The next morning I woke up being hugged by Amy and Ahri. Looking around I noticed Taylor was already up and had started scrambling eggs and browning some sausage for some breakfast burritos.
Laying in bed I checked the rest of the batcave and noticed that everything was still very quiet which was good as I didn’t want to deal with what the people we had rescued currently thought of us. Being called a necromancer was both not true as I couldn’t do anything once a person was dead and frustrating based on how much we had done to help them.
Yeah, I knew they were traumatized, but that was just another reason I didn’t want to trust them to keep our secrets. However I really needed to get some practice with the memory charms first. I had learned the theory months ago from a book in the room of requirement in Hogwarts, but the book had been very clear that with enough power, an accident could remove an entire lifetime’s memories. While I doubted I had the kind of power needed to do that, the idea of doing that to an innocent was horrifying. The fact I suspected Wizards just practiced on Muggles was horrible, even if there wasn’t anything I could do about it right now.
Noticing that Amy was waking up, I pulled away from her a little and she got out of bed. Amy didn’t look at anyone or anything as she shuffled her way towards the coffee maker. Not even Sabah attempted to get in her way in the mornings. Everyone knew not to interrupt or distract Amy before her second cup.
On the bed next to ours, Luna and Dinah were still asleep, but I could tell they would awake soon enough. I had considered trying to set up some sort of separate room for them, but it wasn’t like anyone had the strength or mood to get intimate in any way. The fighting, killing, and horrors were just too fresh.
As I pulled away from Ahri, I noticed she refused to wake up and just curled her tails back around her with a light growl.
Shaking my head at the literal vixen, I opened a portal to the smaller cavern a little further down the cliff where I had stored the two stunned cultists we had saved from the Samurai ritual.
I stared at the two of them, and for a moment I considered just killing them both to be done with it.
I was getting tired of all the killing and violence here. Amy had mentioned that most of the women had been assaulted in some form or other, and the few remaining men had almost universally been beaten into compliance. A lot of both would actually be currently be suffering concussions if Amy hadn’t healed the cranial swelling and repaired what she could of the neurons.
Just thinking about the horrors we had seen once again made me consider just killing the two to get it over with and I could feel my stomach clench.
It was all sickening… but why?
I considered that. It wasn’t because it was the worst thing that I had seen or heard happen. The things that the slaughterhouse 9 did back on Earth Bet were far, far worse, but that was a small group of psychopaths that were slaughtering everyone around them under the tentative control of a Master who was lightly brainwashing them.
Was it because I had also been controlled until recently?
I considered that a little more, but no, I had been under a compulsion until recently, but even thinking back on what I knew what a few of them had done even before meeting Jack Slash didn’t make me as angry as right now.
Hell, the mercenaries that we had helped Ahri wipe out were arguably doing the exact same thing as these cultists and I wasn’t as mad at them either. Those mercenaries had been capturing innocents, raping, and brutally killing them one by one.
I thought about it a little more. I stared at the two of them. They seemed normal. For a moment, I had trouble believing the things they were doing had actually happened.
I paused. Was that why I was so angry?
Was it because it was a large group of previously reasonable people joined up to commit atrocities instead of standing up for what was right? The sane ones seemed to outnumber the crazies so it should be possible to push back.
I mean, I wasn’t about to jump in front of a speeding train for the slight chance to save someone I had never met, but I was certainly never going to start pushing even more in front of said train. I wanted to believe I wouldn’t do it, even if they threatened me in turn.
Was that all of it? Was that the entire reason I was angry?
Or… or was it because a part of me worried about what we were doing by fighting this war, scorched earth style?
I looked at my hands. I could already see them covered in blood. Was this just a slippery slope
I must have been standing staring at the two bodies for a while because I felt Amy and Ahri come up behind me.
A quick touch from Amy while Ahri stood behind me let the two of them probably know what I was feeling. I often forgot that Ahri was a short range simple empath, and Amy could read my hormone levels to get a moderately good idea of how I was feeling.
Yet neither one said anything. In fact, after another minute or two, Taylor walked through the portal and frowned looking us over before she simply nodded. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who had been troubled by being thrust into what was certainly a war. A war that would see a lot more people die if Himiko returned to power.
Breakfast was quiet and a little somber, but eventually I broke the silence. “Today we are going to try to get Sam back. After that, I think we need a vacation.” I grinned a little more naturally for a moment before I continued. “Just think about where you want to go. I wouldn’t mind another day at the beach. Or maybe we could go to some sort of spa resort.”
There was a moment of silence before I started to see everyone’s genuine smiles start to peak through the melancholy.
Luna looked up and then looked at me, focused. “You should find us a special place to just get away and relax. Some answers will be found there.”
I blinked and then tilted my head before I slowly nodded while getting up from the table. “Alright, Luna, that sounds like a plan.”
As we got dressed and then put back on our now freshly cleaned Acromantula Silk clothes and basilisk trench coats, topped with the bullet deflecting headbands, I considered what to do first. However, to my annoyance the first order of business was pretty clear, so I just opened up another portal to the two prisoners.
The first one looked fairly young, maybe 22 or so, but was covered in blood. Sighing again, I confirmed he was still bound, just in case, before nodding to Amy. Amy reached out and after a moment or two the young man’s eyes flew open. Yet it still took him a moment to realize what was happening.
Already annoyed, I scowled down at him before I asked. “Three questions. One, what do you know about any prisoners? Two, what do you know of your group’s plans? Three, who have you killed?”
The boy started frantically shaking his head ‘no’, even before Amy gave him the ability to speak back. “I haven’t killed anyone. I swear! Our boat sank and I washed up here. I haven’t done anything to anyone, I swear! Please, please don’t hurt me~”
I glanced over at Amy just to confirm once again that he wasn’t lying before I swallowed.
Outwardly I remained scowling, but internally I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. This boy was innocent… and I had just been considering outright murdering him without determining his guilt. How many of the people we had killed yesterday were innocents?
While still reeling from this revelation, I gestured to Amy to shut him up to stop him from continuing his blubbering.
Looking around, I thought furiously as I tried to bring my thoughts back into a semblance of order. Yet I didn’t know what to do here. I needed more time to think.
Needing a little longer to figure out what to do, I gestured for Amy to wake the second one up.
Repeating my questions to the second, older man, saw him smile maliciously at the girls. A sight that was made even more disgusting as he was missing most of his teeth.
We then all listened, horrified, as he proceeded to tell us about the two murders and four rapes he had committed even before he had washed up on this island, let alone what he had done here.
Even the first young man was looking at the other man, horrified.
Amy silenced him once he started explaining how he enjoyed slowly breaking the spirits of the women, watching the fight leave them as they accepted they couldn’t escape. His favorite tactic was to let them think they could escape before beating them to within an inch of their lives for the attempt.
