The group was staring at Kylie as she stepped out the door of the house; the sword had tried to pull its way towards Praxius, and she felt she needed some distance for now.

~That thing is a devil. It needs to die.~

"It's an ally, contracted to help."

~You can't trust devils. They'll follow a contract, sure... but they always find ways to twist things to their own, evil, end. What idiot sold him their soul to help you?~

"Nobody. He's here to help his granddaughter, and my family agreed to help him get her clear of her problems if he helped us."

She glanced back into the house for a moment. Derek was opening other chests; hopefully they didn't have anything too interesting in them; and Kylie kind-of wanted to see. "So. Can we please not try to attack the devil unless I discover I need to? He's not a 'good guy' but he's being honest and following his contract so far."

~This is a devil. Demons and devils are my purpose, slaying them, sending them back to the realms from which they came. I'm a Holy Slayer. Its my whole reason for being. If you're not going to kill him, leave me for someone who will. I'd prefer if you did the same with my mistress's armor.~

She sighed. It was too much to hope for that she could get a cool sword, wasn't it? "Well. The devil's going to help us avenge your mistress when dawn arrives.. don't have too long before that, maybe two hours. I can leave you with your mistress's body, if you know where they buried her, but I need to be back here so we can all be ready for anyone who escapes the fire."

~...You can use me for that purpose.~

"No, no. We got the children out of town, and all the murderers are hiding in a temple of darkness. We're going to set the thing on fire once the dead start to rise and collect their stones. The criminals will get to choose between burning alive and walking out into the waiting arms of the dead. Assuming they left the barricade light enough they can escape. The devil already went through the whole town and made sure there was a way for the dead to get into all the buildings, that they would have no escape if they slipped the noose, while me and my friends got ready for the fire. Hopefully we won't need to lift a blade; we'll just watch a building burn down, or watch the dead work."

~This... is efficient, and justified, but feels evil. Criminals are supposed to be executed in public, in the light of day, not die trapped in darkness, cowering in fear as they are trapped between multiple bad options. And what if innocents are caught up in the blaze?~

She glanced at the temple. "The innocents already fled. The children we helped escape are among the guilty; I'm just hoping the Paladin can forgive those who were likely just doing as their parents ordered, not being willful killers like the parents. In one family, the father and sons threw the stones, while the mother and daughters refused; the women left safely. The father and sons were hounded by the dead wherever they hid. Anyway. If you can point out your mistress's grave, I'll leave you there."

~Hold me up, and I'll point out the way.~

***

When the first glimmers of sunlight came over the hill, they started to work on the most recent version of the plan. The dead would come and claim the accursed stones within minutes; they needed a warm welcome.

As Praxius started rolling barrels of oil up to the building, the others threw containers of oil, spirits, and even some tar that Derek had found in one of the shops; those inside the temple might be confused, wondering what was going on; if the dead were there early, or what might be happening.

The armor covering the leader of the last group of dead seemed to slowly fade from existence; and some of the corpses that had been broken the day before started to give off a faint white glow... and rise, walking towards the stones where the corpses had left them the day before.... and as they lifted to their feet... Terra did the honors.

A single jolt of fire impacted a patch of oil from a broken lamp that had been tossed onto the roof; and it rapidly spread; catching nearby patches of oil and spirits alight as a single small fire rapidly turned into a conflagration; growing even worse as Terra picked out a few other spots; making sure the fire took the entire building.

As the dead slowly rose, and collected their stones... they simply stood there. Each corpse, both those that had already been in the streets, and new ones that started to walk in from outside, simply picking up one of the rocks and turning to face the fire. As it spread, Terra could hear a scream; and the onset of panic. Hammering and arguing, yelling, from inside the building.

Then... a figure arrived. A glowing, armored corpse, stepped forward to pick up a stone; but in its other hand, it held the Holy Slayer.

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The dead, including the armored one, simply watched the fire, unmoving. It seemed the dumb ones wouldn't act without orders if they couldn't see a criminal; and none of them even looked at Terra or the party.

Amidst the massive plume of smoke, the arguing eventually went quiet. There was a loud crashing noise, as the roof collapsed on part of the structure, sending up another gust of smoke; and screams that were silenced within moments. The figure slowly turned away from the temple, focusing on some direction, off in the distance.... but then looked at the group... focusing first on her grandfather... and then turning away to look at Kylie.

As the dead started to simply fall over in place, stones clattering to the ground, the solitary armored form approached... and stopped. A low voice emerged, though the mouth of the creature didn't move. "Justice has been served. The man responsible for the rape, and those responsible for the murders, have been dealt with. I would never have pursued the children, but your concern for them does you credit. Are you certain you wish to travel with this devil, my child?"

