"So, what's the story of that gem of yours?" Grim had not turned his head back to look at her, but Demadara still squirmed and gritted her teeth.

"A parting gift from my teacher. And would it kill you to dampen your aura, it's hard to think while you're basically crushing me."

Her companion shrugged, and the weight was slowly lifted from Demadara´s chest. She took a deep breath and shook herself. "Why do you keep it going anyways, it is not like anyone is around."

The road they traveled was largely abandoned. They had seen a wagon laying by the side a few hours ago, but hadn't seen a single other soul. Only the birds flying above them kept the two company.

"I honestly just forget sometimes, you know? You need every advantage that you can get in this business of mine, even if it's just a moment that they're grasped by uncertainty. Now now." He turned his head and looked at the knife in her hand with a smile.

Her left eyelid had begun to twitch, and her left hand rested on the Heart. "There is not a chance that a mercenary would waste crystals on maintaining an aura, certainly not when there is nobody to keep in check. So either you were trying to overwhelm me, or you kept it on because crystals don't matter to you." Demadara´s hand trembled as they eyed each other.

The ravens above them called out as Grim crossed his arms, the smile had still not left his face. "And if I had tried to fight you I already would have, yes yes. So what is it you are trying to say?"

"I am saying that you are a primal. And whether you are a world or soul eater or both, you're going to tell me what made you before we take another step."

He rose an eyebrow and stared down at her trembling hands. "So no yelling about abominations? Just a talk? Well gladly, though we really should keep walking. Fighting those things by nightfall wouldn't help our chances."

He turned to leave, and Demadara glared up at his back, before following with a muttered hiss.

"Can't say I became one by choice you know." Grim stared up to the sky as they turned left, away from the fields and towards the mountain range in the distance.

"Had a job with a few of my old boys to 'evict' some of the treefolk that used to live in these parts. Make space for people to settle down and all. It went quite well, we even got to loot one of their temples before they could run away with their treasures. Thing I had my sights set on was this wine bottle you see, encased in gold, prettiest thing you'll see in your life."

Demadara had closed her eyes, taking deep, forced breaths. "A bottle. You're telling me a bottle turned you into a demigod?"

Grim shrugged and let out a laugh that echoed across the hills. "I mean if you make it sound like that anything would sound stupid, no? It must've been some ritual they had planned for one of their own, but young me had no idea, who can read treefolk runes anyways. So I smashed the head, drank it all down and passed out. When I woke back up, well you can imagine."

While he spoke, Demadara had laid her hand on the heart and reached back to her backpack. Out of it flew the heaviest tome she had held onto, the great imperial atlas. It began to levitate in front of her as they walked, it´s pages turning until she found the one she was looking for. Her brows furrowed.

"This area was integrated into the empire over a hundred years ago. You mean to tell me you've lived for-"

"One hundred and forty-four years, yes. I know I am old, you don't need to rub it in that hard." He rubbed his neck and rolled his eyes. "Anyway, there's not really a place in the empire you can go as something like me, and I don't fancy playing nice with inhumans, so I just stayed. Place is empty and far enough from any Guardian headquarter that I can live in relative peace and just do what I do best."

He halted and grasped the hilt of his blade. "We're here."

They had stopped on a hill overlooking a small flat plane between them and the mountains. It´s inhabitants did not try to hide their presence. A great wooden gate blocked entry, with a few huts and towers dotted about around it.

Grim leaned forward and cracked his neck. "Taurs, hillspeople, and whatever other godless flocked to their banner. I'd guess about a hundred for each of us."

"A hundred?!" Demadara´s mouth fell open as Grim walked down the hill. "Are you mad?"

He looked back at her, and his gaze made a shiver run down Demadara´s spine.

"Yes, very. These bastards have been burning down places left and right for months now and I am not letting them get away with it any longer. So are you with me or not?"

He didn't give her time to respond as he broke into a run. In the distance Demadara could hear the drums of the towers. She gulped and rested her hand on the Heart, the sight of the burned farm flashing before her eyes.

As Grim approached the outer defenses he was met by a scrambled force. Taurs and malformed hillspeople. He grinned wide and slowed down. Every step he took made the ground tremble, and even the bloodlusting Taurs hesitated, scurrying backwards as he approached.

But they did not get to decide the terms of the fight. With a loud yell he charged them, and his blade cut through their bodies like water, leaving spraying fountains of blood in his wake.

An arrow flew screaming through the air and grazed his shoulder, he looked up to the tower to his left, just in time to see Demadara falling on top of the archer. A cut across the throat and he was no more.

The remaining defenders atop the tower tried to charge her, but she weaved through their deft attacks with ease. A step and a slice and another body fell to the floor. Grim shook his head as he watched her leap over to the next tower and he ran towards the main gate. A few of the defenders had gathered there and he could not let his new partner get all the glory.

A brass bell rung from atop the gate, as it opened. The last outer defenders were running towards it, dropping their weapons. And they were trampled as a mighty beast stormed out of the dark.

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It stomped the remaining hillsfolk under it´s four mighty legs, the scaled reptilian head snapping shut around an unfortunate taur that was too slow to avoid the gaping maw it had for a mouth. It´s spiked tail thrashed, crushing one of the lookout towers as it spread it´s wide leathery wings and hissed. Atop the beasts head stood a woman, clad in crude but heavy armour, brandishing a burning warhammer.

"Who has come to challenge Orthara the underqueen?" She bellowed out in broken low-imperial, and her charred lips turned to a smirk as she beheld Grim. "The mercenary has healed from his thrashing and come for more, has he?" She ran her hand across the beasts head before jumping off it.

