User Name

Eric (Erin)

3 Skill points

Race

Human-Catkin

Bloodline

Apex Predator

Age 22

Level 14

HP 250/250

MP 200/200

Feats

Stealth Predation

Camoflage

Claws of Iron.

Background

Once Enslaved/Trained Spy

Class

Rogue

Sub-Class

Spycraft

Title

SilentListener

Exp 10/100

Attributes

Strength 24

Constitution 22

Dexterity 30

Intelligence 22

Wisdom 25

Charisma 20

Luck 9

Skills

Basic Knife skill

LV. 15 35/100

Stealth Lv.10 35/100

First Strike

LV. 12 20/100

Wall Climbing Lv. 6 85/100

Disguise

Lv. 4 20/100

Claws of Steel Lv. 8 20/100

Threatening Aura

Lv. 5 0/100

While he had been trying to reassure Brandy it would turn out alright, inside he was freaking out. As the tank filled up with that dark liquid he feared that would be the last he would see of her. He knew this thing would likely kill them the moment it thought it had no more use for them. The only thing he had to rely on at the moment was some limited knowledge he had about modipods. When the pod holding Brandy was completely full and beginning it's preparation for whatever the process was for her, the voice said "That's good. Now you come to my tank and start the procedures needed to transfer me over. Don't mess it up, or I will kill you."

Keeping his annoyance from his face, he walked towards the other side with the decomposing body. As he passed Edwards, the man stopped him and asked "Do you know what you are doing?"

"Yeah, everything will be alright. Remember what you came here for. Do not get distracted by thoughts of helping her." Eric said as he gave him a slight nod towards the crystal and the golem. Edwards' face blanked for a brief moment then a look of understanding crossed it. He nodded and stood around waiting for Eric's cue.

As Eric stood in front of the modipod he could barely keep the look of disgust from his face staring at the decomposing body. The voice said "I made the mistake of setting these controls only accessible directly from the control panel. The golems that I can control do not have fine motor controls so I you will have to press the buttons in the exact order I tell you to."

"Alright I am ready to begin." Eric said opening up the control panel and at the same time giving Edwards a signal to begin.

Just as the voice began to tell him what buttons to press, Edwards said "Well while you are doing that, I will be taking what is mine." He proceeded towards the crystal shoving aside the golem.

The Voice stopped her explanation and said "Wait a second. I have yet to transfer so until that happens that crystal belongs to me."

"I beg to differ. Your son stole it from me, so it actually belongs to me. You claim to want to restore honor to the name Lamant, but you blackmail us into getting you a body and now you are denying my rightful property. How outrageous." Edwards said angrily.

"You dare criticize my behavior? You're the one breaking into my vault and stealing from it. Don't think I didn't notice your friends taking souvenirs from this place. You should be grateful that I'm even letting you take back your damn crystal."

The two of them spiralled into an argument providing the perfect distraction that Eric needed. He began to mess with the controls looking for what he needed. Modipods were rare even in the Empire, still he had encountered several during his time as a slave. Mostly broken ones the owners were attempting fix up for some personal use. For one job he had to learn the basic controls of a modipod to sabotage one of his owners rivals. While the construction of modipods were complex, the controls were not allowing him to quietly assassinate the rival by overdosing him in the pod.

His owner had allowed him to see some of the research that the Empire had on modipods for the job. Despite the wide variety of types they all had a backdoor control scheme built into them. Which is how he got into the main controls of the modipod while Edwards was distracting her. First he severed the link between the two modipods to prevent her from getting to Brandy. He attempted restricting her access to the traps, but found she had integrated herself too deep into the controls. Deciding on a different course of actions, he began to activate all the functions of the pod on Lady Lamant at the same time. What it would do to her dead body, he didn't know, but it would effectively block access for her to the traps while it was running. Hopefully even kill her for good.

As he was finishing up the last commands a lull in the argument made her catch on that he was doing something. She said "What are you doing?"

"Oh just inputting the commands, you said to do." Eric said and simply punched the buttons faster.

"I didn't tell you to do that... you're trying to kill me, you motherfucker!" The voice screeched and the Golem that was hanging near the crystal charged towards him but Edwards swung the hammer causing the Golem to go flying.

"I will kill you god-" The voice cut off as Eric finished and began the modipod. The modified modipod began whirring and various tubes and needles came out inside the green fluid and began attaching to the dead body. The lights flickered and the cool air soon turned warmer as ancient devices began to turn on.

Seeing she was now blocked he quickly dashed towards the tank containing Brandy. Eric pulled off the control panel and got into the system to quickly shut it down to free Brandy. The Tank began to slowly drain away and Eric gritted his teeth hoping it went as fast as it could. He could hear the modipod behind him and he could also hear something screaming. He dared not look back in fear of what horrors he would see. When the pod had emptied almost all the way, Eric hit the override switch and popped the door open spilling the foul dark liquid over the floor. It smelled so bad that he retched, it was like a mixture of rotting fish and sewage and Edward gagged nearby.

