The two necromancers stared intensely at each other hall in complete silence across the great. Both seeking for the weakness in the other in case things took the turn for the worse.
From Teal’s standpoint, the one standing in the way of his righteous revenge was no mere child; he was standing in the shadow of a giant. Superior to him in every meaningful way and completely untouchable, Anastacia was the one thing the inquisitors had been taught to respect and fear by the sole survivor of the red inquisition. It was also by Coquelicot’s orders that the stray necromancer was not to be challenged by the new inquisition under any circumstances – both for their own good as well as Mournvalley’s.
However, protecting the murderer of Lady Helia and Nikolai was something so completely unfathomable that he simply couldn’t bear it. If the Ouans didn’t get back their representative, they would immediately assume the worst and launch an all-out offensive that would end up with the entire north burning up in flames. By not allowing him to get rid of Lumira earlier, Anastacia had effectively signed the death warrants of thousands and thousands of innocent people.
So despite the utter futility of his powers compared to the twerp facing him, Teal’s ideals forced him to make his play. Throwing his swords at the adventurer was obviously not going to work, so the only way he could even hope to get a hit in before melting into a paste, was to distract Anastacia and use the lapse in her focus to rush in, pour all his might into a single stab and hope, pray and beg that it wouldn’t get stopped in time.
“Anastacia.” He whispered and felt the disturbance in the adventurer’s powers as she was wounded by the word. He lunged in and whispered the name again. Almost feeling something similar to hope for his plan, Teal put all of his powers and weight behind his sword and leaped one more time.
Unfortunately for him, within a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second, that hope turned into absolute terror as he crossed the threshold to where Anastacia’s powers were absolute. He had foolishly assumed that what he had felt earlier after kicking Stel was the limit to the adventurer’s abilities, but that proved to be so beyond wishful thinking that it was almost funny.
What he had thought to be a terrifying maelstrom of necromancy, was more akin to the force of an entire raging sea that bounced around the pathetic little dinghy of his powers without even noticing it. It shredded apart all the force he had built up as if he was a fly that foolishly hit a solid cliff face, and did something that felt like his powers had actually been pushed out of him briefly, just so that his charge could be denied even more harshly.
As every single muscle in his body cramped violently, his bones creaked and his joints did their best to not dislocate, Teal learned what true fear was, the same fear that both Alice and Phthalo had no doubt felt during their final moments after challenging Anastacia and Coquelicot – only he had to live through it, which may have been both better and worse.
He tumbled past the adventurer, who had barely registered what had happened and really seemed to be preoccupied by the two fresh cuts on her body.
Absolutely terrified for his life, Teal frantically dragged himself further away from Anastacia as fast as his sore limbs allowed him to.
“You absolute fucking twat-wizard! What in the name of Sylvia’s celestial bouncy bits do you think you’re doing again?!” The furious adventurer screamed in a mix of rage and pain while holding her shoulder and chest.
Teal backed himself against a wall and tried his best to call one of his swords to him, but couldn’t muster the focus to do it after the traumatic experience of what may as well have been an attempt to hit a god with a stick. “But… That wasn’t- Didn’t meant to-“ The inquisitor mumbled without being able to get a full sentence out as Anastacia walked over.
“This was a new dress and now it has blood and bullshit on it!” The adventurer yelled, completely ignoring Teal’s fear over his life. “Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to find anything that fits me and isn’t made for dwarves or children? Oh, and this fabric? Literally brought into Valor less than twice a year! Of course, you potato sack wearing cock-burglars wouldn’t understand anything about that! Your entire garbage nation basically worships whatever divine lord of chafing is responsible for the mutilated drapes you call clothes! FUCK!”
The inquisitor’s fear begun to slowly mix with an equal amount of confusion over Anastacia’s petty worries right after one of the, supposedly, most dangerous people in the world had made a direct attempt at her life.