"When will you learn not to stand in the way of the chosen of Volcaris?"Orthara rose her hammer and pointed it at Grim.

"Last time you and your little pet had me outnumbered, kin-traitor." Grim calmly walked towards Orthara, his blade shouldered.

"And still you are, and again you will fail. And with your death, my right of conquest will be complete!" Her hair and eyes flared up, turning to pure flame as she swung her hammer at him.

"Not alone this time!" Grim ducked under the swing and looked towards the tower where Demadara stood. "You take it out, it hates fire!"

For a moment Orthara looked in her direction, a single moment enough for Grim to tackled and push the burning warrior away from her beast and locking weapons with her. "You're not going anywhere."

Demadara had leapt into the air and towards the patchwork creature. The grip around her knife clenched. Fire. Of all the things, it had to be fire.

The beast crouched, opening it´s maw as Demadara fell towards it. In the last moment she sent herself flying forward with a kick, her left leg barely avoiding the closing jaws. She landed on his back and ran towards the creature´s neck.

It thrashed and hissed, bringing it´s spiked tail down to impale her. Demadara jumped off the creatures back just before it´s tail swung through the air.

Her dagger could not pierce it´s skin, and so she jumped once more high into the air to catch a breath. A creature that required her to use fire, or fighting a woman that was on fire. Demadara´s old scars flared up, her stomach churned as she fell down yet again.

She closed her eyes and grasped the Heart with both her hands. Tried to remember the screams of the girl. But all she could think of were her own. The flames, the burning cloth, the leather belts restraining her, the laughter of those who watched. The blinding light.

The beast beat it´s mighty wings and took to the air to meet her, it´s mouth wide open. Demadara fell inside it.

And burst aflame.

The force of it tore the creature´s head to pieces, it´s now lifeless body fell to the ground and made it tremble. The force brought both Grim and Ortharia out of balance. The underqueen stared at it´s body in shock and fear. A terror so great she dropped her weapon.

"She will never forgive this, she will never let it rest." Grim brought his blade to her neck, but even as it drew blood Ortharia only had eyes for the body of her fallen mount.

"The wolf will eat me whole."

With the last whimper Grim severed her head from her body, and quickly turned around at the screaming that now consumed the battlefield. He ran towards her.

Demadara was in flames, her hands clutching onto the Heart. Her entire silhouette was little more than a shadow amidst the fires that spread and grew with every moment.

Grim dropped his blade and charged into the flames, towards her. They burned and seared his clothes as he grasped the Heart and wrestled it out of her hands before jumping back. Even he could not hold it, the surface had gotten so unbearably hot that it seared his hands in the short heartbeats before he dropped it.

Without the Heart to fuel them, the flames around Demadara died down. Her arms, now free, she crossed in front of her chest as she sunk down on her knees and cried. Her clothes, her equipment, her books, the fire had consumed it all.

Grim quickly turned around and returned to Ortharia´s corpse to tear off her cloak. His hands were trembling as he tore the cloth from the dead woman´s armour and returned to his companion. Not a single spot on her body was free of torment.

She did not take notice when he laid the black cloth around her body, her cries merely turned to a quieter sobbing. Her hands had begun to tremble and quiver, she reached them out, towards the Heart. When Grim gave it to her she clung the orb tightly to her chest and rested her head onto it.

The clouds above them darkened, the ravens had gone silent. Thunder began to roll in the distance. Grim sighed and picked the woman up as carefully as she could. Even considering his strength, she was weighing nothing.

As the rain began to pour down he entered the mountain hold with Demadara in his arms. The 'fortress' was little more than a squalid lair of tents and wooden pens. He entered the tent that had been that of the underqueen, and his eyes narrowed.

In the back, chained to the bed, sat a young woman with long blonde hair and a frightened look on her face.

Grim dropped Demadara off on the furs next to the fireplace and approached the other woman, who only scurried away from him, and for good reason.

"Always one more rat to drive out. Don't try fooling me, your illusions wont save you."

The woman could move no further, and she closed her eyes as tears ran down her face. A light glow began to surround her body, bringing to light her three bushy tails, long, claw-like nails, and perked up fox ears. She stared up at Grim with her slited pupils and squirmed.

"Please, I will run, you will never see me again, I promise I will not hurt a single human soul, please just let me live!"

He cracked his knuckles and shook his head. "You think I will let a face-stealer like you just run free? For what do you take me."

He gripped her by the throat and picked the woman up. "I've seen what you do to people that trust your kind. I will make it quick, and that is more than you deserve-"

Grim heard the tapping of bare feet and his eyes widened.

"Stop it." Demadara jabbed at his back with her hand, the tall man could barely feel it.

"Do you have any idea what a Face-stealer is, girl? They live off of preying on people, they are as false as can be."

His grip around the fox-womans throat tightened, she choked and bared her sharp teeth.

"I came here to avenge a dead girl." Demadara gripped onto his shirt to keep herself standing as her legs quivered. "I wont let it end with a dead woman."

Grim clenched his teeth together, the muscles on his arm showed through his skin. Then he dropped her.

The fox woman gasped for breath, staring up at him still shaking with fear.

"You're luckier than you have any right to be." He reached down and broke her chains with his bare hands. "Now you're going to make yourself useful and help her out."

He pulled the woman up on her feet, but she didn't need much convincing to come along. For just one moment she stopped however, as they walked past Demadara who had again fallen to her knees, clinging on to the Heart for dear life.

"My lord, I owe you my life." The woman muttered, her tails waving through the air. "I will do everything, all that I can, to repay you."