It was Ahri who finally couldn’t wait any longer as she simply pulled out her wand casting a cutting curse to slit his throat. She even stepped back, refusing to eat his soul. I didn’t blame her. Seeing the memories of someone that depraved would be hard on anyone.
In fact, as I watched the soul started to dissipate to beyond this world’s veil, I reached out and grabbed it. Then, without any fan fair, I popped it. I felt the power enter me, but I metaphorically just pushed most of it back out, not doing anything with it. Part of me was sure that destroyed souls like this one would eventually reform, albeit significantly weakened, but he deserved his century or two in oblivion for what he did. Part of me even started to consider ways of permanently destroying souls, even if my soul instincts seemed to imply it was impossible.
Looking back at the younger man who had been staring at the other man, eyes wide, I saw him realize his life was truly in the balance here. He still couldn’t speak but he started to shake his head frantically ‘No’.
I sighed. Looking at my girls again to distract me, I tried to parse my thoughts.
The older man was undoubtably a monster. I had trouble even thinking of a single punishment he didn’t deserve.
The other was innocent…
No… No… he wasn’t innocent. He has been forced into the cult, but he had still been helping them. This was the Nazi defense again. Being given orders to commit war crimes should only reduce culpability, not completely remove it. Well, he hadn’t done anything quite yet, but still.
I took a deep breath then spoke up. “I am open to suggestions here, but we are in a war. In my opinion, he is either a terrorist himself, or assisting them. Monsters like this bastard.” I paused to kick the now cooling corpse. “The question is what we should do with him.”
After a moment, Sabah was the one to speak up. “What if we ask him what his intentions are? Maybe some sort of compulsion or binding that makes sure he can’t betray us or hurt anyone else. Since he hasn’t done anything, yet I think a promise to turn his life around and help people might be enough.”
I blinked then turned to look at her and then nearly facepalmed. I still shook my head in disbelief. “Sabah… you might have just solved most of our problems back home.”
Everyone looked a little confused, but I continued. “We can talk about the details later, but if we force the people we feel deserve a second chance into an unbreakable vow to earn it, they won’t be able to hurt us or any innocents. Bloody Hell, if we come across any repentant death eaters, we should force them to take the vow as well, just in case.”
There was a moment where everyone thought about it before Luna actually smiled. “That sounds nice.”
Predictably, Taylor brought up a warning. “We will need to consider the wording. The last thing we need is the Death Eaters being able to hurt people because they don’t consider Muggles fully human, or being able to hurt Veela because they consider them only magical creatures.”
I slowly nodded before I sighed. Looking at Amy, I considered for a moment longer before I said. “Let him speak, but make sure he can’t lie. We don’t know the spell for the unbreakable vow yet, so we will just have to put a magical binding on him so we can find him again if we need to.” I obviously didn’t really have a good way of doing that, so I just winked out of sight of the boy.
Amy nodded, so I looked down at the young man and I asked my question. “First, tell us your name. Then I want to know your intentions. What we do with you will be determined by your answers.” I gestured towards the bloody corpse.
Immediately, the young man started shaking his head no while frantically explaining once he could speak. “No! I don’t want to hurt anyone. My name is Richard. I didn’t want to join. I just didn’t want to die, and one of the older men said I either could join them or he would splatter my brains across the rocks, so I joined”
I sighed and considered for a moment before I stood up. “Ok. Amy, please change his face a bit so no one recognizes him. Maybe give him brown hair or something. Then, girls, please clean him up a bit with some cleaning charms. We will introduce him as a lost castaway, we found while scouting around.”
Looking at Richard, I narrowed my eyes and raised my wand swishing it around while opening a tiny portal on his left pinky toe, so I could track him. I wouldn’t keep it forever, but I would keep it up until we left the island at least. “I will be able to find you now wherever you go. I will know if you do anything to hurt anyone. If you do, you will die both slowly and painfully.”
Turning as I saw him frantically nodding, I turned away while the girls worked to open a new portal and started to move it towards the summit, this time a little more carefully.
It would take several minutes pushing the portal forward at that speed and I wouldn’t try to get us to the very top with the hurricane force winds up there, but it would save us almost a full day of hiking.
Pulling Richard up and bringing him through to the rest of the camp, I cast an incendio at the corpse before dumping a lot of wood on the body to help it burn. I would need to remember that it was best to burn the bodies if the Samurai were going to try to keep raising them.
When we returned to the bat cave the camp was still mostly asleep except for Lara, the trio, Holly Hermione and Ginny plus the expedition captain Conrad Roth. The five of them were not only awake, but already awake and ready to go.
I guess the full night’s rest galvanized them. Yet I could already see the questions in their eyes.
The Irishman helmsman, Angus, then stepped out of the tent behind them, obviously aiming to join our fight as well. I had seen him fight when we rescued him so and I nodded at him in agreement.
However, I was much less pleased to see Jonah and the black woman I remembered from the game step out to join us too. I didn’t know the woman’s name, but I shook my head at the two of them anyway. It has been obvious during our rescue that neither one had training, and they would probably be a liability at best. To prove my point, I turned to Jonah and asked. “Jonah, how are you doing?”
Jonah seemed to think for several seconds before he scowled. “I am ready to fight.”
That was what I was afraid of. He didn’t seem completely lucid yet. Deciding to let him down easy, I settled on giving them a job to do. “Jonah. I think you and your friends might be better keeping the rest of the other survivors safe.” I explained, trying not to sound patronizing.
Then, to distract them again, I pushed Richard forward towards the two and then explained. “We found this one wandering around this morning. We don’t know exactly what his story is, so just keep an eye on him, but we are sure he hasn’t killed anyone.”
That seemed to do it, as the tangible list of things they could do to help seemed to give the two enough purpose they didn’t protest being excluded again. Then again, I could see Jonah’s eyes narrow and the woman’s lips thin, and I realized that they might also be a little worried about our powers.
Again, I really needed to practice wiping memories.
I considered just avoiding the entire topic of our powers, but if I was going to let them watch my back I wanted the semblance of trust which required a little bit of an explanation… even if Lara and the trio knew most of it already, and I wasn’t prepared to explain much more than that.
Once we were far enough away to give us a little privacy. I sighed before I asked. “We don’t have a lot of time, but I understand that you might have questions about what happened yesterday. So… what do you want to know? Just understand that we are not going to explain everything, they are our secrets and we aren’t hurting anyone… well anyone that doesn’t deserve it. However, we will tell you what we can so you can trust us to watch your backs. Just understand that we want to help but also keep our family safe.”
There was a moment where Holly, Hermione, and Ginny actually flinched. I wasn’t entirely sure if they were flinching at how many people we had been forced to kill, or if it was because they were reminded how we had been trying to help them with fighting a Basilisk less than a month ago.
