, weapons hidden beneath cloaks and layered clothing. To any passer-by, they were just two random people, another pair blending into the city’s nightly rhythm.But Corvin’s eyes never stopped moving.He scanned rooftops. Alley mouths. Reflections in windows. His hand brushed the hilts beneath his coat more than once, a nervous tell he didn’t bother hiding.Lumi stayed close, a half-step behind, letting Corvin lead.[You realise he’s looking for me, right?]Ashen’s voice slid into Lumi’s mind, dry and faintly amused.“I am,” Lumi murmured, barely moving his lips.Corvin didn’t notice. He wa