SCUM - Opiod_Girl - OC (2025)

Chapter 1: To Whom The Bell Tolls

Chapter Text

Steps through mud and dirt. Three people running, the boy, the girl and the woman. The boy carries upon his back the man, who is unconscious. They've been running for 2 hours now, the large city walls no longer casting its shadows over them, the four make it to the woods.

"Is anyone hurt?" asks the woman, her low toned voice displays her worry and her heavy accent is easily spotted. She’s the oldest of the three that are running.

"I'm fine. I think Gwain had it the worst again." Said The girl as she heaved alongside the woman, the only damage she had sustained was her hair being cut by a lucky crossbow bolt.

"God’s dammit! Kindar's heavy to run around with." Exclaimed the boy, his metallic arm along with his scarred arm puts the man to the ground. See the boy; he’s human with scars laid all across his body, an empty pit where his right eye should be that burns with pain. His right arm is twitchy and unsteady, it’s covered in scars as well. Unlike his left arm which is mechanically steady and unwavering, a prosthesis now rusty with blood and nearing its breaking point.

But no better is the boy's clothing, as it's torn and rugged. His boots barely hold off the mud that the four have found themselves in. The boy looks down upon the man and kicks him, the man doesn’t wake up, the boy looks around looking for advice from his allies.

“Pick him up while we find a proper camping spot.” The woman says, the boy obeys and picks up the man with a bit of difficulty, his knees falter under him as the three keep moving forward.

The man is of noble birth like the girl, though not from the same family, as the man's skin is the same tone as a fresh peach. The skin of the noble is well kept and unscarred. The man's hair is a dimly lit flame, on the verge of being put out. The man’s slender and tall frame is now carried upon the back of the boy as they all travel to a safe haven.

The daylight slowly dies as the trees sway and shake with the breeze in the now August air, nearing fall the air begins to grow colder by the day. The twenty-second day of the month slowly turns to the twenty-third as the woman and girl begin to put together a small camp with what small supplies they grabbed with them as they ran.

The boy sits near the campfire, his long hair now loose after having been released from the man bun it was put into. The hair covers his singular eye which remains fixated on the growing flames of the campfire.

"Why couldn't we have just stayed at the house?" asks the boy in a bitter and almost hateful tone.

"We need the money Gwain, besides if we get more jobs from that businessman we can get enough gold to retire in a few years if you want to do that so badly." The girl barks back at the boy.

The girl slowly begins to take account of the group's rations and equipment, the four of them have 3 pieces of old bread and two disgustingly unclean waterskins to go between them. The boy looks into the waterskin, even the boy with his limited wit knows it is bad to drink from. The girl looks at the group's rations and her mind fills with despair, she gets up from the ground and moves over to the boy.

"Gwain, give me your dagger." The girl pleads, the boy needs not reply. He pulls out a small and rusted skinning knife, the handle made of an old oak tree which is wrapped in the skin of a cow.

The girl moves over to a nearby puddle, she stares at her reflection. From the puddle a satyr stares back, a half human half goat creature. Blond hair and fur which surrounds a kind looking face adorned with two small deer antlers greets her back, however tattered said hair is. She decides to throw caution to the wind and she gathers up all her hair into a ponytail before cutting off the ponytail. Thankfully the puddle is unable to reflect her own image.

"What do you think Gwain, does it look okay?" The girl asks as she moves back to the campfire and tosses the dagger into the ground in front of the boy’s feet.

"Sure" The boy replies without raising his gaze from the fire.

"Alright, well it's not like I'm going to be wearing any dresses or going to parties for a while anyway." The girl says as she tries to push the hair aside from the root of her antlers.

As she grasps the hair to the side, she takes her waterskin and cleans the antlers slowly. The woman remains stagnant near a tree watching over the two, the man had been put in his bedroll so that he might recover from previous injuries.

"Gwain, Jaina get some rest. You will need it." Says the woman, her low and commanding tone being clear that there would be no arguing against her decisions. The two teens go to bed without arguing and they fall asleep quickly enough.

The woman steps on the campfire, putting it out. During the night she scouts the nearby area within the forest. 8 hours pass as she returns to the camp, having hunted a large buck she begins to skin it. The skin and guts slowly ripped away with expertise, the woman's hands do not shake nor do they falter.

The starlight sky is her only guide to see the corpse in front of her. Her hands covered in blood reminds her of days gone by. She sits and skins the corpse, attempting to discard the thoughts. The boy is the first to awaken, he grabs his dagger and checks his surroundings. The woman does not react as she simply continues stirring the small portable pot.

"Oh, good morning Grell." The boy says in a groggy tone, still only half awake.

"Morning to you as well Gwain, once Jaina awakens, we will make haste to move further out. I fear we are being stalked within the forest." The woman replies with a quiet tone. Her hands remain busy as she stirs the soup which she has been letting simmer for the entire night.

“When should we head out then?” Asks the boy as he cups his hands and

"Gwain what do you want out of this adventure we are on?" asks the woman.

"I only recently found out what I might want. When we got to the house everything was so nice, I woke up without having to fight the right to live. It wasn't a ditch or an old abandoned hut in a forest. I guess I just want a normal life." Replies the boy.

"I see, what are your thoughts on Jaina? I know Nile-" before the woman could finish her sentence the boy simply stands up and starts checking on the man and the girl.

"I'm apologize" the woman says in response. She had fled from her country only 8 years ago and had to learn the worldwide language from scratch. The boy wakes the girl and attempts the same for the man, he remains asleep.

"Good morning Grell, good morning Gwain." says the girl as she wakes up. She gets on her feet and quickly begins to roll up everyone's bedrolls, noticing that the man is still asleep.

"Wow did you really have to beat him that badly Gwain? I know he was being a bit of an ass but he should be on his feet by now." The boy looks over and says

"Oh, yeah I'm sorry about that." The boy moves over to the man and picks him up, having lifted the man with both arms and the rest of the group having gotten their things assorted they begin to move.

The woman explains to the girl the situation as they continue moving through the muddy grounds of the swampland. Nearby within the swamps and small lakes there are creatures that stalk the group. Small dark green ears popping out of the mud and water, listening to the conversations. Preparing crossbows and waiting for their chance. The boy keeps walking and as he tracks through more and more mud, he stops and asks the woman "Grell how long do you think we're gonna be stuck here for?"

"I am unsure, at our current rate I think it might be another day and we would get to the nearby town." The woman states.

"Alright sounds good." the boy answers and moves onwards stepping over a small piece of metal. The woman also makes a large step over the metal, the girl notices this and does the same. There is a quiet understanding that they are being stalked and that there are traps but to not speak of them. The group continues its movement while the woods keep listening to them, small chatter fills the quiet dead air with useless topics of either the weather or books the woman and the girl have read. The boy stays silent, he does not know how to read but is too ashamed to say it outloud. He simply claims he isn't interested in literature.

The group spends nearly 3 hours trying to keep moving while dodging the wires and small mines on the ground, slowly growing tired the boy says "I think I gotta stop for a second Kindar's weight is really killing my back."

He sets down the man to the mud and sits down for a second, the girl and the woman sit next to him and hand him pieces of the bread as they drink the remains of the broth from the soup. As it turns midday the group continues this small rest, the sun peaking through the tall trees and the foliage.

The boy is staring at his mechanical left arm, observing as its tumblers and mechanics slowly turn and make his fingers twitch and turn with a satisfying clicking noise. The girl moves to the boy and brings out a hair tie as she begins to braid his hair.

The girl moves closer to the boy and she whispers to him "Gwain don't be alarmed and don't react in any way but there's about twenty or thirty goblins around us."

The boy simply nods and allows the girl to continue braiding his hair. 12 agonizingly slow minutes go by as the boy's hair is now in a single long braid, the boy rises and goes to pick up the man. An arrow lands in between the boy's hand and the man's unconscious body as a group of 5 goblins walk out of the forest.

Squat and green creatures with raven hair looking at the boy, the goblins are dressed in leather outfits made of different creatures but as the boy slowly turns to look at the squat beings he notices holes in the creatures capes. Faces, the skin of humans, elves, goblins and goliaths were used to create these outfits.

The middlemost creature moves closer, and garbles out in broken common. "The girl and the woman ours."

Two of the other squat creatures quickly bicker with one another as the first one speaks. The two others speak to one another before the woman speaks out, in the same language as the two other goblins. The squat beings quickly move over and begin to ignore the boy, speaking to the woman instead in their language.

Five minutes pass and the woman turns over to the boy "What do they want?" asks the boy.

"For me and Jaina to take our clothes off and be used while you and Kindar are allowed to walk free."

"Which one of them recommended that?" the boy asks, the woman points over to the goblin on the left and the boy gestures to the goblin to walk closer.

The goblin quickly moves over while rubbing its hands together, the boy holds out an open hand and allows the goblin to shake his hand. As the two are doing the handshake the boy grabs the goblin by the nape and pushes the squat creature to the ground while still holding the hand of the creature.

The boy then raises his right foot while holding onto the creature's arm. He stomps down unto the elbow of the creature quickly snapping its arm in half by the forearm. The little bastard begins to screech for its life as the boy tosses its arm to the mud before lifting his boot once more, now stomping onto the creature's head the first kick burying the creature's face in the mud and breaking its nose.

The second stomp makes a large cracking noise as the boy breaks the skull of the small bastard, he lifts his boot once more as it is now covered in blood and mud. The boy once again stomps down this time completely breaking apart the small bastard's head leaving nothing but a small shadow of what the creature used to look like.

The boy now lifts his boot and steps away from the corpse and spits on it. The boy, the woman and the girl prepare for the battle that is about to begin. The woman quickly dashes over, grabbing the leftmost goblin by the throat and pulling out its esophagus with her bare hands.

The squat bastards begin to encroach upon the group, the girl swiftly picks up the man by his ankles and drags him to the treeline. The girl slaps the man once, imbuing his face with magic and some pain. The goblins begin to pile upon the woman and the boy, the girl continues to try and wake the man.

After the fourth gut punch the man awakens. The girl grabs him by the forearm "GET THE FUCK UP WE HAVE A FIGHT TO WIN." She shouts out at the top of her lungs as she picks the man off the ground.
Winded and still groggy as he awakens the man looks around "what the hell is happening?"

"GET UP KINDAR!" the girl shouts back. The woman fights off a small band of goblins as they pin her closer to a tree, the woman dodges to the best of her ability but her hand is stuck to the tree by an axe.

Bleeding from the wrist the woman simply tears off her hand by the wrist and grabs the nearest goblin with her left hand, she sticks the fingernail of her thumb and pops out its eyeball.

Swiftly after that she throws the goblin to the ground and stomps on its head. Her hand swiftly grows out of the stump as if it had never been cut off. The boy meanwhile fighting the goblins grabs one with his left arm and begins to choke it out, but on accident instead snaps the goblins neck.

The group grows out to an all out brawl and the boy quickly gets overpowered and piled upon. The woman gets pierced with 12 spears and she simply grabs onto one of the spears tips, breaks off a part and stabs out more goblin heads.

A brutal hand to hand battle and the amount of blood leaves the woman only covered in blood stooping over. Meanwhile the boy is being overpowered, the man rushes over and begins to try and pull the boy away.

"I got you Gwain, don't worry, don't worry about it." Before two goblins quickly grab the man by the arms and throw him to the mud.

The boy throws up a bit of blood before getting up from the ground and trying to pull the goblins off of the man, swiftly at least 5 goblins pull out pickaxes from their bags of flesh.

12 goblins hold down the boy as he tries to get closer to the man, while the five goblins near the man lift their pickaxes.With a large swing all 5 lower the picks into the man's head, the brutal sight of sinew and brain matter stuck to the tips of the pickaxes as they are lifted up. The stench of blood and guts fills the air. The girl quickly moves over and throws a small fire bomb onto the group of goblins, making them scatter. The girl swiftly picks up the boy from under the arms and she drags him back.

The woman quickly follows the rest of the group as they retreat back into the forest. It draws to near night as the three make it about a kilometer away from the goblin group they saw.

"Any big wounds on either of you?" the girl asks. The boy stands holding himself by the knees and simply begins throwing up into the mud. The woman pats the boy on the back as they begin to figure out what to do.

"I counted 23 left as we began to move away, if that is of any consolation Gwain." The boy simply picks up his bag and pulls out a longsword. He stands there and looks at it, the light reflecting his own image.

The boy had seen everything nature was to give to him, he had seen the evil of the world and was even a part of it. In that moment the taste and spark of violence within him sets ablaze.

A glorious cleansing fire, the boy no longer shakes at his own reflection, not at the memories of his first murder and not at the sight of Nile's headless body lying on the ground. Violence breeds violence and so the boy's innocence dies.

He does not speak nor does he sleep for the day. The girl and the woman slowly turn to rest while the boy keeps watch. The twenty fourth day begins as the boy is still keeping watch, the woman is the first to wake up, following her the girl wakes up 12 minutes later.

The sun has risen and the morning hours are upon the group, they do not exchange words. The boy begins to hunt while the two others follow him, the group retracing their steps they find themselves at the same place as yesterday, the stench of blood and the crimson color of the mud still showing the tragedy.

The boy hands the woman and the girl a sleeping bag and points at the corpse left on the ground. The man's body had been left here. The boy runs off following tracks while the others remain. "Do you think he's gonna be able to bounce back from this?" asks the girl.

"I think he is doing that already." the woman answers, the two move closer to the body and inspect it. The girl being a doctor takes a look first. What she sees is a spiral of blood, sinew and bones covered in urine.

The head of the man had been broken through multiple times post mortem with pickaxes and even pissed on. The man's skin had been torn away from his body leaving simply muscle and bone but also showing signs of stabbing, slashing, bludgeoning and burning post mortem as well.

Multiple carvings along the sides of the man showing names in the language of the goblins. The girl slowly turns the man over and finds that he had also been violated in a way unimaginable after death.

The girl stutters backwards falling to the mud and begins to throw up from disgust. The woman slowly begins to put the man into the sleeping bag while the girl continues to be sick.

The woman does not have as harsh of a reaction as she simply cannot afford to show weakness. Having wrapped up the body into the sleeping bag in a way where no part is visible she simply lays it down.

The boy returns nearly 2 hours later, with blood covering his body and clothing. He drags behind him a goblin by the hair and throws it near the two others.

"I found him and 4 others on a hunting trip." The little creature begins to try and beg but his pleading falls on deaf ears as the girl moves over and begins to kick him.

"Hogtie him Gwain. I want to torture the fucker." The girl says the boy is surprised but doesn't argue. 12 minutes later the little green skinned creature is tied to a nearby tree, hanging by its hands.

The girl pulls out a pair of surgical pliers from her doctor's bag, and begins to take off the creature's toenails one by one. Blood spurting out with an accompanied muffled scream each time she does so. By the end of the process the creature's gag is covered in drool and the ground beneath it is filled with blood and nails. The girl then takes out a crowbar and hands it to the boy. "Break his legs but leave at least one part of the bone intact." The boy quickly moves over and begins to break the creature's legs bit by bit.

Savoring every swing and doing fake outs every once in a while. It takes yet another 30 minutes as the boy finishes his part of the work. "Grell do you want to do something?" asks the girl. "I am quite content." She answers. "Suit yourself." Says the boy as he spits in the mud while sitting back down.

The girl pulls out a flask filled with a strange liquid, it bubbles as a cork is removed. The cobalt colored liquid is forced down the creature's throat. The woman feeds the creature as the others look at it in disgust, while they eat their meals.

The creature slowly begins to screech in agony as its toenails begin to regrow, its broken bones twisting and forcing themselves back into place with a noise that could haunt nightmares. "The hell? You gave it a healing potion?"

"As if! You remember how my fingernails and horns grow back easier than everyone else? Turns out if I feed someone else a piece of myself they temporarily gain the same ability." "Wait, a part of you? What the hell did you give it?" "Piss." The two begin to laugh as the goblin looks onto the woman in fear and pleading. The woman almost feels bad but then remembers what the goblins did to their comrade and any possibility for redemption is scrapped. From dawn till dusk, not once but twice this is done. The days turn from the twenty fourth of August to the twenty seventh of August. Each painfully slow day the two torture the goblin before finally after four days letting it down from its hogtie, only to hang it around the creatures neck this time. The group leaves the goblin slanted against a branch so that if it still wishes to survive it can either choose to stay there or hang itself. Perhaps a final kind gesture or truly the most evil of their tortures upon the creature. The group of three begin to head to Vinheim as they leave the Goblin there.

Chapter 2: Tusk

Chapter Text

I woke up by hurling out my food once again. I've grown to see the same nightmare almost each night, the one about that massive plant creature which ripped apart my arm but tonight I saw a new nightmare. It was Kindar, his skinned and broken body simply staring back at me as I looked towards him in fear. It doesn't help that I constantly feel sick due to my heart condition. It's called pulmonary hypertension and what it does is it makes it harder for me to breathe, cast spells, or do anything that strains the body. I've learnt to live with it but it's still needlessly annoying. Sitting up in my bedroll I notice that Gwain is still asleep and Grell is awake.

"Good morning Grell, how are you?" I ask. She replies in her raspy and gruff voice "I'm doing better than you at least." "funny." I reply and begin to get out of the bedroll. It's about 4 in the morning by my best guess, the sun still not showing. I move over to the lake we situated nearby and begin to wash my face. Looking at the reflection it shows the face of a man I do not recognize at first.

His face is scarred, his lips are blue and his hair short and scraggly with a strange hairstyle. Somehow it brings me happiness to see that I'm no longer the same fragile noble girl that joined but instead at least pulling my own weight.

I slowly take off my clothes and wash myself, while Grell keeps watch over the camp. "Gwain seems to be sleeping well for once" I shout out from the water as I wash away bits of blood and mud from my fur.

"Yeah he is sleeping quite fine, I just hope he's gotten all that rage out of his system now. Once we get to Vinheim we should be able to get Kindar healed in a church, if I remember right it costs five thousand gold and a large amount of the subject's sanity."

I continue to wash my fur as I cleanse off dried blood and the scent of a wet dog away from my fur. "Grell what day is it? Wasn't it August twenty eight?" "Yes, August twenty eight, and it is a Friday I believe."

I finish cleaning myself off and begin to pick up my clothing to wash them as well. I hear rustling and moving as Gwain gets up from his sleep. I had been washing myself off in the nearby lake for an hour at this point.

The morning breeze with the peaking sun, seems to have woken up Gwain. "Good morning Gwain" I shout out from the lake, though I do not get an answer back. I finished washing my tunic, and coat. Soon it will be Fall and the weather will grow cold. I put on my clothes and my leather armor and join the rest of the camp. Gwain and Grell look at each other as if they were just telling one another jokes.

"Shall we head off then? Vinheim is just barely peeking out behind those trees." The two of them turned around as they looked beyond the treeline. The mountains behind the trees show the entrance to the city carved into the mountain.

The large couple of statues seem to be made for the founders of the city, one in the shape of a man holding a hammer and another in the shape of another in the shape of a woman holding a beer mug.

Gwain picks up the corpse that was stored in its sleeping bag as we begin to move outward. The stench is horrific, a foul abomination almost indescribable. The mixture of piss, blood, mud and rotting flesh without skin.

I wonder how Gwain can even hold it without throwing up, it doesn't seem like he's very hygienic anyway since he smells bad by himself.

"Gwain when did you last wash yourself?" I ask. "Oh back at the bath house in Hope."

"Gwain, that was like 2 months ago, how the hell haven't you cleaned yourself since then?"

"Haven't needed to." I groan in annoyance and look over. "When we get to Vinheim we will go to a bathhouse and I will make sure that you are squeaky clean."

It's a 2 hour hike before we make it even to the gates of Vinheim, the large statues looming over us. I find it awe inspiring that anyone could have made something so large yet so intricate and delicately made, an incredible monument to the endless imagination of not only the soul but of the creator. The thin edges, small crevices and cracks in the brick inlaid near the mountain's edge. A magnificent creation which I admire for the entire trip.

I completely ignore the rest of my surroundings as I begin to draw into my diary the image that had been burned into my retinas so eagerly. I hardly noticed as we had already reached the large gates, two short beings with beards greeted us. Dressed in black platemail armor and heavily armed with a spear and shield for both the guards.

The dwarves greeted us in common, stating. "Halt! What business do you have in the beautiful city of Vinheim, the holding place for the first forge, the home of the craftsman and the melting pot of the world's ore?"

We looked at one another confused for a second before Grell answered. "Ah, we are here on business and casual tourism." The dwarves look at one another, their eyes filled with doubt as they continue to inspect our gear.

"What do you carry with you?" asks one of the dwarves in sublime apathy, I guess guard duty isn’t the most interesting job ever.

"A corpse, we intend to revive him, we have the funds and your town has the means." Grell answers. The dwarves' eyes spark with some evil or malicious intent I hadn't felt in a while, not since I had been pranked by noble mens boys. The dwarves smirk as they ask

"Do you have any identification on whose corpse it is? Or rather that you didn't kill ‘em?" I look over and realize it's already too late, Gwains short temper had already sprung.

"The fuck does it matter to you? Our friend here was skinned alive by goblins and I had to watch it happen. I'll be damned if you won't let me let him get help!" He shouts as he grabs onto one of the dwarves by its beard, lifting it nearly 10 centimeters off of the ground. The other dwarf drawing its spear against Gwain it shouts out

"Place him down before I have to call the rest of the guard!" Gwain places the first dwarf back down as it cleans its beard that had been so finely groomed.

I pull Gwain back as Grell stands between the guards and him. "We do not have paperwork but I believe we have his passport."

"Well a passport ain't quite enough is it now?" The dwarf barks back to Grell.

"We have the funds to revive him, the man's own testimony should be quite enough, no?" As the dwarves and my allies continue to bicker I look up to admire the architecture once more.

The large statues seem to be a cover for large chains holding onto the floor of the steel platform we had all been standing upon. I look behind us to see the treeline where we came from, the swampland we plowed through had been cut into two large lands as a road for travelers and merchants alike.

The well worn path had been used for probably hundreds if not thousands of years, the year now is 487. The years only began to be counted once wars and independence days became more and more present. When I looked on to the well worn path I saw a group of 7 on horseback, a halfling, goblin, goliath, and an assortment of others along with them. The halfling walks out first and steps off of her pony, the halfling had a long braided bit of hair. She stood out with her outfit that fit a cook or chef better than it did any outlaw or adventurer. At Least from the books I had read I knew that outlaws traveled with ponchos that covered half plate or a chest plate, while adventurers sported full plate on their way to slay a dragon and anything that stood in their way. The woman stood at a brave one and a half meters tall with a revolver on her voluptuous hips, the chef's apron covering her otherwise brown outfit.

The wind howled as she spoke. "The fuck are y'all doin here? You boys oughta have better things to do than fuck around next to the gates"

She holds a hand on her hip while the others watch, the sun blazing above us all. "By the by, y'all wouldn't have happened to see a certain Miss Sefris Xilethryl wouldya? She's a tiefling, an outlawed one at that."

"No we haven't, we're just trying to get in so we can revive our friend here. He was lost in a previous battle and we have the funds to revive him." Grell answers immediately, as if she had no reason to lie.

"Well ain't that a kick in the head?" the halfling answered immediately, her southern drawl had awakened something within me as every word kept me entranced to her.

"Well we can take the corpse off of y’alls hands, you hand us the money and we'll revive him for yall without you needing a city entry pass. I swear it, scouts honor you know?" Grell looks over to the goblin standing behind them, seeming to notice something in how the goblin held himself upon his horse.

"Dorovae?" asks Grell, the goblin replies in a similar accent that I had heard before, it was Postynian. Whatever the two said to one another would stay between them and the forces that be, but 10 minutes later Grell hands over the bedroll within which Kindars corpse had been stored.

We stood outside the gate for the following hours. I had carved each part of the lifts mechanism and each brick of the statues into my mind. I had now sketched them both into my notebook enough times to make any man mad.

Gwain had fallen asleep nearly 2 hours ago now, the blazing sun attempting to hold him from sleep, it had failed. Grell had found a neat spot near the gates, a tree that she leaned upon as she kept watch while I sat cross legged in the mud drawing.

After hours of waiting, we noticed guards beginning to walk out of the gates, a group of 10 guards beginning to stalk us. The halfling quickly walks out and points towards us before the guards begin to run toward us.

I rush to Gwain and hit him awake. "Ow fuck!" he shouts out, I grab him by the forearm and help lift him off his feet. He doesn't need anymore info, we pick up our gear and begin to run.

It happens in a flash, we are forced back into the brutal bogs and swampland we had only hours before escaped from. The guards continue their assault, a few of them continue even into the bog. One of them grabs me by the shoulder and forces me to the ground. I reach for a knife from my bag as he begins to choke me, slowly my consciousness begins to fade.

I cant reach my knife and I simply push a fingernail against the man's forehead, kill or be killed. The only thought that rushed through my head was to kill or be killed, survival of the fittest. Magic pulsed through my body as my nail extended, piercing the man's skin, flesh, skull, brain and doing it again. My nail had pierced through his skull and out the other side. His eyes slowly seeped to the back of his skull, the brutality of killing had never hit me this badly. I knew that to kill was morally wrong yet a necessity within adventure. I knew it was either me or him. I knew that to kill was to live but his eyes and his face would forever haunt me after this moment. I pulled my finger back as the nail retracted, the corpse falling on top of me. I laid there for a few seconds, nearly paralyzed from the fear.

"THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING JAINA? GET UP!"

I hear as Grell grabs me by the arm and quickly tosses the corpse off of me. I was on my feet running once more, the blood on my hands unwashable. I continued running with nothing else on my mind but survival, I heard pistol shots ring out, and even saw a few hitting the mud near me.

We ran until the night arrived and even then we continued. We didn't have the slightest idea of where we were or what time it was but we knew one thing: we were all alive. I couldn't sleep at all that night. I kept looking at myself in the mirror, I had been shot in the ear. Didn't even feel it, I just ran. Gwain had been hit in the metallic arm so he was fine but Grell was hit in the leg. I did my best to patch the wound, it was all I could do. Mud covered dirty old bandages and spit was all I could call medical supplies. The night turned to day as I kept looking at myself in the hand mirror that was shattered into pieces, my reflection stared back yet I did not recognize myself.

It was now August 31st by my records. I stayed in a nearby lake for the entire day. I used all of my soap that I had left in one day, my arms were scrubbed clean so much so that some of the fur fell off.

I spent the entire day in the nearby lake. As I stared at my reflection in the water only one thing stared back; A mask with elephant tusks decorating it. The man I saw myself to be, or rather the man I wished I would become once I began this journey, almost 9 months ago now.
The mask began to float upwards from the mud and water, trying to surface. I quickly looked around scouting if anyone else was watching me. I took the mask and simply pushed it deeper into the waters. Perhaps I was not ready to become who I was destined to be or rather I didn't want to become so. September 1st, 487. Fall had truly begun. I put on my jacket and gear as we grouped up near a dry part of the swamp.

"What's the plan now?" I asked.

"We have to first figure out why they were chasing us, I have a good idea though. The group must have accused us of murdering and skinning Kindar, him being a nobleman makes it even more difficult." Grell announced. Gwain seethed with hatred, while I continued pondering the next best choice in action.

"Alright how about we stay low here for about a month and then continue on to perhaps the desert if we have no news on Sefris." I proposed, the others not having much to say, our survival began.

The first week was not as horrid as I had expected, Grell did need to recover but otherwise me and Gwain did quite well hunting on our own. She taught Gwain how to skin animals and taught me how to properly cook them. During the first week I tended to Grells wounds and Gwain hunted daily. On the fifth day he finally found something other than berries and he brought to the small camp a dead deer. We ate well that day and laughed. The following week Grell was almost cured and we began to move north, or rather what we thought was north. We did not carry a compass and none of us knew how to figure out the directions without one. As we began moving out we saw that on the main road there was an alarming amount of recent foot tracks, sure it was normal for maybe one or two caravans to cross by in the same month but not 9 horses on the same day.

The second week found us also disarming traps that the bog dwelling goblins had placed, innovative for sure but also annoying. For nearly 3 days in total we had moved out from where we began moving. The third week began and we had made it out of the bog once again. What greeted us was snowy peaks of mountains and the cold greeting we received was not the worst of it. What I saw nearly crushed what little I had of my courage left. The halfling, the goliath and a human. The halfling was dressed like she was the first time we saw her. The goliath was dressed in his black suit with a large black coat and a black bowler hat. His skin is white as snow with not a single hair on his body, he must be at least 11 feet tall. The human is someone I don't recognize but Gwain seems to, his hand is shivering. The human is dressed in a white shirt and black pants, his slicked back black hair reveals that he has large eyebags. He carries with him only a scimitar and a dagger. The goliath moves over and calls out. A booming voice that seems warm, unlike his words.

"Gwain of Cernodan and Grell Sutcliffe, we are here to free Jaina Proudmoore from your kidnapping. If you do not give us what we want we will kill you. If you give us what you want we will take you in alive and allow you to be judged by the law and not by my hand. You have a single minute to decide."

Gwain, Grell and I begin to look at one another.

"I should just go with them right?" I ask "And what then have us two accused of the murder of Kindar and your kidnapping?" Grell asks back.

"I think we can take them, they got the drop on us last time now we have them at a level playing field."

The goliath shouts to us "30 Seconds left!" Gwain looks over to me and asks. "Jaina can you somehow help me or boost me?" I move over and begin to slowly pour magic into him, my fingers become pale and gray.

"5 Seconds!" the goliath shouts. I had now fully poured all my power into him, I'm barely able to stand as I look at Gwain.

"Alright I'm done counting! Count your lucky stars and try to die fast." The goliath begins to charge with his warhorse, Gwain gets into a strange stance, he holds his longsword like an athlete ready to strike at something.

His boots dig into the mud and dirt, his hips begin to twist. The warhorse huffs and charges at Gwain, the large Goliath continues to shout at us as he charges. Gwain holds still, waiting for the last possible moment. Under his breath I hear him repeat to himself

"One two three four, two two three four."

The last five feet before the horse runs over Gwain he begins to twist his hips and begins to slash at the warhorse. A dull blade digging through the horse, the bones cracking and the sword beginning to break. The horse quickly slows down and falls over onto the mud and dirt, the longsword broken near the hilt as the blade snapped off inside the horse's body. Gwain pulls his sword, or whatever is left of it out and holds it in a defensive pose. The goliath looks down upon him and slowly asks.

"Boy, are you truly human or are you like me?"

Gwain keeps standing, clearly exhausted and answers "I don't know what the fuck you mean like you but I sure as hell know you're not human."

The large man or goliath now seems more like a beast. "Oh but I am human, as human as the day I was born and I know damn well you've got what it takes to be like me."

At this point Grell charges in towards the man and begins to try and claw at him. The man completely ignores her for the first slash as his face begins to bleed. The man grabs Grell by her throat and she seems unable to do anything about it. Gwain quickly throws a gut punch at the man, his metallic arm makes a loud noise, like metal against metal. I hear the reverberating sound that his metallic arm makes, least to say it sounds like it hurts like hell. The man simply throws Grell away to both the human and the halfling. I fall over, channeling the last of my magic into one of my nails. It lengthens as the man begins to tower over Gwain, I steady my aim. I think of how I could have just given the two of them up, I could have just let them go and go back to my old life, books, dresses and tea parties.

The thought disgusts me now, the mask begins to slip, the mask is not the one I saw in the water it's the one I have been wearing for years now. The nail grows to its maximum length and I shoot it. It pierces the man in the shoulder and he falls back long enough for Gwain to get back on his feet. Gwain now on his feet leads by using his now broken longsword, trying to slash at the man. In reply, the man simply grabs the sword by the blade and throws it aside.

"Boy, I can almost see myself in your eyes." States the man as he puts his arms into a guard. "I already know your name but you don't know mine, I'm Judge."

The Judge speaks with authority as he goes in for a right hook, Gwain lifts his left arm to guard the hit. Judge simply fakes his hook and throws a left straight, instead hitting a gruesome gutpunch. Gwain’s lungs empty themselves of any possible air they might have held, he leaves his arms out which Judge grabs onto. Judge grabs onto Gwain’s left arm, pulls Gwain back towards him and throws a straight directly at Gwains nose. Completely knocking him off his feet and onto the ground. Grell rushes over and grabs Judge into a chokehold. A shot rings out as the halfling shoots at Grell.

I start to slowly get on my feet, I feel blood pouring out of my mouth every second that I move around. My knees shake and wobble as I continue to slowly get up. My right pointer finger nail hasn't regrown yet, it's still bleeding as well. I see Gwain twitching on the ground and Judge trying to grab at Grell, I move over and put my guard up. I force myself to move forwards, with open hands so that my nails have room to grow out. Judge slowly begins to lift his right arm in a punch, I feel myself trip over and as I fall to the snow, I push forward my left hand and shoot out two nails, both of them digging through Judges throat. He quickly falls over unconscious as Grell falls down with him. Both Grell and Gwain are in no condition to fight, so I look over to the two others and ask.

"Is there anything else you two want? Or will you go off and heal your friends and let us do the same?" The halfling looks over to the human and the human calls out.

"I have no intentions of fighting Gwain if he is not at his finest."

following that the halfling replies "I don't have anything else I really want except The Judge. I'll let you have both the boy and the woman if you give me The Judge."

My knees are shaking, the corpse of the nearby horse is still warm and I throw up a bit of blood. "Yeah come get your guy if you can even pick him up, he seems like a big fucker."

The halfling gives a hearty laugh and shouts out "That he is! You know what? For making me laugh, here's a bit of something for you."

The halfling throws down a healing potion onto the ground as she goes to pick up the Judge. I take the potion and put it in my small bag, as I move over to help Gwain move. "Hey sorry about splitting the horse."

Gwain says to the halfling. "Yeah no problem kill or be killed and all that." the halfling, answers.

"You know that The Judge isn't going to let this slide? I just hope you've recovered by that point." She asks. "Yeah of course I know he won't let it slide and neither will Gwain and neither will I. Next time this won't go down this fast."

I bark back at him. Both I and Gwain grab Grell's unconscious body and begin to pull her along through the snowy cliffs and the mud. It's September 19th, 487. I'm bleeding, feeling sick and having multiple fingernails missing. We're all leaving behind a large amount of blood behind us all. I've found my resolve, I've realized that even if I was the greatest biomancer to have walked the multiverse. I wouldn't be satisfied. I would only be satisfied once I would have become the greatest biomancer that could have walked the planes. It's not enough to be the greatest of my time. I have to be the greatest that was and could ever be.

Chapter 3: Annaðhvort að vera í samræmi við siði eða flýja land.

Chapter Text

awoke quickly, looking around as I was being pulled by Gwain and Jaina. I had bullet wounds through my feet, my legs bled and showed no signs of stopping. I am Grell Sutcliff, The Devil In Snow, the bloodhound of Postynia and the red death. I was forced to learn how to stay awake for long periods of time and yet here I was, being carried by two kids 10 years younger than me. I shouldn't ever truly feel safe, it dulls the mind and the blade but I felt at peace. We are now slowly moving towards the nearby town of Oolerush, it's buried behind large mountains and the travel at this rate would take far longer than it would take for me to heal. I look down at my legs and have a small flash from 19 years ago, my brother's legs broken and my arms broken. My own legs are now covered with old moldy and unfit bandages that were either covered in mud or dried up blood.

"Hey, both of you stop dragging me so I can walk." I tell the two of them but instead of what I thought the answer would have been I hear a surprising answer from both of them at the same time.

"Shut up Grell, we are carrying you until we find a safe spot whether you like it or not."

It seemed the two wanted to pay me back for what I've done for them. A genuine smile spreads across my face, I'm glad the two of them can't see me grinning as I doze off to sleep.

As I doze off to sleep I feel it again, the cold greeting of the tundra. The Traekheren, The Frozen Gates. I'm 13 years old once again trying to warm my hands near a fire I slaved over creating.Barely 10 hours into my survival and it's already unbearable. My fingers are frozen over, my fingers are unable to feel what I am touching, bringing them closer to the fire hurts even more. The coat I was given cant cast aside the cold that well. I looked around noticing that the blizzard had calmed down quite a lot. Two kids come up to me, clearly they're Rael's.I wonder what they want with an Oblio but I quickly realize I should prepare for a fight. The taller one has brown hair, barely visible under his large coat that covers him well. The shorter one has a cleaver with them and carries a slightly smaller coat with fur lining the insides. I hold out in my hand a piece of branch as it's the only weapon I carry.

"The fuck do you stuck up brats want?" I shout out and the taller one calls out in reply:

"Shut your mouth you vagrant, give us your rations and Grohaen and we'll let you live!"

The taller one slowly begins to move over towards me, I pick up my stick. I open my eyes and I wake up in a cave, Gwain looks over and tells me

"Yo, Grell get up, it's your turn on watch." I slowly get off of the ground and ask him

"Gwain are you ready to make the choices? The people we are and the choices we make are one and the same. You have to be ready to choose what you do and those choices make it evident who you are."

Gwain looks up at me as I begin to stand up, his eyes filled with a sense of resolve I haven't seen from him for a while.

"Grell, I murdered five of my best friends before I met either you or Jaina, I've lost my arm and my eye before I met you both. Now I have something to fight for. I've been making choices already. It's just that now I have someone to make those choices with instead of others choosing for me."

A certain amount of pain can be heard in his voice as it cracks at certain words but I can tell he's being genuine. Gwain feels almost too relatable to my own situation, I just hope he doesn't end up like me.

"I see, I've been in your situation before and I will tell you something right now, you must be thinking that I'm going to tell you that you'll get over it someday, that one day they won't haunt you. I hope that's how it works out for you but for me, my soul still burns from the sins of my past." Gwain looks at me as if he's trying not to laugh and turns over into the cave into my sleeping bag and says to me.

"Oh gee thank you so much miss Grell Sutcliff, philosopher of our time!"

I somehow got the sense that he was making fun of me. As I walked out to look at the cave entrance I realized the two of them had pulled me atleast 2 Kilometers uphill so that we could make it to this cave. The snow covered mountains don't reveal much but I remain as on guard as I should. 4 hours pass.The two of the teens wake up, Jaina moves over to look at my wounds. She takes off the bandages to reveal flesh that smells rotten and what appears to be maggots in my leg. She quickly covers my leg in flammable oil, looks at me and tells me.

"This might hurt a bit but I'll do it as fast as possible, Gwain will put the healing potion on your leg immediately after I burn off any bacteria or maggots."

I nod in agreement and bite into a piece of my jacket. She lowers the oil onto my open leg wounds and lights a match. Setting my leg on fire for a solid second, the smell of rotting flesh and maggots is something I've grown used to. Gwain quickly puts out the fire as he pours the potion onto my wound. Minutes later, Jaina is writing into her journal and drawing how my leg looked before and after this makeshift cauterization and healing. Gwain is packing up camp, I know we don't have a map and so do they. An hour passes by as I wait for my wounds to heal enough, Jaina is showing me what she's drawn into her notebook so far, Gwain is done packing by now. My wounds are still painful but it's now barely a scratch.

"Where are we headed from here? What is the goal?" I ask of the two. Gwain looks over to Jaina and she shakily answers.

