We wore the same camo clothing as before. After we showed him how the shapes hid us in darkness and vegetation, he had given us a very envious look. I had promised to give him some modern camo clothing. I didn’t expect camo patterns to break the world, and it would help him with his job.

Of course, that would only happen if we survived.

We didn’t take much else than our newly built bomb, EPX-1, as it supposedly was the plastic explosive with the highest detonation velocity. I didn’t really understand what that meant, except that it supposedly made bigger booms.

I was going to leave as little to chance to possible to make sure the [Dark Crow] died.

Only my backpack had the explosives in it, two bags full would, according to Bonnie, been dangerously overkill. Other than that, Gaëlle had taken some of the iron enriched water, a combat knife, and a miniature flashlight. I had my own knife on a sheath hanging from my belt. We didn’t think equipping our helmets or taking a bow or sword would have been any use at all, except being heavier and noisier.

Bonnie was on standby over the tower, with strict orders to tell us when the [Dark Crow] left. The camera didn’t give a good view at the surroundings so if she saw it come back while we were in the nest, it would be too late.

The faster we got inside the tower, dropped our package, and left to the rendezvous point, the faster we would be safe.

We had finally built a ladder from the bottom of the lair’s entrance to level ground, as well as a metal fence above it to avoid reruns with other house-crashing tooth bears. The cave now also had lights powered by a generator. The switch was inside the station so no one would ever understand what it was for.

In other words, we arrived at our spot under the inverted waterfall easily. Night was falling when Rik joined us there.

“The Upperseas will be dark tonight.” He said as greetings. “We won’t be able to spot the [Dark Crow] leaving or not.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll know.” I reassured him.

This time, he didn’t try to fish for more information.

“Are you all right, Rik?” I asked.

“No. Troubled. My father will help us but…if we don’t succeed, he’ll try to convince the other villagers to rebel. He may very well be the next target of the monster if we don’t blow it up tonight. He also told me some disturbing facts about Henry’s assistant.”

“Oh?”

“No one knows his name.”

“So he’s very recluse?” Gaëlle tried.

“Maybe. Try to avoid him, hanging out with the Ascensus could have provided him with some rare skills, or even a class.”

“How are those two things related, exactly?” I asked.

“The Ascensus is a class that can enchant, which means he can make books and scrolls to teach others. I don’t believe he is high levelled enough to teach his class or make class books, but then again, if the [Dark Crow] is considered his pet, the System would reward him for a fraction of all its kills.”

“I would have liked to hear about this before.” Elle pointed out with slight worry.

“Even if his class was only level twenty, he would still be able to kill both of you easily. It didn’t matter before, it still doesn’t now. You should focus on the plan, on what you two are doing for the village…I should thank you for that, truthfully. I don’t think I have yet… Trust me when I say that Henry won’t be around tonight. Now, are you ready? Where is your oil?”

“It’s in my backpack.” I answered him.

Even through the emerging darkness, I saw his surprise. “So small? I hope it gets the work done.”

“I…that should not pose a problem.”

“Should not?”

“We couldn’t exactly test this particular batch of oil.” Gaëlle provided.

“Fine, whatever happens it happens tonight.” Rik sounded decided. “Follow me and put this over yourself when we enter the village.” He gave us rough cloaks, pale grey in colour. “Do not talk when we’re there, your translation skill would make you very easy to spot. Only my father is aware of who you are, the others only know you are here to help with the [Dark Crow] somehow.”

Me and Gaëlle nodded.

We followed Rik through the road in silence. It was almost pitch black, and we were mostly following his shadow and trying not to trip. Even though we knew that the [Dark Crow] hadn’t left its nest yet through Bonnie, the village hunter didn’t, and as such didn’t want to attract it with any lights.

Walking on the dirt road in those conditions took some time, but we finally arrived at the village gate. It looked very different than during the day. The high wooden palisade was eerie, and there was no one in sight.

I almost jumped out of my skin when someone appeared out of thin air. I corrected myself as I immediately realized he had come out of the dry moats.

“Rik?” The voice was deep and hushed.

“Yes Ida.” The [Wood Elf] answered.

“Is that them?”

“Yes.”

“Get in then.”

The man dropped back in the moat, and Rik turned around. I didn’t see what he did with his hands exactly, but he seemed to want us to follow him.

