Only Stitches’ eyes follow Mateo as he steps around the tavern in the fourth plane known as the void. Okami notices her eyes following something unforeseen, and he pulls one of his many notebooks from his trousers of holding.
“Remarkable!” Okami yells breaking the silence.
“Remarkable? where the void did he go!” Serenity yells.
“Exactly,” Okami replies his voice filled with excitement.
“You better not grab my tail,” Stitches says squinting her eyes at the unseen force.
Mateo appears beside her rubbing his head.
“Surprise,” he says nervously.
“You know neko can see into the void right, many often think we are staring off into nothingness, and we are, for that is the void,” Stitches says guarding her tail.
“Interesting,” Serenity says appearing in a shadow behind Mateo.
Terror moves over to Stitches shoving Mateo and Serenity into the floor as he hovers over her.
“Terror brings you present.”
Stitches sighs irritably.
“It better not be another blood-soaked ring, can you just go back to hating me?” Stitches says rolling her eyes.
Terror places a small box infront of her and hangs his head as he steps away. Mateo helps Serenity to her feet as they climb out of the floor.
“That seemed a little harsh Stitches,” Mateo says.
“I don’t know, I kinda like seeing him put in his place,” Serenity says.
“I don’t, he’s our friend, even if he is kind of a mindless brute, he still has feelings,” Mateo stops staring at Serenity, “he does have feelings, right?”
“Oh definitely, violence is the answer, if it bleeds you can kill it, glorious combat, those are feelings, right?” Serenity replies.
Stitches, tired of the banter, retreats to her room.
“He is hurting,” Jade says stepping up to them.
She pulls the box off the counter opening it.
“I had hoped that gifting her a crimson roze would make her aware that Terror wasn’t unwilling to enjoy the beautiful flower without enduring its thorns,” Jade says exiting the room seeming disappointed
A loud cough comes from across the room, it’s Okami.
“It matters not the thorns he endures for the flower flourishes in the presence of another,” Okami says turning his gaze toward Mateo.
“What, me?” Mateo says looking around.
“Love does not always come in the shape of a heart, but sometimes forms a triangle,” Okami states poetically.
Mateo sighs audibly before looking over at Serenity.
“I’ll talk to her, just give me a minute.”
“No, we should all have this discussion,” Serenity replies.
They move warily toward the door to Stitches’ room giving the knob a slight twist.
Mateo pushes open the door to find Stitches laying in bed asleep cuddled up with Jade and Terror. Which is strange given the outright rejection she just displayed.
“Well, that’s something,” Mateo says.
“An interesting turn of events,” Okami says creeping up behind them.
Mateo backs away closing the door slowly. They return to the bar and order a few drinks. Okami is acting strange. Well, stranger than the most recent circumstance. Mateo chugs down his drink and turns to Okami.
“What are you hiding over there?” Mateo questions.
“He has a bounty,” Serenity says.
“Way to spoil the surprise,” Okami barks with an unapproving glare.
“Well let’s see it,” Mateo says raising his glass again.
“It’s for the Devastator,” Okami says placing the flyer on the table.
“He sounds strong,” Mateo says.
“She,” Okami replies.
“This is a sex thing, isn’t it?” Mateo asks.
“No, this is for Terror, the Devastator is an orcen female, someone who will challenge him both physically and mentally, she holds a high enough power level to entice him and will pose a challenge to him, she’s not bad looking either, in my opinion,” Okami replies.
“You’re trying to steer him away from Stitches?” Serenity asks.
“His blind love for Stitches has been made factual by Jade’s liking of her and cookies, while it is very real to him now, it will fade, he will desire a mate that challenges him physically as is the way of the orcen, they are loathe to admit it, but orcen women are often stronger than the men, it helps them to rear ever stronger males to wage an endless non existent war, and if I’m saying this right, domi-mommies are a kink,” Okami replies.
“I don’t know what that is,” Serenity replies.
“Unfortunately, I do,” Mateo says.
The following morning Mateo joins Stitches for breakfast.
“I noticed you were with Terror and Jade last night,” Mateo says suspiciously.
“Strong as he is, he’s just a man, and I’m not heartless, it’s one of the few parts of me that still remain,” Stitches replies.
“I thought you were going to say you were cold,” Mateo snipes with a smirk.
“The temperature was below ideal, but nowhere near as cold as the grave,” she replies.
“We’ve got a bounty, it’s for the Devastator,” Mateo says handing the posting to her.
Stitches looks it over before handing it back to him.
“She’s from the Bloodmaw Clan, good, he’ll be able to stare into her eyes while he’s ripping her still beating heart from her chest,” Stitches says.
“What do you mean?”
