Azura had found his target, and was honestly a little disappointed. “What do you want?! Money, status, women? I can get them for you, whatever you want, just please don’t kill me.” It seemed the butler from before was spot on about the man being pathetic. If it was just begging for their lives, he wouldn’t normally judge so harshly, but this was a man who hadn’t just killed people, but horribly mutated them. THis was a man who held 0 value for any life not his own.
“How many of your twisted little experiments begged you for their lives? How many more begged for their deaths after what you put them through?” It was only his years of training, and his adjustment to chaos recently that he was able to stay calm.” He was going to kill the man, but he hadn’t yet decided how painful it was going to be.
“None of them had any worth! They were all peasants without money or magical skill, they were worthless. They should be honored that I found a use for them. He smiled kindly as he released a wicked pressure. The lord cowered down in fear. As he should. Irredeemable trash like Cornelius deserved to feel the pain they imparted on others.
“I have plenty of money and power already, so it would seem you are of no worth to me.” Pearl’s eyes widened, and the man tried to speak, but he cut him off with a hand jabbed into the man’s throat. Magic circle where his hand impacted. The man gasped for air, and kept trying to speak.” So what did you do to your victims first? Probably chain them up in the dungeon for a while until you have time right? Well lucky you, I don’t have time for that. Unfortunately for you, I’ve put non lethal traps all over the house to make sure to stall the adventurers. Since they are already inside. Oh well, guess we’ll have to skip to the good part.”
He used a gravity spell to slam the man into the wall of his chamber. It was even more ostentatious than the rest of the house. Painted green and gold. With gold plated leaves creating elaborate images on the walls. Not to mention the giant bed with a canopy, and many bits and bobs that were probably each worth several houses. He prowled towards the pale and shaking man. “So I assume you started with dissection right?” He created a scalpel of ice. He wasn’t the kind of person that enjoyed giving pain, but he wasn’t so naive as to say no one deserved it either. Peal desperately shook his head, eyes shining in fear. Tears were already streaming down his chubby face. The man was barely taller than Azura, and looked to be in his mid 30’s. Although the premature balding made him look even older to some extent. “No? Hmm alright I’ll allow you to speak, but if you lie to me then I’ll just cut extra lightly so your nerves can feel each inch of the blade glide through your skin. The circle on Pearl’s throat lost its silver color. “What did you do to them first?”
“I-I put them under first I s-swear.” He tilted his head in surprise. The man didn’t seem to be lying, but Pearl had already made it quite clear he had no problems with his test subjects being in terrible pain. He narrowed his eyes and made it clear that the man had better finish his explanation quickly. “I-t was o-only practical. If t-they thrashed and screamed, they’d r-ruin the experiment.” He growled, and Pearl somehow managed to pale even more. Perhaps that was why his name was pearl, though perhaps with the lack of luster stark would have been more appropriate.
“Very well we’ll skip the dissection bit, since they were asleep for that, although that leaves me in a bit of a bind, as I don’t have any way to mutate you, so you can feel that part of suffering… Oh I’ve got it, broken limbs would probably be a close approximation.” Pearl opened his mouth to speak, but it was replaced with a scream as his arms made several cracking sounds as they bent at unnatural angles. I guess after that would probably be burning, since that’s the most efficient way to kill them right?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please just make it stop!” Couldn’t the man have some dignity? He hated stuff like this on its own, but it was worse when they whined, and begged like that. If they inflicted it on others couldn’t they at least be tough enough to endure a little bit of pain.
“Sorry? Are you? If you are truly sorry, then accept the fate you’ve earned.” The magic circle on Pearl’s throat glowed silver again stopping the man from speaking. He closed his eyes, this next part was the part he really didn’t want to do. He had never killed someone out of combat before. Pearl was defenseless, there was no raging battle, he could just as easily leave the man alive… But he wouldn’t, he was going to kill the man in cold blood. He could hate himself later, but for now he had a job to do. A quick fire spell set Pearl ablaze. The man screamed silently as the fires consumed him much faster than normal flames.Tears turned to steam as Pearl’s face violently jerked around with his mouth open, and no sound coming out.
He couldn’t do it. His sword went through the man’s head. Killing him instantly. He had intended to leave the man to burn to death, but… He just didn’t have it in him. Perhaps his father was right, he was naive. There was no doubt in his mind that the man had deserved to burn. Hopefully the people Pearl had killed were satisfied with the death he had given the man. A bang on the door told him his time was up, the adventurers had made it here. They were too late though, He ran to the side of the room opposite the door, and disassembled his body into magic, and reformed it on the other side of the wall. He shivered, he’d have to practice with that, it was beyond uncomfortable.
