“It’s about time you explain yourself.” Azriel said. “I’ll ask again, were you involved in the tower’s collapse?”

Livia: Careful, as an Elite at his level, Azriel’s Cha is probably through the roof. Even the AI won’t save you if your odds of success are 0%.

We steeled ourselves, knowing that we couldn’t lie without risking major escalation.

“We had nothing to do with the tower’s collapse.” Alexa said, technically telling the truth by referring to the ‘we’ that teleported out. Although now that I thought of it, they were partly responsible for it by causality. Hopefully it wouldn’t count, but Alexa was threading a thin line.

“You still disappeared from a fight against evil, leaving me by myself.” Azriel said.

“We asked you if you could handle it, and you insisted you wanted to fight this foe by yourself. Ben even summoned a Town Guard to help you.” Alexa countered.

Azriel flinched, his argument rebutted. “I did say that…”

“But how though!?” Azriel regained his assault. “One does not just ‘summon’ a Town Guard.”

“I’m the Mayor of this Town.” Ben said. Technically not a lie even if it wasn’t a truthful answer to the question.

“I never heard of a Mayor being able of doing that.” Azriel said.

Ben just shrugged.

Azriel waited for a few more seconds, but Ben didn’t say anything to avoid telling a lie. The situation was tense, if Azriel pressed for an answer then Ben would have to risk lying or admit the misdirection. Azriel was about to speak up, when-

“What about my claims?” Burl interjected. “I’m after the master burglar, and I’ve found stolen goods in your workshop. This is the first place where I found any of the stolen goods at all, I should add.”

Right, the AI hated Azriel and controlled the other NPCs including Burl. We shouldn’t rely on them fixing all of our troubles or ignoring Azriel’s stats entirely, but they could give a nudge in situations like these.

“What would these items be?” Miho asked.

“We found some skinning blades and tools on your lady friend here that I can tell have been stolen, and he confirmed that they’re his’.” Burl said, nodding to Foreman’s headless corpse.

“Wouldn’t they be considered stolen the moment that you take them without Elise’s permission?” I asked.

“Well…” Burl said, flinching when Azriel threw another glare his way.

“It’s quite convenient that you guys killed your witness before he can testify.” Alexa added.

“Burl did not lie when he said that Foreman claimed they were his.” Azriel countered.

“But for all we know, Foreman was lying.” Alexa said.

“I see no reason to believe that.” Azriel said.

“My impression of Foreman is that he’s a money-grubbing bastard that won’t hesitate to play dirty and bend the rules for a few more coins.” I said, honestly meaning every word I said. That many NPCs in this dungeon were stereotypes that made their personality and first impression identical only helped to add conviction to my words. “I wouldn’t say it’s a stretch that he lied about recognising them if it meant free tools, or said it to incriminate us for a more expedient trial.”

“Conjecture.” Azriel said. “Mere slanderous accusations without proof, overruled.”

“Objection!” Tatiana said, dramatically pointing at Azriel. “You killed him, which means either you too judged him an evil person, or you’re a butcher that passed judgement without sufficient proof! Eliminating a witness and then basing your whole accusation on their would-be testimony is beyond defendable, and no sane man would consider such a claim sustainable evidence, let alone by itself.”

“Sounds like you’ve got nothing on us after all, Azriel!” Alexa said.

“I’ve got justice on my side.” Azriel said, only to immediately flinch. Right, the Zone of Truth also worked on him, didn’t it? Leave it to the AI to nettle him wherever they could.

“You know what? I don’t care.” Azriel said, the light that radiated from him fading out. “You guys left and abandoned me to my fate. I don’t care what your reasons were, what excuses you have, what nonsense you come up with! I know what you did, and I’ve already judged you. For your sins, you will repent. Or else.”

“We were busy, and we barely know you.” Alexa rebutted.

“You’re a trained and well-armed combatant, you can take care of yourself.” Ben said. “Don’t expect others to bail you out when you chose your own path.”

“I spent TWO DAYS buried in the rubble of that tower before I managed to dig my way out!” Azriel said, his serene mask replaced by a genuinely livid expression. “Two days! For two days, all my plans were delayed and evil could fester unhampered! You left me BURIED ALIVE for TWO DAYS!”

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“How were we supposed to know that?” Ben asked, not missing a beat to rebut what Azriel probably expected to silence us. “How would we even know where you were buried? How were we supposed to know you didn’t just die in the collapse?”

“You would’ve known if you hadn’t left me surrounded by monsters and a collapsing tower.” Azriel spat. “You wouldn’t have been ignorant if you hadn’t abandoned my just cause!”

“We never joined your cause, dude.” Ben said. “Nor do we have any responsibilities to some wandering vagrant.”

A vein on Azriel’s forehead twitched, and I feared that we might be pushing him too far. In the end, Elites weren’t bound to rules or a script, they merely followed it at their convenience.

Azriel took a deep breath, and smiled thinly again. “I’ll repeat myself: I don’t care. You abandoned me, and by doing so you abandoned the just cause of the Seraphim. You’ll need to repent for this, or be struck down. Whatever you say matters not.

“Fortunately for you, I have the perfect means of redemption in mind. You’ll even be heralded as heroes along with me, once we save this town! For you see, it is in grave danger from an ancient evil that stirs far beneath the ground. So no, it matters not what excuses you have. Rejecting a righteous cause to protect the innocent lives in this town from certain annihilation, such a selfish act would already be an act of evil by itself.”