“You’re going to stay the fuck right there and keep your cursed mouth shut while I try to unfuck what little of this I can!” Anastacia commanded the lesser necromancer and turned back to Lumira while still trying to stop the bleeding from her new wounds. “And you! Tell me what the shit you think you’re up to and I might not shove your kidneys inside your spine!”
Lumira could feel the oppressing force over her body ease up its grasp and she took a step back from the worryingly angry adventurer, suggesting that the answer she had might not be terribly helpful for her situation. “She- Lady Helia asked to be stabbed, so I stabbed her.” She said, leaving out the part where the Ouan either dying or whatever she was planning working would both benefit the dark elf’s own goals.
Anastacia let out a muffled scream of absolute agony while biting down on her cloak. “When has stabbing anyone who asked for it helped? I’m willing to bet it’s pretty damn close to zero times ever! I swear, how am I supposed to finish this quest when you, dumb fucks A and B, keep constantly ruining everything! Not to mention dumb fuck C, who got her dumb fuck ass kidnapped by the ethereal equivalent of a mild disagreement!”
Suddenly, the adventurer’s tirade of divine anger was interrupted by the rustling of papers and Strawberry clearing his throat at the bottom of the stairs to gather attention without him even lifting his gaze from the form in his hands.
“Anastacia, we decided to approve of the 444-2-c you asked me to fill earlier, but there are a couple of details I need you to-“ He started to explain but quickly fell silent after lifting his eyes from the paper and seeing the heavily breathing, goblin crown donning adventurer, the corpse on the floor, the terrified inquisitor and the massive hole in the wall. His stare bounced between them a few times before he quietly retreated up the staircase and disappeared back to his nest in the library.
“What’s a 444-2-c?” Lumira asked, hoping to direct the conversation to literally any other direction than the one it was currently uncontrollably barreling towards.
“I WILL BURN YOUR TEETH IF YOU DON’T SHUT UP!” Anastacia nonsensically barked at the dark elf to silence her.
Noticing the effect she was starting to have to everyone around her, causing them to slowly back away like she was a rabid animal, Anastacia took more than a few deep breaths while successfully staunching the bleeding from her new wounds by awkwardly rubbing some ointment Emilia made her carry on them.
Having successfully pushed aside the blinding rage she felt over her completely ruined quest and dress, the adventurer assessed the situation to the best of her abilities and started to take control of it. “Teal! Helia was going about some ritual before somebody stabbed her. Check to see if she’s completely, absolutely, one hundred percent dead. Lumira, try not to fucking stab people for five minutes, for fuck’s sake!” She commanded with the authority brought to her by her outburst.
There was, however, one more person that needed addressing. “Hag! Get your ancient, rotten ass over here, so I can whoop it! And bring whatever pets you have left, because I’m seriously running out of patience!” The adventurer yelled.
“You have caused quite a bit of havoc; I am almost proud of you.” The hag laughed, but it was immediately apparent that something wasn’t quite right. Anastacia had expected for the spirit to come and mock her immediately, but instead it held back until being summoned. “Unfortunately, I cannot fulfil your extremely impolite request, for all four of my beasts need to be defeated for me to bare my physical form – just like before. Yet I have only counted two.” The hag continued.
“But we’re down a hunter. How are we supposed to kill a beast that’s supposed to be killed only by someone who is dead?” Anastacia asked but only received a metaphysical shrug of sorts as a response. “At least make this fair.”
While this was going on Teal made his way to Lady Helia’s corpse and rolled it over to pull the enchanted knife out. The distinctive scent of mead spread from the cracked shell of the Ouan’s body as the necromancer poured what little of his powers he had managed to recollect into it. He sought for any signs of life that could have still suggested that Lady Helia was indeed alive, as an Ouan’s physiology differed quite a bit from the more or less standard template most of the sentient races of the world followed, it wasn’t completely impossible that they would survive a stab directly into the heart. Unlike in human bodies, where for example, the organs used for specific functions were in specific places in the body; brains generally being in one’s head, lungs and heart in one’s chest and so forth, Ouan organs were more like a cluster of small organs spread all over their body. They still breathed, ate, thought and felt much the same, but the biological mechanisms involved were vastly different. This gave them a slight advantage when it came to being mortally wounded; as often, instead of dying, an Ouan would simply shut down almost all of their body and prolong the last few seconds they had into minutes or even hours.