Jaina seems to be shaking, her breath visible and her body clearly losing against the cold. I feel as if it's my responsibility to ask her so I do.

"Are we going to travel further north or back south to somewhere warmer? If you cannot handle the climate, that is understandable and we should adjust our plans." I say, Gwain has everything packed ready and we begin to slowly walk out of our small cave.

"We are going southward to a small town named Degurechaff, the crimes we were framed for wouldn't have reached all the way out there." Jaina has confidence in her words, she seems to have grown a spine while I was out cold.

We began moving out from the cave and sliding down the snowy mountain side. The travel from the cave to Degurechaff will take from September 19th until October 7th if traveling on foot. The first week of travel is filled with nothing but rain. Not long after we began traveling by road we ran into a group of traveling merchants, we sold off small bits of our old broken apart gear and managed to scrape together enough gold to buy Gwain a sword from my homeland. The blade is jagged and is sharp on both sides, it's less of a straight blade and more of a criss-cross sword. The name of the sword is Gaddara sverðið. Gwain and I argued later about whether we should have killed the owners and stolen their horse, and simply have lived like the outlaws we are claimed to be. He still has his wits about him and doesn't yearn for completely needless violence. Another few days later, we are setting up camp and night is barely falling, it's been raining since we left the cave. We couldn't make a campfire so we sat down on a tree log that has been used as a seat for years now. All of shivering in our coats I look over to the rest of the group and ask.

"Do you guys want to know what me and my childhood friends did on days like these? We played a game called 'round the campfire." The two seem to cringe at my words as if I'm suggesting them to start reciting the alphabet.

"So the rules are, you have to say something you've done and the next person has to say something more embarrassing, and if they don't you'd get smacked by everyone else." I start to lean back and see the two others still being uncomfortable and I choose to go first.

"In my country Postynia, when you turn 10 years old you take a test, called the Traekheren. It's a brutal unforgiving test. The Traekheren is a period of time where you go into another dimension called the frozen gates. It's cold, if your parents didn't give you the best possible coats, boots and gloves your fingers or toes would freeze and break. The goal is to see if the child has what it takes to live in Postynia."

At this point I notice that both of the teens seem to be looking at me with concern, I look down and my hands are both trembling and shaking. My legs are wobbling and I can't calm myself down. Gwain looks over and then looks at the ground before speaking.

"Before we met I lived out in Cernodan, I was homeless but I was allowed to eat with the neighborhood kids. Eating either scraps or whatever my friends' parents let me have, we like playing knights and spellswords. One time I found.." Gwain stops talking and keeps looking at the mud. Jaina slowly moves over and hugs him.

Gwain continues, stuttering and his voice shaking. "One time I found a real sword and when we went out to play, I killed them. My best friends. 5 other kids. I still remember their bodies bleeding. Mary, Orionne, Jack, Agatha and Milo." Gwain starts crying, his tears falling into the mud and mixing with the snot.

I check my bag for something I've been saving up for a while. The bottle is flask battered and only has a fifth of its contents left, though it's all we have it's still better than nothing. I hand Gwain the flask and he simply takes it and places it into his bag. Gwain gets up from the log and says he needs to go for a piss, neither me or Jaina believe him but we don't argue with him. Once it's only me and Jaina left I look over and ask. "So are you going to get smacked? or are you going to tell me something?"

Jaina straightens herself and breathes in sharply. It seems really important, it actually gets me interested.

"I think there's something wrong with me, whenever I see myself with this new hair or in my current outfit I get ridiculously happier than usual. I don't know what's wrong with me, it's like I'm not myself, it's more like. I don't know what I'm trying to say."

She seems really serious and I really don't know what I'm supposed to say in a situation like this. I barely stuttered out a few words before Gwain walked back to the camp. An awfully awkward silence each of us head to bed at different times. I only need 12 hours of sleep for every 72 hours without sleep. A few days later we come across a herd of Longstriders, large bipedal birds that are about as tall as an average human, the Longstriders take after their name and graze past us very quickly. I notice Jaina drawing onto her notebook a picture of the herd.

"Hey Grell can one of those carry us around like a horse? Like, would they be worth catching?" Gwain asks, while he too watches at the herd of Longstriders. I think for a few seconds before answering.

"Well if you can catch one of them which is actually a legend of Fionn Choole." I answer while chuckling.

"Fucking who? Fionn cool?" Gwain says while laughing his ass off

"Ah you wouldn't get it, it's a Postynian childhood story like a little red riding hood. If red riding hood had formed over half the laws of your country."

"Isn't that kinda fucked up? I wouldn't want a childhood boogeyman to be the leading force of my government." Gwain says after clearing out tears from his eyes, from crying so hard.

"Well yeah I'm not in Postynia right now am I? Now shall we get moving?" The rain not giving us any rest we had to keep moving on. It was now September 29th we were nearly halfway to Degurechaff. The travel continues without larger complaints, we all begin to slowly grow closer. The rain continues to beat us down as we continue our travels. On September 30th we came across a traveling merchant once more, a rabbitfolk girl named Jessica. We give her some of the old skins of animals we had killed to eat in exchange for her taking us along as she travels to Degurechaff. The rain continues to beat down on us as Jessica begins a conversation.

“So anything special you three gon do for the bluemoon festival? Oh and Halloween is coming as well.” Her accent resembles a mixture between irish and italian

“I really want to eat pizza, I’ve never had it but I’ve heard good things.” Jaina replies suddenly, I hadn’t taken her for a foodie but I guess only eating noble meals gets you hungry for actual food.

“Ah well pizza’s grande ain't it? I love it cuz no matter what the hell ya put on it, its still fuckin delicious.” Jessica speaks, her mouth beginning to seemingly water from the thought of pizza.

“Anchovies, olives, tuna and blue cheese. It’s sublime to even think about! and especially when you get a proper Kobold or gnome, jeez luiz that is just the shit!” She slaps her knee as she finishes her sentence. “So what's the other kid gonna get once you get to Degurechaff? They are your kids right?” she asks.

“No, I'm more of a legal guardian or auntie. I do love them both of course but it's more of a professional thing you know?” I spit out, barely able to not blush. For some reason I feel embarrassed to have been seen as the mother of the two teens.

“Ah so they’re nobles? Sorry about that, I’m not quite familiar with all the nobility, am I allowed to cuss in front of the two?” Jessica asks, she seems more worried about her connections to the nobility rather than the two teens.

“Ah no worries, they’re both out here to see the world. It’s better to act normal rather than give these two a slanted worldview.” I say while chuckling.

“So how did the boy come across such a fine blade? I don’t think I’ve seen such a well polished greatsword in a while. Most bandits or wannabe adventurers have had their shit for either months or years before they swap to something magical.” Jessica says as she seems to be eyeing up the Gaddara.

“Ah well fuck, to be honest I bought it a week ago or so, my last longsword was shattered a bit ago.” Gwain answers as he slowly pulls the Gaddara out of its specially designed sheath. The sword could be described as dancing while it moves, the flowing zig-zag form of the blade is nearly illusionary.

“Jesus kid, who did you rob to get it? This thing hasn’t been used in a fucking while or your maintenance is equal to a proper blacksmiths, Fuckin hell.” Jessica begins to look at the blade in awe. As she lets go of the leads the carriage rocks back and forth before she gives back the blade, the two mountain goats dragging the carriage begin to slow down and pick up the pace again as Jessica forces them forward.

“Ah I dont know fuck all about upkeep in all honesty. Just haven’t gotten in a fight for a while so I haven't got the chance to use it yet.” Gwain says as the carriage slowly moves along the worn paths that move to Degurechaff. The rain begins to slowly calm down as the sun peeks out of the clouds at some points. The rolling hills without barely any forests blocking our vision, the large town comes into sight as we go uphill. Surrounded by what seems like a small 2 foot tall fence made of bricks and rocks. Herds of sheep and cows flowing freely around, a tall clock tower visible for probably a mile out.

A small and old church in the middle of the town, surrounded by a large market which is brimming with people of all race and creed trying to sell or buy things. The town is lit brightly with light blue paintings and lanterns that have been painted light blue. The bluemoon festival is greatly celebrated, I see. It takes another 12 minutes before the carriage reaches the heart of the town, children running throughout the streets and both men and women sharing drinks as they dance. I thank Jessica as we depart from the carriage, I allow Gwain and Jaina to run free by themselves while I search for an inn. I notice vagabonds crossing the street, some homeless people running off and chasing liquor and whores. The town seems to be jolly and happy overall. The middlemost part of town is a large plaza with the clocktower facing south, opposite of the clocktower there is a somewhat large villa made of white bricks and carefully cleaned limestone. I look around a bit more and move around the plaza which is now populated with small pop-up shops, probably placed there at the beginning of September when the Bluemoon festival began.

I continued traveling for a while before finding a proper looking inn. I look at the sign which seems to be slightly rusted and the paint scraped off by the weather. The sign states the inn's name: The Mage’s Migraine. Realizing it’s not even midday yet I choose to take care of some personal issues before taking a room for the three of us. Once I’ve lightened my wallet of 50 gold I begin to move out to find the two teens.

“I really need to come up with a better way of reconnecting. I can’t get lucky and find them somewhere on a street everytime.” I say while before letting out a long sigh. Well I better look around for a while before doing anything else, I check the clock tower which states that the time is currently half past four. I begin to walk out as I look around the nearby streets, most of the walls of nearby houses or villas are colored blue or light blue for the festival. it all seems simply labyrinthian. Chefs, bakers and baristas alike seem to all be trying to borrow wheat or flour from one another, the town seems to be a small bit famished due to the large amount of food needed for the festival. Looking around more I notice a quest board next to a relatively small building. It’s filled with news of drake’s overpopulation in recent times. There’s also apparently been a fungal outbreak in Dorai’Kel. with that I also see wanted posters for all sorts of people. What catches my eyes however is a wanted poster without any pictures, simply saying in bold letters

“Wanted, dead or alive. THE STAINS. A group of 3 humanoids, one adult human woman, one adult human man and one teenage satyr boy. The human woman is dark skinned and has long black hair. Last seen wearing a red vest alongside a black dress shirt and black pants. The human man is squalidly dressed with a metallic arm, He is built like an Ox and is dangerous if angered. The satyr can perform strange magic to alter his body. Be on guard, Bounty of 3050, per member caught alive. Bounty of 2505 per member brought in dead.”

Clearly it’s describing us, I have to get new clothing and a change of hairstyle

Chapter 4: And so the guitar strums

Chapter Text

White fluffy hair looks like clouds from a distance but I can grab it, the fur is so pristine in condition it feels amazing to the touch. A large smile widens my face as my worries almost melt away.

“Gwain you’ve pet it enough it’s my turn!” Jaina shouts at me as I continue to scrub at the large dog's fluffy hair, although I can only feel my right hand it still feels wonderful.

“fuck off Jaina, you have two hands while I have one. Obviously I should have double your time!” I say while laughing, the dog's tongue flopping in the air while it pants happily. The old woman that owns the dog slowly begins to try and move away from us as if we were being weird.

“Do you think we should get a dog for ourselves? Maybe like a large mastiff or something.” Jaina asks, I wonder what a mastiff is for a few seconds before answering her.

“What the fuck is a mastiff?” I ask which makes Jaina cackle with laughter and shake uncontrollably while laughing at me.

“Jesus fucking christ Gwain you’re hilarious. A mastiff is like a breed of dog from Marlerolai, they’re used even in wars or large scale battles to bring around potions to weary allies.” She says while still laughing heavily.

“So I don’t know the different types of dogs big fucking deal Jaina!” I say while beginning to giggle alongside her. We start to get stared at and I slowly begin to hear it again, that high pitched buzzing sound. It’s something haunts me non fucking stop, this ringing noise isn’t that overbearing but its still goddamn annoying. Like a pin needle being pushed into your skull every second of my waking day. I barely hear as Jaina begins to talk to me

“Gwain? Are you alright? You were spacing out there, we should get going, people are staring at us.” Jaina says as we both get off the ground and begin to move further into the busy markets. blue lanterns and blue paintings lining the walls of all the nearby houses make the entire town seem similar and almost labyrinth-like. All of it seems to blend together as Jaina takes my hand and leads me along the market stalls. I look up and the only real landmark that can be spotted from anywhere in the town is the clocktower, I’d wager it being at least a hundred feet tall. The ringing slows down as I calm myself and stop shaking.

“Yeah I’m fine Jaina I just had a bit of a flashback right there, it’s no big issue. So should we go get that pizza you wanted? I’m kinda hungry.” I say as I look over to Jaina, she seems worried.

“Oh yeah pizza sure, I think I also saw some ice cream while we were running here. Wait Gwain , what's your favorite ice cream flavor?” she asks as she takes my hand and begins to lead me forward towards whatever stall she saw on the way here. I slowly take my hand out of hers as I answer.

“Oh I’ve never had pizza or ice cream. I don’t know really what my favorite flavor is, I liked uhm. I think I liked some red looking berries when I was back in Cernodan.” Jaina makes an audible gasp at my statement, before shouting out.

“YOU’VE NEVER HAD ICE CREAM?!” The sound nearly breaks what’s remaining of my eardrums as she can be heard for probably up to a kilometer away. She continues, now however not shouting as loud

“Really? You’ve never had ice cream?”

“I was homeless all my life until what, 2 months ago or so when I got the rights to the farmhouse. Can’t really fault me for not having eaten ice cream.”

“I mean yeah but still that's insane, I’m gonna buy you all the flavors so we can find out what's your favorite.” Jaina says while gleefully pulling out her wallet. She quickly looks into it and a sour expression begins to appear onto her face.

“We’re broke aren’t we?” I ask as Jaina’s face continues to fill with despair.

“I’m not gonna say we’re broke, I’m just gonna say we are far from being rich.” She says while looking at her wallet.

“So just pizza should do fine before we go and get a room at some nearby inn, right?” I ask as we begin to once again move throughout the confusing town streets. It seems however like Jaina simply knows where to go and what streets to avoid. It seems like she’s been here before. I also notice that a larger than usual amount of people seem to be staring at us, some doing double takes and others just staring, their eyes seemingly empty. I begin to get slightly nervous as a pair of old ladies begin to walk over to the two of us while Jaina is ordering pizza, they’re staring at Jaina while I uncomfortably start looking around.

“Jaina is that you?” asks one of the old ladies. I start looking at her more specifically, she’s a triton, her face covered in wrinkles and dimples. Her hair is dark as a raven. She’s seemingly dressed in a beautiful blue sundress that’s been embroidered with cobwebs. The other woman is dressed in something extremely similar, but her dress is instead in black. Her face; spotless and pale, almost ageless. I assume she’s either an elf or extremely good at makeup.

“Oh hi Miss Lauderdale and Miss Lauderdale! I’ve come to visit after a while, well it’s more of a stopping point during a long adventure.” Jaina excitedly announces to the two old Lauderdale’s.

“What the hell did you do to your hair?” asks the pale one “Honestly dear, it looks rancid. You should have called us if you had wanted short hair.” says the triton. The two seemingly circling around Jaina and asking her lots of questions.

“Who is this boy? Did you grab him out of the gutter?” “Why are you dressed like that? It
seems as if you dragged yourself out of a dump.” “What are you going to be eating? You should come over to our place again, Mister Frizzle has missed you so much!” The two old ladies fawning over Jaina barely give her a chance to reply to anything they say. Before I can really do anything about it we are already at this old looking house. It’s slightly old and worn out from the outside, the walls being made of something resembling the big statues that Jaina was drawing. The walls, although made beautifully, have a lot of overgrown vines and greenery. The large postbox at the front of the estate loudly states a name, but I can’t read. It also seems to be painted over another name. We step through the old gates into the large home. The somewhat dirty insides are covered in dust as we walk through rooms upon rooms which haven’t seen use in years most likely.

“We kept your room as you left it dear, I have some stew being prepared. You go off and
talk to Yam’xha while I make the food!” The triton says, leaving the main room as Jaina and I are left with the pale woman named Yam’xha

“So who are you? Are you taking care of Jaina or is Jaina taking care of you?” She asks while staring at me.

“I’m Gwain, I look after Jaina and Jaina looks after me. It's more like a comrade thing rather than either one of us looking after the other.” I answer

“I see, is your arm a prosthetic? You seem lopsided, you’re holding your left shoulder lower than your right. It looks like there's more weight in your left arm. Also Jaina please cover your ear with your hair, the bullet wound is still visible and I don’t want Henna to be worried.” She says while leaning back onto an old chair. Both I and Jaina are shocked at her assessment for a second before Jaina does as she was told.

“Did you lose your arm recently? or is the prosthetic new? If you were born with a birth defect you would be used to the weight of a prosthetic you would have been wearing for a while. Besides you seem to be pretty battleworn, your right arm is shaking and you shift your head too much every few seconds. You still seem shell shocked.” Yam’xha says, going on a small rant as she picks up her tea cup, before quickly sipping the contents.

“Orrr, you could tell us how you’ve been!” Jaina says, trying to steer the conversation.

“I’ve been fine, Henna has started making food with more potatoes, threw out all the flour and wheat we had, and replaced them with potatoes and meats. How did you get shot Jaina?” She says while propping her feet onto the table, leaning back even more on the chair.

“How old are you?” I ask, Yam’xha spits out a bit of tea and falls over on the chair.

“H-How dare you ask a lady her age?” She says while slowly trying to lift herself off of the ground. I quickly hear a shout from the kitchen, Henna answering for her.

“Oh Yam’xha is cursed with nigh immortality, she’s like 400 or something!” For a few seconds I just look at her thinking about what the hell does nigh mean, a few minutes later as the soup is placed onto the kitchen table I whisper to Jaina asking what nigh means, apparently it's a fancy word for almost. The soup is amazing, it has carrots, potatoes and something called beetroots. It tastes strangely good, there is also apparently reindeer in the soup but I can't tell the difference.

“How long will you be staying here Jaina? We could lend you and Gwain your own rooms if you wish to stay for a while.” Henna says while eating her own share of soup, Yam’xha has been done with her share for a while but she still sits at the table.

“Oh well the plan was to stick around in a town until one of our compatriots gets in contact with us, she’s discussing our contract with our employer. Also there is a third person with us but we split apart when we came to town, we should find her soon as well.” I think to myself for a bit and realize: Holy fuck we forgot where Grell went. I look over to a grandfather clock and realize I still can’t tell the time from a clock. I go back to eating my soup in shame.

“Oh who’s this third person? Is it that Grell woman who you talked about getting hired by your father?” Henna asks as she continues eating her soup, Yam’xha seemingly staring at me and my greatsword. Jaina and Henna continue their talk while I and Yam’xha continue staring at each other. I hear as it begins to rain again outside, the sound is quite calming.

“Oh yeah Grell is quite nice, it’s been fun working with her. It's now been I think 10 months since me, Gwain and Grell started traveling around. We’ve gotten into some troubles but we are quite fine now and yes if it is possible then we would love to stay here for about a month or so before our associate gets back to us with our contract. We sorta messed up a job recently and had to come back, one of our allies lost both his hands in the fight and we came back to get him healed and say the mission was a failure but we ran into some issues. He is unfortunately no longer with us and we’ve been framed to be his killers.” Jaina explains as I finish drinking the broth of my soup, Yam’xha quickly grabs it and her own bowl before going into the kitchen to clean them. Henna seems quite shocked at the news but replies with nothing but kindness in her heart.

“Oh well you three can stay as long as you all want but first I really want to cut your hair properly. I want you to at least look good with short hair, we can do that while Gwain and Yam’xha look for Grell. Can you do that for me honey?” she shouts the last part out and Yam’xha yells in reply from the kitchen.

“Sure darling, just please don’t cut Jaina’s hair with my collected relics.” After a while she walks out with an overcoat on her with what looks like military boots and black jeans as she grabs me by the shoulder and tells me

“Off we go, boy.” As she essentially drags me out of the house with only my jacket and my hidden dagger with me. The two of us exiting into the rain filled streets really makes me see the whole town in a new perspective. The entire town seems so different, the dark clouds above us and the oily looking puddles that are scattered across the streets, my own reflections staring back at myself I feel a bit insecure. The image of Harsen skips past me for a second. A sorcerer who could make reflections walk out of mirrors, horrid memories coming back I start looking around a bit. The scar on my right hand and my right eye that had been pierced out by my own reflection. It’s a quick change from the warm insides of the old yet welcoming house of the Lauderdale’s to the cold streets of the city.

“Listen here you little shithead, I have a lot of better things to be doing so put yourself in my shoes for a second. My wife’s friend's kid comes to my house with some stranger, she hasn’t visited in a while and she has multiple recent wounds, a scar on her ear and a lot more internal damage. How do you think I feel?” Yam’xha asks, her tone is demanding but nothing I haven’t heard before

“A bit worried I would assume”

“Yeah fucking obviously. Go on then Gwain what do you even do? Do you have a house, can you read because it didn't look like you could read a clock. Why do you need a greatsword from Postynia? Who the fuck is Grell, who died with all of you being around and why is Jaina doing all this?” She asks as she kicks me into a puddle of water.

“I think we better find Grell, I can explain while we walk around.” I say while slowly getting on my knees and off the ground. We spend the next however many hours as we walk around the town and I tell the story of what we’ve been doing mostly truly, I only focus on the points where Jaina was involved and skip past the not so important things. She and I look for Grell for a long while, I notice as some bakers begin throwing out old wheat, pasta and flour. Yam’xha says that most of it is either rotting or somehow molded over. Degurechaff, being mostly focused on livestock like goats, cows and sheep. Apparently the newest batch of pasta and things should be shipped here tomorrow, today being September 30th, turning to the 31st as the large clock tower in the middle of town begins ringing out. The sound of the bell is probably heard for a while beyond the town.

“So Gwain, do you play the guitar? I assume since you mentioned having one at your house.” Yam’xha says as we continue moving along. I’m entirely drenched with rain at this point while she’s quite well covered by her coat.

“No, I have a metal arm and I only got the guitar when I got the house, Sefris is the musician of the group.” I answer

“Oh well I know how to play a guitar, so I was wondering if you wanted to learn how.” Yam’xha says. I think for a few seconds before answering

“I mean maybe, I could learn later but we’re sorta busy right now aren’t we?”

“Well have you seen this Grell lady since you got here? It seems like she’s already found a place for herself. If she’s as tough as you’ve said she’s probably handling herself more than well. Let's walk back to the house, I don't want Henna to have to clean this coat.” Yam’xha says as she starts walking back to the house. I just stand there looking around for a bit, shivering. Before I start following her back to the house, we notice a few drunks going around town and a man walks up to Yam’xha and starts talking to her. His speech is slurred and clearly he's very drunk.

“Heyy pretty ladyyy wouldya happen to have a ciggie on ya?” He says while approaching Yam’xha. She quickly pulls out a pack of cigarettes and gives the man one, he tries pulling out a lighter but drops it onto the ground instead. He reaches for the ground to take it and knocks it into a gutter on accident instead. Yam’xha takes out a vintage lighter and covers the man’s cigarette as he also cups his hands to cover it from the rain and wind. She takes a cigarette for herself and lights it before turning to me and offering me one, I take it and she lights it for me. The three of us just stand there under a cafe’s overhanging roof smoking. I feel as if I could hear a guitar playing somewhere among the rain falling, the ringing in my ear is still there.

I just fail to notice it for a bit. It’s quite nice. We make it back to the warm inside of Lauderdale's house. I start looking around a lot more now. The insides are mostly wood with birch wooden flooring, mahogany tables and other assortments of wood, there's lots of shoes at the walk in closet in the beginning of the house, Yam’xha makes me take off my shoes as I walk in, placing my boots in the entrance corridor. The walls are covered in paintings of countrysides and beaches, it’s all quite beautiful.

“Oh honey you’re home, Jaina fell asleep quite easily. Did you find that Grell woman you two were looking for?” Henna asked

“Oh sorry no, Gwain should get to bed before tomorrow really starts. Besides, what are you still doing, still up honey?” Yam’xha asks as she quickly wraps her hand around Henna’s hips, I head upstairs and find a couch to sleep on. I wake up and the sun is peeking through a nearby window and I get off of the leather couch I slept on for the night. I hear some commotion outside before I quickly hear the low humming coming back to annoy me. I get off of the couch and walk downstairs.

“Morning to you all.” I say as I walk down, I notice that both Lauderdale’s are staring out of the window at a large group of people dressed in all black.

“There’s apparently an infection of some kind started, it came from Naraam Nahoo and some plague doctors are here to quarantine the town.” Yam’xha replies without looking towards me. It’s a pretty grave atmosphere overall as we start the day off. September 31st.

Chapter 5: Disease Log 1, Incubation.

Chapter Text

I open my eyes, I’m back in this fucking shithole hut. It smells like manure and looks even worse. Looking around I draw my dagger with my left hand and look around. Nobody is here to kill me so I slowly close the dagger into its sheath. Looking around I pick up my diary and my clothes into a small duffel bag, I walk out of this squalid little shithole. Leaving the mud hut that I was housed in for the night I head for the last of my clients here in Advumst. I look forward and around the town visiting whatever small issues that the towns folk had, like a child scraping his knee and contracting a disease. I had to perform four amputations before I had been housed and I was at the end of my rope with these people. I had to explain so many times that you shouldn’t cover open wounds in whatever snake oils or shit that they had scraped together with their ape-like brains. The jackalfolk, stone genasi and gnomes that had made this fucking hole in the ground their home thank me with what little they can scrape together. At about noon I open my diary during lunch, writing with my left hand and eating with my right as I devour what horrific quality dogshit they call bread. I don’t have any butter to spread on it either, it’s disgusting. So utterly below me that I find myself sick at the thought of having to stay here for a longer while. I quickly write into my diary the following:

September 13th, 1487. [Merean Calendar]
I have found no clues on the liquid apotheosis, the land of Advumst that was fabled to be the spawning point of gods seems to be nothing but a shithole that should be eaten by the ground. I performed nearly twelve surgeries today, most of them being amputations caused by the rabid animals of this land having little to no idea about infections or hygiene near a wound. It is quite horrid honestly. I am still booked for a trip to Dorai’kel to inspect the new Quote: Fungal outbreak with blue, glowing growths having spurted from the ground and individuals. Unquote. I assume that this outbreak is yet another small evolution for a fungal strand or an outburst of magical energy. I need not repeat myself but I will repeat the mantra.
Quote: Magic and its use in and of itself is the disrespect of science and medicine that we truly intelligent chase, it should be seen for what it is. A parody of any talent at all. Unquote.

After finishing the horrid torture these people claim to be a meal, I quickly get out of my seat, leaving the creatures to clean my spot for me as I finish writing into my diary. I am an honorary member for the brotherhood. A collective that fights against fascist corporations, governments and religions. The brotherhood is formed with hundreds of members per city, though I find their ways useful and their surprising amount of resources always useful, it is still all below me. I will find liquid apotheoses. I will research and comprehend it. I will be the greatest. These people that stand near me have frustrated me for the last time. As I begin to walk towards the docks and harbors for this shithole, I make a detour to the large well in the middle of town. I place my duffel bag against my knee, I don’t want it to be soiled with what disgusting things the ground might be subject to. Out of the duffle bag I pull out a collection of bottles and begin to pour into the well one of my brews. One of the mongrel, jackalfolk children rush to me as they see me for some charlatan magic man. It disgusts me horrifically as the children ask me.

“Mister shaman man, what are you pouring into the well? My momma says that it should be kept as clean as possible!” My teeth grind against themselves as I force a smile and a happy voice.

“Oh well little Billy! I’m pouring down some healing brews! They strengthen your bones and make you feel better the more you drink the water, it costs quite a lot but for you people how could I not do my very best?” I say while dying inside, the lies I spout from my mouth in that moment aren’t hard to say due to it being “morally wrong” or something, it’s because this god be damned mongrel's mere presence makes my blood boil with anger. The mixture I am truly pouring into this well is their release from this mortal coil. It is a poison called paramecia, if ingested in small quantities it's quite healthy but once the subject consumes more than 0.42 liters of paramecia it begins to cramp the muscles, slowly breaking apart the skin and tearing ligaments and straining the flesh to the point that any movement is painful. Something that these mongrels deserve. If you are not smart enough to even cover an open wound with a bandage after disinfecting it, I frankly believe you should not be allowed to reproduce. It’s quite disgusting. I get the small creature to run off to its ghoulish mother as it goes to tell the good news to it. I am surprised as a few of the creatures stop me on my way to the boat. One of the older ones holds out a hand and to keep up appearances I am forced to shake it.

“Ah Doctor Reed! You seem to be leaving but I would like to truly thank you for all of the help that you’ve given to my struggling people and township. Words and items could never be enough to showcase how much I am indebted to you!” The tall and famished jackalfolk says, I feign a large smile as I shake his hand in reply.

“Oh well thank you very much chief Yakamaraen! It has been quite the experience to enjoy your culture but I must head off, lots of people in the world to cure after all! And as for the reward I would greatly appreciate something more monetary or something I could sell off. Maybe something old that you really don't need anymore perhaps?” I ask, trying to fish for anything useful out of this quack. You could almost see the gears in his head turning as he tries to think of something useful from this horrific place.

“I will give you the mask of my ancestors! It’s supposedly magical and blessed with the spirits of healing and disease warding! I hope it serves you well, and once again Doctor, I thank you.” He says as he presents a large mask with tusks, it's made of some old wood that's probably filled with mites. I regretfully place it into my bag, wishing it doesn’t infect something. He then quickly bows down to me as he thanks me for the last time.

“Thank you as well Chief, I may return later if you were to ever call for my aid!” I say as I quickly begin to head onto the boat. It is filled with two brotherhood members and three other passengers. I move close to the captain and tell him the passcode:

“Marlerolaian wines taste best at midnight, don’t you think?” his eyes perk up as he then closes in on me, replying like so.

“Second from the bottom the shelf is fine, but wine is finer indeed.” As he hands me the keys to my room. I head into the ship, it’s still quite rancid but it’s a lot better than the hell on earth I had just escaped. I walk past the first two people and as I try to reach my room the last passenger is in my way, noticing she’s pregnant I unfortunately can’t push her out of the way.

“Oh I’m quite sorry, my name is Helga, what is yours?” The pregnant woman says as she turns around to look at me, she’s elven, her ears are slightly longer than average, blond hair, 165cms estimated, 75-95 kg estimated.

“Oh I am Doctor Reed Williamson, pleasure to meet you Helga. How far along are you with the pregnancy?” I ask while holding out my hand for a handshake with a smile.

“Oh I believe it's 8 months in! In my last trimester, it's good to know we have a doctor on board If my water were to burst.” She says while giggling to herself. I give a hearty laugh as I slowly try and move past her into my room. The woman didn’t even shake my hand which was awkward I assume.

“Well good to know, but I should really go change my clothing and assort my doctor's bag.” I say as I swiftly use the key to my room and quickly get in. After closing my door and locking it, I begin to quickly tear off my dirtied clothing. I go to the shower and rinse myself from the filth and bacteria of the savages of Advumst. I take my own soap from my bag which I had specially made, I clean off the first layer of bacteria and scum. My well kept, dark skin begins to be slightly cleaner as I scrub my hands, arms and upper body for exactly 11 minutes for each part. I have perfected the washing process after hundreds of trials, my body is clean enough to not make me feel repugnant but not too clean as to cause rashes or dermatitis. I then take out yet another, different soap for my lower body, groin, legs and soles of the feet. I scrub all the parts for yet another 11 minutes each, it's methodical but slow.

Once I’ve gotten out of the shower I put on some new clothes that had been given to me by the brotherhood. They slightly chafe against me in a way that's annoying but I can manage this. I then open the second bottom-most shelf in the desk that is in my cabin. Opening it I find a small briefcase, I enter the combination 139-148-711-553 to the lock on it. The briefcase opens and I find my check. It is written for Dr. Reed Williamson, paying me 1.13 million gold for my efforts if I were to find a cure for the fungal infection. I’ve been a medical professional, poison maker, eugenicist and many more things for this brotherhood. A simple infection should be nothing above me, perhaps I might find clues on apotheoses when I visit Dorai’Kel. The travel takes a few days, nothing worth mentioning however.

September 17th, 1487 [Merean calendar]
I have been supplied with the newest version of plague doctor outfits, a mask that is shaped like a rat supplies air through a pipe that connects to the back of the cloak. The rat and crow mask along with a large black cloak being a synonymous symbol for doctors and curers around the world. The image of a rat is quite disrespectful for my profession but I accept it all if it means furthering my goal. The doctor’s bag I was given on April 3rd, 1487 has been completely depleted. Scalpels, bandages and disinfectants have all been used to the point of them being highly questionable to be used. I apparently will have a replacement readied for me when I reach the main offices in Dorai’kel. We arrived at the port at 16.12, it is currently raining.

I take the first few steps out, the other passengers seem to move away from me and dodge out of the way to allow me to pass. As I get off of the ship, they quickly close back the boat's entrance and begin to sail off. The people go back into the ship after they are done with looking at the city’s lights. I take out the plague doctor outfit and slowly begin putting it on, all of the cloak’s interconnecting parts are connected with small hooks and cables. I then place on the mask and huff in the scent I will have to get used to for a while. The bottled air that is placed onto my back connected to the cloak itself is rancid. The air is stale and annoyingly warm. I however do get the “privilege” to place scent enhancing herbs into the mask, so that the smell is at least tolerable. After placing in mints and copious amounts of different scent enhancers I start getting out of the docks and up to the main parts of the city itself. After getting onto the main roads I see corpses laid onto cots and others being thrown into gutters or ditches as the remaining doctors attempt to purge as many corpses as possible. Some of the nearby piles burning make the doctors cough constantly, most likely infected as well. One of them quickly rushes to me and holds his hand out for a handshake, I step back and he relents on the attempt as he starts talking.

“Oh, you aren’t a fan of handshakes I see. Well I understand, are you the new guy coming in? We got a letter by the way of the arcane and we got your doctor's bag ready in the main offices.” he says, spouting spit occasionally from his mouth. I find it difficult to not try and clean it from my cloak but I reply quickly.

“Yes, I am Doctor Reed Williamson. I’m quite sure we have a lot of work to do, my previous doctor’s bag has run out of usable supplies, the scalpels are damaged and I have no disinfectants or bandages.” I say as I take the small bag out of the larger duffel bag, showing the contents to the man.

“Oh well mister-” he tries to continue his sentence but I correct him.

“Doctor.” he laughs for some reason as he continues walking alongside me. We seem to be walking towards a police station

“My apologies, Doctor Reed. We really have also been strapped for anything so your doctor’s bag is one of the higher quality ones we can afford currently. We’ve reused the old police station as the new doctors office for the small band of about 12 doctors we still have here. We started with about 30 people, mourning the lost is also something we cannot afford to do. Time is running shorter and shorter everyday and we really are facing a possible extinction level threat here.” He says as we walk into the large offices, the main room of the building is large and by my estimates is 1200 feet long and 1000 feet wide. The height of the roof is estimated as 190 feet, there are 2 different floors above this one and we have quite a large amount of space to continue our research.

“When did you all begin the quarantine and when was the infection first spotted? Do we have an estimated amount of casualties, mister?” I say as the fellow doctor sits onto a large leather couch that seemed to have been dragged into the headquarters.

“Doctor Liam Herevagn and we began the quarantine at the start of september. We first spotted the infection on August 20th, once we had realized how severe the infection was it was too late for us to really affect anything.” He says, picking up a nearby bottle of some kind of alcohol. I cover the bottle with my hand as I continue asking him things.

“Mister Herevagn, would we happen to have any dissected corpses or any large amounts of the fungi? I would like any notes or live samples of either the fungi or how it affects living people.”

“Oh, go talk to Jinana. She’ll give you a room key and show you the operation room and morgue.” Mister Herevagn replies as he swats my hand off of the bottle, beginning to drink from it. After he gives the name I hear someone moaning out in a tired tone. I quickly look over and see this strange haired elf, dressed in a tank top, loose pants and a disgustingly unclean lab coat.

“Goddamnit Liam you can’t just keep giving me the shit you don’t wanna do! Alright then new guy, you’re the uhm.. egotistical one?” She says after a while of thinking, I notice she has multiple piercings on her nose, mouth and ears.

“I believe so, I am Doctor Reed Williamson. I assume you are Jinana, I would like to see a live specimen if possible.” I say as we start walking to the western side of the building. Jinana opens a large door with a rusty key connected to a large keyring. She fiddles with the keyring as the sound of keys hitting keys brings pain to my ears.

“Yeah, my name is Jinana Welsman. Pleasure to meet you Dr. Reed, I don't think we have any live specimens left though. All those who were alive with the infection either begged to be killed or took their end to their own hands. We do have corpses upon corpses out in the old evidence room. We piled all the corpses that are in at least some shape to be dissected. Just pick one out and we can get Delly to drag them to the operating room.” She says as we walk through a hallway that is filled with shabbily placed quarantine gear, the walls are covered in the black and yellow covers that are almost fully falling out of place.

“Who is this Delly? Is she another doctor, nurse or general helper?” I ask as I continue looking around, we get to a doorway that is also covered in the shabbily placed covers. Jinana presses a button and the door begins to slowly open by itself.

“Ah Delly, they’re a sweetheart. Delly is an old deltora robot that was given to us by the big corporate people as a marketing thing probably. But they are still really useful, they pretty much lift corpses or heavy gear for us.” Jinana quickly covers her nose as the doorway opens fully, she then quickly places a mask onto her face. The dark room beyond the doorway is quickly lit with a fluorescent light. It’s disgusting to say the least. Piles and piles of corpses placed on piles and piles on corpses, the stench would be rancid if I hadn’t worn the mask. I slowly walk forwards and begin choosing a specimen to dissect. Most of the corpses have the fungi slightly visible in the nostrils or mouth. A few of the corpses at the bottom of the pile have the fungi breaking out of the torso of the specimen. After 34 minutes I had chosen two specimens. One adult human male and one pre-pubescent tiefling male.

“I’ve chosen my specimen, please have Delly bring them to the operation room, speaking of it where is the operation room?” I ask as I move to Jinana she then quickly presses a button on the wall and begins walking alongside me.

“Oh the room is on the third floor on the other side of the hq, it's a bit of a pain to bring people and corpses in so you really gotta make these two worth it. Your room is three rooms to the left of the operation room. It was an old office for a detective named Marsh, so thank him for the room you got.” She says as she gives me a pair of somewhat dirty keys with a nametag connected to them.

“I see, well thanks to mister Marsh we might have a better shot at a cure. I would also like to know how much rations we have left.” I say as Jinana continues to walk alongside me she has a small smile on her face as we continue the stroll.

“Oh we have practically no rations left. We barely get enough food to do anything because of Clark being able to make food with magic. He has just enough to feed all 12 of us and then some left over for making snacks but with you now here I guess the guys wont have as many potato chips to eat anymore.” She says as we now walk past the main room of the headquarters, I notice about 4 people gambling around a small table while Herevagn is sleeping on the couch I last saw him. We continue walking into the eastern side of the headquarters and we go up about two staircases. I see the door to my new housing as a wooden door inscribed with the name “Marsh” is in front of the two of us. I take out my key and open it.

