Prelude

After Pawn left the city, she began by walking away from the city in a zig-zag pattern, a strategy to take in as much as the local terrain as possible. After reaching a certain distance she would then return to the city and start over, travelling in a different direction.

Pawn made her way through the demonic wasteland, drawing a simple map as she went. Simple by her standards, at least... Brilliant by the standards of most mortals, which simply lacked the lifespan to reach her level of mastery.

After several hours of doing so, she was approached by a group of five humanoid demons.

"Hey there, beautiful, care to join my party," an overly handsome man in the party asked her, "it's dangerous to be out here alone, you know."

He had dark Purple eyes, a likely pride demon, while two of his female companions had green eyes and the other two had pinkish-purple eyes, envy demons and lust demons.

"No thanks," Pawn said simply, "I'm not interested in joining a harem."

"Thanks for the offer though," she added sarcastically.

The man smiled brightly.

"Why not? My harem is the greatest harem there is?" He said, motioning to the four girls as he spoke.

The girls all blushed in response.

Pawn smiled thoughtfully.

"Too much pride I suppose," she said, remembering her current disguise's race.

The man gave a hearty laugh at those words.

"You can never have to much pride, my dear," he said as his eyes flickered a more vivid shade of purple.

"Regardless, though, I'll be on my way," he continued, turning away from her and facing back towards the city. Not before giving her an overly familiar pat on the shoulder, however.

"But do reconsider, my dear," the demon said while walking away, "the demons in these parts are quite rare. Far too troublesome to catch without the proper bait."

The demon then left, followed soon after by his harem of female demons.

"At least he's honest about it, I guess," commented the celestial with a small smile.

She then returned to her map-making.

Several hours later...

Pawn stared at her map for a moment. She then crumpled it up into a little ball, and then stored it in her inventory.

"Rare, my foot! There's literally nothing but lava and ash!" She complained, "No plants. No monsters. No anything! This it the least map-able area ever!"

She once again withdrew a certain book from her inventory and began quickly flipping through it.

"Even the celestial realm had more creatures than this, and that place is known for lacking quantity in favour of quality," she grumbled as she searched through the book's pages.

However, she paused upon feeling a rumble pass through the ground beneath her.

'An earthquake?' Pondered Pawn, 'no. Something else...?'

Pawn gave a quick glance at her surroundings, and then, seeing that her surroundings were still empty, she formed a glowing ball of light-blue energy in her hand, celestial energy.

She shoved it downwards into the ground at her feet, allowing it to pulse outwards into her surroundings. It returned to her a moment later, along with the information on all that lay beneath her location.

Pawn widened her eyes the moment it did so.

"Ah..." she exclaimed.

Her wings immediately burst forth from her back, and in a single flap she promptly took off into the sky.

A short moment later, the spot where she had previously been standing was replaced by a giant mouth, filled to the brim with fangs.

It belonged to a giant slimy-looking red worm, comparable in shape and size to the subway trains from the mundane realm.

"Woah! That was clo-!?" She began, having reached a more than a fifty metres distance above the ashen ground. She was then promptly swallowed by the worm, which she had greatly underestimated the length and reach of.

...Moments later, she appeared back in her inn's room, covered head to toe in various cuts and scratches. As well as an entire inch of greenish mucus. A small 'feather of fleeing' nestled between two of her fingers. The feather crumbled to dust a few seconds later.

She stood there, stunned. Until, that is, the corroding effect of the demonic worm began its work, quickly dissolving her clothing, and gradually dissolving her hair, wings, and skin. The demonic bracer, oddly, seemed completely fine.

"Ugh...!?" She grunted as she keeled over from the burning sensation.

Pawn quickly retrieved a giant ornate-looking washbasin from her inventory, filled to the brim with a strange silver liquid. She immediately submerged herself in the liquid, just as the last of her clothing was dissolved.

She stayed submerged for an entire twenty seconds before emerging from it.

Upon emerging from the liquid, Pawn quickly removed the bracer, her last article of clothing, and summoned a hand-held mirror.

Though she was not vain, in any sense, by celestial standards. Pawn was still a celestial, and saying that she was not vain by celestial standards, was very similar to saying that a specific turtle was not slow by 'turtle standards.'

In short, all celestials were vain regarding one part of their bodies.

The celestial observed herself in it with worry.

Her various open wounds were now healed, but she didn't care. Her hair was burned to the point of being shoulder length, but she didn't care.

Pawn observed her wings. They were tattered beyond recognition, with patches of missing down and feathers exposing the skin underneath.

Pawn gave her wings a single flap to test their functionality, causing her to physically wince from the pain.

She took in a deep breath...

"Goddammit!" She screamed, smashing the mirror against her room's wall.

The celestial then lowered herself back into the healing waters.

"...That shouldn't have happened!" She declared, "why was a demonic worm so close to the surface in a place with so few prey to feed upon!"

"And even if it could sense me, I shouldn't have been worth its time!" She concluded, feeling as though she was missing something.

"Unless it attracted by some sort of-..." She began, but then paused, noticing a small purple stone laying where the majority of her clothing had dissolved. A stone which she had never seen before, but knew the name of.

"-Bait," she finished, staring at the stone, known simply as, a 'Demonic worm lure.'

The celestial then thought back to the pat on the shoulder which the pride demon had given her, and the comment he had made about needing the proper bait.

Pawn smiled.