Lara also looked a little sheepish as it was her friend Jonah who had been saved from our efforts.
However, Captain Roth and Angus still looked firm.
It was Captain Roth that decided to ask first. “Why did you take the ritual dagger?” He paused for only a moment. “And what did you do to Jonah’s soul?”
I sighed low and long as I didn’t want to have to explain the dagger. I had no intention of using it for anything, but trusting me with it would be hard. Taking a moment, I tried to decide how much to explain. “I took the dagger as I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be used anymore. Plus, if I can decode how it works, then I might be able to release all the Samurai souls at once. I might even figure out how to prevent these sorts of problems in the future. However, please believe me that I would never use something like that. So, it is both out of their hands and won't ever be used again.”
Angus spoke up next. “That be all well and good, laddie, but ye haven’t explained what you did to Jonah.”
Once again, I winced. The consideration only took a moment longer this time, but I could always just pop us away if the secret got leaked fully, so I settled on part of the truth. “Amy’s special magic makes her perhaps the world’s best healer.”
Everyone nodded as they had seen her heal an obviously fatal wound in seconds even after the body was apparently dead. “My talent is split between making these portals.” Again, everyone nodded when I opened one for a demonstration. “... and performing what you might refer to as soul magic.”
I took a breath and before anyone could ask any questions, I continued. “I won’t explain every little detail about our powers work, as frankly, unless you are about to join our Family you simply don’t need to know. However, you can rest assured I both don’t know how to control people via my powers, nor do I want to. I also can’t raise the dead in any way. What I am able to do basically amounts to soul surgery and healing. Everything else I can do is something that Hermione, Holly, and Ginny would be able to do… and probably even better at that.”
There was a moment before Amy sighed and answered the obvious, unasked question. “Yes, we all chose to join him. Some of us are also with him romantically, but he isn’t doing anything to us that we don’t want him to do… or if he feels we aren’t ready.”
Luna actually chirped up at that. “Even if some of us want him to move faster.”
There was an awkward silence before I clapped my hands. “Ok, let's focus people. We are about to assault Himiko’s palace. We need to find Sam before Himiko tries to take over her body to resurrect herself. Finally, we need to kill Matthias before he kills or captures anyone else.”
There was a moment of silence before everyone’s slowly nodded one after another.
I grimaced slightly. “Just keep in mind that I won’t be able to use my portals as freely near the peak due to how windy it is up there. If something solid flies through the edge of my portal it will disperse. So, with how much junk is flying around up there, we can’t rely on it.”
There were scowls all around as I had explained it to Lara and the trio already, and I suspected they had passed the news along as well, but no one looked too worried.
Looking out at the portal that I had been carefully moving towards the mountain peak, I noticed some small figures moving around close to the last residential complex before the palace itself. After a moment, I realized that the figures included Matthias before he ducked back into cover in the early light of dawn.
“Found them.” I announced before I felt my portal almost destabilize again. I growled slightly and moved the portal towards the ground. “I will open this portal up wider so everyone can see, but we need to figure out how to assault that compound.” I said while pointing through the portal
Roth scowled for a moment before he lifted a scoped rifle. “I can give support fire, but…” he sighed then continued. “I don’t really have any close quarter skills against those… wizards, you called them.”
Hermione, Holly and Ginny looked at each other before they nodded. Holly was the one to speak up though. “We will work as a team.”
Lara scowled, “I plan on hitting them from a distance. I will work alone.”
Angus frowned but nodded. “I will move in behind you, Lara. I can work a pistol or two just fine.” he said while pulling out two Colt Double Eagle 45 caliber pistols. I blinked before I wondered if Angus was where Lara learned to double wield pistols.
Outwardly I smiled at their determination to fight, but internally I frowned. I still didn’t like how this was going. Splitting up seemed like a bad idea to me, but they weren’t part of the Family. I didn’t really have the right to ask them to work together more closely. Worse, I didn’t know if it would help even if we did work together as they obviously didn’t fully trust us. This entire thing was frustrating.
Looking at our Family, I finally let my frown show as I considered what we should do. “For us, I would like us to stay mostly together. Taylor, please track targets and hit any you can identify are combatants. Ahri, please move around as you see fit, but try to stay close. The rest of us will move as a group. I want support available in case one of us is ambushed.”
Turning to Luna and Dinah. “Anything you can give us on our probabilities?”
Dinah frowned. “No, we will be attacked once we leave the treeline here, and it will be very, very dangerous, but there is no other way to save Sam” then a little more quietly, so the others won’t hear she continued. “The risk of death is high for those outside the Family, but my predictions for them if we stop are even worse unless we drag everyone into our pocket home.”
Luna frowned but nodded to confirm Dinah’s prediction, before she looked at Lara and spoke loud enough for Lara to hear. “You will be tested, but you need to move forward if you want to have the strength to stand up by yourself.”
I looked at Luna for a moment before I simply continued. “Ok, spread out. I have placed a portal on everyone’s ear. I won’t have the concentration to control the messages nor volume so you will hear everything that anyone says and so will everyone around you. So, only speak up if you need to communicate.”
Turning to Taylor I asked. “Can you give real time tracking to everyone like you do for us.”
“Yes, but it will take most of my concentration, so I won’t be able to search out traps as well.”
I gestured to everyone else. “You heard her. Also keep in mind we have possible wizards ahead so magical traps are a possibility as well. I wish we had a better answer on how to detect them, but I would say just trust your gut for now.” I considered for a moment, but I couldn’t think of anything else so I ended a little lamely. “Best I can do is occasionally give you a bird eye’s view through portals if I have the time.”
Everyone looked a little uneasy, but after a moment we started to creep forward through the trees.
Lara and Angus moved to the left while the trio moved to the right. I watched Roth move to a rocky outcropping to the left as well.
Shaking my head, I simply took a deep breath before I started creeping forward.
Ahri moved out a little further on our right before hiding away via illusions while the rest of us disillusioned ourselves. With Taylor’s bugs keeping track of all the enemies, I hoped we wouldn’t have any issues with friendly fire.
The first house we came through didn’t seem to have any defenses or traps, and after a quick detection spell, we confirmed that there was no one inside.
I creeped around the corner and down the alley before sticking my head around the edge of the next building. The opening showed a little bit more of the street, but I still didn’t see anyone yet.
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I swallowed. I was pretty sure this was around where I saw the figures from above yet the entire village seemed completely silent except for the constant whistle of the whipping wind. Where the bloody hell was everyone?
I could see Ahri reveal herself across the street before she shook her head at me and went invisible again.
Pulling myself up and out, I watched the ladybugs Taylor was using to represent friendlies and noticed most of the girls moving up on either side of us. Still frowning, I moved up as well.
The next house I entered was just the same.
So was the third.