He jumped in the moat, and me and my sister peered over the edge. It was barely deep enough to fit a man, but there was a very faint light coming out of some sort of underground tunnel.

We followed them through the tunnel, having to lower our heads to fit. Rik’s father, because it had to be considering the ears, was now visible through the oil lamps in the underground passage. I gave a quick look to our surroundings before going back to Rik’s dad. Everything had been reinforced with wood, and the ground had some sort of rudimentary flooring. I recognized the [Wood Elf], he had been one of the guards during our first passage, but I had been too transfixed by the huge scar on his face to notice his tall ears.

“My name is Kan Mor. My son Rik Nut has told me what you discovered. I have to thank you, strangers. If you manage to kill the [Dark Crow], what is left of our clan shall be indebted to you forever.”

He made a strange half bow followed by crossed fingers in front of his eyes.

Which was made even more awkward as he was already half crouched in the tunnel.

Before I could answer, he raised a finger. “Do not talk. Follow my son.” And he squeezed past us, back to his post. There were no other guards around.

“Quickly.” Rik egged us.

We emerged on the other side of the wall, into complete silence. The dark streets were completely empty, no lights coming out of any window. It was like Canvas village had become a ghost town.

We didn’t need to split up, which was an advantage of the dark ocean above our heads. Me and Gaëlle still had no idea why it sometimes provided light and why sometimes it didn’t. Rik didn’t know either and apparently no one in Canvas did. It was just something that happened.

The shadows provided decent cover, and we made good progress through the little streets.

Rik gave us the sign to hold, so we paused.

A man in chain armour passed a few meters in front of us, going to the other side of a crossroad.

A minute passed, and we resumed our march to the inner plaza.

Soon, even through the obscurity, I spotted the tower in front of us.

“Here we are. Let me unlock the door. We shall meet behind my house when you are done.” Rik told us. He had taught us where it was, and it wasn’t complicated to reach, even in the darkest of nights. We even had gotten pictures of it through the drones, and Bonnie could use the night vision of the drone above our heads to guide us.

Rik took out a key and opened the back door to the tower, the same one we had used to get into the large council chamber. That would be our first stop, where we would wait for the crow to leave.

I heard the door unlock, and Rik gallantly opened it for us, even if he probably didn’t mean to do it like that at all. I wasn’t even sure gentlemanliness existed in this world.

He pocketed the key, gave us a nod, and left. Me and my sister didn’t wait one second, we entered the tower and closed the door behind us. It was pitch black in there now.

“Where did he get that key?” Gaëlle asked in a whisper.

“No idea. Now get moving.”

She unsheathed her knife and searched for the small cylinder inside her backpack. When she did, she turned on the miniature flashlight and stepped forward. She kept the combat knife in her other hand.

“Why the knife? You’re more likely to hurt yourself than anyone else.” I asked her.

“It’s reassuring.”

I sighed. “Well, it’s not reassuring for me.”

“Well, that’s a bummer.” She responded with sarcasm.

The little flashlight wasn’t very powerful, but with the complete darkness, it was effective enough.

We went through the long corridor, walked the round stairway up to the chamber, and hid on the side of a wall.

There, we waited.

Hours passed, and the [Dark Crow] still hadn’t left its nest. It had to be midnight now, even though there wasn’t really a midnight in a world with 23-hour days.

The tower was completely silent, and in the heavy darkness, with only my sister’s hand in my right and Lila’s in my left, the complete absence of light was getting on my nerves. It was hard not to fall asleep. I had let Gaëlle doze off for a while until I wasn’t sure I would be able to stay awake either.

“Crow has left its nest.” The voice of Bonnie burst out of oblivion.

“Oh my f…” I tried to calm down my beating heart.

“Bonnie, some warning next time.” My sister asked, herself having jumped out of her skin.

“Understood.”

“L, here we go.”

She turned on the flashlight, and it almost seemed like a spotlight now.

Me and Gaëlle opened the door to the Ascensus’ private chambers, and we found ourselves in front of a very similar case of stairs circling to the upper floors.

We climbed in silence until we reached the next door. The stairs stopped there. That was expected, according to Rik, the tower had been built with the stairs on opposite sides each floor. I found it extremely unpractical but that’s how it had been built, and there may have been engineering or financial reasons behind the choice.

