The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 148: Dust And Teeth

Chapter 148: Dust And Teeth

As Kir turned into the dark alley he hadn’t ever wanted to see again, he was surprised to see that the shop which had belonged to Stella’s old master was still completely intact.

Technically, it was his, on the whim of his father who had transferred everything the dead demonkin had owned, after Kir killed him. But Kir hadn’t thought anything of using the place. Now, it would be a decent place to situate the Black Sheep while figuring out what to do.

"Ugh, this place is a mess," Stella said as soon as she stepped past the door, shuddering a bit.

Kir was still outside, analyzing the wards that had once imprisoned her. He got the sense that they also discouraged people from loitering, which accounted for the relative emptiness of the alley. There was also something strange with what he felt was spatial magic, but it wasn’t active and he didn’t want to experiment if the building was still habitable.

"Guess it could use a little dusting," Noir coughed as he stepped in behind her.

"I cleaned this place for decades, you can do it."

Sam just silently stepped past them and started looking around.

As soon as Kir entered, he saw that everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. Some of the objects he hadn’t seen as magical with his original manasight now showed small glimmers.

"Alright, let’s get this place clean. Stella, mind checking upstairs? I’ll get Amarena now."

"Sure," Stella said, stepping past the tables and counters before making her way up.

As soon as Kir opened up his storage to withdraw Amarena, she grabbed him with both arms and pulled, which worked only to "hang" him at the entrance by the edge of his tattoo. He had a brief glimpse of her as she climbed past him and into the shop, before he too withdrew.

"Fuck, I’d rather have torture than go back in there," she growled. "How long was I gone?"

"A couple of hours," Kir said. "Sorry, they interrogated us when we got here."

"That’s what I thought might happen..." She grabbed the waterskin when Kir offered it to her and drank it empty.

"What was it like?" Noir asked.

"Nothing. It was like endless nothing. After I was closed in, I couldn’t move. All I could do was think, and think, and think. It felt like an eternity."

Everyone present shivered at that thought. "Thank you for putting up with it," Kir said.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"It’s... a shop. Technically I own it." He gave them the short-short version of his first hostile encounter in the city, then how his father had chosen to "reward" him.

"Wow you, uh..." Noir seemed uncertain about what to say.

Amarena interrupted. "Good. I would have killed such a man too," she leaned heavily against the counter. At that point, Stella returned.

"All clear up here. I even did a bit of cleaning, but there’s only one bed. It’s pretty big, old fuckface was a lardass, but we’re going to have to share or set up in the basement."

Kir blinked rapidly. "There’s a basement? Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Uhh, because it’s a basement? Not even the sexy kind. Plus you never asked." There was a bit of an awkward pause. "Alright, I didn’t think of it. I just wanted to get out. Only stuff down there is basement shit anyway."

After that, everyone got to work cleaning. The actual cleansing of dust didn’t take long, with Noir and Stella combining their magics to accomplish it. Most of the work was getting all the knickknacks and tables out of the way.

The basement door was revealed to have been hidden behind the counter, under a long trapdoor with the latch concealed by the musty carpet that lay atop the whole apparatus.

"Guess it’s time to do some exploring," Kir said as he lifted it open.

With his manasight active, Kir saw quite clearly by the fire that Stella conjured in her hand behind him.

At first glance, there was indeed nothing really worthy of note. No magic signatures for any of the objects on the shelves, though he did notice something on some of the artifacts on the floor. It was like they had magic at some point but now they didn’t.

Assuming there was nothing magical, he checked the first shelves, noting that there were metal ingots, dried up plants, and some jewelry that might be worth something, even though most of it was tarnished silver.

The next shelf had expired foodstuffs and one barrel that carried the sour smell of cheap beer.

There were holders for weapons on one of the walls but curiously all of the weapons were on the floor beneath them.

"Looks like something shook this place up," Kir said. A glimmer shone off to his right, and Kir turned, ready to draw Kangetsu.

That was when he saw the chest.

In manasight, it held a slightly pink-red aura of mana. It was low-level enough that it had mostly been subsumed by the orange light of Stella’s fire spell, until he looked directly at it.

"Hey Stella," Kir called out. As soon as she arrived he asked, "What’s in this chest?"

"Huh. I don’t remember that being here," she replied. "Knowing my old boss, it’s probably just junk."

"There’s something magical in there," Kir said. "Or at least the chest is magic. Not a lot of magic though."

"Maybe it’s a dimensional chest? Could be bigger on the inside. Oooh! Maybe there’s a grimoire in there. Or some naughty literature. Hee hee."