The mask which had been attached to Brandy's face was in the process of removing itself, and Eric helped it by carefully pulling the tube out of Brandy's mouth. She was blinking like crazy and moaning. Her stomach in the short period that she had been in there had expanded absurdly to the point of almost making her look pregnant. The second that Eric had gotten the tube out of her throat, she pushed him aside. She then fell to her knees and began to puke up a foul looking yellowish goop. Eric sat next to her rubbing her back to help get the slime out of her as fast. Edwards asked "Will she be alright?"

"I hope so." Eric said "As far as I can tell it was just doing some prep work on her, and nothing major had occurred. I'll handle her, go get the crystal. We will need to get out of her before the process stops on Lamant's modipod. I told it to do everything, but I don't know how long it will last so the sooner we get out of here the better."

Edwards nodded and ran to the crystal and began to move it around to get it into his bag. Brandy had finally finished puking up all the foul goo she could and said in a raspy voice "I can't see, my eyesight is all blurry."

Eric helped her up and said "I'll have to carry you then. Your eyesight should return soon, just keep calm."

She nodded and fumbled with something and a second later clothes appeared on her and Eric picked her up and she clung tightly to his back. Eric could feel her shivering against him. He hoped that fluid had done nothing permanent to her. He would hate to have caused her harm, she was his closest friend. As he lifted her up Eric saw that Edwards had finished getting the crystal into his bag. "Lets go before that bitch gets free."

They quickly ran out of the room and charged up the stairs. As they did so, Eric happened to spot a green glow coming from Edwards' wrist. "Someone is coming into the vault."

Edwards cursed and said "No matter, we need to get out before she regains control of the traps. Charge past them, once we are out of the vault we will be safe from the traps."

Nodding the both of them ran up the steps while Eric could hear the screaming coming from the modipod only grow louder. Upon reaching the top of the staircase Eric spotted a roughed up looking Madam Lian who was currently gawking at the surroundings. Her face looked like it had been slapped and her makeup messed up by tears. When she saw them come up from the stairway, Madam Lian stepped back nervously and said "No, please don't take me to the Earl, I'm just trying to find my way out." She looked ready to bolt right out the tunnel.

"Madam Lian please listen. We are not with the Earl, but we need to leave right now. I will explain everything to you later, but this place is extremely dangerous so you need to follow us." Eric said frowning wondering why this woman was down here.

Brandy whispered into his ear "Who is this?"

"Someone I met at the party while you were dancing."

Madam Lian frowned and said "Are you Miss Alissa?"

"I am, I will explain later." Eric said moving to the door and as soon as they exited he asked Edwards "Can you close the doorway?"

Edwards shook his head. "I can't. It should automatically close if it doesn't detect a mental signature inside, but with her awake it won't close. I would destroy the plate, but that will take time..." He glanced towards Madam Lian "Time we don't have. If the Earl is looking for her, it's likely he will come down here sooner or later. We need to get out of here while we still can."

As they began to climb down the stairs the door to chamber where Edwards had come out of opened and the Earl strode in followed by his fiance. He had a furious look on his face and the starting of what appeared to be a shiner. "So this is where you have gone. It looks like my idiot brother made a mistake like he always does and got himself into trouble." The Earl drawled out glaring at them. "Now Madam Lian be a good girl and come to my side while I deal with these thieves."

"No. I think not." Madam Lian stood up as straight as she could. "I told you what you want was over the line of acceptability. It is immoral, foul, and repugnant. I will not accede to your demands. Now I'm not sure what these people are here for but even if they are thieves it's a damn sight better than what you asked me to do. So no, sic your guards on me and send me to the magistrate for all I care."

The Earl grimaced in anger and said "You're a fool Madam Lian. What I offered to you was only the tip of all that would have flowed into your pockets. No, there will be no guards, no magistrate. Now I don't know how you three found out about this vault, but I was looking for subjects for some of my tests. You'll get to explain to me in detail how it feels to have your soul torn apart piece by piece."

Eric carefully lowered Brandy to the ground and said "Seems to me, that you're outnumbered Earl."

"Hardly, I myself am a master swordsman. In addition I know a few spells. Not to mention my Fiance is a powerful mage in her own right. Once your compatriots extricate themselves from my vault, I will get you to spill how you got inside. Did you kill my brother for the key? Perhaps he is the one in the vault." The Earl said proudly as his Fiance smiled at him and came up right next to him.

"Sorry to disappoint, we don't have any more friends in the vault. But don't worry a very special person woke up and wants to have a word with you." Eric said.

The Earl's face went from confusion to understanding then horrified in a matter of seconds. "What did you do?" Before the Earl could finish his question, he lurched forward falling to his knees. His fiance reached down and tossed his sword away. To Eric's surprise he saw a blade had been stabbed deep into the Earls back. It had not killed him, as he lay groaning. "Emelia? Why? I loved you."

She smirked and said "and yet I never felt anything for you. I would be lying if I said it was all just business, however, Madam Lian was right, you are a shit person. Your brother told me how blind you are, but seriously you never once questioned my identity. What a waste of gold I used to set up my background." Emelia said and reached up and then peeled off her face. Eric realized that it was in fact some sort of mask that completely changed the woman's face. Instead of a human woman mage, there was now a Elven woman mage standing in front of them.