Teal’s investigation was left short, however, as a sudden influx of the very distinct smell of rot invaded his nose. Far more intense than a single body should have let out mere moments after death. This prompted the inquisitor to look up and witness all of the horrors Lady Helia had been going through. He saw the vast field of bodies littering the entire hall, as well as the critters feeding on them. He could also see the twisted form of the adventurer, which entirely fit the new perception he had on her, but perhaps most importantly, he could see the wolf of thorns staring directly at him only a couple of meters away.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Umm… Excuse m- no… Need to talk!” He stuttered and raised his hand. “Big problem.”
Anastacia ceased her mockery contest with the spirit and turned to her fellow necromancer. “What now?” She asked.
“How to kill the wolf?” Teal asked without daring to part his gaze from the beast.
Anastacia could barely remember that there was a wolf, much less what happened to it. She was also distracted by the constant cackling of the hag and couldn’t get a clear picture of the carving in her head.
“You stab it.” Answered Lumira suddenly.
“What is it with you and stabbing?” Anastacia groaned.
“Well excuse me for having some basic knowledge on the dark elves in the history of this area.” The vice commander frowned. “I had to listen to Stel for far longer than you did.”
Anastacia watched as the inquisitor slowly picked up the mead knife while staring at a seemingly empty spot in front of him. “You’re seeing it, aren’t you?” She guessed.
Teal nodded and stood up with the knife readied.
“You know, this happening would have been obvious if either of you was worth your salt as necromancers. The wolf of corruption is a fickle thing that works by corroding the will and determination of its prey, it is not surprising that it would spread on to someone who is more or less doing the same.” The hag pointed out with a demeaning tone in her voice. “It is not what was supposed to happen at all, but it did, so have fun with that one.”
“Oh shit! Should I join in on this?” Anastacia asked and pointed at Lady Helia’s corpse.
Teal quickly glanced at the field of gore around them. “Nooo... There’s much more to see. Think of the broken, unwanted ones.” He said, referring to the common name for the necromancers who had utterly failed to tame their lust for blood and carnage, such as the now thankfully late red inquisitor Crimson.
After a brief flashback of the giant pile of flesh Crimson had armed herself during their fight, Anastacia understood that it was probably okay for her to not step in. Even if she no longer projectile vomited at the first sight of blood, there were still limits and she was in no mood to push them.
Still recovering from the absolute humiliation the adventurer had laid down on him, the inquisitor’s hand shook as he pointed the knife at the beast, which snarled terrifyingly at him as a response.
Without wasting any time, the beast leaped on Teal and shoved him down. The inquisitor managed to roll away from under it and swipe at the wolf’s chest with the horrifyingly sharp knife that easily cut all the way down to the bone.
Despite the accuracy of Teal’s methods, the wound healed perfectly within seconds.
From the inquisitors confused look before he had to dive to avoid a second charge, Anastacia could tell that something was off. “Is it not working? My method was complete bullshit and it still worked, so why wouldn’t this?”
Teal tumbled into the sea of viscera around him and tried his best not to get anything in his mouth. “Very much not working!” He yelled and kicked the wolf in the jaw as it once again lunged at him.
Lumira watched the necromancer perform what looked like a very intricate and experimental dance with his invisible foe and was the first to connect the dots in her head. “Anastacia… She needs to stab it. It’s still her beast, no?” She said and pointed at the dead Ouan.
“A bit too late for that one. In case you missed it: YOU KILLED HER!” The adventurer yelled and shoved the dark elf.
Lumira shrugged. “Aren’t you two necromancers? How is this an issue?”
Anastacia groaned in annoyance at how correct the vice commander was. However, neither her nor Teal were what anyone would call ‘traditionalists’, so reanimating the recently dead wasn’t one of their primary skills.