“Welcome home doctor. I’m gonna go smoke while you get acquainted with the place.” Jinana says in what I assume is a joking manner. Before I can reply she’s disappeared into the large buildings' different rooms. I walk through the open door and begin looking around my new room. There is a somewhat large redwood desk in the middle of the room, behind it there is a chair that matches the color and design. There is a black couch into the right side of the room and to the left side there is a large pile of boxes filled to the brim with paperwork. I place my duffel bag under the desk and I begin to place down my old clothing, the paperwork in the room and the mask I was given into a large cardboard box. I then pick up the box and go downstairs and outside of the offices. I walk to one of the corpse piles and throw the trash in with them. I then begin walking back to the offices as I hear the clocktower of the town ringing. It strikes 8 times meaning it's now 20.00 I walk back to the office and the 4 people gambling all look me up and down as I enter. I walk past them before I notice a 2 meter tall robot carrying two specimens into the operation room. I burst into a sprint as I head upstairs and go into the room.

“Hello, I am Delly, your ever helpful mechanical nurse!” The automaton says in a friendly customer service tone.

“Thank you Delly, please place the specimens into the operation room. I will perform an autopsy on both of them before heading to sleep.” The automaton then places the specimens onto two different tables in the operation room. She then starts talking again.

“It is no issue mister! I am here to help, please do keep your own mental and biological health in mind however when performing the autopsy.” The automaton says as she moves aside, allowing me into the room. I only realize hours have passed when I hear the clocktower ring again. I start writing down onto a clipboard all of my realizations.

Subjects 1 [human adult male] and 2 [Tiefling prepubescent male] have been infected with the newest fungal outbreak. Subject 1 has a large amount of fungi visible from the mouth and nose all the way to the lungs. After opening subject 1’s lungs with my surgical tools I noticed that the blue fungi infestation had hit most harshly onto the lungs and related area within the subjects body. Subject 2’s infection had grown worse, possibly due to the subject's age. The infection broke through skin, bones and flesh. A large fungus had grown out of the subject's stomach freely. The fungus on the outside of subject 2, was calculated to be 12.3 cm tall, and was as wide as subject 2’s torso [55 cm]. After removing the fungus from subject 2 and then cutting the fungus free from subject 2’s torso and lungs, the fungus weighed a total of 31.3 kilograms. The fungus glows in the dark and is most likely able to infect other creatures if it were to come in contact with skin. Tired and weary I head to Marsh’s office and lay myself down to the black couch, falling asleep quite quickly.

I open my eyes and realize I still have my mask on, the glass goggles now fogged. I remove the mask for a few seconds, clearing the fog from the glass. I grow more and more sick each second the mask stays off. I nearly throw up but I manage to clear the fog from the lenses, I then put on the mask once more and head out of Marsh’s office. I notice that a large group of my newfound co-workers are eating breakfast. They wave to me as I begin walking downstairs and join them.

“Helloo! You’re the new guy right? I’m Clark Keith, I make all the food. Blessings of Beelzebub upon you and all that.” Says a rather small framed man, he’s a ratfolk. His hair and fur is gray and he has a small scar that traces along his mouth. His voice is meek and quite high pitched but it isn’t so annoying overall.

“Are you a cleric? I don’t mean to be rude but I don’t truly believe in the gods since we are men of medicine and science.” I say as I look down at the ratfolk. He gives a small laugh and the people around us also begin to laugh as well.

“We’re all people of faith here, the only reason we aren’t all dead right now is because of Clark’s clerical powers!” Jinana shouts between giggles, I find it quite disgusting how all my comrades in research and science have turned to faith. Starving must truly be affecting the way they are thinking. The people begin eating the bread and water that the cleric presents forward and I take my share from the table, placing the food into a plastic box and then placing the box into my duffel bag.

“Is he that nervous about showing his face? He can’t really be that ugly can he?” Asks one of the doctors to another as they’re all eating their bread and drinking their waters given to them by the hand of a god.

“Oh I don’t think he cares, he’s just a bit of a pussy and doesn’t wanna get infected that badly. We’re all brothers and sisters doomed to die here!” Another man shouts as he raises his glass filled with water, the group cheers.

“Is this all that you’ve been up to recently? If you’re not even trying to make a cure I can see why I was sent here. I’m off to check the fungus’s effects upon the buildings in the nearby vicinity.” I say as I walk off, the duffel bag on my shoulder. Beginning my walk around the city streets I walk around a nearby theater, noticing that the walls are slightly tinted blue, the sun hitting the side of the building making it light up even more. One of the first days in a while when it hasn’t rained. The fungi seems to grow on soft surfaces like wood, flesh and grass. I continue my stroll and notice corpse piles that had been burned and melted together last night, the charred corpses seemingly screaming out in pain and for help. I kneel down and open one’s mouth with a set of tongs and look closer with a magnifying glass. It seems that the fire had not only burned anything on the outside of the subject's body, this including the fungi. It seems that the fungi cannot survive the heat of a fire. Perhaps if needed a large area that had been infected could be burned away using a meteor shower spell or large quantities of pyromancers. I would however prefer flamethrowers as it would make utterly sure that no quirks of magic could disturb the evolution of our sciences.

I take my boot out of the corpse pile and continue moving along, coming across an old shack made of wood under a bridge. The shack seemed to be a safe haven for either vagrants, drunks or drug addicts. Looking inside I see a corpse that has an unusual amount of fungi growing from its torso and mouth. Out of the mouth of the now unidentifiable creature the fungi extends downwards like a warped beard. The blue stringy mycelium seemingly pouring out of the poor creature's mouth endlessly. By my estimate the mycelium would have to be at least 4 meters long. Moving on from the mycelium the torso was the next area to cover, the large bulbous cap that had bursted out of the creature's torso area is about the size of three heads, I guess it to be about 1 meter wide and 1.3 meters tall. The large cap had busted through the creature’s torso in such a manner that it broke through the creature’s body first through the lungs, then ribs, then torso. All the while I presume the creature was conscious. Seeming that the creature’s face is a mask of pure agony.

I look downward to see where the mycelium led and if it had connected to anything nearby, the long light blue strings seemingly connect to the floorboards themselves. I reach down and feel the crackle of the corpse moving. I look to my right and see that the creature's head had fallen off of its shoulders. Only being connected to the body with the same mycelium that is connected to the floorboards. The fungi has by my approximation either melted or degraded the bones in the throat and spine so badly that its only being held together by its flesh and gravity. I then pull out of my duffel bag a bonesaw, it wasn’t meant for what I was about to do but it was a necessary sacrifice. I then quickly carve out a part of the floorboards that was infected, placing it under my armpit after I'm done.

A few hours pass as I meander around the town searching for any corpses that are still in well off condition and see that the sewers are blocked off with the same quarantine tape that I had seen at the offices. I decide to first return the plank for more thorough investigations and then ask about the tape. I notice a few of my “coworkers” outside as well, I hadn’t recognized them before now. I quickly wave to them as I approach and I hear one shout to me.

“Hey new guy, we’re sorry about how Rickket treated you, it’s really nothing personal it's just that making fun of someone else is easier than admitting we’re all in kind of a bad situation, you know?” The human infront of me was slightly shorter than I was but only slightly. I continue looking at him for a few seconds, his face is scarred with acne and his eyes are a deep brown. His hair reaches to his shoulders and is untied, the graying hair seems to move wildly.

“My name is uhm Harrison Quoreant but most people call me Harris and I think I heard your name is Reed Williamson right?” He says, seemingly in an awkward situation. I respond to him, relieving the awkward situation from him.

“Yes I am Reed Williamson, pleasure to meet you Harrison. How old are you? I am thirty one years old myself. Do you participate in smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol?” I ask him, he seems puzzled for a few seconds before answering like so

“I am forty four years old, I don’t drink and I don’t smoke. I find the act of crocheting and woodworking to be far more calming than either of those. I joined the medical field to help people, why did you join if you don’t mind me asking?” He seems to have grasped how I prefer to talk and is replicating it himself. I notice Jinana staring at us from a few feet away with another woman next to her.

“I joined the medical field to help people as well. Do you think we could be friends? We could share meals and discuss the outbreak while taking our lunch breaks.” I say. Harrison’s face seems to light up with joy, it seems he hasn’t had a friend in a while.

“That would be quite nice Reed, I do think I could possibly be your friend if you’d let me. I have also done something for you before even meeting you! I was given the task of counting the corpses at the start of the outbreak. I have this book right here filled with every corpse's name and location written down, for those that we didn’t find names for I simply wrote down a description of the corpse and what was done with it.” He says as he hands me an extremely thick book, I’d say it's at least 20 cm. The cover is black with small crochets in the shape of stars and hearts. I look up at Harrison and he looks at the book before saying.

“I mean it would be quite grim if we all take this in the darkest possible way. A little bit of color never hurts anyone okay? I’m just trying to cheer everyone up.” I look back down at the book with its multicolored stars and hearts along with the rainbow colored title “Necronomicon of Dorai’kel”. I look up at him and reply.

“It looks quite nice Harrison, the needlework is admirable. Could you please tell me why the sewers have been quarantined?” His face clearly lights with joy and a slight smug as I commend him.

“Oh well the sewers have been infected with the fungi, it seems that the fungi evolved to stick to the walls of the sewers. If the fungus is underwater it could be possible that the water allows it to somehow stick to the concrete. If you didn’t notice, the fungus doesn't stick to things like solid stone, metals or concrete in other places.” Harrison has had a while to discover this so I’m not surprised he also knows this. I give him the plank of wood I pulled from the shed as I continue our conversation.

“I found this plank of wood in a shack that was filled with an extremely overgrown fungus. I'd hope to examine this closer back at the offices. If you’re on your way back I’d really appreciate you placing this at my office.” Harrison then puts on a pair of leather gloves and takes the plank of wood and starts walking off, leaving me with the two other women and the book. I hear laughter as Harrison begins to run off back to the headquarters. I turn to look at the two.

“Oh shit sorry, It’s just really nice to see that that old son of a bitch can still run that fast and happily.” Says one of the women with an extremely gravelly tone. She seems to be a chronic smoker and her voice has caught up to her. She’s overweight but not obese, her hair is not well kept and her face seems slightly fatty.

“Hey Reed it’s alright Rickket doesn’t mean anything by it alright? We are all in a stressful situation and it’s fine to try and cope but I’ll try to get her to be less mean okay?” Jinana says, I slowly present my fist and perform a thumbs up and then continue walking off to read the “necronomicon” and to investigate the sewers further. I decide however to first eat my lunch before heading down to such a highly infected area. Opening the plastic food container I look at the food I was given. A somewhat stale looking fig roll, a small bottle of what appears to be water along with a packet of milk. The fig roll is larger than it first seemed as I have to grab it with both hands. The small crust is crunchy and the fig within is surprisingly still sweet. I then try the water which is admittedly quite pure. I continue then to eat more of the fig roll before trying the milk afterwards. The milk has somehow stayed cold within the small packet.

“Whatchu eatin there? It looks like you’re really enjoying it.” A voice says, I quickly choke on my food and spit out a regrettably large amount of my food as I turn to look at who was speaking. It’s a stone genasi like I am, her hair is long and put into long braids with beads at the end.

“I’m eating the lunch I was given.” I say as I continue eating at what little there was left of my somewhat bland meal. She begins to giggle as she replies.

“Well anyway, I can tell Rickett that she was wrong about you being ugly as sin. I heard a lot of rumors about the new guy joining, I’m Kole Ferguson and I’m working on corpse disposal and quarantining areas of the town.” She says as she holds out a hand, I keep my hands to my meal as I continue eating.

“You’re not much of a talker huh? You mind if I sit down and eat with you? I got a burrito and some old Marcersons whiskey.” She says as she presents a bottle and a cylindrical package.

“Yes I do mind. After I’m done eating I will go to the sewers, once I leave you can eat here as much as you want. Besides, being drunk while working is a great detriment.” I say while looking up at her. She can’t be much shorter than me, her skin tone is slightly darker than mine and her skin is slightly more cracked than mine but it’s still quite well kept. She has green eyes and is dressed in orange overalls, with a black tank top visible from the sides.

“Oh well excuse me mister grinch, I’m gonna sit my butt down right here and you can complain all you want. Besides the sewers are also my responsibility, if you have something you need to check there then I’ll go and tell someone at the headquarters and then come down with you, so that if there is some sorta fuckin beast thats grown from all that fungus you won’t die alone at the very least.” She says as she unwraps her burrito and starts eating it alongside me. For the first time in my life I feel as if I understand why some people smoke cigarettes.

Chapter 6: Tusk, emerging.

Chapter Text

Gwain and Yam’xha had just left to look for Grell, I look around the house and see Mr. Frizzle again after a long while, I quickly rush over to her as the cat seems apathetic to my existence. I slowly stroke her black fur as Henna walks over to me with some old barber’s scissors. The rain hitting against the windows is quite calming.

“So darling, how have you been? Did you get the acceptance letter to that magical college? I still remember how disappointed you were when you weren’t accepted to be in the college here in Degurechaff.” She pulls out a chair for me where I then quickly sit down into it, letting her work her magic.

“Oh well, instead of learning from books like I had been for all my life, I decided to go on a real adventure before becoming an adult. It’s my last chance to be a kid with childish fantasies, you know?” I say as she cuts off some of my hair from my right side, which then falls to the floor.

“Well isn’t that wonderful? So have you been enjoying it so far? You mentioned you’ve been running around with this small band for ten months now.” She says as she continues to fine tune my hair.

“It has its ups and downs, the people you like don’t always make it and sometimes you get hurt. It’s all in the work and I’ve really felt myself getting more confident. I don’t keel over as much anymore and I don’t really fall over from basic exercise.” I say, Henna stops cutting for a second and then continues to talk.

“That's quite nice if it’s helping you get more confident and all that, you just have to remember that no matter how confident or good you feel you can’t push yourself past a certain limit. We all have a breaking point, the important thing is not to be unbreakable, it's to be sure that you have people who you can rely on.” She talks in a comforting tone as she moves to the left side of my hair and continues cutting my hair short. I don’t have much to answer with but I don’t need to as she continues talking.

“Now I really find that Gwain boy sorta cute, he reminds me of a little schnauzer puppy to me. I don’t really care if you two are together so that you both stay alive but so help me gods if I have to attend a wedding where that little bastard smells as bad as he does now.” She speaks with a bit of authority but begins laughing at the end of her sentence. At this point she’s done with my haircut and she gives me a hand mirror. I look at my reflection and she gave me something I would describe as a bowl cut that splits down the middle into two sides slightly. I dislike my blonde hair however, so I turn my hair a jet black. I find it quite easy at this point compared to how I used to faint at the use of even this little trick.

“Now isn’t that just grande? I really think that looks nice. Now come on, let's get some more tea while those two bozos butt heads together.” Henna says as she takes the barber cover off me, I quickly singe away the hair that was cut off, leaving no trace of filth on the floor.
“Yeah, let’s do that indeed. So Henna, how have you been recently?” I ask her as we move over to the table that we had been drinking tea on for years now. The beautiful house is a bit dusty but still the same comfortable and welcoming house that I remembered.

“Yam'xha has picked up some piano lessons after we bought one for me and I’ve started trying to learn the guitar for her. It’s the sorta thing that brings people closer together. Mr. Frizzle had to go to the vet recently but it turned out she was faking the limping she was doing. Apparently we had been neglecting her in her opinion so we’ve been going on walks with her and feeding her a bit more recently.” She says as she sips her tea.

“That’s nice to hear, I’ve been sort of slacking off on my guitar lessons so I hope Yam’xha doesn’t bother me about it. Speaking of which, Gwain had a guitar at his house that looked like a Guillidon original.” I say as I lean back and sip the tea as well. The cherry taste is quite soothing and it’s just hot enough to be nice to drink but not too hot so it would burn my tongue. We drone on during the night talking about my recent adventures and her daily life, about 2 hours later I feel quite tired and I head to bed.

The following morning I hear a knocking at my door, I slowly pick myself out of my bed putting on my pants and a shabby gray tunic. I open my door and I’m quickly scared by Yam’xha being directly in front of me as I open the door.

“JESUS, fuck. Why are you just standing there?” I ask as Yam’xha looks down at me, dressed in a pair of red pajamas with a teddy bear stitch on it.

“Oh, sorry. Henna just got done with breakfast. I was told to come wake you up.” She says as she then quickly turns away and starts slowly walking downstairs. I look around and notice Gwain sleeping on a sofa nearby, I close my door and walk downstairs as silently as I possibly can, trying not to wake him up. As I walk down the stairs and turn left, going into the dining room. I see Henna already dressed for the rest of the day in her sundress and I sit down.

“You want some coffee Jaina? I have some new blends of coffee beans from Raenmoor” Yam'xha asks as she leans back in her chair.

“I haven’t had the chance to drink any real coffee in what feels like years so why not?” I say as I sit onto the seat across the two, Yam’xha goes to the kitchen to prepare some of the coffee that she talked about as I start eating the cereal in my wooden bowl. It’s somewhat bland but it’s the first real food I’ve eaten for a month. It’s not some raw deer or herbs picked from the ground. Yam’xha sets down a ceramic cup next to my bowl and I take it up in my hands, sipping the piping hot coffee. The flavor is sour and it has a slight undertone of citrus. I then no longer taste anything as the coffee burns the roof of my mouth.

“Still too sour for you?” Yam’xha says, holding back laughter.

“Yeah a bit sour, I think I burned my mouth a bit.” I say as I cover my mouth with my hand.

“Get me some pillows Yam’xha she might faint any moment.” Henna says as she immediately gets out of her seat, I look up at her and just stare for a bit.
“I’m fine Henna I don’t know why you’re overreacting that much, it’s just a little sting.” She continues looking at me as she slowly backs down and sits in her chair again.

“You know one time you fainted after you got a papercut last time you were here. I didn’t know you’ve gotten more stoic, you know?”

“I can’t be a kid that faints at every opportunity if I’m gonna be the best possible version of myself. I really just have to get more and more stronger until I’m the best. You know what I mean?” I say as I continue sipping the coffee and eating the cereal. The rest of the meal remains uneventful, the clocktower rings after we’re all done eating. Signaling that it’s now 7 in the morning. Suddenly we hear as a voice booms out, moving close to the window I see three people dressed in black cloaks and wearing masks. One in the shape of a rat, another is a wooden mask with large tusks and the third has a raven's mask. The tusked one has a microphone as they begin a small speech.

“People of Degurechaff as of this day, September 31st. This city has been placed under quarantine. All traffic in and out of this city is now banned. We are to burn all possible sources of infection for a fungal disease first discovered in Dorai’kel. Please do not resist, we are authorized to use deadly force.” The tusked one then lowers their microphone as they begin moving further throughout the street. I see others on the streets quickly backing off and going back into their houses.

“What a load of shit, if there really was something like that there would be about a hundred doctors coming into town instead of those three.” Yam’xha says as she finishes her coffee.

“I’m gonna go out to find Grell before she gets infected or she gets caught by some wackjob doctor.” I say as I take one of my old cloaks that my arms are now too long for and what used to be a floor dragging cape is now a normal looking coat with small sleeves.

As I head out I have to slightly curve around to make it to the main street, the lauderdale’s house is near the circular wall so the road from the house to the main street near the clocktower curves a bit. We were barely able to see the main street from the window in the kitchen. As I continue walking out I notice that the streets are quickly emptying out, the people more and more rushing out. Some people still remain, mostly either the elderly and gangs of young people.

“Where would I go to sleep for a night if I was Grell?” I think to myself for a few moments and then begin running out, I find myself at the nearby inn named “The Mage’s Migraine”. I visited it a few years ago when I was studying here. Walking into the inn I notice people huddled up around the roundtables along with some people sitting on a staircase leading upward.

“Has anyone seen Grell Sutcliff? She’s about 6’2, has black hair and talks in a slightly broken accent.” I say as I look around the groups of people, all of them seem somewhat downtrodden, probably due to the quarantine.

“Who’s she to you?” asks a tiefling with human-like skin, hooves, and a long tail trailing behind her.

“I’m her friend and party member. Who’s she to you?” I ask as she seems to be on the offense with this line of questioning.

“Oh shit, my bad. I just saw the wanted posters and thought that if you were some bounty hunter then I shouldn’t tell you where she is.” She says as she leans back against the bar table.

“She left earlier in the morning to help look for Baker's kid. Apparently he got lost in the nearby woods trying to catch one of the sheep that had been left out in the fields.”

“And where is this Baker’s kid last seen? I really need to catch up to Grell with the new quarantine and all.” I ask as I nervously start looking around the inn, more and more people are seemingly looking at me.

“Oh it was out in the northern fields, Grell left at like.” she pauses for a second. “Fuck if I know, a few hours ago?”

“Alrighty then, thank you a lot. I will tell you if I don’t find her there.” I say as I back away and start running toward the northern gates. The city is quite big so walking from The mages migraine to the northern gates takes about 20 minutes. As I arrive at the gates I notice that there’s already some barricades set up by the doctors. Thankfully I notice no one is there to watch the gates. I slowly prop up one of the barricades and duck under it, heading out to the fields of grain and wheat.

The sun rising in the background and the endless golden fields are really quite beautiful, it almost feels as if I had stepped into an oil painting. I see the last train leaving the station from Degurechaff and I assume at some point trucks might arrive. Trucks are still quite new tech so their wheels get caught in mud or break very easily. It might take between 3 weeks to 2 months until any backup for the doctors arrives. I look around the golden fields and see a barn about 3 kilometers away, it has old red paint and a tiled roof. The walk over is somewhat slow and as I get close enough I shout out trying to see if the barns owners would reply.

“Good morning! Would you happen to have seen a woman passing through here? She was out here looking for Baker’s kid and now I’m out here looking for her!” My voice rings out yet there is no reply. I walk closer and notice the door is wide open, the chain latch having been torn apart. I raise my hands ready for a fight as I slowly go into the house.

“Hello? Anyone at home?” I shout as I slowly look around, at the entrance of the house I see a staircase directly to the right of the entrance and a long hallway leading to a kitchen and two other rooms. I turn right and look up the staircase which seems to only lead to a study or small home library. I then turn back around and start going down the hallway. The wallpaper is old and slightly scratched out, the roof seemingly molding. I reach the end of the hallway and slowly walk into the kitchen. There’s still coffee on the table and a sandwich with one bite eaten out of it. I turn left and slowly open the door to another room, it seems to be an old bedroom that hasn’t been slept in for a while. The bed is made and it has small amounts of dust on it. The bedside table has a small portrait of a man with a large beard and a military outfit. Alongside the portrait there is also a plaque filled with different medallions. I slowly back away and out of the bedroom, trying not to make noise. I hear slight creaking noises outside along with gasps of pain.

“What the fuck was that? it sounded like some kind of little thing dying.” I think to myself as a morbid thought washes over me. “What if that was Baker's kid? I mean I don’t hear people here and it seems to have been broken into. There’s no signs of struggle or anything but it still feels so off. Besides, someone made breakfast here recently so obviously they thought about eating it later.” My mind is racing at this point. I look out of the window and try to look for whatever was making the noise and notice some blood leading to the back of the house, to a small out house.

I continue walking along the hallway from the kitchen. The long hallway with a rotting roof and molding wallpaper that tears off the wall by itself, the hallway seems never ending. There's a broken window to my left as I creep my way to a large room with a fireplace and multiple couches. There I see a man laying in one of the couches. His eyes are closed and he seems to be asleep.

“Hey excuse me but I’m looking for a woman and child here, would you have happened to see them?” I ask, walking closer to the unconscious elven man. I slowly try to shake him awake and notice that his throat is bleeding.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry let me get my bandages I'll get that fixed up right quick okay?” I go over to take some bandages out of my medic bag, as I am doing so there's a loud thud. Looking back I see that the elven man had been decapitated in a slash so fast that not even the body had time to move.

“Alright you won’t be needing this then.” I joke to myself as I hear more yelps of pain from the back of the house. I walk back and get to the broken window next to the corridor from the kitchen, noticing that there’s small amounts of blood left on the window. I lift my leg and slowly vault over the window. Back outside now on the other side of the house I notice a trail of blood. I ready myself and start following it, turning around a corner aiming with my nails I see a child and a dark skinned woman with short hair and a plaid shirt. I quickly move over to see if either of them had sustained any damage.

“J-Jaina?” Says the brown skinned one, it takes me a few seconds before I realize it’s Grell.

“Holy fuck Grell what happened!?”

“Get me some medicine, the kid had his vertebrae break at the neck. The only reason I’m alive is because the killer thought I died.” She says while having to pierce the boy’s lifeless body with her nails, each time she does so her large wounds slowly close and stop the bleeding before quickly opening again.

“Alright let me do what I can, I’m gonna have to take him off of you.” I say as I hoist the poor boy’s body off of Grell, I see his eyes moving and blinking. He is technically still alive but I don’t know if he would want to keep going like this. I try to make myself stop thinking about that by checking Grell’s wounds.

“Oh lord. I’m going to be honest, Grell, it's not looking good.” She has three puncture wounds along her throat, her arm’s ligaments are torn so she’s completely disarmed and unable to move her right arm. Her face has multiple slashing wounds under her eyes and her hair has been strangely cut.

“Gorefactor, the kids too weak for me to sap from without killing him.” She coughs out, struggling to speak for a few seconds. I quickly move to the boy and examine his wounds, I notice something stuck in the back of his neck. I'll have to check it out later.

“Alright Grell I’m gonna help you get off the ground, I don’t have any healing potions with me but I can make some now.” I explain while cutting my thumb with Gwain’s dagger. I should return it to him after this… I drip the blood from my left thumb into Grell’s mouth, changing my blood into something that resembles healing potions. It’s very elementary right now and I could barely even get four drops of blood out, before nearly passing out.

“I can walk.” Grell says, her usually rough voice now fried and seemingly strained. As she gets to her feet I try to pick up the kid, as I lift him off the ground it’s not that bad but when I try to carry him fully my vision becomes blurry for a few seconds. I put him back down and let Grell carry the boy but she also falters. Eventually we both take one arm of the boy over our shoulder and walk him alongside us back to town.

As we enter through the small break in the northern gates there’s practically no people left. Streets abandoned, pets sneaking out along the rooftops and the wind pushing trash around pieces of trash. Slowly but surely we make it back to the Lauderdale’s house.

“Welcome back Jaina OH MY GOD!? WHAT HAPPENED?” Henna shouts as she sees the state of Grell and the Baker’s kid.

“We apologize for blood on carpet.” Grell states, looking at Henna

It takes us a number of minutes to calm down Henna and get Yam’xha to help us with laying the Baker’s kid onto a bed. We put him into my bedroom and I patch his wounds while Henna talks to Grell. The boy has a small nail in the back of his neck, it was put there almost surgically, just deep enough to break the nerves apart yet not too strongly to break the vertebrae fully. I have to slowly cut open the skin around the nail, I harden my fingernails to use them as miniature scalpels. Cutting open the skin, blood begins to spill onto my bedsheets. The boy slightly shivers and moves, my hands shake slightly. I put my fingers around the nail's end and slowly begin to pull it out. I check the boy's pulse and he’s still alive, just barely. My hands covered in blood, the scent of iron and the bedsheets that now run red with blood, it all gives me a general feeling of disgust and pride at the same time. My breathing becomes stable and my heart remains steady, I feel like a new man.

Chapter 7: Sjá hið óþekkta

Chapter Text

I look around the old looking house as one of the residents continues to bandage my arm. The house seems to have a large amount of military paraphernalia, medals from different eras, daggers and small paintings.

“There you go. Your name was Grell right? I’m Henna, I own the house and my wife Yam’xha lives here as well. She went out with Gwain to ask about the fungal plague thing.” Says the triton woman.

“I see. Thank you for patching me, Jaina has told me to stay home and not do much.” I answer as my arm is still in severe pain, I can barely move a finger. It feels like my arm is bloated and heavy, my throat is sore and only able to say a few words before drying. I sit down into a rocking chair that allows me to look out of a window near the dining room. I notice there’s old instruments and potted plants on the other side of the house. It seems that the two owners of the house seem split on what decor to use. I sit and wait, looking out of the window for what feels like hours. Jaina walks downstairs and walks up to me.

“Grell, the kid is stable. He had a nail in the back of his neck, care to tell me what happened in the farmhouse?” She asks as she leans against a nearby wall. I notice her nose is bleeding but I don’t mention it to her.

“We were attacked by a young man with a scimitar. I recognize him from the time that we fought that one tall man calling himself Judge. It seems that the young man is an underling of Judge, he was almost too fast for me to see.” I say while looking at my right arm, it's covered fully in bandages as my arm is unusable.

“How long will it take to recover my arm?” I ask while looking up at Jaina

“I’m not sure, to be honest you’re pretty inhumane and you recover quite faster than any living thing. Can you tell me the details of your ability? You called it Gorefactor right?” She asks as she leans closer towards me and feels the muscles on my arm.

“Gorefactor allows me to fully recover any damage that has been dealt to me within the last two hours. I have to damage another sentient creature as much as I was damaged for the ability to activate. So if my arm were to be cut off I would have to deal damage equal or greater than the damage I suffered to fully recover the damage I have taken.” I explain as Jaina takes notes into her diary.

“Alright and you kept yourself alive by stabbing the kid with your nails, so that your throat wouldn’t bleed out too much?” She asks as she continues writing in her diary.

“Correct. My throat still hurts, however the young man used a pitchfork he picked up in the stables to stab me.” I say while feeling for scars along my throat, feeling the triple pronged patches of rough skin.

“I see, Yam’xha and Gwain are outside right now, I’ll be in my room caring for the boy, I think he’s gonna sleep for a bit. Talk to Henna for a bit.” Jaina says before quickly walking up the staircase back into her room. I look around the house for a bit longer before forcing myself to get up from the rocking chair. My leg is sore and feels as if it were glass about to shatter. I hobble over to the kitchen and see the triton woman cooking.

“Oh, what is it Grell? Food will be ready in about two hours.” She says while slowly mixing what soup was in her cauldron.

“I see that Jaina had her haircut properly, I would assume that was you or Yam'xha if you don’t mind. I would also like a haircut, my current style is quite improvised.” I explain to her

“Yes, what would you like? A shorter hairstyle or would you like me to try and save what’s been cut?” She asks as she goes to fetch scissors.

“It’s a tradition in my country to not cut hair if it’s unnecessary so I would prefer it to be as long as possible.” I state while sitting down onto a chair in the dining room.

“Alright I’ll do my best, now how about you tell me what Jaina has been doing? I’m really worried for her.” She says while starting to cut my hair, I start explaining the recent months of adventure. Everytime I mention Jaina being even slightly crude or animalistic, Henna seems surprised. I only mention about half the stories as she seems faint of heart. After thirty minutes of talking and telling each other stories of Jaina my haircut is done. Only a third of my original hair length remains, it’s quite sad to see.

“I wonder when those two idiots are gonna come back here. She really makes me worry sometimes, you know?” Henna says while looking out of the window.

“Yeah it is kind of embarrassing to admit but I think of Gwain as a little brother and Jaina as a sister. Don’t tell them I said that though, I have to stay tough for them.” As I say this I feel a small grin spreading across my face and a slight blush.

“Well it’s starting to be night, please do keep a watch out for the two of them, I’m heading to bed. Tell Yam’xha to eat some of the soup cold since she didn’t make it for dinner.” Henna says as she starts heading upstairs. I stay downstairs for a while longer, waiting for the two to arrive. I look at the grandfather clock in the corner of the living room as it rings at ten pm. Yam'xha, an admittedly attractive looking woman and Gwain come into the house looking like whipped dogs.

“What were you doing?” I ask Gwain as he enters with Yam’xha.

“We were looking around the town and at the gates, they’ve closed almost everything and banned stuff like letters and new food. I talked to one of the creepy looking guys and she said that they’re gonna get more food when their cleric gets done with summoning it.” Gwain explains while looking at the ground.

“I assume you’re Grell? Thank you for taking care of Jaina.” Yam’xha says as she puts her coat onto a hanger, I notice that Gwain hadn’t worn his own jacket outside but since it didn’t rain I don’t think it’s that big of an issue.

“Yes, it’s a pleasure to be a guard to miss Proudmoore. I will be going to sleep, I don’t believe I have an assigned bed so I will sleep on the rocking chair.” I explain before going back to the living room. As I make it to the chair and sit down I hear Gwain telling me something.

“Hey Grell, it’s nice to see you again. Good night.” I turn my head so as to not have him see my face. I’m wearing a stupid grin that goes from one side of my face to the other.

“Sleep well.” I reply as I begin to fall asleep.

“Grell Sutcliff! How many shoes did you make today?!” My father shouted, I had to get up from my bed and perform a salute before answering, the bitter cold of the wind greeting my bare skin.

“Sir Corrigan, I made a total of forty one shoes today by my count, sir.” I said while saluting, I was just about to fall asleep in my crudely made bed with hay substituting a proper mattress. The nails keeping the bed together prodding out on the sides, they sometimes would cut me if I was too careless while going to bed.

“How many breaks did you take today?!” He shouted once more, my father was quite imposing and scary to my childhood self. He wore a constant face of displeasure and disgust. We Sutcliffe’s were a family of Oblio, commoners that were only good enough to make shoes for other Oblio and some Caroon, wanderers that had been banished from the main cities of Postynia. Our shoes would never be worn by Rael, the nobility was too above us commoners to even think of using something we had made.

“Sir Corrigan, I had two breaks today. One for eating my lunch and another for going to the bathroom, Sir.” I stated loudly once again, still not breaking off the salute. I don’t really know why I worked so hard, I didn’t own anything for myself. No clothes to call my own, not a single doll to play with or even pajamas to wear while sleeping. I guess it was to earn the respect of my father.

“So why are we slacking on the monthly quota? Is Johann slacking off?” He loudly shouted again, waking up my brother Johann in his own bed. His bed had a mattress and a blanket, far better than what I would get no matter how hard I was to have worked.

“I believe so sir, that is the only explanation I can conjure, Sir.” I said while continuing my salute. My arms and legs unmoving even in the sheer cold I was subject to. Our room didn’t have any windows, it instead had holes in the walls that would let air in but when it turned to be winter the cold would be unbearable.

“Well if Johann is slacking then you ought to make up for his failures! That’s your duty as his older sister!” He shouted once again, Johann rose from his bed and saluted as well. His body was covered in an old linen tunic and a pair of linen pants.

“I apologize for being lacking in my duties, father! I have been feeling quite ill recently. I will work hard once I have fully recovered!” He said while performing the same salute. I felt nothing but disgust against him. I was older than him, sure. But to force me to work not only my half but my brother's half without even a quarter of the awards he would receive is more than unfair. I was only nine and my brother was five. It hadn’t even been a thought to me how horrible it was for us to be working.

“You don’t need to apologize Johann. Take as much time as you need to recover, Grell, we will give you double the amount of shifts for the next week until Johann recovers.” My father said as he looked down on me, I’m certain he saw the hatred I bore against my brother.

“Yes sir, thank you sir!” I shouted, ending the salute and heading back to my bed, not even considering arguing about how I had already been working his half of the duties for the past week.

“Thank you father!” Johann shouted as he then wrapped himself into his bedsheets.

“I’m sorry Grell, I really don’t want to make you do all the work for me.” Johann said, I feel nothing but disgust towards him. For him to not only leave me to work double my own workload but to force me to do it for another week.

“Shut your mouth Johann. If you’re sick do not talk to me, I don’t want any of your sympathy. The only reason you’re being treated better is because sir Corrigan thinks you will perform better in the Traekheren.” I told him as I covered myself in the dry and old hay that I had to call my bed, the only thing that would keep me warm is the hatred I felt for being treated so much worse than my brother. I worked double, hell even triple the amount he could. I made more shoes in a day than he could in a week and yet sir Corrigan allowed Johann to call him father. It’s horrific.

The following day I was to prepare for work, the sun hadn’t risen yet but I put on my boots, they had holes in the soles and leaked mud against my feet. I put on my father's old shirt and a pair of pants I had been wearing for the past four years. I walk out of our room as Johann is still asleep and head into the workshop, out of the stables that the two of us lived in and into the shoemaking shop that my father owned. I noticed some of the neighboring families' children walking into the workshop alongside me. I counted them like I always had, today we had three people missing. Including Johann the other two missing kids were Horus from the Marquith family and Gilbert from the Lygarde family. The day passed on without anything particularly interesting happening. I made shoes and corrected any wrongly made shoes my fellow workers had made, the first break I took was the mandated eating period at a quarter past one. I had been at work for nine hours now, so I was quite reasonably hungry. I went to the market to purchase my daily meal, a cigarette and a sandwich. I went to a nearby river to eat, I visited the river daily so I would have something to drink. While walking back into the workshop, I heard my father shouting.

“Which one of you made this?! Where is Grell!? Have you no shame? To make something of such poor quality is an insult to our existence itself!” Father shouted, I sighed and put out the cigarette before heading in.

“Sir Corrigan, Grell Sutcliff reporting for duty, sir!” I said while performing the salute, holding both hands behind my back with my heels touching.

“Explain this!” Father shouted as he presented a boot with the sole having a large hole in the bottom of it.

“It appears to be a boot with a hole in the bottom of it sir! This is a mistake but it can be easily fixed by replacing the sole, sir!” I said while looking around, searching for the fool that made such an obvious mistake.

“The issue isn’t that it should be fixed, the issue is that someone here is stupid enough to even make such a mistake! If you do not find and punish the individual responsible I will find you guilty instead, dismissed.” Father said before stomping off, probably to go talk to some local whores at a nearby brothel. Once he had left earshot, I began my own speech.

“Alright everyone, I am feeling quite annoyed today. I have worked triple my normal amount for the past week and I am not in a happy mood, if someone here doesn’t take the fall I will simply begin by beating each and every single one of you until someone confesses. If you don’t wish harm upon your fellow man please make this easy for me.” I shouted out as the rest of the workshop saluted me.

“Si-sir Sutcliff, I be-believe it was Ben” One boy squealed out, twitching and stuttering as he spoke.

“BEN! Come here.” I shouted, slowly but surely the boy appeared into my sight, he had a few missing fingers and his teeth were quite horrific, he must not have been older than six.

“Were you the one that made the boot? If so I will punish you here and now without having your fellow worker suffer for your mistake.” I shouted at him, waiting for an answer.

“Y-yes, it was m-” Before he could finish his sentence I had already kicked him in the stomach with my knee, the poor boy was reeling on the ground on all fours as I kept kicking at him.

“You. Fucking. Fool. How. Dare. You!?” I shouted at him, with each word I shouted I kicked him in the sides, I heard something break and saw him spitting up blood, I picked him up by the back of his hair and set him into his worktable.

“You have eight more hours to make shoes, If you dare make a mistake again I won’t be so kind. Everyone get back to work! We aren’t being paid to sit around!” I commanded as the hordes of children ran to their own worktables. Truth be told we weren’t paid at all, let alone to be sitting around. I didn’t understand why I felt the need to hit Ben. He hadn’t done anything to me directly, nor did I talk to him before or after this but it felt as if I had to hit him. I asked my mother about this later on and she called it “Classic Postynian love.” To teach your inferior with violence and to beat them in something, whether that be combat or shoemaking. To win over another was to prove you were truly alive.