When she removed the mask Edwards went stock still and an expression of pure rage crossed his face. "Ioa, I thought I smelled something wretched. Pretty sure the last time I saw you, I shoved a dagger into your cold traitorous heart and left your corpse in a cave."

The woman, Ioa apparently, laughed and said "Oh Edward are you still hung up about that whole affair? I told you when you hired me, if I ever got a better offer I would take them up on it. Though I admit I did not foresee it coming to stabbing me in the heart. But that's the past and well I must thank you. My beloved and I were working on a way to deal with the Earl, and now you've provided it."

Brandy asked "Who is she?"

"Ioa. She is the one I told you about who betrayed my last group. She was also my lover at the time. It appears she has a tendency to stab her lovers in the back. I told you, you could've asked me for more gold." Edwards spat at the woman.

Ioa shook her head, "You never understood Edwards. Yes, you have an obscene amount of gold, but you never had the ambition to go with it. I thought you had fire in you when I met you. But I couldn't deal with your constant debating with yourself over every little detail. You were always holding yourself back for some reason. So when I was offered a chance to get real power, I had to take it. After the whole heart stabbing and you killing my new boss, well, I knew where you were heading next."

The Earl groaned and asked "Was it all a lie? Did you truly feel nothing for me? Did you lay in my bed contemplating my death?"

Ioa looked down at the Earl and said "What is a fantasy but a lie? I gave you what you wanted, just not what you thought. You're so deluded in your arrogance that you never noticed the truth. I don't hate you, I just pity you. I came to your house looking for a chance to gain power, and your brother gave me an offer that I couldn't let go. All that I had to do was play the fantasy lover for you and draw you in. Of course neither of us thought you would actually propose to me. We were waiting for Edwards to show, so we could carry out our plans, if he didn't show then you would have an accident and either way Mark would have taken over as the new Earl. When I was in your bed, I was mostly thinking just how bad you are at sex compared to your brother."

Edwards glanced towards Eric and nodded and said "Ioa, you are maybe a good mage, but you simply are not strong enough to stop all of us. As much as I would like bashing your head in, how about we each go our own ways."

"Yes, you proved that you are quite agile enough to dodge my spells given the scar I still have on my chest. I wonder about your colleagues, though?" Ioa said, glancing towards Eric and Brandy.

"Leave them out of this." Edwards said. "They don't mean anything to you so just let them go. Whatever you are planning you can just use me."

"Still willing to put yourself ahead of others. Quite an annoying trait you have. Still it's a good thing I brought backup this time." Ioa said, and the door that led to the passageway that Eric and Brandy had come through opened. The Earls brother Mark came strolling in with a big grin on his face, he was followed by ten large guards each of which were bearing a slave collar making Eric's skin crawl when he looked at them. The guards fanned out into the room surrounding them, and he saw that whatever had been done to them had left the men looking quite dull in the head.

Mark walked right over to his brother and gave him a savage kick making the Earl cry out in pain. He coughed up and said "Damn you to the farthest reaches Mark. I let you be overseer of my estates. I paid you more than you were due simply because you were my brother. This is how you repay my acts of kindness? May the gods see the foul betrayer you are."

"Act of Kindness? Do you honestly think it's some sort of gift to me to slave away to make sure our finances don't go into the gutter for you damn pet projects?" Mark spat angrily towards the Earl and kicked him several more times. "You get to fuck off and enjoy the high life on your damn adventures leaving me to deal with cleaning up your goddamn shit. Do you think I fucking enjoy dealing with the scum and dregs of society just so you can play the big bad Earl whom everyone loves. Well now who's the big man!" Mark gave him one last kick and stepped back breathing heavily.

The Earl was gasping and groaning after the brutal kicks and Mark ran his hand through his thinning hair and looked towards Edwards and the group. "I must say you really outdid yourself Viscount Edwards. Ioa told me you would do something to target me, and I was surprised by the woman you chose. She really looked like my mother, to the point I was tempted to slit her throat the moment I got her outside."

Brandy blinking her eyes said "So you're awake. I'm fairly certain you drank the full sleeping potion."

"That I did. I must say it mixes well with alcohol." Mark said, smirking.

Ioa came up beside Mark and said "Edward does like to use sleeping potions. He doesn't like to kill unnecessarily even when it would make everything so much easier. As this was the last possible moment for you to get your hands on the crystal, I suspected you would come today. As such all I had to do was give Mark the antidote to the potion beforehand."

"Still knocked me out for several minutes. The bitch put me in a thorn bush, nearly poked out my eyes. Once I had awoken, all I had to do was wait. Ioa would find a reason to get the Earl down here."

"When I saw Madam Lian running from him, I simply guided her into the path to the vault. Now we come to the finale." Ioa said.

The Earl pushed himself to a sitting position and said "Do you two honestly think you will get away with this?"

"Oh I know I will brother. Most of the people who would be interested in learning why you died are already under my control. Most of the nobility does not care at all not with the arrival of the first queen occurring. Especially not with the tragic way you will die, my dear brother showing off his private treasures to his fiance struck down by a group of thieves. I managed to catch and kill them in self-defense, and then have to take up the mantle of the Earl from my fallen brother. When things settle down, Ioa and I will get married." Mark said gloating over his brother who sat in a puddle of blood.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Ioa said "Then I will get the power I crave along with a very ambitious husband." She kissed Mark and Eric wanted to puke from the disgusting sounds they made.