“Teal! You need to have Helia stab it!” The adventurer relayed the information to the inquisitor, who was beginning to get tired and had already been successfully swiped at a couple of times.
“Not good at reanimation!” Teal responded and landed flat on his chest on the ground.
Anastacia buried her head in her hands and let out another muffled scream. “Well I’m trash at it too, so just figure something out!” She said and raised her hands to signal giving up on the matter.
Teal had never been at all gifted in reanimation, nor was it a skill the new inquisition as a whole lacked, so he hadn’t put any more training into it than Anastacia. Trying to hurriedly reanimate a completely unprepared corpse while severely lacking in skill would almost certainly result in a gory explosion and remove any chances they still had to use the body somehow. He considered taking off one of Lady Helia’s arms, but it was a bit questionable if that would even count.
Quickly running out of time as he dodged and parried the beast’s attacks, Teal decided to simply do the first thing that came to his exhausted mind. He used one of his swords to hack at the wolf’s leg, only really gaining seconds before it healed and the beast would be on him once more. Luckily, the few seconds were enough for him to lunge towards Lady Helia’s body and shove the knife’s grip into the crack in her skin.
Barely in time, he lifted up the surprisingly light Ouan and hurled her entire body at the wolf. The knife happened to stick on just long enough for the hit to land, and like a scalpel it slit open the beast’s neck and shoulder.
Discouraged by the excessive bleeding from its first real wound, the wolf howled miserably and struggled to stand upright, giving Teal all the time and space to place the knife into the dead Ouan’s hand.
He lifted up the body, wrapped his own hand around Lady Helia’s and delivered one more blow to the dying beast, slitting its throat for good.
As the beast and the corruption it had caused dispelled into a fine mist, Teal slumped down in exhaustion, still tightly holding on to the body.
Anastacia took this as a sign of victory and cheered triumphantly. “Up yours, you ancient bag!” She yelled at the empty room around them.
“Well done indeed! It only required utterly desecrating the body of your companion.” The hag said as her sarcastic clapping echoed in the hall. “Is this what you people consider a victory? One of the three is dead from attempting to perform a dud of a ritual and a second one scarred by his exceptional failure to kill the third one. Truly, hunters like no other. I am beginning to wonder if I will get the chance to even meet you in person or if you tear into each other for some moronic reason before that, of course my offer to the inquisitor still stands; kill Anastacia and you will be free of this.”
“Where’s my offer?” Anastacia asked, genuinely bit hurt by being excluded. “I mean I won’t do it, but you could at least try to convince me.”
“You are too much of an annoyance. I can well see myself sharing the world with the necromancers of Mournvalley, but you… you need to die.” The hag explained in the most honest-sounding voice she had so far spoken in.
More proud than anything about the spirit’s disdain for her, Anastacia sat down on the floor near teal and placed the two remaining spears she had in front of her. “Do your worst then.”
The shadows waned and the air became fresher as the hag left the adventurer’s boast unanswered. Lumira felt herself to be a bit of an outsider and quietly retreated to inspect the shattered projector she had used with great success.
Anastacia glanced at the inquisitor, who was silently scanning the Ouan’s body to finish the examination that had been interrupted before. Clearly feeling down over everything that happened, Teal was a miserable sight and Anastacia started to feel bad for her earlier outburst. “Sooo… How are you doing there, buddy?” She asked awkwardly.
“Not having a great time…” Teal sighed. “Illusions of power are crushed, thought purpose in the world was clear, might not be so.” He said, carefully wording his woes while holding the Ouan’s hand.
“Umm... Did you actually like her?” The adventurer carefully asked.
“Who knows?” Teal laughed longingly. “No matter, need to head back home and prepare for war, probably arrange an assassination of a certain someone.”
Both of them could hear the vice commander grunt in pain as Teal’s words cut into her skin.
Anastacia shrugged. “I won’t be there to stop you. I just need to salvage what I can of this quest and handing over the culprit to Vassund is a big part of it. Honestly I don’t even think I disagree with you anymore.” She admitted without caring if the dark elf heard her. “But before that, you have a beast to kill and we need to end this properly.”