This floor was very clearly the Ascensus’ living quarters. It was outlandish in colourful carpets everywhere, beautiful golden chandeliers and lavish seats or couches. The walls were decorated heavily, mainly with large curtains all over to hide the big slabs of the stone wall behind. There were a few more windows, with single stained glass, but they were quite small and would have barely let in any light.

Gaëlle was trying to shine her torch at everything as we moved through the open room, there were a few side-rooms, some with closed doors some without, but we had no time to explore. It was pretty untidy, with luxurious clothes laying around, but everything looked clean, no excess of dust or bad smell.

“Check for anything like books.” My sister whispered.

“I know.”

But as we reached what looked like the door to the stairs, we had found nothing.

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We opened the door and rose to the next floor.

This one was basically a very large bathhouse. It looked a bit like Turkish hammams, with its characteristic mosaic floor and beautiful swimming pool flooring. It was completely void of water though. There was a large cistern on a wall, but no plumbery or heater of any kind that linked it with the bath.

“The hell?” My sister asked, clearly interested in how it all worked.

“Not now.”

I pushed her out of her reverie, and we carried on to the next floor.

This one was a complete mess. Paper and shelves everywhere, three desks cluttered to the brim with documents, dozen and dozens of trinkets, and some weird looking sculptures.

“…Don’t touch anything.” I told my sister.

“Yeah, this smells like a curse waiting to happen.”

We spotted a few books, and immediately went to check them.

I touched the first one, it looked identical to the Skill Book I had been given two floors below almost a month prior.

“Score!” Exclaimed my sister.

You have discovered the Skill Book: [Speech: Common Overworld]

“It’s for Common Overworld.”

“What? Again?”

“Yeah.”

I touched another.

You have discovered the Skill Book: [Speech: Common Overworld]

“Fuck.”

She gave me a desperate look.

“Don’t tell me it is what I’m thinking it is.”

“Sorry…” I tried the third and last one.

You have discovered the Skill Book: [Speech: Common Overworld]

“All the same.” I concluded.

“No! Why? Why create all similar Skill Books?”

I grimaced. I had a vague idea. “We were supposed to be the ultimate prize for this Tyr guy, but I don’t think it was the first time Benedict made affairs with residents of this world. If Henry was his in-between, then…”

“Then he was the one who provided a fast and easy way for the subjects to learn languages. Shit.” She dropped the book she was holding. “Let’s carry on.”

“Let’s.”

The next floor should have been the penultimate one. It was slightly different than all the others, there had been a small kitchen and plenty of empty rooms. It seemed to be the servant area, and we expected to find the scribe here somewhere, but fortunately the many small rooms were all closed.

It brought a problem though. There were so many doors it was pretty difficult to know which one led to the nest.

We narrowed it down to three, completely similar doors at the opposite side of the previous stairs.

“Well, I pick this one.” Gaëlle didn’t hesitate, she just opened one of them.

It was an empty bedroom with a very small opening as a window in the back, and a single, creepy looking chair in the middle.

“Nope.” She closed the door.

She walked to another one and tried again.

A large shadow fell on her.

She screamed loudly before immediately stifling her terrified cry.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her away from whatever had just fallen on the ground. It was big, the size of a man and…no, it was a man.

The scribe was laying there, his clothes the exact same we had seen him wear when we had met him. He smelled weird.

“What the fuck? Did we just find this world’s Harry Potter?” L asked out loud as she shone her flashlight inside the now opened room.

Except it wasn’t a room, it was a cupboard under the staircase, the door leading to it the last one we hadn’t tried.

There was almost nothing inside the adult-sized box of stone. Half a mattress, a used scrub, and a bucket with a mop.

“Is he dead?” Gaëlle asked at the man still on the ground.

“No, he’s breathing I can…hey, are you okay?” I asked despite my instincts telling me something was seriously wrong.

The scribe rose to his feet and looked at us. He had an androgynous face, balanced features that probably would have made him attractive if not for his deadpan, bored expression, and the fact that I wasn’t personally interested.

He didn’t seem to find our presence here uncanny, nor did he seem to care in any way.

“What the hell creep? Why are you sleeping in a cupboard with all these empty rooms?”

