"Ugh..."
"Fuck..."
Blergh!
Glenn, Sarho, and Liara all crouched on the ground disgracefully, either puking their insides out or struggling to keep them where they belonged, inside.
"I hate teleportation..." Sahro muttered in between two sprays of vomit. Glenn clenched his teeth, his pale face slowly turning to a greener shade.
"Phew, just...don't talk, it helps..."
The group took a few minutes to recover their composure, Liara seemingly the most affected of the three. She couldn't stand straight and had to be helped by Sahro to move, each abrupt movement causing her to turn one green deeper and sicker. They observed their surroundings, finding them to be quite normal. Glenn was even more surprised of the three after Diamanes jinxed them as his habitude.
'What? I'm not jinxing anything!' Diamanes protested, flustered. Glenn didn't reply, only casting a dubious side-eye toward his left hand as he remembered every time the entity might have cursed them with his red flags.
"I'm with Glenn on that point, man. It's just unlucky, I suppose though..." Nelg conceded, rendering Diamanes utterly speechless.
They were in a small abandoned storage room, with dust covering some old shelves and tables that hadn't been used for a long time. Of course, their sudden arrival had disturbed the perfect decrepitude, shaking most of the dust off and adding a few touches of vomit here and there. Glenn wiped his mouth with his sleeve, before smacking his lips at the room's sight.
"I sure hope this room is going to remain abandoned. Alright, just in case guys..." Glenn pressed his lips together and held his left hand forward, trying to cast a Curse of Silence on the group. He felt the world turn suddenly and promptly gave up trying to use the little Mana he had left.
"Shit, I'm one drop away from Mana Exhaustion. Well, that's not going to help now, is it?" The young man scratched the back of his neck. Sahro sighed and looked back in the direction they came from, the portal they passed through long gone.
"We have the black market's safety measures to thank, if not for them, we would still have to fight that army..." The Black Heir shook his head, before glancing at his new blue, palpable limb. He excused himself to Liara and carefully brought her to a nearby table where she sat, before turning toward Glenn and suddenly bowing with both of his arms on his sides. Glenn was appalled by the sudden movement and couldn't react to it.
"Thank you," said Sahro gratefully, his face hidden from Glenn's sight. The young man looked left and right and rubbed the back of his neck, at a loss.
"Uh, sure man, no problem. Just, uh, stop doing that, it's making me uncomfortable," He grimaced as he forced Sahro to look back up, before patting his friend on the shoulder. The Black Heir had wet eyes but didn't say a word.
"And don't thank me yet, that's still not an actual arm you have there, is it?" Glenn pointed his chin at the electrical limb while ignoring the best he could the tears in Sahro's eyes. The latter followed his gaze and looked at said arm, struggling to contain his emotions.
"...It's still much better than not having anything..."
Glenn could only agree and nod at the man's words. Diamanes suddenly mockingly laughed out in his host's mind, as usual.
'What a DAZZLING display of friendship! Truly, a real tearjerker'!
The young man instantly turned off the sound in his mind, automatically activating his mental defenses. Nelg only laughed from the sidelines, not joining the fight. Glenn quickly found a door and stumbled toward it, the Mana Exhaustion starting to kick in. Soon, all the adrenaline in the world wouldn't help him escape the inevitable fall into Morpheus' arms.
It was opened. He peeked an eye through, finding a simple hallway with a dim light that made it a little hazy. His nose quickly picked up on a heavy scent of perfume, intoxicating but too thick for him to appreciate. There didn't seem to be any people, so now was as good as any other time to come out.
"Let's go silently. I couldn't cast a Silence Curse, so we'll have to go the old sneaky way, alright?" Glenn warned, Sahro and Liara nodding in understanding. Liara stumbled off from the table, before wincing and looking at her right foot. An ice arrow was embedded deeply into it, freezing the skin and transforming the blood flowing out into crystals.
Glenn's first reflex was to go and try to heal her, when he remembered he didn't even have enough Mana to cast a Lux, much less for the expensive CPR.
'...Which also stands for Catalytic Pain Rejuvenation! Don't forget that!'
