The singing was truly awful, lengthy metallic notes at the edge of her earing that made her teeth ache, but Alex felt terror from... somewhere. It didn't abate, despite the fact that she had found at least passable shelter, and it was strangely distant. It didn't roil around her stomach, and for all that her heart was pounding in her chest... it felt imposed.

Which was, of course, terrifying in its own right, so all she could do was curl up and try not to scream, or worse, whimper. Eventually, she passed out, blessed unconsciousness taking hold of her.

Not that it lasted long, giving awa to shadowy nightmares of a skeletal man laughing as a river of death poured out of the sky around him, his demented bright red eyes burrowing into her own.

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Israfal swore as the dragonborn moonship slid into the void above the mountain. The nameless dwarf slammed his hand down on the ground, and earthen spikes rose up around them, while Kalas called down shelter from wicked eyes.

Korus's eyes had turned a solid white, his head turned awkwardly as the questor's patron turned its own perception out through him. With a soft grunt, the orc carefully repositioned himself so that his neck was not quite at a breaking point.

They quietly watched as the metal ship hovered above the dragon at the heart of this zone, swarms of silvery automata flowing between the two of them.

"This trip just keeps getting better." The nameless mused. Israfal stifled a snort, while Kalas nodded tiredly. "Weird ephemera, some kind of cultist, whatever was killing the trees... What depth are we even at, I thought this close to the Edge things were supposed to be calmer?"

"The Edge has advanced three depths due to a recent integration event." The group flinched as the words of the Goddess flowed from the Questor's mouth, and Israfal gestured for the other two to stay quiet. He watched Korus, and as he expected, a little bit of the orc's watery blood was flowing from his slack mouth.

It took three hours before the dragonborn departed again. Korus instantly collapsed into a heap, coughing from the strain of those hours. "Damn" He rasped after a few moments, taking deep gulping breaths. Kalas waited until the orc attained a semblance of calm, then asked the question that was on Israfal - and doubtlessly the nameless dwarf's - tongue.

"Why was an integrator here?"

"Just...visiting. The dragon there" Korus gestured at the distant mountain. "Is one of his ancestors, and has a passing interest in non-crustacean sapients that get integrated, regardless of whether they join the Low Table or as monsters, so the human integration was a matter of interest to him. Especially because one of them apparently spawned in here."

Israfal blinked, mouth suddenly dry. "Do you think...?" Kalas looked thoughtful. "It would make sense that someone newly arrived wouldn't know any better." The nameless dwarf was looking through one of his ledgers. "A new monster specimen, living, sells for between 100,000 and 1,000,000 credits." It said, blandly.

Kalas sneered, almost instantly. "Of course it does." She said. The dwarf shrugged. "This is a sapient, so it would be on the higher end."

The orc gave a grumbling laugh. "Not really what we're about. Let's make sure we know what's going on, then make sure it knows what's going on."

The dwarf shifted uncomfortably. "Are we really doing this?" Korus shrugged. "It is necessary. It is Just."

The group left their shelter, and started marching until they came to a pond. The remnants of a shrine and the signs of a battle were all around it, and Israfal called a stop. "Kalas?"

His partner looked pensively at the dust. "It identifies as [Desecrated], which is a good sign for our purposes." Israfal arched his eyebrows. Kalas reluctantly added "And as [Profane], which I'm not familiar with as a status effect."

Israfal frowned, then shrugged. "Still. It'll do? Nameless, what happened here?" The dwarf was examining footprints. "Spear style. From the sea regions, which more or less rules out getting close to our target." The nameless one said, glumly. Israfal blinked. "Why?"

"Ah... They fight sea monsters. So all their techniques include anti-precognitive measures and split second adjustments that means you can pretty much only ever block - and none of us have shield techniques. It's a bad matchup for us if the monster gets close. Does confirm it's a new one..."

The dwarf had stopped examining the footsteps, and was looking at a puddle of water. "And! I figured out what's gone wrong with the woods."

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Korus grunted. "The spirit was doing something?"

"Mmm! It was purifying the water." The dwarf said. It took a moment for Israfal to catch on. "All of the water, all of the time...?"

"Exactly" The dwarf said. "There must have been a limiting measure that got damaged or destroyed. Anyway, the wood would have starved if it was only being fed a diet of purified water. It's probably for the best we left all of that behind back when we were C-rank, this would have been a really awful way to go."

Israfal shuddered. Purified water was famous as a poison in elvish lands, the way their lungs worked making them incredibly vulnerable to its effects. "Alright, well, let's get away from this place." He gruffly said, and started marching on.

