“Rot in hell old cunt!” she snarled and spat on the corpse.
With the old bitch dead her objective was done. The red had fled her vision during her venting, but the edges remained blurry. To deal with it she closed her eyes and took in deep breaths. After exhaling and repeating the process half a dozen times, she opened her, now entirely clear eyes and set them on Isaac, who watched her with a disturbed look.
“We fucking suck,” she muttered.
The fight that just concluded, if she was being honest, was not the hardest fight she had had; that still belonged to her first encounter with the bastard. One thing she would admit though, loathfully so, was that it was the most embarrassing one so far.
“How did we get owned by crone who looked like she was a step away from death’s door?” she huffed out.
“If I was still human, the fight would have been much easier,” Isaac, the bastard, threw shade. “There are spells I could have used to counter her.”
“And if you were not present, I would not have struggled that much either,” she countered. “Do you know how many spells I was unable to use because you were in the way?” Isaac opened his mouth to say something, but she interrupted him. “It doesn’t matter. We won in the end. Now we just need to figure out ways to fight together without being a hinderance to one another.” Her eyes fell back on the crone’s squashed head before shifting back to the knight. “By the way. Do you know who she was?”
Isaac frowned and shook his head. “I haven’t a clue. Why would you think I do?”
“From her strength alone, she clearly isn’t a nobody,” she reasoned. “You’re from this area; haven’t you heard of an old crone well-versed in fighting and spellcraft? Maybe your church is after her because of… urg!” She could not get physically sick, but it made her sick to think about the fact that she had sampled the hag’s soup
“I assure you that if the church had been aware of such a despicable individual, they would have acted,” Isaac replied. “Even if the Goddess’ Church is barred from Lethia, they would have informed the Lethians. After all, even Vestravans balk at cannibalism.”
“Well, fuck it,” she said after pondering for a moment to no avail. “Let’s go back.”
Above her, [Space Lock] had shattered. She reached down and grabbed the one of the crone’s ankles before turning around, opening a [Dimension Door] and dragging the corpse through it.
She had returned to the inn, which had been reduced to broken walls and rubble. A massive hole was in the middle exposing the basement and its numerous cages. A quick look into the hole and she was hit with the sight of seared and frozen corpses. There were no survivors from her earlier elemental clash with the witch; the four arsehole mercenaries had been reduced to the same state as the caged victims.
Sage sneered and looked away.
“NYX!” she called.
A second later, the familiar emerged from her shadow while still wearing the Umbral Felis form. He was not alone though, as he had dragged along the half-orc girl with his mouth clamped on her shoulder. The girl was in worse shape than the last time Sage had seen her. A huge wooden splinter nestled in her chest, the result of which was a large red stain on her dress that continuous enlarged. Her eyes gaped almost as wide as her mouth, which continuously struggled with intake of breath. All that came out with were coughs that spurted blood from the mouth. The stake had likely punctured a lung.
“Let her go and search the rubble for valuables,” she ordered. “Specifically books. Any type of paper, you bring immediately to me.”
“Yes Master!” the cat acknowledged, before diving back into the shadows.
Still clutching the crone’s ankle, she hauled her hand forward, throwing the corpse into the hole. Afterwards, Sage lifted the girl and threw her after her grandmother. However, Isaac appeared out of nowhere and caught her before she could fall into the hole. He gently lay the child down before shooting a glare in Sage’s direction.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
She uttered a curt snort. “Obviously, I’m getting rid of her.”
“You want to kill her?” he asked incredulously. “She is a child!”
“Considering her guardian’s diet, there is no way she is not a cannibal,” Sage pointed out. “Do you, self-righteous prick who obsesses over justice and punishing the wicked, really want someone like that to continue walking Aran?”
“She is a child who was led astray,” he tried to reason. “If we got her a proper role model, she would be put back on the right path.”
“That what the Imperium did to the kids of Tel’sir?” she retorted. “Put them on the right path?”
He had no comeback for that. However he refused to budge despite being well aware of how easy it would be for her to move him.