'We do NOT care, Diamanes, so please shut your trap and let me concentrate,' Glenn replied to the vexed entity with a pissed tone, his teeth clenched. This was a much too dangerous situation to his liking, and for once, he didn't need the hand's jokes to relax him, on the contrary. Suddenly, he looked at a figure pass in the corridor, a little fat man with two guards behind him, happily strolling toward a nearby door. Glenn moved away from the interstice just in case, but it seemed like they didn't notice him. He glanced out once more, gleaning more information. The little fat man opened the door, an effluve of perfumes and addictive smells coming out of him and reaching even Glenn's nose.
The little fat man looked inside the room with awe and delish, before a fair hand pulled him inside and closed the door, leaving the two guards behind to watch the corridor. Glenn frowned when his eyes widened as he finally put two and two together.
"Shit..." He looked back at Liara and Sahro and quickly made a decision. He took his robe and mask off before throwing it to Liara.
"Liara put the mask on just in case. Sahro, you take her on your back and put the robe above to hide it all. You'll look weird, but that's better than finding two Black Heirs in wherever this place is." Glenn whispered before hurriedly correcting his haircut, making it much messier. He turned toward his Black Heir's friend, who had finished setting up the disguise hiding Liara under his black robe.
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"Sahro, do I have any soot on my face, or blood, or anything that might give away that I was in a fight?" Glenn asked with a tense tone before looking back at the door. He never believed himself to be a good actor, but with no Mana left to cast any spells and no strength to fight back, with a wounded teammate, brains will have to take over brawls. He didn't like it, it wasn't like him, but he had no choice this time.
The Black Heir wiped off a bit of soot, before shooting him a thumbs-up.
"All good. Why do you need to be clean, though?" He asked with a puzzled expression. Glenn forced a grin through the exhaustion and turned toward the door.
"Just follow my lead, and we might get out of here without a fight..." The young man took a deep breath, "...here goes nothing."
He opened the door and strolled out as naturally as possible, glancing at the two guards who, inevitably turned their heads when hearing him. Glenn stared back at them, before dusting his shoulders off with an annoyed face.
"Who the hell designed this place? Where the hell is the damned exit?" With his nose creased, he approached the two guards who tensed up in reaction, ready to reach for the knives hanging off their belts. Glenn glanced at the knives and looked back at Sahro and Liara coming out as one in the most ridiculous disguise possible.
"Do you mind indicating to me where is the exit? Me and my...companion can't seem to find it?" He asked with both of his hands pressed together, an embarrassed smile on his face. The two guards sighed, and the one on the right grinned, shaking his head.
"You too? Huh, I guess we're not the dumbest of the lot..." He pointed the way he came from and patted Glenn's shoulder in a friendly way, "...there you go, you just have to turn right and left, and take the stairs. It took us half an hour to find the way here, so I know your pain."
Glenn nodded deeply, seemingly very much affected by the guard's words, sympathizing with him.
"They sure make us work for it, don't they?" He winked with a knowing grin, hoping he wasn't wrong. The guard blinked, before laughing out loud, his colleague soon following suit. Only the robed Sahro and Liara were silent, standing nearby while waiting for Glenn to do his things.
"They sure do, yeah, haha! It was nice meeting you, Sir...?" The guard extended his hand with a smile.
Glenn shook the hand and grinned widely.
"Sahro Sand, but call me Sahro. I'll be leaving you, fine gentlemen, to your business. I need to talk with the owner of this fine establishment about putting up some kind of darn map, haha!"
The bulk of Sahro and Liara shuddered, but Glenn ignored it, grinning widely. Now that he was in the role, he had to be fully in it.
"Haha, have a good day Sir Sahro!" The guard saluted, followed by his colleague's short nod. Glenn grinned and nodded back, before heading off toward the direction they indicated to him.
"Wait!" Glenn and Sahro stopped on their feet, a bead of sweat pearling down both of their foreheads. Glenn swiftly turned back and smiled nervously as the more withdrawn guard approached them, his hand on the hilt of his knife.
"What's up with your...friend, there?" He nodded toward Sahro and Liara, one carrying the other on his back. Glenn smacked his lips and looked at them, struggling to find an excuse, when Sahro took the reins and replied, his voice hoarse.
"Want to try and see?" He coughed, the guard taking a step back in disgust. Glenn made an awkward smile, scratching the back of his neck to hide his trembling fingers.
"Don't mind him, he has been like this ever since he contracted Ligma..."
The guard paled and took another step back, horrified.
