Chapter 108 I Wouldn’t Trade This For The World.
“Slow down.” Edward chastised. “Let’s work backwards. I think that the drow military being behind this is our best bet.” He looked at the monster and nodded sagely. “Only way to figure out why a creature is the way it is is to cut it open and see what’s inside. The armblades are from a giant mantis I believe. Who knows how far they had to drag that corpse to get it here.” He shook his head.
After a long moment of silence Lenna started to get up. “Well, let’s cut it open. You know anything about monster physiology?” Isaac asked and moved to help Lenna stand.
Edward nodded and pulled a skinning knife out of his bottomless bag. “A bit. I think I should know enough about the monsters that this… thing… is made of.”
The trio spent the next hour taking the monster apart. Isaac stored all of the blue dragon scales in his Inventory but otherwise the hour was mostly a biology lesson. The creature had not one, not two, but four brains inside its head. Three of them had been stabbed and/or slashed through. The last one had ‘died’ when the creature's heart had stopped supplying it with oxygen.
From what Edward could understand one brain was for motor function. One filtered external stimuli, leaving out all pain so the monster wouldn’t be distracted in combat. One was entirely dedicated to processing the information from its nostrils, which were filled with the scent receptors of a shadow-wolf as well as pheromone receptors from the giant mantis. It appeared that if you gave off a scent of any kind the monster would be able to track you. It didn’t need to see or hear its opponent at all to fight. Isaac must have been a nightmare for the monstrosity.
The last one was a bit strange. It had been so heavily modified that Edward could do little more than guess at what it was for. “Something had to be controlling the shadows…” He said with a frown while staring at the final brain. “The problem is that I don’t know what most of this is supposed to do. My fear is that it was sending and receiving information magically via this fourth brain.”
“That’s a thing?” Isaac asked worriedly.
Edward nodded. “Some creatures are naturally telepathic. Whoever made this is a master of physiology to a degree I can’t even begin to understand. I learned a bit back in my adventuring days so I could get better loot money but this requires someone who really knows what they are doing.” He sighed and stood up. He stretched before continuing. “Let’s check out the guts I guess. I doubt there is much left.”
Edward was right. Most of the insides had been melted by Lenna. They found what looked like the remains of a few hearts and remnants of some mana related organs from shadow-wolves and falling shadows. Everything else was unrecognizable.
“So… who actually killed it?” Isaac asked when the monster’s guts had been thoroughly spread across the ground.
“Does it matter?” Lenna asked.
Edward shook his head. “Honestly, we did. It would have died a few seconds later by the looks of it but it dropped right after we stabbed it in the brains.” Lenna just shook her head at the boys.
“Anything worth taking back?” Isaac questioned. He doubted that anything that was left was actually worthwhile but it was free to ask.
Edward only confirmed what Isaac had thought. “No. We should bring back that weird brain though. Alexander can have it and maybe he or one of his wizard friends can learn something.”
“Alexander?” Isaac had to think a bit too hard to remember who Alexander was. “Wait… the court mage, right?”
“Yes.” Lenna answered simply. Edward nodded in affirmation.
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“Well I’m not touching it.” Isaac said after a few moments of the three of them just looking at the exposed brain.
“Fine.” Edward grumbled and finished cutting it free so he could stick it in his bottomless bag. He rinsed himself and the pair of active adventurers’ off as best he could before looking at the bone dragon. “It’s him. He’s what reeks.”
Isaac tilted his head with a frown. “How can you tell?”
Edward gestured to the dragon. “It’s all the dried blood and who knows what else that is caked on him. This thing hasn’t been dead long enough to rot.” He answered and kicked the chimera’s corpse.
Upon inspection it was evident that Isaac had neglected to clean Kahtesh after he ate the bounty target. “Oops.” Isaac said quietly. Edward gave him an annoyed look. “What? He was hungry.” Now it was Lenna’s turn to give Isaac the same. “Fine, can I borrow that?” Isaac asked and gestured for the ocean in a bottle.
Edward shook his head but tossed Isaac the bottle anyway. It took a bit longer than Isaac would have liked to get all the human bits out of Kahtesh’s teeth and throat as the dragon had actually tried to eat the man. Once they were finished Isaac asked a question he had been wondering about for a while: “Are we going to continue forwards or head back?”