“The Bloodmaw clan are the ones that killed Terror’s family,” Serenity says entering the conversation.
“Does Okami know this, because it seems like Okami doesn’t know this,” Mateo replies.
Serenity sighs taking a seat at the table across from Stitches and Mateo.
“Okami thinks that Terror will defeat the Devastator and take her as a prize, she’s not undesirable amongst the orcen, and a strong wife makes for strong offspring,” Serenity says with a sigh.
“You think otherwise?” Mateo asks.
“If they had just killed Terror’s wife he might seek retribution in the form of claiming a new wife, but they murdered his wife and daughter, then brought them back to life and forced him to murder them, that kind of transgression cannot be forgiven so simply, though Terror is a simple man in social terms he will not let this go, not against the Bloodmaw Clan.”
Terror steps down into the tavern and sits at a separate table. A young waitress takes his order bringing him a large mug of brown water that Mateo again assumes is coffee. He sips it lightly unfolding a parchment infront of him.
Okami enters the room and sits at the small table across from him. The waitress returns bringing another large mug of brown water. Okami places several cubes of sweet salt in it stirring it with his thork. They stare down at the parchment underneath the warm candlelight of the early morning.
After nearly ten minutes of silence the waitress returns with plates full of scrambled Chikus eggs and sliced Boardrel along with something that resembles pancakes, and a honey suckle syrup.
“I’m sorry Terror, I didn’t know she was one of them,” Okami says rolling the parchment up as he pulls it to him.
“Terror is not upset, we enjoy breakfast, then Terror and friends enjoy bloodshed.”
“It won’t just be her, there’ll be other obstacles, I don’t doubt they have some barbarians and atleast one necromancer with them,” Okami replies.
“Good, Terror rips their limbs off and bathes in their blood, pounding their bones into dust as they scream in agonizing pain, the agonizing pain that Terror feels every day that he cannot hold his Dahlia and Xera in his arms,” Terror replies.
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The brute of an Orcen doesn’t make the facial gestures, or whimper, but cold dead tears run over his cheeks as he shoves scrambled chikus and sliced boardrel into his mouth. A man who doesn’t feel pain in body or mind, but in his very soul. Beholden to his pain, Mateo knows why Stitches sought to comfort him, even after rejecting his intimacy.
“I had hoped this would go a different way, I am not omnipotent though, I won’t hold back then, sometimes the monsters we fight share our image in the silver reflector,” Okami replies.
Terror looks up at Okami with an uncertainty. Okami gives him a wolven grin.
“Violence is the answer.”
Mateo stands looming over the table waiting for one or both of them to acknowledge his presence before he speaks. While he knows little about courtesies in this realm, he has been reading tomes on etiquette that Okami leant him. Okami turns to Mateo, and he bows slightly. Terror turns to him, and he repeats the bow.
“I think we should leave Jade behind, not alone though, I’ll leave Rayo to watch her, he might be a dragon, but he’s still a baby, he has no battle experience, he’ll be better suited to protect her from low level thugs than high talon bounties.”
“I agree with Mateo, we shouldn’t put the girl in danger, I’ll leave some tomes with her to keep her occupied while we’re away,” Okami says.
“Terror is not opposed, Terror heads out now, you follow in wagon,” Terror agrees.
“How will we find you?” Mateo asks.
“Terror leave trail of death,” he answers.
The encampment where the Devastator is located is a two-day northern excursion by hoaram and longer by wagon. It being so late in the year, or as everyone else seems to call it solar cycle. The group is dressed in winter apparel. Pelt coats lined with various furs. The mountain trails are perilous enough without the snow fall. Two days turns to three as they stop at an abandoned cave before reaching their destination.
The entrance to the cave has two bone totems adorned with the skulls of animalistic creatures. Terror explains that this is normal for the the orcen as they use every part of their kill in order to give thanks to the Broodmother. Following a trail of bones is still a bit unnerving, even without the twisted corpses of violent beasts Terror left them to follow.
They settle in the cave as the moon rises and Stitches pulls Mateo aside. She leads him to a small chamber in the cave where they are alone, except for Natalia.
“Mateo, I wanted to talk to you about something, it’s something I haven’t been able to talk to anyone else about,” Stitches says nervously twisting her feet in the dirt. Small blue gemstones seem to illuminate wired butterfly wings that adorn her otherwise plain sandals. Some kind of magic that must be keeping her feet warm as she treads through the snow.
They’re both sitting on a large stone by an orb of light that Stitches conjured. The cave is cold and barren. A dark grey rock that protects them from the elements.
“What’s bothering you Stitches?” Mateo asks.
“When you died, what happened, how did you feel?”