“L, that’s really not the moment. He doesn’t seem to be entirely woken up, let’s leave him.”

I walked towards the unopened door, but he walked to intercept, blocking my way.

“Listen, I don’t know how loyal you are to Henry, but you can’t seriously like how you’re being treated here. Let us pass and you’ll go free.”

“…Intruders.” His voice was raspy, broken, and gave me a very bad feeling, but I didn’t know why immediately.

Gaëlle recognized the problem on the spot.

“Nielle, get back.”

The flickering of the flashlight shone on his face, on and off, and I listened to my sister without thinking about it.

Something felt wrong.

My sister trembled as she tried to pull me further away while still holding on to her flashlight.

“L? Talk to me.”

“Didn’t you hear? He spoke in English.”

“Wha…” I recognized it now. When he had spoken, there had been no translation.

“Shit, he’s a Subject.” I surmised.

“Intruders.” He seemed more resolute now, even though his expression didn’t change at all.

His whole body did, though. He grew in size, getting as large as Grognar had been, ripping all his clothes and leaving us with a very bulky He-man monster. His privates were dangling all over the place, completely disproportionate and deformed.

“Kill Intruders.”

He walked towards us.

“Wait, wait! Benedict is dead! You don’t have…” But I couldn’t finish my sentence, as I received the mother of all punches straight to the face and got launched in the air.

My sister couldn’t hold me and shrieked in horror. I felt myself fly through emptiness in slow motion. My one thought: I had explosives on my back.

The fact that the plastic wouldn’t explode without an electrical current slipped my mind as I did my best to turn around to face the wall directly.

The shock felt terrible…but nothing broke, not even my nose. It didn’t even hurt that much. I scraped my knees and that was it. I didn’t stop to think about the absurdly lucky results, I was certainly not going to complain.

I had been thrown far away though, and it was extremely hard to see anything with only Gaëlle’s flashlight.

She was running around as well, trying to avoid the He-man as she looked for me.

“Nielle? Daniel? Where are you?” Her voice cracked, her nerves immediately rejecting the reality where I was missing.

“Duck!” I shouted, and luckily, my sister immediately obeyed my voice. The punch flew wide above her head.

It was so hard to see, I could only see glimpses of my sister’s hand and big, large muscles, or the pendulum’s movement of the Subject’s inhuman penis.

“Listen to us! Benedict is dead!” I tried again, with no apparent result. “Bonnie? Who is that, why didn’t you tell us?”

“Ding Dong.” Echoed in my neck.

“What?”

“Warning system.” Bonnie added with her usual deadpan voice, and I swear if she had been alive I would have murdered her. “This is Subject 251, first subject brought into S world 5. Former name is Olivieri Giorniomo. I received no prior instructions on Subject 251’s whereabouts and…”

“Shut up Bonnie!” Gaëlle screamed. “Daniel? Where are you?”

“Over here, I can’t see very well so…wait, turn off the flashlight! He can’t see either! Let’s go back downstairs and regroup.”

“He can fucking hear us!” She jumped to avoid a kick.

“He can’t understand, I think. Turn it off!”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” She dodged one last time and then darkness fell entirely onto us.

I used my other senses to leave, I could hear the scribe punching nothing, then sometimes a wall. He didn’t even grunt in pain.

“Daniel?” Gaëlle whispered not far away from me.

“Yes…go on.”

It took some time to reach the stairs, and as I had guessed, Olivieri didn’t follow us.

Gaëlle turned on her flashlight and gave me a very relieved smile as I got almost flash banged in the face.

“Turn that away!” I winced in pain.

“Oh, sorry. You’re all right?”

“Yeah, peachy, didn’t even hurt what about…” I immediately grabbed her arm holding the flashlight, it was bleeding a lot. Considering our regeneration, it had to have been serious for that much to be there. “L? What happened?”

“I fell on my knife…” She answered, ashamed. “I’m fine, I pulled it out and didn’t even drop the light.”

“You…I don’t care about that, how are you feeling!?”

“It hurts a bit. And you should care about that, without the flashlight, we’re never going to find our way back.”

“There are torches all around the floors. We’d have found a way. Drink some of the water.”

“Fine, fine. I’m okay.” She did as I asked though. “What do we do about Benedict’s post-mortem gift?” She asked after gulping down the silver liquid and putting it back in her bag.

