52 CHAPTER 51: Free.

Sirin looked at Amanda as he helped her to stand. The pieces of wood that were still fused to her skin looked quite painful and unsightly. But it couldn't be helped. He was nowhere near the power of a demon lord, so how could he expect to fully heal a curse casted by one. The whole reason he got this far in the first place was because of the system.

Amanda noticed his gaze and smiled. "Don't worry about that right now, we need to focus on getting out of here. Now that I'm free and my soul is able to heal, I should be a walking target for you demons, right?"

Sirin nodded. If he looked at her soul, he could tell that it indeed seemed brighter already. It might never return to its full state after the damage that had been done to it, but it would still be an easy snack for the demons that were crawling around hell.

Sirin took the little boy from Amanda and held him with his tail so he could use both of his hands to support her. He had given her a piece of cloth to cover herself with since they didn't have the time to either make or find some for her.

Spot who obviously had no idea what was going on curiously followed the trio as they slowly made their way out of the dead forest.

"Where are we going?" Amanda asked as she observed all the others who were left behind as they passed by.

"That depends." Sirin spoke. "If it is quiet outside of the forest then we better head to an altar as soon as possible since I can't open a gate right now. If there are too many creatures, we will have to wait at the ruins. If we stay here the harpies will have your head."

Amanda took a deep breath. Without her wooden prison nor even decent clothes she had never felt so vulnerable in this hellish landscape. The stench of brimstone and smoke tormented her nose, and the warm air scorched her lungs. In contrast to the hot atmosphere, the young demon holing her felt unnaturally cold.

In the end Sirin had judged that there were too many demons near the altar at the moment and they headed for the ruins. Here they found some clothes for Amanda, even if they were in a terrible state and way to large.

While they were waiting for Sirin to gain enough magic to open a portal to a living world, he had positioned himself on one of the tables. Here he inspected the small human he held in his hands.

"You're lucky little one." He spoke as he opened his mouth unnaturally wide. "Under normal circumstances I might have eaten you already."

"Sirin!"

A shiver went down his spine as he heard Amanda speak.

"Sirin, would you please not do that? You're scaring him."

"Right, sorry. Would you… like to hold your offspring again?"

Amanda quietly nodded and took the child from Sirin.

"So, what's his name?" Sirin asked. "Rather than knowing their name at birth, humans receive one form their parents, right?"

She carefully took the child in her arms while hoping that he would not fall asleep. She was terrified that he would return to his frozen state in with they both had been trapped for so long.

"That is true." She responded. "But I have never named him. I guess I will just wait until we make it out of here alive."

Sirin stood up and jumped of the table. "Yea I understand." She said while as he looked trough a pile of books that was probably unreadable by now.

"You know. Its kind of a shame that you two need to get out of here as soon as possible. There are many more like this scattered trough hell. There's even one with a small caste complete with a throne. I have seen lots of weapons hanging from the walls there. It was quite beautiful, I guess you would have liked it to."

Amanda only nodded while she was softly humming a song. She looked exhausted. It didn't take long before she herself fell asleep.

Sirin softly smiled and started to draw the necessary magic formation to leave hell.

When he was done, he waited until Amanda woke up. As long as no other demons came too close, they weren't in immediate danger.

Spot curiously sniffed the runes drawn with demon blood and then sat down next to Sirin. Which caused him to notice how the animal seemed more muscular and a fair bit larger than before.

Honestly, Sirin barely cared for Spot and only kept him around to be a companion to Amanda. But now that it seemed like the creature was slowly warming up to him, maybe he would be able to accept spot as well.

He carefully petted the animal until Amanda finally woke up and the four of them went to one of the living worlds.