At this point we were nearly half way though the little village and the absence of people around me was putting me on edge despite Taylor’s bugs indicating no one was close, well overly close with how hard she was obviously struggling with the wind. At least we didn’t need to check inside each of the houses.
It was then that I blinked as I saw a red humanoid wearing a loose robe and carrying a sword walking down the street ahead of us. The soft, clunk, clunk clunk from his traditional wooden shoes was what originally caught my attention, but my eyes were much more drawn to the things that made me realize this wasn’t going to be straightforward. I mean, humans didn’t exactly have large black wings coming out of their shoulders or comically long thin noses.
I tried to study him, as the nearly completely open yukata demonstrated he was almost certainly male, but I already could tell that I didn’t know enough.
The first thing I noticed was I didn’t think the wings looked big enough to fly on, but my memory of the Japanese bird demons seemed to imply they could. I was pretty sure they were called Tengu, but I didn’t know much more than that.
I was a little surprised that Taylor hadn’t spotted him earlier, but he was out in the wind and Taylor might not have known what she was looking at through her bug senses.
Pulling away slightly from the edge of the window I was looking through, I whispered as softly as I could through my communication portal. “Max here. I have spotted what I believe is a Japanese Tengu, the bird demon from Japanese Folklore. He is carrying a sword, but I don’t know anything else about them.”
Predictably, Lara immediately spoke up. “Lara here, I think I see him as well, but he is moving away from me. I have obviously never met one in person, but the original stories say Tengu were believed to be evil, but later depictions just have them being loyal to whatever cause they are sworn to. Regardless, they are known as mischievous at best and malicious at worst. The only other thing I can remember right now is that some sources have them teaching Samurai some of their sword skills… so expect some skill with the blade.”
She paused for a moment but sighed. “If he has his sword drawn then I would say our chances of dealing with him peacefully are pretty much nonexistent. Based on the stories, I doubt they would draw their swords until they truly intended to use them.”
Turning towards Amy, I frowned before I peeked around the corner again trying to decide what we should do. However as I spotted him again I felt my eyes widen as I saw the Tengu stop and stare directly at me.
Instantly, I felt the blood leave my face as I pulled back, away from the window corner, yet before I could do anything else I watched as the demon bird lunged towards me.
That normally wouldn’t have been a problem as I was still over 40 meters from the bird demon, but his jump forward was not only faster than most humans could do, his wings flared out and I watched as he simply seemed to skim across the ground without needing to run.
Pulling my wand, I immediately cast a knockback jinx at him followed by several bullets from my pistol in my left hand.
A few seconds later my gun fire and spell fire was joined by the girls around me who had a clear shot. However, to my dismay, I watched as the stupid bird man flapped his wings and rose above our curses and bullets only having actually taken perhaps one or two gunshots. Worse, the bullets didn’t seem to have inconvenience him any as he just continued his charge.
Thinking quickly, while I dived out of the way, I realized he could see me somehow so invisibility appeared to be useless to the Tengu and could cause problems if anyone tried to help me. So, dropping it, I tried focusing on putting as much gun and spell fire down range as possible.
Again, the Tengu seemed to just ignore the gun fire while side stepping the spells as he charged forward. Then in a sudden lunge, which would have caught me off guard without our training on Runeterra, the Tengu jumped forward forcing me to throw myself backwards to avoid the horizontal sword swing.
Grimacing, if I was a little slower and I might have been in two pieces. He was fast, very fast… faster than me, but not as fast as Irelia. That did give me some options.
Not having time to be careful, I just dropped the pistol and reached through my portal to pull out my short sword. My time training in Runeterra had found I was moderately good at most types of spears, but in pure defense I was actually quite good with Runeterra’s version of a short sword. To me it looked like a slightly thinner Gladius with a large cross guard which didn’t give me a lot of range to strike with, but it was the only thing that let me keep Irelia off of me when she got annoyed. The small light blade with my enhanced body was probably my best chance at survival here.
Throwing myself backwards again out of range of his follow up swing, it took several seconds before I had my sword out, ready to block. The appearance of a sword didn’t seem to give the damn demon anything to worry about as he simply lunged at me again.
Part of me wondered why I was apparently all alone at the moment before I registered the muted gunfire and spell fire from all around me as well as through the portals. Apparently everyone else had found themselves fighting as well.
I adjusted the volume of the sound that could pass through the portal before I realized the enemies probably heard my opening salvo of gunfire through each portal. Wincing, I resisted the impulse to facepalm. I had basically given everyone’s position away to anyone close enough to hear them. Team communication would need to be something we figured out soon.
It was then that things went from bad to worse for me as a cultist along with what was probably an Oni slid around the corner, about 30 yards or so down the street. The glimpse I saw of the creature showed a blue skinned humanoid with a large club and two short horns. Then again, it wasn’t like I knew much about the folklore here, especially in this alternate universe.
However, I didn’t have any more time to consider the types of combatants as I was forced to pull up my sword in an awkward left-handed block that would have cleaved my right arm from my body. It did, however, give me the ability to cast a cutting curse, point-blank, at the Tengu’s face with my right hand.
I watched as the Tengu threw himself backward to avoid the spell meaning that I only managed to clip his temple, but to my relief the blue gray blood from the cut began to drip down and start to get into his left eye.
Deciding I didn’t want to let him play the range game, I actually stepped forward to continue the attack before I noticed the firefly blinking rapidly from my right and I threw myself backwards.
I was almost too late as I felt some sort of dark curse pass right through where my chest was a moment ago. A quick glance let me see one of the cultist wizards pointing his wand at me again.
Not waiting any longer, I returned spell fire before I was forced to break off the attack as the Tengu recovered again enough to perform an overhead chopping swing again which would have cut me in two.
Not even bothering to block I threw myself backwards and actually did a little roll to get back to my feet.
Keeping my backwards momentum I scrambled backwards around a raised planter bed which might have contained something nice, once upon a time, but now mostly contained weeds. Breaking the line of sight gave me a second to consider my options, but I really didn’t have any ideas quite yet.
My instincts from Irelia were the only thing that saved me this time as I rolled out of the way of another swing. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t realized that the Tengu could just fly over obstacles, but underestimating an enemy had almost gotten me killed… again.
To make it worse I didn’t even get to follow up as I was forced to put up a shield to block curses from the first wizard who was still trying to hit me with spell fire.
The Tengu didn’t actually seem pleased by the interruptions which was interesting, maybe it was something like using dishonorable tactics during this pseudo duel, but I wasn’t about to try to question them while fighting for my life.
Instead I started to make a plan to use a portal to attack from behind the wizard. A plan that became even more crucial as a cultist ran up next to the wizard and started opening fire.
Seeing as the Tengu hadn’t followed up the attack quite yet, I cast a cutting curse at the back of the wizard’s neck.