“I don’t know. Bonnie, why is Subject 251 not listening to us?”

“Subject 251 has completed the final phase, he is now the propriety of his buyer, the Ascensus of Canvas village, and Dr Benedict.”

“The final phase. Brain surgery.” I repeated out loud. A deep silence fell between me and my sister. We both had read parts of what the final phase meant. What it meant for Subject 251, no, Olivieri.

“He’s dead.” I said out loud.

“…Worse.” My sister corrected. “We need to kill him.”

I nodded. “He’s three times our weight. How do you propose we do that?”

“Well, I doubt Henry used his slave to power level, which means that even though what’s left of the scribe can access magic, he probably has a shitty level. Can he even distribute his stats?”

“Henry can probably force him.”

“He looked scary, but honestly, he was slow. Even with a knife in my arm I managed to dodge him. I think we can take him.” L added.

“Fine, you distract him with the flashlight, and I’ll do it.”

“No. Not this time Nielle. You don’t have to take the shitty part all the time. I’ll kill him.”

“Are you sure? It is…”

“I am certain. It is the most humane thing to do, and I’ll live with it fine while you’ll have regrets.”

I didn’t have anything to argue back to that. Elle was entirely right. I didn’t want her to do it, but I relented.

“Ok.” I took the flashlight, pulled my knife just in case, and dropped my backpack to avoid breaking the explosives inside. Hey! I realized. Maybe it hadn’t been such a dumb idea to tank the wall with my face after all.

As soon as we reached the penultimate floor and the He-man saw the light, he began rushing straight towards us. It was terrifying, as I couldn’t see him yet, but was hearing him quite clearly. My sister was positioned in the shadows on my right.

“Ok. Come on big guy.” I taunted him.

I saw a large silhouette emerge right in front of me.

I dodged at the last minute, cutting him with my knife as he crashed on the wall.

“How does it feel? Not so good right?”

He grunted and turned to attack me again. His expression had stayed this ultimate expression of boredom.

My cut on him had already healed, I realized.

He suddenly stopped.

My sister was behind him, her knife in his back.

He blinked a bit, then continued to run towards me.

I heard the sound of blood splashing on the ground as I dodged again.

“Fuck.” My sister swore.

It seemed he hadn’t lost all his intellect, as he was careful not to crash this time, and turned on himself to try and kick me. The strike had been unnatural, probably bending his spine in ways that it should not have.

I caught his foot with my blade but was still pushed away.

As I redirected my flashlight on him, he wobbled a bit. My knife was in his foot.

He seemed to register the wound as he walked, grabbing the hilt of the weapon, pulling it out, and then putting the bloody stump back on the ground.

“I think you just gave him a weapon.” My sister pointed out unhelpfully.

“Great.”

He continued to reach for me, this time swinging his blade all around. The hectic movements made things a bit more difficult, but my sister found his back a few more times, nonetheless.

He didn’t seem phased by it, the wounds closing after a few seconds every time.

Minutes passed when I received my first wound. He had managed to find my shoulder with the tip of my knife. I had gone back before he could punch deep, but the pain did make it harder to avoid the next strike, cutting my left cheek deeply.

“Nielle!”

“Just try to finish him in one strike!” I shouted at my sister.

“I’m trying!” But as she appeared behind him, the He-man turned around to grab her with his left hand, catching her throat and pulling her up.

“Gnn…” She stabbed him violently in the belly, and he responded by doing the same to her. I saw the expression of utter pain in her eyes and ran to stop it.

I grabbed his right arm, using all of my strength to pause his stabbing motions.

“You asshole stop hurting my sister!”

Despite the terrifying wounds in my sister’s belly, she continued to strike at the giant of a man. Blood was oozing from everywhere. Despite my strength, despite the gore of his belly, I felt that I was losing my fight with the scribe. His knife coming closer and closer to my sister’s neck this time.

I started to panic, trying to find good footing, anything to pull him away from her.

But he was too tall, my position too precarious for me to use all of my stats effectively.

The knife edged, then started to penetrate Gaëlle’s flesh and…

“No.” I ordered him.

!?Error!? Magic does not exist.

When he didn’t stop, I decided that the arm had to go, so I cut through the shoulder with my right hand and pulled with my left.

