Despite the forgemaster insisting that he should accompany Anastacia to the vice commander’s room, the adventurer told him to keep watching over the drunken high magister, as the situation had evolved a bit beyond a simple political assassination. Even though the hag’s attention was no doubt turned towards the three new hunters, the adventurer was done losing guests and the unsupervised Ilyu casting something undesirable was the last thing she needed.
Dealing with Lumira shouldn’t require too much effort anyway, Anastacia figured, no matter how skilled of a fighter she was, even a less powerful necromancer could just stop her immediately and lock her in a closet or something until someone came to get her.
She knocked on the dark elf’s door and waited for an answer. When there was none, despite Lumira being inside, she knocked a few more times before getting tired of the waiting. “Lumira, I know you’re in there! Come open the door so I can arrest you… or something, I don’t really know what I’m actually supposed to do with assassins!” She asked nicely.
When it had no appreciable effect on the dark elf, besides making her heartrate jump, the adventurer was forced to switch tactics. She took a few steps back and grabbed a spear from her back. “Come open the door or I’ll make a hole in it, and the wall behind it, and the tree line a couple of kilometers past it… I’m afraid there’s no middle ground here.” She threatened and began counting down from ten.
By the time she got to four, the lock clicked open and the door slowly swung open.
Lumira stood still in the doorway for a while, looking quite menacing and probably weighing her chances against Anastacia, but eventually, she wisely decided not to make things hard for herself and walked back inside.
The vice commander’s room was much like the guest rooms, though far more loaded with personal items. The main difference, however, was the large wooden desk and the chair behind it. Arranged in front of the large window, so that it directly faced the door.
On the desk was a short sword that matched the shape of the wound in Fang’s chest and the astral projector that had been given to Nikolai. Lumira sat down next to them and leaned back. “So you’ve got it all figured out, huh? Can’t say I expected that. Honestly, I took you for a moron the second you spoke.” She said and laughed dryly.
Anastacia nodded. “Yeah, totally completely absolutely figured it out on my own. Why don’t you tell me anyway while I figure out what to do with you.” She bluffed with close to no confidence behind her words; she might have had the rough outlines for what happened but at no point had she stopped to consider the details. “I’d also like to know why, for the official report.”
“Sure, whatever. It all started a couple of months back, I just sort of woke up with everything all figured out.” The dark elf smiled ominously. “Now, before you say anything, I didn’t do this to get to Nikolai’s position – that would only be a happy side effect, but no, I did what I did for Vassund. You see, Nikolai and some other older members of the high command are far too into this whole ‘peace in the north’ idea. Sure, it can be attained through negotiation and treaties over time, but what I don’t understand is why do we supposedly have the responsibility to cater to these weaker nations? Vassund is by far the most powerful nation in the area, so our word should be the law. But anyway, where was I? Right, one morning, I just woke up and realized that we could just not have other nations.”
Anastacia barely paid attention to the explanation anymore, and instead grabbed the projector from the table and moved it a safe distance away from the dark elf. She had no idea how it was operated and wasn’t too eager to be shown by someone who had killed someone with it.
“There were a few problems with that though, first of all, there was absolutely no way the high command was going to go along with my plans right out of the gate, and secondly, we might be the most powerful nation here, but I don’t like our chances against everyone else combined. Luckily this meeting came along just in time. Here, I could create motive for Vassund to go to war and throw the north into disarray by pitting the alliances against each other. Once the dust had settled and Vul, Ou, Mournvalley, Mon Quasai, Toumarill and Astra were in ruins, there would be no one left to oppose us. Just think of all the land and resources we could grab for next to no losses! Sure, I would have to betray my friend and mentor, but in the grand scale of things, I would have traded one sickly old man to vast fields that could be farmed far more easily than our frozen ones, trade routes that reached far and wide, knowledge to further grow in power and so much more.” Lumira exclaimed before letting her excitement die. “But that’s all in ruins now, isn’t it? I killed Nikolai and Fang for nothing… Unless…”
“Unless what?” The adventurer asked and walked around the room as if she was still investigating.