However, much to my disbelief, the non-magical cultist actually seemed to realize what I was doing and pushed the wizard out of the way, taking the cutting curse across his chest. The man went down in a pool of blood but I didn’t have time to follow up as I was once again forced to block from the Tengu’s sword swing. This time it was only my enhanced body that didn’t see my arm dislocated from the force of the upswing.
However, despite not being physically cut, it did push my off of my feet and I found myself actually being bodily thrown out of a partially broken window.
I wanted to wince at the small cuts I could feel to my hands and face, but I didn’t have time as I saw the Tengu lunging through the window, sword already positioned to stab me as he fell.
I didn’t have enough time to dodge and I didn’t trust my clothes to block this strike. Yet in my desperation I had a moment of inspiration and I opened a portal directly above my chest before the sword point could reach it.
I smiled as the sword passed through the portal and before the Tengu could pull it back out or disrupt the portal’s edge I raised my wand from the floor and cast the strongest banishment charm I could at his unprotected chest.
I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t used a piercer or cutting curse, but it seemed to be the correct decision as I heard the Tengu’s bones crack as he was thrown backwards into the ceiling. A moment later I had widened the portal and dropped it over top of me to get me instantly standing again 5 meters away against one of the walls in the room.
Seeing the Tengu fall back heavily to the floor made me realize the demon still was bird like so maybe it had fragile bones. In which case blunt force attacks that couldn’t be dodged completely might indeed be the correct decision.
Breathing deeply I was actually surprised at how well I was doing, but then again, as soon as the Tengu learned my tricks I would probably be dead. Plus I had put everything I had into that spell and I had only cracked a rib or two.
That moment of thought was all I was able to do when I was forced to once again block an only slightly slower swing from my enraged Tengu.
Just to check the other possible weakness I could think of for birds, I cast a fireball at his face as he charged. As I feard I was forced to block his follow up swing as the effort only produced some slightly scorched clothes. In fact the effort just seemed to annoy him more than anything forcing me to throw myself backwards to avoid another overhead swing.
It was then that I felt my bullet wards ping as the cultist who had saved the wizard was now laying on the floor, obviously dying, but still managed to pull out a pistol to fire at me.
I had to respect the guy a little even if I was pretty pissed off at the guy as I was forced to dodge the followup blasting curse from the wizard. That resulted in me nearly loosing my left hand as I almost didn’t catch the Tengu’s sword on my crossguard in time.
Really, I was just glad that the Oni had apparently not joined the battle. If he had, I probably would have been dead already. That made me want to look around to find him, but I was only barely hanging on, so I was left to simply hope the girls were on top of it.
Trying desperately to figure out a plan I blocked two quick slashes casting a banishing charm at his chest again. This time, the Tengu actually threw himself to the side to avoid as much as he could of the spell.
That gave me a moment to actually swing my sword in offense for the first time at his wing. He had actually flapped it forward to increase how fast he could throw himself backwards. To my malicious delight, I felt the sword bite into the wing and heard the cry from the Tengu letting me know that I had finally managed to actually do some real damage.
However, my elation was short-lived as the angry snarl from the Tengu let me know that if it hadn’t been already, this was now a fight to the death.
Swallowing hard I cast another banishing charm at his chest which I was shocked to see the Tengu actually partially block with his left arm. It didn’t seem to have broken, but it obviously hurt a lot. Yet the Tengu’s followup swing caught me in the bicep and I winced as I felt my right arm scream in pain. In fact, there was a moment where I wondered if the Tengu had just cut it off.
Yet looking down I realized that not only was it still attached, probably due to our Basilisk jackets, it wasn’t even broken. However, with the amount of pain I was now in, I suspected the bone might actually be cracked.
That moment of shock from the Tengu from being unable to cut off my arm gave me a moment to once again cast the strongest banishment charm I could at his chest. This time I heard at least one more crack and the Tengu stumbled back before coughing up blood.
The blood was a good sign and I wondered if I had managed to crack his ribs enough to puncture a lung. Yet the fire in the demon bird’s eyes only seemed to get brighter. He was obviously not ready to admit defeat yet.
I raised my sword to block the next swing, only to have the Tengu pull back his sword at the last second and send a blistering front kick directly into my stomach.
As I felt the air driven out of my lungs, I flew backwards before my body slam into the wall behind me. I felt the wooden wall crack, but it didn’t give way, leaving me to slump to the ground in front of the Tengu.
Looking up I noticed the Tengu stalking forward slowly, blood dribbling out of his mouth, wing limp, and I realized I was winning. I just needed to keep fighting. The problem was I couldn’t breathe, my arms both were screaming in agony, and my head was beginning to swim from the multiple impacts, to say nothing about the building magical exhaustion.
Swallowing down the bile that wanted to rise up after the last kick I opened up a portal to my side before throwing myself through it. If I was winning and the Tengu was wounded, it didn’t make sense to get any closer than necessary.
I appeared on the second floor balcony in the house 10 meters to the west of where I had been before. Yet, I only paused a moment before I started shooting bludgeoning hexes down at the Tengu.
The Tengu didn’t seem willing to increase the pace of his walk, but neither did he stop. In fact, to my shock, I watched him swing at the first incoming spell, cutting it apart, while ducking and weaving through the others.
I felt my mouth open wide. I didn’t even know that was possible. Was it the sword? His abilities?
Damn it, now I wanted that sword to see if I could do it too. The long Katana was longer than I usually favored although I wasn’t sure if it qualified as a Nodachi or not, but I would force myself to learn how to use it if it allowed me to cut incoming spells apart like that.
That distraction nearly got me killed, as I almost missed the crack of apparition behind me. It turned out to not be a moment too soon as the cult wizard was already yelling the killing curse, ‘Avada Kedavra’.
The railing where I had just been standing exploded and I rolled towards the window a little further along the wall before I leaned up to point my wand through said window. “Bombarda Maxima”. My explosion curse interupted him as he was winding up for another killing curse and I felt the entire house shutter.
Despite my efforts, I didn’t actually expect to hit him, but upon hearing his hasty shield charm ‘Protega’ going up I took the opportunity and opened a portal to right behind him and yelled “Divindo”.
I watched, surprised and a little shocked, as the cutting curse actually landed and I watched dispassionately as the head of the wizard rolled off of his neck before the body slumped down.
That moment of inattention nearly got me killed as I felt searing hot agony rip across my calf.
Looking down, I noticed the Tengu’s sword puncturing my leg, nearly completely severing my calf muscle.
Screaming I realized that the Tengu knew not to try to cut my jacket which was laying below me, but as he had walked underneath me and could see me through the gaps in the wood, had instead aimed for my mostly unprotected legs.
My agony redoubled as the Tengu actually started to twist his blade and rip it along my calf muscles. Knowing this was his attempt at a debilitating strike, I yanked my leg off of the sword before casting an immobilizing spell leg and foot. The strongest numbing charm, followed by the portal bandage that I hadn’t used since Earth Bet.
