The surprise was nearing completion with the time dilation in effect and soon I went to check in on it. I grinned a twisted smile as I approached the sandy dead soil that was once rich earth. It looks like it’s nearing completion, I began to dig up the amalgamations grave until its twisted form was exposed to the mana-rich air. Its original exposed muscle sinew had become a sickly black as necrosis spread throughout the body and strange bumps and lines wiggled around under the flesh. Good, good, I pulled out its entire form and propped up the wheel it was strapped on a tree. I was careful to touch as little of the creature’s body as I could and gave the chest cavity a quick inspection before grabbing the pot that was buried alongside the creature.

The paper cover that sealed the top had eroded away and none of its, very dangerous, contents had remained in place. Good, it is ready for the final steps, with a clean swipe I disemboweled the still wriggling creature and quickly ripped several pieces of what looked like pieces of rope. As they were pulled at a shriek began to sound out and as soon as they were dislodged from the creature they wriggled and twisted in an attempt to attack me. Perfect, I slammed them back into the pot, put some soil in there, and sealed it with another piece of homemade paper. I knocked the moaning creature's head off and shoved it back into the pit. I doused some wine and cleansing powder over it before setting it alight. As the golden red flame engulfed the figure I turned to leave. Now, for the last step.

When I stepped out of the secured area the pot in my hand shook madly but I kept an iron grip at all times. I was rushing to get this thing out of here before something unfortunate happened. With one last check-up to make sure I had everything I needed, I arrived at the circuit. Space warped and the colors twisted as I traveled across the spirit realm with blinding speed. Instead of dropping off into the mortal realm, I kept to the spiritual one as it was easier to infiltrate short term. With careful steps, I made preparations to disarm the wards only to find that there were none here. I’m starting to get confused at the lack of sufficient defenses.

No matter, that only makes things easier. I gently placed the time bomb in the estimated area where the space correlates with the door before promptly booking it to the coordinates that I had taken note of earlier. I was careful with this jump but not as careful as I was before, realistically all wards and security should be focused above that “thing”. The twisting world came to an abrupt stop as I detected a detection ward and promptly began to circumvent it. It was within my expectations and easy to pass through. I dropped into a large room as my final approach was slightly altered but nothing uncommon.

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I did a preliminary scan as I hid my jump sight connection, nothing of note really except for a nice statue. Scratch that, there was something interesting, I felt a presence behind me. My presence was hidden, and I was engulfed in shadows just in case, but the jump sight may have been noticed. Slowly turning around a small figure with huge glowing eyes was looking closely at the site while tilting its head in curiosity. Yep, the site was compromised. Now the question is to kill or not to kill. I slowly raised my claws to shred when the small figure made a sudden bow and began to shiver violently. Damn, not the “I’m small and harmless” attack. I was still about to follow through with my strike when a thought struck me, there was no real need to kill this figure. Yeah they saw the jump sight but that means nothing, there was only a detection ward, not a disruption one, so creatures are probably free to come and go by this method.

I lowered my claws and thought it over for a second. Even if they saw the jump sight there are probably many others just like it, and they didn’t see me so there was no real reason to shred. I have convinced myself, there was no logical reason to eliminate and I was just being bloodthirsty. Its fear response was probably based on inexperience or a previous bad experience. I finished closing up the jump site and patted the small figure on the head before moving on to exploring the new environment. I had to say, this room has a strong feeling of second-hand money, useless displays of wealth, impractical marble and black stone pillars, what looked like velvet carpet covering the floor, and some sort of solid gold item every few feet.

If I had to sum it all up in one word, tasteless, and in two words, completely tasteless. I knew of many people that did the same thing and it was always so annoying to me. However, among the flashy decorations, I did find some gems, a couple of flesh paintings, and the large statue in the center of a ten-headed hydra stepping on and closely examining a fallen knight. But that’s all the credit I’m willing to give. I turned to leave but I saw the small cloaked figure still shivering where it stood. Hmm, interesting, I slowly approached and found that It began to shiver increasingly stronger with every step, looks like we have a little looky-loo.

I slinked up next to it and completely and soundly hid my presence until my connections with the surroundings were almost disconnected. Even those false gods have failed to find me in such a state and the same held true for the figure when it nervously got up and looked around. With its head no longer facing the ground I could see a face of a small little girl, pale and scuffed.