I took a deep breath in and then released it. Repeated this motion, as I tried to quieten down the show-tune blaring in my ears. A little ditty for yours truly alone. Blood dripped from my hands, warmth clinging to me in patches all over my suit. My aching eyes looked away from the 30% health warning that was slowly ticking up, to my demonic patron.
The sword was equally running with crimson, droplets falling to the grass as though he was self-cleaning. Perhaps he was. His single eye regarded me with its usual impassiveness, focused on the star of the show rather than the faceless audience who had faded into obscurity.
Or at least an early grave. Plus, I had only removed the face of one of the Monsters.
“You can go now,” I told him, shattering both the music rolling around my skull, and any post-battle mania threatening to turn me to mush.
It was hard to gauge the difficulty of the fight, all things considered. After all, the time where I fought on my own had become few and far between. Survival was almost guaranteed, although it had been touch and go without Ren's usual healing and shields that I took for granted. Not to mention Wolf taking part attention of a group. I didn’t think it would be too out there to suggest that these six creatures fought better and more cohesive than a lot of Players we had met in our time here.
In fairness, they had been designed that way. Real people were… unpredictable. Flawed. Most Crimson Shadows probably hadn’t been working together for very long, and it was hard to get that unit effectiveness put in place without time and respect.
I shook my hands off as my patron returned to hell, and surveyed the destruction. Extensive. I would be willing to admit I had gone a little over the top. Two purple cards still danced around me in orbit, only controlled by my subconscious still. After letting them fade away, I pulled my foot from a sticky mess of Monster guts.
No Trauma.
Not entirely unexpected, given the things I’d seen and done lately. These being thinking and talking creatures felt odd. As if it put them closer to Wolf… or myself, I supposed. Created by the System, but with some manner of free will. To think the whole world should be filled with such Monsters, but instead we had been left with this empty and unfulfilling existence.
[Max: No sign of spellcaster.]
[Max: Intercepted a group of Monster coming toward you.]
[Ren: ARE YOU OKAY]
[Max: Not until I am back in your arms, moonflower.]
[Ren: I miss you~]
[Quinn: Could you at least do this in private^]
[Ren: never]
[Max: I’ll keep you updated.]
The group hadn’t given up any information when pressed for either the location of the spellcaster, or what was actually going on in Candlekeep. Not surprising, but still disappointing.
I looked over to a shaded area under the trees, wondering if I could steal a nap. A very well-deserved nap. The last time I had tried that, I had been kidnapped and nearly tortured to death. That said… I was very tired. Instead of submitting to rest, I dug through my Inventory.
Into my hand, a [Fire Resistance Potion]. While I didn’t need the actual effect of the magical liquid, it had the side effect of tasting… spicy. A little like aniseed and pepper that stayed warm in your throat like a rough whiskey. Based on the one time I mistakenly tried that alcohol. Tasted horrible, but might perk me up.
I downed it while holding my nose. Coughed as the empty bottle went back into the stack in my intangible space. I blinked away the watering eyes and felt slightly more alert. Less likely to be burned.
Looting through the bodies gave me little of value. I took the remaining weapons as they looked nice, but other than some gold and basic items I’d funnel to Percius, it wasn’t worth the effort. Other than saving the team back at the town a headache, anyway. Ren and Wolf wouldn't have had too much issue with that group, but I was happy to take that burden away from them.
I stretched out and considered my options. There had been a lot of activity closer to the city, but it didn’t tell me much about what the best plan now was. The longer we went without waking up the others, the worse things would get. Our plan of grinding out the dungeon for most of the day had been shattered, but we couldn’t exactly march on the Lady immediately.
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Not without a nap first, at least.
Like before, I switched into the sky to get a lay of the land. Eyes scoured for any sort of hint of guide of whom to impress to death next. I returned to the ground with such a target.
Over to the west and slightly north, there was another stone tower, much like the one where we assisted Leyla’s Party in getting their kidnapped friends back. There was another group of System-created around it, as if they were guarding. It was also a reasonable distance away for a spellcaster to run off and get some sleep for himself after ruining our night.