Dropping another portal around me, got me standing across the street at ground level again albeit now with a leg that was nearly useless and a lot less blood.
As the Tengu turned to face me again, I actually tried to swing my sword through another portal at the Tengu’s back. Yet, as I had been half expecting, the Tengu saw it coming and actually straight up blocked my attack. However, that was fine as I was already casting the strongest bludgeoning hex I could at chest from a fresh portal in front of his chest, then another, and another.
This wouldn’t have worked while he was still fully mobile, but I watched intently as the Tengu was forced to twist and flail while trying to block or evade the spell fire from a portal tracking his every move.
The Tengu only took 15 seconds or so before he realized he would lose if he let me continue unhindered. Yet, as he turned to swing at me now ignoring the spell fire in a spiteful last stand, I switched to the strongest cutting curse I could and threw it out at the back of the Tengu’s neck.
It didn’t cut off the Tengu’s head like it had for the human wizard, but I watched, emotionlessly, as the Tengu slumped onto his knees. A moment later I realized that I had managed to sever his spine… the fight was over.
Looking into the Tengu’s eyes I watched the anger and frustration in his eyes as the light faded, but surprisingly I also thought I saw a hint of respect.
Damn these Samurai types were weird.
Shaking my head, I picked up the Tengu’s sword which has fallen from his now limp fingers, only to find the sword was heavier than I had expected. A quick inspection down the blade let me runework that I didn’t have time to parse.
I paused for a moment before something told me to bow to the now dead Tengu. I slowly did, and after a moment I watched fascinated as the body disintegrated. Yet that wasn’t half as strange as I then saw that the Tengu’s soul, in turn, didn’t dissipate, but instead seemed to fade away.
I swallowed. I was suddenly very glad I had been respectful. If the Tengu wasn’t permanently dead then I certainly didn’t want it coming after me again for a grudge.
It also made me wonder what was required to actually kill one of these bird demons.
Having finally dispatched the three enemies, I was finally able to focus on the various sounds from the portal on my ear. I had nearly forgotten about that.
Shaking my head, I realized I was starting to get light headed and with a bit of urgency I started to look through the portals for Amy. I desperately needed healing if I was to keep fighting.
Finding her quickly, I realized she was assisting Ahri in fighting the Oni and the final wizard. This one seemed intent on sending transfigured stone wolves at the pair, but mostly at Amy.
I grimaced, that was probably the worst matchup for Amy as she couldn’t use her abilities to stop the stone wolves and her magic was still that of only a first year, albeit an incredibly experienced one.
Instead, Amy was forced to simply shield and banish them when they attacked. Made all the worse as the wolves were dodging and running around her shields.
Meanwhile, Ahri was jumping around a little desperately as she faced off against the Oni. She was stronger than the average human, but I didn’t think for a second she could block a club the size of her entire body swung from an Oni.
It only took me a moment to plan my attack before I stepped through another portal behind the wizard already swinging my new sword. I watched as the heavy and incredibly sharp sword simply severed the man’s head from his neck before the body simply flopped to the ground.
Not wasting a second, Amy finally was able to run forward and grab the Oni’s elbow as he twisted to once again try to catch Ahri.
That momentary flinch as the Oni wasn’t able to control his body while Amy shut down his nerves was all the invitation that Ahri needed to leap forward snarling and tails spread as she buried her knife into the Oni’s skull.
I didn’t have time to consider how brutal we were being before Amy reached me. A touch and I felt my leg shift and I nearly collapsed as I felt my leg muscles begin to knit back together.
Amy looked exhausted, but her face only showed worry as she obviously checked the rest of my body over. “Are you alright? What has been happening?”
I shook my head. I don’t know what happened to everyone else, but I only barely managed to bring down the single Tengu and the first wizard who showed up to help. I just finally found you two. But I am worried for Luna and Dinah.”
It was then that I saw Luna and Dinah pulling back as they rounded the corner while exchanging spell fire with a small toad like demon jumping around them, kind of like film Yoda did in his lightsaber battles. I blinked in surprise “A Kappa… really?”
Turning I realized that Ahri had actually been eating the Oni’s soul and she turned, eyes already narrowed into slits. I didn’t have time to ask her what happened as she immediately raced forward and ripped into the Kappa with her claws that were now nearly three inches long, instantly killing the toad demon.
I blinked. Did that Oni’s soul do that or was there some sort of anger between the Nine tailed foxes and the Kappa?
It was then that Ahri turned and looked at me before I felt a shiver run up my spine. I had never actually forgotten that Ahri was a predator that hunted humans, but most of the time I felt completely comfortable around her. Now it looked like she wanted to eat me instead.
Yet before I could decide what to do, Ahri raced forward and tackled me. I landed roughly on my back, actually sliding across the wood floor several feet, and I had a moment of worry before I felt her mouth close over mine and her tongue forcefully invade my mouth.
A moment of confusion later, I realized that she was not only kissing me as hard as she could, but she was grinding her body against mine. Not only that, but my younger body was reacting which she seemed to be pleased about based on her increased growling.
A further moment later, I realized she was actually purring and her body temperature was way higher than normal. Was this some sort of heat cycle? Was it just a battle frenzy? Or maybe it was due to consuming an Oni which I vaguely remembered were not shy about pursuing their base desires.
After an embarrassing 30 seconds where I wondered if I was going to suffocate from excessive snogging, I felt Ahri slowly get a hold of herself.
Amy, Luna and Dinah looked concerned, but not yet ready to try to intervene as Ahri slowly pulled away. Ahri in turn looked a little confused at herself and a little embarrassed. “Sorry about that… I just… it felt like… I just needed that…” Ahri said, now heavily blushing.
I smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I won’t ever complain about your affection, but we should probably wait until after we have dealt with all the enemies here.”
While we were waiting I noticed that Sabah had spotted us around the corner of a building a little further up but she looked fine except for a large gash in her ear along with missing some of her hair on that side. Amy did as well, which saw Amy jogging over to fix Sabah up.
A few seconds later saw Taylor joining us from the other side, now dusty, but without any obvious injuries.
Turning to me, Taylor reported the situation. “We need to hurry. Lara is fighting Matthias as we speak.” She paused before her eyes widened, turning to wards the rocky outcropping. “Help Captain Roth, hurry!”
I immediately opened up a portal to the captain, but my heart dropped as I heard another cry of ‘avada kedavra’ at the same time I heard a gunshot, then a moment later three more.
As I opened the portal I saw what I had feared. Captain Roth was laying on his back, eyes already empty rifle fallen to his side.
Yet his assailant had also slumped across rocks, eyes glassy. He must have found Roth’s sniper nest and then apparated behind him and cast the killing curse. Captain Roth was just not fast enough to get out of the way and only managed to pull his gun around and fire.