Terra blinked. Was this the goddess herself, channeling through a corpse to speak? Gods couldn't come here directly, of course; nothing that powerful could. But to be witness to this was amazingly rare.

The priestess took a step forward. "The devil might be malicious and cruel, but he is a creature of his word; a being of honor, worthy of respect. He has promised to help me, and has shown every sign he will only not do so if I were to do something willfully suicidal. This entire quest, his entire journey to help me, are due to his respect for law and order."

The corpse nodded. "No Holy Slayer can be wielded while fighting alongside such a creature. I withdraw the spirit within. Use this blade of light to reveal truth to the world." The dead flipped it around; extending the blade to the priestess, who took it with care.

When the final corpse collapsed, Terra looked out over the village. This.. was a victory, of a sort. One that never should have happened. A single corrupt ruler had brought about his town's demise; a few moments of bad choices leading to hundreds of deaths, whose death cries were merely delayed by all the barricades set in their place, not stopped.

Terra slowly approached the fire; the scent of cooking meat filled the air, disturbingly reminding her of the bacon from days beforehand as it mixed with the more comforting scent of burning wood. She was familiar with fire; had always loved watching the glow, the flicker; and the ability to make it herself with magic had been seemingly sent from the goddesses.

Everyone had contributed. The others had thrown oil onto the building. Rolled barrels. But she had started the fire; and made sure it spread as quickly as possible. If even a single innocent person, too scared to run because of the dead, were trapped in that blaze, it would mean she wasn't enacting justice... but was a murderer. One whose victim had died in darkness, choking on smoke, crushed by debris, or possibly burned alive.

She didn't want to mention it. The others seemed to be assuming that everyone had escaped who the dead weren't chasing. But was that really true? Was it even likely? The goddess had shown up to reward the priestess, sort-of. She'd have to take that as a positive sign. She spotted something odd... one of the other buildings was on fire. The blacksmith's shop where her father had given her a drawn-out lesson in armor repair. That was... odd. The building's heart, where the forge was, was built to be durable and fire-resistant; it was only the living quarters and basement that were flammable. Had she missed with one of her fire blasts? The smithy wasn't even in the right direction....

It didn't matter. The structure wasn't even occupied, who would care?

***

Praxius looked out over the fire with a smile; giving a glance back at the smithy he'd started ablaze before moving closer. His people fared much better in cold, than in heat; but he wasn't particularly afraid of fire; he could heal back from a nasty burn far easier than a holy smite, and considering the relationship some of his people had with pain, he knew plenty who deliberately used fire on themselves for recreational purposes.

That wasn't his thing. He enjoyed using it on others. Something his fallen bride, daughter, and granddaughter all had in common, apparently.

In a single stroke, hundreds of lawbreakers consigned to a terrible death. Maybe an innocent or two; not too big a deal. But any rational, lawful, being would be happy about what had happened here today. Unfortunately, they weren't in an Empire by rational, lawful, beings. They were in a Kingdom whose laws were often capriciously, selectively, applied.

"Alright, people. Come here."

He glanced at the others... they approached slowly, with varying degrees of concern, and kept looking back at the fire, or the dead.

"We need to have an important discussion. The local mayors are invested with a certain level of authority by their lords. While everyone who just died in there was a criminal and a murderer, there are those who might not see it that way. When we go to Rockdale, the local lord might be a friend of this mayor Brentley, and want to punish us for what he considers crimes. We did, after all, just kill over a hundred of the local citizenry... even if they were all co-conspirators in murder. As such, it would be best if none of us go into specifics about what happened here... or even discuss it unless we have to."

He looked back at the fire. "If anyone asks, we came, we fought the dead, we made sure the children got out, and after we made sure the dead were cleared out today, we left. If someone uses a truth spell, all of you but Terra can say that you didn't start the fire... and Terra can say that the only fire magic she used in this town was against murderers and the dead. We can even say all the townsfolk were alive the last time we saw them, since none escaped. This place's laws are inconsistent and unworthy of respect, and unlike in the Empire, I can and will break you free from any prison or execution attempts down here if I need to."

These words, while technically true, were exactly the sort of weasel-words he'd had to use a few times he was adventuring with Terra's grandmother. The art of lying through truth magic was a careful one; and if the questioner truly believed you were guilty, he could likely find specific enough questions to get the truth out.

As the trio nodded solemnly, clearly understanding the importance of his advice, Praxius simply hoped that there wasn't such an interrogation coming; it would be far more annoying to help prepare these fledglings for their future if he had to murder a pile of the Kingdom's knights every time they stopped for the night.