When Mark broke the kiss, he turned to the guards looking ready to tell them to attack them so Eric braced himself for a fight. But before he could issue the order an unsettling howl of pain and anguish came from the tunnel of the vault. Mark froze and looked at the tunnel and said "Wait, the vault should have closed by now. I thought you said that there were only three of them Ioa?"

"I did." Ioa frowned. "I counted three of them when they came into the hall. That one" She pointed at Eric and continued "Told us something about someone special waking up. The Earl started to freak out."

"What?" Mark said, looking confused. "The vault can't close while someone is inside. Who did you put in there?" He glared at the Earl.

The Earl chuckled then gasped in pain. "A thing I thought I buried long ago. I don't know how she is still alive, but apparently she is." There was more howling coming from the tunnel. The Earl grinned at Mark and said "Sounds like she's coming for us."

"Who is it?" Mark yelled and grabbed his brother and lifted him up.

From the stone tunnel of the vault came a cold feminine voice that gurgled out "Mark is that you?"

Upon hearing that voice Mark froze, his face showed growing horror and he cried out in fear. "NO! No, she is dead. I saw her body in the coffin myself."

"I found a suitable woman and used her to stand in for our mothers body. All I had to do was bash her face in, and no one could tell otherwise. Of course I had to prevent anyone looking under the clothes, or the secret might have been found out. Our mother did not die from falling down the stairs like I told you. No, I killed her as she was in the process of attempting to create a new sibling for us." The Earl said.

"You know as well as I did that she viewed neither of us as being truly worthy of the Earl title. So she wanted to make a new child that she would take over and then kill us. So I killed her and left her body to rot inside the vault. Except it appears that I didn't do a good enough job of it and now she has returned." He sneered at Mark and said "Quite the family reunion."

Mark dropped his brother and there was a sound of something breaking and Eric glanced back into the tunnel and really wished he had not. The thing that was attempting to squeeze through the doorway was just godawful to look at. Modipods were capable of many things, with the exception of being unable to bring the dead back to life. Even so it had done a disturbing job of trying to imbue some sort of life into this monster. As it pushed through the doorway, rotting flesh was torn off to only be replaced with ever more dead and dying meat. As it moved it's hulking mass it left a trail of gore and fluids behind it.

Eric could no longer tell that it had once been human. Its arms had been elongated and stretched out to the point they were thin as a pole. Yet they somehow held the strength to drag it's carcass towards them quite fast. While he could not get a look at the creatures backside, it seemed as if it had lost its legs at some point. Instead of legs it was dragging a horrific bubbling mass of flesh that made him think of a massive egg sack he saw some bugs would carry around. The idea that this thing was carrying eggs of any sort made him sick to his stomach.

Yet that perhaps was not the worst of it. No, that honor resided in the face of this horror. Its hair had grown out in patches and gotten entangled with the flesh that sloughed off her body. One eye had come loose and was now an enlarged globe that was being dragged along on the ground. The rest of the skin of the face hung loose with boils and sores that leaked a foul pus onto the tunnel. It was wheezing through a mouth full of misshapen teeth that were all angled wrong. As it pulled itself and with its good eye looked towards them and said "Come give your mother a hug."

Ioa recoiled and screamed "What the fuck is that?!"

"Just fucking kill it!" Mark screamed at her.

Ioa began to chant and several orbs of fire began to appear around her. The monster was nearly to the entrance of the tunnel when she finally fired off the orbs. The fire orbs struck it causing a caustic blast of fire and smoke to obscure the creature from view. A rolling stench poured out of the tunnel and Brandy retched and Eric felt sick as well. Ioa continued firing, until she looked drained. "I'm almost tapped out of magic. Did I get it?" Ioa said.

There was a second of silence before a horrible voice croaking out. "You've been very bad boys. I think it's time to teach you another lesson in decorum." From the acrid smoke filled tunnel a bony pale arm reached out and grabbed onto the Earl who could not flee. He was dragged screaming into the smoke, where there was a sickening crunch and the screaming stopped. Another arm reached out and dragged the monster once more into view.

On the other hand were the remains of the Earl, with its head missing. The thing was chewing and blood dripped down her grisly jaws which made clear exactly where her son's head had gone. Mark recoiled and attempted to flee only for its right arm to reach out insanely fast and grasped onto him. He screamed and grabbed onto the railing of the stairs. "Come along child. You came from me. It's time to return to me." The beast crooned.

"Ioa save me!" Mark cried out as he managed to keep an iron grip on the railing.

Ioa stepped back with hesitation crossing her face as she looked at Mark and then the monster. Then her face hardened and she said "Sorry love, got to know when to cut your losses. Good luck with your mother!" With that she turned around and dashed towards one of the doors and as she left she called out "See you around Edwards!"

"You traitorous bitch!" Mark roared out as she left. With his grip slipping he then turned to the slaves and yelled "Cut me free!"

