Chapter 17
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Been sort of busy and I went ahead and rewrote this chapter. I planned on holding some of this plot for latter down the road but it made more sense to put some of it here. Enjoy :)
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The Traditional Way to Seal a Pact
Its been several weeks since I won the summit tournament. I have carried out a few marks for the assassin's guild, and have been getting ready for this adventure into the lost city. Recently I have reached a breakthrough in my alchemy, I now can craft high potions but the ingredients are sort of hard to get, so I can only make several for now.
Both Siena and Zyra were very cross with me. Apparently it is a cardinal sin to participate in a big tournament and not let them know ahead of time so they can watch it. Who would have known? Anyways winning the tournament may have been a mistake because now Lara is sort of a celebrity in the city especially among the elf population. Siena in a weird way has sort of become my agent and has received many love letters for me. Everyone wants to meet the battle maiden of the summit tournament.
That prince guy is one of my biggest fans and has tried inviting me over for tea at the palace several times. At least he is being polite about it, he could very well blackmail me. Once this raid is over I wont care if I get kicked out of the adventurer's guild.
Anyways today is the day we depart from Zyrus as a raid group we are having a meeting here in the guild building before we leave. Jennifer gave me an escape scroll in case things got bad, it is like the switching doll I had but the place I got teleported was set to be in the mansions basement the range was extremely far. I assume this is worth over 1000 gold. She only had one though so I would not be able to bring anyone else with me. I had to promise her a million times to come back alive.
Siena and I decided to meet up at Zyra's this morning before going to the guild building.
“I feel like a mother sending my children off” Zyra said as we enjoyed a breakfast she prepared.
“Oh yea Lara that armor you wanted, Sara dropped it off. She wanted to stay and see you wear it but she had to open her shop.” After the tournament I realized I needed decent leather armor my old stuff was too small and too damaged. Thankfully being a assassin pays good money so I had Sara measure me and had her get her contacts in the craftsman guild make me the best set of leather armor money could buy I gave her 50 gold and told her to let me know if she needed more. Let me see what this armor looks like.
I pick up the armor and looked at it. The armor is basically a body suit of black skin tight leather with metal reinforcing vital points very stylishly. The boots and gloves are also made of leather and match perfectly. I cant get over how revealing this whole outfit is. Its skin tight nature is going to leave nothing to the imagination! The damn lolicons are going to love this. DAMN IT!
“Ehhhhhhhhh this is so LEWD!” I exclaimed when I saw the armor, Siena and Zyra were laughing their butts off at me.
“I cant wear this.......” I have worn girls clothes for years now but always something cute and respectable this however was crossing the line! No matter how I loot at this armor, it is a glorified catsuit.
“Lara come on you haven't event tried it on. Now hurry up and put it on! I will zip you up.” Siena wasn't going to let me just wear something else.
After some skillful coaxing Siena finally got me to wear the dreaded getup. After zipping up the back I started to move around in it. Functionally this thing is actually amazing it is light and flexible. The enchant boosts my agility and endurance and the material is very good. It is made from wyvern hide and the metal is mithril both materials are extremely light for how durable they are. I looked at my two elf friends and they both have a huge smiles on their faces and were still chuckling.
“You two are really enjoying this aren't you? I must look ridiculous in this thing.”
“I think it really suits you. You look really cute in it.” Zyra said.
“Cute? That's not how I would describe it. I would describe it as shameless. ” This is so embarrassing.
“Well you are going to wear that because its way better then any alternative. You don't look bad in it either we just cant help but smile when we see your face full of so much embarrassment.” Siena had a point. This was really good armor and would do a way better job protecting me then anything else I could throw together. I will just have to throw on a long cloak over this to cover myself from wandering eyes of the lolicons around. We said our goodbyes and left to the guild building.
The guild building was eerily quiet. Inside the guild building there is a sort of conference room. We were going to meet up here for a briefing, and set up our groups. As we entered the room there were close to 20 set of eyes on us. I could hear several people start to talk about us, well me mainly. Everyone here is a pro adventurer a lot of the people here are famous and from all around Solus not just from Zyrus. Siena and I found a pair of empty seats, and one of the attendant came and asked us what we wanted to drink. After another 15 minutes the guild master finally came in.