“Unless you just let me do it.” Lumira smiled and stood back up. “Just take your guild official with you and walk away. Once this is all over and done with, I’ll contact you again and make sure you don’t need to work a day more in your life. A nice mansion anywhere in Vassund, complete with staff, or a villa somewhere along the coast with coffee plantations, or anything else you might want – and all you need to do is walk away.”
Anastacia stopped to think for a bit. “You’re just way better at this than a certain someone. See that’s what I like to hear, all these ancient fucks think I want to rule the world, but that just sounds like way too much work. What I really want is a neat little cabin somewhere where people won’t hassle my goblins or simulacra friends that I’m planning on making.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but sure. Walk away and you’ll have all of that and more within a month.” The vice commander said, clearly thinking she was getting somewhere with her suggestion.
“Too bad for you I already have this thing going with some ancient tart that clearly has a thing for me. Oh, and she’s also planning on destroying all of north so whatever you’re doing wouldn’t work. You know, the whole hag thing that Stel talked about, apparently that’s happening.” The necromancer smirked.
Just as the confused vice commander was about to ask what Anastacia was going on about, the door to the room’s balcony flew open from another gust of wind and the shadows began to grow far stronger, eventually darkening the room despite the daylight coming through the window.
“Enough! I will not have any of this slander!” The hag screamed from the darkness, shattering the window behind Lumira. “Who do you think spend weeks whispering these ideas into the dark elf’s head? I DID!”
“Oh, you’re back already. How goes the search for my gloves?” Anastacia smiled despite the increasing pain in her brand.
Lumira was stunned, she no longer had any idea what was going on. As far as she could tell, the adventurer was mocking something she herself couldn’t see, but the headache inducing screaming of the ancient spirit was painfully audible to her as well. She instinctively grabbed the sword from the table and started frantically looking for any hints of the being she thought was merely invisible.
Anastacia noticed the vice commander’s distress and turned to her. “I guess you haven’t met yet. Hag, this is Lumira, you know what she is already. Lumira, this is hag, the ancient spirit of dick swords.”
“DISCORD! LEGENDARY SPIRIT OF DISCORD, YOU INANE BRAT!” The spirit screeched madly.
“Sure, sure.” Anastacia nodded and leaned closer to Lumira so she could mockingly whisper at her. “She’s the one that likes me, she’s just too shy to admit it. I think it’s because of the age difference.”
Before she had the chance to say another word, the adventurer was grasped by an invisible force and effortlessly hurled through the broken window, accompanied by several overlapping screams of absolute, insane rage that echoed from everywhere at once. A millennium of experience hadn’t prepared the hag for someone like Anastacia, and the adventurer had clearly managed to cross some kind of a line, where the hag abandoned her original plan entirely and had to directly attack her.
Luckily the snowbank below the window was thick and soft enough to slow down the necromancer’s fall and she remained unharmed. In fact, if it hadn’t been so cold, it would have been quite comfortable to fall into. However, the uniform she had been given wasn’t meant for trekking in waist-deep snow, and didn’t hold for a second before the snow got everywhere under it.
Anastacia popped up from the bank and waived to the horrified and confused dark elf, who was peering through the window. “I’ll be right back; can you please not murder anyone while I deal with this shit?!” She yelled while trying to find a good way to move through the powdery snow.
After a few attempts, she found that simply leaping forwards and tumbling as far as she could was as good as it was going to get. And so, the necromancer began her ungraceful trek back towards the lodge. Since she had been tossed out from the wrong side of the building, she actually had at least a couple hundred meters of untouched snow to cross.
That ended up not mattering, as only after a few lunges, the ground under the snow began to shake and crack. Feeling something rising from directly below her feet, Anastacia leaped aside at the last moment before a gigantic snake lifted its head from right next to her.
The massive beast shook the frozen soil and snow off itself and lifted its head further up to free its entire body from its cold grave. Fully straightened up, the serpent towered above even the lodge as it stared down at the necromancer, who was a mere bug in comparison.