The slave guards dashed forward without regard for themselves and began using their short swords on the monster. It howled and then Eric watched as a bulge began to rise in the beasts neck. Seconds later when it opened it's maw, foul orangish green bile began to shoot at the slaves. The slaves cried out as the goop covered them. Eric could only watch in horror as the slaves flesh began to melt away under the goop and they fell screaming and crying onto the floor. Though with their death they managed to do what Mark had commanded them to do.

With a grunt he slipped free and attempted to run out of the reach of the monster. "I'm not done with you yet!" it said and its lower abdomen tore open and a giant yellowish tongue shot out like an arrow and wrapped around Marks foot causing him to trip and slam onto the ground. He desperately scrambled for purchase on the floor and looked at them and begged for help.

While this was occurring, Eric and the others had slipped closer to the exit. Now that the guards were dead or dying, and the way out clear, Eric was pushing them to leave when Edwards stopped and looked back. "What is it?" Eric asked.

"I cannot leave this thing to do as it pleases. It was created due to my own failures, and I need to make sure it can do no harm to anyone else."

Eric glanced back to see the monster had managed to pull in Mark and had brought him up to her misshapen face. "Look unless you have some serious magic spells, ain't no way you can take that monster. It would be suicide, and I won't let you throw your goddam life away."

"There is a way we can kill it. I have a method of detonating the stone plate, which should be enough to kill that monster. The only issue is it will take me a few minutes to fully activate it. Eric, I know I am asking a lot, but can you please help to distract it while I'm casting the ritual?"

With a sigh Eric looked down and said "Fuck it. Fine, I'll help." He looked at Brandy and Madam Lian and said "You two head up without us, we will be up as fast as we can."

"Are you sure you want to do this? We can just as easily call the guards to handle this mess." Brandy said.

Eric shook his head "No. This is something I have to do. Brandy I've run away from problems for most of my life, and I can't keep doing that. I'm just as responsible for that thing. Leaving this mess for someone else to deal with is not something I could respect myself for."

Taking his hand Brandy said "Be careful out there Eric. I want you back safe." He nodded and felt that she had handed something to him and saw it was a bottle of a sleeping potion. "Something to slow it down just in case." She winked at him.

"Don't worry, I'm not an Idiot. I know what I can do. Go!" He said and looked at Edwards. "How will this method of yours work?"

"It will basically destabilize the stone plate causing it to explode." Edwards said.

"Will we have enough time to escape?" Eric said.

"Yes, we will have a few minutes to get out of the area." Edwards said. "Now keep it distracted while I cast the ritual." He raised his hands towards the plate and began to chant.

Eric turned and moved closer to the thing seeing it was having a discussion with Mark that ended with it opening its mouth and then biting off Mark's head while he screamed in terror. There was a nasty crunch and his brain matter splattered down the front of the monsters roting chest. Tossing Mark's body aside, it's one good eye focused on Eric as he came closer. "You know I was incredibly furious at my son for killing me, but I still was merciful in making his death quick. What you did however was far worse, you transformed me into this abomination, sealed me away into this sack of rotting flesh."

"There will be no mercy for you. I'm going to hurt you very slowly making you wish you were dead. I can feel them you know, the little things growing inside of me. I wonder what sort of things I will be giving birth too? Whatever they are, I will feed your flesh to them, until you're nearly dead. At that point I will place your body into a modipod and do too you what you did to me."

Eric walked around keeping himself just out of the range of the monster. "You know honestly you should be thanking me. Because this disgusting blob of a body is an improvement on your original appearance. Now I just want to hurl when looking at you rather than stabbing out my eyes."

The monster howled in complete anger and pushed itself towards Eric with surprising speed. Its bony arms slammed down into the stone floor causing cracks to appear as it dragged itself. It's chest spread open and a massive tongue shot out after him and attempted to latch onto Eric who danced out of its range. When it managed to get close to him, he delivered a few slashes to it with his dagger causing a rotten green fluid to drip out of it.

Pissed off that it was just getting hurt and not coming close to catching him, the monster stopped and reached onto its side and ripped off a chunk of flesh and hurled it at him. "Here's a new trick I learned." The beast called out.

Eric rolled out of the way of the rotting projectile easily and watched as it landed with a disgusting thump. "You will have to do better than that."

"This is just the beginning." It roared and threw more chunks at him. As he dodged those he noticed the original chunk began to tremble and then several bones emerged from it. It began dragging itself after Eric and when it got close a hole appeared in its front lined with ragged sharp teeth. Taking care to not let it get close to him, Eric began to circle around the large monster as it kept throwing more of these small horrors at him.

While not particularly fast they were really starting to pile up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Edward start to glow as he continued chanting. Pulling out his backup knife, he tossed it at the face of the creature, and it struck the blade away with its massive tongue and screamed "Little fucking thieving rat I will rip your body open and use it to store my shit."

"Speaking of shit, no wonder your kids turned out awful. You are just goddam awful in every sense of the word. It's no wonder that you had to resort to fucking yourself to get pregnant. Its clear no one can stand you let alone want to touch you."