Edward looked at him like he was crazy. “We head back. I am not going to get caught in some wizard trap without a wizard along to fix it. The only reason we went this far was because we needed to know what killed Azazel. I’ll make a bounty for a team of gold rank adventurers, with a magical trap master, to see what’s at the end of this tunnel system when we get back.” He turned back the way they had come and motioned for them to follow. “Remember the trap gate. I’ll need you to stealth us out again.” He said to Isaac who nodded his consent.
Kahtesh was sent back into the void as he was no longer needed and the trio began their long trek back to Safeharbor. As they traveled Edward and Isaac filled the void with idle conversation.
“Your girlfriend has a death wish.” Edward said with a sigh.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Isaac replied with his own sigh and a slight shake of his head.
“I do not and I am not his girlfriend. I am his guard.” Lenna cut in with mild indignation. “I have done the objectively best thing, almost every time.”
“It just so happens that the objectively best thing involves you blowing yourself up,” Isaac continued for her. “charging head long into danger without blinking, or, as of a few hours ago, LIGHTING YOURSELF ON FUCKING FIRE!”
Lenna nodded. “Yes.”
Isaac smacked himself in the face before dragging his hand off of it in an exaggerated manner. “You are bad for my heart.” He eventually said with another sigh.
Edward just chuckled and shook his head. “Are all V’Nova’s like you? I haven’t fought any. I’ve fought plenty of your, their, men but never a V’Nova personally. At least not until you blew us both up with a fireball.”
Lenna shrugged. “We are taught to make do with what we have. I no longer have my support magics. What I do have is fireball. It hurts but hasn’t let me down yet.”
Edward chuckled at her mentioning of it hurting as he knew that she meant it hurt her to use not that it did damage to her opponents. “So it’s more of a conviction thing than something that is taught?” He asked rhetorically.
“Yes.” Lenna affirmed with a nod.
The trio continued on in silence for a while before Isaac suddenly exclaimed: “Damn it!”
Lenna looked at him and raised an eyebrow even though he couldn’t see it. “What?” She asked.
“It’s been too long.” Isaac grumbled.
Lenna waited a moment before indulging him. “What has?” She asked with a sigh.
“For Gio to be the third act villain.” Isaac told her like it was something they both should have noticed a while ago.
“What?” She asked. She was sure he had finally lost it. “Third act? You aren’t in a storybook Isaac.”
Isaac shook his head. “No, listen. Act one is obviously the time from when I woke up down here until I met you. Mostly introduction and getting a direction to head, right?” He argued.
Lenna sighed and shook her head before looking at Edward. “My charge has lost his sanity.”
Isaac just continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “Act two would be our journey to Safeharbor, that whole mess at the beginning, and meeting the prick himself.” At that Edward chuckled. He didn’t really like Sir Gio either.
Lenna gave up and just looked at Isaac. “So when is the end of act three, oh hero of myth and legend?” She asked with sarcasm so clear it could have been used as a window.
Isaac chuckled before answering her question. “That’s the problem. It would have made sense if Gio made a move during the first two weeks or so that we were living here. We beat him or take him out or whatever and then call it a day. Nice three acts with a bow on the end. Instead, nothing happened but giant spiders for two weeks. He missed his deadline and I hadn’t even realized it. I’m going to punch him in the face for this.” He finished with a frown and audible resolve.
Lenna shook her head. “That’s because life isn’t a storybook.” After a moment she added a question: “Why two weeks?”
“Because it was like a week or two between each of the other important points.” Isaac answered simply.
Lenna thought for a moment and realized he was right. They had been together, living in Safeharbor, for longer than the rest of the time that Isaac remembered. She didn’t know how to feel about that. For her it was a small, if eventful, dot on the timeline of her life but for him it was most of what he knew. ‘Human lives are too short.’ She grumbled internally.
“I’m sorry Lenna.” Edward eventually said after it looked like Isaac was done ranting. “I do not envy your position.” He told her with a grin. He had tried to frown solemnly but had immediately failed.
Lenna shook her head and chuckled. “He may be a bit difficult, but… I wouldn’t trade this for the world.”