Having the same large glowing eyes, it was clearly the same beast that Anastacia had seen during the night, but that had in no way prepared her for seeing it in its gargantuan entirety. The giant reptile was covered in thick scales of gray and black stone, that rubbed against each other on its every movement, making large slabs of rock shatter fall off, only for the scales to grow back in mere seconds. It’s fangs alone were taller than Anastacia and were already dripping with some sickly green concoction of blight they carried.
Much like the previous beast of ruin, it appeared immune to necromancy, and there was very little Anastacia could do as it began circling around her and close off any escape routes she still had.
Finally, it lowered its head and stared intensely at her with its eyes flickering like flames of two torches. The beast’s breath felt disgustingly warm and moist in the freezing cold weather and carried a scent so unspeakably vile that it probably outright killed anything smaller than a cat.
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The snake’s tongue flailed around like a whip made out of cast iron and could have probably ended someone’s life with a single glancing blow, yet somehow it was one of the least worrying parts of the beast.
“You mock, you taunt, you make fun of beings beyond your meager comprehension. Foolishly thinking yourself unbeatable on the account of some pesky powers granted to you by chance, powers you barely understand.” The hag whispered into Anastacia’s ear. “There is something you are quite right about though; I do adore you. Despite your multitude of flaws, personality and otherwise, that bring even someone such as myself to a brink of rage, I really do. You may be the single most obnoxious creature the creation has been cursed with, but decay, discord and chaos follow in your footprints like baby chicks mistakenly attached to you. You defy order and resist predetermination to a point where you have irreparably scarred the fates themselves.”
The snake’s head moved from side to side as it inspected the necromancer while she listened to the hag’s whispers. Every now and then it would stray a bit too close and Anastacia swiped at it with one of the two spears she was carrying.
“Because of that, I will grant you the gift of knowledge of what is to come and your place in this world: Ancient beasts of legend are all but gone, the clockwork children left to wander the world without their makers are growing hollow, necromancers are pale shadows of what they were, and the fates themselves, that once held life’s hand as it took its first steps, are distant and cold. It may not be soon, but decay will claim all there is. So no, I will not offer you aid in world conquest, necromancers no longer possess the ability for such feats. You have been hailed as the white one of your age, but hear me, you are no such thing – you are the last hurrah of a slowly rotting carcass of necromancy in this world. Decay is the only constant there is, and no power is exempt from it.” As the hag prattled on, Anastacia could briefly feel someone’s warm embrace shield her from the stinging frost. “Considering the damage you have caused, it is almost a shame you need to die. Could you please open your mouth one more time and let your irredeemable personality get me over my hesitation?”
Anastacia grasped her staff in one hand and the spear in other. The situation seemed exceedingly dire on all accounts, the snow made it almost impossible for her to move and the snake had her surrounded anyway. She could launch the spear at the beast, but if there was anything to be learned from the previous fight, it was that randomly attacking didn’t really achieve much. Yet, on the other hand, in the story, the snake was killed by Cottona with a spear through the heart, so it could well have worked. The necromancer’s past studies also let her make an educated guess on where the serpent’s heart was, even if she couldn’t feel it directly.
“You need to work on asking people out. I’m no expert, but I think releasing a giant snake on people might be a bad opening move.” The adventurer couldn’t help herself and taunted the spirit again.
“There it is! Goodbye, you toxic little twerp. Had things worked out differently, we could have been two of a kind, now please, just die.” The hag cackled and disappeared into the sound of wind blowing across the open field.
Failing to come up with a better plan, Anastacia immediately launched the spear in her hand at the snake’s heart, hoping it would just cleave off a large enough chunk to kill it outright.
The spear, however, did no such thing, despite hitting its mark with enough velocity to decapitate a small mountain, it simply dislodged a couple of larger stone scales, sent more than a fair bit of shrapnel in every direction and caused the beast to recoil in pain to avoid further damage.
Now down to one spear, Anastacia hesitated to grab it from her back as she tried to escape from the small opening the serpent’s retreat had given her. Cursing and muttering to herself, she waded only a few meters before the giant snake once more loomed over her, ready to strike.