“Please,” he said. Was this the first time she heard him beg? She could not remember another. “She is only a child.”
She found his plea… unmoving.
“Even if I let her go, she will succumb from her wound,” she pointed out. “Might as well put her out of her misery instead of letting her choke to death on her own blood.”
“Don’t you have potions that can heal her?” he asked, anxious eyes travelling between the spike in the girl’s chest and Sage’s face, beseeching her.
Sage kept her stance stern. “You know as well as I the watered-down shit I have won’t be able to do anything to that wound.”
“There’s really nothing you can do?” his asked, despair edging into his eyes.
“Why are you so concerned about the girl’s fate?” she asked. “This can’t seriously be the first kid death you’ll witness.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it!” he retorted. “Children dying young is a tragedy that should be prevented at all cost!”
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“And yet it still happens around the world,” she stated casually.
To this, he pursed his lips and glared at her. “That’s what you always tell yourself isn’t it, that it’s happening to someone else somewhere? Is that what helps you sleep at night?”
His words were some of the last ones she was expecting, but a response naturally filtered out her mouth. “I wish, but I don’t sleep at all.”
“You know what I mean!” he pressed. “This is the kind of justification you use to prevent yourself from feeling responsible for ruining the lives of others. I’ve met your kind before; I bet you probably rationalise your cruel deeds by telling yourself if I don’t do it, someone else will.”
That was not how she rationalised her deeds at all. Whenever Sage did something, her thoughts were always along the lines of; I like it and it makes me feel good. In case of unpleasantness, her rationale was; suck it up now and benefit later. Of course a bastard who had locked himself in a black and white bubble would come to the dumbest conclusion. She did not feel compelled to correct him, just like she did not feel compelled to continue the current topic.
“What does that have to do with the child?”
“You can save her,” he stated firmly.
His statement caused her to sneer. “Didn’t I just say how ineffective the potions would be against a wound that large. What else do you expect me to do?”
“You could [Teleport] to Tiih or Yshta and deliver her to the Church.”
This reply brought a sigh out of her before she stared hard at him. “Isaac, if you say something that stupid again, I will make you throw her into the basement.”
The bastard listened, but he did not stop making suggestions. His next one left her mouth hanging due to the sheer its sheer unexpectedness.
“You can make her an undead.”
The next few seconds that passed were filled with silence; not a one of them said anything as she stared at him quizzically. Isaac himself seemed taken aback by the words that just came out of his mouth. His eyes widened once more with horrification, as if not believing what he had just said. Finally, after more than a dozen seconds had passed, she burst into laughter.
“Wait, wait, wait!” she could not contain herself. “Are you, the holier-than-thou-stick-up-the-arse knight, suggesting I turn a child into the kind of abomination your goddess despises?”
Her wording threw him off balance, but he collected himself in record time to present a clenched jaw and hardened eyes, the picture of a steely resolve.
“As long as it’s one like me,” he answered. “An undead who can think and feel, one who will have memories of when she was alive. An undead who will retain her identity.”
“Really?” Sage smirked. “What would your former colleagues think about your decision? How would your goddess feel if she learned you made such a suggestion?”
“It can’t be helped,” his response escaped through gritted teeth. “There is no other way.”
“Then, wouldn’t it be better to let her die? Isn’t that better than becoming ‘an abomination’?” she brought up her hands to make air quotes.
“It is.” There was no delay in his answer.
“Then why-”
“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW OKAY!” he shouted. “She is a child who grew up in the company of a despicable human being. For her to just go like that without ever experiencing the warmth a caring guardian; I can’t allow it. I don’t want to.”
“Okay,” was the only response she could muster as his outburst had caught her off guard. She took a few seconds to collect herself before speaking again. “But I don’t feel particularly motivated to do it. If I did, how exactly would I benefit?”
The look he gave her told Sage the knight had not thought of this.
“You’re a necromancer,” he said, puzzlement in his voice. “Isn’t getting one more undead what you want?”