This really set it off, and it charged towards him crushing all the minor horrors in front of it. Seeing that he had really pissed it off, he ran around the room circling behind the stone plate. With a wet squelching sound the monster was right on his heels. He had to keep rolling and jumping to avoid the tongue and arms. When he had reached the back of the plate, he leapt up and began to climb to the top of the plate as fast as he could. The creature attempted to grab him, but he had gotten once more out of its reach. It went back and resorted to lobbing more chunks of flesh to knock him off the plate.

His claws were just barely able to allow him to climb the plate and he had a rough time dodging the flesh chunks. When he finally crested the stone plate, he could see that Edwards had an glowing orb in front of him. Then a massive beam of energy came from it and struck the stone plate which began to shudder. Edwards fell to his knee and yelled "It's going now, we need to go!"

Seeing he now needed to get the monster to stay still long enough, he pulled out the sleeping potion and looked back at the monster and said "You know from this angle you look really fat. I think you need to lose some weight Lady Lamant."

The monster screamed and when it opened its mouth Eric chucked the bottle right down its maw. It shattered spilling the contents down its throat. It coughed and then glared at him before slowly attempting to climb up after him. But it fell back down into a daze. Upon seeing that it was drowsy Eric leapt off the stone plate and landed on the ground on all four. Pushing off he ran to Edwards and helped the man off the ground. They fled back down the tunnel that Brandy and him had used earlier that night.

"How much longer do we have?" Eric yelled at Edwards as they ran for the exit.

"Not much longer." Edwards said.

In a rush they raced up the metal stairs and out through the shed into the garden. They did so with barely any time to spare as the ground shook underneath them and seconds later the shed behind them exploded as a massive pillar of a bright flame jetted upwards into the sky. The heat was so intense Eric had to look away. When it finally went away, he could see dozens of fires in the garden appearing, and the mansion itself had suffered massive damage causing the people inside to begin to flee.

Brandy and Lian came to their side and Eric said "We need to get out of here before the city guard comes!"

"This way!" Edwards said taking them quickly down a side path in the garden as the entire estate was going up in flames. Soon they came to a brick wall that was about seven feet tall. Eric helped Edwards over it and then the girls over. When they were over, he quickly climbed the wall, just in time to see the city guard coming to help fight the fires.

Slipping down, he found Urual's carriage was there ready to go. The gnome stared down at Eric and said "Don't be lollygaggin' now git, the fuzz be on the way. Unless ye wanting to get nicked."

Jumping into the carriage, Eric was just barely in when it shot off down the streets driven by a mad man. Edwards looked towards Lian and said "I'm sorry you had to get caught up in that mess, Miss?"

She peered at Edwards for several seconds with a confused expression. Then she shook her head and said "You may address me as Madam Lian. As for that pay it no heed, I am just thankful to have escaped with little harm to myself. It could have been far worse had you not been there tonight."

"Excuse me for prying, but what did the Earl want you to do for him anyway?" Brandy asked.

"He was convinced something was wrong with his soul. In order to find out what that was, he wished me to use my abilities to observe the souls of slaves as he experimented on them. He went into far greater detail than that, but it was simply so horrid that I refuse to speak more of what he said. Things that go against the will of the gods, things that would have him strung up and quartered. While he died a gruesome death to that beast, it was no less what he deserved." Madam Lian said.

Edwards frowned and shook his head "No matter what sins that man had, I would have preferred none die tonight." He was silent for a moment in thought and then said "Urual is heading towards my hotel to drop us three off. When we leave, I will tell him to take you wherever you wish to go Madam Lian."

"Thank you." Lian said simply and turned to look out the carriage window.

Edwards looked at Eric and Brandy and said "When you get to my hotel, I will pay you for what I owe you for this job."

"I expect extra for what occurred." Brandy said. "I still feel like shit and smell like it after that pod. Not to mention I didn't exactly sign up to this job expecting to risk losing my body to some undead monster."

"Do not worry, I will pay you more than double for what happened. I am thankful for you for helping me retrieve what was stolen."

After that they sat in silence for the rest of the trip to the hotel. As to why Eric wasn't sure, for himself, he was just lost in thought about what had happened. What he had come to realize was his skills were too lacking. While he could deal massive damage up close, he didn't really pose much of a threat from afar. He would need to think on how to improve that.

When they finally got to the hotel, Edwards got out first and helped Brandy down. Just as Eric himself was about to exit, Madam Lian pulled him aside and said "My offer to help you still stands. I do not know who you are, but it is clear to me that you still require guidance. Guidance that I would willingly give to you."

Touched by her kindness Eric said "Thank you Madam Lian. I will keep your offer in mind."

She nodded and then said "Do be wary of that Edwards fellow."

"Why do you say that?"

"I looked at his soul since I was getting a weird feeling off of him. From what I can tell, that soul is not that body's original soul. I am unsure of how that could have happened."

"Okay, thank you for the heads up." Eric said and left the carriage and found Edwards telling Urual to drive Madam Lian wherever she wanted to go and he would meet up and pay the gnome afterwards. The gnome nodded and then Madam Lian told him an address and seconds later the carriage shot off into the night.