Mateo sighs as if a heavy weight has been lifted from his shoulders. Then his eyes well up with tears as his emotions overcome him.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for someone to ask that question,” Mateo says thumbing cold tears off his cheeks.
Stitches moves closer wrapping her arms around his waist as she presses her head against his chest. Mateo runs his hand over her soft catlike ears.
“The motor was roaring, I was in a hurry to get home, to escape my servitude, I lost control and blinding lights filled my vision, but I also saw my mother smiling, I felt a pain for her, leaving her before she left me, then I saw my friends, not as the last time I was with them, but as the last time I made them smile, and then all the people I ever met, I saw them in the moment I made them smile, there was a sort of nirvana about it, a calm before the storm, like I was leaving life, not with the regrets of my transgressions, but knowing the joy that I had brought those I thought as friends and loved ones, every happy memory I had flooding my mind as if they were telling me that I had lived a good life, and then there was nothing, for so long there was nothing, an endless void deprived of emotion,” Mateo takes a deep breath clenching his fists.
“An empty nothingness where I started to fall to despair, I started to beg to feel anything, even pain, anything that would let me know that I still existed, screaming into the void my pleas fell silent, and then, a light appeared, a tiny flicker of hope in an endless darkness.”
“Your pixie Natalia?” Stitches asks.
“Yes, but she’s not the only bright light I have now,” Mateo says peering into Stitches eager eyes.
Okami, Terror, and Serenity step into the chamber as Natalia appears above Mateo.
“He’s right, because he has us,” Serenity says stepping closer to them.
Stitches stares around confused. Serenity holds out her hand to Stitches.
“This is a formal invitation to the team, you asked if I was the team leader, there is no team leader, we are all individuals, though in battle, we are a single unit, of one mind, with one goal, we win together, or we lose together, and we leave no one behind.”
Stitches looks up at her hesitantly. After a few moments she smiles and reaches her hand up.
“Count me in.”
After resting for the night, they return to the road. As they grow closer to their objective the landscape starts to become gruesome. Pikes with headless corpses dot the roadside. Their heads hanging from the trees still peering around as if looking for the release of death. Stitches halts their progress raising her staff. Life essences appear around them, but not warm red essences. Corrupted murky green essences.
“We are being watched by a necromage,” Stitches says warily.
“A necromage, what’s the difference between that and a necromancer?” Mateo questions.
“Necromages are an aggressive variance of necromancers, when they reanimate the dead they not only influence them, but can control them, they are also known for summoning lyches if strong enough, whereas necromancers focus more on defensive abilities, reanimating the dead to protect them,” Okami replies.
“We should backtrack the wagon and hoaram, then we’ll return here and start destroying these sigils, I should tell you, this necromage is a high-talon if he knows how to use ‘sight of the damned’,” Stitches warns.
Ability- Sight of the damned. Necrotic ability. View the world through the eyes of a number of undead vessels depending on your proficiency.
After an hour setting up the wagon and hoaram they return to the gore filled trail. Smoke rises in the distance. Giving away the position of their intended bounty.
“Use your void lightning to vaporize the heads, we don’t have to worry about the element of surprise, they already know we’re here,” Stitches says raising her staff.
The scythe on her staff folds out and she sends the damned from this world to the next. Mateo is caught off guard when he uses void lightning on the first disembodied head, and it lets out a blood curdling screech. Terror wears a stern look of determination on his face as they approach a small fort made from bones and flesh.
“Terror smells goblins, and barbarians,” he says readying his gauntlets.
Mateo stops turning to the group.
“Terror, Okami, you will be our main force, Serenity, stay in the shadows as much as possible, me and you will dart about the battlefield causing confusion, do not let the attention be drawn to Stitches, she’ll have to move close enough to the corpses we leave to drain their residual life force,” Mateo says.
“There you go taking charge again,” Serenity scoffs crossing her arms.
“Hold on, leave one of the female barbarian corpses in decent condition,” Stitches says nervously.
“What are you looking for?” Okami asks.
“Below the neck please,” Stitches replies.
The sun looms high in the sky giving light to the atrocities before them. Men, women, and children flayed alive or dismembered into a pile of rotting extremities.
The barbarians notice their approach first. They must not have been informed of the group’s arrival because they seem confused.
“Barbara, are those friends of yours?” A large broad-shouldered man with undesirable features and rotting teeth asks a petite large breasted tan woman.
“Never seen these fucks in my life,” she says grabbing a large broadsword.
Stitches points at the large petite tan woman, “she’ll do.”
Mateo steps into the camp placing his hands on his hips stoically.
“Don’t worry,” he pauses pulling his dagger and extends it seeming dramatic. “We come in violence.”