Suddenly a small flash of light appeared above its head and somehow caused the snake to hiss and writhe in agony. This gave the adventurer some time to get a bit further away and avoid getting crushed by the creature’s tail as it trashed around, slamming its head against the ground.
Anastacia didn’t have the luxury of being able to look in the mouth of this gift horse, but she did happen to notice a dark greenish figure hanging on to the beast’s scales.
“Use fire to clear a path, you moron!” The unknown person shouted with a somewhat familiar tone or cadence in their voice, but the heavy distortion in it changed it beyond recognition.
The necromancer stopped on her tracks and turned around to take a better look at the figure. With their long hair waving in the wind, the mysterious person seemed to have no issues avoiding getting crushed by their opponent and instead hopped gracefully along its body to keep the beast distracted.
The snake’s left eye was gushing several liters of black liquid that quickly spread like disease on the snow wherever it fell. No doubt it had been punctured by the person helping Anastacia get away.
Something about seeing the fight reminded the adventurer about the carving where Cottona of the original hunters battled with the snake and she was just about to yell out to the person, but was snapped back to reality by a large chunk of stone landing awkwardly near her.
“Just use fire to make a path away from the lodge and make some room so you can fight!” The mysterious figure instructed her again. “NOW!”
The adventurer began hurling as much fire as she could at the snowbank to clear it, partly by melting it and partly by blowing it away. While it wasn’t exactly what one would call fast, it was still head and shoulders above the lunging method she had used so far, and even with the flailing required for fire magic, it was far less exhausting.
After getting far enough away, she began stomping on the ground, releasing waves of flame one after another and clearing out a larger space so she could at least move around enough to avoid some attacks. With her mobility regained, Anastacia began working on a plan to defeat the beast. As far as offensive capabilities went, she was more or less limited to magic and the single spear she’d rather not waste on trimming a few more scales. Fire didn’t seem like a good match for an opponent that was covered in literal rock, and ice magic rarely worked offensively, so Anastacia didn’t feel all too good about her chances.
While trying to come up with anything to increase her chances, the adventurer followed the fight between the apparition and the beast and noticed that the scales she had managed to tear off with her first spear hadn’t grown back. The spear must have damaged the grayish skin under them enough to cause some lasting harm. The wound was located right over the spot where snake hearts usually were as well, so there was a good chance that a second, well-aimed shot could take the beast down. Anastacia was actually very proud of her marksmanship with the spears, but moving targets were always a bit risky, and she only had a single shot left.
The large puddle of melted snow the adventurer was standing in had found its way through her boots, witch was actually rather nice as it was warm in comparison to the snow that had gotten in there earlier, but more importantly, it gave her an idea on how to hopefully secure a second direct hit. Anastacia began melting as much snow as she could while keeping an eye on the fight.
The figure had begun to get more and more hazy overtime and was barely recognizable as a person by the time she figured that there was enough water for her purposes. Assuming that this meant that the time they were buying was about to be up, the adventurer released a few more blasts of fire at the nearby piles of snow and prepared to face her opponent once more.
“Gloves would be so nice right about now…” She muttered and watched the apparition finally disappear in a flash of light, much like the one it had appeared with.
Turning its attention back to its original target, the massive snake warily slithered towards the giant puddle of water, almost like it understood that there might have been a trap laid out for it. While it circled around its prey, the beast's injured eye trickled more oily muck onto the pure white snow, tuning it into a gross brown and black mess it its wake.
Anastacia placed end of her staff into the water and splashed it while taunting the snake. “They don’t make eyepatches in your size; custom fit is going to cost a fortune. So even if you beat me here, you’ll still lose to the eyepatch industry. Feel free to give up now.”
The snake let out a thundering hiss that reeked of pus and vomit before lunging at the adventurer. Unfortunately for it, this was exactly what Anastacia had hoped and a massive spike of ice and frozen soil shot up from the ground directly in front of the serpent. It was nowhere near enough to hurt the beast, but it did halt it as it crashed through and most of the pillar fell on top of it.