Going up to Edwards room Brandy asked "Do you happen to mind if I use your shower? I still have some of the gunk on me, and I really want to get it off."

"Sure go ahead. While your doing that I will get the payment ready." Edwards said.

Brandy smiled and went into the bathroom leaving the two of them alone. Edwards took off his spatial bag and put it on a table. He then went to a chest in front of the bed and unlocked it using some sort of glowing symbol. He rummaged inside and then pulled out a massive bag of jingling coins and set it down next to Eric on the bed. "Here is the payment with some extra thrown in."

Grabbing the bag, he found it weighed obnoxiously heavy. Examining it, Eric found that it actually contained at least forty thousand big gold coins. This was an incredibly massive sum that he quickly put inside of his inventory. With such an amount, it confirmed this man was hiding something. He looked at Edwards and said "Who are you really?"

There was a long pause before Edwards took a seat on a chair across from Eric and said with a sigh "I am simply a man that is working hard to redeem the sins of the past mistakes I made." He looked sad at this. "I was part of a group that I thought wanted to make the world a better place. I fell into following them down a dark path as they did terrible things. I did terrible things as well. I broke free of them and came to realize the things I did. Now I hope to redeem myself."

"Now are those terrible things you did the reason that your soul does not match your body?" Eric looked at Edwards.

A look of shock and resignation had crossed the man's face before he answered. "No, they are further in the past than that. I suppose Madam Lian was the one who told you that? I thought I felt her looking at me in the Carriage."

When Eric did not respond to that question Edwards continued. "This is indeed not my original body that is completely true. As such I technically am not Viscount Edwards, though this is indeed his body. When I took it over, I assumed his identity in almost all respects."

"And I am just supposed to believe he gave his body willingly to you." Eric said skeptically.

"You can believe whatever you want. The fact is he did give it to me albeit he had little choice. Viscount Edwards was in fact in the tomb when the thieves broke in to raid the tomb. He made a feeble effort to stop them and was gravely injured in the process. He was in fact going to die, so I made a deal with him. If he would give me his body, I would retrieve the artifacts, especially the Crystal that was stolen. I even signed a contract bound by the gods to do this, so he knew that I was not deceiving him about going after the artifacts."

"So you made a deal with a dying man to help him retrieve artifacts that he swore to protect for the price of his body." Eric said.

Edwards looked down sadly. "Look if I could have healed him without taking over his body I would have. The Gods know I didn't want to. But I was weakened long ago. Several years ago I cut myself free from my corrupted side, however this shattered the power I had built up when I still had a form. Only once I had taken over the body, could I have saved it from death with magic."

"So you were some sort of mage then?" Eric asked.

"Indeed. In my time I was one of the greatest mages in the world, right now, I can only do basic magic that any novice mage could do."

"So is the real Viscount Edwards still in there somewhere?"

Edwards shook his head. "No, his soul departed wherever souls go after they die. This body still has some of his memories, though not enough to make me say I am now him."

"I see." Eric said. While Edwards could be lying to him, he didn't get that feeling. "So what will you do now that you have recovered the Crystal?"

"As it is the last artifact that needed to be recovered, I will return them back to the tomb and then seal them away until the time comes when man is ready to learn the secrets of the well. After that I will work on repenting the sins I have done to the world."

"Well I wish you luck on that." Eric said.

It was at that time Brandy came out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel and running her hands through her wet hair. "Whew I definitely needed that." She let out a stretch and then looked at Edwards with a glint in her eye. Then she looked at Eric and said "Hey Eric can I speak with you for a second?"

Eric nodded, and Edwards said "I'll give you some privacy." He then headed into the bathroom.

"What is it Brandy?" Eric asked.

"I will come out and say it. While in the shower I made the decision that I'm going to seduce Edwards tonight. Now I wanted to know if you wanted to join us or not?"

"Wait, what?" Eric said, a little incredulous at her suggestion.

"Look, tonight was stressful even if I had some fun during it. This whole week of managing the brothel was stressful, and I need to blow a little steam. Plus whatever was in that goddam junk has made me fucking horny."

"Okay, so why Edwards?"

"Yeah I know he's not much to look at. But he does have an okay body, plus he seems decent. Right now I'm not looking for a long-term thing, just want to get fucked. What I would like is for you to join us as well. I saw how Edwards looks at you. I'm pretty sure he would be okay with you taking him."

Eric frowned and then let out a sigh. "Ah fuck it. Fine I could do with some bit of fun after all that bullshit. But afterwards you and me gotta have a talk about things."

"Will do." Brandy Smiled and then called Edwards back and said to him. "You know with all that happened tonight, I was thinking we were due some extra payment."

"Oh okay. Was what I gave to Eric not enough for your services." Edwards said.

"The gold was fine start, but I was thinking you could pay us in a more intimate way." Brandy said grinning and then letting her towel fall revealing her beautiful body.

"Ah." Edwards said speechless, his jaw hanging open as he took in the sight of her. She stepped up to him and drew him into a deep kiss that went on and on. Wanting to get in on the action, Eric came up beside them and grabbed Edward by his short hair and forcefully broke their kiss before taking Edwards lips for his own. Edwards let out a groan of pleasure as Eric played with the man's tongue.