Terror dashes past him clashing with the barbarians as Okami equips what seems like a black martial arts Gi. Serenity shadow steps into battle and the shitstorm begins.
Mateo clashes blades with a scrawny looking barbarian before void-stepping through him and cutting his throat. The barbarian woman clashes with Terror, who seems to be able to deflect her sword strikes with his gauntlets. Okami leaps into the air striking a barbarian with his open palm ripping his beating heart from his chest.
They’re cutting through these combatants like butter. This is too easy.
Terror tosses the barbarian woman into a tree turning her face into a meat pie. He raises his nostrils sniffing the air as a loud horn bellows from a nearby cave. Bones rattle as a seemingly innumerable horde of goblins burst from it like a volcano erupting.
“Terror kill barbarians, dogman kills goblins.”
“I am not a dogman,” Okami complains.
“He’s right, Okami keep the goblins off of Stitches, if we lose her, we are done for,” Mateo yells.
Okami charges through the goblin horde like a blur of claws as he grounds them into a gory pulp.
More goblins appear, and Okami becomes distracted by the appearance of a few hobgoblins.
“Mateo we are being over-run!” Okami yells.
“Just hold them, I got this,” Serenity replies.
“Sanguine grant me the power of shadows that I might walk the earth as one,” Serenity chants and the entire world around us becomes veiled in shadow.
Spell activated: Innumerable Shadows. Innumerable shadows turns the shadows of your enemies into shadow clones of themselves. Shadow clones retain fighting abilities of their originals. Shadow clones cannot cast spells. Cool down four hours.
Our enemies' shadows turn against them, taking them off guard. Unable to beat themselves they fall to their own shadows. Unfortunately, the horde of goblins has no end, and more barbarians approach from the small bone fortress.
“Damnit, thought that would be enough,” Serenity says raising her daggers.
Stitches steps over to Barbara raising her hand above her and pulls several body parts storing them in some strange bag made of bones. She only draws Mateo’s attention for a moment as another barbarian charges him. He void-steps and uses both hands to shove his elongated dagger through the back of the barbarian’s throat.
Distracted by her desire for parts of Barbara, Stitches finds herself surrounded.
“Mateo!” Stitches yells as a small horde of goblins pounds on her greater ward.
“Okami get to Stitches!” Serenity yells.
A goblin flies past her soaring into the crowd like a missile staggering several of the beasts. Serenity looks over at Terror as he lets out a loud roar and his armor dissolves into his inventory.
Terror’s muscles spasm as they grow beyond mortal limits, and he morphs into an even larger hulking mass of hatred and fury.
“Everyone watch yourselves Terror is going berserk,” Okami yells.
“What do we do?” Mateo yells back void stepping around a few barbarians as he slices the base of their spines paralyzing them from the waist down.
“Stay out of his way,” Okami replies.
Stitches’ face fills with trepidation as her ward begins to falter. She glances over at the large hulking mass that is Terror with both fear, and hope in her eyes.
Terror grabs two of the goblins by their ankles and begins using them like clubs to pound the others into the dirt. For a gleaming moment the pressure on Stitches’ is lifted. She uses that time to suck the lingering life force out of the dead goblins around her, replenishing her health and mana.
Terror continues his relentless assault using his two goblin clubs which are starting to tear apart at the joints sending appendages flying around him until he’s just holding two bloody legs.
Two of the remaining four barbarians try to ambush him. Their crude weapons snap at the hilt unable to pierce his stone like skin. He turns wrapping his hand around the head of the first. A loud crunch splits the air as he crushes the man’s skull. The second attempts to flee but terror grabs them raising them above his head and tears him in half showering him in blood and intestines.
With all the enemies dispatched Terror turns to Stitches, his eyes still alight with a berserk fury. His heavy feet near split the ground as he makes a mad dash at Stitches pounding on her ward relentlessly.
Okami tackles him and they tumble into the dirt. Terror is rage incarnate as they return to their feet. Okami becomes locked in a futile wrestling match with him. He doesn’t have the strength to hold him back for long. Okami’s fingers are locked with Terror’s as he forces him back through the dirt. He’s doing his best to keep Terror from breaking his wrists.
“A little help!” Okami yells.
Stitches is pouring strength and stamina buffs into him leeching power from the surrounding corpses. Mateo bolts over placing a hand on Terror’s should. His fingertips glow.
Ability activated: Calm.
Ability failed: Calm
Terror, now more furious than ever, slings Okami into the dirt like a rag doll knocking Mateo from his feet. He steps a few feet forward and slams his fist into Stitches’ ward shattering the spell as if it were thin glass.
Stitches stares up, her ears pinned back as Terror looms over her like an inevitable demise.