“Welcome! You guys have all been invited to an exclusive mission in the guild. One of our members on a recent mission had uncovered an ancient book detailing an unknown entrance to the city Atlus. After confirming its existence with our scouts we have begun to orchestrate a discovery mission. After consulting historians and archaeologists we have become to believe this is the lost city that previously has been unreachable due to the giant serpent guarding it in lake Malia.” There was a brief murmur among the adventurers. The guild master continued.
“This mission has been commissioned by the our guild, the royal family, the mages guild, and several other patrons. You will be paid 100 gold each. The loot from the mission will be distributed at the end of the mission as a bonus. Our archaeologists reserve the right to take items from the loot and pay for them with adequate compensation. One of them will be accompanying you let me introduce her. This is Diana Jones.” A tall woman with a wiry frame stepped forward, she definitely trained. Her features were very soft, and she had brown hair and green eyes. Her outfit was very practical a simple white blouse and her pants were black. She screamed tomboy.
“Hello everyone my name is Diana Jones. I am going to be leading this expedition. I am one of the foremost researchers for the Karthians. I will not bring you down in a fight as I am a level 65 exotic weapon's master. I prefer to use a whip blade.” She then bowed and sat back down. The guild master then continued.
“Lets as well introduce ourselves to each other it is rude to make Diana do it alone. Starting from my right lets do a brief introduction to one another.”
“Hi I am Leon I am rank S adventurer. My class is paladin, my shield is at your disposal.”
“I am April I am a elemental mage. My guild rank is A cheers.”
“I am the famous Ranger Dax please all don't ask for my autograph at the same time.”
“I am Reid I am a rank S adventurer. I am an arch-priest, I am here to keep everyone healthy.”
“The name is Mason I am a rogue, I excel at disarming traps and opening locks.”
“I am Lux, I am a Fighter and yes I am part demon so if you don't like me then just ignore me.”
“I'm Landon and I am Beastmaster rank A”
“Hey I am Mabel and my class is Divine Soul I will help Reid with keeping you guys all healthy.”
“Joel I am a mage specializing in destruction magic.”
“Nice to meet you all I am Oliver I am an Enchanter I help make you guys all stronger and the bad guys all weaker.”
“I'm Rictor and I am Warrior rank SS. Don't get in my way.”
“Hi I am Grimblee I am here on behalf of the guild as your dedicated blacksmith. I am a demolishinist so I can help blow open new paths if we need it.”
“This humble servant of Nalhah is called Basu I am what you guys describe as a monk.”
“Hi guys! I am summoner name is Caladina I specialize in earth summons.”
“Long-fur is what my tribe calls me. I am a hunter/tracker. I also am a skilled cook.”
“I'm Melinus my class is scout. I am very good with a bow.”
“Name is Luke I am a spearman rank S in the guild.”
“Hello my name is Siena I am Blademaster Rank A”
“I am Lara my class is fighter. I am excited to meet all of you.” I flat out lie about my class. There is no reason to let them know that my actual class is an assassin type class. Heck Siena doesn't even know that.
Quite the Monty crew we have assembled, we have humans, elves, an underage human pretending to be an elf, a half demon, a dwarf, and beast-kin. Our classes are also extremely diversified as well. The biggest issue is going to be dealing with everyone's different personalities. I can sense people already trying to size up everyone to see who's the alpha dog. Seems like everyone has there own cliques they hang out with, it kind of reminds me of high school.
The guild-master had a few last thing to go over.
“Its a two day travel to the location we have 4 wagons. 3 for passengers and 1 for supplies. I am putting Leon, Basu, Dax, Landon, Luke, and Long-fur in the first wagon. The rest of the guys are in the second wagon, and all the women are in the third wagon.”
“This is bullshit! I have to be with only men for two days?” Dax quickly interjected and several other guys agreed with him.
“Look the wagons will be traveling together so you will all make camp together. So you will have a few hours to converse with the other wagons. Anyways this is not a vacation this is work........ You should have your head in the mission and not about women. There is not a lot of information on this entrance, this could become a very dangerous mission quickly.” The guild-master explained to the narcissistic ranger.
“Ok I wish you all luck on your journey, please treat everyone else respect and listen to Diana she is the leader.”
After filing out of the guild building we all traveled the short walk over to the northern stables. All the wagons were already staged for us ahead of time.
“Wouldn't it be quicker if we all rode our own horses?” Being cramped up in a wagon for 2 days is going to suck.
“It would be but its safer when we are all together. Not everyone is a combat oriented class and our supplies have to be protected, bandits are extremely bad in this region.” Siena had a point but it still didn't change the situation I was in.