I open my eyes and realize I’m at the Lauderdale’s house, I find myself hyperventilating. I decide to take a walk outside to calm myself down, I grab a spare key out of the entrance cupboard. Stepping out into the cold of the night I feel quite at home walking around the completely emptied streets, it brings me a certain feeling of danger for whatever reason. I continue to walk around until I make it to the main plaza, the large waterways under the fountain stand still, the water no longer flowing to the water fountain. I still notice something, a movement in the water, it’s as if something were moving within the water, a stick? No, the outline is too large. A frog or a fish? No, it would have died far before this. Then I spot them, four extremely small outlines, it looks like iris’ moving in the air. Invisibility magic perhaps? No matter how invisible a creature could be, their eyes still need to see and if the eyes were completely invisible the user would become completely blind while using the spell. People in the sewers, it’s quite disturbing but if they do not bother me I won’t bother them. As I turn away and start walking back to the house I hear someone speak.

“Excuse me! Would you happen to know a certain Gwain of Cernodan? You see I’m a bounty hunter and I would like to know if you’ve seen anyone that matches the description.” I slowly turn around and see the freakishly tall man and the goblin gunslinger.

“No, I haven't seen anyone like that!” I say with the most well pronounced common that I can speak in.

“Oh really? Well it just so happens that you also match a description for one of his allies, You wouldn’t happen to be a certain Grell Sutcliff, wouldya?” asks the goblin a western tone.

“What description? The one describing a brown woman with black hair? I wouldn’t like to be like that but that is quite a racist allegation!” I shout, trying to come up with any lie that would help me out of the situation.

“You see any brown woman on the street minding her own business and you stop her to make sure she isn’t some bandit trying to kill someone?! How dare you?!” I shout in the clearest common that I could muster out.

“O-oh, I didn’t really think that through Ma’am I apologize severely, It’s just that we’ve been moving around a lot recently. We heard about the Stains killing another nobleman. This time it was the father of another noble they had kidnapped. You might not know him but it’s a certain Jonathan Proudmoore. It’s a real tragedy and we’ve been working hard to catch them.” The goblin says in an apologetic tone.

“Well maybe you've been working too hard if you’re suspecting anyone that fits such a vague description, good night.” I say as I start walking back to the house, having just gotten away with the most ridiculous lie that I have told in my life. Quickly going back into the house and locking the doors, I then close all the curtains I can see so that neither I or Gwain would be spotted so easily. I then stayed on guard for the rest of the night, just in case anyone else were to try and question us about us. I don’t sleep for the rest of the night.

Chapter 8: its called a "vyvern"

Chapter Text

Ringing, the heavy sound still remains. I rub at my eye as I wake up, going downstairs after getting out of the small leather couch I had slept in again. I notice Grell is still downstairs, she’s keeping watch for something. I try to sneak next to her before whispering.

“What are we hiding from? Do we have to leave the town?” I ask, Grell looks actually nervous for once.

“Judge and a goblin gunslinger are hunting for us, Grell’s father was assassinated by someone and they blamed his death on us. We’ve now killed two noblemen in the opinions of the public.” She says while slowly looking through the peephole in the door.

“Fuck, really?” I ask as I start thinking of who would do this to us. All that comes to mind is that Tadao guy with the swords. The ringing in my ears makes it slightly hard to think in the mornings.

“What you think I’m joking around Gwain? This is serious, we can’t go outside except at night and there’s something really weird going on in the sewers. People with invisibility spells gather.” Grell has to stop a few times as she talks cuz her throat hurts, I notice three big scars in her throat, I’m not gonna ask about it unless she brings it up though. Grell puts her hands on my shoulders, her right arm taking a bit longer to wrap around me.

“Listen Gwain, You and I are warriors. To fight and to kill means you are ready to give your heart and soul for what you want. I want Jaina to be safe and so should you, the people we are and the choices we make define us. Are you ready to give your heart and eternal soul for a cause? Do you know your cause?” She asks me, her eyes are almost empty as she gives this speech. It feels like someone else said this instead of the Grell I know. Her hands grab tighter and tighter every time she mentions giving away her heart and soul. It honestly scares me a fuckload.

“What the hell are you two doing? It’s like six in the morning, why are you talking downstairs?” Asks Jaina as she walks down the stairs, she has a set of shorts and an oversized shirt on.

“Did you hear me Gwain? Surely you understand, you’re a smart young man. Jaina people are hunting us, they’re blaming the death of Kindar on us and claiming we are terrorists. There seems to be people gathering in the sewers as well, I think you two should check that out.” Grell says while leaning against the closed door.

“What the fuck are you talking about Grell? The Baker’s kid is still in critical condition. There's no way I can go outside without making sure he can’t die while I'm gone. If someone could watch him while I was gone then maybe but I think Gwain can handle it himself.” Jaina says while going to the kitchen.

“Why didn’t you tell her about her dad?” I whispered to Grell, wondering her reasoning.

“Do you want to tell her? Besides we have better things to be focused on currently. We have to establish a way to get in and out of the house at night without being spotted.” She tells me, I just look at her. I feel wrong for not telling Jaina about her dad, it feels like my stomach is upside down.

“What do you two want for breakfast? I’m making some sandwiches.” I hear Jaina shout from the kitchen. I look up at Grell who has a thousand yard stare out of the peephole in the door.

“I’ll get a sandwich too Jaina, I dunno how to make them though so I’ll eat anything you make me.” I say as I walk into the kitchen, Grell seems so afraid for whatever reason.

“How the fuck do you not know how to make a sandwich Gwain? I get it that you were homeless but you can’t be that stupid as well.” She says while looking at me directly.

“How am I the stupid one? You can’t even lift a rock or open a box without help, how are you gonna say I’m stupid when you’re a straight up idiot.” I say back to her, after a moment we both break out into laughter. She makes two sandwiches and we sit down to eat them, they taste incredible. I haven’t eaten in a while either so this tastes extra good.

“Oh my god this is so fuckin’ good Jaina, you don’t get it. If I could eat something like this everyday I would be so fat.” I say while leaning back on my seat, lifting the front legs of the chair from the ground.

“Thanks Gwain but I don’t think you’d recognize fine food if it hit you in the face.” She says while laughing along, she has this really nice set of teeth and her new hair looks nice, I feel like I’m staring.

“D’ya think that we can get a way out from the upstairs? Grell told me to go look outside and all. I would like to go outside as well but if there’s people hunting us that might be an issue.” I explain while eating my sandwich and leaning back even more on my seat. Somewhere off in the distance I hear a heavy screech, it drowns out even the ringing in my ear for a few seconds. I fall off my chair as the screech reverberates throughout the house.

“The fuck was that?!” I shout as I try to get off the ground, looking over to Grell.

“I saw a bit of fire over the top of some buildings but it’s on the other side of town. I think we’re safe even if that thing tries to get us but it looks like that thing is smart. It’s trying to burn some buildings but only some.” Grell says while still leaning against the peephole. I quickly rushed up the stairs as I heard more of the screams, the entire house shook. I got upstairs and opened the window blinds. There I saw it, a large dragon that had climbed onto the top of a building. The wings are almost as long as a two floored building, it has scales that look like melting ice. It seems to be breathing fire into one of the taller buildings on the other side of town. I can’t do anything but just look at it, it’s incredible. A few minutes later the dragon stands upright on two legs and the dragon begins to melt, it looks like ice melting or snow being thrown into an oven. The melting makes a lot of fog so I can’t see any details but mere seconds later there is nothing on the building anymore. The only proof of the dragon ever being there are the large claw marks on the roof. I was staring so much that I didn’t even notice Jaina next to me also staring. It takes a few seconds and the ringing comes back, it’s a pain in the ass.

“Whoa, that thing was beautiful.” Jaina says next to me, I fall over and shout as I only now noticed her.

“FUCK! Don’t scare me like that Jaina, jeez.” I say as I get off the ground.

“It looked like a wyvern but it had ice on it, the scales looked red underneath all the ice though. I wonder if it’s a mix between a red dragon and a white wyvern or something? It looked like it had claws at the end of its wings, so that would make it a wyvern.” She explains while still looking out from the window.

“What are you two looking at? There was so much goddamn commotion that I could barely even get sleep, it’s six in the fuckin morning.” Yam’xha says scaring the both of us this time.

“We saw a wyvern apparate and then disappear, I think it was a mix between a white and a red one. It breathed fire and it had ice on its scales so it should be a mix. It also seemed to be smart, the wyvern only burned a single building.”Jaina explains as she points at the building the dragon was on.

“Did you turn on the coffee pot? Because if not I will be a bit pissed.” Yam’xha says as she starts heading downstairs, completely ignoring the two of us.

“Yammi? Hey could you brew me some tea while you’re down there?!” We hear Henna shout out from the two’s bedroom.

“Yeah honey I’ll make you some!” We hear Yam’xha reply, I look at Jaina not sure that we actually saw the dragon.

“You saw the dragon and I saw the dragon right? How the fuck are they both so calm? Remember when we fought a dragon? It was me, Nile, Sefris and you and we barely got out alive against a baby dragon.” I ask Jaina as I get more and more worried bit by bit.

“Yam’xha is literally unable to die, she cannot be killed and Grell is also here. Quite simply put even a dragon couldn’t come between Yam'xha and Grell let alone those two with us.” Jaina explains as she starts heading downstairs, I don’t really know what got over me. The ringing noise and my breathing made me feel weird. I wanted to open the window and run after that dragon thing so much. I decided to head downstairs instead but it was difficult. I wanted to chase it so much. I go downstairs and head to the kitchen. It's a general feeling of stress but the first one to break the silence is Henna as she comes downstairs.

“So, what would you all like to eat today? I think we have fish and some old beef leftover, we mostly eat potatoes as a side nowadays so I could make fries, baked potatoes or whatever you want. Also Grell get the hell away from the entrance, it’s weird and you should be resting.” Henna says as she sits down along with the others near the dining table while me and Grell sit in the living room.

“I wouldn’t like to bother you but if it’s possible I would prefer to have a meat free meal, I don’t like the feel of flesh on my teeth and it makes me sick.” Grell says as she walks over to a weird looking chair. As she sits down the chairs starts moving back and forth.

“Wait Grell you’re a vegan? How didn’t we know about this? Did you know Gwain?” Jaina asks me as she sits in the nearby room.

“A vegan? I thought she was from Postynia, why would she be a vegan? Wouldn’t that mean that she was a Postynian.” I ask her as I don’t really understand what she meant. For some reason the whole house bursts into laughter.

“It means I don’t eat meat like beef or fish Gwain” Grell manages to say between hearty laughs. I start laughing along as I get how stupid I sounded.

“It’s alright Grell, We’ll make extra baked potatoes for you, while the rest of us eat steak and fries. I’ll start making dinner at one so it will be done by two.” I look over to a nearby clock and once again remember I don’t know how to read the time. I feel as if Yam’xha is staring at me as I do so.

“So uhm what is there to do while we wait? Since we can’t go outside, we’re wanted criminals and all that.” I ask and notice Henna’s jaw drop. Yam’xha seems to have a deadpan face as she hears the news.

“You’re wanted criminals?!” She shouts

“We were framed for the death of a comrade and now blamed for another death, which I believe now makes us officially a bandit group.” Grell states as she moves back and forth on her chair.

“Well if you’re bored you could always read a book Gwain.” Yam’xha says while looking at me with a completely deadpan stare, I try not to laugh.

“Yam’xha tell them off, don’t act like it’s normal to visit for the first time in years as wanted criminals!” Henna shouts at Yam’xha but Yam’xha doesn’t seem to be bothered.

“Didn’t we tell Jaina she should find who she is and all that? You know damn well I used to be a soldier and a sellsword before we got together so I have a bit of a different vision of this. Jaina is just getting a part time job and getting experience in the field, I mean she’s already shown she’s grown up a lot since we last saw her. Physically and mentally so I don’t see the harm in this.” Yam’xha replies, the two argue for a while until Henna gets tired and starts making dinner instead of arguing. We all eat the food without arguing and Jaina quickly heads upstairs while Grell and I stay downstairs. I feel like I should know my cause, when I told Grell that I was making decisions for myself I was bluffing. I really don’t know what I’m doing with my life right now. I go upstairs and lay on the sofa that I had slept on for the past two days, not having much to do. I think about sneaking out at night but I feel like that might be a bit too dangerous alone.

“I wonder if I could go into the roof through a window?” I whisper to myself as I think about my options, I slowly start to think it’s sorta hopeless. I don’t really wanna do anything anymore to be honest, I’m fine just waiting here and not doing anything. Maybe I should learn how to play guitar. It might be nice to know how to play a couple songs.

Chapter 9: Disease Log 2, Prodomal.

Chapter Text

Now that we have finished eating our meals I decide it’s time we head out into the sewers that we talked about earlier. Kole doesn’t seem to have much regard for her own safety, I have dressed myself fully in my doctor attire with my mask on, the goggles are foggy but manageable. The streets are empty and it’s raining quite a lot. She appears to be in a talkative mood, I however am not.

“I think it’s been a week since Ace and Jean left to the eastern side of town, they should be coming back any day now. The purification can’t be taking this long.”
Kole said as I kept walking, I don’t answer her but that doesn’t seem to stop her.

“I mean how fuckin hard could it be with our Ace there? Wait Reed, you haven’t seen Ace yet have you? You transferred here like a day ago right?” I assume she would keep asking me if I stayed quiet so I lower myself to indulge her questions.

“No, I haven’t seen this Ace, are they important? and if so why?” As I ask her this, she seems to light up. Like a child who had just gotten a piece of candy.

“Oh well, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna hear them soon. They do it almost every other day, so it should be about time.” Kole says as she looks up at the roofs of buildings, raindrops falling onto her face. I wonder what she could be talking about but decide to press on, having better things to do with our time. As we make it to the entranceway for the sewers she takes out a keyring and starts to fiddle through the keys.

“S.I.F is still out so this might be dangerous, we aren’t allowed to go further than 200 meters into the inside of the sewers so I’m sorry if you can’t find a lot.” Kole says as she opens the doors. S.I.F refers to the specialized incineration force that is used very rarely during outbreaks.

“I understand, do you happen to have a mask you will wear? It would be unfortunate if you were to be infected.” I say as I look over to Kole.

“It isn’t airborne, so wearing masks is mostly for how comfortable you want to be.” Kole replies, I feel an aneurysm slowly emerging as she says this.

“How could you know it isn’t airborne? Even if you breathe it in and you aren’t immediately infected we can’t know how long it would take for the infection to become lethal.” I argue as she walks into the sewer alongside me.

“We have a live specimen that has been infected since August 30th. It’s an old dog that Jeorge had caught in the northern districts before the S.I.F burned it to hell. The only difference that happens after infection is having labored breathing.” Kole says as she pulls out a handheld torch and lights it with an old lighter.

“How come? Is it due to the internal temperature of the host? Besides, how can you compare a dog’s internals to a humanoid?” I ask more as we continue to walk inside of the damp and dark sewer.

“Because all humanoid subjects begged for death, we couldn’t continue hearing their screams. It was mostly the Raenmoor crew that wanted to put them out of their misery and we didn’t deny them.” Kole explains as she starts looking at the walls, using the torch to light our surroundings. There are large amounts of the fungal mycelium on the walls which writhe and retract as the torch gets close to them.

“See? Even a torch is hot enough to make it non-lethal and stop its growth, the S.I.F are busy burning some areas that are quite overgrown and last they were here Jean said that the sewers seem to be holding most of the growths. There’s apparently some secret passages that track through the entire city, which means that the fungus can also go throughout the entire city.” Kole explains as she burns away some parts of the mycelium that runs along the walls and floor, the luminescent blue of the glowing fungus giving a strange lighting.

“Wait so if the fungus is nonlethal inside of a body how come there’s so many mortalities? Besides, wouldn’t a winter be devastating since the outside grows so cold?” I question as I begin looking around the sewers, noticing more fungi in the stream of water and filth, the blue glow is strangely aesthetic.

“We assume that the water in the area somehow activates the fungus, which is why Sasha has been feeding the dog the smallest possible amount of water needed. Poor JJ, I haven’t felt bad for a dog as much as I do for him.” Kole explains as she lifts the torch up near the roof, some small amounts of the mycelium falling off after burning away.

“Hey do we have some sort of clamps or something to get that fungus with? It’s under the water and I do not wish to go down there.” As I say this Kole walks over to me, hands me the torch and zips up her overalls before jumping into the filth. I’m shocked and appalled but I keep my distance as I look over the edge of the water. I feel the ground shaking, the entire sewers in fact shake before a screech rings out. Reverberating through the tunnels it’s a horrific noise, something resembling a seagull being slowly decapitated and as soon as it started the shaking and screeching ended. I look around trying to see the source and I’m caught off guard as Kole shouts.

“That right there was Ace! I’m betting that the S.I.F is about to be back at HQ, we gotta get out of here and back there so you can see Ace in person. I got you that Fungus you wanted too!” She shouts as she has a large piece of the fungus in her hands. Her entire body except for her face is covered in the sewage water. It takes me a few seconds to answer her.

“Alright then, let’s head out.” I answer as we begin to exit the foreboding sewers, it’s illogical but I feel as if there were someone else there with us. Once we are outside the rain is still heavy but there is something shocking in the air, something resembling a dragon or a wyvern. It has four legs but it also has hands connected to its wings. The creature has ice growing on its red scales and it seems to have a person riding atop of it. The large creature quickly begins to land near the HQ, we run after it as fast as possible and make it to the front gates of the HQ. The creature would be by my estimate, 11 meters tall with a total wingspan of 20 meters. The creature bows its head allowing the tiefling that was riding on it to simply walk off and then the creature stands upright and quickly begins to melt away. The ice on its scales makes large amounts of steam and it pushes most others away, I however am dressed in the doctor's gear and can keep my eyes on it. The first parts that melt away into steam are the head and wings of the creature, then the torso and legs. The last parts to melt away are the hind legs which then reveal a naked woman who falls to her knees. She’s rather tall, I would guess she’s an abnormally tall woman standing at 220 cm. She seems to be either a full orc or a really tall half-orc. She doesn’t have any muscle mass or fat on her body, she looks anorexic, her body barely able to keep her standing.

“Hey Ace, you good? Come on buddy we gotta get you your cloak.” Says the tiefling that had hopped down from the head of the dragon. The tiefling quickly wraps a large black cloak around the woman and helps her to stand and start walking into the HQ.

“That’s Ace, they are our ace in the hole. Come on, let's go inside. I'm willing to bet that there’s a party going on inside right now.” Kole says as she grabs onto my shoulder. I stand still for a few seconds simply blinking and thinking to myself. Was it transmogrification? Was it magic? What the hell could have sparked that transformation? As we walk into the headquarters we see that everyone starts shouting and clapping as Ace and the other person enter before us.

“Heyyy! let’s fucking go! Another goddamn site decimated, Ace let me get you some beer, Clark made you a special batch of your favorite!” Someone shouts from the back, everyone seems to be wearing badly fashioned hats and old suits. The hats stating “happy birthday!” they seemed to have been taken from some birthday party that was happening on outbreak day. Large glasses are filled with beer and other alcohol and a champagne bottle is popped open as everyone begins to party.

“Hey guys, thanks for that but I gotta get some clothes. I’ll be down here in a few minutes. Jean, go talk to your sister while I’m getting dressed.” Says the woman that everyone is referring to as Ace. She then quickly begins to head upstairs, only dressed in the black cloak given to her. Kole quickly joins the large group in the opening hall, picking up a glass of beer for herself and beckoning me to walk over. I also notice Harrison waving at me with a large smile and two large glasses on the other hand. I walk over to Harrison and start up a conversation.

“Harrison, did you put the wooden board into my room? We can drink there if you wish to drink with me.” I say as I walk close and take one of the glasses into my gloved hands.

“Ah yes I did indeed Reed! Is there anything else you would like me to carry up there? Perhaps that large fungus that Kole had just dropped onto the ground?” He asks with a smile on his face.

“Ah shit, sorry that’s my bad. Delly, could you be a dear and carry it to Marsh’s office for me?” Kole asks as she starts drinking her second glass of alcohol. I look over to Delly who has an extremely large birthday party hat on, it’s three times as large as others hats.

“Yes, I will Kole Ferguson. Thank you for this task, have a great party!” The robot's automatron voice states with fabricated joy. Delly takes the large fungus and quickly starts heading upstairs, I notice that the people around Kole seem to be slightly disgusted with her dip into the local sewage and she is forced to go change clothing in her room as well. I notice that the tiefling that walked in with Ace is also quickly swarmed by some people.

“Jean, how was it? What buildings did you get in specific? Were there any fungal zombies?” A human asks as he walks up to Jean with a glass of beer in both hands, giving one to Jean.

“Come on James, you ask the same thing everytime and you’re always going to get the same answers. It was quite fine, Ace is incredible as always. We burnt down the local library and a large hotel and no there weren't any fungal zombies, besides it’s highly unlikely.” Says the Tiefling in response, he seems to have been asked these things multiple times before.

“Okay well Sasha is still stuck in her lab, I think she’s looking after JJ like she always is so you should go to the basement if you want to see her.” James says, I start inspecting him a bit more. He has a ridiculous looking bowl cut and a pristine lab coat. While Jean has a large trench coat and black jeans along with long free flowing black hair. I look around me and notice that Harrison is looking down at me with a smile on his face.

“So, would you like to join us all Reed? It’s a party and we hold these once every 3 weeks. You shouldn’t bury yourself in all this work, we all know the importance of our job but we need a break every once in a while.” I look away and look around the little party, there’s about 10 other people here from the two of us. People having fun and enjoying themselves for no other reason than because they wish to do so. I head up to my room, Harrison follows me as we sit on the sofa in the office. I take off my mask.

“Ah Doctor Reed you look quite great! You need not worry about Rickket’s bad remarks.” He says with a wide grin, I for some reason feel my face heating up… Perhaps the mask had some sort of effect on me after wearing it to sleep.

“Thank you, you look good in a suit as well Harrison. I ought to get to work with the fungus, tell Ace that I would like to inquire about her transformation some time after the party.” I say as I look up at Harrison, he seems slightly awkward while sitting on the sofa.

“Oh well first of all it’s they, Ace uses they and them. Also you can work tomorrow. Let's just drink this and go back outside to have some fun. I’d say only you and Sasha are this interested in work while a party is going on.” Harrison says as he starts drinking his glass of wine, I slowly take a sip of my drink and it tastes bitter, probably based on some imported vodka from Raenmoor. Harrison slowly looks down and then once again at my eyes and gets up from the sofa.

“I’ll be waiting for you downstairs okay? It would be nicer if you were to join us without the mask, I got you a suit and a party hat and all.” He says as he walks out and closes the door. He seemed somewhat sad as I remained seated. I hear people shouting outside my room as I sit there alone on the sofa. A few moments later as I’m still sipping the vodka I notice a lockbox suddenly appears in the corner of my room. I quickly hear a message after the appearance.

“Doctor Reed Williamson, your mark P08 Parabellum with a silencer has been delivered along with your newest orders.” The brotherhood's scribes and Magistrate have gotten lazy. I ordered this to be here by the time I would have arrived and it got here two days late. I open the box and see the Parabellum silenced pistol along with a letter. I place the handgun into my desk and read the orders I had just received.

Reed Williamson, your goals have been changed. Please attempt to find the cause of the infection, end it or find a cure for it. Make Absolutely certain that you are the only one who discovered the cure. Your payment has been raised from 1.13 million to 1.22 million. Attempt to the best of your capabilities to make sure there is no evidence of your sabotage. Handler: J

Once I had fully read the letter I placed it into the garbage can in the corner of my room and lit it with a lighter I found from the desk. It somehow hurts to know I will be the sole survivor here. This Ace character might make this difficult however. I stay in thought for a bit and decide to get the best out of this situation. Putting on the suit and party hat and taking off the mask. I walk downstairs and notice that Ace, Harrison, Jinana, Clark, Jean, Rickket, Liam, Kole, James and a few others are partying. I go downstairs and join them, drink in hand. I look over at Harrison and wink at him, he winks back. As I join the group there’s questions abound.

“Looking good Reed, how come you chose to wear the suit?” Jinana asks as she walks up to me, she is also dressed in a black suit.

“It took a bit of convincing but Harrison got me to do it, besides it’s easier to drink without the mask.” As I say this Jinana and Clark share a bit of a laugh, toasting glasses.

“Yeah speaking of Harrison he went to the toilet a few minutes ago so he should be back soon. Apparently Sasha was busy with JJ so she couldn’t join us.” Ace says as she toasts her glass to Clark's. Ace seems to have grown some fat after going upstairs, perhaps the transmogrification takes a toll on the user. She’s dressed in a free flowing red dress.

“Alright then, by the way would it be alright if I asked about the transformation you did?” I ask as I toast my glass to hers, taking a sip of the vodka I still have in the glass.

“It’s fine, my mom was a dragon pretending to be a noble woman and my dad was also a dragon pretending to be a nobleman. So 1+1 equals 2 and poof nine months later I popped out.” Ace told us as I slowly drank the rest of my vodka, my glass is quickly refilled by Clark however.

“Oh wow, is the transformation fully biological then? Or do you have to bend your form into the shape of an orc or is it like breathing?” I ask as I take another sip of my drink, this time it seems to be a fruity wine, I toast glasses with Liam and Harrison.

“Eh it’s not like breathing it feels more like how you would crack your knuckles or something. So it’s an active choice but it’s still something I gotta choose to do. Transforming back is more like taking off some tight boots during the summer so lots of sweat and very sweaty.” Ace says as she toasts with Clark and Rickket.

“Ah I see. Well that's quite interesting. I became a doctor to really figure out the world with science as much as possible and to be able to help people without magic so you know, a dragon person is very interesting to say the least.” I say as I once again take a sip of my wine.

“Ah that’s quite nice, where are you from anyway Reed? I heard you don’t talk about yourself often.” Ace says as she downs the rest of her drink in one gulp. I take up my own drink and take a swig of it as well.

“I’m a pureblood Merean, through and through. Dad was some sorta politician that didn’t want his name in bad light and my mom was some poor woman working at a brothel. She just happened to be unlucky enough to have me which ended up with her getting killed in childbirth.” I say as I take a swig of my drink once again, Clark refills Ace’s glass and Rickket’s glass. Harrison then walks back into the group and sits next to me.

“Wow, you’re looking nice and dapper Reed! Where’s my drink Clark?”

“You took way too fuckin long to get back so Liam drank it.” Clark says with a big smile, we all look over to Liam who’s fallen asleep on the sofa with a glass in his hand.

“Hey you drunkard, give me my goddamn drinking glass!” Harrison shouts as he takes back the glass from Liam and wakes him up at the same time.

“Wh-what? Hey fuck off old man don’t take an hour on the shitter next time then!” Liam shouts, we all begin to laugh as the two start arguing with each other. A few moments later after we’ve stopped laughing Jean asks me something.

“Hey Reed, what do you think about the new Merean empire declaring war on the rest of the world?” Jean asked, he seemed to be some politics buff trying to find out what I think of the newer wars. The Merean empire had been “at war” with multiple nations for hundreds of years at this point. Mostly with Postynia which is south of the main Merean continent Iatesh.

“Eh, I can’t be fucked to care about that shithole nation. It might be where I was born but it isn’t home. The only good thing to come out of Merea was the immense colleges.” I explain as I continue drinking.

“You ca-can say that again!” I hear being shouted behind me as a bugbear grabs onto my shoulder. She seems to be severely drunk, slurring her words at this point and walking around slightly dazed. Her fur is a beautiful slightly charred brown. I start petting her arms as she starts talking.

“Y-you know, Trobia’s fuckin college was such a painful experience! T-the fuckin nerve of some of the teachers out there talking about “magic will be insufficient while science progresses onwards!” a-and other dumb shit! You know what Reed you’re a pretty stand up guy, I assume guy.” The bugbear rants while holding a large glass bottle about twelve times the size of Clark’s. Her fur feels divine, she’s kept it quite healthy. For a second I think I had found apotheosis in the way of fur.

“Alrighty June, you’ve had enough to drink. You too Liam, let's get you two to bed.” Harrison says as he helps Liam to get off the sofa and takes June’s shoulder as the three slowly begin to walk up the stairs, leaving me, Rickket, Jinana and Ace alone.

“Well Rickket, do I look ugly as sin under my mask?” I ask while giggling, she starts to laugh along with me.

“Yeah you do, almost as ugly as your pig of a father.” She says while laughing I rock my head back and bellow out laughing as well.

“Where did Kole go? didn’t she mean to change her clothes since her overalls got sewage on them?” I ask, still giggling along with the rest of the group.

“Oh Kole went to sleep after we gave her a full bottle of vodka to drink in her room. Hey Clark, couldya make some food for us?” Rickket asks while looking over at the small mouse man.

“Yeah you definitely need the extra calories, look out! You might start to look like my father.” I say and the group breaks into laughter again, Clark puts his hands together and suddenly apparates a large pile of cookies onto the table we are sitting around. We spend most of the night sharing stories and laughs, eventually I see a tiefling woman walking into the main hall of the HQ, she has large eyebags and goggles on along with a surgical mask. She grabs a few of the cookies from the table and Ace shouts out.

“Heyyy Sashaaa! h-how’s it hanging? You still looking after that dog because if you need another dog to use… Well lemme just sayy… I got th-that dawg in me!” Ace says as she puts her hand around Sasha’s shoulders to which she simply refuses to reply to Ace.

“He-hey could I come check out JJ later on? I’m really interested in seeing how the fungus develops, you know? I’m new here and all.” I say as I try to get up from my own armchair, nearly falling to the ground immediately as I take my first step.

“Oh yes, you may meet my patient once you’ve recovered from your hangover. I will take the rest of these cookies, go to your room if possible please.” She says in a dwarven accent. I look around noticing that Rickket, Clark and Jean had fallen asleep in their armchairs or sofas. I have to drag myself into my office to fall asleep. The following morning my hangover is extremely severe, I take up my diary and pen and start writing as well as I can.

September 19th, 1487. (merean calendar)
I have acquired new information about the current fungal outbreak. It cannot be lethal in an area that is above 35 degrees celsius, however the fungus can still exist within 35-100 degrees celsius before it’s burnt away. If the fungus (Named Bluebeard fungi by the researchers) happens to exist in a dark and damp space for example a sewer or a creature's lungs it could begin to grow further. The specimen of Bluebeard I found within the sewers seems to have amassed quite a large amount of weight. Water seems to be an important part of the Bluebeard’s evolution. So if water were to interact with the fungi it could cause an immediate evolution which often causes massive sprouts from the torso. For example if a corpse was stuck in a shed without a proper roof, rainwater could fall into the corpse’s mouth and cause the evolution continuously. Meaning that places such as the sewers or a water purification plant might be hotspots for massive fungal growths. I ought to check on the nearby water sources to see if there are any corpses or fungi stuck to them. I have also taken a step closer to apotheosis, I have found out that a co-worker of mine is a dragon yet she holds a humanoid form constantly. I observed her and it appears as if she has the same strength in her humanoid form as she does in her draconic form. This is puzzling, along with my new orders and this particular wrinkle in the plans disturbs me.

I finish writing in the diary and place it into my desk, at the same time retrieving the Parabellum handgun and placing it under the large doctor's cloak I wear. I wipe away the fog on my mask goggles and put it on, reading myself for the comments from my “co-workers.” I slowly breathe in and out, tasting the flavored air of the rat mask. Opening the door outside I notice that the bugbear I vaguely remember from last night is unconscious on the ground just a few meters away from my door. I ignore the creature as I begin to slowly head downstairs while gripping onto my head. As I continue walking downstairs I see a tiefling with goggles on her forehead with deep sunken in eyes. She has blue skin like that other tiefling that had been paired with Ace.

“Hello Doctor Reed Williamson, you requested to see my patient last night and I am here to oblige in your request.” She says with a stern voice as if she was stating a law.

“Your patient? My apologies. I don't remember last night that well. Would your patient happen to be JJ, the dog?” I ask while holding my head slightly, then I hear it, I straighten my posture and feel my hangover disappear within seconds.

“No, the patient doesn’t have a name, it is a male canine of the schnauzer variety.” She states once again as she begins to walk forward leading me into a doorway which is opened by using another button, much like the morgue that I had visited yesterday.

“My apologies Doctor, I have recovered myself. The patient was infected early on during the outbreak, on August 30th in specific.” I state as we walk into the long corridor leading downwards into the basement. Red fluorescent lights guiding our way as we continue walking.

“You are correct. The patient was indeed infected on August 30th, the fungi continued to evolve and has at this point mostly overtaken a large majority of the patient's lung capacity. This labors its breathing.” Doctor Sasha said as we continued to walk through the long hallway which leads to a spiral staircase.

“So you’ve performed a thoracotomy on the patient to check its lung capacity? Impressive with the current items on hand. Are there any other effects to the fungi caused by water? I have come to the hypothesis that damp and dark spaces allow the fungi to evolve further. I’ve noticed that multiple corpses have the fungus bursting from their torso, originating from the stomach and lungs.” I explain as we walk down the spiral staircase, our steps reverberating in the halls, Doctor Sasha presses a button on the nearby wall and more lights turn on. Red lights illuminate the office, the patient is in a large glass cage, it gets up and starts to wag its tail as it sees us.

“Your hypothesis is supported by a large amount of evidence that I’ve found here, the cooling unit in the corner of the room has 12 kilograms of the fungi I harvested from the patient's lungs. You may take 500 grams of it.” Dr. Sasha explains as she walks closer to the patient and places more water into a water feeder meant for hamsters. The patient immediately gets up and starts walking over to the water feeder, panting and clearly exhausted from walking even 3 meters for water.

“Is the patient growing more easily exhausted due to the fungus or due to dehydration?” I ask as I walk over to the cooling unit and open it, seeing boxes stacked upon boxes of the fungus, each bit of the fungus weighing 250 grams, marked with tape on the sides that had been written on. I pick up a box stating

“250G, 487, September 14th.” and another box stating “250G, 487, August 31st”

“My current hypothesis is that the fungus forces the subject to either perish due to large growth spurts caused by contact with water or malnourishment from avoiding water.” Dr. Sasha explained as she kept vigilant eyes on the patient.

“Do we have any live specimens to test how fast the growth spurts become fatal in a subject?” I asked as I looked around the underground facility. The walls were of thick concrete and the multiple minutes we spent walking down insured a soundproof surrounding.

“Unfortunately not, most people who had been infected were slaughtered by the Raenmoor crew. The barbarians got emotions mixed in with science and it didn’t end well. The imbeciles are probably hungover and playing cards by now since they don’t have any more bodies to burn.” Dr. Sasha continued to explain as she pulled out a small notebook and started writing in it.

“Oh I see, my assumption for the first infected person was that it might have been some sort of worker that had spread the infection to the water purification plant that was established here in 1484.” I say as I slowly walk closer to Dr. Sasha, trying to see what she was writing in her notebook. It’s in Elvish, a language common with nobility. I don’t fully understand it so I only make out small bits like the date at the top of the page and some names of other researchers.

“I see you use the Merean calendar, do you also use feet instead of meters?” She asks as she closes her notebook and turns to look at me. I stare at her for a bit. She has to look up at me and I see some sort of similarity in her eyes to my own eyes. She seems just as empty as I am.

“Hah! You don’t need to worry. I use the best methods for calculations, I simply do not believe years should be counted by what we have actively recorded. If books can be nearly one and a half thousand years old it feels strange to say we’re still in the year 487.” I say as I take a few steps back, Dr. Sasha seems unamused by my slight comments. She walks away from the glass cage and instead goes and closes the cooling unit's door.

“I see, I am about to perform another thoracotomy on the patient so the room must be cooled to be exactly 10 degrees celsius to not only make the patient's body colder but to not cause any problems with acclimatization” She explains as she moves over to a corner of the room and pushes a few buttons on a interface connected to the wall. Sure enough the A/C begins to cool the entire room. I can barely feel it while wearing the heavily insulated doctor’s cloak I'm wearing.

“Is the A/C connected to the entire building? I’m just wondering how it can lead this far down underground.” I look around as I notice a large pipe connected to this room from the roof, it seems to be large enough to hold a small creature inside.

“I don’t think it’s connected to the entire building, mostly to just this room in case of a fire or something.” She says as she puts on a face shield and a surgical mask. It looks like most of the PPE is sent to her as she needs it the most.

“It’s aggravating, how little I get the needed items. I’ve had to reuse some of the PPE I got recently and all that Liam said was that “life is a game of sacrifice” as if he isn’t the stocktaker and leading doctor.” Dr. Sasha explained as she seemed aggravated, I understand the anger she must be feeling.

“Hmm, I see. For what purpose are you performing today's thoracotomy?” I ask as I walk closer to her and inspect the patient. The small schnauzer is panting heavily and its fur seems crusty, unwashed and filthy. The small cage only having a corner in which the patient could excrete in. It seems unsanitary to hold the patient within such a small cage.

“I have to remove a large amount of the fungus from the patient's lungs every three days or the growth disturbs the ability to breathe so severely that the patient could die in its sleep. I will now apply anesthesia into the cage. You will clean the insides of the cage after moving the patient to the nearby surgery, do you comprehend?” Dr. Sasha says as she presses another button on the wall which makes the patient fall asleep minutes later. I press a button to open the lock on the glass cage, then lift it out of the middle of the room and place it into a corner. Dr. Sasha retrieves her patient from the now open cage.

“I will be here to clean the rest of it then, please do update me if you require any assistance.” I say as Dr. Sasha simply walks away with the small dog under her armpits, lying unconscious. I bite my lip and begin cleaning the glass cages inside, I feel disgusting being treated like some common nurse. I clean the excrements and change the food bowl nearby. Looking around the room I try to find out where the large ventilation shaft connects to, perhaps I could place a miniature bomb to cause the dog to break out and infect the doctor. A piece of sending paper is more than good enough to order an explosive from the brotherhood scribes and magistrate. I could perhaps also order a meteor strike to the roof, destroying it after planting large amounts of fungus into the walls or under the floorboards which could cause mass growths. Clark seems to summon new food daily so it won’t be easy to poison the group directly through our meals. Before I even notice it the cage has been fully cleaned. I pick up the glass cage part itself. I go to clean it in a nearby sink, covering it in soap and slowly scrubbing off any filth left on it. I look over and notice that someone is walking towards the lab from the deep red colored hallway. The tall creature walking seems to be dragging its feet, perhaps a broken ankle or something similar. The lights flicker off and then back on, the creature seems to have fungus sprouting out of its stomach. The creature then falls to the ground, its knees shattering under the weight of the fungus growing on its torso. It keeps clawing its way towards me, I continue staring as it slowly drags itself further and further along the hallway.