Sure, I was filling in some of the narrative gaps there to suit my tired expectations, but I had long learned to trust my gut. Nevermind the System fudging things to my benefit, I was more than capable of having a decent idea of what was ahead. A lot more bloodshed, for certain. Some answers and resolution to the current problem… I was willing to say yes.
With that decided mentally, my feet took me off in that direction. A good hour or so walk, where I would no doubt start to become further frayed at the edges. Such a shame that the only places I could teleport to were behind me.
I clicked my fingers. That just reminded me of my other responsibilities.
With a grin on my face, I stepped forward into the warmth of hell. The familiar throne room now had a wide table in it with a dozen chairs in various states of being knocked over or being occupied by bloody corpses.
As a group of Imps dragged one of the large bodies out through the doorway, I turned a raised eyebrow to the floating sword.
“This is the fourth set of council members, my king.” His impassive eye turned from me to the mostly decapitated group bleeding out everywhere.
“Excellent. Any challengers impatiently awaiting my return?” The more time the demons in hell spent bickering and being killed off by my very clear and mostly fair rules, the less time they’d have to gather up against me.
“Just the one. Buk’la Apku. She has been told that you wanted three top challengers, but she keeps killing the others who rank that high.”
I nodded diplomatically. Quite a strong demon then. Killing her would be a good idea, but it sounded like she was doing a great job of getting rid of any upstarts that might threaten my crown.
“Do me a favor,” I asked my patron. “Tell her that I offer her the position of King’s Champion and War General. She’ll have to continue testing any potential challengers, but if she still wants to try for my crown, that is fine - I just can’t right now.”
“As you wish, my king.” The sword bobbed in the air. “It is likely she will want to challenge you. If you have to subjugate her, it is fifty-fifty on whether she would prefer death rather than serve in that position… but I believe the offer is fair to you both.”
“Glad to hear it.” I eyed my throne. Given that there was time dilation between here and the real world, I could probably get some sleep here and it would be much less time out there. Even abandoning my Guild for a couple of hours was untenable, however. Anything could happen, and I had to push forward until they were safe.
I waved my hand to produce the return portal back to the area I had come from. “Oh, and great work in the fight. I appreciate it.”
“It is my pleasure to serve… although I question why you do not wield me and are more than happy for me to act independently.”
“I wouldn’t want to do you a disservice.” I shot him a smile. “You are competent alone and I am more comfortable using spells… but we’ll see what the future brings.”
Cool air washed over me, somehow making me feel more tired than the warmth of hell. Back in the forest, the clearing filled with the blood and corpses of my last act. I walked towards the tower I had seen, my outfit vanishing as I told the System to repair it—leaving me to travel in my underwear.
Something that was sure to earn the scorn of Ren, were she here, all the while as she ogled me like she hadn’t seen it before. There was a danger in being without my armor, sure. That was the end of that thought. The only benefit was arriving to my next fight looking as dazzling as I deserved to be.
My demonic ace hovered up beside me as I filled it with new items. Assaulting a regiment and tower was a big ask, in some ways. Especially alone. Luckily, I had more than one trick up my sleeve - in fact, I was known for them.
I hummed to myself, climbing over fallen logs and trying to avoid nettles as I wandered towards my target in my lack of clothing.
With my tired eyes flicking through my tabs, I somehow managed to cancel the cleaning process on my gear and had to restart it, adding another five minutes of exhibitionism to the total. While I grumbled to myself for the action, I only had myself to blame.
Something that echoed around my skull as I stepped on a rock, hopping from the pain to then step awkwardly on some angled terrain, twisting my ankle. I rolled across the grass and slid to my side. I groaned. The only thing making this a terrible place to have an impromptu nap was more stone hidden amongst the soft grass—something the side of my head had found the painful way.
Time rhymes, or something like that.
Still, there were some pretty flowers here. I should take a couple for Ren. Pushing myself up to my feet, I withdrew a [Regeneration Potion], if only to make me feel better about…
I paused, the glass at my lips, as my eyes looked slowly to the side at the figure now standing a dozen feet away.
“Oh,” I said. “Lady in Red, I presume.”