"Ligma? This sounds terrible. I apologize..." The guard bowed down his head and quickly came back to guard the door, before receiving a slap on the back of his head from his colleague.
Sahro approached him once they turned the corner and whispered angrily in his ears.
"What was that for? And what's ligma?"
Glenn looked back at the sad mask under the robe, his wide grin becoming even wider, reaching for his ears. At the last second, he bit down on his tongue and shrugged.
"They already hate you all in the region anyway. And don't bother about ligma, I came up with it. Nice act, by the way!" He complimented the Black Heir, who only grunted in response. Liara chuckled slightly, making Glenn smile. It seemed like the cold beauty could have fun as well.
'...And look at who was talking about not losing concentration because of jokes. Huh, hypocrite...' Diamanes grumbled, annoyed.
'Maybe I just wanted you to leave me be, for once? Could you do that, Diamanes?' Glenn replied with a desperate tone, before sighing deeply.
"Right...left, then the...stairs?"
Glenn stopped talking, failing to find anything close to an exit, only a corridor with doors on each side. He pressed his lips together, before understanding that the much-needed stairs had to be hidden behind one of these doors. He approached the first one and placed his ear next to the first one, grimacing when he heard more than a few voices laughing and grunting together.
'This is horrible.'
"You pervert, argh, you make me sick, Glenn!"
'What do they call it, voyeurism?'
Every mind in Glenn's head was much displeased by the current experience. Glenn looked back to Sahro and shook his head, scowling. He tried another door, finding this one to be empty of sound. He carefully tried to open the door, only to find it locked.
"Curse it, and curse this place's architect...!" Glenn spat through his teeth, before trying yet another door. The process of listening, feeling a little more disgusted with himself, and finding himself disappointed as more doors revealed to be either locked or home to some unspeakable stuff.
"...Are we even sure there are stairs here?" Sahro asked with a dubious tone, before casting a worried glance behind him. The Black Heir had also spent a lot of his strength fighting back the slavers and protecting Glenn while he was Meditating and was also not in his peak condition. The three of them could probably put up one last fight...Probably.
Glenn stopped yet in front of another door, enjoying his Mana slowly coming back to him. He had barely enough Mana to cast a Silence Curse, his recuperation quite slow if he wasn't sleeping or Meditating, but he'd have to be happy with that. He carefully listened, failing to find any sound on the other side of the door. He tested the handle and grinned brightly when he found it unlocked. He turned back toward Sahro and Liara and nodded at them. They nodded back —well, Sahro nodded for the two of them— and Glenn opened the door, his other hand on his sword's hilt, ready to unsheathe and attack at any sign of a threat.
A heavy scent of perfume filled their nostrils with exhilarating power, bearing a strange iron taste, but they were soon woken up from the stupor the perfume was putting them in when they realized what they had just stepped onto. A middle-aged man was lying on a king's size bed, his feet and hands tied to each corner of it with leather straps. His eyes were covered by a black bandana and his mouth was muffled with some kind of horrible bondage item Glenn didn't dare to understand.
A lady was riding him, her naked back turned toward them, a dagger raised above her head. She pierced straight through the black bandana, plunging the dagger inside the head and driving it deeper, crushing and slicing the head. Glenn blinked, watching the scene with a mixture of disgust, awe, and fear. The lady pulled the dagger back, in a trance, before continuing to stab the man's head, ruining it into a bloody pulp.
'...Or should it be sashimi? Sushi, maybe?' Diamanes corrected, Glenn's eyes widening madly as he restrained a curse from leaving his vocal cords. The lady seemed so concentrated on her task, that she didn't notice them. She finally calmed herself, and after making sure the middle-aged man was dead, she carved the skin off his chest, slowly proceeding to pull it off like leather off a rabbit. Sahro slowly moved his hand, poking Glenn's shoulder. The young man slowly turned his head, his face pale.
Even though Sahro had his mask on, Glenn could almost imagine the Black Heir mouthing him "What the fuck do we do?". The young man replied by nodding toward the door and pushed Sahro toward it. They carefully sneaked out of the room, closing the door behind them. As Glenn tried to pull the door in as slowly as he could, a loud creak came from it, echoing in the hall corridor and the bedroom.
Glenn and Sahro froze, Liara's breathing intensifying under the black robe.
"...So that's what you risk when angering women," Nelg commented with a shocked voice.
"This is terrifying. Truly terrifying."