“Thank you Doctor Reed, your order has been placed. Your handler will subtract the costs of the materials from your next paycheck. The required time for the order to be sent is one day for the bundle of medical supplies and three days for the spell inscribed toy car with the spell “Shatter.” Thank you for your order, glory to the brotherhood.” I hear reverberate through my head, an arcane message sent to me from the brotherhood scribes. I look down at my hands and notice that I had cleaned the glass cage fully and started writing into a piece of sending paper. I look back towards the hallway and the lights are off. I place the glass cage back into the corner of the room and start walking into the hallway. Turning on the dim red lights I see my way forward and simply walk out of the basement laboratory.

Chapter 10: Tusk, strongly willed.

Chapter Text

I head to my room after hearing Henna and Yam’xha debate for a while. They seemed to be somewhat worse off than how I had remembered the two from about six years ago. I sigh for a few seconds before walking to my desk and opening my journal. I start writing down for a bit, recounting what had happened in the past few days. Looking up at my reflection in the mirror I notice that my face has grown to be a bit more stiff, it looks like my jawline has become a bit stronger. Maybe it’s an unconscious choice of mine. I really like my short hair, it makes me feel so happy for no reason. I slowly look closer and notice that my ear still has a visible bullet hole, it’s slightly torn and not healing at all. It’s been months, it should have healed by this point. I open my mouth and give a slightly snarling expression, it looks like my teeth are slightly jagged, another unconscious choice. I look over at the Baker’s kid, he’s breathing heavily through his mouth. Good to know he can at least breathe without issues.

“Hey kid, you feeling better? Blink twice if you can hear me.” I say as I move over to my bed look at him, he blinks twice in reply.

“Alright, well that's good. Now I'm gonna see how badly damaged your nerves are, depending on how your body reacts you might be able to walk someday in the future. I’m gonna bring out a small hammer and hit your legs. Please blink twice when you feel me hit your legs okay?” I say as I bring out a hammer meant for woodworking, we don’t have anything else. I lift it up and l slowly bring it down and hit the feet of the kid. No reaction, I bring it up to his ankles and hit again. No reaction, I do it continuously until I realize he cannot feel anything below his face. He seems to realize this as well because I notice tears forming in the corners of his eyes. I can only look away, not knowing what to say to him.

“It’s uh, not looking good, kid. Do you wanna try and recover here or should we find your parents? Blink once for staying and twice for finding your parents.” He blinks twice in reply, I feel conflicted because of the possibility of infection outside.

“Alright then, we’re gonna do that tomorrow. I’m gonna lift you up and help you to the toilet now.” I say as I lift him from my bed and bring him to the hallway outside my room. My vision goes blurry and it feels as if the world is collapsing in on itself, everything shakes and wobbles. I hear Gwain talking to me but it sounds distant and almost as if he was underwater.

“Hey Jaina I’ll take the kid where do you need him to go?” He asks as he picks up the kid with his steel arm. My vision slowly returns to normal and I feel my nose bleeding.

“The uh, take him to the toilet and let him uh do his business.” I say as I hold my head trying to recover.

“I gotta change my uh bedsheets cuz he got blood on them. Can you take care of him while I do that?”

“Oh yeah , I mean it’s a bit gross but I’m grosser!” Gwain says as he walks downstairs, carrying the kid with one arm. I chuckle to myself as I see him trotting off. Walking back into the room I take off the bedsheets and notice that they’re covered in dry blood and smell horrible. I feel as if I asked him to go to the toilet a bit too late. I change the bedsheets with new ones and go outside to the very small garden to clean the old ones, slowly pushing the bedsheets in and out of the soapy waters. I hear a message being reverberated with magical amplification.

“People of Degurechaff! As you witnessed here today one of us plague doctors has the ability to transmogrify into a draconic form. Keep this in mind as we come to inspect your houses, this is for the best of your safety. Please allow us to investigate each house here and eliminate any sources of the outbreak. The source can be found in damp and dimly lit areas like sewers or within wheat and grain products. If you have eaten any recently bought wheat products we will test you for infection and try to cure you to the best of our abilities. Thank you for your time.” The message doesn’t seem to be in bad faith and I welcome it with open arms. The worst that could happen is that they might take some of our non-existent gold before we gather more. I continue washing the dirty bed sheets and I start thinking about something.

“Did you know that one Merean scientist titled, “Toller Arzt '' Herrigan had a line of theory. He believed that during the Merean civil war that executions by guillotine were the most brutal executions possible. He believed that the head of a decapitated creature remained sentient for at the most a month and at the least nanoseconds. He attempted to prove his theory by noticing a few of the recently slaughtered presidents and congress members' heads could move their eyes. Some of the heads had their eyes dilated in dark areas and narrowed in well light areas. This did not prove conscious thought but it was the first step towards advanced necromancy which became popular in southern Merea that had been renamed to Shadowveil in the year 212 (United kingdom's calendar).” The thought just appeared, I remembered reading that exact same bit of trivia about four years ago, while I was studying here in Degurechaff. I look around for a bit and see the tall walls that surround Degurechaff. I remember another piece of trivia.

“Did you know that during the early periods of life in Forneus, people would create large walls around cities to protect themselves from attackers such as giants and hordes of goblins or kobolds? The walls were made of solid stone and molded together using cantrips such as firebolt and mold earth. The walls in Degurechaff have however remained standing until current day, counted to be standing staggering height at a total of 23 meters tall and 4 meters wide. The walls were theorized to have been made nearly 4000 years before the beginning of the modern calendar.” Another piece of trivia I had learned about six years ago from when I was learning here. By the time I look down the bed sheets have been fully cleaned from the disgusting matter that was stuck to it earlier. I put the bed sheets onto a washing line and put the clothing pegs on, leaving the bedsheets in the back yard to dry as I head back inside. Henna and Yam’xha are ignoring each other again. Henna making fries and Yam'xha is reading some old journal from some war she probably fought in.

“Hey Jaina, could you wash the rest of our things since you put the bedsheets up?” Henna asks as she continues cutting at a large potato. I look at her dead on and reply.

“Henna could you get Gwain to do it? I’m the only one with some actual medical knowledge here so I would prefer to look after the Baker’s kid so that he doesn’t die of something while I’m washing laundry.” I then start walking upstairs and notice Gwain walking downstairs, he looks away from me as he sees me walking up.

“Hey Gwain, go ask Yam’xha to teach you how to do laundry. You’re gonna need that information if you wanna live alone at the farmhouse.” I tell him, he nods and stays silent while looking at the ground, a bit weird but I guess a lot has happened recently. I head upstairs and notice Gwain placed the Baker’s kid on his stomach into the bed. I rolled the poor kid around and let him breathe normally. I turn back around and sit down at my desk, the chair is still old and creaky and the table is still steady as ever. I open one of the cupboards at the bottom of the desk and find an old copy of one of my favorite books. “Grief and Joy in the ranges of Merea.” It’s a book that was “based on a true story” but it’s filled with people slaying dragons with their bare hands and kingdoms falling to political issues. Something far too interesting for real people to have experienced. I guess since I’ve started adventuring it might be a bit less interesting compared to when I was caged into the life of some noblewoman. To think I would have been married almost five months ago if I hadn’t gone on this little last adventure.

“No one else could have done it. If some other mage had my power would they have been able to come this far? Would they keep going after all this?” I ask myself as I look at my reflection. My body is suffering from an illness never before recorded, maybe it’s a cruel joke from the goddess of luck but the basics of casting any modern day magic was stripped from me before birth. The only way I could ever perform magic is if I were to manifest it into my own body. A fireball would need to be spat out from my throat, burning my insides as I make it. Acid would singe the inside of my bloodstreams before slowly leaking from under my fingernails alongside blood. Anything that my classmates would do with ease would cause me to faint or fall over from the exhaustion of trying to force magic outside of my body. Anyone else would have given up long ago, someone who was saner than me would have let themselves get married off and to be owned by someone they don’t know, let alone love.

“Man, I should start writing a letter to dad telling him I want the marriage called off.” I tell myself as I lean back in my chair. I look over to the Baker’s kid and notice he’s just been staring at me, not like there would have been a lot more to do for him. I get up from my chair and walk over to him.

“Hey kid, you wanna read a book or go outside or something?, once for a book, twice for the backyard and thrice for something else.” I say as I look down at him. He blinks three times in reply.

“Huh, well uhm. What do you wanna do? Do you need water or something to eat?” He blinks twice.

“Alright then, after Gwain gets done with the chores I’ll have him tow you downstairs to get you to eat with us.” I say while sitting back down into my chair and starting to write into a page of my notebook.

“Hello father, I’m writing to you from the Lauderdale’s house. These last seven months have been amazing and some of the best days of my life. I’ve seen the endless sea and have been subject to its cruelty. I’ve visited islands that I could have never imagined before now, an island of massive trees nearly hundreds of meters tall, an island called hope with people so happy that they couldn’t cry at even funerals. I’ve seen the snowy peaks of massive mountains and insanely beautiful sculptures made from other mountains. I’ve pulled my weight during our trip. I’ve eaten rotten food and water that tastes like crude oil when that was all we had. I’ve seen new places and revisited old places and the world still seems wider than I had ever thought possible. Please understand and allow me to continue this adventure, if you were to deny my request I would simply run away from home. This is completely of my own choice and I’m not being coerced into anything. I’ve heard that we have been blamed for the death of a friend named Kindar Blight. I understand that him being a noble makes it extremely easy to frame us as criminals or terrorists but in truth we were attacked in Decarabia and had to flee the scene into the woods. After nearly three weeks we were ambushed by a group of goblins that were quickly slaughtered by Grell and Gwain, however Kindar was lost during the battle. We brought his corpse back to a resurrectionist in Vinheim but entry was barred from us, we gave the corpse to another group of adventurers who for some reason claimed that we had killed Kindar. I have no knowledge of why they framed us but they will pay. I am safe and will continue my adventuring career for as long as possible, your dear child: Jaina Proudmoore.”

As I finish writing this letter I hear the rumbling of a stomach, the Baker’s kid is clearly hungry so I start heading downstairs to get Gwain to pull him to eat. A few moments later we start eating, Gwain seemingly mad for whatever reason. Grell seemingly in her own world while Henna and Yam’xha continue being an annoying couple, constantly saying sickeningly cute things to one another.

“Hey Grell, I wrote a letter to my dad. Could we stop by some town later and deliver it?”

I look over at Grell and she seems extremely off, as if she was in another world. She doesn’t answer me for a few seconds, she’s just looking at her soup. Her wooden spoon was slightly shaking.

“Grell, are you good? Like what’s going on?”

She blinks once or twice before looking up from her soup and answering me.

“Ah, yes I was thinking of how my brother was doing. I worry sometimes for him. What was the question?”

“I was asking if we could go to a town nearby and deliver a letter to my dad.”

Grell slightly stirs her soup for a bit before answering.

“Uhm yes, certainly. We could probably visit Johann at the same time, our house in Raenmoor. We would need a boat but we will be alright. Maybe we could get our friend to deliver us there, problem is to find out how to talk to her.”

Huh, I think I remember her mentioning her brother once or twice before now. They lived in Raenmoor which is really far away, Grell being more of an adventurer meant that she would be the one earning most of the money for the house. Johann was a merchant, I think.

Chapter 11: Börn sem liggja dauð í snjónum

Chapter Text

“Grell, you ought to know where you are overpowered okay? I know that you’ve been a great worker at your father’s factory but I doubt you’ll survive the Traekheren.” My mother said while handing me an ornate skinning knife. She was almost never around me or Sir Corrigan. Last I saw her I was too young to remember but she was now dressed in a beautiful dress that had slight touches of red in the otherwise white outfit. I was handed a white tunic and coat along with a pair of white pants.

“S-so why would you give me a knife?” I asked her, my breath shaky and my words stuttered.

“To kill yourself of course, my heart would break if you were forced to survive just because some rotten boys wanted to keep you for their own reasons. Besides us women usually only get out of the Traekheren if we have the help of others and I’ve heard that you’ve made more enemies than friends.” She said while picking up my right hand and pushing the daggers grip into my hand.

“Come now Juliette, I won’t waste another second on her.” Said Sir Corrigan, I look around and see most other kids having large backpacks and assorted coats instead of the hand-me-downs I was wearing. The large stage near a gate was quite evidently the entrance to the dimension of Adaborne. More specifically the frozen gates of Adaborne, the state of the dimension changes yearly like the weathers of the world.

“Won’t you give me a few seconds with her you oaf? Besides, Johann still needs to say goodbye to her as well.” My mother barked back as she closed the buttons of my white coat, making me sweat as the weather that day was gruesomely hot. The sun beat at me as I looked around at the other contestants, boys and girls all from the town of Markair. Some were older and others younger, most had turned 10 this year while I was still only nine. My birthday would be spent within the frozen gates so I still qualified for the Traekheren.

“Hey Grell? Don’t forget I love you, I love you a lot okay? So make sure to live.” I hear a sheepish voice saying, it was Johann. I felt sick to my stomach for some reason. I blamed it on the beating sun of July weather. Looking around I see the previous champion of the Traekheren. A man of ridiculous size, covered in a tunic with red sleeves and otherwise white outfit. He seems to be pacing around the large wooden stage, choosing one of the many people here.

“Why don’t I have a backpack like everyone else Sir Corrigan, if I may ask?” I say while performing the salute.

“I won’t waste another cent on you, that’s why. You’re lucky you could even take those boots you made here.” He replies with a sour expression, as if he was looking at dogshit stuck to the underside of his own boots.

“I see.” Is all I can say in reply. Looking down at the knife I was handed and the boots I was wearing, I had made them a few days earlier because Sir Corrigan told me to do so. They were steel toed and bore the insignia of the Sutcliff family, perhaps it was advertising rather than a genuine gift.
“Grell, are you good? Like what’s going on?” I hear someone asking as I look up from my bowl of soup, it was Jaina.

“Yes, I’m fine, I was thinking about my brother. I’m sometimes worried about how he’s doing, you know? What was the question?” I reply as I slightly stir the soup still in my meager bowl.

“I was asking if we could go to a town nearby and deliver a letter to my dad.” She asked as I continued looking at my bowl. Oh right, Jonathan is dead isn’t he? I really liked him, I guess I’m Jaina’s guardian now.

“Yeah, I think we would do best to go to Raenmoor, my brother’s house is there and we would need a boat to get there. It should be fine however.” I say as I take another bite of the soup, the vegetables taste amazing but I can’t feel myself being happier for some reason.

“Alright then, I’m gonna get the Baker’s kid back upstairs with Gwain. You just stay here and recover okay? Your arm is still really fucked up.” Jaina says as she looks back down at her steak, it seems that she might have a small idea that things aren’t going that well.

“Why the hell would I have to bring him up? Can’t Yam’xha do it?” Gwain shouts as he still has bits of steak in his mouth, spewing out spit as he shouts.

“Don’t talk while you’re eating you dumbass! Yam’xha doesn’t have to cuz she owns the house you idiot!” Jaina shouts back as she stands up from her chair, I feel a smile spreading across my face as I nearly burst into laughter. Seconds turn to minutes as the dinner passes by and the two head to bed, once again I’m left in the dining room. Sitting in a rocking chair and looking out of the window. I think about the people who were chasing us, a goblin and a man that seems inhumane. Like a beast of children’s tales, something that would find you no matter where you went. A judge of character and a judge for those who had sinned such as myself.

“I declare that Hosea of house Fareon is my champion!” Shouts the last Traekheren’s winner, a muscular woman clad in a sanguine dress that displayed her arms. I guess she had chosen her champion, a small cowering boy that seems to be in absolute despair after being chosen. Rather than a boon from the previous winner, declaring a champion is basically a target on your back.

I look around and notice children saying their final goodbyes to their families and saying whatever they would want to before dying. A few confessions were made and some had declared their love to someone before entering the large gate made of rocks, ornate with magical sigils along its edges. In the middle of the gate there is a swirling mass of energy which occasionally spews out some strange white powder. It felt cold to the touch and I had heard it to be called snow.

“Grell, whatever you do in there at the very least don’t bring dishonor to my name.” I look up at him and his pale skin seems disgusted with my mere existence, as if I wasn’t worth the breath he just spent on speaking to me. I realize that my mother, or atleast Johann’s mother also has skin as white as the snow I had only now seen, while my own skin is a shade of brown that resembled me of coffee. A rarity that I was allowed on my birthdays, I guess I’m a bastard child. I looked back over to the gate and started walking off, Juliette seemed shocked and I heard Johann crying but I didn’t turn back as I walked into the gates.

“God it’s really cold here Isn’t it?” I hear somebody say as I exit the gate, near a group of about 30 other people. They quickly scatter and gather into batches of 3 people. Indeed it was cold, I had never felt this cold actually. It’s quite insane, snow falling onto my hand-me-down clothes felt cold. I look around for a bit and realize I can’t see the sun, there's snow up to my knees and it feels heavy.

The heavy amounts of constant snowfall begins to fog my vision, I don’t have any snow goggles like some other kids and I have to simply cover my eyes with my own hands as I look for a cave to sleep in for the night. It’s hard to see, harder to see and it’s starting to get hard to walk as the wind beats my face and snow covers my hands the more I try to protect my eyes. I’m swept off my feet and nearly fully under the snow as a pair of hairless legs run past me at breakneck speed. Dozens of large birds similar to flamingos but larger running on top of the snow scare me as they run past, a herd of 12 as I count. They don’t even seem to kick up any snow as they run past, I grip onto my suicide dagger.

“I’M SO SORRYYY!!”

I shout as I plunge the dagger into the long leg of one of the birds and quickly trips on itself, falls over while screeching and then begins to sink into the snow. I feel a rumbling beneath my feet, there’s something beneath the snow I’m stepping on. I slowly begin to move towards the still screeching bird, holding my dagger out as I feel my tears beginning to freeze on my face.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry I’m so sorrryyy.”

I say as I slowly continue walking up to the bird, looking it in the eye before lunging my dagger into its head. I’m forced to look the creature in its cold dead eyes as I pull out my dagger, cutting my thumb as I accidentally grip onto the blade with my left hand.

“Oh my god I’m gonna throw up.” I say before quickly proving what I had just said, leaning to the left and beginning to vomit away from my freshly hunted meal. I try to look over to the body of the bird but the strong winds beat me into covering my eyes, I slowly start walking over before I fall over unconscious.

I slowly begin to open my eyes and see that I’m inside a cave, or something similar at least. It’s still really cold, my arms are tied with a rope and my legs aren’t for whatever reason.

“Ah you finally woke up? Tell me what you are, I’m a Rael from house Doroghan. So I chose that your bird would be better spent on our survival, there’s two others with me here but they’re asleep now.” Says a Rael, he does seem like one as his clothes are made of something far better than my own coat that had small holes in it. I don’t remember hearing about house Doroghan though.

“I’m an honorary Rael, from house Sutcliff. What’s the plan on your survival? This seems like a nice cave and all, so you must have a bunch of supplies to keep yourself stocked for three months here.” I say as I look around for my suicide dagger, scouting the inside of the cave.
“An honorary Rael huh? What a load of horse shit.” The boy says as he fiddles around with a small dagger in his hands, cutting open his glove by accident.

“Aw damn.” He says as he has a small bit of blood flooding out of the slightly larger than papercut sized wound, I want to laugh at him but he would probably beat me for it, or do something worse. He quickly leaves the little room I’m tied up in to tend to his wounds, I get up to stand properly and move over to the doorway that he walked through. I wait for him by the small entrance of the room and as he walks in I put my hands around his neck, letting the rope that ties my wrists together choke him. He cuts my arms a few times and I try to think about something else.

“Alone at the edge of a universe humming a tune, for merely dreaming we were snow.” I whisper to myself as he continues trying to stab at me, I notice he’s about to scream so I put my left hand over his mouth which he promptly bites down on. His strength is sapped by the lack of oxygen but nonetheless he bites down harder, ripping my left hand's pointer finger off.

“SHIT!” I shout, no longer able to stifle my shouts of anger. The boy still faints as my finger stays in his mouth I take his dagger and cut myself free before slicing open his throat, sounds of gurgling fill the small cave as his blood seeps out like a disgusting geyser or fountain.

“What do you think Grell? I personally like fish more!” I hear in the distance. I have to blink a few times before I see that I’m looking at tomato soup. Jaina quickly hits Gwain on the head and shouts at him.

“She’s a vegan you dumbass how do you not remember that? She told us like two weeks ago!” Jaina barks at him as the two continue to argue again.

“Hey first of all, YOU are the dumbass. Second of all she can still eat fish and THIRD of all she wasn’t always a vegan!” Gwain shouts back at her as he hits her in the shoulder.

“OW!” She shouts before promptly hitting him back.

“What day is it?” I ask as I look around I notice Henna looking over at me, clearly she seems a bit worried.

“It’s October 15th, are you sure you’re eepingkay alright?” I blink a few more times looking down at the open throat of that Doroghan kid, no one else is looking at him as he’s splayed out on the table.

“Eepingkay? W-what do you mean eepingkay?” I say as I look down at the corpse, his wound still seeping out blood in mass amounts, covering my sleeves in blood. The constant stream of blood just covering my hands, my left pointer finger remains in his mouth.

“Are you okay Grell? That’s what I meant to ask, I forgot you aren’t from around here, sorry about that.” She asks, I gulp and push my hand into the open wound on his neck, trying to fish out my finger from within.

My right hand won’t move, or rather my entire right arm won’t move. It has a large scar, I try to shout and my throat feels too dry to even speak a word. I move my left arm up and try to get the finger out, as I push into his throat it feels hot. Way too hot to just be blood. I am quickly pulled back by two other kids tied up yet again as one of them swiftly kicks me in the head.

“You piece of shit SCUM! How DARE you kill MARK?! YOU GOT ANYTHING TO SAY? HUH BITCH?!” One of the two shouts at me in an annoying mouse-like tone as he continues kicking me in the face, I can almost feel the right side of my face becoming slanted. As if my eye is about to pop out, I throw up blood and quickly fall asleep.

I wake up in what I assume hours or days later without pants, only wearing my coat and my underwear. Large cuts making tally marks along the inside of my thighs, scarred and closed at this point. My legs and arms are tied to leave me splayed out like a pig being gutted, skinned and eaten. Across from me is this Mark character, his throat is still open but the wound has closed by having the blood freeze on it. My heart stops for a bit as I notice the lack of pants and the tally marks. In total the tally says 25, I don’t really feel my legs or my arms right now but I know damn well that’s going to hurt.

I look at my bindings and realize they’ve been done a while ago and haven’t been redone since they were first put on. I put my right thumb under my pointer finger and snap it, dislocating my thumb and sliding my right arm out of bindings. I have to break my left thumb with my right hand because I don’t have much left of my left pointer finger. I get up and cut off the leg ties.

I quickly grab my suicide dagger and stab into Mark a few times, his throat is a horrific frozen geyser of blood. Like a statue made of blood it looks horrifically disgusting, I have to catch myself from throwing up. As I cover my mouth with my left hand I notice the lack of my pointer finger, despair. I look down at my scarred legs and silently cry. It takes me dozens of minutes but eventually I force myself to move, opening a crate and finding small coin-like pieces of candy and bits of beef jerky, eating as much as I can. My tears froze onto my face as I tried to eat, whimpering like an animal in a cage. Hypothermia, fear and most of all I felt

Despair
Despair
Despair
Despair
Despair
Despair
Despair
Despair
Despair

Chapter 12: Personal feelings and stuff

Chapter Text

“Hey, Jaina I think Grell’s been acting weird.” I say while looking over at Grell who’s actively trying to take something out of her tomato soup. She seems distressed and in a panic, I've never seen that before from her.

“Just let her be, we’ve all seen quite a lot and she’s not made of steel. She must have be nearly as bad as us.” Jaina said while she, or is it he? I don’t really get the thing about saying she wants to be a guy earlier when we were walking here to be honest but I don’t mind.

“Alright then Postynian bloodhound lets get you to the kennel why don’t we?” Yam'xha says while tearing her away from the soup, Grell doesn’t resist much. It looks like she’s an entirely different person now.

“Handle her carefully, okay honey? I don’t want her to be too distressed or mentally anguished, you know?” Henna says as Yam’xha starts tearing Grell out of her seat and into the rocking chair.

“I don’t think she’s gonna mind me doing much to her. I don’t think she can feel much at this point, ‘sides since we’ve got a doc that can take care of right?” Yam'xha replies as she looks over at Jaina, she’s still eating her steak as she looks up at Yam’xha.

“Uhm sure, I mean definitely.” Jaina says before she continues scarfing down on her meal, like a wolf that had killed a lamb. Almost bestial with how she’s eating, I try to listen to the following conversation but the ringing comes back. A constant pain that I thought had passed it just hurts a bit, not too much but it still sucks not being able to hear conversations and all.

“I’m gonna head outside for a bit okay?” I say as I get up from my seat and start walking to the garden at the back of the house, the ringing continues a constant screech. It’s fucking horrific, like an animal dying. A pig dying, the last gasps for air that Kindar took, a beheaded corpse all melding together. Someone calling out to me, a gruff old voice slowly becoming hearable.

“Hey soldier, let’s get some air, why don’t we?” I blink and notice it’s Yam’xha talking to me and not him. I look her up and down, she’s already put on a coat and hands me my own coat. Helping me put it on me before we walk outside. We take a few steps underneath the patio before she pulls out a pack of cigarettes, putting one into her mouth and lighting it.

“C-can I get one?” I ask, my voice quivering for some reason. It’s not even raining, not even cold but I just can’t stop shaking for some reason. It’s nearing night, the cool breeze of the oktober air makes me shake.

“Well kid I gotta tell you something, once you start you don’t stop. It’s something that you can’t go halfway on.” She says while holding the box, a single cigarette peeking out of the box, my shaky hands reach out and grab onto it. She gives me the lighter and looks at me as I struggle to use it.

“Alright let me show you how it’s done.” She says as she takes the lighter back and shows me how to use it properly. The bright flame that sparks from it gives off an orange hue, it’s warm. Warmer than a thousand sunrises and sets, warmer than a million smiles.

“Gwain, lemme tell you something. You don’t seem like you know what you want to do in life and you don’t have to. You’re still a young kid, hell even I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life for over two thousand years but no matter what you do, no matter what you’re chasing I order you to never go halfway. Your life is too short to not live it on full throttle.” She said as she put the lighter in my hand and let me test it myself, the orange light it emits seems so nice.

“No going halfway, live full throttle huh?” I said as I put the lighter in my pocket, coughing a bit as I breathed in the smoke from the slightly sweet tasting cigarette. The ringing stops for a few seconds as I cough.

“Damn straight, if there’s something worth doing you gotta do it as best as you can. No matter if that’s cooking a good meal or killing your enemies on the battlefield you gotta do it as best as you can.” She said before throwing the remains of the cigarette into the dirt. She’s quickly then shouted at by Henna from inside the house, Yam’xha quickly picks up the cigarette and puts it into an ashtray.

“Alright then Gwain, remember: No going halfway!” She said as she walked back inside. The lighter dances in the night, colors mixing in the dark of the night. My god it’s beautiful, twisting and shining the lighter gives me a feeling I think I should be familiar with. It's name is on the tip of my tongue but it can’t escape.

“Aw fuck” I say to myself under my breath as the cigarette burns to the end, hurting my lips. I step back into the house and the ringing returns, very much so less painful but still there. Jaina had already left the dining table and headed up to her room while Grell was just staring at the kitchen table that she had stained with her tomato soup. I slowly move over to her to try and talk with her.

"Ég vil ekki verða óhreinn, vinsamlegast ég vil ekki fara til helvítis, vinsamlegast fyrirgefðu mér." Grell whispered under her breath, she seemed out of it. I should probably go to Jaina and ask her what we should do, should I really just let Grell be like this like Jaina said earlier? It makes my heart sting. I slowly start walking upstairs before hearing Grell sound sad, it’s something new I haven’t heard from her. Terror? Yes, if she could be described in a word it would definitely be terror. Fury? Yes fury was something regular for her but sadness was new.

“Johann, Ekki yfirgefa mig, ekki þora að fara frá mér vinsamlegast.” She whispered to herself, tears running down her face. Her arms wrapped around herself, similar to a hug. I moved close to her and put a blanket over her body so that she wouldn’t be cold. I felt sad, seeing her sad.

“Gwain, come up to my room.” I heard Jaina say from the stairs, she was looking down at me as if there was something funny about me putting the blanket onto Grell. I was looking her in the eyes but I did also notice that she was wearing a weird dress looking thing that looked way too thin to be worn anywhere outside. It was see through at the arms and legs but it somehow covered the chest area, an interesting piece of fabric I guess.

“Why?” I ask while looking up at her.

“Don’t fuckin’ ask questions just do what I say.” She barks back, a look of slight disgust on her face as she says so.

“Alright then, don’t get all pissy about it.” I say while getting upstairs, her room smells clean. Like way too clean, I don't know how to describe it but it just smells like she dipped the entire room in soap. There’s nothin’ much to be else to be mentioned, there’s a desk with a lot of tools on it and a book that’s open. No candles or anything that lights the room, just the open window at the right side of this slightly cramped room thats in the shape of the roof.

“The kid wants to go back to his family.” She says as she sits down on the bed, next to the kid. He looks fuckin… ew, I just don’t even have words for what he looks like.

“Okay well tell him to walk home then, there should be no problem getting him to sneak out of here.” I say, teasing her on purpose but instead of laughing in my face and slapping me she looks horrified.

“Gwain, have you been subject to a lobotomization?” She asks with a concerned look, I feel like it’s bad that I don’t know whatever that big word was. I look around and kick at the dust on the floor while rubbing my neck with my hands before looking up and answering.

“....M-maybe?” I say with a weird toothy smile. Jaina just bursts into laughter as I say that, she nearly falls off the bed as her jaw looks like it's about to fall off. The laugh feels maniacal, something just a bit unhinged though I would assume someone who wants to make a new form of magic has to be a bit crazy.

“Y-y-you gotta be fuckin with me Gwain, ohhh my god you’re fucking HILARIOUS!” She says between those maniacal screeches that could be called laughter. I start to uncomfortably laugh along as I still don’t understand what’s so funny. After a while of talking we both agree to help get the boy out of the house and into his own.

“Alright so are we doing this right here, right now or like what?” I ask while looking down at both Jaina and the kid

“I’m ready whenever you are.” She replies, I pick up the kid and start looking around for how we’re going to get out of here. Jaina starts opening a window in her room, she then steps out onto the roof and signals for me to follow.

“Watch his head, I worry you might make him as dumb as yourself if you hit his head by accident.” She says while giggling to herself

“Shut up, you’re the dumb one.” I say while climbing out through the window, the tiled roof cracking as I step on it. I feel my eye widen as much as possible before I look over to Jaina.

“I’m not fat am I?” I ask with worry
“Gwain shut the fuck up, this isn’t a time to be joking around. Of course you weigh a lot right now, one of your arms is metal and you are actively carrying a child with you.” She says with a strained look on her face, I can almost see the veins in her throat. I suppress laughter.

“Alright, lead the way then.” I say as we continue walking on the roof, the starlight sky shining down on us. The moon peeks out from just beneath the wall, the wind howls and pushes against us. It looks really beautiful, all of the city lamp lights shining on the old and worn cobblestone road.

“Gwain, do you think we can make this jump? I can make it at the very least but I can’t cast featherfall or fly on you. I’m working on it though.” Jaina says while pointing down the side of the building to an alleyway. It’s dingy and unclean, everything is cloaked in shadow.

“Alright, if you can cast featherfall on yourself then you should hold the kid during the fall. I can grab him after that but I don’t wanna snap his back with my knee when we land.” I say while looking down at the kid, he’s breathing with his mouth and acting limp. Like a doll that couldn’t move on its own.

“Uhm, yeah sure I guess I could grab him for a few seconds. You’re gonna have to carry both of us if I faint though.” She says before giving a small giggle. I walk over to the edge before turning to Jaina and handing the kid over, she tries to lift the kid with her back and not her legs. I cringe while watching her buckle and shake under such small weight.

“Alright, see you down there.” I say before jumping from the roof, the wind blasting against my face and making my hair go wild. I brace my knees for impact against the cobblestone, my toes immediately sting, my feet nearly go through my boots as my weight continues to fall into the ground. A small crater appears on the road as I’ve now fully landed, my knees shake and I feel like I'm about to throw up. I look up to see Jaina.

“Damn Gwain, rough landing?” She says as she slowly falls over the edge of the roof, cutting her thigh open with her pinkie fingernail. The blood turns into something like soap bubbles and surrounds her legs, she begins to slow down as if she was a leaf falling. She lands gracefully but as soon as her feet touch the ground the surrounding blood bubble pops and she falls over face first.

“Damn Jaina, that looked like a rough landing.” I say back mockingly as I flip her over and pick up the kid. She seems like a dried up raisin with bags under her eyes.

“Wait, are you good or like, is this serious?” I ask with worry building up as she takes out a glass from her satchel bag and drinks it. Her eyes slowly fill up with life once again as her wound closes.

“Yeah alright I’m good. Holy fuck that stung my head a lot.” She says as she gets up from the road. She spits out a bit of blood and some weird yellow spit. She sounds like a cat puking or like she’s throwing up her guts.

“Okay damn, you good dude? Do you need something?” I say while I look over at her, she’s keeled over just throwing up.

“We can go back if you need to man, we don’t gotta do this right now.” I say as I move over and put the baker's kid next to us. I lay a hand onto her back, trying to comfort somehow.

“Gwain, we can’t go halfway. I started this and I’m going to go through with this. No matter what it takes.” She says as she gets up, pushing herself onto her feet with a hand on her knee.

“Alright then, lead the way.” I say as I pick up the Baker’s kid and start following her. We walk throughout the city, stopping by large districts with lots of houses asking the baker’s kid whether his parents lived there or not. I think we started going around at ten and we continued for a few hours just walking. The streetlights begin to blend together with the sky after a while everything blurs. We take a stop next to a well in the middle of this market district.

“So Gwain, how do you feel? Anything in particular popping up into mind?” Jaina asks as she sits next to me, I take out the pack of cigarettes I got from Yam’xha and light one of them. The ringing stops, just for a bit.

“I’ve had this ringing in my ear for a while but I think it’s getting easier with time. I haven’t been sleeping well either, I just have nightmares of the island and of Kindar.” I say while taking drags of the cigarette in my hand, the scent of the smoke is aromatic and somehow calming.

“Yeah, me too. I haven’t gotten the best sleep either, after a while I sorta started to think about what we did to that goblin as well. After all the anger and adrenaline ran out I just… Started seeing him in my dreams, splayed up on that tree. The two of us torturing him day by day and then I healed him to do it all over again the day after that. I just… I feel disgusting.” She says while shaking slightly, I get it I really do but I just can’t feel bad for that goblin. I don’t know what it is but I just can’t find it in my heart to feel bad for it.

“I’ve also been feeling itchy, cold and hot on my left arm even though it's, you know.” I say while hitting my left arm, it makes a loud clanking sound. The metal seems a bit rusty at this point, I don’t think I’ve ever properly cleaned it in the months I’ve had it. The ringing sound comes back. I only now realize the cigarette is done. I look around and notice that there are some people walking up to us.

“Hey ‘xcuse me have you seen a certain Grell Sutcliff?” Asks a halfling woman that walks up to us, I realize I've seen her before. Back in Vinheim, she was one of the people that took Kindar’s corpse. She seems to recognize me as well because she begins to draw her revolver. Jaina starts to point towards the halfling, trying to shoot out a nail. A shot rings out, I feel a sudden pain in my knee. Looking down I notice blood just rolling down my calves, and a bullet hole in my pants. Jaina shoots back, a nail digging into the halfling's shoulder shedding blood. The halfling tries to shoot again, my body starts to move on its own, I block the Baker’s kid with my left arm. Trying to cover him from any shots, the bullet lands onto Jaina, I look over and continue moving to cover the kid. The milliseconds pass by like hours, every movement feels like an eternity. The third shot rings out and lands onto the kid, a bullet ripping a hole into his chest, blood begins to pour.

If only I had covered him with my full body instead of just my arm.

Chapter 13: Disease Log 3, Illness.

Chapter Text

October 8th, 1487. [Merean calendar] The fourth week of work here in this hellhole is now beginning. I’ve come no closer to Liquid apotheosis even after discovering my co-workers' Draconic ancestry. She seems unwilling to discuss her past and the fungi here don't seem to have any new developments. I’ve discovered the basics of the “Bluebeard” fungi. Which I coined the scientific name of “Hyacinthum candens fungus” for. I also found out the way it infects, slows the victim and eventually kills them. The only thing I have to do now is to simply eradicate the evidence and anyone else who has this knowledge. How much longer must I pretend to be like one of these wretches? It disgusts me, each and every single one of these disgusting and putrid creatures think I’m one of their kind. That I would be anything similar to the rabid animals they are. They drink on every Friday, they shout about useless drivel and seem to think me and Harrison Quoreant have some sort of hidden romance. Even he seems to have fallen for that rumor. My hallucinations have returned once again, I am going to request at least five months of free time from the brotherhood. Once I get home I’ll have the Dragon's corpse brought with me and I’ll dissect her for a while. My other experiments with Troll’s, Ogre’s, Yeti’s and Oozes have proven insufficient. I just need to last until October 30th, just for a while longer.

I finish writing in my notebook as I once again wipe away all of the fog from my goggles and replace the aromatic leaves within the mask. I look down at this ridiculous mask I have to wear, then around the office I’ve been sleeping in. Everything is covered in a layer of dust, the only things that are clean in the room are the stacks of papers I shift through each night to record my findings and plans of being the sole survivor here. I have to rub my eyes for a bit, scratching my nose bridge at the same time. I have a splitting headache as I head out of my room and downstairs.

“Ah! Good morning Doctor Reed. How did you sleep?” Asks Quoreant, his scruffy beard and slightly white beard gone. I seem to stare at it longer than I notice as he continues speaking without me giving an answer.

“I see you staring at my beard with those piercing eyes, I shaved it because it got in the way of surgical masks and it was becoming a bit of a pain to deal with anyway.”

“It is good to see you having some sense of hygiene here, speaking of which are the showers still broken? I really need a wash, I feel horrifyingly disgusting to be honest.” I answer as I stare at him a bit more, he has a strong jawline that was once hidden by his santa clause-esque beard. He’s also wearing a nurse's outfit which displays his strong arms.

“Well, the showers are still broken but we have water left in some barrels, we have to share the barrel water though. If you don’t mind, I could join you in the washroom.” Harrison says with a strange tone, I can also hear and see the other doctors eavesdropping on our conversation. Seemingly we have become a topic of discussion or gossip.

“I’m sorry but I have quite a rigorous washing technique, though I appreciate the offer I simply have to do this myself.” I say, thankfully the doctor’s mask covers my face as I try not to scowl or show any emotions. To be honest my face must have been a warped version of what it usually is.

“Ah, well quite understandable. It was a bold question anyway, perhaps if we get out of here alive we could talk more. I do enjoy our small conversations.” Harrison says with a defeated look on his face.

“Indeed. See you in twenty minutes for the meeting.” I say as I start walking off, I hear Jinana and Rickket immediately rush over to Harrison and start comforting him.

“See I told you, he’s a heartless bastard. I don’t wanna say I told you so but..” I hear Rickket spit out just a bit louder than she meant to. Jinana immediately slaps Rickket on the back of her neck.