***
Drake was regretting taking this particular request. Pearl had seemed like a nice guy when he had met him in the past. So he didn’t mind agreeing to put himself on the roster for available adventurers in case the man was in trouble, he never expected to see the man burning away with a hole in his head. As if that wasn’t bad enough, whoever did it had left a note, saying that Pearl had done all sorts of terrible things. He had gagged when seeing Pearl’s dying body, but what he saw when he followed up on the crimes the note mentioned was horrible. It had taken 4 b-rank adventurers to kill the big monstrosity, and there were at least 2 others that had already been killed when they got there. The investigators had estimated each one to be made of over 30 corpses, and even worse half of them weren’t even completely dead.
He couldn’t help but feel glad that the man was killed, but that didn’t mean he was glad that the only thing they had been able to piece together about the infiltrators was there were at least 4 of them, and that 1 of them stayed up top to slow the adventurer's response. The way they found lord Pearl’s body suggested that whoever killed the man wasn’t exactly a saint themselves, and that scared him. If Pearl was able to cause so much pain and suffering without anyone being the wiser just how dangerous were the ones that killed him.
He had always thought the town was safe, no monsters could get in so there was no need to keep your guard up. He was now realizing the older adventurers were right. There is no place monsters can’t get into… Especially the ones wearing human skin.
***
Azura was hiding not too far from the mansion, he had to make sure the adventurers cleared everything out. The fact he was able to get to Victor and Jackson, and get all of them away before the adventurers even started investigating the tunnels didn’t speak well of their competence, but thankfully it seemed his note had kicked them into gear. Dozens of adventurers swarmed the grounds inside and out to look for anything else they might have missed. “Thank you for killing Pearl, it's a shame I wasn’t able to see him die, but I’m satisfied with the result.”
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He turned towards the goblin, and was surprised to see him emitting a golden light. “No need to worry, I've released my hold on all of the monsters I gathered, so they should go back to their normal behavior.” He let out a sigh in relief. He was pretty sure he knew what was happening, but he was just glad to not have to fend off a huge monster attack on the city.
“Why are you glowing?” Jackson asked warily. Not that he could blame him. There was nothing stopping the goblin from attacking them now that they had served their purpose. Well there was no reason for him to attack them either, so he wasn’t particularly worried.
“I think with my grudge satisfied, there is nothing keeping me in this form. I suppose my magic is returning to the earth now that I have no reason to hold it here.” The goblins form shifted into a noble looking gentleman with sharp features, blue eyes and light brown hair. He had an odd translucent appearance though, as if merely an illusion or trick of the light. “With my family avenged perhaps I’ll finally be able to properly join them. Thank you.” The man dispersed into golden particles of light that scattered on the wind.
“He just disappeared? How did he do that?” Despite Jackson’s surprise, the man was still a hardened adventurer, there was no way something like that would throw him off his game. As such despite the fact the man was shocked Jackson spoke perfectly calmly.
“If I had to guess, the reason he formed as a monster was because it was his leftover magic held together purely by his grudge against Pearl. I’ve never heard of something like that happening before, but it’s also not the kind of thing that would be shared with the public even if there have been other cases.” If he was being honest he didn’t exactly have a lot of evidence for his theory, but it also didn’t much matter whether he was correct or not.
“I guess that makes sense, in that I can understand what you mean. Can a grudge really turn people into monsters like that? Surely if that was the case there would be a lot more of them.” That was true, in a world like theirs, grudges weren’t especially uncommon. Even if it was specifically grudges of a specific strength, there was no doubt that there would be thousands of cases across the continent.
“Perhaps the way he died also played a part in it. I imagine if he died in a place with a lot of mana then it would be possible for his spirit to absorb enough of it to create a temporary form, and then the hate shifted the form into a monstrous visage.” Ths was deep into the realm of advanced magic theory, and was honestly something he’d love to know more about, but he was obviously not going into a field of research that would require killing people to study. Although perhaps it could be researched as a way to resurrect the recently dead. He’d have to look into it when he made it back to the academy.
“Well you’d know more than me, so I’ll take your word for it.” He chuckled. One way or the other he was glad to be done with this whole thing, he couldn’t wait to get back to the academy. He missed his friends, and he was sure they missed their familiars. Plus the almost 2 months of knowledge his copies had gained would be a welcome addition to his arsenal. Although he had some kind of ominous feeling, that he couldn’t quite place.