Teal nodded and stood up.
“And for the record, if I hadn’t already been pissed off, you would have probably hit me.” Anastacia whispered, partly to make the inquisitor feel even slightly better and partly because it was probably true.
They looked around the hall for any signs of Teal’s beast, but aside from the whistling of the wind outside, there was nothing going on. The sun had started to set and the field of snow outside looked slightly orange. The reoccurring problem in being an adventurer hit Anastacia once more as she looked through the hole in the wall she had made; almost every quest would have been an amazing trip with beautiful scenery and interesting places to see, that is, if everything wasn’t always thoroughly fucked by the time she arrived or soon after she arrived.
“Oh shit! Magnon and Ilyu are still alive too! Almost forgot about them.” She suddenly realized while searching the surroundings for any hints of oddities. “Well that’s some more points for me, I guess. Yay.”
As the adventurer marveled at the milieu and the inquisitor refocused himself by spinning around his swords, Lumira tried to stay out of either’s sight and mind by sticking to the shadows and being as quiet as possible, but from the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw the body of Lady Helia nudge slightly. Unsure if she had seen correctly and not wanting to alert the necromancers pointlessly, she stared at the corpse for a while. Nothing worth noting appeared to happen for a couple of minutes, but just as she was about to convince herself that she had been imagining it, the body moved again, this time for certain.
Teal noticed the second nudge as well and stopped to take a look at the body. The Ouan’s dark greenish shell had turned paler and the whole body appeared dry, as if it was being drained somehow.
Suddenly the corpse’s face cracked, and the entire body convulsed violently as the cracks spread along it. Light began leaking from the Ouan’s mouth, eyes and the spreading fractures until the cramps ceased and the shell was stuck in an extremely painful-looking pose.
Exploding apart as if it had been holding back great pressure, the body scattered all over the great hall and what was left behind was a magnificent being that oozed both power and authority as it rose up from the remains.
“So learned Iupita.” The reborn Ouan finished her ritual.
While still unquestionably Lady Helia, her reborn body had gone through some changes. Slightly taller than her already imposing previous form, the Ouan now stood at well over two meters and stared down at the necromancers. The dark greenish color had changed into radiant yellow and gold that was almost uncomfortable to look directly at. Four translucent dragonfly-like wings unfolded from her back and the spikes lining her body were now twice as sharp. The only part of her being that didn’t hurt to look at, were the impossibly black eyes with the same orange irises and the same demeaning look she had before.
“Teal, you have done well to guard us. Acted your part perfectly. Yet do we see disbelief in your eyes?” Lady Helia asked and latched tightly onto the inquisitor, who couldn’t believe his eyes.
Anastacia struggled with her horrid personality and the temptation to reveal that Teal had chucked Helia’s dead body at a wolf only moments earlier.
The Ouan noticed Anastacia’s stare and turned her attention to the adventurer while still crushing Teal against her chitinous body.
“Are you naked?” Anastacia whispered and gave Helia a quick thumbs up. “Because I totally get that.”
Lady Helia chucked. “We are clad in radiance and don divinity on our form.” She explained without actually answering the question. “But this form is fleeting, let us make use of it while it lasts.”
The Ouan released Teal and appeared to start looking around for something. “Wretched husk of a spirit, tainting this world with its presence, hear us, for we’ve brought a message from our ‘feeble gods’” She said with a bellowing voice that echoed throughout the lodge.
Lifting her hand up and slowly lowering it, Lady Helia carved a glowing line on the reality itself with her golden claws and began tearing it open forcibly.
With a loud crack, not that much unlike an eggshell, the line opened and fractured the air around it, creating a large gap into some other realm that immediately began leaking the vomit-inducing scent of death and darkness itself into the hall.
“We see you!” The Ouan spoke with a what sounded like several different voices at once, some male, some female, but every single one of them full of might and power. She then plunged her hand into the gap and grasped on to something on the other side.