I repressed a sigh, already knowing what Azriel meant. Even if the AI didn’t directly meddle with fate after we decided to not do something, the dangerous mission would somehow end up forcing itself on us regardless.

“And so I ask you, what do you say?” Azriel said, his smile wide but his hand resting on his blade. “Will you aid me in rescuing this town, or declare yourself a selfish evil?”

Livia: Don’t say anything. Let’s first agree to an answer that doesn’t tangle us in his Oath, before anyone says anything at all.

“What’s the pay?” Burl asked.

“You’ll have to discuss that with the Mayor of this town after the mission is done. We don’t have time for negotiations now.” Azriel all but dismissed the question, and then realised something. He smiled viciously as he looked at Ben. “Though one may assume that the Mayor will richly reward anyone rescuing his dear town.”

“Azriel’s promises are his own, not mine.” Ben said after a moment to weigh his words. “Whatever he promises are but the words of a wandering vagrant without any weight in future negotiations. And I won’t be promising anything based upon the doomsaying of said wandering vagrant either.”

“It is no doomsaying.” Azriel preached to the room. “What the Great Burrower Cult speaks of is actually true, even if their words hold no wisdom or inherent truth. I’ve went down the tunnels that appeared around this region and found a great nest of deadly monstrosities that shall soon overflow and raze the surface. Given time, they shall come and they shall slay everyone, unless we go down there and stop them!”

Darryl: Should we tell him that we already prevented that?

Livia: I wouldn’t risk it. You resolved it, but then the spectres threw that whole event in disarray.

“Do you have any proof?” Tatiana asked.

“My word is my bond; I shall not lie about these things.” Azriel smugly said. “I swear by the Seraphim that I’m telling the truth.”

“So no proof.” Ben shrugged him off. “And as we barely know you, we have no reason to believe that your word is actually worth a damn.”

“I am the chosen of the Seraphim.” Azriel hissed, visibly angered by the blatant disregard of what he clearly considered to be his ace in the hole. “They have chosen me, which makes me just by default.”

“Never heard of them.” Ben shrugged.

“Of course a sinner would not know of the champions of the gods.” Azriel said.

“Champions or not, you’ve yet to produce any proof.” Tatiana said. “And I for one see no reason to descend into what will probably be dangerous and instable tunnels with insufficient supports and ventilation, just because one man claims there’s danger somewhere down there. We have too many other problems, such as all the people that have gone missing around town, to spend who knows how many days on a wild goose chase.”

“If these creatures go unchecked, there won’t be anyone left to go missing!” Azriel hissed.

“Are you a zoologist?” Livia asked. “What credentials do you have to make assessments on the mass migration habits of a mostly unknown species?”

“Tides of death will boil from the earth itself to consume us all, and it will be too late to stop them once that happens.” Azriel said, clearly growing ever angrier that we weren’t going along with his storyline and were bringing up arguments that tried to circumvent his justice instead.

“Now you’ve just dropped the subtlety and became a full-on doomsayer.” Alexa said.

Azriel went quiet for a moment, and I could see that the Elite cast off the pretence of story. I quickly glanced at Elise, but we hadn’t bought enough time. Still over a minute to go, and we were no closer to untying her.

“Final choice, final chance.” Azriel said, the pressure of his icy tone heavier than the previously shown anger and fake serenity combined. “I don’t care about your excuses or your pleas, I just care for your answer. Will you join me to stop the great burrowers, or not?”

Silence filled the room, not even Burl and the thugs daring to make a sound.

Darryl: No more stalling. Elise is almost awake, but…

Ben: We’re going to have to fight him. Even if we don’t piss him off, the AI will probably manipulate the course of events to make us kick his arse or die trying. The only choice we get is whether we fight him here or down there.

Miho: Down there sounds more logical. We might be able to lose him in the horde rush.

Darryl: We should fight him here. Down there are too many unknown factors, and those Krutnik are going to run us ragged before we’ll fight him. Especially as he’ll probably force us to take the lead and deal with the lower levelled mobs. Right now he has Burl and the thugs, but us having Livia outweighs that minor advantage.

Livia: I agree. We should flee rather than fight, but fighting here is preferred over risking one of you getting Haunted by one of the spectres down there.

“The world and I don’t have all day.” Azriel said. “An answer. Now.”

“Alright. I’ve got an answer.” Ben slowly said.

Ben: Fight it is. Shall we strike first?

Livia: Risky with the Oaths, but letting him strike first is just as dangerous. The effects aren’t party-wide, so I’d say one or two attack first and the rest defend.

Darryl: Ben and Tatiana, you attack, I’ll defend. Alexa, give us a Dex or Con song, right now we need to dodge or survive rather than hit hard. Miho, take out the thugs. Livia, buff us however you think is best.

“You want an answer? Here.” Ben said, taking something out of his inventory.

Azriel frowned at the single gold coin that Ben threw his way, and then tried to draw his sword when Ben disappeared. Not even the Elite was faster than instant teleportation however, nor the backstab attack that came with it.

“Poor choice, sinner.” Azriel snarled as he drew his blade impossibly fast and spun around to cleave Ben in two.

He stopped in the nick of time before striking the Guard that Ben took out. Then the stolen coin hit him in the back of the head, and the Guard turned their hollow eyes at him regardless.