We all got in our respective wagons and departed Zyrus. Once we got settled, the only thing we had to do to beat boredom was conversation.
“So Siena this is the cute friend you have been telling me about? Lara right?” It was April who Siena seemed to be familiar with.
“Hi nice to meet you.” I really don't plan to get friendly with anyone here. The only things I care about are stopping this demigod and Siena's and my own safety.
“You are so cute! I cant believe you are an adventurer! You are like totes our mascot. You should stay back so we can protect you.” April like many others judge me solely on appearance.
“She is easily one of the top 5 in terms of strength in this whole group if anything it is you who should stay in the back.” This time it was Lux who chimed in, but how did she know that I was strong?
“I would say the strongest people in this group are Rictor, Basu, Luke, Lara, and Calidina in terms of battle potential.” Lux seemed very sure of her assessment.
“You like named mostly all warriors and fighters surely us mages are among the strongest.” April felt slighted.
“Look I am just using a ability called combat intuition, I cant see someone's stats or anything like that. What I can do though is judge how much a threat they would be if I were to fight them. This little girl here is screaming major threat to me. It is hardly surprising she won the Summit tournament” Lux explained her reasoning.
“The thing that gets me is if she is a fighter why did she not use any weapon arts in the tournament? You fought the entire tournament and didn't use one of the fighter class skills. Perhaps your class isn't fighter after all? Just like how your hair color was not really silver” This Lux character is dangerous not only does she know my strength she also is savvy enough to realize that my class may not be what I say it is. Shadowblade's do have a few weapon arts but they would have given away my class and most of them would have violated the tournament rules.
“You lost to the lightning blade prince? I think I remember the match you use a chain-sickle? I am actually quite familiar with that weapon I noticed that your weight is too light for a chain of that length. Or is that by design?” I now clearly remember this person. She wore a helmet so I could not see her face but I can see her weapon which is very unique. She fought my brother and used a kusarigami which is one of the weapon styles that Ojisan made me learn. This made her smile perhaps she didn't expect me to remember her or to notice the adjustments she made to her weapon. With a smaller weight the speed of the sickle could be increased but attacks with the weight part of the chain became less effective. It is a common practice which sacrifices utility for lethality. Max defeated her but it was definitely the best match he had besides me.
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“What are you miss Lara?” She said to herself in demonic.
“She is an adventurer miss Lux and so are you so lets get a long.” Diana Jones apparently understood demonic as well.
Siena now had a weird expression on her face. She spoke to me in elven.
“Now that she mentioned it I have never seen you perform a fighter class skill........”
“Okay we will talk later when we have privacy I don't know who else here understands elven.” My lies and secrets I have kept from one of my best friends has finally caught up with me. I planned to come clean with her on this trip anyways, about my real age, my dream, and my plans to attend magic school and leave Zyrus. She will be mad at first about everything but she will get over it......hopefully.
“Miss Jones I have a question for you about the Karthians if you wouldn't mind.” I was changing the previous subject with a question that I wanted to ask miss Jones.
“If it is within my power I will answer it” She took a serious look at me.
“I was wonder how many Karthians had reached demi-god status I know about Grena but I would like to hear about the other ones as well.”
“Karthian demi-gods? That is easy there is seven.. Grena, Sanite, Restia, Cielia, Xander, Jaso, Maza..” Diana was probably the most knowledgeable person about them. I wonder if she has met Odyne?
“So these demigod? They are still alive or have influence?” I continued my questions.
“Oh I am not an expert on dieties or demi-gods.” She replied. Then the priest girl came over I remember its Mabel. Her class is divine soul.
“I couldn't help but over hear your conversation. So the little one would like to know about the gods?” She seemed extremely excited that here knowledge could be of use.
“Uhhhh thanks. Yes could you explain this whole demi-god, lesser god, greater god thing? I was most curious about demi-gods and how they can influence the world centuries after they have ascended.” I ask Mabel.
“So a greater god is a being that can influence across different realms. Basically other worlds other then this one. A lesser god is a being that can freely have influence over one realm they are also described as local gods. A demi-god is a being that started as a regular mortal such as you or I but has been able to have there soul ascend from the cycle of death and rebirth. There souls are anchored to a particular realm like a lesser god. There is two big differences between local gods and demigods. The first difference is that demigods are not near as free to influence their realm as a local god. The second difference is that demigods do not have to abide to the balance of a realm like the local gods do.” Mabel explained everything in easy to understand words. I think I like her.