“Shut up Rickket. Harrison it’s okay, he didn’t say you two couldn’t go on dates or something later you know? And now he knows how you feel, he has to know at this point.” She whispers out as I continue walking to the communal showers.

The showers are disgusting, the police station's old penitentiary had been turned into a disgusting imitation of a bathroom. The cell that was turned into a “shower” was a single barrel filled with weeks old water. A fucking putrid disgusting horrible piece of shit barrel with nothing. My hands start to shake violently, I can feel myself trying to scream out in disgust and horror. A breeze of violent thoughts rush past me, my mouth salivates slightly.

“Y-you fucking piece of shit heap of trash fucking garbage.” I swear to myself as quietly as I can because I CANNOT allow my cover to be blown. I can’t have been working here undercover for A MONTH just to be found out. Maybe I should order more of my medication, I can’t make it here anyway with whatever horrific lab equipment that these people have left.

I nearly throw the barrel of water aside as I force myself back out of the cell, simply observing the putrid walls, the horrifying roof and the floor that's covered in dirt and grime. The concrete walls are breaking apart slowly, there’s rot in the ceiling, the ground I walk on is constantly wet and sounds disgusting. Should I just leave some Hyacinthum candens fungus here so that these wretches would all be infected. An easy way to kill them all without even using the pistol I bought. What else could I even do? I really do need just a single opportunity, just one shot, please I can’t keep pretending to be one of these barbarians.

As I walk out of the so-called showers I see that Harrison is waiting for me just outside. I don’t have my mask on and I guess I didn’t have my emotional mask on either.

“Hey, is everything okay Reed? You look really mad. I’m sorry if I misunderstood the type of relationship we have, I’d like to stay friends or atleast co-workers. I understand if you don’t wanna really talk to me anymore but we gotta make this work for the sake of everyone who hasn’t been infected yet, okay?” He looks like a beaten dog that’s sniveling to its owner. As if I would have to enjoy even a second of his disgusting presence.

“Y-yeah, sorry it just came as a bit of shock, that's all I’m sorry. I’m mostly mad because the showers look really fucking disgusting. And you’re right, we’ve gotta make this work just for the sake of everyone outside of this city.” I say as I attempt to mask my overflowing disgust. He fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

“T-that’s alright Reed. If you wanna talk about it later I’m always willing to talk to you. It’s been nice to know you this past month.” He says with a little sly grin, as if he had just gotten a full house in poker. We both walk out of the cells where the showers were placed.

As we walk into the mainroom of the station, all of the women seem to be gossiping and Immediately stop talking as the two of us enter. I look out to see if Dr. Sasha is in the house all of the women look empathetic towards Harrison. Harrison walks over to the women and nurses while I take a walk outside. The air must be putrid, the entire town is covered in a thick blue fog. The fungus has probably altered the air nearby.

“So, did you have a lover’s quarrel or something with Harrison? I can give you a cig if you need one.” Kole says as she’s sitting on the steps of the police station, I’m forever thankful for the mask that covers my face.

“No. We didn’t. And I don’t smoke.” I say as I look down on her. She has this strange look on her face.

“Are you homophobic?” She asks after a few seconds. I can feel the confusion going through my head.

“What?”

“Are you homophobic? You had a lot of anger in your mind when I asked about the lover’s quarrel. I can sorta read minds, it’s a magical ability I’ve had since childhood.” I feel anger rush through my entire body. This BITCH was using MAGIC to read my mind? How fucking DARE SHE? The first thought that rushes through my head is to just shoot her, here and now.

“Oh gosh, you had a lot of violent thoughts there didn’t you?”

“Don’t fucking EVER look into my mind AGAIN. If you want to know something then fucking ask me. I fucking despise that horseshit that you call a skill.” I say as I feel my mouth begin to foam. I feel as if I’m growling with bestial anger at this point.

“Jeez man, I'm sorry. I won’t do it again okay? I didn’t know you hated magic.” She says, putting her hands up. She looks terrified of me, as she should be.

“You better fucking not.” I say as I start walking outside. I had better find some of that fungus to poi- I mean inspect. That BITCH might still be reading my mind. Though from what I’ve understood Psyonics like that have a small range. I’ll have to walk out for a bit.

Fifteen minutes later I see the dragon. She seems to be looking at one of the corpse piles that have been burning for months now. She looks like she’s mourning the dead. I notice her hold out her hand and grab onto something in the pile. The wooden mask from that vile disgusting town I escaped from just to fall into this hellhole.

“Did you find something interesting?” I ask, trying my best at a friendly tone as I walk up to her. She gets startled as I speak up but then quickly turns to look at me.

“Yeah, someone must have been wearing a mask as they died. Maybe some kid at a birthday party. I just feel horrible, the amount of places I’ve had to burn down or freeze because of this fungus…” She says as she cleans off some ash from the mask, I’m quite frankly surprised that the mask is still intact after leaving it to burn for a month.

“So many lives lost and even with all my power I’m still useless to help with all this.” She says as she rubs away dust and ash from the mask, revealing the tusks and old paint that decorates it.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of dragon are you in specific? From my understanding of draconic ancestry not a lot of your kind have power over multiple elements.” I say as I try to fish out some more information from this sentimental bastard.

“Well mom was a noble from Merea and dad was some public harlot that just got lucky. The funny thing about that is that mom was a red dragon and apparently daddy dearest was a white dragon. They were both just disguised as humans and ended up getting lucky. So I’m a hybrid dragon.” She says, as if it was some nice quaint memory of childhood.

“Quite intriguing, I was also from Merea originally. Though I have little to no care about the country’s politics or the ongoing war. I still do use their calendar though, I just got too used to it I guess.” I say, recounting my story for who I am.

“Huh, yeah. I’d like to believe that your past doesn’t define you but I guess some traces of Merea always follow me around. Do you need help with anything? I’ve heard that your little tryst with Harrison didn’t go so well.” She says, for whatever reason she too believes that I share that man's romantic feelings.

“He caught feelings in a work environment and I didn’t, quite frankly it’s his fault for catching feelings at work.” I say as I look her in the eyes.

“Damn, you’re heartless aren’t you? haha”

“I’m smart, not stupid or over emotional. I sincerely hope he can get over his delusions.” I say as I lift my boot to let a piece of a nearby burning corpse rush past me as it’s swept away by the wind.

“Hmm, I’m gonna be honest I don’t think I wanna talk to you anymore. You seem like an annoying person.” She says as she walks off with the mask in hand. Her partner starts walking up to us.

“Hey Jean, what do we have on the schedule today? I’m kinda amped up for today’s job.” She says while rubbing her shoulders.

“25th street in its entirety is getting scorched and then we’re freezing the sewers and making a dam so that the infected water can’t leak out.” The tiefling says as he has a small wooden clip board which I assume has a map on it.

“Yeah, we’ve gotta take five over there but after that I should be ready to make the dam. I’m estimating it to take like, two to four hours.” She says while looking over the map with Jean. They both seem focused, though I catch Jean stealing looks at Ace.

“Alright Reed, try to be a better person okay? People don’t wanna talk to you ‘cuz you’re a bit of an asshole!” She says before cutting open her stomach and beginning her transformation. A burst of steam rushes out of her torso and then from her mouth. The ground shakes and I fall over, the tiefling seems unphased. The steam covers my glasses and then before me stands nothing lesser than Draconic Beauty. Glistening red scales underneath sheets of pure ice that are see-through. I almost feel enamored with her beauty. Something so beautiful and terrific was born from the disgusting vestiges of magic. Like a flower blooming from a graveyard, a star burning brightly in the emptiness of space or a single raindrop reflecting a rainbow. It’s beautiful.

“Hey Reed, Listen to Ace’s advice! Stop being a fucking asshole and people might like you!” The tiefling shouts out as he climbs onto her back and the two of them fly off.

I ought to get my mind in order. I’ll leave the dragon alive and kill the others, if someone manages to scrap by then they can call themselves lucky. I could still use some of them, first I should break the survivors' confidence and make them dependent on me. I think to myself as I meander around the burning corpse piles and further into the city. The blue fog surrounding me makes it hard to see, that piled on with the foggy glasses of my mask make it quite hard not to trip.

Fifteen minutes later I reached my destination. The shack where I found that putrid headless corpse. The floorboard I sawed off has now been infested by the fungus, from the corpse's neck the fungi’s mycelium reaches to the wall and crawls alongside it all the way to the roof. It’s quite frankly something I would love to see on a painting, a cruel fate to some poor man I will never be able to talk to. I brush my gloved hand against the root covered walls, feeling the grooves of the wood, the roots' soft epidermis. It almost looks as if it felt my touch, quivering under my glove.

I take out one of the blood covered scalpels and take a piece of the mycelium, the blue roots that glisten in the sunlight that shines through the fog. My weapon has been collected so I begin to walk back to the police station.

Yet another forty five minutes pass as I arrive back at the station, many of the nurses and doctors are slacking off once again, playing poker around an old wood table. They don’t even pay attention to me anymore, good. Walking past the dust and grime filled corridors I walk to the “showers” and place the mycelium into the barrel of water. Dipping my hands into it, making some of the water overflow.

“Hey who’s there?” I hear a squeaky little voice ask out. It’s the cleric. This little rat will have to die before he figures me out and asks anymore questions.

“Just me, father Clark. I decided to take a shower, I hope you don’t mind.” I say as I walk out of the cell and see another cell with a cover placed against it, creating a cover between the two of us. I brandish my pistol from under my cloak.

“Oh it’s quite alright Williamson. You don’t have to refer to me in clerical terms, I know you aren’t a man of faith. Beelzebub isn’t a really popular god you know?” He squeaks out once again. I see his shadow washing itself inside the shower.

“It’s quite a pity, yes, may I ask you something Clark?” I say as I take off the silencer of the pistol from its barrel.

“Hmm what is it Williamson?” He squeaks out, putting on a towel and starting to dry himself off.

“Is suicide disallowed in Beelzebub worship?” I steady my hands and prepare to kill him.

“Oh not at all, my god is the god of diseases, sadness and loss. Why do you ask?” He asks as he walks out of the shower, his arms holding onto his towel and unprepared as I grab onto his wrist. I place the pistol into his right hand and force his hand to stuff the barrel into his mouth.

He can’t even react, I push his pointer finger down on the trigger. A loud bang rings out as the bullet exits from the back of his head. Blood splatters onto the roof and the bullet ricochets into the ground. His lifeless body falls over, still holding onto the pistol.

“OH MY GOD!” I scream out as I hear footsteps approaching, I grab onto his lifeless body and fall over. I have to do the best acting of my life to make everyone else believe he killed himself.

At most a minute passes by until Jinana arrives to the scene, I grab onto his lifeless body and look over to Jinana. Her face is a mixture of shock and sadness.

“I-I don’t know what happened.. I walked in and he shot himself in the mouth.” I say while sniveling, looking up at Jinana. I see tears well up in her eyes as she falls over next to me and starts screaming.

A few minutes pass and everyone had joined us in the showers. Rickket, Liam, Harrison and a few others whose names I hadn’t bothered to remember. A few minutes pass by and everyone starts to talk to one another as to what we should do now.

“Does anyone know how Beelzebub worshippers should be buried?” I ask while looking down at Clark’s corpse. Everyone remained silent as no one really bothered to ask more about the ratfolks' religion. In the end he got what he deserved, he was seen as a food factory and was killed without anyone really caring what god gave them their food.

“I guess I should write his name into the necronomicon. We’ll have James put Clark into a bodybag and save him until we find a proper way to bury him.” Harrison speaks up as everyone silently agrees. Delly the robot is brought in and it picks up the small corpse, bringing it to wherever James will have him held.

“So anyone got an idea why he did it?” Rickket asks, coughing as she does so.

“Why would we know? We never really asked him how he was feeling or anything. We just asked him if he was done with our food.” Liam says as he lights up a cigarette, sitting down onto a bench nearby.

“Maybe he got sick of us never asking for his opinions or asking how he felt.” I said while looking down at the pool of blood on the ground. Everyone turns to look at me in surprise.

“What? I’m also a person, do you think I’m really so heartless as to not feel for someone who just killed themselves? Especially in front of me.” I say as everyone keeps staring at me.

“Yeah guys, he’s a bit of an asshole but he’s a person too you know?” Harrison says in my defense.

“Speaking of you seeing him, did he have any last words?” Sasha asks as she leans against the doorway to the showers. I look down at the floor and muster up the best crocodile tears I’ve ever displayed.

“H-h-he just said that he’s sorry.” I say as I pretend to break down. I feel a few dozen hands on my back, trying to comfort me as I cry on the floor of the showers.

Hours pass and I’m back in my room. The fan stuck to the ceiling is broken. It’s spinning irregularly. It’s starting to annoy me as I lie on the sofa, trying to get some rest. I get up and take off my mask, breathing in the stuffy air of the office. It smells like old books and old cologne. My head is stinging.

I hear a few dozen knocks at the door and that old crone’s voice asking me “Hey Reed, It’s me Harrison. May I come in?” With a concerned tone. I open up the door and see him looking down at me.

“Come on in.” I say as I look up at the old man. He has this empathetic and apologetic look. As if he needs to coddle me. He steps into the office and looks around before sitting down onto the sofa I was just laying on.

“How are you fairing with what happened tonight?” He asks while looking at some box he has in his hands.

“I’m not horribly shaken up by it to be honest. I didn’t know Clark that well anyway.” I say while looking down at him as he sits on my sofa.

Harrison looks back down at the box he has and hands it over to me. “I got you some cookies if you want any?”

“I’m quite alright without any. If you don’t have anything else you want to talk about then I’d rather you leave. I want to be alone for a bit. Go take a shower or something.” I say as I open the door and look down at him, he leaves without any arguing. I’m quite certain that most of the doctors and nurses that saw the corpse have been infected at this point. Now to just kill doctor Sasha, the dragon’s helper and a few others.

I lay myself once again onto the sofa, looking up at the broken fan. Quite frankly I don’t feel awful or amazing after having gotten away with murder. I feel simply content. For example how a normal person would feel after having cleaned their house. It’s just a part of my daily routine I have to do. Slowly drifting off to sleep I think about whether or not I should buy my medicine. I ran out a while ago and it could prove detrimental to have my mental conditions playing tricks on me like they did in Doctor Sasha’s office.

“Why must I be stuck here with these ingrates?” I ask myself slowly as I fall asleep. The following morning I assume most of the crew to have been infected and then I will bomb Doctor Sasha’s little laboratory.

Chapter 14: Tusk, afraid.

Chapter Text

Gwain just got shot in the knee and the side, I’ve got two bullet holes through my neck and through my hand. I have to close the wound and return fire. The baker’s kid also took a shot so I have to kill this bitch here and now so that the kid has a chance of survival. The street is wide and empty, the nearest terrain we could use for cover is a park bench that the kid is laying on. I’ve used up 3 of my shots from my right hand at this point, she’s shot 5 bullets. Revolvers have six shots so she has one left.

I cover the two bullet wounds in my neck with my hand and graft the skin together so that my hand loses some skin while the neck is stitched back together. I stumble forward as I’m losing my balance, I’ve lost a lot of blood at this point, I used some on featherfall earlier and I use up about 6% of my energy with each nail shot. I’d say I’ve used 28% of my energy and this fight just started. The woman brings up her gun and aims again, I move forward and bodyblock for Gwain and the kid. The piece of metal pierces through my skin and fur within a millisecond, then it bursts through my flesh and into my chest. Everything in the world is just spinning.

“God damn kid, how many fucking bullets do I have to load into you to make you fall over and die?!” Shouts out the woman in a western accent. I grit my teeth in anger, I can block the next bullet after she reloads but I have to fire back now. Within a single movement I shoot out my ring and pinkie nail towards her, I assume both miss as she doesn’t react to them at all. She’s done reloading, fuck..

“Goddamn kid! You got some fire in ya! Would you mind joinin-” I cut her off before she can finish speaking.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP AND TRY TO KILL ME! I’LL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH AND PAINT THE TOWN RED WITH YOUR BLOOD, BITCH! TRY TO FUCKING KILL ME IF YOU CAN!” I feel like I’m foaming at the mouth, my chin is covered in spit at this point, I must look like a rabid animal.

“I CAN HEAR YOU DAMN FINE WITHOUT SHOUTING ALRIGHT?!” She shouts back and then readies her shot. I can block this as soon as it enters my body I’ll turn some of my flesh to stone and then Gwain can…

That’s how losers think. I won’t block this next shot, I’ll kill her before she can shoot me. I can’t just shoot out my finger nails, besides my left hand is a lot less accurate than my right. The next thing I can think of shooting is my hoof, it won’t be like shooting out a toenail but rather like shooting off my entire foot.

But if I won’t do it and if I don’t have the balls to go all in on this, I can’t be the best biomancer. I know my disease of pulmonary hypertension is super rare and only about 50 000 people have been recorded as being a victim of it. Most if not everyone else except me would give up on magic, deciding it’s not worth suffering years to cast a cantrip. But I’m different, I’ve gotta go beyond anyone else. I have to be crazy enough to go for it all.

I take a step forward with my left hoof and kick forward with my right, the entirety of my hoof launches forward. The world's colors fade for a second as I feel dizzy, I lose my balance as soon as my right leg reaches the ground. I look up and see that it hit her square in the upper body. She’s at the very least had the wind knocked out of her and at the best her ribs are shattered. I start walking over, trying to close the distance and grab the gun from her.

“Fucking hell kid, that hurts like hell!” She says as she lifts her revolver to aim but before she can fire at me the bench that the kid was on is suddenly flying into her face. I look back and see that Gwain had thrown it, now having picked up the Baker’s kid and running off. Just a few dozen meters now and I’m in touch range. In the past month we’ve been here, I've been training a lot. I don’t know how to properly fight like Gwain but I know the very basics.

She tries to aim her revolver, I need just two more steps. Each step feels as painful as stepping on glass. Shooting off my hoof is essentially the same as a human shooting off their entire foot. I’m stepping directly onto my ankle with each stride. As soon as I reach her, I feel my balance fall. I fall over as I slip up but my hand makes it onto her hip.

“EXPLOSION!”

My hand begins to burst at the seams, my fur turns to ash as my fingers begin to shatter and splinter under my skin. It’s an indescribable pain as my bones essentially turn to flechette, An ear piercing sound rings out as the explosion breaks through her clothes, skin and flesh. Exposing her lungs and ribs. The entirety of my right hand is broken, nothing but a bloody stump. I grab onto her throat with my left hand and make her fall over.

“I’LL SLAUGHTER YOU! YOU FUCKING BITCH!”

I shout as I mount her and begin to hit her with my right stump and left fist. Left, right, left right. It feels like my entire body is burning but I have to kill her. Here and now. She spits in my eye and shoves the revolver into my mouth, reversing the grapple.

“EAT LEA-” She tries to shout out but I push my left thumb into her eye, pushing pressure onto it as quickly as possible so it pops. I bite onto the barrel of the revolver as I reverse the grapple once again. Then once again, left right left right. I shake my head and throw away the woman’s revolver before headbutting her.

“Rest now you pustulent fiend.” I hear from my left side before I feel a heavy pain at my side. A boot digs into my ribs and fractures a few bones as I’m thrown back nearly 40 feet. I feel my back hit against a brick wall, the wind is knocked out of my lungs. The world is spinning. I try to look up and see a mountain of a man in front of me. It’s the judge. Fuck, I can’t die here. I see Judge walk to the woman and crouch next to her, speaking a few words and making a movement with his right palm. Her open wound begins to slowly close.

Judge starts walking towards me, I try to get onto my hooves and get away but my balance is still fucked. Gwain is already running away with the Baker’s kid right? The kid won’t survive for long if I don’t close his wounds immediately. I have to make it to the kid, heal him and then kill not only the woman but also the Judge. I can do it so long as I get away from here.

The market opening where I am right now leads to a few different streets and alleyways I can disappear into. My head is still spinning from the kick he threw me back with. I think I’m leaning against the clocktower aren’t I? Wait, where's the Judge? He’s not over by the shooter anymore and she’s also disappeared, leaving behind a puddle of blood.

“Allow me to end your suffering, Fiend.” I hear as I’m grabbed by the throat and lifted off the ground. I’m gonna lose consciousness soon if I don’t break his grasp. I take out my dagger and jam it into his elbow with my left hand, then I hit him with my right stump. He doesn’t look bothered at all.

“Feisty.” He says before taking out the knife from his elbow and stabbing it into my right shoulder and twisting it. I feel my lungs burning as I let out a screech. I prop up my left hoof onto his knee and shoot it out of my foot. I hear a loud crack as we both fall over to the ground. His grip is lost and I start running away. Or rather crawling away, like a rat to a piece of cheese I have to crawl away as fast as possible.

Each and every single one of my steps is awfully painful, stepping directly on my ankle feels as if I’m walking directly on shattered glass. My mouth is filled up with blood and my right shoulder feels like it’s on fire. Even if I pull out the knife I’ll just bleed to death. The cobblestone road of the town is just melting into itself, I don’t know how to describe it. Everything just looks like a painting, my vision is blurring as I hear the sounds of fighting far away and some shouting.

Wait. If the shooter is already gone she must be chasing Gwain while the Judge is chasing me. There’s no point in trying to run with the Baker’s kid if Gwain is gonna die with him.

“GWAIN RUN AWAY! THE SHOOTERS AFTER YOU! JUST DUMP THE KID! HE’S DEAD ANYWAY!” I shout as loud as I can, my lungs are on fire after running and my upper chest feels like it's about to collapse in on itself. Where’s Judge? He has to be nearby especially now that I’ve shouted.

I gotta get to high ground, find Gwain and the kid. I can’t just wait around for something to happen. The clocktower is probably the best place to look right? What should I do? I can’t fight in this condition! My right hand is just…. Oh my god my right hand is ruined. It’s a mangled apart collection of grotesque flesh. Some small bits of bone are still left but it's just a bleeding collection of flesh and muscles. The adrenaline is wearing down and I’m completely sure that this is the worst pain I’ll ever experience.

A Shotgun rings out and I have to start moving. I’m sure that whoever got shot was either Gwain or the kid. Neither is good, so I have to get moving no matter what it takes. I have to move forward. My right wrist looks like a fleshy rose but it doesn’t matter. So long as me, Gwain and Grell survive, that's all I need.

“Where are we crawling off to now?”I hear said from behind me as Judge grabs onto the back of my hair and slams my face against the cobblestones. I feel my teeth falling out and my jaw becoming misaligned. My nose is probably broken and bleeding as he lifts me up.

“You know why I’m here? Little Miss Proudmoore?” he asks me as a few of my teeth fall out.

“You got your ass beat so bad that you just had to get back on us when we were unaware?” I ask with a droopy grin as he stifles his anger. I’m probably bleeding out of my mouth like a fountain.

“No, not really. It’s just that someone happened to have assassinated a certain Mister Proudmoore, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?” He asks with a childish grin on his putrid face.

“I do know you’re full of shit.” I say as I’m pulled up further by my scalp, everything hurts but I see I’ve at least fractured his knee. My vision is blurring and nothing is making sense so I’ll have to work on pure instinct.

I lean in closer and turn the blood in my mouth into acid, burning through my lower jaw immediately before violently throwing up directly onto his face. I hear the acid burning through his skin as he lets go of me to cover his face, I hear something hit the ground and as I look down I see my lower jaw on the ground in a puddle of blood and acid. The sizzling sound reverberates as a small bit of the road begins to melt away, leaving behind a fist sized crater.

I throw a left straight directly to his crotch to give myself an exit as I start running away. The bottom of my ankles are bleeding quite a lot, I’ll solidify the blood to close the wound so I can at least walk for a bit. The streets are melding into one another but I have to make it to Gwain. I look into my sling bag to check how my potions are looking and as I reach into the bag I feel shattered glass dig into my hands through my fur and skin. I take whatever healing potions I have left over that aren’t completely shattered and drink two while starting to run. I’ve got a bit of gas left in the tank but at this point I can’t be anything above 30% of my normal capacity.

After a few dozen minutes of running I find the Baker’s kid lying on the ground, he’s not moving and I don’t see him breathing at all. A few dozen feet away I see Gwain face down on the ground as well. It’s not even a cognitive choice. I rush over to Gwain, there’s no need for doubts.

“Gwain, don’t worry. Your brother’s right here.” I say as I turn him over and inspect the dama-

Oh fuck. His entire face is blown apart. I think I can see his skull just under all of that blood. There’s dozens of small metal pieces still stuck in his flesh. His forehead is still warm from whatever gunshot did this to him. In the past four weeks I’ve been trying to make medicine for the kid. A medicine that could heal even his torn apart nervous system, something that could heal anything in the world. His face is torn apart, flesh stripped from his skull and blood covering the ground he was sleeping on.

“Come on Gwain, who told you that you’re allowed to die this soon?”

I ask him as I over at my left hand and bite onto my ring and pinkie finger, biting down onto them and turning them into my miracle medicine. The pain is horrific but it’s nothing compared to what he must be going through right now. Oh wait, I can’t even bite down anymore. I don’t have a jaw.

“Alright Gwain, open wide.” I say as I loosen his mouth open and jam my fingers into his mouth. Then I grab onto his jaw and slam it closed, god it stings but my fingers still aren’t torn off. I open his mouth and slam it shut once again. My fingers are torn off and I force Gwain’s jaw upward so his throat is open enough to swallow the medicine. Goddamnit, where’s my potion? I have to recover from this.

“Alright Gwain, you’re gonna have to lay down for a bit until you recover okay?” I say as I turn him over onto his face again. Picking up my potion with the remainders of my left hand, even opening the bottle is a test of patience. The three fingers I have left at this point aren’t good enough to even open a bottle.

Alright, back to walking around. Gwain is near the Lauderdale’s house and I still have both Judge and the shooter on my trail, I can’t let up now. I’ll try to corner them in the clocktower. I have to walk a bit further in my current condition but I’m already bleeding from my shoulder so I don’t have to cut myself open to let my blood come out.

Every step feels like a new world of pain, fifteen minutes pass as I walk to the clocktower on the verge of unconsciousness. My right hand is slowly reforming itself thanks to my regeneration and the potion speeding up the process, it’s no longer just a bleeding open wound. At this pace I might be able to shoot more nails in a few minutes or so. It’s been almost half an hour, where the hell could Judge be? I assume he’s healing the shooter or something similar. I see the old door to the clocktower, it has a window on it that’s been sullied by the youths of the town. Practically made a solid surface with paint but it still gives off a small reflection.

I feel like I see something in the reflection, I lean in a bit closer and notice that my mouth is closed, trying to regrow my jaw. I guess I won’t be talking for a bit, it’s practically just skin covering my lower jaw and mouth so that the bones can begin to grow. As I lean in closer I see someone else in the reflection. The Judge, just behind me, rears back and throws a punch. I duck under it and it shatters the glass. I quickly turn around to look at him.

“Slippery.” He says before kicking towards me, I fall over since my balance still isn’t quite the best. He kicks the door off of its hinges and the old wooden door flies back to the brick wall of the tower. I move my hand up and shoot out all three nails simultaneously to his face, two of them hitting him in the eyes.

“God give me strength, Faith Renewed!” The judge chants as he takes the nails out of his eyes and they immediately regrow. He seems to have also carved a small rune into his forehead, whatever it’s for I don’t want to find out. I quickly start crawling away up the clocktower’s steps. I take the knife out of my right shoulder and let it start bleeding, turning my blood into something resembling nitroglycerin or thermite. If I’m going down I’m taking this bastard with me. I’ll make sure he can’t heal himself when Gwain and Grell fight him.

Chapter 15: Að ganga stíg sem er bundinn blóði.

Chapter Text

The cold is no longer biting at me, my fingers aren’t freezing that much anymore. The scent of iron and guts is permeating throughout the air. That little pig nearby is on the ground crying.

“HEY! DID I TELL YOU THAT YOU CAN TAKE A BREAK, I TOLD YOU TO KEEP STACKING THE FUCKING CORPSES!” I shout at him, the cowardly little creature rushes to get more of the corpses in order as I walk over.

“I’m s-sorry Grell. I’ve picked up everything I could from them, could I just leave please? Herg can’t stay inside the gates for much longer and I don’t think I can withstand this anymore.” The little pipsqueak squeals out. My right eye is too far gone at this point, my left hand is useless, my body could break at any moment. I bend down next to him, he’s on the floor kneeling as we wait outside the gates for Herg.

“So your body can’t take it anymore huh? Then kill yourself. I gave you a rope didn’t I? You surely know how to tie a noose. Top of your class in the magistrates selection, you’re a smart boy aren’t you? Tie a noose and kill yourself if it’s so bad.” I say while grabbing onto his shoulder, whispering in his ear. I see him shaking, quivering in fear as he should. I feel venom in my own words as I spit them out at him.

“C-can I sleep for a bit Grell? I-I won’t kill myself I promise.” He says as his tears fall from his eyes. His identity is broken apart, he doesn’t even know what to do with himself anymore.

“Fine, do what you want then, you pig.” I say as I get up and look towards the gate. We’ve been waiting for Herg for nearly a week now. Not a single second of rest for me, every second that I haven’t spent either fighting against other arrivals here, I’ve spent every other moment sharpening my small ax. I’ve already gotten out of the frozen gates but the Traekheren still isn’t over. I’m at the finish line but I haven’t walked out of the gate's proximity so technically I’m still in the Traekheren.

A few dozen minutes pass and another one Herg’s goons walks out. Brandishing a rapier and walking out, a young boy that probably sees me as an easy kill. The piles of corpses that my pig has organized doesn’t seem to drive in the point enough.

“OI! ARE YOU GRELL?” He shouts out after exiting the gate. I don’t dignify him with an answer. I pick up my ax with my right hand. It's still annoying to get used to fighting with my right hand. I’m left-handed naturally but after losing my pointer finger I can’t use my left hand reliably anymore.

He starts walking over, he’s clearly exhausted as well. His wrists aren’t moving properly and his footwork is shabby at the best right now. I walk over to meet him and as soon as he gets in range he tries to stab me. I simply lift my grab on the blade with my left hand and swing my ax into his throat killing him within an instant.

“Pig. Get up and clean that corpse into the pile.” I say as I move back over to the nearby sitting spot I had established for myself. The little bastard pretends to be sleeping so I move over and grab him by the hair. Slamming his face onto the ground and throwing him towards the corpse.
“Clean it. Pig.” I say as he covers up his bleeding nose. After a while he gets to work and starts cleaning out the rapier wielder's corpse. Taking out any and all food left, then trying to rip off his jacket to make a better blanket for himself.

I trip over an oddly shaped crater, I blink a few times and realize where I am. Degurechaff, the year is 487 not 467. I really have to get my head in the game, I’m not in Postynia anymore, I’m not a powerless little girl anymore. I’m the Postynian Bloodhound, the devil lying in snow, the fiend covered in viscera. I think I’ve been walking around for about a quarter hour now. Alright, where is Jaina? I see a trail of melting road, someone was using acid here and it’s most likely Jaina. I follow the trail and it leads to the clocktower nearby. There’s a distinct smell of putrid iron, gunpowder or some kind of explosive.

“Can’t run much farther now fiend, is this the end of your story that you want or will you come with us peacefully?” I hear someone say in a self righteous voice, that can’t be good. I start to run inside, I see a halfling woman brandishing a shotgun. As soon as she tries to turn around and look at me I grab her by the hair and slam her face into the stairs. Then I start running up the stairs while having her face hit against each and every step. The steps are covered in a slightly crimson covered liquid. Now I’m sure of it, Jaina has turned her blood into a flammable liquid or some kind of explosive.

After a few more steps I see a massive mountain of a man, dressed in a fine clerical robe. I throw the halfling woman against his back and jump over the two. Jaina’s hunched over while bleeding horridly. The only exit I can see right now is the stained glass window behind Jaina. The fall would probably be at least 40 meters. The fall won't kill me, the impact might hurt though. I rush over and grab onto Jaina and jump out of the window while holding onto her.

“Blow it up, now.” I say as I shatter the window with my back and turn the two of us so that I would take the majority of the impact. She pulls out a lighter and flicks it, the blood catches fire in a second then with a loud boom the clocktower bursts. A flash of light and a burst of flame catches my face as we fall. It’s beautiful but terrifying, like a volcano blooming with molten lava. I stare in wonder and suddenly feel the impact of the fall, my lungs go empty and my entire body is sore.

“Jaina, do you have a knife or something?” I ask as I blink a few times, the flames that have caught onto the clocktower are gonna spread most likely. She tries to say some kind of answer but her face is mouthless somehow. I hold out my hand and she gives me a dagger.

I quickly take her by the arm and cut her, recovering from the fall within an instant. My back quickly snaps into place as each of my bones makes a cracking sound. I get onto my feet and brandish the dagger, the massive mountain of a man jumps down the same height we just dropped. His feet break the ground and make a crater as he lands.

“Wish for a great harvest, give unto me a bountiful summer and grant me the strength to cull what I sow.” He says as he holds out a small pendant with a sickle and piece of wheat. A golden glow surrounds him as he either heals his wounds or increases his battle capabilities.

“You done talking? I got better things to be doing than having to listen to you.” I say as I roll my shoulders, testing out if there’s any remaining nerve damage. I don’t think I can feel any, I gotta apologize to Jaina for cutting her later.

“All things come at their own time, your death shall arrive soon however. You are Grell Sutcliff are you not? A fiend such as yourself isn’t allowed to live.” He says as he produces a shield from his pendant, I think it’s a first level spell. Shield of faith If I remember right, he can’t have a lot of gas left in him after healing himself from the fire and fall.

“Any last words you want engraved on your tombstone?” I ask him and as he opens his mouth I begin running at him, knife in hand. He reacts and holds out his hand as his shield turns into an arrow, then it’s launched towards me. I duck under his arrow and keep running at him.

“Speed fit for the bloodhound of Postynia.” He says as takes a step back and snaps his fingers, my stomach starts to glow as an internal flame lights within me. I throw the dagger at his fingers, trying to knock the pendant out of his hand. The pendant turns back into a shield and blocks the dagger.

“Purify the unholy, Cleanse the unclean.” He says as his shield turns into an arrow again and shoots out another bolt. This time I can’t dodge it, the fire in my stomach distracts my footwork enough already. I’ll just take this hit. The bolt hits me in the head and blinds me for a few seconds. The pain is something similar to being burned alive, my eyes are still there but it was as if they were scorched away for an instant.

“Occidere manus!” I hear him shout as he rushes towards me. My vision clears up in time to see his hand has turned into pure darkness. He’s casting inflict wounds, a melee spell that turns a part of the casters body into a lump of necrotic energy, allowing the body part to pass through thin objects and organic matter like flesh.

“Fall to the pits of Hellhearth you fiend.” He says as if he’s already won. The necrotic hand pushes through my skin and directly into my organs as he follows through with his punch. I grab onto his ears and headbutt him, recovering from the damage of the internal flames. I pull back my head and headbutt him again, healing from the damage of the arrow. Oh my god it’s exquisite, the taste of blood in my mouth, the fear he’s feeling. Everything is perfectly in place.

I take half a step back and launch a flurry of blows, at least a few dozen hooks directly to the jaw. A pair of gut punches and a multitude of kicks to his knees. His jaw is slack and he tries to pull out his hand from my guts. I grab onto his elbow to keep him close.

“Where are you running huh? I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA KILL ME HUH?!” I shout out, spit flying at him as I scream at him. I move forward, pushing his hand further through me and letting it burst out from my back. I grab onto his shoulders and start kicking him in the stomach with my knee.

“Faith, renew-” He tries to chant, as soon as he opens his mouth I grab onto his jaw forcing it to stay open as I bite onto his tongue and rip it out before swallowing it. He winces at the sight but then seems to screw his head back on. He rips his hand to the left, breaking apart my rib cage while also freeing himself from my grasp. I hear a shot ring out as I feel a bullet enter my throat, knocking me over in surprise.

“JUDGE! YOU ALRIGHT?!” I hear the halfling woman shout out. I try to recover but he boots me back nearly 12 meters, I’m pretty sure he broke a rib or two with that kick. He then holds out his pendant and draws a praying circle onto his face, regrowing his tongue and likely easing some of his wounds. I rush over and pick up the dagger I threw earlier.

“I’m alright Bo, please don’t worry. Focus fire on her, she’s Grell Sutcliffe.” The judge says, the two of them seem to catch their breath while I stretch a bit. I’ve already recovered all of the damage the judge gave me. Gorefactor is quite the lifesaver in all honesty, being able to recover from anything is quite ridiculous.

“JESUS WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU MADE OF KID?!” I hear being shouted from far away as Gwain is suddenly sent flying towards the market where we are fighting. The nearby tents for different festive events have set on fire, the scent of smoke and brimstone surrounds us. A person covered in a cloak makes a massive jump and slowly floats down to the market streets.

“GWAIN OF CERNODAN YOU HAVE MY RESPECT!” The person in the cloak shouts as they rip the black robe off of their body, revealing a pair of wings on their.. torso? Their head, hands and feet are all twisted backwards. By the neck, ankles and wrists their flesh just distorts and twists in a grotesque way. Gwain picks himself up from the ground with a roll and rushes to my side.

“Grell, there’s something wrong with that lady. She hits like a train and eats up my punches like a steel brick.” He says this as his right knuckles are bleeding while his left mechanical arm is beaten to a ridiculous state. I look down at Jaina and she’s slowly propping herself up with her hands on her knees.

“Gwain, I want you to rush at the shooter while I take the weird mutant person. Jaina can try and distract the judge. I’m pretty sure that he can’t cast a lot of healing spells anymore.” I say as I crack my knuckles and take a look at jaina’s condition. She’s on the backburner in this fight right now. I can cut her again to recover from the bullet wound and the open ribcage.

“Sorry Jaina, this is gonna hurt again.” I say as I cut her thigh open, which closes the bullet wound in an instant. I then open the wound with my fingers and spit in it before stabbing the open wound. My rib cage suddenly regrows and some skin grows to cover it and my other internal organs. I quickly look around once again to try and get a grasp of the battlefield. The nearby market stalls are burning heavily, letting out smoke and slightly covering the view of rooftops.

“Grell I gotta say that mutant lady is super scary so I’m gonna do my best with the Judge while you take care of her.” Gwain says as he stomps the ground making a piece of the cobblestone road pop out of the ground which he then punches, launching it towards the Judge. He rushes at the Judge and the shooter. I quickly move over to the mutant, gunshots just barely miss me as I rush them.

“Ooh scary lady, are you as good as Gwain?” She says as she stabs herself in the back and a burst of steam rushes out of her body. I can barely see it before it hits me, a red tail with spikes on it lashes at me. The spike digs into my left shin, lacerating it as she uses the momentum from the tail slash to hit me with a right hook straight to the jaw. The entirety of my jaw is flung across the market floor as I feel my head spin for a second.

“I’d like to say I’m better.” I answer sloppily without my jaw as I take the dagger and stab it directly into her eye, regrowing the flesh in my shin which grows around her tail. She can’t hit me with her tail so her paths of attack are closed to human range. What isn’t human however is this strength. Gwain wasn’t lying about her.