Anastacia used the creature’s brief confusion to charge at it and jab her staff between its stone scales. She drained all the heat she could from the beast and its surroundings for a few seconds, lowering its body temperature and making the water it rested in freeze solid. The effect of this was easily visible, as the reptile’s movements became more sluggish.
By the time the adventurer was forced to run off to avoid a second, far slower lunge at another wall of ice she conjured, the beast clearly had to work to free itself from the ice. This repeated a few more times, until a large portion of the beast was covered in a thick layer of ice and it could only move its head, the only part Anastacia wasn’t able to reach directly.
Though even if she could have, it wouldn’t have done all that much good, as the crystalline staff had begun to let out a worrying ringing sound that marked it being near its maximum capacity. She would have to discharge the energy from it before using it for ice magic again, or it would become unstable to a point where even the slightest impact would fracture it and release all the energy stored in it as a devastating explosion.
This meant that if she was ever going to try launching the second spear, it would have to be then and there. The spot she aimed at was only barely above the ice that had gathered around the snake’s body and hardly moved anymore. She lined up what was going to be an easy shot and took one more deep breath.
Right at that moment, the serpent used the last of its strength to whip its head and fling a stream of oily, cold blood at the necromancer, successfully impairing her focus.
Anastacia watched her last spear disappear into the distance, possibly to horribly ruin someone’s day in that direction. She scooped a bit of water with her hand, rinsed off the few drops of filth that had landed on her face and sighed. “Well, fuck.”
“Don’t suppose you’d stay there while I run and get a spare from my room? They’re a bit out of reach.” She asked, but the rapidly increasing trashing she received as a response definitely seemed like a ‘no’.
Looking around for a solution, she mumbled to herself. “Spear, spear, spear…” As she had heard repeating the name of a lost item often helped when searching it. There might have been some truth to it as her eyes happened upon the worryingly ringing staff. “…Spear?”
Unfortunately, both ends of the staff were blunt, so she still needed something sharp and something to strap the sharp bit onto the staff. Luckily her uniform came with both of those, as she pulled one of the daggers from her hip and took off her right boot to acquire a thoroughly soaked sock. After a bit of assembly, she held up what was possibly the least safe spear in the history of the world.
“Spear!” The adventurer declared happily but was interrupted by the massive snake flinging more of its disgusting blood on her as it became livelier again.
Charging at the beast with the fury of the goblin queen, she lunged and stuck the makeshift spear into the beast’s foul-smelling wound. The daggers must have been well made, as the spear sank far deeper than she could ever have hoped, that is, before the staff snapped in half from the stress put on it.
Anastacia stared at the glass-like splinter in her hand and turned pale as the shard begun vibrating and ringing even louder. “Technically a spear?” she suggested, jabbed the other half of the staff into the wound as well and ran off as fast as she could.
Barely making it back to the beginning of the path she had made, before the ear-shatteringly loud ringing reached its peak and suddenly stopped for only a few seconds. Instinctively she jumped into the snowbank and laid as low as she could, resisting the urge to look behind even slightly.
Following the brief moment of absolute silence, was the absolute loudest sound the adventurer had ever heard as the staff exploded. A massive wave of pressure washed over Anastacia and hit the side of the lodge, tilting the entire structure more than slightly, shattering every window and showering that side of the building with rocks, chunks of frozen snake and tiny, razor-sharp fragments of crystals that embedded themselves firmly into the wooden wall.
A few larger pieces of something landed near Anastacia before she figured it was safe to pop out of the snow to see the damage she had caused. Where the snake had been, there was now a small crater, surrounded by a vast area where the explosion had cleared the snow from. The beast itself was no longer anywhere to be found, instead the entire field was filled with rubble and pieces of snake that ranged from tiny lumps to several kilos of rotting meat.
Since she had been working on the assumption that the beasts could only be killed in ways similar to the story, she was a bit worried that her ‘spear’ might have not made the cut, but when the few of the larger lumps broke down and turned into snow, she raised her arms and cheered. “Technically a spear!”