“On that note, I think that about finishes my business here. So let’s see what all you gathered so I can tally up your payment.” Jackson had proven invaluable in this whole adventure, so the man had definitely earned his pay. It would take a big chunk out of his savings, but the magical materials would help him make the money back and more.
“My favorite part of every mission.” The man smiled and pulled out his bag dumping out way more monster parts than he had expected. He didn’t react, but he was a little concerned he might not have enough for everything the man had collected. He began to tally everything.
***
Well it wasn’t quite all of his savings, but it came pretty close. Still Azura was more than pleased with the results. He’d be able to make a lot of good gear with this stuff, and with lots of good gear came lots of money. Honestly another stash like this, and he might even be able to get what he needed to pay off that dragon in time after all. He preferred to be a man of his word when possible after all.
Jackson and he hadn’t parted ways quite yet as the man was counting the gold to make sure it was all there. A common enough practice, especially when the other party was someone you had only met recently. “Alright you’re good to go, and hey you’ve been a pretty solid employer, if you ever need a guide or want to join an adventuring party let me know, my party could definitely use an all rounder like you. Maybe if dealing with the wilds wasn’t such a pain they wouldn’t take breaks as often as they can afford it.”
He chuckled. He couldn't see himself joining an adventurers party, but it was always a good idea to keep your options open. “I’ll keep it in mind, and I’’l probably end up taking you up on the guide bit at some point.” Probably not till he graduated though. He had plenty enough to deal with with the academy and his father. “Anyway, I best get going before the police force comes to the very reasonable conclusion that the stranger who just got back today in a very public display before vanishing was probably the culprit of the murder of Pearl.”
Jackson laughed. “Sure, sure. I’ll bet they’ll be quite busy finding out how horrible Pearl was for a while, so now is definitely your best chance to get out unaccosted.” He smiled. He gave a salute to Jackson before falling back into the magic circle on the floor and disappearing. His new body meant he could safely travel through the spirit world for much longer, and that meant his teleportation range had greatly expanded. Just one blink had him on the edge of the town, and the next had him high in the sky above the town with his familiar in tow.
Reign had once again grown to a rideable size, and flew back towards the academy. “Must I still carry you? You should be more than capable of flying on your own now.” Reign wasn’t technically wrong. Still he wouldn’t say he was confident enough with his new abilities to manage a trip like this in one go, but perhaps they could take turns.
“Not the whole way, but we can trade off every now and then to ease the burden on you.” The dragon snorted, clearly displeased.
“As if I would need a break for a trip such as this, but if you can’t manage it I shall grant you the honor of being carried by me.” He rolled his eyes, the dragon really was stubborn, if it implied a failing on his end Reign wouldn’t agree to anything no matter how much easier it was.
“How about I fly for a while and you give me tips on how to improve my flying and mana efficiency and then when I get tired you carry me a bit so I can recover.” He could admit he was a little arrogant sometimes, but not so arrogant he couldn’t play the weak one to get Reign to take a break
Reign preened. “Very well, I will help you attain the level of flying skill expected of a noble dragon such as me.” He rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath, and jumped off of Reign, before shifting into a new form. He didn’t focus on what shape he wanted to take, merely letting his dragon instincts take over.
***
Reign stared in shock as his partner formed into a full dragon, but not a dragon like he had ever seen before. For one Azura was still humanoid, at least in body shape. His partner was smaller than he was, but was still more than big enough for a few humans to ride on his back. As if the humanoid legs and arms weren’t strange enough though, Azura was gleaming white, completely lacking the icy blue undertones that ice dragons tend to have, and the golden lines stretching across his body from the odd gold plating on his chest weren’t something he had ever seen on a dragon before. The gold plating itself along with the spikes didn’t seem to be made with scales or bone like normal spines on most dragons.
He shrunk down and landed on his partner's back which was devoid of spines until the end of its tail which had gold lines on both sides reaching all the way to the end where a golden spear head like spike flit around as Azura flew. Even standing on the gold plating he couldn’t place what it was made of, besides from the obvious of it being formed from magic. “Spread your wings out wider, you’re wasting energy flapping like that, if they are out farther you’ll catch more air.” He would try and figure out what kind of dragon Azura was later, for now he had a newbie flier to teach, and a student of his couldn’t be anything less than perfect.