“Don’t seem like it!” She shouts as she grabs me by the throat and starts to choke me, I take out the dagger and grab her by the nape. I slash wildly at her throat but no matter how many cuts I make she doesn’t seem to flinch. I feel my jaw grow back into place as she continues trying to choke me. I then stab her directly in the hand and she loosens her grip on me.

“Damn, I gue-” Before she can keep talking I lunge at her and bite her in the throat, I hold onto her jaw and her hip as I gnaw at her. The taste of flesh brings back another memory from the Traekheren, from two decades ago.

“G-Grell. You don’t have anything to eat if you give me all of this…” Johann says as he’s shivering in the cold of the frozen gates. I’m looking at the corpse of a child four years younger than me. I chose to come back here to protect Johann so I’ll have to see it through.

“I’m fine. Look away from me Johann.” I say as I drop to my knees and start removing the child’s clothes. The kid’s face is forever burned into my memory, the small mole just above their eyebrow. Their black hair done up in a bun, their chapped lips, their frozen fingertips. I breathe in and close my eyes as I start to bite at the kid’s leg. Tearing off flesh, the blood falling into my mouth as I devour my enemy. A gruesome taste of nothing but iron and sinews of flesh. The skin breaking under my teeth and the cold making it nearly inedible.

“Grell what are you doing?” Johann asks, I stop eating at the child and look over at him. He has his back turned to me and either doesn’t want to see or know what I’m actually doing. He doesn’t need this image burned into his mind. The cold wind howls and bites at the both of us as I give him a shaky answer, barely holding back tears.

“I’m doing my duty as an older sister. Now eat your food and I’ll eat mine.” I say as I lower myself once again to continue devouring this innocent child. She’s younger than Johann. She was someone’s daughter, someone’s best friend, maybe even someone’s older sister but this is what I have to do. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. The only thing that was running through my head back then.

Rend. Slaughter. Devour. Rest. Awaken. Rend. Slaughter. Devour.

Constantly and without a visible ending. I simply rend, slaughter and devour whoever stands in our way. It’s my duty as an older sister. I chose to run back to this hell to protect my family, now I have to see it to the end. I look down at the corpse of my enemy, this is the life I must lead. This is who I have to be. I kneel down and continue devouring the young girl. Her face and the taste of her flesh has haunted me from that moment onwards. I won’t ever forget her.

I have to simply rend, slaughter and devour.

Chapter 16: Warmth

Chapter Text

I’m running with the Baker’s kid now that Jaina is distracting the shooter woman. I don’t have a good sense of direction, so I’ll have to make do with what I remember of how we got here. The kid is bleeding through his shirt and I can almost see the light in his eyes fading, a small and broken yellow tooth smile showing.

“Come on man, we gotta get you safe. I’m not letting you die after all that Jaina did for you.” I say as I continue running along, to be honest I’m getting kind of tired at this point. My mouth is dry and my lungs are empty as I heave and try to run with the kid. I look around the streets where we are right now and I suddenly hear a shout.

“GWAIN RUN AWAY! THE SHOOTERS AFTER YOU! JUST DUMP THE KID! HE’S DEAD ANYWAY!” It’s Jaina’s voice, fuck she might be in a lot of trouble if the shooter stopped focusing on her. I look around nervously, peeking at every single alleyway exit and staying alert. Looking down at the kid I see that he’s visibly nervous, his small and innocent face covered in a mask of terror.

“Come on kid I’m not leaving you, we just gotta get back to our house and Yam’xha can fix you up okay?” I say as I turn a corner, I see the barrel of a shotgun and the halfling woman staring at me with a strange grin, a few of her teeth knocked out as she pulls the trigger.

“Nice try kid, get some rest.”

The first thing I feel is heat. It reminds me of a time that I was cooking with Jaina and Grell back on our ship. We were making cookies or something and I opened the door too fast, letting all of the hot steam out at once and it all hit my face.

The second thing I feel is force. It feels like my neck is about to snap as my head is pushed backwards in an instant. It reminds me of the island that Nile died on, a dense forest filled island filled with a massive amount of shrub creatures. A large one that had beheaded Nile and tried to eat his corpse grabbed me and tried to snap my neck as I set us both on fire.

The third thing I feel is a sudden wetness on my face. Another memory rushes past me, the first time I met Nile and Sefris I was in my hometown of Cernodan, I was homeless and living in an abandoned shed. The two of them dragged me into town and I fell over into the mud, covering my face in whatever horseshit, mud and piss that the townspeople had left on the road.

The entire world stops moving, every moment feels like an eternity. My left mechanical arm is still holding onto the kid but my right arm has already given up. I’m falling backwards onto the ground. Is this how I die? I guess there are worse ways to go out, I just wish I could have done more.

"Hey, can I just give up Nile? I can't move anymore, it just hurts so much. Tell me what to do, please." I ask myself as I hit the rocky road and feel the flesh on my face slowly fall onto itself. The blood smearing onto my eyes, nose and into my mouth.

“Well! Hearing the living from the dead is a first! I'm gonna guess that you can't hear me but screw it. Listen kid, I'm gonna give you some advice. Tell the gang, don't give up, and don't come to the afterlife. It's really boring here and I'm gonna bet if you did come here the gang would miss you. Also tell them I said hi and give Sefris a bottle of whiskey filled with water to make Thomas lose his shit for me. The others will probably be more helpful than I was so good luck kid, I’m proud of ya.” I hear in a weird accent, with a proud but concerned tone. It’s Nile’s robust voice ringing in my ears.

Then I hear something from a distance, as if I was underwater. The sound is muffled and I can’t really hear it all that well. I think it’s Jaina but I’m not quite sure anymore.

“Gwain, don’t worry. Your brother’s right here.”

I don’t feel anything other than the wetness of blood and flesh drooping over my face. Jaina, she’s- nah. He’s my brother if he says something I’ll trust him. We only got this far because of our mutual trust. Through thick and thin I’ll bear it all alongside my older sister Grell and older brother Jaina.

“Come on Gwain, who told you that you’re allowed to die this soon?”

Yeah alright I get it Jaina. Just tell me what to do, I’ll get up somehow. I always do. I just gotta get up again. My legs have to move, there’s no other option. Shit I’m fading in and out, I can’t see anything and every time I close my eyes it feels like I’m about to have the best nap of my life.

“Alright Gwain, you’re gonna have to lay down for a bit until you recover okay?”

O-okay Jaina. Whatever you say, so long as you live as well. It feels like my body is dying but it refuses to die, or rather that I’m forced to stay alive. My heart beats but not from my own choice. I can feel my blood rushing in and out of my heart, my fingers regaining feeling and my legs shaking.

I open my eyes. My face is pushed against the ground, there’s mud and dirt in between the rock road of the town. I push myself up with my hands and feel my face. I can’t hear anything other than the ringing. The colors of the world are gone. My fingers and face don’t even feel the fact that I’m rubbing my face. I look over and a few steps away the Baker’s kid lies dead on the ground. I don’t feel anything but I see my tears fall to the ground. I have to get back to the Lauderdale’s house.

My legs shake and my fingers won’t stay still. I can’t hear and I can’t feel anything but I’ve made it. I don’t know how long it took me but I’m at the house. I go to take a key out of my pocket but I wasn’t given one. I force my body to move over to a nearby alleyway and I push myself over the backyard fence. My face hits the garden that Yam’xha carefully keeps and even still I can’t feel it. I push myself off the ground once again and open the door from the backyard. I move over to Grell who’s still sitting in her rocking chair.

“Get the fuck up.” I say, I can’t even hear my own voice over the horrifying ringing noise. It’s just too much. Grell doesn’t seem to react so I slap her.

“Jaina’s in danger, get the fuck up we have to go help him!” I shout, I still can’t hear or feel my voice. It’s like I’m still on the verge of death. She still doesn’t react so I grab her by the hair and pull her out of the chair. I walk out from the front door dragging her behind me. I try to throw her down the steps of the porch but my wrist snaps. I can’t even feel it.

“JAINA IS IN DANGER AND YOU’RE GONNA WASTE TIME TAKING A NAP GRELL?!” I shout at her, I can finally feel something. My throat is being strained, my mouth is probably dry and I’m most likely only squeaking at this point but that doesn’t matter. Grell seems to finally wake up and she asks me something I can’t hear.

“I can’t hear you, Grell. Jaina went over that way so go and help him directly. I’ll go around to the market where I last saw him.” She nods and starts running towards the area I pointed to. I start walking towards the market. I can’t feel the bottom of my feet or my legs but they have to be sore after a while of running since I got lost. The streets all look the same and I can’t read the signs. I’m not hearing any fighting, actually I’m not hearing anything so it’s pretty hard to figure out where I am.

I see someone standing in the middle of the street, they’re waving at me and shouting something. I don’t know what because I have something better to do than try to lipread some drunk that’s shouting in the middle of the street.

“Get the fuck out of my way!” I shout, the ringing in my ears not letting me hear even my own words. The person in the black cloak thingie looks disappointed. She takes back the top of the cloak and shows her face. She’s kinda pretty, I think she’s an elf or a water person thing. She’s green-ish I think? She has pretty skin and long black hair and a wide smile. She shouts something I don’t hear and then disappears.

In an instant she’s in front of me. I lift my left arm as a defense on instinct and as she goes to hit me I see the arm bend. Or more like melt under her arm as she throws a loose slap, not even a fully closed fist and as soon as it connects I’m sent flying. I don’t feel anything really, I’m just confused as I land in the living room of some random house. I look down at myself and see my metal arm is bent directly to the left, it looks like some kind of fucked up fishing hook.

“Oh come ON MAN!? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?” I ask as I pick myself up from the broken table I landed on and look through the hole I made in the wall as I entered. She’s a few dozen meters away looking at me and saying something to me. I pick up one of the chairs in the living room and throw it at her.

My hearing is a mix of that god forsaken ringing noise and some shouting I can just barely hear from the lady. Eventually I can hear just well enough to get a clear couple of words.

“What’s your reason to fight, kid?!” She shouts at me before jumping towards me, clearing the nearly 20 meter gap in a single leap. A single little skip and she’s right in front of me. I lift my left arm again and she hits it again. If she was experienced as a fighter she would have tried another kind of hit. She isn’t even punching properly for fuck’s sake how am I flying through walls?

I fly out through the wall and into the market and see Grell and Jaina there already.

Chapter 17: A fight for the right to live.

Chapter Text

The following is a recounting of the events of October 15th, 487 in the town of Degurechaff.

At 22.43 Bôa Helsgrad begins the battle by shooting at Tusk Proudmoore and Gwain

At 22.44 Gwain and Khåre Baker both escape the battle to retrieve Grell Sutcliffe.

At 22.48 “The Judge” Arrives and enters the battle, allowing Bôa Helsgrad to chase Gwain

At 22.53 Gwain and Khåre are both shot, killing Khåre near instantly.

At 22.55 Tusk Proudmoore finds Gwain and uses the medicine “Phoenix Down” on him.

At 22.58 Gwain retrieves Grell Sutcliffe and initiates combat with Ace Venghast.

At 23.00 Tusk Proudmoore, Grell Sutcliffe, Bôa Helsgrad and “The Judge” engage in combat after causing the nearby clock tower to burst into flames.

At 23.05 Gwain and Ace Venghast join the battle in the “Blue moon celebration market” that is now in flames.

The following events we will describe occurred between 23.05 (of October 15th) and 13.55 (of October 16th)

The flames of the market began to spread in between the cracks of the cobblestone road, setting ablaze some of the old dirt and dry grass that had lied there for over a hundred years. The small cinders roared into a large flame. Some of the townsfolk began to wake and observe the battle that was unfolding from the comfort of their homes.

The participants are as follows.

Grell Sutcliffe. Known under many monicers but the most popular ones being: “The devil lying in snow”, “The Postynian Bloodhound”, “The one woman army” and “The one who opposes god” With the ability to regenerate her wounds through harming others and over 20 years of experience in combat she is an unstoppable force, paving her path forward with the blood of her enemies.

“The Judge” A man known only by the name of “The Judge” has been spotted across the entire world, scribbling into a notebook as he met with hundreds of aristocrats, bandits, performers, sages and magicians.

Bôa Helsgrad. A sharp shooter, camp cook, mother of 2 and claimed to be one of the best gumbo makers in the world (this has not been confirmed by official gumbo experts)

Tusk Proudmoore. An up-and-coming “Biomancer” with a soul ready for change.

Gwain. “Of Cernodan” A young man with a heart for violence due to circumstance.

Ace Venghast. “Nothing less than pure Draconic beauty” The bastard child of two dragons and the rightful owner to the throne of the Merean kingdom.

Now that the participants have been announced, we shall observe the battle. Carving our way into the city streets, Bôa is currently reloading her revolver while hiding behind the judge, Gwain rushes at the two of them.

“Judge buy me a second alright?” She asks before looking up at the massive man, his head facing the sky as Gwain had kicked him in the jaw. Gwain continues his barrage of blows by using his now half broken mechanic left arm to slam against The Judge’s jawline.

“SON OF A BITCH!” Bôa shouts as she takes a shot at Gwain, the barrel runs hot as she shoots out the three bullets she had just reloaded. Hitting Gwain in the shoulder, upper forearm and neck. His wounds begin to rapidly close due to the effects of “Phoenix Down” A visible pit of thin flesh covers the wound.

“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?” Gwain shouts back as he kicks the revolver out of Bôa’s hand before grabbing her by the neck and choking her, as his arms current condition doesn’t let him punch her effectively.

Meanwhile Grell is still tightly grappling onto Ace’s body and tearing out their throat with her teeth, steam rushing out of Ace’s neck scalding away the bloodhound's skin but she continues to gnaw at the confused dragon.

“W-what the fuck? How the hell can you keep bi-” Before Ace can finish their sentence their vocal cords are ripped apart as Grell finally releases her grasp only to grab onto the dragon’s tail. She proceeds to kick the dragon onto it’s back and starts to tear off the tail.

“REND SLÁTUR GEYTA! REND SLÁTUR GEYTA!” She shouts out, foaming at the mouth as she continues to rip at the dragon's flesh. The dragon begins to claw at the ground as their vocal cords quickly regrow with the power of their ancestry.

“PLEASE OH MY GOD PLEASE STOP! DON'T PLEASE!” They beg and pray for mercy in a silent voice as they cannot even voice their horror. The bloodhound does not relent. With an indescribable sound and a massive trail of blood gushing out, the tail is ripped apart from the dragon’s spine. The dragon faints on the ground from shock as the bloodhound holds onto the spiked tail, looking down at the supposed peak of mortal existence.

“ÉG MUN RISTA SÁL ÞÍNA MEÐ Hræðslu” She shouts before rushing to the judge, jumping over Jaina’s unconscious body and grabbing The Judge’s ears and beginning to devour his face and skin. The smoke from the spreading fire begins to obscure vision allowing a new contestant’s entry without notice.

A young man dressed with a trenchcoat slightly too large for him, with deep sunken eyes, thin eyebrows and a long mane of black hair steps out. Grabbing onto the dragon’s tail that Grell had left behind, he spots his underling being brutally beaten by the bloodhound so he prepares himself with a new weapon.

“研ぐ” With a single word said in an old dead language the tail quickly warps into a short pike with tail spikes jutting out at the end. He throws it into the back of Grell, a sudden growth of ice covering her entire body. He rushes towards the group.

“TADAO! THANK THE LORD!” Bôa strains out with a hushed voice as her throat is being choked by Gwain and as soon as he turns to see what she was shouting about, Bôa pulls out a small double barreled sawed-off shotgun and unloads both buckshots into Gwain's stomach.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While all of this was happening Jaina Proudmoore was laying on the ground unconscious. In her slumbering psyche she sees himself, or rather her future self. Still being a young noble girl, now turned orphan. The man she sees in front of her is not the young woman she is at the moment, his heart and resolve are far stronger than average for his age.

“So I’m guessing you’re me?” she asks of the tall imposing figure. A large mane of black hair at the crest of which stands two large horns that curve in on themselves. Two beady eyes with square irises in their orange glow.

“Yes, a far more realized version of you.” He answers, his voice booming and scaring the young woman in front of him. She’s pale, sickly and struck with fear. A pale grayish mane with ears falling freely to the sides.

“I’m gonna die and you’re gonna replace me right?” She asks, her voice quivering. Visibly shaking, holding back tears even.

“It’s alright to change, to become someone new. Everyone changes and that’s alright. As long as you remember all the people you used to be, you will never lose sight of what you once were, then you’ll never lose sight of who you are going to be.” The man answers back, holding onto her, his voice calming and nurturing.

“Alright, I trust you. What’s your name?” She asks, looking up at the large man she soon will be. seeing two large fangs protruding from his bottom lips, just barely visible.

“I’m not quite sure, haven’t thought of it.” The man answers.

“How about Tusk? Those tusks of yours look quite nice.” She says, holding back tears.

“T-that sounds quite nice.” Says the man, slowly beginning to weep from joy.

“Alright. Give ‘em hell Tusk.” She says as she starts bawling her eyes out.

Born now from the blood of an orphan noble, A new man rises. A wide grin filled with confidence falling across his face. Tusk Sutcliffe enters the battle. Having regrown his hands he shoots out three nails from his left hand towards Tadao piercing his throat, chin and nose.
Brushing away spit and flesh from his face Tusk cackles, a weary but confident smile across his face. He moves over and grabs onto the pike that had pierced Grell’s back pulling it free and staring Tadao in the eyes.

The Judge casts inflict wounds as the spear is pulled out and rips apart Grell’s internal organs. Leaving a rotting wound as he pushes Grell off of him. Bôa kicks Gwain back and starts reloading her shotgun, the massive tear in Gwain’s lower torso spilling out guts and blood.

“Phoenix Down” Immediately begins to grow thin layers of skin over the large wound, giving Gwain enough strength to kick both The Judge and Bôa backwards. Tusk cuts open his left palm with his right thumbnail and a burst of air pushes back Tadao. All fighters are now on doubletime.

The Postynian Bloodhound sharpens her fangs, back in her old ways.
Tusk experiences the bliss of being reborn into his true self.
Gwain’s heart beats with the heat of battle and absolute hatred.
Bôa reminds herself of home and her two kids.
The Judge thinks of how to catalog this event in his diary.
Tadao tries to dig up a meaning to fight on.
Ace gets onto their feet and prepares for the weight of murder on their soul.

All of these fighters now realize this isn’t some basic street scuffle or execution, this is truly: A fight for the right to live. The fires of the market rage on, making it difficult to breathe now. The smoke and brimstone like scent of the battlefield fills the lungs and eyes of the fighters.

The combatants are all looking at one another, waiting for anyone to make the first move. Gwain’s stomach slowly recovers as he stands on his two feet, Gwain, Grell and Tusk all put their backs against one another.

“Gwain, can you get this new guy if I take The Judge and Grell takes the Wyvern?” Tusk asks as the three slowly spin around to face their opponents. Ace stands up and covers the open wound of having their tail ripped off with a thick sheet of ice.

“My stomach hurts a lot and my left arm feels weird but yeah, I think I can. I’ll win this fight no matter what it takes.” Gwain says as he covers his stomach, his guts slowly rearranging themselves.

“Alright, I’m gonna have my second round against The Judge then.” Tusk answers as he tries to find his footing. The bottom of his feet still being little more than his own ankles, he turns the flesh and bone at the bottom of his feet into stone.

“トータルシャープニング” Tadao says in a hushed voice as he puts his palm against the cobblestone ground. The entirety of the market’s road quickly warps into a greatsword, all other fighters fall half a meter as the road disappears from under them. He steps forward, swinging his newly made greatsword at the same time. Gwain tries to catch the blade but it cuts clean through the rusty fingers of the mechanical arm.

The large and ornate greatsword formed with the stones of the road carves through the mechanical arm that had been rusted by blood, like a hot knife through butter effortlessly. The thick yet sharp edge of the greatsword carves apart Gwain’s shoulder. An apathetic look across Tadao’s face, the young men both face the age of seventeen yet the difference in skill is evident. Both have struggled for most of their lives and still one has thrived and the other continues to struggle.

“You’re pretty pathetic.” Tadao says, his words slowly trailing from his lips. He lifts the sword from Gwain’s shoulder and holds it up for another slash. Gwain gasps out as the sword separates sinew from flesh, as if his very soul was cut apart.

“Shut up you fucking mope.” Gwain responds, his eyes filled with fire and passion that Tadao lacks. Using what little strength he has in his right hand and left shoulder he pushes forward and kicks Tadao in the stomach, sending him flying for nearly twenty feet.

“Hey big man! You wanna go again? Let’s see who’s jaw’s gonna break this time!” Tusk shouts out as his fists turn to steel, rushing into close quarters combat. Knowing only the basics of protecting his head and turning his hips with his punches.

“Mors repelluntur” The judge says to himself as two circles spawn and engrave themselves onto The Judge’s forehead. He prompts himself into a pugilistic stance. The Judge is a man of many places and faces, having traveled far and wide he’s knowledgeable in wrestling and boxing.

Tusk rushes in first throwing a haymaker which gets easily ducked, in retaliation the judge delivers an uppercut to Tusk’s jaw. Tusk quickly grabs onto the judge’s arm after the uppercut and pulling back at it.

“A novice mistake.” The Judge states in a matter of absolute certainty. The judge quickly grabs between Tusk’s legs, lifting him in the air and throwing him onto the ground. Easily bruising his back and nearly breaking bones.

“How do you intend to continue this, fiend?” Asks the judge as he looks down on Tusk. Tusk’s face distorts into a strange smile, a mixture of pain and pleasure. Tusk quickly grabs onto the judge’s ankle.

“Imperfect body: Sweat burst.” Tusk says as the sweat of his palms, which he had turned into nitroglycerin earlier lights ablaze. Within an instant the judge’s ankle turns into nothing more than a mixture of blood and ash.

“HOW’S THAT MEATHEAD? YOU GOT SOME WITTY REMARK ABOUT SOME HOLY SCRIPTURE NOW?!” Tusk shouts as he gets off the ground and the judge falls to his knees.

“H-hey! Stop that!” Bôa shouts at Tusk but as soon as she raises her weapon, Ace seizes their opportunity. The dragon moves in a single step, blitzing the distance of forty meters with one leap.

“RAH” shouts the dragon as they kick Bôa while closing the distance, sending her soaring towards a nearby market stall. The halfling woman is turned into a small fireball as her clothes light on fire. A screeching ball of fire which quickly stops moving. Left to be nothing but a pile of cinders and bones by the end of the night. The smell of burning flesh and fat is fouler than any other, a rancid scent drags across the battlefield.

“BÔA! PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE OKAY!” The judge shouts in a concerned voice as he starts to limp over to the burning fireball that’s left of the woman.

“Hey big guy, don’t look away from who you’re fighting!” Tusk shouts as he turns his right hand into stone and launches a vicious punch at the judge. Tusk then takes a few steps back, rolling his shoulder.

“Occidere manus!” Tusk shouts as his right arm turns into putrid black ink, barely holding its shape together. He quickly pushes his arm into the stomach of the judge, leaving behind a large mass of necrosis onto his stomach as he pulls his arm out. The judge stays seated as the marks on his face wilt away and disappear.

Meanwhile, Grell launches herself towards Ace, picking up a nearby dagger on the way. Grell quickly pushes away Ace’s left hand putting it onto their thigh and holding their thigh and left hand in place. Grell then quickly cuts open Ace’s throat once again before flipping her grip on the dagger, beginning to quickly stab into the throat, chest and stomach of the dragon.

The wings of the dragon burst out from their torso, their body contorts with a grotesque sound, inhumane and disgusting, their body and skin simply crawling into place. With Grell still stuck onto them Ace takes flight. Meanwhile Tadao starts running at the Judge, Gwain attempts to get in the way. Tadao lifts his greatsword for a swing, Gwain blocks above himself and Tadao just kicks him in the stomach, sending him a few meters back.

“TADAO, THE SATYR IS JAINA PROUDMOORE!” shouts the Judge as he’s stuck onto the mud, having fallen a few centimeters with everyone as the ground turned to Tadao’s sword. Tusk quickly turns around to look at Tadao approaching, he lifts his right arm to guard against Tadao as he swings his greatsword towards him with vigor and hatred. In an instant Tusk turns his right forearm into metal and the greatsword shatters against Tusk’s muscles.

Tusk reaches for Tadao’s shirt, trying to grab him from just under the neck but Tadao is quicker. Grabbing onto The Judge and within an instant, a few choice words leave his lips.

「完全研ぎ」

The Judge distorts, his face beginning to shift like clay, a simple doll being turned into a mallet. Bones break, muscles distort, a mind shatters as a man’s body is simply forced into shape.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” Tusk shouts, never before having seen a blessed warrior let alone one with such a gruesome blessing.

“Please stop shouting, you’re going to give me a headache.” Tadao replies, a calm voice with a deep undertone of disgust. Tadao holds his new weapon, The Judge’s mallet made of a finely tailored suit and the flesh, muscles, bones and the sentience of The Judge.

“You and that boy Gwain are both such annoyances.” He says, taking a quick step back and holding the long staffed mallet over his shoulders. He then stares at Tusk and Gwain for a few seconds.

“Have I seen either of you before?” He asks, quizzically while The Judge’s mallet begins to groan slightly, the face of The Judge visible on the blunt end of the mallet. Tadao’s question is replied to by Gwain, as he throws a piece of mud towards Tadao. Tadao dodges of course, seeming a bit more disappointed than usual.

“Alright, if that’s how it’s going to be.” Tadao says as he swings the mallet towards Tusk but before the attack can land Grell Sutcliffe falls from the sky along with Ace. Grell turns Ace around and makes them take the majority of the blow. With a single swing Tadao hits Ace, pushing them back which pushes Grell back as well. Grell and Ace both hit Tusk and all 3 of the fighters fall over onto the ground, now prone.

“Grell?!” Tusk and Gwain shout in unison, the bloodhound doesn’t reply. She seems out of it, her mind racing across the bloodstained snow covering the Traekheren. She can barely comprehend being shouted for by Tusk and Gwain. Grell rises from the ground, holding onto Ace’s tail and tossing the dragon towards the young swordsman ahead.

“How far did she fall just now?” Tusk asks Gwain, who is still slightly deafened by the effects of Phoenix Down.

“W-What are you saying? I-I can’t hear you that well.” Gwain stutters as he gets off the ground and lifts his brother with him. They both face to look at the current situation: A burning town market, A great swordsman and a dragon are fighting against them. Sure they have numbers going for them but what does it matter against draconic might?

“Okay Gwain, the situation looks a bit shit to be honest.” Tusk says, Gwain still doesn’t hear him but nods along as if he did hear. The two of them looking out at the mass amounts of destruction in the town. The embers of flame that have caught all of the market's tents, some buildings have started to collapse because of the road's disappearance. Some nearby townsfolk are starting to rush out of buildings to douse the flames.

Some of the townsfolk come out, wielding spears and old blades from a bygone time for a war that has been forgotten by now. Safe to say they are under equipped for any large scale battle.

“Those people started it! They messed with the dragon doctor!” One of them shouts, A random townsfolk, an old looking man with an unkempt beard.

“Kill ‘em!” he shouts again, before disappearing into the crowd.

“Hey dude, how long do you think we can still fight for?” Gwain asks Tusk, the two of them looking out at the dozens of commonfolk beginning to gather around them, bearing swords and pikes.

“Wait, why am I even asking you? I can’t hear anything anyway. Uhm nod once if we’re fighting and nod twice if we are running.” Gwain says, looking quite proud of his idea to communicate without hearing.

Tusk looks over to Gwain with a look of sheer worry and increasing anxiety as more people surround the five people fighting.

“Hey kid! I asked you a bit ago but what the hell are you made of?” Ace asks as they look up at Tusk and Gwain from the ground, slowly pushing themselves up from the ground. All the while coughing up blood and flash freezing their back so that they wouldn’t die of blood loss.

“You know, I haven’t gotten into a lot of fights but jeez kid you can take a beating. Alongside that scary woman, jeez louise you three are kinda terrifying.” Ace says as they now stand tall and look around at the townsfolk surrounding the whole group. Gwain quickly puts up his fists, ready for a fight once more.

The townspeople are getting angrier, the burning market now being filled with a congregation of maddened commonfolk, like a warband they begin to close in on the group of people who were also fighting mere seconds ago. Grell, Gwain, Tusk and Ace look around thinking of what to do while Tadao is holding his mallet confidently; chanting under his breath.

“Rhinoceros beetle, Third child, Six fingers, Sinner thirteenth, Twelve stairs, Falling star. Collapse.” After chanting his spell Tadao swings the mallet, a blast of wind pushing back the crowd and bursting against the side of the clocktower. The bricks begin to shake and the town looks on in horror as the tower begins to collapse downwards towards the crowd of people.

“GRELL WE ARE RUNNING AWAY, NOW!” Tusk shouts as he grabs onto Gwain and Grell, scattering into the crowd. The occasional knife lunges itself into Tusk’s side as everyone begins to run in the crowd, Grell starts to run alongside Gwain and Tusk slowly coming to her senses as the memories of the Traekheren melt away.

“Rhinoceros Beetle, Second Sword-” Tadao continues, starting his chant once again, holding onto his mallet and rushing towards Gwain, Grell and Tusk.

“OH WOULD YOU SHUT UP MAN?” Tusk shouts as he shoots out one of his fingernails into Tadao’s shoulder. Tadao continues to chase as Ace begins to run towards everyone else, also running away from the collapsing tower.

“Third child, Fourth book, Fifth eye-” Tadao continues like a starving wolf looking at its next meal as he continues to chase Gwain and Tusk, not even noticing Grell as she runs alongside the two.

“Grell what the hell is he doing?!” Gwain shouts as the group of three keep running away from the young swordsman. Sometimes tripping over themselves and the rampage of the running townsfolk makes it difficult to keep running throughout the streets.

“Six fingers, Seven stones, Eighth corpse, Ninth sense-” Tadao continues, occasionally shoulder tackling people that are getting in his way. A wide grin spreading across his face, not excitement, not bloodlust but rather joy makes this smile. Tadao seems to be enjoying himself as he continues his chants, hasting his pace.

“Ten tribes, Eleven years, Twelve stairs, Thirteenth sinner, Fourteen falls, Fifteen people paying respects. Falling Star, COLLAPSE!” Tadao shouts as he stops running and swings his mallet. The mass of townsfolk all suddenly stop, the force of the swing breaks their bones and muscles. Hundreds of people collapsing onto the ground, their spines having shattered by the force of the blow.

Hundreds of people scream out in pain as their bones crack and grind against their flesh and muscles. A grotesque road of blood now covers the dirt and grime that was revealed after Tadao ripped the road out to create his sword. The air still burns with the smell of sulfur and now the scent of blood, dust and guts. Dozens of people scream out for help and mercy yet no answer is heard as Tadao walks towards Grell, Gwain and Tusk.

“W-what the hell just happened?” Tusk asks as he opens his eyes, having also been knocked to the ground. Quickly checking himself for injuries he confirms what he already knew, his right hand is blown to high hell, the bottom of his hooves are gone so he’s stepping on his ankles. There’s multiple holes in his side, throat and back which are barely covered with a thin layer of skin.

“M-my ears are still ringing really badly.” Gwain speaks out, lying next to Tusk on the ground clearly confused. His clothes are slightly torn and his left arm has been shredded, barely holding onto the stump of what's left of his actual arm. His eyes are bleeding and there’s bits of rock embedded into his skin.

“I’m way out of my wheelhouse here.” Ace says as they lay on the ground nearby as well, mass amounts of their skin having been torn off during the swing. Steam flowing off of their body as they look up at the coming dawn, the sun rising in the horizon.

“W-where’s Grell?” Tusk asks as he gets off the ground once again, his knees buckling under his weight he’s too exhausted to even walk. As Tusk falls forward onto his face he continues looking around for Grell, who’s still standing from the massive blow.

“And then there was one, what did you think?” Tadao asks Grell with a good amount of distance between the two. The dirt and blood the two of them stand in have stained their clothes beyond recognition. The burning smoke had partially blinded the both of them a while ago, some of the smoke having stuck to their clothes. The clock tower finally collapses, Tadao simply swings the Judge’s mallet and destroys whatever bricks were falling towards him.

“I’ve seen a lot in my life but I do have to say, that was impressive.” Grell says, cracking her knuckles and examining her damaged body, coughing out a bit of blood. She looks around a bit before walking towards a random woman who had been hit by Tadao’s massive attack. She then stomps on the woman's head, fully recovering all damage she had taken because of Gorefactor.

“Ah! You’re a blessed one too! Maybe I’ll have a challenge now!” Tadao shouts from across the destroyed town center, reduced now to nothing more than blood, bricks, dust and dirt.

“Can we get this over with quickly? I really need a break” Grell asks as she looks back up from the woman she just killed to heal herself. The bloodhound isn’t allowed to feel remorse for those she bites, Grell feels completely at ease as she quickly glances at the woman’s corpse.

“I can end this quickly if that’s what you want.” Tadao shouts back to her, The Judge’s mallet lets out a groan as his face is still imprinted to the face of the mallet. He seems to be in severe pain during the whole ordeal.

“Rhinoceros Beetle!” Tadao begins chanting, Grell’s eyes widen for a moment before she starts running towards Tadao, kicking up dirt and blood as she rushes towards him.

“Second Swo-” Tadao tries to continue chanting but suddenly an aura of silence surrounds him, he looks around and notices Tusk clinging to life while casting a spell of silence on him.
Gwain stands up in front of Tusk and prepares to take any blows directed at his brother.

Grell enters the aura of silence and begins her onslaught, at first only punching and kicking at Tadao while dodging his mallet. A few dozen blows are exchanged as Tadao hits her back with the mallet, sending her flying for a few feet. Tadao then rushes out of the aura of silence and before Tusk can move the aura Tadao speaks.

“だるいです” and suddenly the judge’s mallet begins to twist and bend growing in size and transforming back into The Judge. He’s beaten and bloodied, walking with a limp and barely able to stand. It’s clear that whatever blessing or magic Tadao uses it bears a great amount of pain with it.

“Mors Repellentur.” The Judge manages to speak out before collapsing onto the ground into a pool of blood. A large sigil appears on Tadao’s face Tadao then picks up The Judge and shakes him.

“DO YOUR DAMN JOB! FOCUS ON HEALING ME WHILE I CHANT!” He shouts as he slaps The Judge and then rushes towards Tusk, having to start his chant from the start because of the interruption.

“RHINOCEROS BEETLE!” Tadao shouts with anger and hatred as he runs towards Tusk, Tadao is however weaponless at the moment.

“I got you man! Just keep casting spells and I’ll hold him off for you!” Gwain shouts while putting up his right hand, his left mechanical arm being practically destroyed. A creeping sense of discomfort protrudes from the left stump of his arm.

“Man I’m really hungry, I can’t walk, I barely have the strength to talk and cast spells. There better be a really nice bed tonight for when we sleep.” Tusk thinks to himself before moving the circle of silence to surround Tadao once again. Tusk then shoots out one of his fingernails which pierces Tadao’s thigh but after shooting out the nail Tusk begins convulsing and throwing up, the magic in his body is too unstable to be straining it this much.

With seething hatred Tadao picks up a piece of dirt from the ground and throws it towards Tusk, Gwain quickly steps in the way of the projectile and takes on the blow himself. He flies back three feet, due to the chanting increasing his damage output with even one chant the damage is quite significant. Gwain quickly gets back up and readies himself to brush off another blow.

“Man, he’s really impressive. We’ve both been through hell tonight and still Gwain gets up every time he’s knocked down.” Tusk thinks to himself as he looks up at Gwain, a small smile spreading across his face as he once again moves the circle of silence to surround Tadao. Throwing up a bit of blood as he does so.

“ROBUR TAURI!” The Judge shouts out as he casts one last spell to help Tadao, he is however quickly caught by Grell who takes his holy symbol from his belt and beats him with it. She quickly goes into her pockets and pulls out a dagger, stabbing The Judge directly in the forehead.

Tadao begins to pick up the pace as The Judge casts his final spell before dying at the hands of Grell Sutcliffe. He exits the area of silence once again and is only a few footsteps away from Gwain and Tusk. He reaches his hand out and touches Gwain’s mechanical arm, or rather what’s left of it.

“研ぐ!” He shouts out, Gwain’s left arm is ripped away as it turns into a small dagger, Tadao then goes to stab Gwain in the stomach but he’s stopped. The effects of Phoenix Down have regrown his left arm in an instant, the medicine must have tried to regrow his arm constantly but it was being stopped because of the mechanical parts blocking the growth.

“G-get off of him..” Tusk barely speaks out as he cuts open his palm, his magical reserves running low but just enough for one last spell: Burning hands. From the cut that Tusk made with his fingernail a burst of flame shoots out, covering Tadao.

Gwain unleashes a flurry of blows with his regrown left arm and battle worn right. Tusk’s flames catching onto Tadao’s clothing the burning and blows seemingly begin to be too much for Tadao and his dagger to handle.

“RECALL ME HERTA! NOW!” He shouts and suddenly disappears with a burst of silver smog. Leaving behind Grell, Tusk and Gwain to look around at the destruction of the town. The sun peeks up from the town walls as the three begin to gather up together.

“Gwain, why didn’t you get the greatsword we bought when you went to get Grell from the Lauderdale’s house?” Tusk asks Gwain as he’s being carried towards Grell, Gwain barely able to stand and groans at himself for not taking the sword with him.

“The rest of the town is going to be on top of us any second now you two we gotta head out.” Grell says as she takes out her dagger from The Judge’s forehead. She thinks about an escape route but can’t quickly think of one.

“Hey! I think it’s high time we leave and clearly you don’t have a ride out of here so.. I could carry you on my back as we fly away.” Ace states with an unclear tone, they seem clearly anxious to talk to the three.

“You beat the shit out of me and then expect us to trust you?” Gwain asks, trying desperately not to fall over while carrying Tusk’s half conscious body.

“I mean I gotta run away too, I’m weakened enough that the townsfolk might actually kill me for this.” They say while quickly looking around at the group's surroundings. Gwain and Grell look at each other and a silent agreement is reached.

“I’m Gwain, I’m carrying my brother Jaina and that’s Grell.” Gwain states as he looks up at Ace, he thinks about holding his hand out to shake Ace’s but realizes that if he did that Tusk would fall to the ground.

“I’m Ace and I need a knife to start the transformation.” Ace says as they look around the group, anxiously awaiting an ambush by the people of the town. They do spot someone familiar, an old looking man with a graying beard and a fine suit crawling towards the group. Grell hands Ace a dagger.

“A-ACE! I NEED HELP! We’re coworkers right? Surely you can’t just leave me like this!” The old looking human shouts out as he continues to crawl towards the group. Ace ignores him and stabs themselves in the throat, steam bursts out as they continue to cut open their skin, revealing their draconic self.

“YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS! YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD WITHOUT ME! I DID SO MUCH FOR US!” He shouts out once again before a burst of steam sends him backwards into a pile of corpses. Ace now stands on all fours as their draconic form is laid bare.