“So how does one become a demigod or god? Is there a process to ascend?” I was curious of this part.
“Well there is 2 ways to ascend. The first is to gather enough followers and divine power to make yourself immortal this is a long process taking centuries, it would be impossible for creatures with short life cycles such as humans, dwarfs, or beast-kin. The second way is” She paused here for a second to gather herself “To kill a god and take in their power.....”
“Wait I thought you said that gods were immortal how does one kill a god.” This has just gotten interesting.
“Lara immortal and invulnerable are two different things. While being unaffected by weapons created destroy the body all gods like us have a soul. A weapon designed to kill a soul is able to destroy a god. Very few exist the one you are probably most familiar with is Excalibur”
“The use of such weapons is extremely taboo since souls are precious things.” She said this very seriously.
“Ok one last question lets say a demi-god has there physical body destroyed. What happens then?”
“When a demi-god has there physical body destroyed there soul remains anchored to the realm. They are sort of like a phantom. It is possible for a demi-god to generate a suitable vessel with enough power. A demi-god can also make a contract with a mortal designating them as there champion this grants the mortal with some of their power while the mortal typically carrys out the demi-gods bidding as payment”
Our conversation quickly turned to the others excluding me and Lux talking about what boys in the party they liked. Of course the ringleader in these discussions was my very own Siena. It seemed like the popular ones talked about were Reid, Oliver, and Luke. The guys that were made fun of were Rictor and especially Dax Siena seemed to fancy the fellow elf Melinus. I just simply pulled out a book and started reading.
As night was approaching we made camp, I could see the giant lake far on the horizon. Long-fur was cooking up a stew for us and we were making chat with the other members of the other wagons. I was approached by our designated dwarven blacksmith Grimblee.
“Hey miss elf I curious what weapon you have? My services are available to all adventurers in the city rank A and up so I am familiar with the other members of the party but I have never sharpen your weapon so I don't know what state it is in.” How diligent but I doubt I will ever need to resharpen these things, I guess I will treat him to inspecting Taichi and Tanken.
“I actually just got a new sword set from a tournament I won. I will show them to you but I doubt they need any work at the moment.” I pulled out the twin blades from their sheaths. The adamantium looked so beautiful in the setting sunlight.
After holding up the swords for a moment Grimblee fell on his rump. He had the most shocked expression on his face and I think I could see tears in the corner of his eyes.
“I can't believe I actually get to see the legendary swords of Hiroshi. These were crafted by my great, great, great, great grandpa over 300 years ago. The swords have the Blackrock family logo engraved in them. They are made of pure adamantium that you can only smelt inside the biggest Volcano in the Red mountains Mount Kildon. These are quite possibly the best swords in the entire world, with exception to the legendary Excalibur.” He seemed to appreciate them as much as I did.
“They are perfections of dwarven smithing I cant help but get amazed every time I see them. Your ancestor was truly a master smith.” We continued our conversation and I got him to sharpen my daggers for me. I think I made his day. We all shared a tent with one other person, of course Dax was upset when they paired him up with Leon. I of course was with Siena. I was tired from the long day and drifted off quickly.
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“You have all been selected here because you are special.” I was looking at tall figure in expensive archmage robes. He looked like a human and his aura seemed to be very sinister. There were 6 others around me who were also all paying attention to the robed man. They all looked like half-demons.
“All of you posses affinity to untapped power residing in every being in this realm. Their sins, I offer you all a chance to harness that power for yourselves. Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Jealousy, Pride, Sloth, and Wrath each of you represent one of these” He then held out a golden cup elegantly designed the magical forces coming from the cup was so extreme that I was shaking from its oppressiveness.
“This cup here is the grail of elven god Shim, the most pure god of this realm. Inside is the blood of her favorite unicorn Arria a demi-god I have slain and collected her blood. If you drink from this cup you will too become demigods. However by drinking this you will be cast into the game I have set up for you and there is no turning back. The winner will become the most powerful force in this realm” He wanted us all to drink from the cup and play his game he set up. One of the people eagerly stepped forward
“I figured you would be eager for this power Sanite, your ambition for power has lead you from the slums of Atlus to one of the wealthiest people among your people.” The man gave the man the grail and he drank from it. Nothing changed visually but I could sense that Sanite aura did in fact become magnitudes more powerful.