To this, she could not help but glare and snort. “Do I look like your run-of-the-mill corpse raiser? If I wanted an army of cadavers following me, I would have converted everyone in the settlements we passed.” Isaac seemed scandalised at the notion, but he kept his tongue and listened. “Every undead I intend to make will be the result of my painstaking research and experimentation. Each one of will be a masterpiece crafted from an intricate ritual and a prime specimen. Now, when you think of prime specimen, does a child come to mind?”
The pale knight retreated in his head for a while before coming out with what he thought was an appropriate answer. “I’ll do whatever you want! Anything, as long as it’s in my power, I will do it!”
“You already do whatever I want,” she reminded him. “So what you’re offering is not much of a bargain.”
“I’ll do it without complaining,” he replied. “I promise!”
Sage could have continued to press and tease him, but the child on the ground looked like she would expire any moment. Despite what she had said, the girl more than met her requirements for undead conversion. Among all the people Sage had met so far, the child had the highest aptitude. Her age might be a little inconvenient, but it could be overlooked in this situation.
“Fine,” she said. “But she will be your responsibility; no fucking way I’m taking care of a kid.”
Just as Isaac agreed, Nyx popped out of her shadow once again; this time he was back in his original form. His ears were drooped.
“I couldn’t find any paper master.”
“Not one?” she asked, only to mutter a curse when she got a response. “Not even for bookkeeping? Fuck!”
It looked like [Elemental Kin] was lost to her… and the girl too if she did not hurry.
“Hand me the notes I was working on earlier.”
The cat obeyed. And with that, Sage opened a [Dimension Door] to the bottom of the basement. There, she once again looked around before using [Telekinesis] to clear a large portion of the ground and then transmuting the cleared area to stone. Afterwards she peeked at her notes before taking her knife from her familiar, numbing herself to pain and opening up her wrist. Her dark blood gushed out like a torrent, which she guided to create the circle she had incepted. With the help of [Dark Regeneration] it took five minutes before the circle was complete.
Seeing that the preparations were done, she turned to Isaac who had come through the Door with her. More specifically, her eyes fell on the girl held gently in his arms. Although the half-orc was heaving laboriously, she was somehow still conscious. She had probably heard what they had discussed, even if to her it had likely felt like through a liquid medium. Sage’s next words were for her.
“Listen brat,” she began. “I’m going to perform a ritual that will turn you into an undead. Right now you have two options; the first, you can nod your head in agreement and I will follow through, or you can shake your head and I’ll put you out of your misery. Which will it be?”
The green-skinned girl looked at her with unfocused eyes before nodding once amidst bloody-curdling fits.
There was not a chance her decision was made with a clear mind, which meant it might not be what the girl truly desired.
No anti-suicide tenet, Sage decided. If the girl found her existence unbearable, she was welcome to end it.
After the thought crossed her mind, she ordered Isaac to place the girl in the centre of the circle. When all that was done, she raised her hand and cast [Create Sentient Undead].
As it had been with the time she used the ritual on Isaac, torrents of her mana left her and gushed into the circle. Just like the previous time, darkness emerged from the circle and began to seep into the child, eliciting pained grunts accompanied by bloody coughs from the girl. Her eyes were tightly shut as tears streamed down her face, evidence of the amount of pain her transformation was putting her through. It was minutes before the process concluded; by then Sage’s mana pool was scraping the bottom.
The girl in the now inert circle appeared no different from before; apart from the fact that the wooden stake was pushed out by her body while the wound rapidly closed itself. Then her eyes opened, revealing their pale blue colour to the world. Her head swivelled to the side as she jumped to her feet and rushed to the freshest looking corpse, that of the mercenary woman. The girl opened her mouth to reveal rows of jagged teeth, which she effortlessly sank into the dead thigh.
Sage fought to keep a straight face while she watched the scene with {Index} activated.
Race: ??? (Undead)
Physique: Grade 5
Mana: S (White)
Title(s): Netherkin
Rakshasa was probably not the best option for a cannibal.