“Everyone, get on. We are leaving as soon as possible.” Ace says as Gwain and Grell get Tusk on top of Ace and then climb onto their back as well.

“YOU’RE NOTHING WITHOUT ME ACE! JUST VILE AND DISGUSTING SCUM!” The old man shouts out as Ace takes flight and leaves the town, with Grell, Gwain and Tusk riding on their back. The sun rising in the horizon emits a golden light so beautiful that it seems almost unearthly. The massive fields of hay give the illusion of a golden sea stretching underneath the group as they fly towards a new day.

In total; on October 15th there was 17 million gold worth of property damage done to the city of Degurechaff. A confirmed death count of 322 from the battle, mostly including people killed by terrorist: Tadao Arlenz. The night of October 15th, 487 would be remembered as “The night of demons”' which would become a yearly celebration of the town's recovery in years yet to come.

The global bounty of Tadao Arlenz was raised from 1.1 Million gold to 1.8 million gold.
Tusk Sutcliffe was given a bounty of 800 gold, still named “Jaina Proudmoore” in his bounty.
Gwain Sutcliffe was given a bounty of 812 gold for the property damage and Grell Sutcliffe’s bounty in Postynia remained at 1.2 Billion gold as Postynia is disconnected from the rest of the world.

As the group flies above the endless fields of grain Ace asks an important question.

“Where are we going?” No one has an answer, Grell and Gwain look at each other and Grell answers.

“We don’t really know. Let’s see where the wind takes us.” As she lets herself rest, laying herself onto the back of Ace.

Gwain lights a cigarette and takes a drag, Grell takes the pack off of his hands and takes one out for herself, giving a third for Tusk. The trio smokes in silence, thousands of meters above the ground while flying off into the sunrise.

And so ended the first night of demons.

Chapter 18

Chapter Text

“Since infecting the bathroom with the fungus, thirteen of the twenty people here have been infected, all of the infected have been quarantined and only allowed to interact with the uninfected while wearing gas masks and a large amount of distance between us. The infected individuals have been given a large part of the police station to remain in. Though somehow that irritating Harrison has managed to remain uninfected. He seems quite happy with the fact that he can still talk to me. I’ve planned everything perfectly and I intend to bomb Doctor Sasha’s office tonight. I’ll need to slaughter anyone who is suspicious of me but it’s a risk I need to take. October 9th 1487.”

After I finish writing in my diary I look around the disgusting office I was planted in. I’ll bomb Dr. Sasha’s office tonight and then I’ll call in mortar fire from the brotherhood to create an exit for myself. I look at the box of cookies that the old crone Harrison left me yesterday.

I get up from the old and dusty sofa that has been my bedside for a few good weeks now. Rubbing my nose bridge and eyes to force myself awake again. Since Clark died food rations have been running out so it would be for the better to eat those cookies that the bastard left.

“Oh, they’re actually alright.” I say to myself as I chew on the brick shaped biscuit, the taste of dark chocolate and a lighter chocolate cream filling. Admittedly Harrison might be good at two things instead of just writing down corpses. I think he liked doing something else but I’ve already forgotten.

I put on my mask and cover myself with the cloak, it’s starting to gather dust and dirt and it feels quite disgusting to put on at this point. The cloak's interlocking rings make a deeply disgusting sound. As I step out of my office and check the time it seems I’m losing my grip on time. I usually awaken at 7 in the morning but it seems I just woke up at 1 PM, strange.

“Good day everyone.” I say as I walk down to be with my coworkers, or rather what’s left of them. Harrison, Ace, Jean, Rickket, Jinana, Kole and Liam. They all look downtrodden except for Harrison who looks extremely happy to talk to me.

“Good day Reed! You slept in today huh? We’ve actually gotten something interesting to do today! Apparently the person who left the bluebeard mushroom in the water barrel also left fingerprints. So we’re gonna check everyone’s fingerprints and find out who did it!” Harrison speaks with excitement and absolute trust in me, he isn’t aware of the rising panic which I quickly have to suppress because Kole is here and could read my mind at any moment.

“Ah that’s good to hear, who’s going to go check in with the infected folks then?” I ask as I formulate a plan, maybe I can talk them into using Sasha’s lab as the fingerprint copying place and then I could bomb the lab. But how could I convince them to all go to the lab? and how could I leave without arousing suspicion…

“Ace is checking since they can flash fire their lungs and kill the mushroom in an instant.” Liam says as he’s looking at the floor in despair, drinking whatever liquor is left from Clark’s reserves. I look over and notice Kole staring at me, wide-eyed much like an owl. Staring through me and into my soul.

“Is there something on my robe, Kole?” I ask her as I turn to look at her, the goggles often hide who I am looking at so she’s surprised as I ask her so. I don’t really have an easy way to murder her at this point so if it comes to it I’ll have to butcher her with a scalpel.

“hmmm, nah I just wanna talk to you outside for a moment. In private.” She replies, Harrison looks jealous for a second as we begin to walk outside of the police station. The sky is a shade of brown, the constant burning of the corpse piles seems to have changed the atmosphere in the area alongside the fungus.

“So what is it you wish to talk about, Kole?” I ask and she stops dead in her tracks, turning around to meet my eyes. I can feel it, vitriolic hatred. She despises me with every fiber of her existence, perhaps she knows what I did to Clark and is trying to murder me before I can continue my efforts.

“Nothing too important, I just got a new development with the fungus, remember when we went to the sewers together and you carved out a bit of the fungus?” She asks, as she turns back around and continues leading me towards the sewers that I had seen on the first day with her. Every footstep feels like an eternity as I try to not think about how I murdered Clark.

“Yes I do, quite an unforgettable first day on the job. Any particular developments with the fungi that we should be looking out for?” I ask as I continue to walk beside her, step by step feeling more and more… Anxious? I haven’t really felt this way before.

“They started growing extremities, something similar to tentacles.” She says without skipping a beat. I stop walking and wonder the implications of such an evolution. Why would they need to grow tentacles? Or rather how could they realize to grow tentacles?

“There was apparently a pet frogtopus that was caught up in a wall of the mushrooms, completely assimilated. My hypothesis is that the mushrooms are all connected and they spread information. So whatever mushrooms have enough nutrients to do so they will start growing tentacles, because the collective has absorbed something with tentacles.” She speaks with confidence and I do actually believe her as she continues with her hypothesis. It’s unlikely but possible, I mean everything and anything can happen with the right chances.

“So what do you think this will mean for our purification of it? Shouldn’t we just burn down the entire town at this point if the fungus has a hivemind that can share knowledge and evolve?” I feel something new in my voice, fear I guess. This is an unprecedented addition to my job. Perhaps the brotherhood will use this fungus as a super weapon that evolves with every creature it devours.

“I uh.. I don’t really know to be honest. I’m way out of my depth here, I was meant to just be working as a public doctor for some small village but instead here I am. Fighting an extinction level threat alongside some of the smartest people I’ve ever met and a fucking dragon.” She seems to be on the verge of a breakdown, tears welling in her eyes but she manages to hold them back.

“Are you alright? If you’re emotional, perhaps it’s better to stay away from the sewers, it could be dangerous.” I say, feigning interest in her mental health. Honestly speaking I could care less if she was a paranoid schizophrenic or someone who is actively manic. We’ve made it to the entrance of the sewers at this point, I hold onto my scalpel which I had hidden in my sleeve.

“N-no. I’m fine, we have to see this through to the end. If the evolution is shared by a hivemind that could be disastrous for the people that were infected yesterday and this morning. We have dozens of corpses in a pile that are also infected. It could resurrect as an undead abomination.” Kole says as we look at the dark and damp entrance to the sewers, the circular entrance open and awaiting our entrance.

“Alright, let’s get to it then. I have one final thing to say if we are to die here, Kole.” I say as I turn to look at her, she seems surprised that I would have any emotional showings in such a moment as this.

“Alright Reed what is it?” She asks, her voice shows doubt and mistrust.

“If we die here I want you to know that I was glad to meet all the doctors here, including you.” I show off a smile from behind the mask, controlling my emotions to try and be as sincere as possible while lying. I have to believe my own lie so that she would believe me.

“Thank you. You’ll always be my coworker, till death do us part bro.” She says as she holds out her hand, I shake her hand as we enter the dark and cavernous sewers. The moist walls and ceiling showcase the repugnant amount of fungus growing through the bricks. Occasionally a bit of mycelium is visible in between the bricks, showcasing an incandescent blue light in between the bricks. It’s quite a beautiful manner of lighting.

It takes a few minutes but we reach the part where I cut off my sample of the fungus on the first day, I gaze down at the fungi in the murky, filthy feces infested waters. I can’t even see the fungi glow beneath the disgusting waters.

“Kole, can you see the fungus? Perhaps my goggles are fogged but I just can’t see it.” She walks to my side and puts a hand onto my shoulder. I tighten my grip on the scalpel, feeling the sweat on my hands and my gloves gripping onto the scalpel ever tighter.

“You should take a closer look then, bastard.” She says as she tries to push me off balance and into the waters. I grab onto her shirt with my left hand and stab my scalpel into her throat with my right. She continues to struggle to push me into the waters.

“Y-you k-killed Clark, YOU BASTARD!” She shouts as her throat begins to bleed from the cut I made to it, the blood pooling out in pints. She’s holding onto my cloak and trying to push me in and I’m pushing back at her trying to push her backwards with my scalpel. It’s a long and awkward wrestling match.

“W-what gives you the right? WHAT GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO KILL HIM HUH?!” She shouts, with every word blood falls out of her mouth as we continue to awkwardly push each other back and forth. I try my best to keep my balance but we fall over, thankfully to the ground and not to the waters below.

“TALK BACK TO ME AS YOU KILL ME, TELL ME! WHAT GAVE YOU THE RIGHT?!” She shouts, her throat becoming hoarse and her voice being strained more and more, she can barely speak anymore as the blood falls from her throat freely like a fine red wine from a decade old bottle.

“BECAUSE I’M BETTER THAN HIM, THAT’S WHAT GAVE ME THE RIGHT! I’M FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU, CLARK, OR ANYONE ELSE HERE!” I shout back at her in anger. I twist the scalpel in her throat and her eyes widen, she looks at me with pure disgust. The last emotion she will feel as she slowly loses the light behind her eyes. Her corpse rests on top of me. I lay still for a few moments. Considering what to do.

“I need a raise.” I think to myself as I push her body off of me and get off the ground. I look at her unmoving body, her eyes no longer lit up with that excitement and wonder she had on the first day I met her. I don’t see the joy of her smile I saw on the first day.

“Alright Doctor, let’s get your story straight. You walked into the sewers with Kole where she suddenly lunged at you. This is because she was actually infested with the fungus which had spread to her brain. Making her a thrall of the fungus.” I think to myself as I walk back and forth next to her corpse. I grab my bent scalpel out of her throat, as I feel anger surging in me.

“Why couldn’t you just mind your own damn business?!” I shout at her corpse, I kick her in the side as I need to release some anger. She was such an annoyance since the second I met her. Why did I even pretend to like her? A disgusting, disgraceful, horrid, putrid fucking ANIMAL. damnit.

“You FUCKING PEST!” I shout at her corpse as I continue to kick at it. I feel more and more anger and rage well up in me. I almost throw her over the edge into the murky waters below, in my rage. I hear footsteps behind me from the entrance to the sewers. Shit, shit shit. If it’s anyone except Harrison I’m fucked.

I pick up a nearby rock and throw it towards the entrance of the sewers. I suddenly hear a familiar voice squeal out in shock. It’s Harrison, my luck just can’t run out. I feel a sense of ecstasy spread across my body, a wide grin falling onto my lips. I shout out towards the voice of Harrison.

“HARRISON! KOLE JUST ATTACKED ME AND I-I HAD TO KILL HER IN SELF DEFENSE!” I shout out, quickly moving over to the corpse and positioning myself under her, to the part where she died not even thirteen minutes ago. The smile on my face feels like it’s going to crack the disguise of my current skin.

“Oh dear gods! Are you alright Reed? Did she hurt you at all?” He shouts out as he gets to the scene, he quickly lifts the body off of me and hugs me. He really is a fool without rival. I wonder how he passed medical school if he’s this dumb. I start to force myself to shake and quiver as I hug him, so as to imitate a panic attack.

“S-she t-tried to push me into the infested waters.. I-I just don’t know what came over her. S-she was just growling and trying to push me in.. M-maybe she was infected I-I don’t know…” I speak out, imitating being scared and out of my depth to the best of my abilities, I hug him back holding him tightly. I hold the strings of his heart tighter.

“Oh you poor thing, I’m so sorry that happened to you. First Clark and now Kole.” He speaks out with concern. I have to suppress a massive laugh as I hold onto him, he really is that big of a fool! I’VE GOT HIM RIGHT WHERE I WANT! HE’S GONNA BELIEVE ANYTHING I SAY!

“A-and R-Rickket is gonna think I killed her as well, s-she just hates me. Please Harrison, can you back me up? Just say you saw her attack me and I won’t be thought of that suspiciously. Please there’s no one else I trust as much as you!” I squeal out, trying to look as pathetic as possible. The lovesick fool is gonna fall for it and I can just blame him for all of this in the end. The plan is foolproof.

“O-of course Reed!” He shouts out as he holds onto my shoulders, pushing me back a bit, looking into my eyes through my mask. I have to suppress my manic smile as he leans in closer.

“Reed, c-can I kiss you?” He asks with a blush on his face. Admittedly if I was some young bright eyed barmaid I might have really fallen for this question but fortunately I can keep my feelings out of this. I force my face into the correct shape as I slowly take off my mask.

“Y-yes.” I answer back, giving him a dough-eyed look. He leans in and pushes his lips against mine, the first thing I feel is his coarse beard. The second thing I really notice is his slightly dry lips as we embrace. He holds his hands behind my back and I force myself to put my hands around his back as well.

I’m surprised as his tongue forces its way into my mouth, swirling around with mine as I have to suppress every feeling of hatred and desire of biting down on his tongue. He grabs onto me tightly, as if I would fall between his fingers and never return. He’s correct to fear something like that to be honest but I didn’t expect him to express it so openly.

It takes an agonizingly long minute before he finally pulls away from the kiss, a feeling of euphoria clearly covered on his face. He looks really embarrassed as he sits on his knees and looks around for a second, avoiding eye contact. I’m still forcing myself to give him that same dough-eyed look.

“I-I’m sorry if that was a bit strong for a first kiss. It’s just been a while since I’ve had the pleasure. My ex-wife died nearly ten years ago, so I guess I’ve just missed being intimate.” He says with a tinge of charisma, something that I would have expected of a bard more than some old crone of a doctor.

“It was a fine first kiss, I’m sure there will be more to follow but I think we should take Kole back first. I feel awful doing those things next to her corpse.” I say as I look over to Kole Ferguson’s lifeless body. As Harrison looks over his face shows a deep sense of shame as he realizes what he had just done in front of the corpse of his coworker.

“O-oh yes, yeah I guess so.” He replies as he moves over to pick her corpse up. He lifts her body with ease, something surprising for a man of his age. The walk back to the police station is filled with gratifying silence. I’ve put my mask back on and no longer need to regulate my emotions that much.

“Hey everyone! Sad news, it seems that Kole was infected with the fungus and it was eating at her capacity of thought. She lunged at me and Reed when we went to the sewers.” Everyone who remained uninfected takes a step to distance themselves from Harrison and Kole’s corpse.

“I-I think we ought to form another funeral, preferably underground so that if her body reanimates she wouldn’t be able to attack anyone. Apparently she found out that the fungus shares a hivemind with which the fungus can evolve. I fear that since the fungus entered her brain the fungus might take over her corpse.” I say with the most sincerity I can bear to muster. Everyone seems convinced, Jinana breaks out into tears and Rickket begins to cry alongside her. Despair spreads across the police station as Ace goes to inform the other infected people.

An hour or so passes and I go into my room, writing to the brotherhood that this area needs to be leveled to the sea level. This is far too dangerous to be used as a weapon. I stop myself just before sending the message. Maybe Kole was lying about the hivemind so she could lure me into the sewers and kill me. It’s certainly a possibility, no it’s the most likely outcome. I didn’t see the tentacled fungus and she knew I had killed Clark. It’s simple taunting really, she almost fooled me from beyond the grave but once again I prove myself better than these vulgar cretins.

“I require a forged trade visa between Degurechaff and Dorai’Kel. A majority of which should be for perishable food items that could be infested with parasites and mold. I require this trading history to track back a full year and I need it as soon as possible. Take the costs out of my salary, whatever it takes I need those forgeries tonight.”

I finish writing down my requirements and send it using a spectral messenger. Hopefully it will get to me before nightfall. I need to get out of this as soon as possible to make myself an exit after I’ve slaughtered everyone who isn’t infected. The toy car that is infused with a scroll of shatter should immediately break all of the glass cases in Sasha’s office, breaking free the infected dog, and mass amounts of mushrooms in containers. This should kill off everyone gathered up at the moment. Perhaps even the blast itself could kill the majority of them.

I hear a knock on my door, I turn around and ready myself to play the role of a recently lovestruck young man. I open the door and see Harrison looking down at me with a small smile, just barely peeking out from the edges of his mouth.

“Hey, uhm. Do you want to talk about our relationship now that things have calmed down?” He asks, I open the door to my office and let him inside. Paying close attention to where the remote controller of the toy car that I’ve planted into the vents above Sasha’s office.

“Y-yeah for sure, uhm.. Where is everyone else? Are they in Sasha’s office doing the fingerprints and the funeral business?” I ask him, I do my best to look as attractive as possible to him. Focusing on my body language and facial expressions. I close the door behind him as he walks into my office.

“Yes, that means we should have some private time.. Just in case we need it~” He says with an obviously flirtatious tone, I can’t be quite sure of how many people are in the lab at the moment so I have to just go on instinct. I luckily had a contingency plan readied, a small magic infused alarm which would psychically ring a bell in my mind as soon as someone crossed the tripwire. Though magic is disgusting I have to admit it is useful sometimes.

It’s at this point rung three times, I would assume this means Doctor Sasha, Rickket and Jinana are in the lab right now. I have to wait for Jean, Ace and Liam to enter the office as well. I look up at Harrison as I’m sitting on the sofa that had become my bed for the past month.

“Oh~ and why would Doctor Reed and Nurse Harrison need private time? Anything particular you had in mind?~” I answer, trying to flirt as much as possible. His face flushes red, he clearly wasn’t thinking of his phrasing.

“W-well I was thinking we could kiss and h-hold hands and uhm.. I have a bottle of white wine if you wanted to share that along with the bourbon cookies I made you?” He asks with his face redder than a tomato. He seems quite a vanilla and basic romance kind of man. Easy enough for me, I won’t have to worry about transmitting sexual diseases on a job again.

“That sounds just amazing too.” I say while looking up at him, picking up the box of cookies from my desk as I invite him to the sofa. He awkwardly looks back and forth and sits down next to- Ring. Oh another person has either entered or exited the lab. Where was I? Oh yes, now I remember. He sits down next to me looking deep into my eyes with his own, the beautiful shade of brown seems to look beyond just my face and appearance. He sees something in me that I’m not. Quite honestly? I’m flattered.

“What kind of wine did you prepare for us?” I ask him as he looks into my eyes and occasionally glances at my lips. He’s completely fallen for me, he’s fucking hopeless. Like a small puppy that was fed for the first time.

“I got something from an old friend, unfortunately he is no longer with us but it’s a bottle wine from the god of diseases, death and pain: Beelzebub.” He says while presenting a bottle of wine without any label, there’s about half of it left at this point.

“Hmm, good thing that we met in these circumstances. Usually I’m a lot more picky with what I eat and drink.” I joke around, he gives a hearty laugh in response. He keeps stealing glances at my lips, it’s quite obvious what he wants but I ought to keep him tightly on the leash. Because I can’t really just- RING. Oh, another person has entered the lab, one more and I ought to use the controller I have in the office.

“Hey come on now, I have something quite special for such an occasion as this!” He says as he pulls something out from his breast pocket. It looks like a conch shell but I remember hearing about a magic item like this. It’s a recording of something, as he speaks the command word into it. The conch bursts to life as it begins to glow with a viridian blue and begins to emit sound, or rather music.

“Lovely time.” Harrison says and the conch bursts into sound, the playing of a piano begins to echo throughout the room. The singer starts to sing her siren’s song.

“I know I’m beautiful, I know ‘cause it’s the season. But what am I to do with all this beauty?” Her smooth voice fills the room as Harrison pulls the cork off of the bottle of wine, giving me a glass and pouring half of the bottle into it. He places the rest into his own bottle.

“Biology, I am an organism, I’m chemical, that’s all, that is all.” She continues to sing, the piano is joined by a subtle drumming. I take a sip of the wine and it fills my mouth with a fine sensation, passable wine but not the best.

“I’m Liquid smooth, come touch me too and feel my skin is plump and full of life, I’m in my prime.” She continues to sing, the beautiful piano is now backed up by a slightly more eccentric violin. I move up from the sofa and move over to the office table, simply standing near it and opening a cabinet. Within the cabinet I see the remote controller and the silencer of my pistol that I left with Clark’s corpse, I also spot a candle that was left there by the previous occupant.

“I’m Liquid smooth, come touch me too, I’m at my highest peak, I’m ripe about to fall, capture me. Or at least take my picture” the singer continues, her entrancing voice echoes throughout the room as I light the candle. Harrison approaches me and puts aside his glass. Placing his hands on my hips. I place my glass aside as well.

“崩れてゆく前に I’m pulsing, my blood is red and unafraid of living, beginning to end.” She continues her lyrics have a bit of Raenmoorian placed into them as well. Harrison touches my chin and lifts it slightly, looking eye to eye he leans in for a- RING. The last person has just entered the lab as he leans in for a passionate kiss, thankfully he’s closed his eyes. I quickly grasp onto the toy car remote controller and push forward. Any second now the lab should be automatically closed due to a fire and the only possible survivor would be Ace. A small bang is heard in the distance.

I release my grip on the controller as soon as possible, dropping it as Harrison opens his eyes and looks towards the sound of the bang, I grab onto his hips and push him towards the sofa, lifting myself into his lap. I need him focused only on me, if he suspects I had killed them my alibi would be destroyed.

“R-Reed, did you hear that sound?” He asks sheepishly between passionate kisses, I look at him, forcing a look of confusion and asking.

“What sound? Come on Harrison, you wanted some private time did you not?~” He’s still looking at the door out of my office so I grab onto his chin and push myself onto him. He’s surprised but he does stop focusing on anything else.

“I’m Liquid smooth, come touch me too and feel my skin is plump and full of life, I’m in my prime. I’m Liquid smooth, come touch me too.” The singer continues to fill the room, allowing me an escape from this facade that I’ve put for him. Poor guy really, he thinks I’ve really fallen for him. I almost feel bad.

“R-Reed, I- I don’t think I’m ready to go this far. I just feel awful.. My wife died a few years ago from cancer and I don’t want you to just be a rebound.” He says as he starts tearing up, he looks genuinely sorry as he looks up at me.

“I-I’m so sorry but can we just hold hands and kiss for now?” He asks between tears streaming down his face. I get off of his lap and hug him from the side, trying to be calming for him.

“Of course that’s fine Harrison, if you want to talk about your wife I’m right here for you. Maybe talking and getting it out of your system might be good?” I say as I pet him and hold his hair. His small tears begin to leak freely, he just bursts out into full on bawling. Eventually he brings out a picture of his wife, a half elf with long blond hair that's braided to one side.

“W-we fell in love back in our hometown of Malmo, it’s a town in Merea just in the countryside. Nothing really that important in all honesty but us meeting there was the best thing that has ever happened to me.” He begins to talk about his life story, how he met his wife before the cancer and how he was going to medical school to learn how to cure his wife and others of the disease instead.

He drones on and on about how guilty he feels for using their money to learn instead of buying medicine for her as she slowly wilted away in bed. Honestly I’m bored to death by the end of it, I’m barely holding my face together.

I’m simply staring at the picture of Eleanore remembering every wrinkle, every imperfection and even the length of her nose bridge. Pressing every detail into my mind.

After an agonizing thirty minutes of pretending to be interested in this decrepit geezer's personal struggles. It’s utterly boring and what’s even worse is the fact that I don’t hear the alarm ring at all. Either everyone in the lab died near instantly or Ace broke through the ceiling or assumed the majority of the blow, I’m not sure of her reaction time however.

“Should we head out to pay our respects to Kole soon?” I ask Harrison as he lays in my arms, quietly crying. He’s like a beaten dog shivering and sniveling, utterly disgusting and helpless.

“Fuck that bitch, she tried to kill you. I don’t care if it was some fungus eating apart her brain, I just can’t envision myself hurting you.” He says as he grips onto my side, embracing me in a tight hug. My skin feels as if it's slowly tearing off, I haven’t taken proper care of it in a while I guess. I haven’t taken proper care of it and I’ve stayed in this one for a while.

“That’s really mean of you Harrison, what if I were to one day for whatever reason betray you and try to kill you?” I ask as I stroke his hair, he’s slumped down leaning onto my torso and looking up at me. There’s a tinge of sadness in his eyes.

“Don’t say stuff like that, you wouldn’t do that. I don’t want to think about it.” Harrison says he seems almost childlike in this state, so certain of my love for him that he simply allows himself to be as open as possible. Oh god I just want to shred him apart.

“Do you wanna just stay here then?” I ask him as he lays in my arms, he doesn’t give an answer so we just stay there. Kissing each other occasionally as we just rest here. He eventually falls asleep and I slowly put him aside, he rests on my sofa. His face is deep in rest and nothing but pure rest, he looks almost dead. I feel the urge to grip my fingers around his throat.

“Look at him, his face is so serene at this moment. Look at all the creases around his skin, the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes that show a life filled with smiles.” I hear it once more, my internal monologue. The more I look down at his face he seems more at ease. It’s like looking directly into an open casket, he’s calm with his life. My skin begins to crack, the disguise I’ve held for weeks now is rotting. The skin routine doesn’t matter anymore, the constant upkeep is constantly getting more and more difficult.

“No, I have to make sure that everyone in the lab is dead, I can’t kill him just yet.” I think to myself as I leave the room as quietly as possible, heading downstairs and keeping a careful eye on everything nearby. I see that the door to Sasha’s lab has been blown apart, a trail of blood leading from the lab to the main doors. I can assume that it’s Ace, she’s the only one who could withstand the blow.

I head downstairs and into the lab, seeing the corpses of everyone who was left uninfected, not including Harrison and Ace of course. It’s a mangled scene of pure bloodshed, the first thing I spot is one of Jinana’s earrings in the hallway before noticing her corpse. Her head is shattered and crushed under an imaginary weight that the spell produced.

Rickket’s putrid and bloated body too lays down on the cold concrete ground, her incessant chattering finally stopped. Dozens of her yellow teeth are scattered on the floor at random, her spine and skull must have simultaneously been crushed by the spell.

Liam’s long strands of hair are also spread around the entire lab, the shatter cast must have completely sundered his head and sent his hair flying everywhere. The rest of his corpse is also laying on the floor in a pool of blood. The middle of the room has a small crater in it due to the spell forcibly crushing everything downwards.

Sasha lies on the ground, her horns have been shattered and her body even more so. Her arms, legs and back have turned into a fine paste of blood. The strong stench of iron and blood permeates the room, a disgusting mass of guts, flesh and blood that probably won’t leave my dreams.

I turn around and start to walk out of Doctor Sasha’s lab and ascend the stairs of the blood filled corridors, I hear a very familiar voice.

“Reed, why did you have a silencer for a pistol in your room?” Harrison asks from the top of the staircase, looking down at me with tears in his eyes.

“W-what are you talking about?” I ask with rising panic, shit. He might actually catch onto me, he’s practically caught me red handed. How am I going to get out of this one? My mind races at a million miles per hour.

“You also dropped a remote controller just before that bang I heard from down here. Please tell me the truth Reed, did you murder Clark and cause whatever happened behind you in the lab?” Harrison asks, his voice quivering and occasionally cracking.

“No, I didn’t do it. Please think before you start saying strange things Harrison please.” I say as I try to calm and gaslight him to still be on my side, this might be the most difficult performance I have to commit to but, so long as it works it doesn’t matter.

“D-don’t you try and fool me Reed! S-shut up!” He shouts as he pulls out the same handgun I used to force Clark to kill himself, I take a step back and hold my hands in the air. There’s no way I’m going to be killed by HIM, He’s just some random old man!

“O-okay Harrison, let’s calm down alright? Let me tell my side of the story, okay?” I ask as I take a few steps forward, the old crone doesn’t even seem to notice. With every step I take I keep thinking about an exit plan, something to kill him with, anything.

“Oh, Reed, I am really calm for what you’ve done! I should have known when I heard you shouting at Kole’s corpse! You’ve killed and infected every possible chance for a cure! AND FOR WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!” He starts shouting as he aims directly at my forehead, there’s a mixture of anger and sadness in his eyes.

“Listen, listen I can’t explain it to you in a way that people could hear alright! It’s very sensitive information alright?!” I shout back as I take a dozen more steps, halfway up the staircase now. Damnit if this keeps up I’ll have to use that wretched curse of mine.

“WHAT’S THE POINT OF SOMETHING LIKE THAT?! DON’T FUCKING BULLSHIT ME! DON’T YOU TAKE ANOTHER GODDAMN STEP!” He shouts, foaming at the mouth and shooting out spit with every word. I stop in my tracks, there’s only five more steps left between us. The tension is so harsh that I can feel my fingers beginning to twitch.

“O-okay Harrison, I-I’m not moving alright? C-can you calm down just a bit?” I ask, looking up at him with that dough-eyed look. He seems to slightly calm down and I feel a smile starting to spread and crack my face wide open.

“R-Reed, your face is… Breaking? Wh-what’s happening?!” He shouts as he holds his aim steady, this is it. Do or die, I hate that I have to do this but no cost is too great for survival. I allow the smile to crack my skin apart, shedding this layer of skin as I reforge my appearance. Turning into Eleanor, Harrison's late wife.

“You wouldn’t kill me again would you darling? You already killed me ONCE, WAS LEARNING MEDICINE REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?!” I shout at him with the late visage of his wife, he seems horrified and disgusted with seeing her again. His mind is shattered for a second as I reach for his gun.

A loud bang rings out and I find a massive shard of pain in my abdomen. The fucker shot me? The world spins around and loses its colors as I fall backwards down the staircase. I hear Harrison dropping the gun and rushing downstairs towards me, I feel his hand grip onto my bulletwound. I see his face painted with a look of despair and disgust, seemingly he still wants me to live. I look around and notice that the pistol is just a few inches away from me.

“R-Reed! I-I’m sorry! P-please don’t die!” I hear Harrison shout, it feels like I’m underwater and I can just barely hear him. I reach out my hand, gripping onto the pistol with my fingertips. I feel it slip away from me and I can’t reach out further because Harrison is holding onto me.

“H-Harrison..” I quietly squeal out. He lowers himself and puts his ear next to my mouth to hear me better. I bite his ear and poke at his eyes, he screams out in pain and takes a few steps back up the stairs. I grab onto the pistol and immediately fire.

“H-how could you?” He asks as he looks down at his stomach where I shot him. Shock and pain washes over him as he falls face forward down the stairs, sliding down to my level.

I feel anemic, coughing up blood and losing from my bullet wound at the same time. The world keeps spinning, I don’t have any potions or quick methods to heal myself so I don’t bleed out. Fuck, what do I do?

“Harrison! Reed! Are you two alright?!” Ace shouts out from the first floor, no more than a few dozen steps away. I quickly look around and morph my face and body into the shape of Harrison and shift over to his corpse. I pull out a small torn out piece of paper I prepared earlier and write into it.

“Corpse disposal required NOW!”

As soon as the last stroke of my pen finishes Harrison’s corpse disappears, that little move is gonna cost me quite a lot since corpse disposal costs a ridiculous amount but all that matters is that I’ve done it.

“A-Ace! I’m here! I followed Reed down here, he shot me and ran off somewhere into the police station!” I shout out from the bottom of the stairs, Ace quickly runs over to me she then freezes my wound closed.

“Stay here Harrison, I’m gonna go find that bastard and slaughter him.” She says before quickly running up the stairs and into the police station. I drag myself up the stairs, holding back maniacal laughter.

“GOOD WORK, HARRISON! YOU’VE DONE IT! This new skin disguise won’t last as long but that’s fine, I have to just get out of here with the forged trade visa.” I think to myself as I force my body to move onwards and slowly crawl up the stairs.

I really made it, holy shit. I live to fight another day! I can still discover apotheosis! I can still research morally acquired immortality! My mouth is bleeding and I feel like throwing up but it doesn’t matter. Even if I have to act like some sort of cockroach to survive, that is just what I will do!

An hour or so passes and I rush upstairs to the best of my abilities, retrieving the forged trade visa and showing it to Ace. The two of us head to Degurechaff as soon as the next day, taking Delly with us. After we get to the city I have to just stay low and not arouse suspicion and if all goes according to plan I’ll have my money transferred to my account by the end of October.

Not even a week later and I’m screaming at the top of Harrison Quoreant’s pathetically aged lungs at Ace. Lying on the city street after the combination of adventurers duking it out. As soon as I see her fly off and out of eyesight I get up from the ground and start thinking of my next move.

“Raenmoore, Raenmoore would be good to visit for once.” I say to myself as I start walking off. I notice a few dozen people laying on the street and decide to “relieve” them of their pain. I take my time in stomping out the life from their eyes. For the first time in my life I think of the morality of my actions yet I don’t feel bad about it. Mayhaps I am just SCUM.

Chapter 19: Post story fluff

Chapter Text

Thank you for reading my book! I think I’m going to start writing a follow up soon enough. I hope this was a nice read though I’m not quite sure how many rewrites it’s gonna go through before I can “release” or print it out onto paper. Quite frankly I tried to add more character to Tusk’s story arc and I tried to expand on Grell’s backstory. I really hope you give this a re-read once I am done with all of the editing and alterations to the book! Now for some silly extra stuff like questions with the characters!

Gwain of Cernodans interview.

Question 1: Are you a cosmic time god bound to a body of uncertain age?

Answer 1: Not to my knowledge! I started adventuring at around 8 years old I think? I don’t know my birthday so I might be 16 or 17 now… I traveled with Nile and Sefris for a few years before I really met Tusk and Grell

Question 2: Have you ever tried to eat something you have watched nile eat before?

Answer 2: Now that I’m “Close enough to adult” I’ve started enjoying drinking lots of ale and casks of beer. They taste like shit but I hear pretty often that “You’ll learn to love it in a few years.”

Question 3: Have you ever gone back to the island to make nile a proper grave?

Answer 3: No, the less time I think about his headless corpse making a puddle of blood into the dirt and grass the better I feel. Maybe it’s not healthy but I don’t want to think about it that much now, it haunts me enough already.

Question 4: Who do you think would win in a fight? You, Grell or Tusk?

Answer 4: I could beat Tusk but no way am I beating Grell, she’s on a whole other level.

Tusk Sutcliffe’s interview.

Question 1: Why not just use biomancy to add more organs to yourself? Such as lungs for extremely long underwater breath, or even to add more hearts to yourself in order to make up for your current condition?

Answer 1: Biomancy needs an extreme amount of focus, most spellcasters find it difficult to learn how to cast spells even without my condition. Imagine trying to run without having a sense of balance and everytime you lift your leg one piece of your leg muscles die. Adding more muscles that can die everytime you take a step just makes it more difficult for me.

Question 2: If you can shoot out your nails, and grow wings (which I assume have their own bones) why not replace the keratin in your nails with bone?

Answer 2: Rather than bone I’m trying to learn how to replace the keratin in my nails with Iron so that my nailshot could pierce armor.

Question 3 : Have you ever tried to strengthen your throat’s skin and stomach and ect in order to eat ridiculous things like nile did?

Answer 3: I’ve had a hard enough time trying not to regurgitate from some camp meals we have. I remember one particular night where we had to eat 12 half-eaten apples, multiple pieces of stale bread and one blueberry and that’s all we had to eat for the day.

Question 4: If there was a fight between you, Gwain and Grell who would win?

Answer 4: I’m the weakest link of the group, if that’s what you’re asking.

Grell Sutcliffe’s interview.

Question 1: If you heal by hurting others in a similar way you were harmed, then if you were completely fine but crushed someone's skull, would you get a pleasant boost of energy?

Answer 1: First of all I don’t need to hurt other creatures the same way they’ve hurt me to heal my wounds. Secondly I cannot “boost” my condition, I can only be healed to prime condition without wounds or poison etc.

Question 2: If you were a boy then could your ability uncircumcised you

Answer 2: Strange way to pose this question. Either way I still have a small scars on my inner thighs from before I acquired Gorefactor, they won’t heal but they’ve definitely faded over the years. Also no Gorefactor wouldn’t “uncircumcise me”

Question 3: If you are stabbed in the stomach with a spear, then if you did the same to the attacker and healed, would you still have a remnant of pain? Would the pain be gone? or would the attacker have the pain transferred to them resulting in them feeling double the pain?

Answer 3: If I were to have a piece of the spear stuck inside me, Gorefactor would disintegrate it inside of my body or try to push it out if there is a large open wound. I can’t harm others with Gorefactor, it only heals me for an equal amount of damage for how much I attack someone else. I have noticed that “damage” is subjective, for example I can hit an ogre with a simple punch and not heal much but if I hit a normal person I nearly kill them and recover from more damage.

Question 4: If you had to fight both Gwain and Tusk at the same time would you win?

Answer 4: I think the two of them underestimate themselves and they have a lot of room for growth, but if it comes down to it I’d win without difficulty as they are now.

Reed Williamson’s Interview.
Question 1. How many puppies do you kick per day?

Answer 1. Thirteen, at least.

Question 2. Why not just bomb the island from the beginning?

Answer 2. That wasn’t my job, my job was to learn about the fungus and then decide the best course of action from there.

Question 3. Are you certain you are safe :)

Answer 3. Yes.

Question 4. Did you really fall in love with Harrison?

Answer 4. No. He disgusts me.

Harrison Quoreant’s Interview

Question 1. Harrison, I’m from the future! Reed is going to kill everyone, you must escape!

Answer 1. My good friend Reed Williamson would never do such a thing.

Question 2. What type of music do you listen to?

Answer 2. Laufey, Mitski, Radiohead, Aretha Franklin, all the classics really.

Question 3. HARRISON!! WHY DO YOU KEEP IGNORING REED’S RED FLAGS?!?!?

Answer 3. What red flags?

Question 4. How do you feel about Reed Williamson?

Answer 4. He’s a lovely young man, I hope to spend more time with him.

I really want to physically print out 3 copies of this book and send some out for some of the closest friends I’ve had. To those who have played D&D with me for 2 years now and they are the reason why I have had the pleasure to work on this book and personal world setting. Thank you Duckyboy0 and Max (AKA kiwi_inspector).

I know I’ve dipped my foot into some pretty awful things that the characters suffer and do to other characters. I just hope I did a good job in showing that even if our little group is traumatized it still doesn’t mean that they aren’t absolute SCUM. (Title drop…)

-Written by Leila Saarela.