One by one all the other members except for me went up and drank from the cup. I didn't like this cup, I didn't want this type of power, and I didn't trust this man. Then words not of my own came out of my mouth as if I was just an observer.
“Lord Magnus thy must apologize, thy must forbear from this malefic covenant. Thy finds the Lord motives both dubious and shrouded” The voice and way of speech were of Grena's.
“I thought you might reject my gift however there is none whom has the same affinity to wrath as you. I am afraid I am going to have to insist you reconsider.” My muscles got very weak, I noticed that I had a dart in the side of my neck. How could I have not sensed the dart being fired at me? The assailant must have been totally concealed. Magnus slowly approached me. My now paralyzed body just sat there. It was so terrifying All I could manage was a few mumbled words as he set me on his knee and opened my mouth to drink from the unholy grail.
“Magnus you will have remorse of this ergerious act.” Then everything got white again. And I was looking at Grena again.
“That is thy's memory of the start of my kin's extinction. Magnus's game was for us to gather power until the next alignment of the planets and then kill one another until only one participant remained.” She said.
“The game played out and thy was the last one. Not only of the participants but also of my people. The game had caused everyone to give in to their sins to feed us power, It didn't take long for them to kill each other off. All of the malice and suffering we had caused had fed to the grail we had drank from. Magnus wanted thy to drink from the cup once again to finish the twisted ritual but thy knew if thy had thy soul would have been engulfed with darkness.” She continued
“Thy would have been the harbinger of Armageddon. That was Magnus's goal from the beginning he wanted to start the world anew by destroying all life. I however killed thyself before thy could be forced to partake and thy thought that was the end. However several cycles ago, Magnus let us know that the game was not over and would resume and be fought amongst our champions in our place.” She came close to me and looked at me.
“This time to end the game once and for all thy will let my soul be engulfed by darkness and have my champion dispatch thyself. Lara thy would like that champion to be thou. The next alignment is in around 15 cycles, by becoming thy champion Lara will benefit from some of my power, thy must warn thou though. Thou affinity for wrath is extremely high as well thou must take care to not get consumed by it.” I noticed I was in control of my body and was able to speak.
“Everything you have shown me is true, I just know it is. I don't know how I get mixed up in this but I feel this is fate pulling us together. I promise you I will succeed for everyone no matter what. How do we seal this pact?” I asked her I had a great feeling of uneasiness over all this.
“With the traditional method of sealing a pact of course.” She had a big smile on her face. What is the traditional method for forming a pact? I quickly learned because her lips were swiftly connected to mine. I felt her tongue invade my mouth and instead of pushing away I found myself returning the kiss in the same manner. Everything felt right in that moment. I could feel a deep connection form between us. I could sense what she was thinking and I also could feel some of her knowledge being passed to me. I totally forgot that I was frenching a demi-god in my dream for a while and just let the connection between us finish forming. I noticed a window pop up.
Champion of Grena
-Access to Grena's abilities(Limiter placed)
-????????? unlock to reveal more
-????????? unlock to reveal more
She backed off and started to fade away, as she was disappearing she had some words.
“Thy power is hard to control, so thy have given thou just a portion. When thy master's it thy will dispense more to thou. Be careful in the ruins of Atlus, there are far more dangerous things then Sanite's champion down there.”
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“Lara! Wake up.” I heard Siena's voice and I opened my eyes. In front of me was a statue of Grena the very demi-god I just experienced......... yuri with. I wonder if that counts as my first kiss?
“Jeez you know you just sleep walked about 2 miles from the campsight? Somehow subconciounessly you had made a barrier around you so I was unable to get you. You came all the way out here and kissed some statue tehe. Fufufu I had a feeling you liked girls based on how you don't take interest in boys. Come on lets go back. The others will be concerned” Siena then escorted me back to the campsight. Only a few people were awake and none of them bothered us. I found I was able to go back asleep with out issue. I once again was waken by Siena's voice
“Lara! Lara wake up! Something terrible has happened!” Her voice was extremely distraught.
“Siena its early.....” I just wanted 10 more minutes too bad Siena doesn't have a snooze button.
“Its about Reid the archpriest, someone killed him last night after we got back to the camp. We are all meeting up to discuss the ramifications of this.” Reid murdered? Do we have a traitor in the group?? Another assassin? I had checked everyone status.......