Korus was already standing next to a trail of destroyed trees that stretched back towards the inner valley. The group was very annoyed when they realised it had in fact been the way that the creature had come from, rather than the direction it had gone to.

Kalas spat in the pool as they passed it a second time, odd algae with an unhealthy mauve shimmer blooming almost immediately. Israfal detected the faintest hint of the Longest Night in the algae, but given that he or Kalas would die within seconds of being submerged in the pool, he judged it ominously appropriate that his partner would call on a force of decay to sort out this abomination.

The trail, now that they had found it, was not hard to follow especially from the point where the monster started running. Korus suddenly raised his hand. "Up ahead, in the copse, sleeping." He muttered. "Not sleeping well either."

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Alex woke up, hand around her spear and already moving towards a short, stout figure wearing a mask of stone. It took a massive effort to wrench her own blow wide as the technique worked through her. The lack of control was incredibly unpleasant.

"Who?!" She snarled and the figure made calming motions with its hands. "You need not fear me... although unfortunately, I am still nameless." Alex narrowed her eyes, remembering the awful vision that had started her monstrous fate. "You're a dwarf. Your people condemned mine." The dwarf shrugged. "You let your own people starve. Your champions performed abominably in the Trials of Integration."

Alex frowned, and grasped the spear tightly. "What do you want?" She said tersely, edging her weight forward onto her toes. The dwarf noticed, and skipped back out of easy stabbing range.

"Mmm. Me and my friends." An orc, glistening skin and white leather stepped out from behind a tree. An elf noisily unfurled a scroll, while another one dropped down some distance away - not so far away that Alex couldn't taste the spirits crawling in her shadow.

"We want to make A rank existence, so that we can have a shot at going to the First World. The only problem is that to become an A rank existence, you have to PROVE that you're worthy of it. Which is hard when there's no Sovereign Monsters to fight - You know, demon kings, wyrms, that sort of thing. Well, that or voidlings."

"So?" The orc grinned, and she saw his sharklike rows of teeth. "So" His voice rumbled. "If you make it big even if we never cross paths again, it increases our - and our families', allies', and friends' - chances of making it to A rank and leaving this Last World behind for Paradise."

The elf with spirits and miracles in her eyes coughed. "This is not a... popular view. The majority prefer peace. So we cannot be seen to take it easy on you, or to help you much. I would however counsel as a fellow practitioner of the Divine Arts that you be more ah... specific in what aid you call down." The woman's eyes flickered to the lantern, dubious confusion flitting across her expressive face.

"So. You want to fatten me up like a pig for the slaughter?" The adventurers(and even if that wasn't what they were called HERE, what did Alex care about here) shrugged. "You will at least know plenty for some of your life rather than the meagre existence most monsters experience" the orc said.

Alex glowered at him. "I'll take her advice. What else can you even offer me though?" The dwarf leaned forward - not quite into the easy reach of her, to her disappointment - conspiratorially. "The secret of the [Walking] technique, and the [Killing Intent] technique."

"Walking? As a technique?" The dwarf nodded, seriously. "It is by far the best basis for movement techniques, simply because it allows for a broad range of abstract interpretations. We all have it... Ah, Korus, why don't you demonstrate?"

The orc shrugged, and walked past her. She found herself incapable of reacting in the slightest. "Korus spent a long time as an outcast before he joined our side, and his [Walk] became [Wandering in Solitude] which is a sort of quasi-perfect defense when he's travelling." The dwarf explained. "It's middling as such things are reckoned, but I'm sure you can see the potential. As for killing intent, well."

The male elf was staring at her.

"We do want to make sure you're worth investing in" He said. The scroll in his hands collapsed into a burning droplet. "No running." He said, blandly. "If you run, you will definitely die... You should still move though." Alex swore as the fire came shooting for her chest, and was about to jump to the side and start running when suddenly her limbs grew cold, and her breath shallow.

She managed only a single step to the side, but it was enough. The fire seemed to screem as it shot past her into a tree, which promptly exploded. The flames kept race forward, a series of short lived infernos reducing the forest behind the group to ashes in moments. Alex looked over her shoulder observing the devastation before her limbs grew heavy again, an oppressive will demanding of her that she should simply lie down and die.

Alexandra Johnson

Faction: Monster

Subfaction: Itinerant

Species: Human

Blood: 12(+3.6% Endurance, +12% Bloodline)

Bone: 10(+3% Tool Use, +10% Aura)

Flesh:10(+3% Technique Efficiency, +10% Regeneration)

Blessings: [Identify(Justice)]

Techniques: [Spear-Fishing][50% of Sprinting(Incomplete, Unusable)]

Equipment Slots: [Weapon: Spear][Offhand: Tarnished Lantern]

Bloodline: First Serpent