The muscles gave up slightly after the bone.

My sister fell on the ground as the scribe stepped back to grasp at the emptiness that had appeared on him.

“Does it make you remember good things? He liked to remove things from us, didn’t he? I told you not to hurt my sister.”

Looking up was annoying, so I crushed his kneecaps with my foot. As his knees bent in the opposite way as they should, he immediately fell on his back. I placed the flashlight next to his face. His expression was still the same, but a pitiful “hhhh” escaped his lips.

“I told you. I TOLD YOU.” I picked up the bowels spilling out with a hand and pushed them in his mouth.

“Taste that? That’s how shit you were.”

“Nielle…” Someone said behind me.

“How do you like being back without arms and legs? Phase 2 was the good one, yeah? Oh wait, you still have an arm, didn’t see it.” He was waving it uselessly in front of his face right now. I punched the shoulder with my clawed hand, cutting it off with a few strikes.

“How big he made you. He kept you as a man though, even if that dick of yours is gross.”

“Nielle stop.” My sister coughed.

“You’ll be fine, right?” I turned away from the asshole that had hurt my sister, picked up the flashlight and shone it on her to make sure she was okay.

“I…yes. I’m healing. But Daniel, you’re going too far, you’re in a [Be…”

I stopped caring the moment I heard she was going to be fine, dropping the flashlight back where it had been.

“So. What to do with you. How about making you remember phase 3? Crush your ears, eyes, you’ll still be able to feel things, but with how much it has to hurt, I don’t think that’ll be nice.”

He was still expressionless.

“Daniel!”

I picked the man up, first tearing away the bottom part of his mouth and his tongue.

“Next is the eyes…”

Someone picked up the flashlight and aimed it at the man’s visage.

Still expressionless.

“Daniel! Look at him! He’s crying! You’re making him cry. Stop!”

There were tears coming out of his placid face.

It made me pause a bit.

“He’s done. I’m safe. Please.”

My sister forced me to look at her.

“Don’t torture him. It’s not his fault. He deserves mercy.”

I looked back at the man’s tears. Looked beyond the nothingness.

“Shit.” I realized in horror. “I lost control.” I jumped back on my feet but stumbled on something and fell on my butt.

The man’s arm was under my legs. “Shit. Oh no.”

“It’s fine, Daniel. It’s fine. You saved my life. Again.” She picked up my knife and walked towards Olivieri.

“I’m sorry.” She said. She pushed the knife through his throat. He squirmed a bit, despite everything still not dying. “Please. Please.” Gaëlle begged.

I gulped. Lila’s hand in mine. I couldn’t break down here. My sister was trying what I had completely failed to do.

I rose back up, and knelt next to my sister, looking at the poor thing that had once been a man.

“Please forgive me.” I knew he could not understand. But I needed to say it.

“He’s not…he’s not dying…” My sister was crying.

“You have to go further with the knife. Break his spinal cord. One strike, as if you wanted to get the knife in the ground, not in him. Like a tent post when we went fishing.”

“Mh. Mh.” She nodded vehemently. She pulled the knife out of the scribe’s throat, aimed it back over the already receding wound, and pushed with both her arms and body.

I heard a terrible crack, then what remained of light in Olivieri’s eyes finally faded.

You have killed Olivieri [Homo Chimera] level 68

Experience is shared

3400 Experience awarded

We looked at the parody of a body sprayed on the floor for a moment. Nothing could have prepared us for something like that. We were drenched in blood, knees in it, faced with the horror of what we had done. What I had done.

“I’m sorry.” I finally spoke.

“I know. You should stop feeling sorry for saving my life. But you should keep in check what you’re saying, it was…that was frankly horrible.”

“What about ripping him apart!?” I asked almost angrily.

“I doubt he felt it. It didn’t seem to matter to him. When you started talking about the phases though… it seemed like he begged for things to stop. His arm…”

“I…I didn’t see.” I confessed.

“I know. But this is not only your fault. We…we didn’t ask about the ones before us.”

“We didn’t.”

“Let’s ask Bonnie when we’re back. Just to tell the families that…” She didn’t finish her sentence.

“That’s a great idea.” I rose to my feet. “We’ve got a job to finish.”

“Yeah.”