As we looked across the bodies I notice Angus hobbling around the corner with a still smoking gun while holding his side. The shirt around the area was stained red and I didn’t know if it was spellfire, gunfire, or the melee weapons which had gotten him.
Amy jumped through the portal, startling him a little, but a moment later he nodded appreciatively as he stopped favoring his left side.
Looking at us for a moment he grunted before stepping out of the portal to join us with Amy following him through.
Angus grunted. “Where did these demons come from?”
I frowned. “I don’t know, but Taylor says Lara needs our help.”
As we started moving towards Himiko’s palace up ahead I continued my train of thought. “With Oni, Tengu, and Kappa I guess we should probably just call them all Yokai.”
No one responded but no one seemed to disagree. I didn’t remember the specifics, but I was pretty sure that was the general classification of Japanese demons just like the various fairy type creatures spread across Northern Europe were often collectively called the Fae or Fay.
We actually only made it a hundred yards or so, when we were stopped by an explosion from our right side. Out of said building, we watched several undead Samurai be blown back before another fireball began to burn the bodies.
Out of the rubble we saw Holly, Ginny and Hermione, step into the road to look around before spotting us. However, my relief on seeing them alright was short-lived as I quickly noticed Hermione was being held up by Ginny. Looking down, I grimaced as I realized Hermione’s leg was not only broken, but actually nearly sticking out sideways, bone sticking out at a nasty angle. Hermione was so pale, it was a miracle she was still conscious.
The image was horrible and Amy was instantly sprinting towards her, hand outstretched. The trio flinched back but relaxed as they realized what she wanted to do. About thirty seconds later Hermione’s leg was fixed and we were once again headed towards the peak.
As we reached the foot of the stairs leading to Himiko’s palace we were momentarily forced to stop due to a gust of wind so strong we had to brace ourselves to avoid being blown over the edge of the cliff to our left. As we looked up as it died down we finally spotted Lara and Matthias.
Matthias was firing down with a large pistol at Lara while Lara was in turn diving in between the various different rocky outcroppings on either side of the stairs.
Yet before we could do anything to stop or help her she threw herself backwards, firing as fast as she could at Matthias while still in midair.
Then for the first time, his haughty face looked surprised then confused before he looked down to see multiple bullet holes going through where his heart previously was.
I didn’t understand his confusion. Maybe he had been expecting Himiko to protect him again. Maybe he didn’t believe he could actually die. Regardless, we all watched as he stumbled backwards, then to the left before he tipped backwards off of the cliff, falling towards the rocks below.
We didn’t watch and tried to ignore the wet crunch of his body hitting the bottom as we ran up the stairs to get to her as Lara didn’t immediately get up. To our relief Lara only had a single gunshot wound in her thigh, nowhere near any arteries.
It was then that Amy finally looked around and noticed Angus and what he was now carrying. It only took a moment before she realized he was carrying Roth’s rifle, and Lara screamed out weakly, “No!”
Angus didn’t let the girl continue though as he simply shook his head. “He went down fighting, missy. It was how he would have wanted it. Now don’t let his sacrifice be in vain.” he said while pointing up the palace steps.
At the top, I saw Dr Withman dragging Sam towards the Samurai guarding the temple. We all raised our guns, but before we could do anything we watched as one of the Samurai grabbed Sam away from the doctor before the other Samurai swung it’s sword across his chest, shoulder to hip, nearly cutting the stupid traitorous man in two.
All of us winced even as we continued running up the stairs.
Yet even as we started flinging spells and gunfire up towards the approaching undead army, internally I once again wondered how some things seemed to remain the same despite everything we were changing and how much was different in this crossover world. Both worlds apparently had Dr Withman being cut down by Samurai in the final moments after betraying the expedition for his own ambitions. Shouldn’t have the butterfly effect changed this by now?
I didn’t have long to consider this before I was forced to swing my new sword up to block a downwards stroke from a Samurai that had stepped up to stop us.
Once again the trio moved towards the right to start casting spells and Angus and now Amy and Taylor moved to the left.
With Sabah holding back with Luna and Dinah to protect our rear I was now following Lara with Ahri next to me as we plowed directly through the remains of the palace, following Sam’s cries for help.
We were only 100 yards behind them so we arrived in the main palace chamber only a few seconds behind Sam. Yet we were horrified to see Sam already on top of an altar as the mummified corpse in front of us began to glow.
There was a moment where I hoped I could get there quick enough to stop whatever was about to happen, but before I could act a stream of blue light and power shot forward from the mummified corpse that was clearly the undead queen, Himiko, and into Sam. We didn’t have any time to react before Sam threw back her head and screamed.
From my soul sight, I realized that Himiko was already attempting to absorb Sam’s soul and tie herself to what she hoped would be her new body.
Yelling to anyone who could listen, I explained. “She is taking over Sam’s body. Hit the corpse with whatever you can… NOW!”
No one seemed to need a second invitation, as the spell and gun fire at the corpse was instant and vicious. Yet before any of it actually hit, we watched runes light up across the corpse’s ceremonial robes and a shield sprung up to block almost all of it.
Growling, that didn’t stop Lara as she raced forward grabbing my sword and swung it forward, actually cutting into the corpse’s robes a little before being flung back across the floor to stop behind us.
I frantically tried to think of something before I remembered the ending of the game. “Try fire!” I said before throwing Lara one of the torches as she dashed past me. Holly didn’t even wait for that as she instantly cast a fireball at Himiko’s corpse before Ginny followed up with her own.
I wasn’t sure what the difference was, but this time the enchantments fizzled a little before the glow faded. That seemed to be all Lara needed as she arrived a moment later and instantly and visiously stabbed the torch into the corpse’s chest and was once again blown back.
In the mean time I had reached Sam and was trying to figure out, if anything, I could do with my powers to stop the transfer.
The rest of the girls plus Angus had turned around and were frantically trying to keep the undead army from overwhelming us through the open doors we had blown open to get here.
Watching Himiko’s corpse, nothing happened for a second or two and the light beam traveling to Sam didn’t seemed to dim, before, all of a sudden, an unearthly scream somehow ripped its way out Himiko’s mummified corpse.
The light of the soul transfer dimmed significantly, but didn’t completely go out while Sam began to fall backward away from the low altar she had been forced onto.
It was clear we had mostly stopped the ritual, but as I watched with my soul sight, Himiko didn’t give up. She fought to hang on, to hold onto her corpse, then in desperation, she tried to hold onto Sam’s body despite Sam’s soul not yet giving her room.
Yet, Sam’s soul wasn’t that of an ancient witch and I could see, bit by bit, it began to falter and recede from Himiko’s assault. Sam’s eyes in turn started to dim as I saw her soul start to give way. I didn’t know what to do, but not fully understanding what I did, I tried to reinforce Sam’s soul and I watched as Sam’s soul started to fight back.