Kir sighed. "Any idea where the key might be?"

"Nope. I thought you had them."

Kir opened his mouth then closed it. Those keys were probably still at the Academy with the rest of his stuff, assuming they’d kept any of it. "Guess I’ll check it out then."

Crouching down he saw that there was no obvious lock, and nothing to indicate it was a trap. In fact, the mana seemed so muted, even if it was a trap Kir didn’t think it would do worse than his seals. That didn’t preclude physical traps, but Kir almost felt certain no self-respecting businessman would booby-trap his own shop...

He lifted the lid, which came open surprisingly easy, without even a squeak of the hinges.

"Huh. What’s this pink stuff?"

Suddenly the chest jumped up, latching onto Kir and swallowing him. He tried to push it off but the once firm surface suddenly softened, except for some rather bony formations that even without sight he could feel were like fanged teeth...

With a wet, slurping gloomph, he was sucked toward the bottom of the chest, into warm, fleshy depths that were bigger on the inside, his legs and most of his backside still outside as he thrashed about, trying to get some sort of purchase, even as the mimic wrangled his arms away from any surface he could use.

At the same time, his body began to feel heavier as his mana started to drain.

"Kir?! Kir get out of there!" Stella yelled. She tried pulling on his tail, but that only hurt a little.

"I’m trying but I can’t fucking see!" Kir shouted back. "The fucker’s draining me, go get help!"

"What’s going on- p-Hah hah hah!" Amarena’s voice came through, and Kir guessed that the shouting had drawn the attention of those upstairs.

"This isn’t funny!" Kir shouted. Okay, it was a little funny, but he didn’t want to die. After a moment he felt a stronger tug on his tail but his situation didn’t change at all.

"Well, pulling doesn’t work. Push him in deeper! Maybe it’ll choke," Amarena continued laughing.

"How about you do it, muscle-bitch?" Stella challenged.

"For you, slut? Fine." Shortly, Kir felt as he was lifted by the ankles and shoved.

The depths only seemed to get deeper. He was about to call for a stop when suddenly his cheek was slammed against the bottom of the mimic, and the basement floor beneath it.

"Is it gagging?" Stella asked, her shout oddly more distant.

"How should I know?" Kir shouted back.

"The thing swallows like you do-" Amarena said to Stella.

"Rena!" Kir shouted. "I think it’s just draining me faster."

"So drain it back! You’re half incubus, aren’t you?"

Could he? Kir had only ever used his draining ability in relatively sexy situations.

The mimic started engulfing his knees.

Fuck, it’s now or never... Just this once, he’d think about tentacles... Concentrating on his lips, Kir recalled the slightly pulling feeling he associated with draining and...

Almost as soon as his draining took hold, the mimic started to eject him, lurching him upward in muscled waves until he was flung from the creature, covered in mucus and missing both of his shirts. A short moment later, the chest spat out the shirts in a viscous wad, before the lid shut and twenty or so little eyes blinked closed.

The glow on the chest had gone from pinkish to firmly red with stolen mana.

"What the fuck, Rena?" Kir said as soon as his mouth was clear.

"Come on, everyone knows about protean siphons," she crossed her arms, clearly enjoying the sight of Kir’s embarrassment. "They always appear whenever portals and the like are frequent. Especially during purgatories."

"That is something I didn’t know," Kir said, clearing more muck from himself before Stella stepped over and started magically clearing his face while keeping as distant as possible.

"Quit whining, they’re not fatal unless you’re small enough to get swallowed completely." She paused as if considering the extent to which Kir had been drawn in. "They normally don’t get this big though. Most of the time they just hide as sticky rocks," Amarena approached the mimic, which continued to pretend to be a chest, which indicated their intelligence was likely comparable to rocks. "This one must have eaten well."

That confirmed that most of the detritus in the room had once been magical. He’d need to do research to see if re-enchanting was a thing for completely drained artifacts. He wondered how much better off he’d be financially if-

Nope. It didn’t bear thinking about. Better to just focus on getting cleaned.

And besides...

"Don’t attack it," Kir said. "I want to study it later." Kir was damn sure it had been bigger on the inside. If he could understand how dimensional magic worked, that would set him up for all sorts of benefits down the line.

Squinting at the mimic, he almost thought he could see something behind the aura, along the physical lines of the mimic.

Amarena rolled her eyes, "Call me if it eats you again. I’ll bring a chair so I can sit while I watch."

Kir half-wanted to laugh, but he held it down to a smile. "Yeah, well, until that happens, let’s go upstairs. We need to make some plans."

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