So while they were making out Brandy was kissing down Edwards neck and unbuttoning his clothes. She guided his hand down and he began to finger Brandy. She bit into Edwards shoulder as she found pleasure from Edwards handling of her pussy. She grunted then pulled down Edwards pants revealing the man's rock hard cock. She grinned and kneeled and began to lick the head. While Brandy was playing with the dick, Eric reached down and grabbed Edwards balls squeezing them lightly causing Edwards to hiss in pain and pleasure.

Eric broke the kiss and said staring into Edwards eyes and said "Does the bitch like that?" Rolling the man's balls in his hand.

"Oh gods yes." Edwards moaned. Smirking Eric took his mouth once more into a deep kiss. Out of the corner of his eye, Eric could see that Brandy was giving a rather sloppy blowjob. Edwards dick was soaked in saliva which made slick noises as she ran the dick in and out of her mouth. Edwards shuddered as he came inside of her mouth and Eric saw that Brandy barely managed to swallow down the massive load that shot out.

With a smirk she stood and went to the bed and laid back gesturing for them to come over. "Edward until you are ready to go again, I want you to eat me out."

Edwards broke the kiss with Eric and then said "Gladly." He crawled onto the bed and buried his face into her snatch. Within seconds of his ministrations Brandy began to make mewling sounds. As they were busy Eric undressed himself as quick as he could and then got onto the bed with them. He first went up to Brandy and captured her mouth with his and explored it with his tongue. He found he could still taste Edwards salty seed in it and she played with his tongue with a moan. Breaking the kiss, he looked into her eyes as he tweaked her nipples and she shuddered in delight from the sensation. Smirking he looked back and pushed Edwards' head harder into Brandy's crack.

"Lick her pussy like you mean it." Eric said. Edwards grunted in response and seemed to pick up the pace causing Brandy to go over the edge again. Eric moved behind Edwards and slapped the man's ass hard causing him to yelp. "Make sure you relax and enjoy this."

Eric leaned down and began to pepper light kisses and bites on Edwards ass. Feeling the man relax from the light touching Eric carefully spread his cheeks apart and looked upon the rosebud that appeared. It was pleasantly clean and what's more it looked shaven. Eric smirked and slapped his ass. "You really are a bitch aren't you?

Edwards only grunted and Eric began licking that asshole to get it ready for the pounding that Eric was going to give to it later. This caused Edwards to groan and arch his back in pleasure. To keep him focused on her pussy Brandy grabbed onto his head and began to grind into his face on a mission to get her pleasure to new peaks.

Feeling that Edwards ready to go further, Eric teased open his tongue and really began to tease the man. Edwards was in complete pleasure at that point bucking wildly against Eric's tongue as it explored the dark hole. Reaching up Eric felt that he had grown hard once more, if not harder then earlier. Brandy cried out as she came again and then said "Edwards get up here and fuck me with that dick. Make me cum from fucking me."

She said this in a pure growling tone that asserted her authority over Edwards and he meekly climbed up over her and she guided his length into her and she hissed and said "Yes."

Watching the pair fuck slowly, Eric puled out the golden strapon he had stolen from the vault plus some lube he kept on him. It took a few minutes to figure out how it attached. It had a bulb at one end that Eric carefully guided up into himself and then he ran lube over the length. Spreading Edwards ass again he poured lube onto the hole he would be fucking soon and pushed the lube into his ass causing Edwards to gasp. Smirking as he fingered the man, Eric leaned to Edwards ear and said "It's time to make you my bitch."

Edwards didn't say anything but he did moan louder. Getting into proper position, Eric made sure the strapon was well lubricated and then lined himself up to the waiting fuckhole. With the lube he went in easily, and Eric went slowly keeping a watch on Edwards body language to make sure he wasn't hurting him. Yet Edwards took it like a champ and soon Eric had bottomed out inside of the man. Grabbing Edwards hair Eric said "Yeah you like have my dick in your ass don't you bitch. Yeah your mine now. I'm going to make you cum from my cock until you know who owns your ass."

With that he began sliding in and out of the man causing the man to groan in pleasure. Seeing that he had slowed fucking Brandy, Eric thrust hard into him making him slam into her. He grabbed Edwards head by his hair and said "What a pathetic fuck, can't satisfy a girl with that level of fucking. Here let me show you how it's done."

He began ramming into him making Edwards fuck Brandy into senselessness. Leaning forward Eric kissed her as he continued to rail Edwards. She groaned into Eric's mouth, and Eric felt Edwards shiver as he started coming. "I'm not done with you yet." Eric bit his ear and continued. Soon the three of them were in a pile of sweat and grunts, covered in cum and quim juice. Edwards came two more times under the administrations of Eric and Brandy.

By the time Eric came, they were ragged dolls under him, and he let out a triumphant roar as he came. He felt himself let out a massive squirt and collapsed to the side. Spent as well Edwards rolled off brandy and cuddled up to Eric. He ran his hand along Eric's cat ears, and they twitched in response. Brandy laughed and said "Yeah, that was the kind of payment I was looking for."

Eric chuckled and found he was feeling alright for once.