However, before I could celebrate, Himiko must have decided that if she couldn’t win, then she could make Sam loose as well as she stopped trying to absorb Sam’s soul and instead held on and violently ripped Sam’s soul free of her body instead making them both drift away.
“What the hell?” I grit out.
Pulling Sam’s soul back towards me, I tried to tie it back to her body before I realized that, just like with Jonah yesterday, it wouldn’t stay attached.
Frantically looking around I realized that no one else even knew what was going on, let alone how to stop it. I was alone here.
Gritting my teeth, not having time to pick something specific, I reached through my portal into our gem strongbox and grabbed a small pearl and a small diamond ring then lunged forward.
I didn’t have time to be gentle as I began to pull Sam’s soul into the small pearl and Himiko’s soul into the diamond.
Despite starting sooner than I had with Jonah’s soul binding, Sam’s soul transfer immediately turned complicated as a small part of Himiko’s soul began to get sucked down into the pearl with the rest of Sam’s soul.
As I started pulling the rest of Himiko’s soul into the diamond ring, I noticed she actually seemed to be somewhat aware of what I was doing. I wasn’t sure if that surprised me or not, since she was apparently a soul mage, just like me. However, regardless, it was that initial hesitation that sealed her fate, as she was already partially bound before she actually started fighting me.
Now, as hard and as viciously as she fought, I had tied her down so it was just a matter of grabbing a small metaphorical handful and putting it in. bit by bit, she started to disappear into the gem.
That wasn’t to say it was easy. Hell, it might have been the most exhausting thing I had ever done. Her soul was stronger than mine, yet I seemed to have more power, or at least more flexibility in my power.
I lost track of time as I fought and fought… pulled and pushed… little by little I gained ground, binding her very soul down then forcing her soul to sleep inside the gem as she tried to stop me.
At the same time I continued to bind Sam’s soul into the pearl as gently as I could. Then, after a few more seconds that felt like hours, both souls snapped in place, with most of Himiko’s soul ending up getting ripped out of Sam’s.
At the same time I finished, the unending winds around the peak suddenly cut off and the sudden silence let me hear the blood pumping in my ears.
Checking, I realized that Sam’s heart had stopped somewhere along the way. Immediately, I yelled out, “Amy, I need your help!”
Not even waiting for instructions, Amy reached me and slapped her hand across Sam’s bare shoulder, before I watched the body jerk as her heart started beating and her chest begin to rise and fall.
Handing her the pearl, I explained. “Himiko ripped her soul out, I had to bind it to keep it here.”
Amy didn’t need any additional explanation as she once again opened up a hole in Sam’s body and placed the pearl next to her heart.
Taylor was the one to yell an update on their battle. “We need to move, the Samurai seem to have gone crazy.”
I hadn’t even noticed the much more desperate attacks from the undead army had become, but looking over I noticed there were nearly a dozen Samurai trying to force their way inside despite the dozen or so bodies already destroyed around the door.
Frustrated I bit out, “Damn it, was it really too much to hope that they would all have dropped dead once we got rid of Himiko?”
Yet, I really didn’t have time to consider our options as we were all startled from a loud bang that came from our left. Seeing even more Samurai begin to pour from the now unblocked entrance I picked up Sam and opened a portal to the batcave. Now that the winds and debris weren’t a problem I didn’t have to fight to keep it open and it took only a few seconds.
Turning to the rest I yelled. “Get in, we are leaving NOW!”
Lara was the first to turn around and sprint towards the portal but instead of going through she stood next to it on my other side while giving us covering fire against the new source of enemies.
Dinah, Luna, Sabah and Amy jumped through before moving the curious people on the other side away from the entrance. Taylor and Angus were a little slower, but both moved through before they continued their spell and gunfire respectively.
I was next, more carefully carrying Sam through the portal before Ahri and the golden trio followed me through.
It was only then that I saw Lara turn and sprint through the portal before nearly falling across Sam who I had placed on one of the benches we had used for seating the night before.
Turning to Holly, I yelled. “Quick, before I close it, cast the strongest fire spell you know!”
Not only Holly, but Ginny, Hermione, and Taylor all cast an incendio spell and everyone flinched back at the sudden heat and light before I snapped the portal closed.
With the danger gone, I slumped down to the ground. A moment later, I flopped backwards onto my back on the cold hard cave floor. Yet I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. My mind seemed to want to replay how many times me and my family had come close to death. Hell, Captain Roth hadn’t been so lucky.
Shaking my head slightly, I tried to break off those thoughts. Himiko was completely sealed. Sam had been saved.
Things would be ok…
I would just need to find some remaining cultist to practice my memory charms.
Then we needed to remove people’s memories of our names and abilities.
All before, we would need to send out a distress signal to help these people get rescued.
I grimaced… we also should try to exterminate the undead Samurai.
I then paused and considered the sword I was still carrying. I also kinda wanted to try to find any other artifacts to study.
That was all before we made our way home. While Japan, being very isolationist, would probably care if we just showed up in within their borders, other countries probably wouldn’t even notice… maybe we should aim for Thailand. Pulling out a small map showed me it was nearly 3000 miles away. At my portal speed of 100 miles per hour… well that was still 30 hours of constant pushing. Not great, but fairly reasonable.
I shook my head. I was distracting my self. The dreaded talk with the trio and Lara was also coming up. They needed to be able to protect their minds, but after that I would tell them their futures and then probably offer to let them join us… well, if my girls liked them.
No, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.
We had nearly been killed…. Again.
No, don’t think about that either!
Damn it…
We needed a break, didn’t we? Maybe I really would take the girls to a spa day.
Interlude Ahri:
Ahri sat down on the side of the cave away from everyone.
She wasn’t sure what had happened. She had been fighting… dancing… weaving…
It had been intense, primal, exciting.
Then she had eaten that Oni’s soul and suddenly her body felt on fire.
The Kappa’s blood on her hands had felt exquisite.
She had nearly ripped Max’s clothes off and mounted him, right there and then…
What was going on with her?
Interlude Holly:
Holly shuttered as she hugged Hermione.
She had agreed to help mostly because she wanted to get more experience fighting.
Despite what Max had said, something deep down told her that she would have to fight Tom.
Yet, she hadn’t actually managed to force herself to actually kill anyone. It had all been stunners and she had seen Ginny and Hermione doing the same thing. The only thing they had actually permanently put down were the undead Samurai.
She was pretty sure that Taylor had finished off any of the ones they left and if she didn’t then the Samurai probably turned them into more undead themselves.
Was this what she had to look forward to in her own country?
A war?
She could feel her body start to shake as the adrenaline started to drop.
Could she really do this?
What if she failed?